Day 29: The Full Moon pt. 1

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Dhroo 4rd, 4288: 29 Days in the mortal realm

I don’t know why I’m choosing to write first before sleep. It has been a bit of a long night. We just teleported to Isaac’s home in Podunk, but I guess I felt obligated to jot down the extent of this day since we discovered Jessica is in control of her shifting.

As we headed toward Podunk, knowing the full moon was nigh, it seemed like a good idea to visit the sinkhole. We figured it would be a safe place  for her (and us) to shift and have her moment of wildness, before continuing on our way. We arrived at the sinkhole yesterday and with the full moon being the following night (today) we felt it would be wise to lower Jessica down just in case.

Sure enough, Jessica didn’t shift. We remained at the sinkhole since tonight was officially the full moon. Once twilight began to set in, we put Jessica down into the sinkhole again. Rekka had given Jessica one of her red gems this night so she could report to us sooner if she hadn't shifted versus sleeping alone in the whole another night. I watched for the moon as we waited. It was full and beautiful as it rose to it's full height. We all listened to see if we could hear the change. After a bit Jessica announced that she had it under control. We all looked at each other, wondering if it was sane for us to bring her up early. We gave her another 30 minutes before lowering a rope down for her.

With Jessica back and very much herself, Isaac suggested that we teleported to his place in Podunk. It would be far enough outside of town that no one should notice our arrival, especially if there was anything amidst in town. It had been about 2-3 weeks since last being there and who was to say the Goblins kept their word and were honest about their character? However, as nice of an idea as it was, there was one problem. 7 of us, a wagon and 3 horses. There was too much for Isaac to teleport in one go. Brier then began to stomp about, pointing at my head with one of her hooves. I looked at her, confused by display.

“What is she doing?” I asked.

“She hasn’t been able to talk since going in the circle of good,” Cortanna answered. I had noticed during the trek from Sardik that Brier hadn't said a word. I looked back at the beast in disguise and decided to have some fun. I was pretty sure then, as she kept gesturing to my head, that she was wanting my circlet.

“Well Brier,” I began, “Do you need something?” Brier stomped a hoof once. “Can you talk?” Brier gave me a great incredulous look and stomped a hoof twice. I almost laughed with the way Brier must have thought I was daft, but I maintained my impassive face. At least I knew how she'd answer my yes or no questions.

“Seeing that you pointing at my head, are you wanting me circlet?” Yes “To turn into something?” I toyed. Yes. I then pushed it further and decided to guess what she wanted to be,  “A Pegasus?” No, “Great Eagle?” No, “Flying Unicorn?” NO! Brier shook her head clearly exasperated, while making some horse grunts. She then got on her hind legs and attempted to walk.

“Oh, a person?” YES! she nickered at me.

I then took my circlet off and placed in on Brier. Instantly she transformed into a human.

“About time!” she said not out of malice, but with that same presumption that I was daft.

“Well, why not use your glimmer to disguise as a human?” Isaac asked.

“Because I can only disguise myself as a horse," she answered, "Now that I'm a human, I can help carry things to make this in one trip."

Sure enough, Brier had some insane strength. She was able to lift the wagon, while the rest of us got into a bag of holding. I don't know exactly how we teleported, but soon enough, the five of us that were in the bag were climbing back out of it. Isaac’s place was right before us. It was past midnight from the looks of the moon, so we began to prepare for sleep. Rekka took Isaac’s bed once more while the rest of us got set up in Rekka's tent. I actually find it odd that Isaac has a bed. He hasn't slept the entire trip. He and Billy were our scouts at night while the rest of us slept.

Anyways, just got my circlet back from Brier. She and Cortanna had a chat about something... Brier looked sad, her face was streaked with blood tears. I can only assume that it's a demon horse thing.

Final note for the night, Isaac just poked his head in. Sounds like he and Billy are going to go walk into town, just to see if there was anything that'd suggest things were amidst.

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Day 23: The Verdict- or Rather Go Riddance

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Dwa 34th, 4288: 23 Days in the mortal realm

Here it is, a few days later and I sit in our makeshift camp, thankful to be out of Sardik's Dukedom. We even managed to stay out of trouble over the extra day and a half we spent there. When I would go out, I made sure to  avoid the slum district. Knowing what evil laid there, it wasn’t worth getting close. Let alone, what happened there had only added to my nervousness knowing that beings out of our control were walking around marked. I don't know what Heironious and Erythnul had planned, but their army of mindless followers was growing.

Despite the chaos that arose from saving Rekka from her kidnappers, I went out anyways to find me some kind of disguise. I was beginning to find it bothersome how iconic I looked, how clear it was I was a fallen Angelic. So I asked around in the various shops, seeing if there was something that could hide my wings and give me the look of life and not so... pale. I was directed to a shop that had a Circlet of Glimmered Alteration. The circlet had the power to disguise and alter myself! I felt so much more normal seeing that I could hide my wings completely. As I looked in the mirror, the image of how I use to look came to view. I felt my long hair and touched my darken skin. How real it looked and what comfort it gave to not feel so... unusual. I then went out and shopped for an outfit that resembled my former life. It was difficult to say the least considering a couple centuries have gone by and the styles have changed a bit since. But I did find something that felt familiar: a red shirt that I wrapped a sheep skin around secured with a belt. Then a pair tan jeans and knee high leather boots.

After gathering those things, I headed back to the Inn to wait out the day. My plan was to not create any trouble. I already was walking a thin line. I didn't know how long it'd take to hear the verdict from the Court of the Gods. Was I to be set free, imprisoned, or quite possibly receive the same fate as Cleric Rob?

As I hung out in the room, Rekka suddenly walked in.

“I am not staying in this city one more-” Rekka said in a huff, but stopped, her eyes wide with confusion when she looked at me, “Who are you!?” For a moment I had forgotten about my disguise.

“It’s me, Araja,” I said as I quickly shifted to my true form then back again to my disguise. Rekka took a moment to let what she saw sink in.

“I like your new look better.”

“Me too,” I responded with a smile. The smile was partly for scaring her for a moment, but mostly for my disguise being well received.

“Well, like I was saying, I’m getting out of here. This whole city’s crazy! No thanks to our party either,” Rekka went to gather her few items in the room that she had left behind, “You coming?” she offered.

“As much as I’d like to, considering past events here, I’m under obligation to stay. Of all we've done, of all I've done, I plan on this being something I do right. Ditching town while my verdict is still pending wouldn't be right,” I responded, my eyes longing to go with. Rekka looked at me, probably sensing my desire to get going too. “So where do you plan to go. I haven’t a clue where everyone else is at the moment. You’d be on your own if this is you parting ways,” I added.

“No, I just don’t want to be in this city anymore. I’ll head out to the encampment just outside town where our wagon is. I’ll be sure to make it ready for us to get going once you all can catch up,” Rekka replied. If there was anything I found admiring about her, it was the sheer common sense she had. She always seemed prepared and made appropriate preparations for our travels. I on the other hand had to keep reminding myself I needed to eat.

Rekka pulled something off her necklace as she got ready to leave the room. She then handed me a red gem.

“What’s this?”

“This way we can communicate one with another,” and with that Rekka was out the door of the room.

I laid down on the bed. Looking at the ceiling was quite boring, but I was most confident it was a sure way to keep me from running into trouble.

About a half an hour later, as my mind began to wander onto the possible outcome of my verdict, I clearly heard Rekka’s voice saying, “I’m going to the Nobles Court.” I was slightly confused by her change of plans, but figured she quite possible forgot to get something. Almost as soon as I had thought that I heard her voice sound again instructing me to meet her there. I let out a little sigh. Here was hoping nothing crazy came about whatever it was we were to be doing in the Nobel Court.

I found Rekka waiting for me at the entrance to the court. I don’t know how she got it or how long she was wearing it, but it became very apparent how fine her dress was. With the nobles walking about, she seemed to fit right in.

“So, I have one errand I need to run,” Rekka began to explain to me as we walked in. She seemed nervous and was avoiding my eyes, “If a commotion were to occur... I would suggest you begin to leave this court.”

I looked at her perplexed.

“Okay, seriously. What’s going on?”

Rekka stared at the ground, lips pierced. There was obviously something she was trying to avoid telling me.

“The Thieves Guild is after me. They won’t let me leave until I complete this one errand for them,” she reluctantly confessed. From how she looked, I felt she really was caught between and rock and a hard place. It seemed clear now why she was wanting to get out of town so soon. I didn’t think it smart of her to go through with this errand, but I knew I should feel somewhat relieved she even explained what was going on..

“Well,” I inhaled, “best of luck. Make it quick.” Hopefully whatever came of her errand wasn't bad. But hey, I didn't press further on it, so I forced myself to not ponder about it.

Rekka seemed... almost surprised by my response, but I couldn’t be sure for she did take off within the second I wished her luck. With the sudden solitude, I figured I’d take advantage of the nicer marketplace and look for a few more items. I was able to find bracers that made me more agile and better boots that left me move faster and jump a little higher. I also got some potions of Truth and Glibness.

After 30 minutes of shopping, I decided to duck into a tavern to get something to eat since I had the time I hadn’t heard anything from Rekka since her departure. While drinking some water, I then got an idea to go find a cup since if ever I needed to trick someone into drinking a potion of truth, it might be far more believable to do such a trick if I had a cup to pour it in.

Another half hour goes by, and I’ve acquired a simple tin cup for my purposes. I wandered a few more minutes when I heard Rekka communicate to me.

“The job’s bloody done.”

“Bloody?” I responded.

"I had to skin some rabbits. Very random, but the job’s ‘bloody’ done. I’m headed back to the Inn,” Rekka explained. I chose to head out too since she was done.

We met up with the others back at the Inn. There was a shock for a moment when everyone saw me. Rekka vouched for me, Isaac and Billy also confirming. Somehow they could see through the disguise. I still gave everyone a quick glimpse of my true form to eliminate any doubt. And the rest of that day was spent without trouble.

This morning we received 'good' news. Our party was aroused to find that we had a group of Clerics waiting to meet with us. As I came downstairs with everyone else, I could see they were less than thrilled to see us. Caleb and Garis were in the crowd. However with the lack of Paladins, there was hope that I was off the hook or perhaps they had a different matter to discuss with us. They were cordia. They knew we hadn’t been of much help since arriving in the city. The only highlight of our stay was our assistance in killing Pendral. However with the werewolf and marked situation that seemed to have been a direct result of our being there, they were struggling to get a semblance of order back. Sardik had gone missing. A thought jumped into mind as they mentioned Sardik's disappearance. He was a werewolf. If he had gone to the slums to establish order... he could very well had been ‘cured’ of his lycanthropy...

Caleb and Garis looked to me, Caleb saying I was free to go. They had bigger issues to deal with. Garis tagged on that they believed that it wasn't intentional what became of Cleric Rob, though all the Clerics there were still bothered by his death. I kept my face impassive though I could feel my face flushed with the joy of not being condemned for an unfortunate mistake. They added on that I wasn't welcomed back. That stung, but I really had no reason to want to come back to Sardik's Dukedom. Too many awful memories made.

Garis and Caleb then asked if we would get going. They didn't want us to help any more than we had. From the sounds of it, folk have been wanting to seek our help, but the Clerics were quick to shut them down. They were desperately trying to regaining order and felt our absence would make that easier. Isaac told them that we'd be out within the hour.

We met back upstairs as a party for a meeting. We discussed how we hadn’t any leverage on the werewolf problem. There might be a problem at hand with the sheer amount of werewlves, but I felt it best to go to the Dwarven Kingdom. Maybe we could gain more allies if this turned into a war. Rekka and Gideon were all for that too. Isaac however wanted to pursue Duke Lupik and deal with the werewolf problem, So did Cortanna and, well, Billy automatically sided with Isaac. Jessica remained neutral.

Isaac then took a moment to discuss with me his idea of how to go about Lupik. Instead of going to Lupik guns a blazing (whatever guns were) that we could spy and catch Lupik in the act of evil and take it to the King the evidence needed to hopefully shut him down. It was clear and concise. I felt that was a very practical idea and considering how rampant the werewolf problem was seeming to get just in Sardik’s Dukedom, it was a brilliant plan to hopefully tackle the issue without coming off as a threat.

And so it was, the scales tipped in favor of heading toward Duke Lupik. I explained what Isaac had said to me. I also added that my choice to go to the Dwarven Kingsom wasn't to avoid the situation but gain allies. Spying on Lupik and gathering evidence on him with in his city like we had with Pendral seemed like the quickest way to get the situation under control. Rekka was very much against the idea, but she grudgingly came with us. We did decide that we should swing by Podunk on the way to Lupik. I can only hope the goblins have been true to their word of being friendly.

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Parts 1-7 - If you really want to know

She meets several new people in town, some upon the sudden disturbance by Miss Hill, the town widow. There was Isaac, a red skinned man with horns growing out of his head, Arjah, an angel, Rekka, a girl about as old as Cortanna and seemed to have a knack for getting into trouble, and a Bar Wench from the local tavern who didn't care to tell anyone her name. These all but average (some more or less then others) occupants rally together to find Miss Hill's son, Billy, who had been missing for several days. Their quest leads them to an old, abandoned silver mine toward the mountains from which Cortanna came. They adventure through the cave hearing strange voices along the way and following tracks to the best of their ability. But for poor Billy Hill, his rescue party has come too late. A rock slide had pinned him to the floor, but as they pull the rocks from his stone cold body, Billy rises again. He is clearly dead, yet somehow animate. Isaac's face somehow changes to a more skeletal figure and Cortanna can't help but shiver. He seems to control Billy's actions, but occasionally overrides Isaac's command in order to speak. Arjah finds some obscure symbol that only she understands. Some how the Bar Wench pipes in with some knowledge of the subject herself. Further in the cave the party finds an innumerable number of undead chanting the same words they've been hearing over and over. The group decides to leave and Cortanna intends to have the cave sealed before any one else can become victim to its mysteries. The party elects to meet back at Isaac's house while Cortanna breaks the news to Miss Hill. The widow then gives Cortanna some family heirlooms, which she takes back to Isaac's. The party tries out the new equipment and are warned by a letter from their previous user to use them responsibly.

The next day another angel appears at Isaac's door. His name is Gideon and was sent by the town cleric for help. The town's water supply had been poisoned and there were many dead and dying. The party goes to the cleric for more information about the situation and learn an aqueduct connects the town's water supply to a near by river. In order to get to the river they would have to travel through the forest, known to be infested with pixi like creatures called grigs and giant spiders. The party arms themselves before leaving and Cortanna takes the lead. Along the way she and her comrades are dazzled by several grigs and confronted by giant spiders, some of which they ended up fighting. Finally Isaac is able to resist the grig's command to dance. He asks the grigs where the river is and if they might know where the aqueduct is. The grigs happily point them in the right direction and then take the party, more or less willingly, to the river, but only to the forests edge. There are mere folk that live in the waters and they do not get along with the grigs. The mere people don't great the party warmly at first until they find out they seek to solve the mysterious poisoning of the water. The mere folk tell them they saw someone go inside the aqueduct and when they came out, the water problem started. With a helpful hint from the mere people, the party make their way deep into the aqueduct and are warned not to fall into the water. Rekka falls in the water after a bit of the path collapses and the acidic water starts to burn her skin. Fortunately Isaac loaded Billy's pack with clean water and helped cleanse the contaminated water from her body. Suddenly the party is confronted by a savage wyrmling. They engage the creature in battle, Billy crushing it with in human strength. They interrogate the now weakened wyrmling and learn it was placed there by none other then Duke Lupik, the man that was currently in control of their town. Billy absorbs the wyrmling's energy and the creature turns to ash. He has some strange new found abilities after the encounter, much to Cortanna's alarm. The mere folk thank the party for their service before leaving and when offered, Cortanna asks for payment in pearls.

When they get back to town, the party gives the town cleric a sample of the poison and he's able to heal the remaining sickened towns people. It's awfully quiet though. The town guard has gone missing and none are anywhere to be seen. Even the Bar Wench reports that their not in the tavern. A new problem arises when Cortanna overhears some towns people complaining to the mayor that grigs are coming out of the forest and complaining of goblins eating their kind. The party decides to investigate and after a challenging discussion with the grigs, the party decides to help them...so long as they make no one do anything against their will. The party arms themselves again and march out into the forest. Its not long before they come upon a goblin settlement that is enjoying a meal of roasted grigs. Arjah marches forward to stop them, but Cortanna knows these goblins are peaceful. They try to reason with the goblins and find out they were pushed from their home by a marauding band of wear wolves. Cortanna's stomach twists into knots unbeknownst to her comrades. The goblins were planning on moving into a nearby mine...the same mine the party just recently explored. Cortanna tries to talk them out of it, saying its unsafe and accidentally points toward Billy as proof. The goblins seeing the undead and Isaac are angered and become hostile. Their leader suddenly attacks Arjah after muttering a curse. Gideon, too drunk for reason assists Arjah in killing the goblin leader. The others try to flea. Fearing the escapee's would assemble their remaining 199 members, Cortanna makes the difficult decision to kill some of the lesser goblins. Before long, all the goblins are dead. While trying to decide what to do with the bodies, the party is discovered by a scout, but he too is killed, by Rekka's silent hand. Then something happened...there was a white light and a voice spoke to the party....and then they were back to where they were in the tree's, just as they had been before the whole encounter. The goblin leader notices them and invites them over. After a ginger conversation, not wanting to repeat previous mistakes, the goblins take the party to meet the rest of their clan. The party decides they will help the goblins get rid of the wear wolves so long as they stop eating the grigs and they would see about providing them temporary lodging. The  party returns to the town and speak with the mayor and the goblins are allowed to stay in some of the farm lands as long as they provide temporary protection and help with the farming. They also find out that Duke Lupik might be the one responsible for the wear wolf attack.

Cortanna wanted to go fight the wear wolves directly, fearing for her family's safety in her home town, which wasn't too far away, but is convinced to seek help from Duke Sardik, the duke that used to control their town. But first, Cortanna elects to return to the mine so they can obtain silver for their weapons before confronting the wear wolves. The Bar Wench decides to stay behind while the rest of the party returns to the mine. They successfully find enough silver to augment their weapons and decide to seal the cave as best they can while they're there. Rekka takes the silver to the town's blacksmith with a list of items to craft. Some how the blacksmith finds out about Billy and he doesn't come out for a looooooong time. When Cortanna pokes her head in to see how things are going she's shocked to find both Billy and the Blacksmith almost had the order complete. Billy comes out a moment later with an arm full of supplies...and then the whole shop disappeared. The new weapons not only were enhanced with silver, but the party found they had many other upgrades as well. They were now fit for confronting wear wolves.

The party begins their long trek to Duke Sardiks city, confronting many creatures along the way. They were tricked by an ogre that drew them in with a friendly guise, until suddenly they were attacked. The party made short work of the ogre, especially with Billy's new found ability. Upon killing the ogre, Billy does something strange. He raises the ogres spirit and the party interrogates him.

Fast forwarding, the adventurers go to investigate the old ogre camp and find a hole filled with treasures and riches along with a cart stocked full with wealth as well. They collect as much as they can and head toward Duke Sardiks city. On the way they encounter the Dreth Stones, and monument of some ancient city. In the center we see a group of imps surrounding a boy on an alter. In an attempt to save the boy, Cortanna accidentally kills him, which nearly sends the party into another plane of assistance. In an attempt to resurrect the boy, the party takes the body with in hopes a Cleric in town can save him. Once safely in the city, Cotranna and Arjah take the boy's body to the temple district and seek counsel with Cleric Rob of the Temple of Pelor. It is forbidden for anyone to resurrect the dead, but Cleric Robs does so anyway, having known the boy's family, and so long as the adventurers said nothing of it. The boy, I believe his name was Denis or something like that......, was alive again and Cleric Rob showed us from the temple. Now it was time to return Derik to his family before any of the Black Guard, the town's ruthless law keepers, found out about their crime. Just as Cortanna and Arjah are about to leave the city, the Black Guard catch up with them and attempt to seize them. Cortanna makes a run for it with the boy while Arjah sacrifices herself in an attempt to distract the guard. Cortanna makes it safely outside the city with Daryl and reunites him with his family.

Eventually, Cortanna meets back up with the group. Arjah narrowly dodged becoming imprisoned with the help of our old friend Gideon, but at a grave cost. She apparently ratted out the old Cleric Rob and it costed him his soul. The group has since gathered information about an evil man named Pendral, who currently has control over the city, and from the sounds of it, Duck Sardic has locked himself away in his castle! The party kills time by gathering info and shopping for supplies. Cortanna outfits herself with some new gear and weapons.....but where has the group gone? She busy's herself with her original initiative, find out if Duke Sardic can lend some help for their fight against the werewolves.  When Cortanna approaches the guards in front of Sardic's castle she tries to make light conversation, only she's showed away. Not easily detoured, Cortanna tries again.....and again. From their brief conversation, it becomes clear that Pendral seeks to murder Sardic, and so for his protection, Sardic had since locked himself in his castle. The Captain of the Guard then offered private counsel that night if Cortanna wanted to know more. Cortanna returns later and is told that if she can provide evidence of Pendral's misdoing's, his men would have the power to imprison Pendral, and remove him from power. Upon leaving, a member of the Black Guard approaches Cortanna. He tells her about how Lord Pendral is seeking to murder his wife Serendral that night at a dinner ceremony and that he could use someone like her to help. She's instructed to go to the East Gardens and speak with a statue for further instruction. Cortanna accepts and goes to the garden, unsure of what she'll have to do. She speaks a strange phrase to the statue and it suddenly comes to life. It dispenses a vial of poison and She's instructed to pour the poison into Serendral's drink. Cortanna heads back to the guard house to alert the guards of the goings on, when she bumps into her comrades! Apparently they had been in the wizards college and found out some disturbing facts about Pendral. Arjah then tells Cortanna of a recording device they had used to film the incidence between Pendral and his strange lover. Cortanna rushes them back to the guard house knowing they know have Pendral pinned. The Captain of the Guard instructs the party to participate in the ceremony and he would station guards to witness the event.

Cortanna goes and exchanges her gear and weapons, except for her weapon handle, for servers clothing and follows a line of other servants to the gardens, only when they get there Pendral is absent. Cortanna plays her part and taints Serendral's drink, but instead of taking the drink to Serendral, like she was supposed to, she felt compelled to give it to another server for some reason. The server stops in front of Serendral and seems to hypnotist her with her words......and kisses. It seems as if the life was slowly being drained from her. A battle ensues. The adventurers try to stop the interloper, Pendral's pet succubus, but it was too late. They surround the succubus and make short work of her. But where are the guards, and where was Pendral for that mater?  Finally, Pendral makes an appearance and mourns the death of his pet. At the same time, Sardic's guards appear from thin air and arrest Pendral for his deeds. Strangely enough, the Black Guard dissapears and so has the statue, which happened to be a gargoyle, disappear. The party finds out that Pendral had been summoning creatures from different planes and sending them to different corners of the world to cause havoc. Now they were no more.

Before the night is through, there was much to do. Cortanna gathers her things once more and the party heads back to the temple district to take care of an alyp, a creature of insanity, so our dear friend Gideon could obtain a holy sword. The party lands solid hits on the crazed alyp, but as Cortanna's sword lands an electric blow, the alyp's frantic face was burned into her sight. With alyp defeated and Gideon collecting his new sword, Cortanna wanted to find the old cripple she met in front of the college to see about offering him help. He had a niece and nephew that were supposed to be looking after him, but it had been a while since the cripple last saw them and he was starving. The party - except for Rekka - is lead to a library and after looking down rows of book shelf after book shelf of amorous couples, they finally find the young twins, Mable and Dipper. Isaac in forms the children that their uncle is in need, and so Mable sends her pet pig, which she keeps calling the Dean, to do the job. We try to find out why the cripple isn't allowed into the college and the best we were told was that he did something VERY bad and had his magical powers stripped. Mable was now responsible for keeping her uncles magical powers, stored in a locked, from him. Isaac offers to safe keep the locket so their uncle can come inside to be take care of, and Mable agrees. She gives Isaac the locket, and a moment later her pet pig returns with the cripple. He thanks us profusely and shakes our hands before we leave. On our way out of the library, Isaac suddenly realizes the locket is missing. Arjah casts a spell to hopefully detect the locket. She asks Mable to show her her special magical items. Mable obliges, but Arjah seems to think she has two other items that she refuses to reveal. Arjah pressures the girl to show her the items, which only upsets her. Dipper becomes very protective and demands his little sister be left alone. The cripple on the other hand is slowly creeping away from the scene. Billy and Isaac move to stop him. Suddenly Dipper bursts into flames and nearby book shelves start to burn. Seeing that the cripple was slipping away, Cortanna moved to confront him. Dipper yells at her to stop, but she ignores him. Suddenly a fire ball flies by Cortanna's head and she stops. From her location, she see's that Isaac was rationally trying to stop the cripple by hacking him to pieces with his enchanted sword. Meanwhile Arjah was trying to rationalize with Mable and ended up hacking off her arm. Then Dipper went on a rampage, setting the whole library on fire. Arjah suddenly ran away, leaving Gideon with Mable. Cortanna tried to sneak over to Gideon and Mable and ends up getting his by some of Dippers fire balls. When she finally makes it she tries to convince Mable to get her brother Dipper to stop his rampage. Dipper is consoled for a short period as the Deen dances for him on his little pig legs. Cortanna hears a commotion coming from the library enerance, and upon warning Mable, the girl says she'd deal with them. Screams of undead are heard along with the sounds of battle. Cortanna tells Mable to stop with the undead, but the girl seems to be in a deep trance. Cortanna grapples the little girl, but just as she tries to pin her a black hole opens beneath her and she starts to fall down a never ending hole. When she hits the bottom, she's back in the library. Seeing that there's nothing she can do to stop the girl, Cortanna goes to find help. As she's about to leave the library, she see's the wizards guard being attacked by undead. Cortanna returns to Gideon to warn him, but while she was gone it appears he's spited Dipper back into a rampage. Suddenly Billy was there and he grabbed Mable and began to crush her between his arms until she was no more. Dipper then dissipated, but the library was still ablaze. The remaining adventurers gather outside, many of the wizard guard are dead and injured. They meet back up with Rekka, but Arjah is nowhere to be seen. Apparently Rekka saw her run into the night obviously upset. We later learn that a bounty has been set on her head and she's wanted for ratting out poor Cleric Rob.

Rekka goes to find Arjah to warn her, but Isaac, Billy, Gideon, and Cortanna, go to crash a commemoration party in Pendral's tower for their leader's sudden departure. When they get there, there are four men left. They drink heavily, lamenting their fallen leader. Cortanna tries to spur the drunken men to say something to imprison them and it works. The leader says he knows a way to get rid of Duke Sardic once and for all to avenge Lord Pendral. The group follows the drunken men, but as they try to redirect the men, it turns into a chase. They find out Cortanna's ploy and race for Pendral's chambers to conduct their plan. Gideon and Cortanna follow the leader into a hidden room while Billy and Isaac contain the other three men. The leader starts reading a spell from a large book in the center of the room. Cortanna aims her bow to kill. Gideon gets to close and in the process is knocked unconscious by strange magics. Finally, Cortanna lands a death blow and ceases the leaders attempt for revenge. She stabilizes Gideon until he regains consciousness and they leave the now empty room. Billy and Isaac had knocked the other men unconscious and the group elects to leave the tower before more harm can be done. Cortanna reluctantly follows, unsure of what the other three drunken men will remember once they awake.

(Switching to first person)

The next day we finally get to meet Duke Sardic. As it turns out, he had been disguising himself as the captain of the guard all along! The rumors about Duke Lupic being a wearwolf are true, and as it turns out, Sardic is Lupic's brother. Sardic is also a wearwolf, cursed by his own brother. We are told that Lupic is in control of the elite force of wearwolves, who had driven the goblins from the mountains into our little town of Podunk. As it turns out, Lupic has been putting a corner on the market for silver mines, and I suspect its so no one can use the silver to rise up against him and his wearwolf army. Lord Pendral was also under Duke Lupic's control. There's not much Sardic can offer in the way of help for now, so my companions and I plan to leave the city soon.

We go about purchasing supplies to ready us for our journey. I've decided I'm going to need a good war horse if I'm going to face the fearsome wearwolves, who have probably moved in and destroyed what's left of our town. I hear tale of an auction later that evening where retired warhorses were being offered up, and figured that would be a good place to start. As I'm looking around the city, I'm approached by a man, who desperately asks for my help. The jewels he intended to show his soon to be father-in-law so that he could be wed to his fiance had been stolen. Someone had gone into his home and stolen them out right, and the wedding was only in a few days time. I eye the man considering his unfortunate story. I then realize how carelessly my friends and I had been spending our recently acquired wealth and wondered if the man was only trying to cheat me out of some jems. And if I gave him what he wanted, surely he would tell others of my generocity. Then there would be no telling how many others I'd be confronted by, pleading for a fraction of my wealth until I had no more. In a long round about way I tell him no....but at the last minute I give in and pull out a handful of lesser gems, ones that wouldn't be missed. The man gets angry at me! He doesn't take my offering and snidely says, "You're as bad as they say you are," and leaves! I say hotly after him, "Yah, and what are they saying?" but he pays me no mind and disappears in the crowd.

Evening time finally comes and I make my way over to the auction. I arrive early enough to examine the beasts on display. Many of the horses were much to old or injured to be any use in battle. My hopes were beginning to wane, but as I moved on to the next horse I heard, "Hey, you! Buy me!" Confused I look around, "Who said that?" I say. Suddenly the horse in front of me knickers and throws its head. It appears to be a young black mare.

"I've heard of your tales of bravery. I'm not ready to retire!" the horse says.

I jump our of astonishment. A talking horse? Was I dreaming? For whatever reason I decide to strike up casual conversation, while trying not to draw attention from the other buyers, "I'm Cortanna. What's your name? Can you run fast and make sure your rider doesn't fall off?"

"Absolutely-hee-hee" the horse says, "Oh, and my name's..." the mare whinnies.

I didn't know what to think. I was completely dumbfounded, "....right," I say, "What's a horse like you doing here at the auction? Surely the city guard would have found you useful?"

"They don't know I can talk."

"So why now?" I say, "You do realize you could be pulling a plow until your hooves fall off?"

"I want out of the City Guard. I've been looking for my chance to get out. I seek adventure!"

"Alright," I say, convinced that I'm giving this "thrown away" horse a second chance, "Just keep a low profile. I'll see what I can do."

Shortly after the auction starts. I watch as many of the older and injured horses are bought by farmers and shiver at the thought of them being worked to death. Finally the talking horse is up for bid. I allow the other citizens to bid for a while but as the bidding slows I ante in. Suddenly I realize I'm being run up by an ugly man that has a striking resemblance to Isaac.....finally I end the biding at 70 gold pieces and the talking horse is mine! I take the horse to a blacksmith to see about fitting her with some barding. On the way I learn that the horse was very well taken care of by her previous master, who also called her Brier. I only hoped I could take just as good care of her. The smith tells me that barding would be ready the next day so I decide to take Brier back to the inn to meet up with the rest of the party. Brier tells me that her previous master always let her sleep inside the inn and that they'd never been separated. I nervously say, "Okay." Surely the inn keeper wouldn't allow Brier inside the inn. I begin to wonder about Brier's previous master...

When the party meets up again we exchange stories. It turns out Isaac had nearly been pick pocketed by a kid from the Thieves Guild and I wonder if the man who had confronted me had also been from the Thieves Guild. I introduce them to Brier and her uncanny ability to talk and my friends are not as impressed. :( Suddenly we realize Rekka is missing again. We begin to search for her and receive a lead that she was seen in the lower merchant district with some shady figures. We immediately go there. A scream peals through the air and we go directly to its source. Its late now and most of the merchants and citizens have gone to bed. We're drawn to a warehouse and hear things going on inside. I assist in bashing down the door with my weapon handle and we burst through in no time. A group of shady characters turn to face us, and in a cage in the far corner is Rekka! We charge into the room and engage in battle. Brier waits outside. Suddenly I'm stunned and for some time I was unable to move. In the commotion we identify the leader of the group as a man named Sir. Finally I can move again, but before I can score a good hit, I'm badly injured by one of the men. Brier rushes in and begins stomping the man before me. Suddenly Sir begins to shift and then we realize he is a wearwolf! At Isaac's command Billy wrestles with Sir, trying to pin him. I draw my bow and plunge two silvered arrows into Sir's furry hide. He becomes unconscious, but the other men are trying to escape. Billy chases after a man that slinks out the back door, while the Bar Wench trots over and sits on the unconscious wearwolf. A moment later, Sir rally's and bits the Bar Wench. Sir tries to escape, but the party is hot on his heels. For the first time I ride Brier as we chase Sir down. Billy is able to subdue the wearwolf once more while the others begin ripping him apart. Finally the wearwolf explodes into a mound of giblets.

I leave the group, remembering I'd left my weapon handle in the warehouse. As I go in, I see the Bar Wench feeding on one of the dead bodies. Its clear she has turned. I manage to get my weapon handle before hightailing it out of there, the bar wench hot on my heels! I hop on Brier and urgently tell her to run. The Bar Wench nearly had us, but ended up slipping off Brier's rump and we sped away before she could catch us again. I try to lead the enraged Bar Wench from the rest of the group, but my tactic doesn't work and she charges toward them. Thankfully Billy is able to subdue her and then Isaac disappears with Billy and the Bar Wench as if an invisibility cloak had been thrown over them. When Isaac comes back he has Billy raise Sir's spirit. Sir appears to be very unhappy, especially when Arjah started to rummage around in his guts X_X but I can't hear what he's saying. Somewhere in the midst of things I learn that Brier likes to eat meat and her old master used to be Lord Pendral himself!!!

When Sir's visage fades away, we suddenly realize we're being accompanied by a group of citizens who have heard the commotion. They look on frightened at the armor clad warriors wondering what the ruckus was all about. Arjah tells them that we just killed a wear wolf. The frightened citizens ask if any of us had been bit and if there were any more. Suddenly someone from the crowd points to me and claims in my injured state that I had been bit. Arjah assures the citizen that my wounds were from weapons. Then Rekka yells "there's one right now!" and points at the man who'd made the accusation. The crowd proceeds to attack the man. Arjah begins to frantically question where Billy has gone. I tell her he's probably hiding so not to add to the citizens fright. Unfortunately, my comment is over heard and the citizens go into a frenzy. Finally the Town Guard arrive to restore order, only they are being killed by black hooded figures that suddenly appear in the crowd. The group decides to leave the square, unsure of the new threat. Brier accidentally tramples a couple citizens as we try to move through the crowded market square.

Suddenly a voice yells "STOP!" and everyone in the market square freeze, including me and my friends. A group of guard are moving through the crowd marking the black hooded figures and citizens with different colored markers, and then suddenly they disappear in thin air. When they get to us they put special markers on us and we're transported to outside the jail house. Apparently, this is where Isaac took the Bar Wench to, in order to safely confine her...I hear some growls and groaning of dying men from the inside. I tell the others, but no one seems to believe me. Some of them are more interested in finding out more about the black hooded figures and Rekka won't let Isaac out of her sight. It gets quiet on the inside of the jail and my concerns only grow deeper. Sure enough the wear Bar Wench comes bursting through the front door. We engage in combat and I let fly my slivered arrows. In no time, the wear Bar Wench is knocked unconscious. Gideon and I decide to go to the Square of the Gods to see if we can find a cure for the wear Bar Wench while the others check for survivors. We ride there on Brier so we could get there as fast as we could before she had a chance to rage again.

Upon arriving, Gideon and I are swarmed by Cleriks and Paladins carrying weapons. We dismount Brier and tell our audience why we are there. They seem disinterested and are more concerned about the evil that has descended upon their place of holiness. For some reason that think Brier and I are evil. Suddenly a clerik walks forward with a staff and taps it in front of Brier. The visage of the horse fades and now a fiery maned, cloven hooved creature stands in its place.

 I stare at Brier, no the creature, in shock, but the Cleriks and Paladins are not buying it. They suspect I knew all about the creatures true form all along.  I try to drag an explination out of Brier, but the creature seems to be non the wiser. Gideon and I try to convince our audience that we have no ill will toward them, but the only way they'll let us out is by walking through a "circle of good". The next thing I know, Gideon calls on his Deity for help and a moment later the ground glows in a shimmering circle. From what I understand, as long as we've done more good deed's then bad we would not be destroyed. Gideon and I step into the circle, but Brier is reluctant. I yell at Brier in frustration to step into the circle. I didn't know if Brier was leading me on; putting on a guise of innocence only to cause trouble later. Brier obeys, fearing she will be destroyed. There's a bright light and a moment later we're back were we were. Even Brier is still there. My faith in the creature is slightly restored, but I find myself wanting to know more about her. I ask the cleriks if there's a way they could disguise her, even if it was temporary, so she didn't frighten the citizens further. The clerik that had used the staff on Brier smartly says "Well why don't you ask the horse". Suddenly Brier stomps a hoof and the original illusion of the black horse takes place over her true form. I try to glean more info out of the moody clerik but he just walks off. The others arrive shortly after. We exchange info and it turns out there's now a wearwolf out break. The cleriks are able to help out, but the Bar Wench refuses to be cured knowing there was a chance the cure might kill her outright.

Part 10 - The Dwarven Ruins

I take Briar aside, kicking my boot in the dirt, think of how to formulate my question, “Briar, when I asked you before you said you weren’t from the nine hells plane, but just a minute ago when I asked you said yes. So which is it? Are you or are you not from the nine hells?”

Briar just looks at me, “Both,” she says simply, “I’m not from the ninth hell, but I am from one of the levels of hell.”

“Do you remember which one?”

Briar pauses, “Not really…”

“Is this how Pendral brought you to our plane of existence?” I asked pointing at the gate.

“No, Pendral brought me through the Dreth Stones.”

“Have you seen a gate like this before? Do you know where it’s currently dialed into?”

“Yes,” Briar confirmed, “Right now it’s dialed into the first level of hell, a place of blood and viscera. It’s ruled by the damon Bel, after defeating its previous ruler. Devils fight for power, the strongest ones ruling over the weaker ones.” Suddenly I notice a cut on her cheek that quickly heals and fades away, “This is a small price I pay being away from hell.” Briar responds when she realized I noticed.

Suddenly we both look back as we see the glowing gate ripple. My hand goes to my weapon handle, unsure what we’re about to be confronted by. A strange, disfigured creature stumbles down the steps to the gate and comes to a rest on the floor, unmoving. Araja rushes toward it for some odd reason, but I keep my distance.

“What is that?” I ask Briar.

“Why it’s a unicorn,” Briar says knowingly, “Judging by the way those skins have been grafted onto the creature, a demon must by trying to corrupt it. Once corrupt, a unicorn’s horn will turn black.”

I look back at the creature and see that its horn is still white. I relax my grip on the weapon handle as Araja tries to calm the beast. Suddenly the portal ripples again and four ghastly looking creatures come forth.

“What in the nine hells is that?” I say arming myself. The weapon handle immediately turns into a bow.

“Those are Nupperibo,” Briar says, “They can’t hear or see, but they can smell their prey just fine.

Without thinking, I fire an alchemist’s arrow at the Nupperibo nearest me. It hits, but the fire seems to strengthen them. The creatures advance slowly, and our dwarven friends charge in to attack. Despite their weakened state they fight valiantly and score a hit. The Bar Wench plays a song, invigorating us. I charge forward, my weapon handle turning into a great ax, and slash one of the creatures in two. Araja lands a lethal blow as well. Briar jumps in, now in demon form, and stomps the Nupperibo into nothing. The sulfur cloud she emits, blocks their sense of smell, and the creatures begin attacking one another in confusion.

We take out our enemies without a hitch. Isaac scrambles at the console to try and set the portal to a different plane, but it isn’t long before two more creatures walk through the portal. Isaac tells us these new creatures are Legion Devils and that they’re stronger in groups. Once one dies though, they all die. The dwarves begin their valiant assault, but without much effect. Araja flies above and nearly knocks one senseless. I turn the weapon handle into a halberd and strike at the enemy from afar.

When the devils realize Isaac was trying to change the location on the gate, they turn to run back through the portal, but just as they do, one of the dwarves sinks his ax into one of the creatures back, and they both slump over dead. Finally Isaac is able to scramble the runes on the console and the portal now remains open to the celestial plane.

Araja has Gideon cast a healing spell on the unicorn, and the foul looking animal turns back into its former glory. I really wanted to continue exploring the cave, but we all decide to return top side. We bid the dwarves farewell as they depart to their home.

We continue our journey toward Duke Lupik’s city when we come upon a caravan. The leader of the hired hands greets us warmly and they tell us they are awaiting their master’s return. Their masters are great adventurers and they went into a nearby, ancient dwarven cave where there was tale of many treasures. Their masters were to be returning soon, and they invited us to stay, rest, and rejoice with them once they returned. Our own food stores were fairly low so we decide to stay the night. In the morning, the hired hands race about preparing a grand feast, but their masters don’t emerge from the cave. They wait for a few days, with no luck.

We decide to heroically go into the cave to see what’s gone a miss, and hopefully return their masters safely. The cave is expansive with many halls and rooms to explore. From the looks of things, it appears the dwarves left quickly, leaving much of their wealth and goods behind. We find foot prints and follow them as best we can through the winding halls and rooms. In one of the rooms, Briar and I were attacked by rats…I hate rats…and we killed them quickly. Briar, in human form, began gnawing on the rat she slew. I give her a disgusted look, but she continues to chow down.

Shortly after, Isaac yells something, disturbing some other creatures in the room. Dire bats fly out of a corner and begin attacking us. I light one of the bats on fire with analchemist’s arrow and it flies off, but the other bats circle me and attack. I was bit pretty badly by one of them. Briar goes to attack, but she misses, slips, and lets out a blood curdling scream that sends shivers down my spine.

Suddenly I’m back with the rest of the group and Isaac is now fighting off the bats. I call for Briar, worried sick, but she’s unable to move. I fire several arrows, but the bats out maneuver my shots. Isaac shouts a warning and shakes his fist at me as my arrows wiz by. I don’t understand why he’s so upset…oh yah…

The bats break off and one came flying at my face. I try to duck out of its way, but the next thing I know my vision went black. The next second, or so I thought, I was awake again, Araja touching my head. The bats were still flying about manically. I crawl backward, take aim, and fire an arrow at the bat nearest me. My arrow pierces the creature through the heart and it crashes to the ground dead. The Bar Wench finishes up the last bat, burning it with her staff until nothing but ash remains.

Araya checks Briar and to my dismay, she’s broken a leg. Fortunately Araja was able to heal her and Briar was good as new!

I’ve also noticed Briar and the unicorn can’t get too close together. I get this feeling the unicorn doesn’t like Briar. I guess that makes sense since Briar is a demon horse and the unicorn is, well the opposite. Hopefully no ill will is had between them…

Briar and I follow the Bar Wench down a corridor that leads into a cavern. There’s a door on the other side of the path and a body smashed up against the far wall. It looks like a barbarian woman. We hear a swishing sound coming from further down the path. Briar brightens her fire and we can faintly see a crystal pendulum swishing across the bath ahead. When the others rejoin us, Isaac flies over the chasm and collects the barbarian woman and her things. There’s a sledge hammer in the middle of the floor. The barbarian must have been trying to break through the door. The others were eager to leave, but I really wanted to see what was on the other side. Leave no door unopened right?

After trying to bash down the locked door, Rekka comes over and picks the lock. The door swings open to an ancient dwarven forge. To the left corner of the room is a mound of gold, sliver, jewels, and gems. To the right are a couple hammers and a bow.

My eyes turning to dollar signs, I collect as much silver coins as I can and load Briars saddle bags with some gold. Suddenly everyone hears a loud hiss coming from the forge…a large, red, dragon head pokes out and hisses at us threateningly. I nearly wet myself and my life flashes before my eyes when Isaac attacks the dragon. Suddenly the creature goes still and slips back down the hatch. We all gather round the forge, peering over the edge, as the dragon fell to its death. I wipe the sweat from my brow and heave a sigh of relief. Isaac goes over to inspect the weapons. They all appear to be dragon slaying, so I take the Dragon Doom Great Hammers just in case we confront another dragon.

We continues searching for the other adventurers. Isaac finds some magical rings of sustenance and I take one and put it on. My mouth has an odd taste of honey and meat. After a long while we find our way into a library. Under one of the fallen stone shelves we see a hand, and upon recovering the body, discover it was a woman clerik. Isaac hands me the clerik’s amulet of healing, which I hoped to put to good use.

Day 21: A Werewolf Epidemic Coupled with a Raid

Previous Entry

Dwa 32th, 4288: 21 Days in the mortal realm

When I thought we could do no worse after our first day in Sardik, more havoc broke out at our hands today. At first it seemed like we were the new celebrities when word of our help in bringing Pendral down spread. Yesterday people would come up to us and thank us. It was the highlight of my day despite the guilt I still held for Cleric Rob's demise and for cutting off a little girl's arm. We were also called upon by the Captain of the Guards around noon. He informed us that Sardik would appreciate an audience with us and was waiting. Isaac told him we'd be right out. Isaac then had us gather in his room for a moment and handed us a portion of the riches we had acquired. He told us that we each had roughly 200,000 in the value of gold though most of it was in the form of gems. I was floored by the sudden wealth each of us had. There's so much I could do with it, items that would empower me that I could get.

Once we each had our share we headed out. It then dawned on me that Gideon once more was missing. No one knew where he had disappeared to and it seemed such rotten timing considering we were about to go talk to Sardik.

We followed the Captain of the Guard through the gates of Sardik’s castle and I took in the grandness it was, well once had been. It appeared to be somewhat run down, more due to lack of upkeep. As the Guard continued to lead us down the grand hall, into what looked to be the throne room, it became apparent something was happening. This strong, healthy guard suddenly began to look more hunched, worn, and aged. As he went up the steps to the throne and sat down upon it, one could see parts of his body greatly disfigured and what looked to be bite marks. This man obviously had been through a lot and I had a suspicion that those bite marks weren’t just any animal. Perhaps it was due to the recent mention of a werewolf problem with the goblins that made me think of it, but the bite marks seemed to be that of a werewolf's bite. I held my tongue since I really wasn’t sure and I wasn't an expert either on werewolves.

It became clear who this Guard was as he sat on the throne and gave us a tired, but engaged look.

“Wait, you’re Sardik!?” Cortanna blurted out. I gave a small bow of my head to show some respect.

“When Pendral was around I very well couldn’t go out as myself for I knew of his intentions to kill me. So what is it you needed to have an audience with me about?” Sardik said, getting right to business. Isaac filled him in on the situation with Podunk and Lupik to which we inquired why it was he gave up the town of Podunk.

“Well, Lupik is my brother for one. As to the werewolf situation in the mountains," Sardik thoughtfully said, "Well he is one as I am. It runs in the family. As you can also see," the duke gestured to himself, "I could not keep up a good fight against him and so decided to give Podunk up. He wanted that town because of the silver mine there. He’s trying to monopolize all of the silver since that’s the material that is most effective against our kind. I don’t agree with the things my brother is doing, but I have no help I can give if that is what you're looking for.”

“What if we went to the King about this issue?” I asked.

“Well, you certainly could try. But... the Prince favors Lupik and of course the King favors his son. So I don’t know how you might be able to receive help from the King honestly.”

I felt disappointed with the answer given. At least there was an answer, but our task in figuring out what to do about the werewolves had left us at square one, still trying to figure out what to do.

“We also came upon a cart on our way here and wonder if you might know of the symbol represented upon it,” Isaac mentioned. I had forgotten about the cart we came across nearly a week ago. Sardik asked him if he knew where it was to which Isaac gave a clear description of it’s location. Before we knew it, the cart and all the riches we had stored in it was suddenly before our eyes.

“Oh...” Sardik said, his eyes appearing concerned. He got up and began to examine the cart.

“Do you know who this belong to?” Isaac asked.

“This cart is one of mine. These heirlooms here, this one’s my daughter’s and this one’s the son of Pendral’s,” he calmly answered, “I don’t know exactly where all this wealth came from, but how did you happen to come across it?”

“We found it battered, like you see it, with all occupants involved dead. We believe it to be a bear attack. There was one in the area and one of our members was certain the scratches resembled that of bear claws. As to the wealth, that’s what we happened across along our journey,” Isaac explained. Sardik looked at him, not seeming to fully by his story, though I knew it to be truth.

“The other’s may be dead, but I know my daughter is alive," Sardik then eyed the cart more closely, "Are you certain it was a bear attack?”

The way he was talking suggested that there was more. He had just mentioned how lycanthropy ran in the family...

“I’m guessing your daughter must then be a werewolf too?” I asked. Sardik looked at me, but said nothing.

“Well, whatever it was, I know my daughter is alive. Anyways," Sardik said, pushing the subject aside, "thank you for bringing this to my attention. Is there anything else I could help you with?” We informed him that we had told him everything we came for. He then asked if we would keep it secret about his whereabouts since we knew he disguised himself.

"Also," Sardik said as we began to leave the throne room. When I looked back, Sardik was clearly looking at Isaac, "if I'm not mistaken, your past lays in the Dwarven Lands. If you want to redeem yourself, you should go there to remember your past." Isaac pondered for a moment before giving a quick nod of his head and leading us out of the throne room. I figured I'd ask him about that after we solved the werewolf issue.

The rest of yesterday and most of today was spent shopping and taking in the sights. Isaac had gotten himself and Bill these neat items that let themselves be disguised, an illusion really. Isaac looked normal (not so shriveled and skeleton like. He better resembled how I first saw him when I entered Podunk) and Billy looked alive. I was envious. All I had bought were items that made me stronger and look more charismatic. Isaac then mentioned he had some scrolls to get read that would let him see arcane magic and invisible things. I asked if I could go with. I thought being able to see invisible things would be quite useful. He allowed me to tag along.

We walked up to a shop called 'The Scrolls Lord.' It seemed presumptuous, but it wasn't like I was any expert with scrolls myself. The store was interesting. It was small and there was a distinguishable buzz of noise to it, making it seem busier than it was. Isaac went to the shopkeeper who seemed to recognize him. He agreed, for a small fee, to cast the magic of the scrolls on him. I felt a little bit of hesitancy when I saw the shopkeeper jab Isaac in the eyes for each spell to make it permanent, but I figured a little pain for the ability to see invisible things would be worth a little pain.

After receiving my invisible sight, I could see where the buzz in the shop came from. There were people working invisibly, a store security I’m sure for those who thought they could get away with pickpocketing. The shopkeeper knowing what we were able to see asked us to keep the store security a secret.

Once we made our way back to the Inn, we saw that Cortanna had a new horse. It was a beautiful breast, but it got weird when it began to talk. We looked at Cortanna.

“Really, you had to get the talking horse?” Isaac asked incredulously.

“Hey, she’s really cool,” came her response, with a touch of lameness to her tone.

“Well, why’s she inside?”

“My old Master would always let me come inside with him,” the horse answered for Cortanna.

“Yeah, she kinda wants to always be with me,” Cortanna added. I actually thought the whole thing was humoring.

“Well, does she have a name? Like Lady Clip Clop or something?” I asked.

“It’s Brier or Neigh-gh-gh harmph hmph,” Brier answered.

“Whatever," Isaac said. I don't know why he was agitated by the horse so much. "Is everyone back then for the day?” Isaac asked, shifting topics.

“No, Rekka was here, but hasn’t been back for many hours,” Cortanna answered. And that was just the start of our troubles; realizing Rekka was missing.

“Okay. Hopefully she’ll be back- what the?” Isaac said, cutting himself off. He swung a hand down and pulled up a scrawny boy by the wrists, “What are you doing in my things?” Isaac asked threateningly. The boy looked like he was about to pee his pants as Isaac gave a flash of his true face.

“Uh, sorry! I was put up to it by the guys from the Thieves Guild,” the boy sputtered out.

“Okay, well here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to leave, and I’m never going to see your face near me again, right?” The boy looks dreadfully scared.

“Please sir, I messed up real bad. If I don’t come back with something, they’re gonna kill me. This was my way to redeem myself!”

“Not my problem,” Isaac then threw the boy out the door. Moments later we could hear a scream, and for a moment we stood in silence. Maybe I should have stood up for him... then again, if he’s with the thieves guild, he probably knew the life he was getting into.

“So, no one’s seen Rekka for a while,” I said, breaking the uncomfortable silence. Cortanna shook her head, “Does anyone know where she went?”

“I saw someone slip a note into her pocket and then she left,” Jessica told everyone. That seemed odd. I also have to wonder why Jessica didn't follow her. We decided it would be best to ask around to see if we could figure out where she was.

It took a couple minutes before finding someone who saw her head to the lower Merchant Sector of the city. As we walked in, we were about to split up to find her when we heard a distinct scream. It took no second thought as to who it was. We all had heard that scream back in the mines when the voices would sound. The sound seemed to come from a near by building, but as I made my way toward it, realized the party all had taken off in a different direction.

"Why are you all going that way?" I yelled after them.

"Because we're trying to save Rekka," Jessica responded. The scream rang in my ears once more and I realized my mistake.

Cortanna was first to the door due to having Brier to ride. She slid off of her mount and proceeded to knock the door down. Isaac helped her too by putting his his shoulder to the door with Cortanna. Though they are a bit small, they were able to knock the door down in two swings. We all flooded into the building. As I rounded the corner into the main room, there was a werewolf and three other men. Rekka was on the other side of the room in a cell. Billy went right up to the werewolf and wrapped his arms around him. The werewolf struggled, but Billy was much stronger than he looked. I maneuvered around Cortanna to attack one of the men. As I passed her, I noticed she was frozen. In my hesitation, the man I had wanted to attack struck her petrified form. Immediately I snapped back to the situation and went about tripping the man. My attempts were unsuccessful as Brier pushed her way into the building.

"Who hurt my master!?" She demanded. She didn't wait for an answer. Brier saw the man closest to her and proceeded to stomp the living daylights out of him.

One of the other men turned into a werewolf as well. We had subdued the other two men (if not killed them) and still had the one werewolf grappled. That werewolf became limp to which the other one ran out the door. I pursued after him. I failed in tripping him, but two of Cortanna's arrows made contact that knocked him out. We carefully drug his body back into the building and put it aside with the other bodies. I asked Cortanna if she was okay considering how she was petrified. She shrugged her shoulders telling me that she'd recover. I looked over and saw that Rekka had since been released from her prison. She was standing close to Billy, trembling, though clearly relieved to have us (or was it just Billy) there.

Suddenly there was a nasty snarl followed by a scream, Our heads jerked to see Jessica gripping her bloodied arm. The idiot of a bar wench had decided to sit on the werewolf!  I can't fathom how she even thought that was a sensible idea. Not sure whether I should even consider her lucky that her arm was still intact. I didn't get to linger more on her foolish decision to do such a thing, for the werewolf was then on it’s feet and fleeing out the door.

All of us, except Jessica, pursued. I tried 2 different times to trip him, but he managed to dodge my spell. It was Cortanna and Isaac who were able to catch up with him. From the distance I was at, it looked as though the werewolf was killed as I saw a ghost like figure appear. I caught up in time to hear something about Rekka’s blood. It sounded like she part of an important or royal bloodline, but it could very well be whatever ritual they were going to use her in and she just happened to fit the criteria.

I looked through some of the pieces I found of this werewolf. We learned from Rekka that his name was Sir. I wanted to examine his body for a possible sign of the mark. There wasn't any sign that I could find. I looked up confused, then rolled the body over. Out of the corner of my eye, it seemed that the ghost of Sir was agitated. I suppose it was less than respectful of his dead body, me examining it and all, but whatever, he was dead and evil for all I knew.

As I finished examining Sir’s remains I saw Cortanna start heading back the way we came. I assumed she was going back to help Jessica. I felt I would try and do the same since the werewolf was no longer a problem. I had barely begun to catch up with Cortanna when I saw her racing back toward me with a frightened look on her face. I was confused by what she was so alarmed by. When I looked in the direction of the building I barely made out the figure of Jessica running toward us. I thought she was running from something and needed help, so I pushed myself harder to aid her.

If I had known that it was because of Jessica, Cortanna was fleeing, maybe I would have made an attempt to flee toward the rest of the party too. However with my guard mostly down, what looked like a hurt and scared Jessica was actually her half turned into a werewolf! Just as that realization came upon me it was too late. Jessica lunged at me to which I was able to defend myself against her. She knocked me to the ground, still intent on biting my face off. Thankfully I had my halberd between the two of us. A few arrows sunk into her knocking her off of me long enough that I could get up. I took a swipe of her paw to my face before hitting her with the blunt end of my halberd. Suddenly the form of Jessica came back into view. She was unconscious due to all her wounds. The other caught sight of the commotion and gathered around to see what had happened. I tell them that Jessica was half turned into a werewolf. Isaac then figured it’d be wise to put Jessica in the jail where they killed the Alop until we knew what to do with her. He took hold of Jessica, clicked the heels of his boots together to which he and Jessica disappeared.

Barely had Isaac disappeared when we heard someone stumble from behind us. We saw Gideon appear out of a building. He seemed dazed and was startled by the werewolf body that we left in the road. We went to him, to see what had happened to him. He couldn't recall and I suspected from the smell that he had been drinking way too much.  We filled him in on the situation, not taking into consideration that were were in the road with a werewolf, dead and next to us. As we finished telling him about what had happened in the past 5 minutes, we then noticed a crowd had begun to form.

“What’s going on?”

“What is that?”

"Oh heavens! It's a werewolf!"

We all gave each other a nervous glance.

“Don’t worry, we’ve taken care of the werewolf. It’s dead,” I answered to those who were questioning the scene.

“What? A werewolf?” someone echoed.

“Aren’t they pack animals?”

“Did any of you get bit by it!?”

“No. My friend and I were hit by weapons,” I quickly answered. I was feeling quite sore and was ready to call it a night.

“No, those look an awful lot like bite marks to me,” someone called out. I glared at the mass crowd of people, not knowing who or where that statement came from. Clearly they were an idiot if they were mistaking cuts and scratches for bite marks.

“I assure you they are not. For one-” I began to say when suddenly Rekka shouts out.

“Wait, that man there! He’s a werewolf!” The crowd was very much on edge. That announcement ignited a frenzy among them as they pounced on a man in the crowd.  I whirled around to look at Rekka.

“What did you just do!?” I demanded.

“Let’s get out of here!” She retorted back. I wasn’t about to let it drop.

“Rekka, seriously.”

“Trust me, he was one of them, at least he was one of the guys who kidnapped me.”

My nerves calmed down a little, feeling a little relief that she didn’t cause a senseless attack just to create a diversion for us. We all began to try and make a silent escape. That's when I noticed Billy wasn’t with us. I asked everyone if they had seen him are knew where he went. No one saw him. Maybe he had teleported with Isaac, but I was pretty sure I saw Isaac leave with just Jessica.

“Oh great,” Cortanna said, “Now we have an undead somewhere in the crowd with the werewolf.”

If I had thought the crowd was already heated and on edge with the one werewolf and Rekka sicking them on one of her enemies, complete pandemonium erupted after Cortanna’s less than subtle comment. People began to run left and right fleeing for their lives. We continued to try and get out of there especially as we saw guards coming in. We didn't mean to cause trouble. All we had meant to do was save Rekka. Plus in our attempt to leave I felt we ought to find Billy, but no one was interested nor seemed concerned about a marked undead roaming around supposedly free from Isaac's control. So I chose to go check what the guards were specifically coming for, knowing there was a chance I could be placed under arrest since I did help kill someone folk (even if they were werewolves and had kidnapped one of my party members... and bit another).

As I approached, I caught sight of figures in black, hooded cloaks, approaching them. For a brief moment I was intrigued as to what the really situation they were there for. Surely our commotion over the werewolves wasn't cause for more back up. However, those in the black cloaks were not reinforcements. Instead they began to stab the guards! Terrified and panicked, I ran back through the crowd toward my party (I used Cortanna as my beckon since she was riding Brier). I caught up and told them that we needed to pick up the pace up because the guards were being killed by cloaked beings. Now, at the time it was logical to raise my voice above the noise that the mass of folk were making in their haste to flee. And so I added another layer of terror to the werewolves and undead that had already feared the crowd.. With the increase of adrenalin  among the citizens, I was knocked down. Getting up wasn't too difficult, but I was promptly knocked down after regaining me feet. At about this time a loud and forceful, yet calm, voice bellowed over the chaos.

“EVERYONE STOP!”

I felt a n old sensation that was used upon me in my youth many times. I, as well as the mass of folk, were petrified. No, not turned to stone, but rather were were completely immobile. It was a spell I wish I could learn for it was very, very, effective in subduing a large crowd. As I laid on the ground completely immobile, a faint ringing sounded in my ear as the silence lingered on. I could hear faint footsteps in the distance that gradually got closer. Faint mutterings could be heard. Once the people who were moving about were roughly 10 feet away I could see they were another set of guards walking through the people and placing something on them. As soon as the object was placed upon them, they disappeared.. Before I knew it they were towering over me. One looked down, gave me a good look, then looked around intently for something.

“Hey, look who I’ve found!” Another guard walked over and eyed me.

“Just her?”

“Nope, there’s the others,” the guard responded, pointing off in a direction.

“Here. Place these badges on them.”

I saw a silver colored badge placed upon chest. In an instant I was standing outside the jail with Isaac in view. The first thing that registered after I looked at my surroundings was Billy wasn’t with Isaac. The other’s arrived as I asked, “Billy’s not with you?” Isaac gave me a look that was a mix of horror and confusion.

"I've only been gone 5 minutes and was about to head back. I figured he’d be safe with you guys for that time frame. How is it you all are here?”

“Well he’s no longer with us," I rushed on, "I have no idea when or where he disappeared to. People were running every which way and-”

“Why were people running?” Isaac interrupted, sounding concerned.

“They were concerned about the werewolf we killed, Rekka sicked them on some guy, we tried to leave when I noticed Billy was missing and then Cortanna dropped the U-bomb. With the chaos of people, the guards came in but as I approached them they were being slaughtered by people in cloaks to which more guards came and froze us. They then placed a silver badge on me and I assume them and that's how we were summoned here,” I quickly summed up. Isaac's mouth hung open in slight disbelief.

“5 minutes! All of that? 5 minutes!” Isaac sputtered in anger and sheer surprise. He then went silent, his lips pursed in thought. Cortanna, Gideon, and Rekka seemed focused on the jail behind us. They mentioned that is sounded like something was going on in the jail. I couldn't hear anything and figured they were just on edge still.

“Okay, I know where he is. Sounds like there's some dead people too, I’m going to go get him,” Isaac muttered a few moments later.

“He did what!?” I shrieked. I didn't mean to be so loud, but if it was Billy who had killed people, then that could be very bad. Yep, we're the party that brought an undead with us. That's the guy who just left him alone with us to babysit when he's the one with control over him, I thought bitterly.

“Don’t worry about it, I’ll be right back,” and with that Rekka shouted, “I’m going with!” and latched onto Isaac, both of them disappearing. I am left scared by the comment Isaac said. Was Billy killing things? Why was Isaac not bothered by this? Did Isaac really control Billy? It was enough to make my head explode!

Just then the jail door behind us busted open. Coming at us in a rage was a werewolf. The werewolf lunged towards me and despite my attempts to defend myself, I was smacked squarely across the chest by it;s claws. As I backed away, Cortanna struck it with 2 arrows followed by Gideon and a guard hitting her with their weapons. The guard impaled the werewolf on his spear, but since it wasn’t silver coated, the werewolf was fine once the spear was removed from its body. Cortanna and I both attacked at the same time, I sending an electric shock through the beast's body. Finally the werewolf was brought to its knees and morphed back. It was now known who we were fighting; Jessica. She looked severely wounded. I wanted to heal her, but unsure as to when she would morph again, I asked the guards if they had anything to restrain her with. They gave me a grave look before telling us that she was restrained with the very best of restraints. Every creature, whether sent by Pendral or someone else, was placed in strong restrains. Just then I caught sight of Isaac, Rekka, and Billy reappearing. Isaac took one look at the scene.

“I was gone less than 5 minutes this time!”

“If you had hung around another 30 seconds it still would have happened,” I argued back.

“I think the bigger problem is what are we going to do about Jessica?” Cortanna asked.

“I know! Let’s go ask the Clerics. I’m sure they would have some kind of cure for this,” Gideon chipped in. Everyone was in agreement. Cortanna, with Brier, left with Gideon to the Court of the Gods to see if they had any cure for Lycanthropy. Once they left Isaac and I went to check the jail to see what damage had been made from Jessica’s escape, especially considering that there were creatures in there that Pendral had sent. As we peered in, we could see that all the guards were killed and all the jail cells were busted open. All the creatures that were held were dead. We lucked out for there was a Gorgon and Basilisk that happened to encounter each other in the same cell and each were now stone. Another cell had it's wall busted out. In all, the jail was in no condition to contain anything.

A half formed werewolf then appeared in front of us. I got my halberd at the ready. The creature coward and slowly shifted back into a man. He had been bitten recently, his one shoulder bloodied with a bite wound. I kept my distance, but I also tried to calm the man down while Isaac walked to the entrance of the jail.

“Hey, do you have contact with the other guards?” Isaac called back.

“Yes, why?” the guard responded.

“Tell them to stop sending werewolves. All the cells are busted open,” Isaac answered. He then went back to the break in the wall. He disappeared behind the wall. A few moments later he came back and swiped his brow.

"A gelatinous cube is out there," he said, seeming lost for breathe, "Almost walked right into that one. Come Araja, I think we're fine since the man has shifted back." Isaac told me. I followed after him, leaving the man still weeping. I hoped that there'd be enough of a cure to heal that man too if Cortanna and Gideon were successful.

Isaac went right to Rekka and tried to get her to explain why she was kidnapped. She didn’t give any clear answer, but she did give Isaac a green potion that she said they tried to convince her to drink. Isaac examined it and gave a knowing nod.

“I’ll be right back,” Isaac told us. I watch him walk around the side of the jail. I followed and just caught Isaac opening the potion and throwing it at something.

“What was that?” I asked quietly.

“A teleportation potion. I’m guessing whoever made it won't be expecting a gelatinous cube,” Isaac said, obviously pleased by his idea. I gave a smirk finding the idea humoring. I also understood how it was Isaac had almost walked into it. We walked back over to the guards and Rekka. Isaac asked the guard how the situation in the slums were going. The guard informed us that he had lost communication with them for the past minute or two. He didn’t know why, but one could hope that it wasn't nothing serious. Isaac told them of the man in the jail who was a werewolf but at the moment was not shifted. I then picked Jessica up and the four of us went to catch up with Gideon and Cortanna.

Upon entering the Court of the Gods, a ways off we suddenly saw a blinding light flash. I blinked rapidly so my eyes could readjust to the late evening twilight. As we drew closer, we saw Clerics surrounding Gideon, Cortanna, and a demon mount. I almost dropped Jessica, who at the time was beginning to come around, to prepare to fight the vile creature. I actually don't know why I was so offended by it at the moment. But something about it was familiar and it left me feeling disturbed.

“Where did this creature come from?” I demanded.

“Well, this is Brier,” Cortanna responded sheepishly. My mouth dropped.

“You bought a talking demon mount!?” Isaac asked incredulously.

“I’m just as surprised!” Cortanna admitted. It then fell quiet, each lost in their own thoughts. I was conflicted. Something inme wanted to destroy the beast, but it hadn't done anything wrong either...

“Well, did you at least tell them about the werewolf problem?” Isaac asked, breaking the silence.

“Not quite. We kinda got caught up on Brier and discovering her true self,” Gideon answered.

“There’s a werewolf problem?” a Cleric asked, whom I assumed to be the Lead Cleric of this group.

“Yes, well, at least our friend here was bitten. We also know in the slums, where she was bitten, chaos kind of broke out and the guards at the jail lost communication with them. We’re not sure what the state of the slums are at this point. We were wondering if you knew of a cure for lycanthropy,” I explained. The Lead Cleric looked at Jessica. While staring at her, he leaned over to another Cleric and said something to him. Soon a griffin descended from the sky and the cleric hopped on before taking off. Once the Cleric was gone, the Lead Cleric spoke.

“She was just recently bitten, am I correct?”

“Yes.”

“Does she want this to be cured, because there is a chance she could die, though not as likely since it was quite recent,” the Cleric explained. We all look to Jessica was alert enough to follow the conversation.

“I wouldn’t mind keeping this ability,” Jessica said. I was a bit surprised. Werewolves don’t have a great reputation, so I was curious as to why she wanted to try and live with it. It would seem the potential risk of death outweighed the negative of being known as a werewolf.

“Okay then. You need to stay until the next full moon so we can see how much control you actually have,” the Lead Cleric informed us.

“That should be fine,” I said.

“That’s another 2 or so weeks we’d have to stay here!” Rekka said, not sounding thrilled about the idea of staying in this city that much longer.

“Well, if people have to leave the city, then go. I’ll stay with Jessica ‘til then,” I responded.

“Why are you so intent on staying?” Isaac asked.

“I kind of have a verdict I’m waiting out currently,” I admitted.

“For what? Killing Rob?” Isaac jokingly said. I glared at him to which he stopped smiling.

“That wasn’t my intentions,” I said through clenched teeth, “They mentioned that you guys should wait around too, possibly for questioning, but I’m the one they really want and so that’s why I figured I’d volunteer myself to stay. The rest of you can leave the city before more chaos becomes of us.”

Before a decision could be given, the Cleric that had departed on the griffin was back.

“It’s really bad there. The slums are burning and there are werewolves everywhere! This is including the jail area. They too had an outbreak of werewolves. I doubt we have enough to cure this,” he reported, “let alone, the people in the slums were saying some kind of sermon repeatedly. I couldn’t get close enough without people shooting arrows and rocks at me.”

We all stood silent for a moment. I was caught on the mention of the sermon.

“Did you mean chant?” I asked. The Cleric looked at me questioningly as though it made no difference. Chant, sermon, I guess they’re similar enough. Well, either way, I had a gut feeling that it wasn’t just an outbreak of werewolves they had but that of the mark.

“I got something that might help,” Isaac said. Soon he had his wishing sword out, “Hubert, I wish that I had a giant cauldron full the potion used to cure lycanthropy.”

Before we knew it, there was a giant cauldron, big enough to fit a couple of people in to bathe. It was full of a greenish liquid to the brim. The Clerics looked at each other and took no time in transporting the potion over to the slums and jail. As our party was left with the Lead Cleric and a few other Clerics, I had an insane idea, but if I was right, it could be crucial for us.

“Well, Isaac… you or Billy wouldn’t know of a way to sense other ‘lycanthropes’ would you?” I asked Isaac with a hidden meaning of ‘do you know if Billy ccould sense other marked beings?’ Everyone gave me an odd look, but then waited for an answer. Isaac getting the meaning responded.

“Actually there is,” Isaac says nodding his head as he looked me directly in the eyes, “but the really question is, what does Brier and those wearing the black hooded cloaks have in common with this?” Isaac pulled out a dagger. I barely too notice of the weapon for my head was reeling. Billy could sense marked beings! Brier was one of them, which I thought odd because I’ve never heard of creatures being marked. I suppose she was intelligent enough to qualify, but I’ve only known it to be humanoid creatures to be targeted. Perhaps that's why I felt an immediate repulsion to her in her demon form. Once more, conflicted. I didn't want to create hard feelings in the part by attack Brier... I then decided the moment she did something clearly evil, that's when I would strike.

The Clerics were very concerned about the dagger. Iif they thought the interchange of words between me and Isaac was odd, all thoughts about that was now long forgotten. They wondered if Isaac was marked. According to them just touching the dagger marked the holder if they weren’t already marked. Isaac assured all of us that he wasn’t, but he still put the dagger on the ground.

The Clerics tried placing a holy cloth upon it to pick it up, but the cloth was burnt as soon as it touched the dagger. With the Clerics focusing on the dagger, I couldn’t help but feeling that there was more evidence of my cause about the mark. Yet, there was also nothing more we could do, so we made our leave.

As we walked back to the Inn, I thought about the slums and how it wasn’t just a werewolf outbreak. I thought back to the day when my town of Rehm was attacked. The slums of Sardik just experienced a raid. I haven’t a clue as to what’s to happen now, but maybe the Clerics will have a way to keep it under control. Either way, here was hoping we could get out of this city before succumbing to this epidemic of marks and werewolves.

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