Aporeu chronicles Issue 21: What Was Once Lost
Stories from the adventurers
This week
Sinking a boat and almost drowning.What Was Once Lost by Heubald
These are the adventures of Heubald Wanderfoot, son of the Great Brinlo Wanderfoot, adventurer extraordinaire! On the 14th of Kugatsu I found some fine fellows to accompany me on an adventurous mission for the guild through the Gate! We reported to Lady Arinka Longleaf, humbly serving as a nurse at the archaeologist’s camp, where we found out that others who had gone to the world where we were heading had returned with some kind of illness. They were severely dehydrated, had not slept in days, and they appeared to be changing from their own true self into… humans.. And not the way I do it either! It seemed that the group preceding us went through the gate but found themselves in a small cave but that, after they dug themselves out they soon fell ill, starting to sweat, retch and contracting a headache. The current hypothesis is that something happened because the previous group was not human, which is where we come in. Of course only 2 of our party were human, however the nurse felt that were we to be changed into humans for 24 hours it would be safe to go through the gate. Of course two of our group normally have tails and their human counterpart does not, which did cause quite some hilarity I must say! Arkonn The Great even needed a cane to be able to stay upright! Jade-even-more-pretty-as-human-then-as-catlady of course did not need any as she is so great! Their difficulty with walking did remind me of the tale of my father, the great Brindlo Wanderfoot where he and his companions managed to take a humanoid lizard out of the fight by cutting of its tail, upon which he could not keep his balance and fell to the ground. After we assembled ourselves and went through the gate we indeed found ourselves in a small, cramped, closed off cave, with but a single point of light coming through. After together taking some time to widen the opening, with some ringing of ears after certain… choices in implements.. We all managed to make our way outside to a pretty beach where we were met by a squadron of guards. While I was all for meeting these Dangerous Foes head on, they turned out not to be hostile. Well… not too hostile, and not hostile to most of us. Poor Bob did get the short end of the stick I fear. Well… the end anyway. The guards told us they were told to “Scout the beach for something fulfilling the Grey Omen”, as their captain, Sgt. Mystrion told us. It also seemed like there were a lot of black Omens, but only a few Grey Omens. They also told us about a Council that determines life and death, and that “the Council provides Life”. They invited us to come with them to meet the Council. I planned to accompany the journey with a tale of the great Brindlo Wanderfoot, accompanied by drum but the captain of the guard very swiftly requested me to stop playing as ‘sound carries’, and he pointed at the water. Along the way we noticed there seemed to be a giant Dome over the entire island, and that the city gates seems to have once been made of stone and iron, but now are just great heavy wooden doors. Bob started talking about someone killing the council after it was revealed that the council is what keeps that Dome up, and the dangers outside of the Dome. He went on and on about how that would destroy the Dome, and leaving everyone in the city at danger. The mood around us seemed to chill very much at that and we were swiftly moved towards the Council. Entering a very large hall we walked all the way across to a large fire pit behind which were a large semicircle of nine seats. Eight of them seemed to be representing the schools of magic, or so Jade told us. Abjuration, Conjuration, Enchantment and Divination on the left of the center seat, and Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy and Transmutation on the right. The center seat, presumably intended for the queen was empty. The woman in the Necromancy seat, Lady Ëerelda Gusthorn told us to “Speak”. During the talk we found out quite a bit about this new civilization. Once, many centuries ago humans entered through the gate, and over time there were several hundreds of thousands of people living there. 1788 years ago however there was the Cleansing, during which the world would end. The pure who were chosen by some God named Pelor through his Archbishop would prevail and the impure were cleansed from the world. Apparently there have now been two Grey Omens, the first announced the end of the world, the second recently announced our arrival through the gate. During all this, Bob got very excited and anxious, and decided to smoke one of his sih-gaars, at which he was quickly ushered out because there was no smoking near the children! One of the children, a young girl was called over but she did not seem interested to speak with us, instead wanting to play. It was explained that she is the queen, Arentia II of Crento, but the Council rules until she comes of age. It does seem that there is some… strife… within the council with a split between the older and the younger members. This is of course very normal, as the adventures of Brindlo show when he had to mediate between the different members of the council in Lundyn, to prevent the entire city from falling to pieces. When the ‘world ended’ as they said, an affliction emerged which is still present outside of the Dome, called “Greeneyes” which seems to be moving between living creatures. The air itself is safe, and it seems the regularly ‘open’ the Dome to exchange air, or something. Our group proposed trade between our worlds, we can supply stone and food, they have knowledge to share. However, first we had to be put to the test: we were to take a boat and go out of the Dome to a nearby island, where we had to collect fruit. If we were not infected we would then be allowed back in to the Dome and become allies. Suddenly there was a lot of commotion outside where Bob was. One of the Council members threw up a spell separating themselves from the rest of the room, and we rushed out to discover Bob had shared his food, which had made some guards sick. I can imagine, those rations really are worthless. I figured the guards in this world must also be used to better food. However, we then heard from Captain Mystrion that the guards were not supposed to partake in the bounties not of the Blessed Pelor. It appears that the Council truly provides, creating the food these people eat by magic. That might be another explanation why the ration did not fall right. As the sun slowly started to rise we realized we had spent over 2 hours there, and since we had only 24 hours before the spell on us would end we had to get going. We went to the boat, a rowing boat which could seat 8 people, although there were only 5 of us. As Arkonn and Elena rowed us across to the island a hole appeared in the Dome, allowing us through and closing again behind us. However, as we were passing through there was a harsh wind which nearly toppled over the boat. Jade courageously prevented me from falling into the water while Bob was about to fall over, and it seems Elena wanted to help him and accidentally hit him with her oar… into the water… Together we of course saved him and pulled him back on board, as true adventuring fellows do! At some point Jade and I looked down into the water, and we both see sunken ships on the bottom, then Jade suddenly alerted us to a threat from below! Nine skeletons came up from the ocean floor, a few came into the boat, and others tried to topple it. Together we prevailed, beating all the skeletons in true heroic fashion! …. Unfortunately not before a certain member of our party who shall remain nameless blew a big hole in our boat, Arkonn at some point alerted us the boat would sink in 30 seconds and then abandoned us, while we fought of the skeletons, to prevent them from dragging us down while we would swim. Then we swam for our lives! However, there was some difficulty with Jade and Elena tying ropes to Bob to help him stay afloat, and him dragging them down so they cut their ropes, allowing him to sink under water, not really heroic actions I must say. I too did sink for a bit, swimming in my armor and with my backpack is still harder than I anticipated. However, I suddenly heard a lovely song playing around me in the water, and I started to rise with renewed vigor. Oh, mental note, I need to write out that music, it was lovely and would add greatly to my repertoire! Eventually 4 of us managed to get to the island, but Bob was nowhere to be seen until there was suddenly a flash underwater, and a moment later Bob appeared next to us touching a unicorn! Of course my father, the great Brindlo did tell me plenty of tales about the fabled unicorns, and so I greeted it and thanked it kindly in its own tongue for its assistance in rescuing one of my fellows . Once we reached the island Bob proposed to first fix up a boat for the return trip, luckily there are wrecks around and all of us working together under his supervision managed to use wood from several boats to repair one enough. Of course I could regale my fellows with the story of when Brindlo Wanderfoot and his friends were shipwrecked and had to repair the ship without any supplies, by destroying another ship from the shore and using their wood. After that we went to look for the fruit, and Bob again came through, spotting apple trees nearby. As I played him a song to encourage him, Elena helped him search for good fruit, and Jade and Arkonn kept out an eye for enemies we were suddenly started by the screams of Bob as suddenly 4 snakes came falling out of the tree, several of them biting the poor man who immediately went down. During the fight with the snakes Jade and Elena also went unconscious, but of course like a seasoned adventuring party we eventually prevailed, and won the day! Arkonn looked in on the fallen and it seems they were fine, and just pretending to be unconscious as they stopped pretending the moment Arkonn touched them. It felt weird, but still a sound tactic that I plan to remember, as it did prevent the snakes from attacking them. Jade, Elena and me felt very sick, sweating a lot and, as Bob and Arkonn attested we had green flames in our eyes. However, as Jade put one of the snakes into her magical bag and it turned to ash this sparked a thought in Bob: We could try each of us going into the bag, come back out, and see if that removed what seeked to be the infection. As we tried - what a strange experience that was, kind reader! - this turned out to work, and we immediately felt a lot better. I must admit to not being able to stop staring as Jade undressed to go into the bag, not proper behavior for a gentleman of course, however for a Bard and an adventurer I feel it fits well. As the great Brindlo always explained in his stories at the fireplace: A True Bard and True Adventurer always gives the Ladies the attention they deserve! We did decide to leave the island as fast as we could, however, when we returned to the beach Jade noticed a very large creature beneath the water. A plan was devised where she would scatter rations into the water some way away on the beach and then run towards the boat while the underwater creature went to eat the food. Arkonn decided to drink a potion from his pack while Jade went to scatter the food. This seemed to work as the creature went after the food, however, it was very fast and came after us while we were rowing back towards the Dome! Suddenly both Bob and Jade were very scared of the creature as a giant skeletal snake emerged from the water, moving as far back to the front of the boat as they could as Arkonn rowed for all his might. I did decide to try a spell on the creature before I went to help with the rowing. When it suddenly summoned some lightning clouds and shot a lightning bolt through the boat Jade, Elena and Bob all seemed to succumb to their wounds. As Arkonn kept on rowing as hard as he could, I did my best to stabilize my fallen comrades, even going wrist-deep into the wound Bob suffered to save him! It did feel best to return the heart again. As we passed back into the Dome we suddenly felt what I can only describe as a healing warmth through us, as we saw a great Man in the sky whom I surmise was Pelor intoning “Be Blessed in my Barrier”. I must admit, even the great Brindlo never told me about meeting an actual God, and I am sure that had he met one he would surely have told us! When we got back to shore Bob proceeded to at first explain the Archbishop of Pelor how to plant the apple seeds he had collected and then he went off with some summoned people to explain it to them so they would have an added source of food for the island. In turn he was awarded some magical item which, it seems, will allow him to make grass edible. We also managed to secure a trade agreement between our two worlds, where we will be providing stone and food for knowledge from this new place. Eventually we made our way back through the gate and reported back for our rightful reward and after that a drink and chat at the guild hall! And thus ended this, the first adventure of Heubald Wanderfoot, soon to be the greatest adventurer since the Great Brindlo Wanderfoot!What Was Once Lost by Jade
The Adventures of the Catlady, for Spark Spark, you know by now that going through portals isn’t too scary at all. It’s actually quite interesting! You know my love for researching, I have read all the books at home and now I have been writing down all these knew things I’ve been learning, so going to a new world was an easy decision. I was pretty sure Gerolt would hate me if I didn’t tell him I was gone again, so I just left him a letter. I just had rushed out of the one portal, slept a bit, and figured out how my new tiara works, to immediately rush to the rest of the people that wanted to go to see this mysterious new world too. Because you see, the scouts that went there, came back sick! And even the dwarf that was with them didn’t make it back. So they wanted a new scout group to figure out what was going on and make contact with people on the other side. Making contact is what I do best, so off I went. I noticed some familiar faces, which made me bounce even more. It was Elena, the epic cuddly monk friend I made on the boat adventure. I also saw Heubald, who is an amazing story teller and singer. I already had spent some time with him in the guildhall, which is always fun, but I don’t know what he is like on missions. Time to find out! I also got to meet Arkonn, who has a tail that can do literally ANYTHING! Oh he is also blue and big and strong. But his tail! Oh! And then… the member I didn’t really want to take with us, Bob the Adventure-Farmer. He is… bad news, and boy I was right. So, we went to Loïs to ask where we needed to go. She folded the paper from the mission board and revealed the name Erinka Longleaf, apparently a nurse in a tent next to the gate. We already had sent Bob ahead, so we just walked behind him to get to there. I was staying as far away from him as possible. No way I was going to risk a chaos bolt to the face. Really Spark, I don’t know why this guy is allowed in the guild. He got in a stupid argument with Gerolt in the guildhall over something that was said to Phaedra. Then he just threatened him with a chaos bolt, Gerolt still didn’t apologize. Because frankly, there wasn’t anything to apologise for. So when Gerolt didn’t, Bob just blasted a chaos bolt at his face. Luckily Gerolt caught it with his shield, so both him and me were safe. Then Lornan had to come and even Phaedra got in between to calm this crazy man down. So yeah… Chaos bolts aren’t my thing. Anyway, we got at the nursing camp. Bob made the nurse upset, so I made him stand outside. I talked with the nice elven lady Erinka, and she explained that all the Elfs from the scouts got sick and now are turning into humans! So all non-humans should be extra weary. Well that obviously isn’t a good thing for me… Or Arkonn… or Heubald. But luckily Erinka could cast some cool polymorph spell that made us into humans for 24 hours. That seemed a little short to find civilization on the other side of a portal, but I wasn’t gonna complain! I need to know what is on the other side! So then we got transformed. Why did I want this again?! I had NO claws, NO tail, my ears were waaaaay down on my head and I had stupid hair on my head that got into my eyes… What a nuisance being a human. It was also quite a bit colder without fur everywhere. Arkonn couldn’t really stand without his tail, so he got himself a cane, and I managed to walk fine after an hour or so. Elena was kind enough to help me during that time. My ribbon also was lost, because I had no tail, but amazing Elena found it so I put it on my wrist for this mission. I hope you didn’t mind Spark. Now it’s back on my tail, where it belongs. So it’s time to hop through the portal, and Bob immediately steps through. Normally I would have been first, but without tail I’m just not that fast. Now I still wanted to be as far away from Bob as possible, so I wanted to go last. Arkonn followed Bob, then Heubald went and Elena helped me through. It makes you quite nauseous, but Elena kept me up. There were some tiny lights and a bigger dragon light floating in the room we were standing in. I could literally not get any further in the room, there was barely space enough for all of us. It was a cave, and the portal was nicely caved in a wall, but the rest was just a closed off space. I just sat waiting till someone else figured out what to do. Arkonn spotted some light coming through a tiny crack. He just asked people to step back when he blasted two eldritch blasts at the hole, creating a slippery road outside this tiny cave. I tried to climb out, but I tell ya, without claws or tail that shit is impossible. I don’t know how humans do it, they are incredibly stupid or smart. Oh about stupid, Bob thought he could make the hole bigger by using his shovel… Of course that doesn’t work, so that just proves how stupid humans can be. Elena is one of the clever ones, that’s for sure. All of a sudden Heubald is being hugged by Bob and now looks like a super pretty human lady. Arkonn climbs out without any problems, then Bob starts to use some gear to create a climbing line out? I’ve never used those before, but as a human you apparently need to. So I wait. Then Elena hears some noise so climbs out over Bobs face, which I don’t mind, but now I’m left behind with Bob…. Okay and female Heubald… So that wasn’t fun either. Finally we climb out, and we spot a group of guards, led by this guy who later calls himself Sargant Mystrion. They all have full plate armor, but only have sticks as weapons, which to be honest looks really stupid. Again they are all humans, so by now this shouldn’t surprise me. They are a bit worried and jumpy, and after Bob says a couple of stupid things he get a firm whack on the head. Again, not surprising and it makes me laugh. They want to bring us to the castle, which we agree to, and we learn the following things. This world already exists for about 1788 years, and they were send around because the “Black Omen” they have, has changed into a “Grey Omen” and they only had that once before. The city is only made out of wood, because they don’t really have other resources. The city and an quite big area around it, is surrounded by this blue dome, also called “The Barrier”. This Barrier is kept intact by magic from “The Council”, who rule the city in the name of the Queen. There are no other races then humans here, and if you leave the barrier you get sick and die, or at least are not allowed back in. Maybe both. Then Mr. Brilliant Bob mentions that that sounds really stupid, or weak, or… like as an easy target. He explains that if you just murder the whole council, everyone would die. I say multiple times that he needs to shut up, so the guards don’t get mad, but he doesn’t listen to me. I ask Arkonn if he can make Bob shut up, and somehow his low voice makes Bob shut up. But only for a short while. Now he came up with the idea to burn the whole city to the ground, because everything is made out of wood. Of course the Sargant Mystrion wasn’t really pleased with this idea either and just whacked him hard on the head. Bob was in lot of pain, and I just enjoyed the huge bump that started to appear on his head. We now all are yelling to him that he needs to shut up, Arkonn still asks politely and he does now finally shut up.
We get into the castle and the massive halls are just completely covered in paintings. All these paintings are successors to the crown, all old Kings and Queens. They all look amazing, but we are brought to the Council, so I don’t have much time to look more for name tags or anything.
This massive room opens up in front of us, and oh my goodness… It’s gorgeous! There are fires burning in front of eight chairs, on which are eight very royally clothed people. I immediately recognize the symbols on the chairs, they represent the schools of magic. From left to right the chairs are Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, Necromany, Evocation and then Transmutation. The lady from Necromancy steps up and introduces herself as Lady Ad’rilda Gusthorn.
While I introduce myself and the rest, Bob immediately makes it more difficult by saying stuff about killing the Council and burning the city down, explaining that the voices in his head told him to say it.
Apparently bob talks to voices in his head, which give him magic. Other times he says he talks to his magic… I don’t really get it. But that just makes me like it less. I never heard Phaedra talk to her magic? Or does she? I should ask. I know that Doc does, but not directly to his magic, … More so to the person who gives him magic. Argh, all this magic stuff is so confusing. I thought I read everything about it, but in real it seems to be really different then how it’s written down and explained. Don’t trust everything you read Spark until you’ve seen it with your own eyes!
So I defuse the situation by just smiling my happy smile and asking the Lady Ad’rilda for explanations, apologising for not knowing because we come from another world. And ohhhhhh, did she tell me amazing stories! I really want to go back to get the full story, or just read in the library…. Or borrow books! I don’t care! I need to know these stories.
Anyway, she told me this world started about 1788 years ago, by some people coming through the portal and starting a civilization. Then she told about “The Cleansing”. This is an event created by an entity where the humans were picked as the “Pure” ones, and everyone else died. The left over people hid in this city, while the sickness “Green eyes” roamed the world. They created “The Barrier” to protect them inside. “Pelor” is their one and only God and faith, and he says that the pure will prevail, even passed the end of the world.
Really Spark, I don’t know what this blabbing all means… I feel really weird being a human, and not seeing anything else then humans around here. But at the same time my feet are tingling to bring me past this barrier to see what is behind there and if we can cure this “Green eyes”.
Then the lady from the school of enchantment gets up and goes to a little girl in the corner of the room, that had been playing all along and I hadn’t spotted her before. Apparently the tiny girl is Queen Arishia The Second, Van Crento. She seems to be 5 or 6, and the Council rules in her stead till she comes of age. I bow to her and want to talk to Arishia for a bit, but she just walks off to play.
I ask some more questions and we figure out that some of the chairs are arguing amongst each other in the Council. Like, yeah duhu. I’m on an mission with only 4 others and we argue all the time, how are eight people supposed to NOT argue?! That can’t even be a thing, right?
So more about his sickness, apparently Green Eyes cleansed the world the first time, and it’s transported by living beings. They also daily open up the Barrier to let in fresh new air, by a safe space chosen by Divination. He seems to be in charge of the Barrier control.
I explain then that we are just here to make contact and to establish us as allies. They don’t really know if they can trust us, so they want us to go to an island outside the Barrier to collect fruit on an small island. We agree. Apparently they have no farmers left here, so I tell that Bob is a farmer and we potentially can leave him here if they would want that. They would gladly accept, so now all I need to do is make sure Bob stays behind, and we are safe of his magic! YAY!
Somewhere in between Bob keeps making the chairs worried or pissed, so he had walked off to smoke something. Then all of a sudden we get interrupted by a call for guards.
I am betting my money on Bob putting something on fire at this point, but I must say… I was disappointed. Or maybe pleased that it wasn’t fire?
Immediately a wall is summoned by one of the chairs between them and us, and I sprint outside the room to see what happened. The first thing I see is Bob panicking around four guards, of which three are puking all over the floor. I’m glad it’s not fire, but I’m also not happy, to say the least. I ask what happened, and apparently bob offered him food and it made them puke. Both Bob and Arkonn eat the food and nothing seems to be wrong with it. So I guess Bob tried to be nice, and he even helps to clean. So maybe he is nice? I don’t know. … Stupid chaos bolts.
I hoped to mention just quickly to Bob he can stay here and be a farmer, but that ended up in more stories. Which is nice, but I don’t really want Bob’s stories. He tries to explain me stuff about seeds and farmer stuff, and even calls me “Miss Helper” but I don’t know why. I immediately cut him off, saying that I don’t want to be a farmer. Then Arkonn mentions that the boat is ready and we should go, and then more weird things are being said about a talking boat that eats rations? And she is named Belinda, by Bob. Now Bob also named our boat Titanic.
Then we fiiiiinally leave. I have to say that I’m super conflicted, I loved to listen to all the Chairs with their information, but I also want to go out there to see it! So after all this information, we get in the boat, and when Divination opens the barrier from far away, a gust of wind flies around the boat. It almost tips Heubald of, but I manage to hold onto him. Then I see Bob balancing on the edge of the boat, and then a good whack from Elena with the oar flips him of the boat. I can’t help but chuckle and cheer on Elena. Arkonn drags Bob back into the boat with a rope.
Arkonn and Elena are manning the oars, so I massage Arkonn so he stays focused and relaxed while working so hard for all of us. I asked Bob about the fight with Gerolt again, asking if he actually tried to hit him. He says he aimed for his shield, but I can see that he is lying! He is a dirty liar! Then I spot some shapes in the water that are definitely not fish! I try to warn people on time, but they are slow in understanding what I mean and a fight starts.
Skeleton arms reach up out of the water, grabbing the boat and reaching for us with short swords. Their eyes are burning with green flames, and I try my best to not get hit by the skeleton next to me. But he hits me hard. A second appears next to me, I hit it hard with my short sword, bones shattering over the boat, but he stays up and hits me back. Strangely they don’t make any sounds when getting hit, except for weird creepy bone sounds. Oh and they seem to want to lick their swords after hitting anyone? Even though they don’t have any tongues.
Bob seems to ready some spell, Arkonn moves and his armor all of a sudden glitters and seems to attract air around it forming some spiky thing around him. Then Bob starts spitting fire around like the crazy man he is. He almost hits me, and also misses the skeleton. Then a skeleton moves passed me to Elena, I try to strike another skeleton but I miss and now the skeleton tries to hit Elena. He also misses, but when Elena tries to return the favor, she also misses. A fourth shows up and climbs in the boat heading towards Elena, so Heubald gives a good swing and hits him. That skeleton then misses Elena because she uses her quarterstaff clever to put it in between his jaws. All of a sudden more skeletons appear next to the boat and they try to flip the boat over, but luckily Arkonn and Elena are on the other side and prevented that from happening.
Heubald starts mumbling, after he strokes a minor wound on my shoulder to take some blood. He even said “Ah I needed that, thanks!” It’s confusing but apparently he does something magic-y. I manage to dodge an skeleton attack, but then I also miss the attack on him. Then I’m stuck between two skeletons and one next to the boat, so I decide to drink my healing potion. Luckily by drinking the skeleton that was swinging his sword, misses me. Bob now is doing A LOT of magic, and this is where things go down. Or the boat. Let me explain.
Between me and Bob there are three skeletons on the boat, and he manages to just let one explode into a fire-y burst. A second fire beam hits the boat and digs a hole in the boat, which now starts filling with water. Then he misses his last fire blast. Luckily Arkonn and Elena both hit the second skeleton that is in between us. I am relieved, but still stuck between two and one in the water. A very familiar wobbly feeling starts, and the skeletons in the water are pulling the boat again. But amazing Arkonn and Elena prevent anything from happening again.
I kill another skeleton next to me, because I really don’t want them to touch me… Not with those burning green flame eyes. After killing that one, I pay attention to the movements of the skeleton on the side of the boat, trying to plan my attack on him for my next opportunity.
I hear yelling about the sinking boat, and Arkonn just jumps off and swims away. In the middle of battle?! He just swims away?! Through the ocean filled with these things?! No way I’m jumping as long as they are alive. If you can call skeletons alive. I luckily see that the rest of the group stays in the boat. In the corner of my eye I see a skeleton letting go, and I worry for Arkonn, but I can’t help him now. Elena tries to row the boat away, but with all the skeletons on the side, it’s no use. Now the boat wobbles again, but Elena and now Bob both save the boat from being tipped over.
Heubald moves with his hands, yells something offensive, and all of a sudden one of the skeletons on the side of the boat lets go. I don’t know what he did, but well done! I horribly miss the skeleton on the side with my short sword, then I try my dagger which is way more effective and he sinks to the bottom of the ocean.
Then Bob tries to be smart AGAIN, which I doubt is something good, and he manages to electrocute himself, the boat but also a skeleton. Arkonn is now barely visible when he is swimming further away. Now Elena slaps another skeleton into bone pieces, then I dodge a bite attack from one, and Elena and Heubald also manage to block the attacks. Then Heubald stabs one with a rapier and finishes it of with a dagger to the skull, which also shatters everywhere.
Spark, right… at this point you think Bob is an idiot who uses a lot of magic.. right? Well I thought that too. I thought he would have been done by now, but nope. He can do more. And this time? He is panicking, and he turns into a freaking devil I tell ya!
The first fire burst from Bob comes from his chest. Yep you read that right. His. Chest. His freaking ribcage opened up, to see at least a dozen of tiny fire beams focus on one skeleton, burning it to ash. Then the second beam of fire comes from his chest again, but this time it’s one big beam and it misses the skeleton on the side of the boat. I thought he would have been done with magic now then, but nope. BLACK flames surround his head, which opens up to show a jaw filled with jagged teeth, and all I hear is screaming women… The fire bursts and it kills the last one.
Now the issue of the sinking boat, caused by Bob… Heubald jumps out of the boat and starts swimming, and when the sizzling of the fire stops Bob cries out to Elena and me that he can’t swim and is going to drown. I kinda have hopes that I can drag him, or his corpse, to the shore and then we will figure out if he needs healing or something. So I tie myself up to him, in an efficient way that I can immediately untie myself from him may this go wrong. Elena does the same. We grab oars to hold onto and jump into the water.
Bob starts sinking straight away, and he is heavier then expected. I also go under water and I don’t need to think twice and untie myself. Sorry not sorry Bob. You were a danger to us and to yourself. Elena manages to stay above water, despite still being tied to Bob. I sink more, Elena still seems fine but she has to cut Bob lose too. I then try to swim, which I do, but I’m still underwater holding my breath and I’m starting to panic. I can’t hold my breath for much longer. I see Bob struggling with a rope floating around him and he is panicking and sinking more then us.
Then I hear music…. Strange tunes from an old forgotten land… (Céline Dion - My Heart Will Go On) It seems to be louder around Bob, and I’m pretty sure that he is somehow making this. It motivates me and I find the strength to break the surface and I swim to shore. I get there after Elena and Heubald, and we just stare at where I last saw Bob.
Okay so before I say this, Spark, I don’t lie. You know this! I never lie about my adventures. And I swear, upon the tree on the hill, honestly saw this happen!
I sighed and turned around, to then see A UNICORN appear OUT OF NOWHERE! My jaw dropped, and there I see, Bob dangling around his, or her, neck. How I don’t know… So yeah. Bob didn’t die.
Heubald mumbles something to the unicorn, the unicorn vanishes and I don’t know really why or how.
Now we’re stuck on an island with no boat, but Bob is a woodworker so maybe he can make up for his mistake and make us a new boat. He is surprisingly calm and suggests this himself, and it takes us about an hour to make a new boat out of the wrecks that are available on shore.
So now our escape is ready, we finally check the island for the fruits we were supposed to find. I check the surroundings, and there is stuff shuffling around in the trees and bushes but I cant pinpoint what. I tell them, and wonder who is going to look for the fruit. Bob keeps repeating he is forgiving us for leaving him behind, because apparently others also forgive him for his horrible actions.
As you know Spark… Mom always told us to forgive, but not forget. My heart is now aching and I don’t know what to think anymore. If he is actually means well… No he shot at Gerolt! How can he mean well when he does that? So yeah as you can see Spark, I had really no clue what to do with this situation and we weren’t even safe back home yet. I decided to just forget it and think about it when I would return to the guildhall. No point in worrying when I still can die on the mission.
Finally we get everyone moving, because apparently Bob knows what apple trees look like and he spots some. He gets closer to the trees and I decide to keep an eye out for danger. Bob explains that the apple trees are out of season, but he doesn’t seem to give up. I’m sure all the trees around us are safe, but the one tree Bob is next too… Yep, you guess it right, it contained ALL the freaking snakes.. Just as Bob happily lifts a rotten apple in the air to collect the seeds, about four gigantic poisonous snakes drop down and he gets hit by three. Bob immediately drops to the ground, unconscious. Heubald almost gets hit by a snake, I get bitten in my knee and I feel sweaty and drowsy. Arkonn blasts some magic at the snake at my feet and I see Elena gets hit too, having now a weird burning green glare in her eyes. I yell “Don’t eat my knee!” and as it lets go to prepare for another bite, I drill my short sword down his throat and he basically explodes. Another snake attacks Elena, but it misses. Heubald unfortunately also misses to hit the snake, and Elena’s attack isn’t much better. Then a snake gets under her attack and bites her, and now she is also unconscious. Another snake now hits Heubald, and I see the same green glare in his eyes now.
A snake jumps up at me to bite me and I chop his head clean off, dead too. Arkonn attacks another snake, which is also exploding its insides everywhere. Heubald is attacking the last snake that is alive with his rapier. Then Arkonn gets bitten, but somehow he doesn’t seem to have green eyes afterwards. He unfortunately misses his attack, so I run around to get a clean shot and I shoot the last snake clean through the head, pinning it to the ground. Finally all the snakes are dead, and I feel horrible. I don’t know if you realize this, but I normally don’t sweat that much. I am warm yes, but fur prevents the sweat to stick to my skin. Now there is nothing like that, I am sticky … I stick to myself, to my clothes, and my head-hair sticks to my forehead. I have never felt so disgusted in my life before. While I feel horrible, I see Arkonn kneel down to both touch Elena and Bob, and they both are now conscious again.
I realize that the one pinned giant snake is probably something that the Doctor would love, so I put it in my bag of holding, but it just turns to ash. Super upset that I can’t bring anything home, I hear Bobs voice explain something to the rest. Apparently he thinks that by “Astral plane-dipping” we can get rid of the sickness Heubald, Elena and I have. I don’t really want to go first, especially because it’s Bobs idea. So Heubald goes first, and we’re using Elena her bag of holding. Arkonn holds onto his feet, and Bob puts the bag over his head, then they flip him over so he fully goes in and then Arkonn pulls him out. When he is out, the green flamy sparkles in his eyes is gone! Isn’t that epic! He DISAPPEARED FULLY, in the bag! And then came back, cured! I still don’t believe it.
In my excitement I am not really paying attention, and someone says that I should strip down because I shouldn’t bring any weapons and stuff. That could damage the bag. So I start stripping down, and luckily Bob stops me before I take off my clothes…. I totally forgot that I have no fur here. It’s really starting to get on my nerves now, being a human. I go second in Astral plane dipping, and Elena 3rd. We are all cured now and we want to go back.
Back at the boat, when they are preparing, I see something enormous in the water, which is definitely not a friendly fishy. I see a massive tail and I really don’t want to fight it. Again, I point out the danger and Bob comes up with another idea. The fastest one of us, should throw rations in the water at the other side of the island, then sprint to the boat and then we can leave. Hopefully making the creature throw up just like the guards did, and if not at least its distracted and we get a head start. Because I’m obviously the fastest, I’m the one doing this. I bounce some to warm up and I’m fully ready. I manage to throw two ones high into the air, but the wind blows them everywhere. The 3rd one goes quite far, and a gigantic bone snake comes up in the air to snatch it. I don’t waste a second and sprint back. Heubald pulls me in the boat and we take off.
Bob and Elena are on two oars, and Arkonn is managing two oars at the same time with some weird giant strength. I am looking backwards and I can’t… This massive bone snake is right behind us, hovering above the water. I just run to the front of the boat and try to hide under a spare plank we brought with us. I hear Heubald mumble something, and Bob casts a chaos bolt again. As if I wasn’t scared enough yet! I was sitting right NEXT to Bob! Then I hear lightning crack, I catch a glimpse of the lightning coming straight at us, and the next thing is darkness.
I don’t remember what happened, but apparently Elena and Bob also went unconscious and Arkonn just went full strength mode to row us back to the Barrier. The Barrier was opened up, and then I remember a voice speaking to me “Be blessed in my Barrier”. I recognize the voice from the chair of Divination. Somehow now the ship is 8 yards ONTO the shore, and Arkonns muscles look like they are about to pop. I immediately get up and head over to him, keep repeating that we are safe and he manages to calm down. This man is definitely the hero of this story, despite the fact that he abandoned ship earlier.
I politely ask for some more healing, because I was still wobbling on my legs, and I get back to full strength. While we are arranging this, Bob shows them the seeds in the rotten apples he has brought over. So it wasn’t the ripe fruits they wanted, but seeds is the most important part. More farmer talk happens, and he basically has two guards with pencil and parchment to write down ANYTHING he says. Why I don’t know, because I’m pretty sure he is the most stupid human I know.
I again offer to leave Bob behind, but he really doesn’t want to.
After more talking they are happy to call us friends, and we establish a trade. We will provide them with workable stone and food, and they will give their knowledge about the Barrier and anything we want to know we can always ask for later. They will also make sure that the portal will have a nicer entrance then it has now (which really is needed, because it’s just a rocky slope right now).
So to sum it up Spark, Bob almost killed us by sinking the boat, he made a new one and Arkonn got us back home safely. Surrounded by villains and heroes, I manage to get back home to tell another story. Next time I prefer to have someone stand between me and all these dangers… Maybe next time I should make sure that Ger-… someone promises me to protect me, while I kill the dangers surrounding us.
Much love,
Jade
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