----------=BigCloset Retro Classic!=----------

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Admin Note: Originally published on BigCloset TopShelf on Saturday 09-01-2012 at 08:10:07 pm, and again on Sunday 10-07-2016 at 14:53:08 pm, this retro classic was pulled out of the closet, and re-presented for our newer readers. ~Sephrena
 

Chapter 1

Philip knelt on the floor of his bedroom rummaging through a tall stack of papers. If asked his mother would have explained that the state of his bedroom was a clear reflection of her son’s life. Finally finding what he needed, he placed the loose sheets of paper into a rather large binder. Across the top of the binder, hand written in beautiful calligraphy was the word Mercia. Unlike many young men his age, Philip was not looking forward to the weekends to spend time trying to pick up girls, no his weekends were for gaming.

The Role-Playing campaign Mercia had been an active part of his life since his first year in High School. Based on the Archon Role-Playing system, it had continued for the last six years with his group playing religiously almost every weekend. It started innocently enough. Philip ran across a used copy of the core rules at a bookstore. Drawn to the art on the cover but not sure what was inside, he brought the book home anyway. Opening the book dragged Philip into another world. Many times since that fateful day, he wished real life were as simple, with charts and tables to tell you how well you were doing. His first time at the gaming table, in a pick up group at a Fantasy convention, was memorable. After the enjoyable experience, he decided that what he really wanted to do was to create these wonderful stories. A new Game Master was born.

For a month, Philip spent every evening writing adventures, and running them alone in his room. The excitement didn’t last very long; it was all in good to play but what he needed was someone to play with. That was easier said than done, as he never made any real friends in school. It’s not that Philip was antisocial; rather he lacked any real social skills. Often missing normal social cues, the young boy quickly alienated himself from most of his peers at school. He never understood why people didn’t want to listen for hours on end to topics that he found extremely interesting. What was worse, it was almost painful if he didn’t talk about them. The doctors, of course, had all sorts of explanations for his behavior; however, it didn’t stop him from being lonely.

A week before he turned fifteen all of that changed. While standing at the bus stop reading a book, and trying to keep away from the others, a new student walked up to the bus stop. At first glance, Philip was positive that the person was a girl but then upon further examination, he wasn’t totally sure. The other teens standing at the bus stop were also were thinking along the same lines. Pixie like in appearance, with bright almost white hair, tied up into a ponytail and dressed in well-tailored but very androgynous clothing, the new student screamed girl. Besides, she was too pretty to be a boy. However, that belief soon changed.

“Christian.” The boy explained to a group of girls who came up to ask him his name. That little revelation caused a ripple effect throughout the crowed. From outright disgust to interest passed through most of the other students faces. What amazed Philip was that none of it seemed to faze Christian at all.

“You must be some sort of fag.” Mark Johnson, one of Philip’s long time tormentors, called out.

Christian just smiled. “No I’m not but why are you asking? Are you trying to ask me out on a date?”

Except for Mark and his cronies, that brought a wave of smiles to the group. When he explained that he just moved from Southern California, the other students for the most part left him alone. I mean everyone knows that people from Southern California are weird in the first place. Afterwards he would have to pound a few faces for the more hard headed to leave him alone. Christian might have been short but he was more than happy to stand up for himself. With the little excitement of a new student at the bus stop over, Philip thought he would go back to his normal days but he was wrong.

“Mind if I sit here?”

Looking up from his book, Philip just nodded. No one had ever asked to sit by him. The bus was never crowded enough so he always at alone. Christian took a seat and looked over as Philip went back to his book. “I’m Christian.”

“Ahh, Philip.”

“Cool, I saw you reading the new ‘Dragon Sword’ series. What did you think about where the author left off? I was a little disappointed that she didn’t go deeper into Tempest’s reason for turning against his brother.”

It was if a light went off in Philip’s head. There was actually a person sitting next to him who was interested in the same things. Quickly agreeing the two discussed the ins and outs of several popular fantasy series on the way to school. Philip was disappointed when the bus ride came to an end. Most likely, it was also the end of any more conversations. It was at this point most people ran away.

“How about we pick it up during lunch?” Christian said as he walked towards the office.

“Sure.”

As the weeks went by Philip was amazed how much Christian understood the art of world crafting and writing. When asked, he admitted that he had been writing short stories for a number of years, all of it based off the Archon RPG system. It was at that point that Philip had his first player. That Friday night he ran Christian through the adventure he had written. It wasn’t very long, rescuing a Miller’s daughter from a handful of Urks, part troll, part goblin; they were Archon’s equivalent to Orcs. Afterwards, they discussed the adventure. When Christian asked why this was all happening, why did the Miller’s daughter get captured, Philip didn’t know. So engrossed in writing an adventure, he couldn’t really fathom the world behind; it didn’t matter. Christian soon began to weave a tale of a desperate woman trying to run away from an arranged marriage. Philip was amazed how his simple module became a backdrop to a large adventure. Philip still wasn’t sure, he liked writing adventures, but the world stuff was inconsequential. Christian explained that he would be happy to build the world, if Philip wrote the adventures. That began a six-year collaborative effort. A friendship that Philip desperately needed, for it was also Christian who brought the other gaming members into the group.

Looking up for the fifth time Philip checked the time. His gaming group would be arriving any minute now for what he hoped would be an all-night session. It was the first time in over a month that he and his friends were going to sit down and play. To Philip it was an obsession, so as the years went by, he became somewhat disappointed that members of his gaming group began to have other interests. Even Christian, who he thought was a hard core a gamer like himself, acquired a girlfriend in his junior year of High School. Philip of course forgave his friend when Christian managed to convince Sandy, his then girlfriend, to start playing with them.

“Dude, your room is worse than mine.”

Philip grinned. Corey shook his head as he walked by to take a seat in front of Philip’s computer. As the newest member of the gaming group, tall, blonde with a chiseled chin and with eyes that make girls go wild, Corey was not your typical gaming nerd. He had been a top defensive lineman in High School and was scouted by a number of well-known Universities. However, on the second to the last game of his final High School football season, he threw out his knee, effectively ending his football career. Corey didn’t mind. He explained that he only played football to make his father happy, what he really wanted was to be a doctor and not play in the NFL. Therefore, instead of entering college on a football scholarship the straight A student received an academic scholarship instead.

“You’re still tweaking your character?” Philip asked rising from the ground.

Corey tended to look for every powerful combination when making a character. It was all in the rules but at times Philip was annoyed by how powerful some of Corey’s combinations had become. Today was no different; although he was shelving his usual Arch mage for a Temple Healer, the character was just as mini-maxed. What was different about tonight game was that Corey had finally talked his girlfriend into try the game. With new players added, the group decided to play new lower level characters for the next adventure. Philip didn’t mind, the best thing that would happen was that he would get to run a high level and a low-level campaign at the same time. Most likely, though, this would only be a one shot adventure as no one expected Corey’s girlfriend to continue to play. Even with the threat of it only being a one shot adventure, Corey made sure his character and his girlfriend’s would be perfect.

“Of course, I read a couple of new ideas on the forum. I thought I might try them out since the game hasn’t officially started.”

“So where is Kathy?” Philip asked having mixed feelings about her arrival. The stories he had been told about her sometimes vocal opinion on things didn’t bode well for another adventure beyond tonight.

“At the mall.” The former defensive lineman made a face. “She should be here in a few minutes, unless she plans on bailing on us.”

“You think she will?”

Corey shrugged. Kathy was fun to be around but she really didn’t get gaming. Actually, he didn’t either until he met Christian in the student center. It’s not something he was willing to bring up, as Corey was actually going to ask the good-looking girl on a date. Corey had played plenty of computer games but the whole RPG thing was a little beyond the pale. Somehow, after finding themselves in the same History class, Christian convinced him to try Archon, which was a pen and paper game. After his first adventure, Corey was pretty much hooked.

“You still plan on playing a female character, especially with Sylia as her goddess?” Philip looked over the character sheet. Off to the right of the computer screen was a spreadsheet opened with all sorts of calculations to get the best build.

“They make the best healers.” Corey commented as his character finally began to print out on the printer.

“I’m impressed.” Philip noted that Corey managed to pull all of the stops with this character. He picked the right combinations of advantages and disadvantages to make it work. “You’re planning to role-play some of those disadvantage right?”

Unlike some of the others in the group, the ex-high school football player didn’t get much into the role-playing part of the game. It was the adventure and as he put it, the chance to bust some heads that made him excited. “We’ll see, not sure how to role-play a petite girl who has a problem with men but I’ll give it a try.” The six foot three, former defensive lineman said with a grin. “As a healer, that will be easier since it’s something I plan on doing for a living. At least when we talk about injures I won’t have to fake not knowing what they mean.”

Two more members of the gaming group emerged from the garage door; Brett and his brother Stephen. Brett, was pre-law and after passing the bar would enter the families Law firm. He was also the de facto leader of the party and longtime member of the group, joining in the eleventh grade. Today he brought his sixteen-year-old brother along. “How’s it going, Doctor Anders?” Brett asked as he reached over to look at Corey’s character. “Geeze man, your attention to detail even scares me.”

Laughing Corey leaned over and nodded to Stephen. “What’s up, I heard you’re going to play an Incantist.”

“I guess.” Stephen shrugged, not really understanding what that meant.

“We’ll have to keep an eye on him; the Imperium always wants to get their hands into everything.” Brett laughed. Members of the Incantist class were powerful spell casters who often worked for the Imperium. Normally explorers, on occasion they would also be used as Witch Hunters, purging those who threatened the Imperium. The group decided that a little imperial backing might make the adventure a little more interesting and hopefully more profitable.

The sound of an altercation inside the garage caught everyone’s attention. Corey cringed, it sounded like Kathy was at it again, which meant she must have run into Christian and Sandy. His girlfriend and Christian’s ex-girlfriend were friendly enough; on the other hand, Christian and Kathy were like oil and water.

“Could you dress any more like a girl?” Kathy said, a little too loudly. “I’m not sure I like my boyfriend hanging out with a drag queen.”

Corey rolled his eyes as he opened the door. Normally she was the sweetest person in the world but Kathy’s evangelical upbringing reared its ugly head way too often lately. They had already broken up once over this and if push came to shove, if the choice was Christian or Kathy, his girlfriend would lose.

“Kathy”

Sandy turned her head, revealing a beautiful smile. “Sweetie, see I told you that I would make it.” She quickly crossed the distance and gave Corey a lusty kiss.

“Nice kiss, but please apologize to Christian.”

Sandy frowned then shrugged. “I’m sorry, my boyfriend is right, my parents brought me up better, please forgive me.” She said with little conviction in her voice. Corey knew that her parents were actually the problem. Looking at his friend, he didn’t really see a problem. Christian was dressed the same but he did look very feminine. Actually, he thought the real problem might be that Christian was actually prettier than Kathy was.

Christian just nodded. Sandy on the other hand looked like she was about to start spitting nails. Before she could say anything, Christian leaned over and spoke in her ear. Whatever he said seemed to mollify her a little.

“Guys.” Philip said coming into the garage. He would have liked nothing better to tell Kathy to get the hell out of his parents’ house, but he was a little afraid of her. Philip wasn’t really capable of dealing with girls, much less pretty girls. Sandy was cute but she was more like a sister and Christian was a guy.

“You must be Philip. I have heard so much about you.” Kathy walked forward to shake his hand. “I really don’t understand what all of you do every weekend but I’m willing to give it a try.” Looking around Philip’s home, giving the place a once over, she turned back to her host. “You have a place I can freshen up a bit?”

Philip looked confused.

“She’s looking for the bathroom.” Sandy sighed.

Philip nodded. “Please use the guest bathroom upstairs. It’s on the right as soon as you get to the top of the stairs.” At least he remembered that. The downstairs bathroom became his domain when he moved into the basement. It was also a bathroom that Sandy refused to enter.

When Kathy disappeared upstairs, Corey turned to his friends. “Sorry guys, normally she’s a sweetheart.”

“Don’t worry, I’m used to it.” Christian said somewhat fatalistically.

“But you shouldn’t have to be.” Sandy fumed.

“Hi guys.” Brett appeared; trying to change the mood, quickly re-introducing his brother to his friends.

Stephen gave one look at Christian and blushed. Leaning over he whispered to his brother. “You’re sure he’s not a girl?”

Brett nodded, although like the others he wasn’t sure when he first met him. Christian was an oddity. It wasn’t that he acted like a female, he also didn’t act like a stereotypical male. Didn’t matter really, he was a good friend.

“So what did the doctor say?” Brett asked then frowned, realizing the conversation wasn’t something that his brother needed to know.

Christian shrugged. “They still have no idea.”

Corey eyes opened wide. “You’re shitting me, really.”

Stephen was about to say something but Brett shook his head. “How about we talk about this later?”

Christian nodded, somewhat relieved. He really didn’t need the world to know that there was a real possibility that he was totally screwed up genetically speaking. Still, at only five foot three, he was often mistaken for a young teenage girl. For someone who just turned nineteen to not go through puberty, either as a girl or a boy was a real mystery. Since he was a child, he had lived an in-between life being neither totally girl nor boy. Genetically he was a boy for the most part, at least chromosomally, however there were other genetic markings that were confusing the hell out of the doctors.

The doctors had at one point thought about hormone therapy but had backed off recently after receiving the latest test results. If it did come to that, it wasn’t going to be testosterone that was for sure. Christian might look male between his legs but the organ between his ears said otherwise. It was slow, but he was moving in one particular direction. Especially in the last year, Christian had moved more towards the feminine. Only Sandy knew that he started to dress as a girl full time at home. Soon he would have to tell everyone, but he wasn’t overly concerned with his true friends reactions. What he was really looking forward to was Winter Break, where he would be taking Sandy on vacation to the Caribbean. However, it wasn’t Christian who would be travelling but Kristy.

“You OK?” Sandy leaned over and whispered in Christian’s ear.

“Yep.” Reaching over he gave his sometime girlfriend’s hand a squeeze. They were now more like sisters than lovers. Christian had dated a number of other girls, and he wouldn’t mind it doing it again but the thought of dating a boy excited him as well. At one time, the thought had terrified him but now it didn’t seem all that bad an idea.

“I don’t know why we don’t play at your home, Christian; you have tons more room.” Brett began to pick up his book bag filled with the core set of rules, along with dice, pens, and his character sheets. “I mean it’s your house right, not your grandfather’s.”

Christian nodded; he had inherited the house along with his parent’s considerable wealth when he came of age. They had died in a plane crash when he was a baby so the only family he had ever known was his grandfather. He waited for about three seconds before answering, waiting for the one person he knew would complain.

“What’s wrong with my parent’s house?” Philip asked, it almost coming out as a whine.

Sandy grinned and patted his hand. “Nothing's wrong sweetie, ignore them. Your house has always been a home away from home.” Reaching for Christian’s hand, she led him downstairs into the room they affectingly called the Dungeon.

With the tensions somewhat lessened, the entire group sat around the large poker table. Not that he had ever played poker on it. In fact, with Corey and Brett’s help, he had converted it into a first class gaming table. There were plenty of cup holders, so no chance of drinks messing up the map or miniatures. The cabinet of miniatures that stood against the wall was all thanks to Christian. He didn’t make the cabinet, but actually had hand painted the hundred or so small plastic and lead figures that would adorn the board during their adventures. The gaming room was Philip’s pride and joy.

Reaching into his backpack, Christian pulled out six small and one larger box. “These are all for you.” To each of the players, he gave them a small box while the large one went to Philip. Opening them, revealed beautifully painted miniatures of the characters they were all going to play tonight. “Wow Christian, you outdid yourself this time.” Cory said, admiring the white robed healer. With inks and washes expertly applied, it made the figure appear to be almost lifelike. Even Kathy grudgingly admitted that they were beautiful. Her character was that of a tall brutish male, wielding a particularly menacing two-handed ax. Corey was surprised when she suggested that she play a male character, reasoning that if he was female then a little gender role reversal could be fun.

“You should see his paintings.” Sandy said while admiring her Sylph, Archon’s version of an Elf. “A number of national gaming magazines have used his work.”

Even Kathy was impressed with that bit of news.

“Look, my guy even has writings on his scroll.” Stephen pointed excitedly to the scroll that was in the hands of his character.

As Brett admired his Knight figure, he turned to Philip. “So what’s in your box?”

Philip gave a half smile and then whooped with joy. “Christian, you’re amazing.”

“What’s in it?” Kathy asked as she leaned over for a better look. “Oh it’s a Dragon.”

“Not just any dragon.” Reaching into the box, Philip placed the beautifully painted shadowy colored dragon on the table.

Corey and Brett moaned at the same time. Sandy gave Christian the eye. “You had to buy it for him.” The group had a rule, if there wasn’t a figure for it, it wouldn’t appear in the adventure. For the longest time Philip had been waiting for this miniature’s release.

“What is it?” Stephen asked, wondering why everyone was making faces.

“A Shadow Dragon.” Christian smiled. He had absolutely loved putting the large plastic miniature together and over the last month had painted it to the highest detail.

“Are they tough?”

“Yes.” Half the room replied. Christian only smiled as Philip hovered over the piece as if he was a new father.

“You have an unexpected talent there Christian, a real gift.” Kathy said admiring the piece. “It’s truly beautiful.” They looked at one another for a second and he realized that she was offering an olive branch. He thanked her for the compliment. He hoped that they would all move forward.

“We’re not going to see one of those tonight?” Stephen asked nervously, looking down at his small character and then comparing it to the huge Dragon figure.

Brett slapped his brother on the back. “No, this is a little gift for our other party.”

Reluctantly Philip lovingly placed the Dragon back into the box. With a look over his shoulder, he knew that it wouldn’t fit in the glass cabinet. “I’m going to put this in my room. I’ll be back in a second.”

With Philip out of earshot, Corey turned to his friend. “Dude, you suck. What made you paint that horrible thing?”

Sandy giggled.

Brett smiled. “Just because it eats magic for breakfast makes it a tad bit difficult opponent to face, eh Archmage.”

The ex-linemen just scowled earning a smile from Kathy.

“Hey, look there are even words on the scroll.” Stephen examined his figure further. “Arunal magtha ispin ul.”

“What does that mean?” Brett asked.

Christian laughed. “Nothing, I just made up words and put them on the scroll. I short of cheated, it’s actually a really small decal I printed out on my computer.”

“Iral magar li bin onus.”

Corey frowned. “Ok, enough of the gibberish, who wants some cheese crisps?”

“Oskur zimba ia jazio” Stephen continued to speak, almost chanting.

Most of the others were becoming annoyed.

“Hajan vanar reli jo.”

“Ok, enough fun, save it for the game.” Brett reached over to take a miniature out of his brother’s hand. It was great that he was getting into the spirit of the game but this was a bit much.

“Kilba backu manu RA!” Before Brett could grab the figure, Stephen shouted the last word.

For everyone sitting at the gaming table, the world suddenly went black.

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

Chapter 2

Plunged into darkness, Christian felt greatly out of sorts when suddenly the warmth of the sun played across his face and arms. It was a gentle touch, quite unexpected as moments before he been sitting in the basement of Philip’s parent’s home. However, a blood curdling scream shattered those pleasant but somewhat muddled thoughts.

“Oh my God! What happened to me?” An obviously female voice screamed once more, followed by loud sobbing.

In his wildest imagination what Christian expected to see next was not what was presented before him. Sitting up, he found his friends, or what he assumed were his friends scattered about a stone floor. One part of him acknowledged that they were the same people who moments before had been sitting with him at the gaming table; another part was in total disbelief.

Looking a few years older than his normal sixteen years, Stephen lay on the ground next to him. Wearing the black and silver robes of an Imperial Incantist, the High School student looked up at his brother in disbelief.

Brett knelt down next to his brother, his face full of worry. Encased in partial Dragoon plate armor, the pre-law student bore a strong resemblance to an English Civil War officer of cavalry. Like his brother, he too looked older by at least a decade. Christian’s friend had obviously taken an age disadvantage allowing him to obtain better starting equipment. Although both Brett and his brother appeared to be older, they looked essentially the same, unlike the remaining party members.

Kathy, or what Christian assumed to be Kathy, lay spread eagle on the floor across from Christian. However, the stylish young woman who had accosted him in Phillip’s garage was gone, replaced by a giant of a man. All about the warrior lay the instruments of his trade, small throwing axes and a couple of javelins; but it was a massive battle-ax that stood out. Dressed in the double mail hauberk of a northern ice barbarian, the former woman now sported a face full of whiskers. The new Huscarl did not stir and from the sound of the loud snoring was obviously fast asleep.

Like his girlfriend, Corey too went through a radical change, his gender now matching his Archon character sheet. Unlike her normal six foot three self, the new Corey could easily be mistaken for her younger sister’s twin. With her dirty blond hair cropped short, the new priestess was dressed in the white and gold trimmed robes of a maiden of Sylia. Although she might look it, the priestess was not totally helpless, being well armed and armored. Like most of her adventuring sisters, she wore a reinforced leather cuirasse and wielded a small deadly looking spear. Realizing that it was Corey who was sobbing, Christian sprung to his feet.

Pointing to the sleeping Huscarl , Christian stepped towards the sobbing priestess. “Sandy, can you check on Kathy while I see to Corey?” Christian found Sandy’s new appearance not surprising in the least. Although she still looked like his longtime friend, with small pointy ears and almond shaped eyes, she was obviously no longer human. Eyes full of panic, Sandy grabbed Christian’s command like it was a lifeline.

Relief filled Christian’s face as Sandy moved to Kathy’s side. Now much less worried about the young Sylph, Christian knelt down right in front the sobbing priestess. “Corey?”

“What’s happening to me?” Corey continued to rock back and forth sobbing. As it didn’t appear she was going to stop crying, Christian did something that in a million years would never thought about doing. Reaching over, he wrapped his arms around his friend and held her close. Immediately, Corey began to struggle then settled down realizing who was holding her.

“Christian?”

“That’s me.”

“What just happened to us?”

“No clue?”

“Really?” Corey body shuddered. “Crap. It’s like a story out of one of our gaming magazines."

Christian gave a small laugh, then said the first thing that came to his mind. It might not have been the most appropriate question but Christian couldn’t help but blurt it out. “What’s it like?”

The priestess sat back; looking up; she wiped her eyes with her sleeves. “What do you mean what’s it like?”

Christian flushed with embarrassment; obviously this was not the time to ask. “Sorry, nothing.”

Frowning, Corey shook her head. “You know you’re an idiot.”

“What?”

Reaching over to poke Christian in the left obviously very female breast, the priestess of Sylia gave a small smile. “You’re a girl too.”

Brett paced back and forth in front of his gaming group. Thankfully, for the most part they had settled down but for some unknown reason were now looking to him for leadership. Why they did, he had no clue. Sure, at the gaming table he made decisions but that was in the safety of Philip’s parent’s basement. Any decisions today were more than likely going to impact their actual survival. If they worked together, hopefully they would make it out alive but even that seemed unlikely.

“So you’re telling me this isn’t some weird virtual reality game? This shit is for real?”

Brett cringed as she continued. The loudest member of the part was obviously Kathy, whose appearance and mannerism no longer matched the name. Already in a terrible mood because of the gender change, the Huscarl was totally crushed when Corey screamed as he tried to comfort her. The pain and anger were still obviously written across his face. Who knew the ramifications of having a fury based warrior in the party. At the gaming table it didn’t seem to matter. Hopefully, Kathy would be able to hold his anger in check and turn it towards something more constructive.

With an androphobic priestess and a barbarian with anger issues in the party, Brett decided he really didn’t want the responsibility of leadership. “Kathy…”

“Call me Eric; I sure as hell don’t look like a Kathy anymore. I named the character after my cousin who also has a temper so it’s as good a name as any. ” The warrior gave a humorless smile.

“Ok, Eric.”

The Huscarl nodded. “OK, for now let’s skip how this happened. Why here? Why didn’t we appear in a city or town? Why are we in the middle of freaking nowhere?”

For some unknown reason, instead of being gated to one of the Imperium’s major cities, the party found themselves sitting in the crumbling ruins of a forgotten temple on a windswept hill. Ruins like these were common beyond the borders of the Empire, the remains of an ancient civilization that flourished long ago.

Brett noticed that while Eric talked, he did not take his eyes off of Christian. From the way the Huscarl was staring, there was little doubt in the large warrior’s mind where the fault of their current situation lay. On the other hand, his brother was staring at Christian for a totally different reason. Somehow upon being turned into a girl, his longtime friend was now even more beautiful. With long silver hair, standing taller than most of the men, she definitely had a regal air about her.

“We know as much as you do.” Sandy sighed. “Unless someone found a map in their backpack, we are as lost as you are.”

“OK, then explain why this happened.”

“As we have already said before...Eric, none of us here knows why this happened.” Christian shook her head in frustration.

“But you wrote the words on the scroll.” The mailed warrior said accusingly, not for the first time.

“Nothing more than made up words.”

“Then it’s his fault.” Leaping up from the ground, the mailed warrior strode forward, planning to grab Stephen by the scruff of his neck and shake the answers out of him.

Before he could come to his brother’s defense, to Brett’s amazement, Christian intervened. Jumping to her feet, she stepped right in front of the charging Huscarl . “Stephen did nothing, Eric, now please sit down.” Everyone was amazed including the almost raging warrior that the command actually worked.

Suddenly feeling very stupid, Eric turned to Stephen. “Sorry, you’re new to the game as well.”

“I don’t understand any of this either.” No longer facing an enraged warrior, relief filled the young man’s face.

With Christian standing in the center of the party, Brett realized he had seen her in a similar outfit before. With a heavy rapier at her side, dressed in black scale leather armor, she was the spitting image of a woman in a painting that stood in Christian’s study at home. Long before the current group formed, Christian and Phillip gamed with another group. Unfortunately for the party, one adventure turned rather ugly.

“Christian, why do you look like Lorelei?”

Deep inside the ruins of a forgotten temple, the group had fought through numerous difficult encounters. After a magical trap teleported the party, they found themselves lost, low on spells, out of healing supplies and dragging two dead party members around. Making another wrong turn, the party ran head long into the boss of the dungeon. The high level necromancer and his entourage of undead knights made quick work of the already tired party, resulting in a Total Party Wipeout. (TPW) Christian was the spitting image of the woman in the painting named “Lorelei’s Last Stand”.

It was Christians turn to look embarrassed. “Because, I’m her daughter...well my character is anyway.”

“That’s not fair.” Corey, who hadn’t spoken a single word all afternoon, whined.

The rest of the group, including Eric broke out in smiles.

“Why isn’t that fair?” Stephen asked.

“Because Christian’s new PC now has all of her old character’s belongings. Philip never allowed me to do that.”

Brett smiled. “Christian, how many pages of background did you write for this character?”

The silver haired beauty made a face. “I think it’s about ten thousand words, give or take. Also I didn’t exactly get all of her belongings, Corey, remember she died along with her party. Mostly I got her debt.”

“Debt? Now that doesn’t seem fair either.” Corey made a pouting face.

“With Imperial taxes pretty high, it’s an incentive to adventure, as I do own her estate and lands.”

Brett nodded; he remembered that Lorelei was a Baroness or some other type of nobility. As Philip, their Game Master was not about to drop high level items into a low level campaign, Christian would have made sure that there would be some advantages and probably not without some resources. “So you’re some type of noble?”

“Baroness Isabelle, illegitimate daughter of Baroness Lorelei of Northridge currently out of favor with the Court for speaking out against certain unpopular Imperial decrees.” Stephen spoke slowly, now giving Christian a totally different look. “Oh sorry, that was weird,” Stephen sat back, his eyes opened wide in surprise.

“Are you ok?”

Stephen looked up at his brother. “How did I know that?”

“You’re an Incantist, that’s how.” Sandy didn’t look particular happy.

Brett frowned. Her reaction to his brother was unfortunate. With Sandy dressed more like a pirate than a wood-elf, he acknowledged that it made sense, as unlike most fantasy worlds, Sylphs were ocean going people. In small fast war ships, the massive Royal Fleet of Queen Celebil appeared off Imperial shores two hundred years ago. After several long decades of vicious warfare, the Imperium reluctantly allowed the Sylph race to settle among several inhabited island chains. Even today, the Imperium and the Royal Sylph Court did not exactly get along.

Reaching for her friend’s hand, Sandy said. “Isabelle, I think that’s a beautiful name.”

Christian smiled. “I thought so, too.”

With the group breaking up a number of hours earlier with little accomplished, Sandy sat on a particularly large outcropping of rock overlooking the party. Convinced that their current situation was the Incantist’s fault, the Sylph absentmindedly fingered one of her throwing knives while looking down at the sleeping form of Stephen. Although she didn’t know why he would do such a thing and for what purpose, a part of her refused to trust him.

The Sylph perceived only one person trying to do something constructive. While the others lay on their bed rolls, Isabelle stood on the other side of the ruins facing a chain of snow covered mountains. Quickly crossing the ruins, Sandy could feel her cast another spell. Everyone was surprised when they discovered that Isabelle was a Pathfinder. What a strange class, a jack of all trades they took a little bit of every profession. It was considered the ultimate dungeoneer class; however it was difficult to play correctly. Putting her High Priestess aside, Isabelle said she wanted to try something different for the low level game as she had never played the class before. She also realized it was easier to call Christian by her character’s name. For some reason she found it difficult to call her Christian anymore.

Leaping from stone to stone, Sandy landed softy right behind her friend.

“Couldn’t sit still, huh?” Isabelle said without looking back.

Sandy grinned, not surprised that a Pathfinder was able to hear her soft footfalls. “Not really…too restless. So how are you?”

“I was going to ask you the same question.”

Sandy smiled. “You first.”

“Complete.” Turning around, Isabelle laughed, her face lighting up in a smile; then it turned sad. “I shouldn’t feel that way considering our current circumstances.”

“I know but I’m still happy for you.” Reaching up, Sandy hugged the silver haired beauty. She had to keep herself from giggling; in the other world she was a little taller.

“Still, I am worried about some of our companions, especially Kathy and Corey.”

Sandy nodded; Corey appeared to be having an especially hard time. It was difficult to tell with the Huscarl other than perhaps he was even angrier. “Hard enough for Corey being a girl, to add to the problem, she is also terrified of men.” Sandy shook her head, what a ridiculous disadvantage. “Won’t this be an issue if she needs to heal one of the men?”

Isabelle stepped back but still held the Sylphs hand. “I don’t know. We need to speak to Brett about our concerns as well.”

“Why bother he is only interested in Stephen.”

“Sandy, you know that’s not true.”

The Sylph corsair only shrugged. “So Baroness, did you find anything interesting?”

“This place is warded. That’s why we haven’t been interrupted by any wandering monsters.”

“Warded why?”

Isabelle smiled warmly, laying the other hand on one of the fallen stones. “I think it was a holy place. It still holds some power.”

“Is this really Mercia?” Sandy reached over to touch the same stone, feeling something deep within the rocks as well.

“Yes, I think it is but how I know this I’m not sure.” Isabelle wasn’t the only one with new knowledge running around inside her head. If asked Sandy could explain the difference between a brigantine and a barque, as well as where to look in a merchant ships hold for hidden treasure. She could also open any locked chest that might hold that treasure.

“Do you know where we are now?”

Not answering the question, the silver haired Baroness asked one instead. “What do you remember about your first adventure?”

Sandy smiled. “I remembered how excited you were that I agreed to play.”

“No, that’s not what I mean. What do you remember about the actual adventure?”

“Nothing really.” Stepping back, she looked towards the mountains. “What are you saying? You do know where we are don’t you?”

The Pathfinder nodded.

With a stick in hand, Isabelle drew a rough map of their location. “Ultimately, Pathfinder magic is about discovery. There is a reason why Incantists always have one by their side and why legions never leave the capitol without them.” The rest of the party stood quietly as she continued on with her explanation. “We are at the start of the Black Water Valley, which runs northeast to southwest along the Skollis Mountain range,”

“So how does that help us?” Eric grumbled.

“Well unless I am wrong, Isabelle was just about to explain that.” Brett, now Owein, commented as he knelt down drawing a line in the dirt. It was not lost on anyone that everyone was now calling each other by their character’s name. “You think that the tower might still be there?”

Isabelle smiled. “You remember the adventure?”

The Captain of Dragoons chuckled. “I never forget an adventure. However, how do you plan on activating the gate?”

“It should still be active; if not then that’s why we have an Incantist.”

Everyone looked at Sayer, once Stephen, who only shrugged. “How?”

“I’m hoping, Sayer, that once we get to the tower you will remember.” The Pathfinder said with a smile. Isabelle was somewhat sure that if pushed she might be able to figure it out, but the Incantist definitely needed to feel useful. She could tell he was having problems holding it together, even with his brother at his side.

Elisa bit her lip. Like the others, Corey felt compelled to use her character’s name. “We did this before right?”

Dacie once Sandy nodded. “The Archivist the party does a lot of dealings with, he gave us some sort of wand to active it last time right.” The ancient gates, are dangerous to use, but if the proper incantations are known could literally take you across the world.

“Correct, but now we have an Incantist, so he should be able to at least get us closer to a major city.” The consensus of the party was to speak to find and speak to an Arch-mage or a High Priestess about their predicament.

“Let's say against all hope we manage to find this gate, where will it take us?” Eric turned to Sayer who stepped back

”We should appear in the summoning room of one of the Incantist’s Black and Silver Chapter Houses.”

“Just great.” Dacie shook her head in disgust.

“Fine, so…Baroness if we are unable to find this tower of yours then what?” Eric scratched his beard. The thing was beginning to bother him. How in anyone’s imagination did one deal with the thing?

“We walk back to the Empire.”

Owein almost choked. “That’s a long way home, Isabelle.”

She nodded. “A hundred leagues at least.”

“How far is a league?” Sayer was afraid to ask.

“Three miles.” Elisa laughed.

Looking totally disgusted, Eric commented. “That’s one hell of a walk.”

“So what do we do now?” The Incantist looked around, worried. “It’s going to be dark soon.”

“You and Isabelle should strengthen the wards.” The Captain of Dragoons ordered, without looking up from the map.

“Why? Aren’t we already safe with the wards the Baroness spoke about?” Eric looked down towards the forest below.

Isabelle rolled her eyes; was there a reason Eric continued to insist on calling her by her character’s title?

“Because there are creatures that hunt in the night that we are ill equipped to handle.” The priestess of Sylia explained. “Isabelle, I will join you after I am done with my prayers. There is an ill wind blowing tonight.”

Players:
Christian/Isabelle Pathfinder
Brett/Owein Paragon
Sandy/Dacie Corsair ; Sylph
Kathy/Eric Huscarl
Stephen/Sayer Incantist
Corey/Elisa Priestess

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

Chapter 3

Players:
Christian (M) /Isabelle (F) Pathfinder
Brett (M) /Owein (M) Paragon
Sandy (F) /Dacie (F) Corsair ; Sylph
Kathy (F) /Eric (M) Huscarl
Stephen (M) /Sayer (M) Incantist
Corey (M) /Elisa (F) Priestess

As the sun began to slowly dip towards the horizon, the party finished a quick meal before putting out the cooking fire. There were a couple of complaints, but it was calmly pointed out that fires in the wilderness tended to attract too many unwanted visitors.

“You’re upset.” With her back to a broken pillar, Dacie nibbled on the remains of a piece of flat bread.

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are, Isabelle; you’re making that face again.” Elisa gave a half smile as she put needle and thread to a tunic larger than herself. Normally this wouldn’t be a skill that she would have chosen for her character but it was part of the whole priest package. Actually the young woman was amazed at her new skills. She wished that Corey was this productive, novice training if nothing else made Priestesses of Sylia well-rounded individuals.

“Elisa you don’t have to do that.” Eric said with humor in his voice. If Elisa’s mother could see her now, she would be surprised in more ways than one.

“I know but I want to.” The young priestess blushed as she deftly mended the hole under the right arm. Repairing the tunic was an easy way to cope with the changes in her life. The whole situation was more than a little embarrassing and rather terrifying. Her world view was totally different from when she was Corey, the huge defensive lineman. At this moment she felt more than a little vulnerable. Thankfully, with the other more personal changes, she could go to Dacie and as strange as it might seem, to Isabelle for advice on the whole girl thing. Goddesses help her; if the situation became permanent, the priestess didn’t know what she was going to do.

Isabelle looked up as the Huscarl finally went back to mending his armor. The two lovers sat across from one another, close but not together. No matter how much she found Kathy irritating, the situation between the Huscarl and the priestess was just too difficult to watch. Elisa was obviously in pain over the situation, which caused Eric to try and comfort him. That in turn, made her cringe in fear, causing the Huscarl pain. It was a vicious cycle.

“You didn’t answer my question.” The Sylph threw a piece of flat bread at her friend.

The Baroness shrugged. “It’s nothing, just a slight disagreement about tomorrow.”

“OH?”

“I offered my services to the Captain to scout ahead of the party. I’m not a Forester but I do have similar skills. Anyway, he disagreed. He is in the opinion that we should all stick together.”

“Why do you keep calling Owein a Captain?” Eric asked.

“Because he is one, notice the red sash around his breastplate?” Dacie pointed the party leader, who along with his brother stood on the other side of the ruins. “He is a Captain of Dragoons, right? The badge on his shoulder, I think is from one of the Imperial Cavalry regiments or something like that. Anyway, you should be able to scout ahead, Isabelle, it’s how we usually do things.” What was surprising, Owein’s high level character was a Forester so why wasn’t he allowing Isabelle to try and fill that same role.

“I agree.” Pulling the tunic towards her face, the priestess broke the thread with her teeth.

“Thanks.” The Huscarl smiled as he reached over for the repaired tunic. “Actually Baroness, that’s not a bad idea but it would please me more if you remained in sight.”

“Eric?”

“No...No it’s nothing like that.” The Huscarl put his hands out trying to explain.

“Then why?” The priestess made an unhappy face.

“I don’t know.”

Isabelle gave the priestess of Sylia a look. “Don’t tell me you actually might have written some background history for your characters? Is there something you know that we don’t?” That would have been a surprise, Corey rarely got around to write sufficient history.

“Well no.” Elisa look confused for a moment. “We did discuss how the Red Huscarls were similar to the Varangian Guard back home. You know the Vikings who protected the Eastern Roman Emperor. I wonder if this is why you keep calling her Baroness and not Isabelle.” The young priestess gave the Huscarl the eye.

Eric looked down, embarrassed.

Before anyone could say anything else, angry shouts could be heard from the other side of the ruins. “You’re married?”

“Well it appears, my dear Isabelle, that you’re not the only one upset at our good Captain. “The Sylph giggled. “I’m disappointed I didn’t get an invitation.”

The silver haired Baroness let out a long sigh. “You’re having a good time aren’t you?”

Dacie nodded, tears beginning to form in her eyes, “Oh yes, a very good time.”

“And you have children, too?” Another scream echoed throughout the ruins.

Covering her eyes, as the Sylph fell on her side laughing hysterically, Isabelle noted, not for the first time, that she didn’t envy Owein’s role as party leader at all.

Ever since the first time Christian gamed with Phillip, when the party camped at night they would set up a watch. No one saw the need to change it. Owein quickly paired everyone off breaking the night into three different watches. The middle watch as usual fell to a Sylph whose night vision was superior to that of normal humans. Knowing that his brother was still a little angry with him, the Captain of Dragoons assigned him to the middle watch along with Dacie. Logistically it sounded like a good plan, personality wise probably not.

“I wonder how cold it gets around here.” Sayer pulled his cloak tighter around his body. The Incantist was impressed that the smaller Sylph didn’t seem particularly bothered by the wind. “So are you and my brother in any of the same classes?”

Dacie who had been trying to ignore the Incantist moved a little further away. “Sayer, pay attention to the forest, we can take a little trip down memory lane another time.”

Sayer frowned, why she was being so unfriendly. According to Owein, she was one of the nicest people he knew. “Did I do something wrong?”

“You tell me.”

“What does that mean?” The two stared at one another for a couple of seconds, then the Incantist’s eyes opened in shock. “You’re blaming me for us being here, aren’t you?”

“If the shoe fits.” The Sylph laughed.

“All I did was read the scroll.”

“And now we are here.” Dacie pointed out the obvious.

Resting his hand on his small sword, Sayer’s demeanor changed. “You Sylphs think you know everything. The Baroness of Northridge is much more of a suspect than a true servant of the Empire. How much can you trust a noble who would willingly associate herself with a known pirate?”

“I’m not a pirate.”

“All Sylphs are pirates as far as the Emperor is concerned. Especially your Queen, she is the worst of them all.” The Incantist shouted.

Dacie response was to reach for her cutlass.

“Enough.” Isabelle stormed in between the two. Both were about to say something to the silver haired Baroness but the look in her eyes stopped them,

“You two are loud enough to wake the dead.” A sleepy Elisa grumbled as she joined the group.

Dacie jumped back, sufficiently chastised. That was not a comment you wanted to hear in this realm.

“Isabelle, you felt it as well.”

“I didn’t feel anything.” Sayer frowned.

“So the creature or whatever it is didn’t set off the Arcanum Wards.” Turning to study the forest in the moonlight, Isabelle half drew her tall white yew bow.

Dacie looked very guilty. “Isabelle, I’m sorry…”

The Baroness nodded. “We’ll talk about it later.”

The Sylph felt like a fool. This could have been very bad; something strong enough to pass over the wards without setting them off would be extremely powerful. Obviously, whatever divine alarms the two set were sufficient enough to warn them, however that didn’t change the fact that her argument with Sayer could have jeopardized the entire party’s safety. Looking towards the forest, unable to see anything, the Sylph wondered what was hiding down here.

“I hate the dark.” Raising her hands the priestess lifted her voice up in prayer. In a flash of warm bluish light, the entire hill glowed. ”Oh my, that was unexpected.”

Isabelle looked around. “Elisa, this isn’t totally you is, it?”

“No, it isn’t.”

“What’s going on?” Owein marched up to the group; in one hand was a cavalry sabre; in the other what appeared to be some sort of odd looking brass pistol.

“Who turned on the light?” Eric growled from behind the group.

“Look.” Dacie pointed down the hill towards a pack of large wolf like creatures. They had an unworldly look about them as they faded in and out of the shadows.

“They’re beautiful.” Elisa sighed.

“I thought that they were myths.” Owein lowered his weapons in awe.

“Celestial Hounds, no wonder we have felt so safe.” The Baroness smiled, at least a dozen of the large wolf like creatures played among the ruins. There were a number of confused looks in the party so she continued. “According to legends they protect the holy sites of the goddess that used to inhabit these lands.”

“So does this mean I can go back to bed?” Eric asked.

“Yes, nothing should bother us tonight.” Elisa smiled contentedly as she turned around. At the sight of Eric standing behind her with his battle-axe in hand, but nothing on his body the small priestess let out a very girly squeak. Covering her eyes with her hands she shouted. “Eric, go put some clothes on!”

“What, good idea. It’s getting a little cold.” Seemingly without a worry in the world, the Huscarl made his way back to his bedroll.

“Way too much excitement…good night all.” Owein took one last look at the hounds then went to find his own bed roll.

Dacie and Isabelle on the other hand found themselves staring at the retreating barbarian. From years of sword and ax work, muscles rippled all over his body giving him the appearance of an Olympic athlete.

“Yummy.” Dacie grinned and nudged her friend.

Isabelle could only nod. After coming to the realization earlier in the year that Christian was somewhat attracted to men, the Baroness couldn’t help but admire Eric’s well-built form. All sorts of unfamiliar feelings danced over her, none of them unpleasant.

“Stay away from him, he’s mine.” The priestess stepped in front of the two girls with her arms opened wide.

Dacie looked up at Isabelle, then back to the priestess. With a squeal, the corsair leaped forward and spun her friend around into a hug. “Oh my goddess, you’re so cute!”

“Dacie stop, I mean it.” Elisa struggled trying to get out of the hug.

“Stay away from him, he’s mine.” Isabelle commented with an amused smile on her lips.

Flushed with embarrassment, Elisa covered her face with her hands. “Shut up, Isabelle.”

“Sayer.” The Baroness looked over to the confused Incantist.

“Yes ma’am.”

“Go to sleep, I’ll stay up with Dacie until the next watch.”

The Incantist grimaced; there were tears forming in his eyes. “I want to go home.”

Letting out a sigh, Isabella reached over and wrapped the young man in a hug, “I know…Stephen, we’re working on it.”

At the first hint of dawn, the party broke camp. All of them knew the sooner the tower was discovered, the sooner they would find someone that could help them return home.

“How far?” Eric asked as Owen helped with his armor.

“Four days at the most, though we should be seeing more ruins before then.” The valley had at one time been a major population center for a forgotten civilization. “If I remember correctly there is some sort of road running half way through the valley.”

“It’s still around?” Sayer asked.

“The road was magically constructed, seems that for the most part it not been overgrown.”

“We’re going to change, so don’t come around the corner.” Dacie called out.

Owein waved his hand. “Fine…fine well stay on this side of the wall.”

“Can I watch?” The Huscarl shouted back.

“As if.” The Sylph stuck her tongue out and disappeared behind the ruins.

“Oh well.” Eric grinned to the other two guys.

Isabelle was the first to appear in her dark green leather scale, she wrapped an even darker green cloak around herself. The other two girls were soon to follow.

“You look nice, Elisa.” Eric called out.

The priestess nodded as she ran forward to stand by Isabella’s side.

Owein shook his head. “That must suck.”

“Yea…she’s so damn cute.” Eric tightened his vambraces. The whole gender thing was still way too weird even to contemplate. Thinking about it too much just made him angry. “When she was helping with breakfast this morning…” Luckily disaster had been adverted by a quick thinking Dacie. At least not all of breakfast was burnt. “You think they’re still mad at me.”

“Doubtful, they understand.”

“Anyway, so I heard you’re married. That must be rough.” Eric grinned, keeping a half eye on Sayer but to his disappointment the Incantist only frowned.

“Funny that you mention that, I know that rationally they exist only on paper, but another side of me misses them very much. I close my eyes and can even see my wife and two girls. I even have snippets of memories being with them.” The Captain of Dragoons tightened the red sash around his cuirass.

“Owein?”

The Captain smiled at his brother. “I know, they aren’t real but at least in this place they do exist. So let’s get the hell out of here so I can get back to them.”

The first part of the day hadn’t gone exactly as planned. Making their way out of the ruins into the forest had been easy enough, but not much further. Twice they had to back track due to the thick underbrush, some of it appeared to be moving by itself. By lunch time the party had sorted itself out following part of the river, although Isabelle objected.

“You are aware that fresh water attracts predators?” The Baroness looked down into the slow moving water. There were also a dozen types of creatures that if presented with a tasty snack would come out of the water. The only person who seemed to agree with her was Dacie but she didn’t voice her opinion too loudly.

“You must admit, we are moving a little faster than this morning.” Elisa kept a close eye on the river as well. The priestess was also quite aware of what could be hidden under the murky depths.

Owein’s first order of the day was to set a party order, positioning the two warriors to the front. Standing behind the Captain of Dragoons and the Huscarl, were Sayer and Dacie. Finally, bringing up the rear were Elisa and Isabelle.

“No doubt about that.” The Pathfinder agreed. Still it didn’t help with her mood. She didn’t think gaining a half of a day by following the river was a good tradeoff for the party’s safety. A half an hour later a large snake like shadow moved on the other side of the river. As it pointed its lizard like head out of a line of heavy underbrush, Isabelle decided she really hated when she was right.

“Is that?” Sayer stepped back almost running into Dacie.

“Wyrm!” Elisa shouted.

With sharp horns, razor sharp claws, and poisonous fangs, the creature burst out of the underbrush. The Wyrm’s snake like body, covered in green and brown scales kept it well hidden, seen only when moving out of ambush like it was now. A lesser, much smaller relative of the dragon, it thankfully was lacking wings and a breath weapon. However, even at its ten feet in length the Wyrm was fast and agile, charging towards the party with the grace of some monstrous cat.

As it leaped across the river, two arrows appeared on its flank as Isabelle reached for two more. Owein too, took action; raising his brass pistol he pulled the trigger. Instead of a gun shot, lightning like energy burst from the barrel. The first shot blew a bloody chunk out of the beast’s right hindquarters. The second faded right before it hit, as even the smallest of dragon like creatures have some magical protection. With the Arcane pistol in need of charging, the Captain of Dragoons drew his sword. Eric too, got into the fight early, throwing two javelins at the beast as soon as it landed. Both however bounced off the scaly hide. Several more of Isabelle’s arrows did not, finding small gaps between the heavy scales.

The Forest Wyrm turned its head as it landed; its eyes looking straight towards the party, freezing half of them in their tracks. Elisa knew that such a beast gave off a magical aura, which caused fear and terror in all sentient beings. The priestess however was ready for it and began to pray, asking her goddess for a shield from fear. One moment, the terror gripped the party’s hearts, the next it was gone.

To its surprise the small creatures in front of it did not freeze like most prey but charged forward. Already wounded the creature was beginning to get angry. Moving its head down to snap at the closest creature, it reared its head back in pain as a sword slammed into its snout. Then from the black robed one a burst of flame appeared only to explode, covering its body in flames. The Wyrm decided that the ones giving it such pain were going to have to die.

“Yes, we’re all very proud of you, Sayer, for casting the spell but move the hell out of the way before it eats you.” Pushing the Incantist out of the path of snake like fangs, the corsair slammed two of her daggers into the neck of the Wyrm. The beast however made a mistake, reacting to the pain of the Fire Burst spell. Now inside its reach both Eric and Owein readied their weapons. Screaming at the top of his lungs, the Huscarl slammed his ax down burying it deep into the neck of the Wyrm. Eric pulled his weapon back again. Owein too slashed at the beast’s necks, which now moving like a mane, turned in on itself. A fraction of a second later the Huscarl came face to face with an entire mouth full of poisonous fangs.

Eric thought he could hear voices but he really didn’t want to get up. He was nice and warm in the darkness but that didn’t last very long. Pain as sharp as he had ever felt began to wrack his entire body. Opening his eyes, it faded away as quickly as it appeared.

“Eric.” A soft body collided with his chest, and then it began to sob.

“Elisa?” Sitting up he found the priestess wrapped around his chest crying. Reaching around, he began to comfort here. “Shhh it will be ok.”

“Now it will be you idiot.” She said without much heat. “You almost died on me.”

“What?”

Looking around, the Housecarl found the remains of the beast sitting a few yards away. Besides the dozen of arrows protruding from beast, between the horns on top of the Wyrm’s head Eric found his ax. “I don’t remember doing that.”

Isabelle knelt by his side with a smile on her face. “Well you sort of went berserk on us, it was actually rather impressive.”

“OK, what else happened?” Eric noticed that Elisa hadn’t moved from his lap.

“You were poisoned. From what it looked like to us, you gave each other a death stroke.”

“Don’t do that again.” The priestess, obviously no longer afraid of touching or being touched by him, pushed herself further into his chest.

“Sorry.” Eric laid his cheek on Elisa’s head.

Isabelle excused herself, allowing the two of them some privacy. Thankfully none of the others were seriously hurt, but it was a near run thing. The Housecarl going berserk when he did most definitely tipped the balance in the party’s favor.

“So you think it has a treasure horde someplace?” Exhausted, Sayer sat down near the head of the Wyrm.

“Not likely.” Dacie walked around to the creature’s side, retrieving a couple of daggers. “However we can get some solid coin off the claws and horns.”

“How’s Eric?” The Captain of Dragoons looked over Isabelle’s shoulder. Discovering that the Housecarl and the priestess were reintroducing themselves with each other his face broke out in a wide grin.

“We probably shouldn’t stick around too long?” Isabelle pointed towards the ten foot long carcass.

“What?” Owein turned around and nodded. “You’re right, this place will be crawling with scavengers soon. We should get back in party order and continue to head down river as soon as possible. Good job, Baroness.” The Captain smiled then went off to talk to his brother.

“Good job, he says.” The silver haired Baroness frowned at the retreating Captain’s back. “Stupid stubborn man.”

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

Chapter 4

Players:
Christian (M) /Isabelle (F) Pathfinder
Brett (M) /Owein (M) Paragon
Sandy (F) /Dacie (F) Corsair ; Sylph
Kathy (F) /Eric (M) Huscarl
Stephen (M) /Sayer (M) Incantist
Corey (M) /Elisa (F) Priestess

Isabelle took a step forward, blocking an overhand strike by slashing downward with her sword. The shadowy creature retreated slightly as the minor enchantment on her blade disrupted its hold on this plane. Although she wasn’t really hurting the creatures, it was at least for the time being keeping them at bay. The others weren’t doing as well, with Ilithar, the goddess of death aura dominating the crypt; Elisa couldn’t directly touch her own source of power. The small light she had created before entering the ruins wasn’t going to last much longer; when it vanished they were all going to be in serious trouble.

The buzz and loud pop of Owein’s arcane pistol went off again, its magical energy punching a hole through several of Ilithar’s minions. The shadows however kept pushing forward. Sayer let loose with another ray of light, burning another shadow, but they were too strong resisting most of the damage. Isabelle could tell by the Incantist pale face that he too was reaching his limit.

The silver haired Baroness shifted her feet backwards, trying to keep the shadows from breaking through. The rest of the party could only watch in frustration. Neither Dacie nor Eric had the ability to harm these creatures. If Isabelle hadn’t been a Pathfinder, being able to enchant her blade, then there would have been very little chance the party would have even reached the stairs to make their way out of the crypt.

Passing through a larger room, Owein wailed while willing his pistol to charge faster.

Isabelle ducked another razor sharp claw, forcing the creature back with a thrust towards its midsection; she had been clipped a couple of times, the claws cutting through her armor like it was butter. Their touch was slowly sapping her strength. Incredibly, the Captain of Dragoons hadn’t retreated with her. Reaching forward, the silver haired Baroness grabbed the back of his shirt with her right hand. “What in the hell are you doing?” She could see that the creatures were already spreading out; if the party didn’t move quickly they were going to be overwhelmed.

“It’s all Phillip’s fault.”

“Phillip?”

“He shouldn’t have written such a difficult dungeon for our level.”

“What?” Isabelle looked Owein; her longtime friend had a wild look in eyes, a look of complete and utter despair. Suddenly the Captain of Dragoons screamed as a shadowy claw punched through his cuirass.

“Brett!”

It was then when Ilithar children began to come through the walls.

48 Hours Earlier:

Isabelle sat on a high outcropping of rock overlooking a branch of the larger Black River. Down the slight incline behind her above the river, the party made camp, still too close to the swirling waters for her comfort. Day one on the march could have been a lot worse she mused, how she wasn’t exactly sure other than for one of them getting killed. The Wyrm had been the first of four different what would be called encounters the party ran across on their way up the river.

Isabelle knew that given the chance, the group could have easily evaded three of the four if she had been scouting ahead. What was worse, the growth around the river made it difficult to travel unless they actually traveled on its bank which also made it easier for creatures lurking underwater to attack them. Travelling through the center of the valley, the Pathfinder was positive the underbrush and trees would thin out, especially near the road. Now she wasn’t a Forester, far from it, however why not use her skills to get around most of the trouble.

Owein’s need to control everything was getting out of hand. He could be such a micro-manager, especially around the gaming table. Perhaps since coming to Mercia, it was more about the Baroness and the Captain’s personalities at odds. She didn’t know.

Frustrated, the silver haired Baroness pulled out her quiver and began to sort through the arrows. In the last four encounters she had shot nineteen arrows. Thankfully of the nineteen, nine were salvageable to be used again. However, at this rate her quiver would be empty long before the party ever reached the tower. At the gaming table, wear and tear of the party’s equipment tended to be overlooked, simplified or abstracted. Most MMORPG had some system where the player would have to get their character’s items repaired, but not so much with table top gaming, too much to keep track of, really. Even ammunition for the various party weapons hadn’t been tracked too closely. However this reality was totally different, everyone in the group needed something repaired or was running out of something. Getting into a fight now just because they could was totally counterproductive. Beyond the little issue that there was a good chance that eventually someone was going to wind up dead.

Eric brush with death had made that apparent at least to her. The party had no means to bring someone back from the dead, those spells out of reach except for the highest level characters. If one of her friends died, they would stay dead. Did that mean if someone died in this realm they would also be dead back home? Would Philip walk in and find the mangled corpse of one of his friends in the basement? She was also concerned for her friend. Philip’s absence for the most part went unnoticed, everyone was too busy dealing with their own issues. Isabelle hoped that he was safe at home.

“A chalkon for your thoughts.”

“That’s an obscure piece of coinage.” Isabelle smiled at Dacie as she took a seat.

“I know, but you’re worth it.” The Sylph giggled.

“So how are you and Sayer?” She had seen the two of them talking earlier. Hopefully whatever went on with them last night was settled. The Baroness didn’t have much hope for the party’s survival if they continued to be at each other throats.

Dacie made a contrite face. “I’m sorry about last night.”

Isabella leaned over and gave her a hug. “What were you two fighting about anyway?”

“Nothing, everything…it was my fault for yelling at him over things about my character’s background…her problems with the Imperium. Those feelings felt so real Izzy, I can get lost in them.”

“Izzy?”

Dacie giggled and leaned back. “I think these feelings are touching all of us, Elisa is the prime example. You too, you’re more, I don’t know, together less unsure of yourself. No that’s not right; I don’t know you’re just different.”

The silver haired Baroness sat back and laughed. “I guess so but really I don’t feel any different. I’m just me. Still, I think you’re right. Look at us, you’re Dacie and I’m Isabelle.”

The Sylph nodded, it was difficult to call each other by their former names. They had all fallen in the habit of using the character’s name only hours after first appearing. “We need to get out of here…Christian, or I’m afraid I will lose myself.”

The others must feel it as well. It had only been one day and already they were falling into their character roles. What surprised Isabelle the most was the martial skills everyone now portrayed. Sure, back home, Christian wasn’t in too terrible shape however the intricate sword and bow work she performed during the encounters was beyond amazing. Magic too, was instinctual. Those that had the ability didn’t seem to have any trouble casting spells.

“Perhaps this whole working with the Imperium wasn’t a good idea.”

Dacie laughed. “Yea.” Wiping a tear from her face, the Sylph looked down at the others. “I thought that Eric and Elisa were good?” The pair sat off near the fire, once again repairing the damage to their clothing and armor.

Isabella shook her head. “No, well they were for a little while but it didn’t last. Still its better than before, look how close they are sitting next to one another.”

“You’re much nicer about it than I would be.”

“Why.” The silver haired Baroness looked at her friend. “Oh well, they have their own problems. No need to complicate it with issues brought over from the other side.”

The Sylph leaned over and kissed Isabelle on the cheek. “As I said, you’re much nicer than I would be; anyway how are they otherwise?”

Isabelle looked down at the pair. “Elisa is actually surprisingly good; when we first appeared I could tell that she was close to losing it but since the encounter with the Wyrm things have changed.” Yesterday the whole going to the bathroom in the woods was bad, when Elisa had to do it as a girl she had a small melt down. “She seems much more comfortable with herself. I’m rather surprised.”

The Sylph made a face. “Since her afternoon prayers, I saw it as well.” They both left unsaid that there was a good chance Elisa’s goddess had her hand in making their friend more comfortable with her new gender.

“Eric on the other hand, every so often there is this haunted look in his eyes. To make the whole situation even more difficult there’s this whole protective thing with me that he is working out, which seems to also be annoying Elisa as well.”

The Sylph nodded, the Huscarl had started to become rather protective of Isabelle. “The whole gender thing with Eric is Karmic debt.”

The silver haired Baroness smiled. “No, that’s far too cruel. “ Suddenly tears were falling down her face. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.” How could she accept the price of her happiness for someone else to feel the same pain she had experienced? No, she would never have wished for such a thing.

Eric sat on the ground, with half of his armor sitting on his lap. It took moments to discover in his mail a number of what Dacie joked as moth holes; unfortunately these moths had rather sharp teeth. Turning his head just a little, he watched as Elisa walked up the slope to join the other girls. How odd, two days ago the Huscarl was also one of the girls.

Now there were a few things Eric rather enjoyed about the gender change. The energy this new body had was amazing, the strength and stamina of long years of working with weapons made it more than fit. Even now, after getting into a few fights he wasn’t really fatigued. Going to the bathroom standing up, was on the plus side. The down side was that he was always angry. Over all, the whole male thing was different, but enough already. The one or two perks did not outweigh how wrong his body felt. Eric really wanted to go home spend a day at Kathy’s favorite spa, grab her boyfriend, lock themselves in a hotel room and not come out for a week.

“Do you mind if you take the first watch with the Baroness?”

Eric looked up as Owein approached. “Not at all.”

“So how do you think today went?”

“Good, I guess other than the almost getting killed thing.” The Huscarl laughed. “I’m not really the person to ask though. Her Excellency said that normally your group tends not to go out of their way to fight monsters.”

The Captain of Dragoons shrugged. “Depended on the adventure.”

“I see, well then as much as I want to keep an eye on her...” The Huscarl looked troubled at that thought. “Perhaps we should allow the Baroness to scout ahead.”

“I’ll think about it. We are moving a lot faster than if we walked through the forest.”

Eric frowned he wasn’t too sure about that. “Be nice if we ran into fewer monsters.”

The Captain of Dragoons appeared surprised. “Really, I would think that you would enjoy fighting, being a warrior.”

“I’m not…” Eric started to say.

“Anyway, this is better. More of a chance for us to earn some really good experience points don’t you think.” Owein smiled. “Anyway, thanks for switching watches. I am going to talk to the girls.”

Eric just sat their dumbfounded, what in the world was he talking about?

At the end Owein made a slight concession, as the company found themselves heading towards the center of the valley. Pathfinder magic had determined that there was some sort of ruins off to the east. Where there were ruins, there was the road. The forest had thinned out a lot more once they moved away from the abundant source of water. Everyone was now carrying extra water bags, but worst case, Elisa would ask her goddess for assistance. At least with the priestess around, water wouldn’t be an issue.

“I wonder what they taste like.” Sayer commented as a herd of strange antelope creatures noisily passed to the south.

“Probably chicken.” Dacie grinned; she was trying hard to get along with the Incantist.

Sayer looked surprised for a second, and then grinned as well.

“How far until we reach the ruins, Baroness?” Owein asked.

Isabelle frowned, she did have a name. “Well before dark.”

The Captain of the Dragoons made a face, he was sure that whatever time they had gained moving along the river was already lost. The rest of the party didn’t seem to mind, they had not run into a single creature that was intent on having them for a meal. Isabella’s prediction came true, well before dark they came across a wide stone road. It was little higher than the ground itself, with soft slopes. Elisa said it reminded her of the Roman roads that she had seen while in Europe.

“So Baroness, where are these ruins your magic hinted at?”

Dacie rolled her eyes, what was his problem. “You probably can’t see them, but they are right down the road.”

Everyone looked in the general direction, however only a Sylph’s superior eyesight allowed her to see the ruins.

“I think we should stop for the night.” Elisa nodded towards the west; the sun was getting close to disappearing over the horizon. It wouldn’t be safe to continue on through the night.

“I agree, we also need to move off the road.” The Huscarl felt exposed.

“Fine then, I’m sure the Baroness can come up with some quick camouflage to hide our campsite. Be a shame if we actually ran into more monsters.” With that the Captain of Dragoons headed towards a group of trees across from the other side of the road.

“Sayer, what’s up with your brother?” The Sylph asked.

“No idea.”

With the help of the others, in no time at all, the Pathfinder set up a passable lean-to providing cover from the elements and hopefully creatures. She didn’t even need to lean on her Mercian skills, remembering how the host of some survival show set one up in the Alaskan wilderness. True, if she was a Forester, not some profession with a smattering of skills she would have set up an expert camp, and probably have a large two horned Antoc roasting over the fire. No one seemed to mind, other than Owein who was still being moody. She knew he was the type of guy who hated not getting his way all the time.

“Why must men be so difficult?”

“What?” Owein looked up from cleaning his weapons.

“OK, spill…Brett… what’s your problem?”

The Captain of Dragoons looked shocked at Isabella using his real name. “You’re being too timid as usual.”

“Nothing wrong with that.” Taking a seat next to Owein, she asked. “Why take the chance of someone getting hurt.”

“Our group needs more experience fighting together.”

“I don’t disagree, however we shouldn’t be picking fights in the middle of nowhere. Let’s get back to civilization, get some more information on where we are headed. Better supplies would help as well.”

“Perhaps, but you also tend to over plan.”

Isabelle threw up her hands. “Really?”

“Come one on, sometimes it’s better just to charge forward and bust some heads.” The Captain of Dragoons grinned.

“Sure, and how many characters has Elisa run through?” The silver haired Baroness laughed. Corey’s priestess was his fifth character since he had started gaming with Christian.

“Plus we need the treasure.”

“Oh, I see. You expect monsters out here to perhaps drop some coin or maybe a blue or green item?” One of the things that Isabelle always found odd was no matter what creature you killed in a MMORPG it always tended to have coin. She was never sure where those boars outside Orgamar in World of Warcraft kept those coins.

Owein laughed. “It’s not what you think; when we do get back to the Imperium do you think anyone is going to talk to us unless we have some serious coin? The people we need to approach don’t work cheaply, even being granted an audience will require us to give them ‘gifts’. No I believe those ruins off in the distance will be our best bet.”

“We still need to be careful who knows what’s out there.”

Owein chided his friend. “Don’t be such a worry wart, we’ll be just fine.”

The ruins, at least to Owein’s standpoint had been a complete bust. Obviously in its day, the stone structure had been some sort of military fortification. The elements and ravages of time had destroyed most of it leaving only a ruined skeleton of its formal glory.

“They sort of have a Grecian feel to them, don’t they?” Eric commented while poking at some rocks with his javelin.

“They do, reminds me a little of the ruins around Crete and some of the other Greek islands.” Dacie commented; Kneeling down she poured water on a dirt encrusted bit of stone. “The masonry work is impressive.” The Sylph began to clear the debris around what she thought was a particularly decorative piece.

“Enough sightseeing, time to go.” The Captain of Dragoons shouted as he began to walk out through a ruined archway.

Dacie leaned over and whispered to Isabelle. “What’s with grumpy?”

Hiding a smile with her hands, she said. “No treasure.”

“Give me a handful of good workers and I bet I can find some interesting artifacts at this site.” Dacie had spent the last three summers uncovering artifacts in Israel at various archeological sites with her grandfather.

“No digging.” Owein screamed.

“Spoil sport.” The Sylph screamed back.

The company had made good distance travelling on the road, eating up the miles with each step. As they drew closer to their destination, they came across more ruins; however like the first they were empty. Beyond the lack of treasure, the absence of any encounters started to grate on the nerves of their party leader. Isabelle didn’t have the heart to tell him that the residual magic on the roads made travelling fairly safe. In the morning the party should easily reach the outskirts of the city, and the tower should be in the center of the city.

“One last look.”

As one the group moaned, they were all a little tired of the march and finding nothing but broken rocks.

“Come on, I promise. This last one and if there’s nothing, tomorrow we will go straight for the tower.”

Elisa looked up towards the ruins; unlike most it was relatively intact. “I don’t know about this, Captain. See how most of the ruins are undamaged. There must be some outside influence at work.”

“Do you sense anything?” Isabelle whispered to her friend.

“No, but I still don’t like it.”

Slowly the group worked its way up the small hill admiring the stone work that had somehow survived the ravages of time. Finally reaching the top of the hill, a pair of large statues guarded a long stone stair case. Before they proceeded up the staircase, Elisa raised her voice in prayer covering the company in a soft white light.

Startled the Captain of Dragoons turned to the priestess. “You think that’s necessary. We do have torches you know.”

“It’s necessary.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Owein drew his sword. “Ok folks, let’s go.”

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

Chapter 5

Players:
Christian (M) /Isabelle (F) Pathfinder
Brett (M) /Owein (M) Paragon
Sandy (F) /Dacie (F) Corsair ; Sylph
Kathy (F) /Eric (M) Huscarl
Stephen (M) /Sayer (M) Incantist
Corey (M) /Elisa (F) Priestess

Isabelle ran her hands across the worn masonry. Admittedly, the mosaics were indeed very beautiful, portraying stories of the seven gods and goddess of the world, including the forgotten goddess. To think that all of this sprang from her imagination was difficult to believe. The world had such a reality to it; even after only a few days here, the thought of living in the other world now was becoming difficult to believe. Returning to that world seemed more like a dream than actual reality.

“It’s a crypt.” Elisa whispered; the priestess had not released her light. Torches, although helpful, would get in the way if they actually found a passage into the stone building.

“I know.” The Baroness watched the others out of the corner of her eyes. Except for the two of them, the rest were caught up in the idea of finding hordes of wealth within the ruins.

“That’s right, did you write about this place as well.”

“No, mostly just an overview of valley and the ruins themselves; the individual places we have been searching through are as much a mystery to me as they are to you. Something else filled in the gaps.”

“Philip?”

“I guess.” The Baroness smiled.

“I still cannot believe this is Mercia. If I hadn’t pinched myself a dozen times I would have thought that this was surely a dream, well closer to a nightmare for me.”

“You seem…” Isabelle began.

“Less crazed.” The priestess closed her eyes. “Trust me; I haven’t come to grips with what exactly is happening to me; far from it. However, there is warmth from the outside that is helping me keep it together. It feels, maternal really.”

“Good, I was worried.”

“It’s not all bad, if nothing else I think I understand you better. “

Isabelle reached over and held her friend’s hand for a moment.

“I am worried about…Kathy.”

The two turned to look at the Huscarl who was busy helping Sayer searching through a mound of rubble.

“She…he doesn’t want to talk about it.” The Priestess sighed. “Christian…I want to go home.”

“We will.”

“By the goddess, I hope so.” The small white robed young woman walked away, her hands moving along a wall. “I have no feel for Ilithar children.” Elisa frowned as she continued to touch the wall with her small fingers. “Nothing at all; true, I’m new at this, so I don’t really know what to expect; but if the goddess of death spawn resided in this tomb I should know, right? Even so, I don’t like this place.”

The party had been searching for a way into the crypt for some time already. The Baroness could see that they were close to giving up, hopefully they would forget that as a Pathfinder she had ways of discovering secret routes. Running her hands lightly along the same walls, she could feel the runes, markings that would allow the party to proceed deeper into the darkness.

Turning towards the party, Elisa shouted. “We need to leave; it’s getting late.”

The Baroness nodded, not that she had the same abilities but something deep inside said that the party should leave well enough alone.

“A little while longer.” Owein called out.

“Owein, I recall something about Pathfinders being able to find secret passages.” Dacie, who had been half way up a wall called out. “There is something here, I can feel it.”

The Sylph must be feeling the enchantment that would allow the party to proceed, the Baroness thought.

The Captain of Dragoons swung his head around. “That’s right.”

Reluctantly, there was no helping it apparently; Isabelle completed the simple enchantment revealing a staircase leading downwards.

“Isabelle.” The Sylph walked to the top of the stairs. “Why?”

“I don’t like this place.”

“Neither do I.” Elisa walked over to stand by her friend. “Eric, we don’t need to be here.”

The large Huscarl nodded. “Perhaps it’s for the best, Owein.”

“Please, when are we going to have another chance? Just a couple of rooms, then we leave. If we run into anything we cannot handle we run, right. Elisa, you haven’t felt any undead? None of the Ilithar children inhabit the ruins, right?”

“There are much worse things than animated corpses and shades.”

“Yes, I know, Baroness. However what I said before still stands. Once we get back to one of the big cities, we are going to need coin.”

“Sounds good to me.” The Incantist said with excitement in his voice.

The Sylph nodded, rubbing her hands together.

“Would be nice to find something.” Eric grinned. “I mean, Elisa all you talk about after one of your games is all of the treasure you’re found, sort of like hunting for buried treasure.”

“More like grave robbing.” Isabelle whispered.

“Excellent, so we will only search a few rooms, maybe a half a dozen or so. Same party order as before, Eric you lead. Trust me, your Excellency, we won’t go far.”

Descending into the tomb, the rest of the party began to babble with excitement about finding treasure, leaving the Baroness and Priestess standing alone at the top of the stair.

“I guess we should follow them.”

Isabelle nodded. “Like we have much of a choice.”

Below the surface the dwellers of the city had placed their dead deep inside carved out catacombs displayed in small vestibule that would lead off into larger rooms for prayer. The underground chambers were more than a small hole dug out of the ground; the walls were reinforced with cut stone, in certain chambers, expensive marble. Beautiful archways were adorned with plaster castings, of daily lives of those who lived in the city. Even the air seemed fresh; whatever magics kept the dust away from the floors as well.

For the people who lived here before, this was a place to come and speak with their ancestors. The bodies would lovingly be cleaned and placed in small alcoves for a time of mourning.Afterwards, the remains would be moved into another room so a new body could be arranged. After a period, the skeletons of the dead ended up decorating the walls, while their skulls were normally piled on top of one another, set into the walls like some macabre mosaic. They were considered the eternal guardians, protectors of the paths into the underworld.

Unfortunately for the party, the bodies were not buried with grave goods; however it wasn’t the bodies of the common folk for which they searched the ruins. No, the important families had their own areas where grave goods and items for the pleasure of the worshipers could be found. So far the party had acquired several small golden offering bowls, and a handful of small ruby like gems that had adorned some of the skulls. Not the best of starts, but not terrible either.

Elisa felt uncomfortable with the party’s actions. Back home, looting such a place like this would have been exciting, now it just felt wrong.

“How much time left on your blessing?” Isabelle asked the worried priestess.

“We should be good as long as we don’t spend a lot more time down here. You think they are happy with the bowls and gems?”

Isabelle grimaced. “No.”

Owein shouted to the party as they came across a sealed door. “Looks like we found what we came for.”

Eric looked over the door; the entrance had been covered with soft rock and plaster. It should be easy enough to break through with a little muscle, he mused. Without even asking the rest of the party, the Huscarl swung the reinforced butt of his ax shattering part of the mortar.

“Wait!” Elisa started to move forward. As the weapon struck, the priestess felt for a moment a darkness descend upon the place.

“Stop worrying so much, we are fine.” Owein laughed. He too joined the Huscarl and with one big push, topped the sealed entrance to the ground.

“That’s what I’m talking about!” Sayer pumped his fist into the air. “Look at that.”

Elisa light washed over the room revealing a chambered adorned with wall hangings, beautiful crafted golden chairs and marble tables. At the back of the room lay a small, family shrine and against the back wall three heavily adorned stone sarcophagi.

“Wait, please?” The Sylph raised her hand; the simple gesture brought everyone to a halt. With a light touch she slowly took a couple of steps into the room. “Can you see that, Sayer?”

The Incantist looked confused for a moment, then nodded. The Sylph obviously could see into the arcane, the force of magic that permeated the land. “It’s some sort of enchantment.”

“Can you remove it?” The Sylph touched the ground lightly with her left hand. “I don’t see any mundane traps.”

Perhaps, taking a few steps forward, the Incantist set about studying the enchantment and the proper way to remove it. “It doesn’t appear to be a trap, something else perhaps, seems tied to this room.”

“I don’t like it.” Isabelle walked forward, taking a good look into the room for the first time.

“There are other guardians, remember, family spirits, constructs or even an elemental.”

“That would be good news then.” The Office of Dragoons laughed.

“Why?” The Huscarl began to move some of the debris out of everyone’s path.

“Because they have something they want protected.”

Elisa looked up at the Baroness who only shrugged. “He isn’t wrong.”

The Sylph moved into the room, making sure not to step on those colored floor stones. “Stay away from those; be better if we didn’t summon whatever is guarding this room.”

Several more steps forward and the oil lamps that adorned the walls came to life. Laughing Owein moved into the room followed by Eric. “All excited about noting them, then a way to light the room.”

“Come on put your backs into it.” The Sylph giggled as the three men tried to force the lid from one of the sarcophaguses to the floor. To everyone the Corsair’s excitement at the prospects of opening the stone coffin was for purely personal gain. However, that would be wrong. She was a digger from way back, wandering ancient ruins with her grandfather since she was a child. Not for the first time did she wish that her grandfather and his entire team were available to search the runes.

A forgotten people, inside a forgotten tomb, the grave goods alone would tell a researcher what type of people lived in the city. She knew they cared for their dead; that was obvious. The family shrine also hinted at other interesting aspects of the lost society. Perhaps Isabelle would divulge some of the secrets inside her head. She kept claiming ignorance, but she could simply be not telling everything.

With a crack, whatever mortar holding the lid firmly in place cracked, and the three men easily moved it off to the side. “Step back please, let the professional through first.”

“You mean the thief.” Isabelle grinned.

“I resemble that remark. Still as you know I prefer expert treasure hunter instead.” Slipping her daggers into her hand, she approached there remains inside the coffin. If possible she would keep from disturbing the corpse. True, some of the most beautiful objects were often found wrapped up with the dead, but this needed to be quick. “Nice.”

The body, obviously female, was wrapped in a long linen gown. Some unknown magics kept it from totally decomposing, perhaps it was the sarcophagus. With one hand she reached inside and pulled out a small golden disk. “What’s this?”

“Holy symbol.” Isabelle said while walking forward. “We should leave that.”

“Why?” Owein said disgustedly. “It’s not like she is going to be using it. Take the death mask as well, anything on her hands.”

“No, doesn’t appear to be.” The golden death mask along with the other items was quickly placed in a sack.

“Too bad we don’t have time to search the body proper; though I guess we could just pull it out.”

“No.”

The Captain of Dragoons turned around. “No? What do you think….”

“You will respect the person who lies in that coffin, Owein. Taking the items she possesses is as far I will allow.”

Owein shook his head. “What in the hell is wrong with you? Around the gaming table, you would have already stripped it clean.”

Eric moved from the side. “Come on Owein, let her be. There are two more of these things we can search.”

It took very little time for the room to be looted, still under the watchful eye of the Priestess of Sylia. “I don’t approve of this, Owein, not in the least.”

“Then stay at home next time Elisa, I’m sure we could find a healer who was less inclined to complain.” With that he walked away.

“He didn’t mean that.” Sayer looked at his brother with concern. ”We do need the treasure, right?”

Dacie sighed. “Unfortunately, he is correct. Come on; let’s go before he gets into trouble.”
Passing a few more vestibules, the party came to a dead end. “I’m sorry if I seem greedy.” Owein began to explain. “I just want to make sure that when we get back to the city we are able to find someone to help us. The only way that is going to happen is if we have coin in out hand.”

“There must be other ways, Owein.” Elisa said.

“If there are, you tell me, I would be happy to listen.” The Officer of Dragoons pointed down the hallway. “However, you’re right, let this be the last room. We have been down here long enough. What we have found so far is a good start don’t you think? If we find something similar in the next chamber, then we will be ahead.”

“Last room?”

Owein nodded. “Last room.”

“Alright then, let’s get the party started.”

“You’re going to get us into trouble if you keep doing that.” Dacie ran forward. ”You’re going to walk right into a trap.”

“Did you feel something?” Elisa turned to the Baroness.

“Owein.”

Once again without waiting on the others the Huscarl walked down the hallway and slammed the butt of his ax into the wall. The wall simply vanished. Eric’s scream cut off Isabelle’s objections. A long shadowy claw stepped into the hallway to rake the Housecarl along the arm. Beyond the shadowy creature were the remains of a desecrated room with dozens of nightmarish shadows darting back and forth beyond the light.

“By the goddess, someone had sealed it.” The Priestess screamed as she moved forward to lay her hands on Eric.

From Sayers hand a burst of light exploded on the shadows chest before it could further advance into the hallway. It was soon followed by the bark of Owein’s pistols, the arcane bolts slamming into the chest of another shadow that appeared out of the room.

Isabelle, without a second thought, cast a minor enchantment on her blade. Unfortunately she was the only one with such ability and it was the least powerful of such spells, mostly used against simple spirits, not these types of shadows. “Retreat.”

Isabelle took a step forward, blocking an overhand strike by slashing downward with her sword. The shadowy creature retreated slightly as the minor enchantment on her blade disrupted its hold on this plane. Although she wasn’t really hurting the creatures, it was at least for the time being keeping them at bay. The others weren’t doing as well, with Ilithar, the goddess of death’s aura dominating the crypt; Elisa couldn’t directly touch her own source of power. The small light she had created before entering the ruins wasn’t going to last much longer; when it vanished they were all going to be in serious trouble.

The buzz and loud pop of Owein’s arcane pistol went off again, its magical energy punching a hole through several of Ilithar’s minions. The shadows however kept pushing forward. Sayer let loose with another ray of light, burning another shadow, but they were too strong, resisting most of the damage. Isabelle could tell by the Incantist’s pale face that he too was reaching his limit.

The silver haired Baroness shifted her feet backwards, trying to keep the shadows from breaking through. The rest of the party could only watch in frustration. Neither Dacie nor Eric had the ability to harm these creatures. If Isabelle hadn’t been a Pathfinder, being able to enchant her blade, then there would have been very little chance the party would have even reached the stairs to make their way out of the crypt.

Passing through a larger room, Owein wailed while willing his pistol to charge faster.

Isabelle ducked another razor sharp claw, forcing the creature back with a thrust towards its midsection; she had been clipped a couple of times, the claws cutting through her armor like it was butter. Their touch was slowly sapping her strength. Incredibly, the Captain of Dragoons hadn’t retreated with her. Reaching forward, the silver haired Baroness grabbed the back of his shirt with her right hand. “What in the hell are you doing?” She could see that the creatures were already spreading out; if the party didn’t move quickly they were going to be overwhelmed.

“It’s all Phillip’s fault.”

“Phillip?”

“He shouldn’t have written such a difficult dungeon for our level.”

“What?” Isabelle looked Owein; her longtime friend had a wild look in eyes, a look of complete and utter despair. Suddenly the Captain of Dragoons screamed as a shadowy claw punched through his cuirass.

“Brett!”

It was then when Ilithar children began to come through the walls.

Something inside the Baroness could take it no longer. Quickly, she began to call out commands. No one was going to die in this place. “Eric, grab Owein.” With a backhanded slash, the Baroness protected her stricken friend while Eric pulled him back out of the room. With another hand, she reached for the arcane pistol, firing it point blank range into the face of the nearest shadow. A second bolt followed, and for the first time one of the creatures vaporized from the arcane onslaught.

“Still too many, Dacie stand by Elisa, you cannot allow anything to get through you. If she falls we are done for. Sayer, return to the front and lead us out of this mess, you can do it right. Eric, just keep a hand on Owein, your weapons are no use here. I will hold the rear and everyone get closer together. Sylvia’s blessing still offers us some protection.”

The Incantist was on the verge of breaking but the cool commands from the Baroness filled him with purpose. With one last flash of fire, the young man cut a way through the advancing shadows. The others too felt as if there was a chance they would all survive the encounter.

The fight out of the crypt was a nightmare to everyone, Isabelle appeared to be at all places at once. After charging the pistols again, she passed them to Dacie who was able to keep the shadows from overrunning the priestess. When Sayer slipped, Isabelle was there to pick him up, while slashing several of the shadows. Two more of the creatures fell to the party’s fighting, but there didn’t appear to be an end in sight.

As soon as the group reached the top of the stairs, everything changed. Elisa, now able to touch her goddess raised her hands in prayer sending a beam of brilliant light down the stairs, scattering their pursuers. A second prayer later, Sylvia’s blessing was strengthened, its light now covering the party further as the group descended down another flight of stairs heading towards the safety of the road.

“We can’t stay here.” Isabelle told the exhausted party. No one complained.

Further down the road, with the crypt lost in the incoming darkness Owein called out. “Stop.”

Letting the Officer of the Dragoons gently to the ground, Eric looked towards Elisa who quickly reached the wounded man’s side. “Stay still, let me heal you.”

“You can’t.” Owein smiled sadly. “There is nothing you can do, their touch…maybe in another level or two.” He chuckled, and then began to cough spitting up blood.

“Brett.” Sayer cried in anguish as he grabbed his brother’s hand. “Don’t, don’t go. We are close to getting home. Please….”

“Sorry, little brother. Listen to Christian, she was right…damn her she was always right.” Brett arched his back, blood pouring out of the wounds as he began to thrash around. Suddenly the Captain of Dragoons stopped, something passing across the young man’s eyes. “I want to go home.” Tears rolled down his face, as the breath of life faded. “Mom…Oh it hurts….mom.”

Without another word, the young man named Brett left the world, far from home.

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth

Chapter 6

Players:
Christian (M) /Isabelle (F) Pathfinder
Brett (M) /Owein (M) Paragon (dead)
Sandy (F) /Dacie (F) Corsair ; Sylph
Kathy (F) /Eric (M) Huscarl
Stephen (M) /Sayer (M) Incantist
Corey (M) /Elisa (F) Priestess

With the sun rising over the horizon, Dacie opened her eyes surprised to find that Isabelle had not moved from her position all night. After that long and terrible retreat from the crypt, dragging Owein’s body along the way, the party had finally found a place to hide. The plan had been for Isabelle to take the first watch, and then wake the others, however the Pathfinder had other ideas. No one expected to really sleep, from the terror of almost dying to the loss of their good friend but everyone except for Isabelle apparently crashed hard.

“You should have let me take the last watch.” Rubbing her eyes, the Sylph walked over to her friend and circled her arms around her. They held each other for a few minutes before Isabelle spoke.

“No, everyone needed the rest.”

“And you didn’t?” Dacie raised an eyebrow.

“I’m good for now, I’ll close my eyes later. “

Knowing better than to argue, Dacie found a comfortable spot by her friend. “So, what are our plans now, oh glorious leader.” Trying to put some humor into the conversation failed miserably however Isabelle gave her a half smile for her effort.

“Leader, right well I guess we should vote who should be the party leader, first.”

“Isabelle.” The Sylph sighed. “You saved all of us, trust me, everyone has been looking to you since we got our asses handed to us in that crypt. I’m sorry Isabelle, I should have…It’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault, it’s no one’s fault. The fault lies in who transported us to Mercia. Our only fault as a group is not realizing that Owein did not take this experience as real. In his mind this was still a game, and he played at if it was such, not thinking of the consequences. Treasure and experience points sound fine on paper, but the reality is much different. In this world as in ours, dead is dead.”

Dacie made a face. “But our high level characters can restore life. Your other character, the priestess, has the power, correct?”

Isabelle shrugged. “You’re right Dacie, for the most powerful or those wealthy enough those prayers are available under certain conditions but as of right now, we are not even close to being that powerful.” Isabelle leaned over and whispered. “As it stands we don’t even know what dangers we may face inside the city. There is no Game Master to make sure that the dangers are equal to our level and there is no Game Master to help us if we get over our head.”

Dacie nodded, she knew that on occasion Philip fudged the roles if it appeared as if the party was going to have a really bad day. She never actually saw him do it rolling behind a cardboard GM screen most of the time, but it did make a certain kind of sense. Everyone getting killed, although it does happen, was not a lot of fun for anyone.

“It’s OK, Isabelle, you will get us home.”

“Why do you think that. Most likely I’m just going to do something stupid and get us all killed.”

Dacie reached over and held Isabelle close again. “No you won’t, I trust you. I know you will get all of us home safe.”

Later, no matter how hard Isabelle tried to make them change their minds, the others agreed that she should be the party leader. Not terribly happy about the whole thing but at least willing to give it a try, the Baroness started to pass out orders; the relief on the other’s faces was palpable.

Deciding to remain in place for the rest of the day to rest, the camp site first needed to be made secure. Everyone quickly began to work around the camp as if their life depended on it, happy to be given direction.

With their campsite hidden from plain view, a decision about Owein’s remains took place. Sayer, who spent the rest of the morning lost in his spell tomes, didn’t hear the conversation taking place.

“Do we bury Owein?” Elisa frowned. “Even the prayers to keep the body from decomposing are still out of my reach. Although it’s not terribly hot…” Wrapped in a number of cloaks, with his armor removed, the Captain of Dragoons lay in the shadow of a collapsed wall.

“We can’t just leave him, maybe we can find a high priest if we make it back to a larger city.”

Dacie made a face. “Problem is, Eric, the cost of bringing the dead back to life is horribly expensive. What’s worse, most prayers only work within a few days before the sprit crosses over into the realm of the dead. Even if we found a gate now, it might take weeks or even months for us to find someone.”

“What happens if it takes more than a few days?”

“Rise in price if nothing else however it also becomes harder to find someone with the ability.”

“Also just because a Priest or Priestess does have the power, even if there is plenty of coin on hand, doesn’t mean they will be willing. It might also require a service or quest on our part.” Elisa looked to the ground, hesitating before she continued. “Maybe, once we make it through the gate, we can bury him someplace safe.”

Eric frowned thinking how they were going to explain this all to Sayer. The boy already had it in his mind that the party was going to simply march into a town, and his brother would be brought back from the dead.

“Isabelle, I also don’t like that Owein was killed by one of Ilithar’s children. I hesitate to say this but you know that there’s a chance he will return in some other form.” As a long term player of the game, the priestess knew that the dead did not always remain dead. No one thought at the present time that it was a good idea to inform the Incantist that his brother might come back as a monster.

The Baroness rubbed her face with her hands. “I know, it makes me sick saying this, but I think we need to bury Owein as soon as we gate to the nearest town. Best would be in a blessed crypt. This way there should be no problems when we return to raise him. “No one argued with her about the chances of the party actually returning. “Elisa, will your prayers keep him in place?”

“I think so but I can’t really be sure.”

“What happens when we get home?”

Elisa looked at Eric lost in the question. “Oh, I see. I don’t know.”

“Do you think he is home now?” The Huscarl’s voice sounded a bit desperate.

Isabelle studied the Huscarl, trying to understand what he was asking. Did he really think if one of them died, they would suddenly appear back home or was it something else. “Who knows, it’s not like this has happened before. Perhaps we are all still sitting around the table right but do you really want to chance that?” Isabelle understood that Sayer wasn’t looking forward to explaining to his parents what happened to Brett. More than likely they would all be blamed for his disappearance.

“No but…” Eric dropped his head.

“I think we need to assume that this is real. If we die here, then we also die back home. Anything else will get us killed.”

Isabelle kicked herself, the conversation they were having should have taken place a few days ago. The last few days had been a blur as if everyone else had been running on autopilot. Did it really take the death of one of their friends to understand the seriousness of the situation? She was just as bad finally feeling normal, in a body that felt right, she forgot herself. Since they arrived a part of her understood what happened, she should have pressed this and not complacently followed Owein.

Eric reluctantly nodded.

Elisa reached over to touch him but brought her hand back quickly. “So what do we do now?”

“Find the tower.”

Dacie sighed. “Who is going to explain this all to Sayer?”

Isabelle grimaced, rising from the ground. She looked over at the Incantist who sat with his face in one of his books. “I’ll do it.”

With the promise to return, surprisingly the Incantist had taken the news of burying his brother fairly well. It should have calmed her fears; instead it made her more worried. Since Owein’s death, the Incantist had completely shut down. Once they were safe, it would be another thing they would need to deal with. Still they had a long way to go until they reached the safety of the tower, much less help Sayer or find someone powerful enough to bring life back to Owein.

Much later in the day, the Pathfinder’s sword slowly slide out of its sheath, Isabelle, moving silently as possible, continued to slide past the edge of a fallen wall. Crawling underneath, she found a better vantage point to study the creatures that blocked the road. Large man-like creatures, looking like a combination of a troll and a goblin, dressed mostly in thick hides, stripped the hide off a particular large lizard they just killed. She counted a dozen in the Urk hunter party though it didn’t mean a lot; Isabelle knew that hundreds more could be off in the distance.

The terrain in the upper party of the valley had helped hide their progress with its gentle hills, but now flattening out as they headed towards the center of the valley, was getting difficult not to be seen. Thankfully, there were still plenty of high grass and trees to keep them out of sight. If possible, the Pathfinder would try to find a better route around these creatures. Quickly returning to the party, Isabelle laid out her plan. Although the new path increased the distance travelled, it would keep them out of harm’s way.

“How many more Urks are we going to run into?” Elisa sighed.

“Baroness, why are there so many in the first place.”

Isabelle smiled the first in a while. “Remember those weird antelopes as you called them, Sayer, the Urks follow the herds. With the snows falling in the mountains to our north, those creatures move through the valley to the warmer lands to the south.”

Eric looked around. “Can you imagine living in this valley with hordes of Urks moving through every season?”

“So what now fearless leader?” Dacie asked.

“We go around them of course; if our luck holds we should be able to see the tower fairly soon.”

Nodding to themselves, happy not having to fight, the group understood under Owein’s leadership they would have fought each group of Urks as they came across them. Eventually the fighting would have brought down enough of the creatures that it would have cost all of them their lives. Dacie looked up at her friend impressed. They were all beginning to understand the decision to make Isabelle the new party leader was the correct one.

As the sun began to set, the party came across the first actual ruins of the city, and off in the distance stood a tall black tower surrounded by a grey wall. The ruins themselves, most thought would look like Pompey, with its obvious streets and buildings looked quite different. The elements had not been kind, since the city’s demise many hundreds of years ago. With most buildings collapsed, its appearance was more of a city of grass covered mounds not ruins. Some larger structures remained mere skeletons of their former glory but nature had taken a heavy toll. However the main thoroughfares through the city and some of the side streets remained free of weeds and grass. Obviously some residual magic kept them clear. The tower too, crafted of some unknown material, appeared untouched by age.

Isabelle almost collapsed at the sight of the tall black tower. All of their hopes lay in the fact of its existence. The view of the black spire immediately lifted everyone’s spirits. Isabelle decided they would move deeper into the city to spend the night, hopefully hidden from any prying eyes.

Since the incident in the tomb, the party had been able to move around dangers, their only objective to get out of the valley as soon as possible. Unfortunately, their luck did not hold. Due to lack of experience, or carelessness because their goal being so close or just plain old bad luck the party walked right by a large contingent of the savage looking Urks. Neither Isabelle, nor the Urks scouts came across one another. Only after the two groups passed, did Elisa look back surprised to find them so close. The Urks too were shocked but being Urks charged first.

The creatures should have run at first sight of the party. All the rage, the terror the grief of the last few days was poured into the attacking Urks. Half of them didn’t even reach the party, the rest were quickly dispatched by Eric and Isabelle.

Leaning down Isabelle wiped her blade off, amazed that everyone came out of the fight without a scratch. Retrieving her arrows, she noticed the others looked through the bodies for anything of value. Nothing was found of course, unless dried lizard meat was valuable.

“It’s not your fault.” Elisa interrupted her brooding.

Isabelle looked surprised; she didn’t realize that she was brooding. “I should have….”

“No, don’t start. You know as well as I, this will happen. Thank the goddess none of us were hurt and move on. We still have a long way to go before we reach the tower.”

The Baroness smiled at her friend. “You’re right.”

“Of course I’m right, I’m always right.” The priestess grinned for a moment then looked around sadly. “Such violence, it’s simple butchery you know that.”
Isabelle couldn’t help but agree.

With night now almost upon them, the group was now close enough to see the tall grey walls that surrounded the tower. According to Isabelle the Gate that would transport them out of the valley would be found towards the top of the tower. As not even Isabelle knew what dangers lay ahead, tackling the tower in the morning seemed prudent.

Elisa closed her eyes in prayer, feeling the loving touch of her goddess. While setting up camp for the night, the atmosphere was subdued. Thoughts of home drifted in everyone’s mind however passing through the gate was just one small step towards home.

Living as a woman even for this short time had been quite the experience. She understood that the ability to feel comfortable in this strange body was only because of her patron. The priestess wished that Eric could feel that warmth. She knew he was having a difficult time. It was bad enough switching genders but to be thrown into an unfamiliar place as well, it was pure luck the two of them had not been driven insane. Only Isabelle embraced the changed and that made her worry for her friend. How would she react to switching back to the male Christian? However it turned out, she would make sure that she was there for her.

“Sayer, how are you this evening.”

“Ok, I guess.” The Incantist looked up. “Do you really think that…?”

Elisa nodded; she knew what he was asking. “Trust me…Stephen; everyone here will try their best.”

Sayer turned. “Isabelle, she always keeps her promises doesn’t she?”

“Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know she just seems the type. She does though, right.”

The priestess nodded. “I have never known her to break a promise. Did she promise that we would be able to bring your brother back from the land of the dead?”

Sayer frowned for a second, the land of the dead sounded so alien but also very familiar. “No, it doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, well believe me, whatever she said that’s exactly what she will do.”

“We should have followed her instead of Owein.” Sayer dropped his voice barely above a whisper. He loved his brother but Brett never admitted to his own limitations. What happened in the crypt was typical of how things often worked out.

“What?”

“Nothing Elisa.” Reaching for his book, the Incantist was about to ask about what spells would work best indoors when Dacie let out a scream.

“Stay back.” She roared in terror. In the shadows, Owein walked into the moonlight. The body twisted, radiating evil, reached out for the Sylph. It was once thing to see such a creature in the movies, quite another to run into one in the flesh.

“Stop foul creature.” Elisa strode forward, her palm held up. “By Sylia golden light, return to the darkness from which you came.”

A beam of pure white light struck Owein in the chest. It did not just harm him but consumed the body whole. Bathed in white flame, the Captain of Dragoons turned to ash before the party’s eyes. The encounter was over in a second.

Elisa sobbed quietly in Dacie arms, as a very concerned Eric looked on. On the other side of the camp Isabelle spoke quietly with Sayer. The Huscarl knew that the boy and his girlfriend were on the very of having a serious breakdown.

“He wanted some time to himself but we all need to keep an eye on him.” Isabelle reluctantly returned to the group. “How are you…Corey?”

“It’s all my fault.” Elisa whispered.

Isabelle knelt down holding her friend’s hand. “No, it’s not.”

“I could have…”

“What? Chopped him to pieces while Sayer watched? As soon as he was embraced by Ilithar, Owein’s fate was sealed.” The Baroness said a little more forceful then she intended. She too blamed herself.

“When you come back from your games Elisa, you spend all your time explaining the wonders of the world. Is there no way to bring him back?”

Dacie stroked the priestess’ head. “Yes, but it’s no longer a matter of finding a priest or priestess, Eric. It would require a direct appeal to the gods themselves. Even at our highest level, we could never bring back anyone after they were embraced by the goddess of death.”

“What about mages?”

Elisa sniffed. “No, not even my Archmage has such power. Although there are tomes that say speak of those who lived in these lands held such power.”

“Is that true, Isabelle?”

“You’re asking me?” For a moment she looked confused forgetting that she indeed know more about this world than anyone else. “No, she’s right. At the height of their power the seven Archons who ruled these lands held such power. However, even the greatest of mages must have an intermediary to speak to the gods.”

“So we just need to find a god that’s willing to help us.” Eric shrugged.

Isabelle gave a small sad laugh. “We’ll work on that.”

The next morning, Isabelle made the party break camp as soon as the sun rose over the ruins. If they were going to make to the tower, she needed to make sure that they did not dwell on what happened the night before. While Dacie kept a close eye on Sayer, the Pathfinder took her place forward of the party.

With the tower in sight, the company moved quickly but cautiously, reaching the ruined wall that surrounded the Archon’s tower well before noon. Returning to the party after finding the entrance, Isabelle set out her plans. She and Eric would lead the party, while Elisa and Sayer in the second rank with Dacie a little bit forward ahead of the party.

“Why are you out to the front?”

The Sylph smiled, answering Eric’s question. “Traps, enchantments and other protections inside the tower, I will hopefully see first. Don’t worry; I’ll still be keeping close, as I have no desire to run into any dangers alone.”

Surprisingly, the courtyard surrounding the black marble like stone tower appeared as if the calamity that befell its owners did not happen. Cleared of all debris, the party easily crossed the courtyard heading towards a long white stairway that ended at a set of large bronze doors.

Dacie reached it first, kneeling down she realized that everything around the tower had a magical aura. It was going to be difficult, although not impossible to determine what magics were harmful and which ones were beneficial. Sayer’s ability to read the aura, although it required a spell, would prove invaluable. She half expected the stairs at least to be trapped magically. Unfortunately, the Sylph had no recollection of the adventure that took them to their tower originally.

“The stairs should be fine, Dacie, the doors about as well. However I would expect us to find some sort of guardians in a few of the rooms.”

Elisa looked surprised. “You actually remember the adventure Izzy?”

The Baroness raised an eyebrow at the name then smiled. “Mostly, as it was the first time my girlfriend played with us.”

Dacie turned away blushing. “Ok then, let’s find this magical gate of yours and get the hell out of this valley.”

The wide stairs were flanked by once beautiful stone statues, the veiled goddess who protected the land. Now little but her feet remained. The stairs, quickly taken, brought the party in front of a large set of bronze doors that were already opened. Once through Elisa prayed to her goddess, lighting up a large round room revealing an ancient bronze staircase leading upwards. Etched on the floor, a beautiful mosaic displayed the stars above. Although there were a number of doors exiting the room, they were ignored.

“How sturdy can a thousand year old staircase be?” Eric spied the stairs warily.

Dacie nodded. “Don’t worry; the magic in this room alone is impressive. Have you noticed that the tower has not the slightest sign of age? It as if the inhabitants just stepped out for a moment.”

Sayer closed his eyes. “Baroness, I don’t think we are alone.”

“Let’s move then, we can take the stairs at least to the floor below the gate room.”

The party had reached the top of the stairs, entering a floor with a number of hallways and exits. The founders of the tower made sure that unless you knew your way, finding the gateway would not be a simple matter.

Sayer stood before another door, although unlike the Sylph whose could feel the magical auras, his spells were more powerful. As an Incantist, he was often able to decipher the enchantment’s properties. “Not this door either, it will set off a series of alarms. “Turning towards Isabelle, he said. “Perhaps another door?”

Sayer looked towards the Priestess who was also lost in thought. “It’s different.”

“I agree.”

“Baroness?”

“Sorry Sayer, yes we need to go down the corridor further.” Before proceeding, she looked around once more. The corridors were made to be confusing, but somehow she knew exactly which ones to take.

“It’s as you say Elisa, it’s different from what I remembered. I still think we are going in the right direction.”

Another doorway later, the party entered a long rectangular room, at the end of the room a set of stairs led higher into the tower. Slowly they entered the room, prepared for any unwanted guardians. They were not disappointed. In front of the stairs a ball of energy began to glow, fingers of lighting touching the floor. From the ball of energy, a figure stepped through, a man like creature created out of black stone. With the creature now fully in the room, it was soon joined by another.

“Golems!” Dacie yelled, stepping forward the Corsair fired her Arcane pistol sending two balls of energy into the globe, destroying a third golem that had been materializing in the room. Collapsing upon itself, the magical field detonated with a burst of magical energy damaging the two golems in the room.

From Sayer’s hands, a bolt of lightning slammed into the closest of the guardians, pushing it back. Without a pause, Eric roared into the fight swinging his weapon in a wide arc. From Elisa, a prayer to her goddess settled about the room, bringing holy protection upon the party. Isabelle, with her blade now enchanted, now joined the fray, leaping back as the second tried to pummel her with two of its fists. Sweeping back, she slashed at an outstretched arm surprisingly enough shattering the creature’s wrist.

Eric grunted as a stone fist almost picked him off the ground. “How do we kill these things?”

“Keep hitting them.” Dacie yelled while sending two more arcane bolts into the same golem. “Enough damage will disrupt the enchantment.”

“We need to take them down one at a time.” Jumping back again, Isabelle, less armored than the Huscarl knew that a solid blow from one of the creatures could be devastating. “I’ll keep this one busy; take the first one down everyone.”

Eric opened his eyes, wondering why he lay on the ground again. Trying to move he stopped, everything seemed to hurt.

“Sit still babe, let me heal you.” Warm words began to flush away the pain. A touch, he so desperately needed from the one he loved.

“Corey?”

The priestess giggled. “Yes, well I don’t exactly look like him right now. Sit still.”

“How is he?” Another voice broke through the fuzz in his head.

“Kathy always had a hard head, nothing changed. Give me a few moments to get him back on his feet.”

Isabelle stood up, surveying the damage around the room. With the enchantments disrupted, the golems had eventually collapsed.

“Escaped injury again, I see?” Dacie said amazed. Once more, the Pathfinder walked away from a battle without any real injury. The Sylph besides being bruised in a number of locations walked around with a slight limp. Like the others less injured, she insisted it was nothing and that Elisa needed to deal with the others first.

“Just lucky I guess poor Eric keeps taking it in the chin though.”

Dacie dropped her voice. “Damn that Owein, we could really have used him in this fight. How much further?”

“Next floor.” Isabelle said thoughtfully, she could almost feel the gateway in the room above.

As Isabelle predicted, taking the stairs brought the party into a large round room. Embedded into the floor in the center of the room, lay a large silver circle.

“Sayer, I believe this is your party.” Isabelle smiled at the Incantist.

Dacie scratched her nose; the magic in the room was going to make her sneeze. “We need to take care; the room just reeks with magic.”

“Agreed.” The Baroness nodded to Elisa, who prayed to her goddess reinforcing her blessing.

Kneeling on the ground, Sayer studied the runes carved into the metal disk. From memory, he picked out a few familiar symbols. “It’s like a puzzle.”

Isabelle knelt next to him. While the two of them discussed what runes would take them into the Empire, Eric looked over with interest.

“It reminds me of Star Gate a little but lacking those other interlocking disks.”

“I thought you hated that show.” The priestess complained.

“Not true, you just made me watch it all the time.”

“Got it.” After some time, Sayer finally exclaimed. “It’s pretty simple; press the runes on the floor then charge the metallic ring with an enchantment.”

“Any spell?”

Sayer shrugged but looked to Isabelle for confirmation.

“Seems about right, problem of course is that the runes do not resemble any of our current Imperial cities.”

“Then how in the hell are we going to get back.” Eric grumbled.

Isabelle smiled, while pointing at the Incantist. “Because our dear friend here has some knowledge and recognized one of the symbols.”

“You know the rest of them don’t you?” Sayer gave Isabelle the eye.

“Well…err…yes. I just wanted…” The Baroness looked down embarrassed.
The Incantist leaned over and whispered thanks.

As the group stood in the center of the circle, Sayer began his spell. Slowly the ring began to turn. As it picked up speed it began to glow white, blocking the party’s vision of the room.

For a brief moment, they did know where the magical disk transported them. According to Sayer, the group should be standing in the center of the town of Colmar. Instead they all sat around the gaming table as if nothing happened.

“Man thanks again for that figure, you’re awesome.” Phillip came into the room, settling back into his chair as if nothing happened.

“What?”

“So, let’s get the game started.” The Game Master chuckled, actually oblivious to the shocked looks of those sitting around the table.

Stephen all of a sudden sobbed. “Brett.”

Phillip looked up from his Games Master screen confused. “Who’s Brett?

End of Book 1

Authors Notes: A special thanks to djkauf for a little elvish editing. If you like the story please leave a Kudos, if you have the time I would love to hear from you. Thanks to all for reading! - Elsbeth