Bardic Inspiration Night
Bardic Inspiration Night was the first formal event held in the Dream in the Ley. Performers were given access to stage tools to help accentuate their stories so that everyone, regardless of their own means, could include aural and visual accompaniment as they desired. Given its success and positive reception, Myzelans can be sure to look forward to more such events in the future.
Performers
- Askeladd Jensen of the Den, from Skafisle
- Boom City, with Jovlane, Kaboom, and Violeto, from Terota
- Irethan, from Gylidd
- Katya of the Wolves of Sydathria, from Verbera
- Stoker Bram of the Wolves of Sydathria, from Verbera
- Viktorine StarStalker of the Umbral Knights, from Veșnică
Performances
Presented in the order in which they were performed:Irethan's Tale
This spoken story was told by Irethan.(In the process of being transcribed!)
Boom City Saves the Future Stranger
This spoken story was told by both Jovlane and Violeto, much to the chagrin of each, accompanied by Kaboom providing sounds and light-projected visual art.Coming onto the stage, you see three individuals. One of which is a tall, shiny, dark blue warforged with green eyes, dressed in a black and metallic orange cloak and suit of armor. Next comes a five-and-a-half foot tall minotaur wearing a tattered sleeveless flack jacket and backwards pants. They’re joined by a four foot tall kenku wearing a long, dusty trench coat that's too big for him, and a light brown cowboy hat, who seems to speak only via sound effects, as well as providing hand made visuals via an old projector.
Violeto: "Welcome, welcome, My name is Violeto and these are my wonderful companions Jovlane —" Jov Introduces himself. "— and Kaboom —" Kaboom introduces himself with explosion noise. "We are Boom City, an adventuring party from Terota, a realm northwest of Gylidd filled with advanced technology many of you may struggle to comprehend and one who’s society is plagued with much turmoil, dystopia, and—"
The story concludes unceremoniously as it erupts into a scuffle.
Jovlane: "AND A SHIT TON OF GANGS!"
Violeto: "... Ah, um, uh, yes that’s technically correct, anyway the tale we have for you all tonight is about how we saved the highly influential psychic known as “the Future Stranger” from certain peril. To start off this adventure I shall explain exactly why this “Future Stranger” is so important. The most thing you need to know about the Future Stranger is that he is a psionic, with the ability to see into the future, hence the name. He is best known for predicting severe weather patterns and more importantly being able to predict an enemy army's next move. So in other words if he were to fall into the wrong hands he could prove to be a very lethal weapon. And with that our story begins… There we were, Boom City outside the tower where the last confirmed sighting of the Future Stranger was—"
Jovlane: "There we were! Standing before a massive building as tall as a mountain, surrounded by a THICK toxic mist. There at the very top, our destiny was waiting for our grand entrance. The toxic air did little to stop us, for its deadly nature was nothing against the collective might of Boom City, as a vast majority of us are invincible!" Jov flexes. "The only exception being Brando, who wasn’t even with us because they almost died drinking water—"
Violeto: "Alright, so what actually happened was most of us were wearing suits that protected us from the harmful toxins in the air, as well I am like a construct and thus not a living being in the traditional sense, rendering effects of the toxic air upon me ineffective. Oh, and Brando is completely fine, he just decided to leave the party before this mission started, for personal reasons."
Jovlane: "Okay, he got better eventually, whatever. ANYWAY, We stormed up various staircase and elevator shafts until we were interrupted by a familiar face. Appearing on a screen in the wall was the gas lighter! One of our old enemies. He's the leader of this weird cult that makes you smell this gross gas that makes you crazy. The dumb ass says it shows you the truth or some fake bullshit. Anyway he starts going on like “We’re going to get the Future Stranger…. last time to join us… you will never get out of here alive yadda yadda.” We told him where he could stuff it and continued our climb. That's when we came across it. An entire floor of the building filled with murderous and angry ghosts! But that's not all! The next one hundred floors up all filled with ghosts!"
Violeto: "Wait—"
Jovlane: "We got our weapons out and absolutely SMASHED—"
Violeto: An angry tone starts become very apparent. "Wait, no, no, stop right there, there weren’t a hundred floors worth of ghosts, there was only one, and the ghosts weren't angry they were rather peaceful. In fact it wasn’t until we reached the other side of the room that someone in our party angered them and they started attacking us. As for the cult leader, he was threatening us to not go any further, giving a rather foreboding, “we’re going to use the Future Stranger as a means to an end,” and leaving it at that."
Jovlane: "One, a hundred? Doesn’t matter, we kicked their undead butts! Slashing, smashing, and blasting all the way through the next floor. We looked around and found an opening that led outside. Suddenly there was a flash of lighting! Out of it appeared my trusty and faithful companion Thunder Wing! He’s a massive bird that I tamed earlier when we murdered some cannibals. Yeah, feed him a few of them and we’re best friends. Anyway he shows up and warns us that there's a whole army of goons up ahead and they're expecting us. But it was only one army so that's like a slight warm up for us. I thanked him and we continued, bravely walking towards another grand battle."
Violeto: Sounding slightly more relieved and hopeful. "I mean I would have worded a few things differently but that's actually not a bad description, would like to add though that Thunder Wing didn’t appear from a bolt of lightning he just flew in front of the window and there wasn’t a thunderstorm outside, the weather was quite nice that day. Also I would further add, while the number of cultists was imposing, it was more like a battalion rather than an army—"
Jovlane: "That’s when the Future Stranger reached out to us. Using tell-me-kan-ee-sis he appeared and was like. “Boom City, Terota’s greatest and saint tier organization, I need your help. This damn shart cult is huddled outside my secret front door trying really hard to break in. I humbly ask all of you to beat the shit out of them because they suck a fat one. Please, no one else can possibly accomplish such a feat.” He was right. This was a fight not for the faint of heart. We accepted his mission and then proceeded to charge bravely into battle!"
Violeto: With hope abandoned and a return to annoyance. "Okay so for starters it’s "telekinesis" not "tell-me-kan-ee-sis", also that’s not even the right term, it was telepathy… Secondly we did not charge into battle, it was a—"
Jovlane: "We bolted forward—"
Violeto: "—stealth mission."
Jovlane: "—proudly meeting danger face to face. There were a lot of them, armed to the teeth with a variety of blades and guns. They even brought a giant who had blades for arms! Their leader, a lackey of the gas lighter, started to do some BS villain monologue about how we stood no chance, blah blah blah, but we quickly cut him off. Vio, the grand whisper, played a tune that was so mind crushingly epic that it made the air around start to disintegrate them from the inside out!"
Violeto: "What the f—"
Jovlane:"Then the titanic harbinger, Volen grew to a colossus size, destroying the floor and ceiling, taking a few dozen cult members out of the fight and down to the first floor—"
Violeto: "No, wait—"
Jovlane: "A good chunk of them managed to escape the fall but that's when Liliana, the sniper of divine judgment, started to pick them off with several perfect 360 no scopes—"
Violeto: Exasperated. "Oh come on!"
Jovlane: "In return they started opening fire on us. We took enough bullets to mow down an entire city—"
Violeto: "That's not what actually—"
Jovlane: "—But before their retaliation could do anything to us, Uhane, our unyielding oasis of life, casted a spell that made us bullet proof!"
Violeto: "Oh, for god's sake!"
Jovlane: "Seeing that they switched to their swords, but that too was futile. For we had Hotru, the Master Mercenary, as well as, Hika, the Strongest, Boatless Pirate parry all of their strikes. Then Hotru channeled a bolt of lighting into his sword mid sling, zapping them out of reality—"
Violeto: "I-I can't even—"
Jovlane: "—while Hika, who was duel wielding, took out another blade and placed it in his mouth before vanishing and reappearing behind a stampeding crowd. As he sheathed his blade they all exploded!"
Violeto: "What is this madness?!"
Jovlane: "Seeing that we wiped most of them out in seconds they called in the big guns. The sounds of battle began to get drowned out by that of an engine. We looked outside and saw a massive attack helicopter armed with three missile launchers and twin gatling guns fly towards us—"
Violeto: "Are you even trying to be at all accurate?!—"
Jovlane: "—but that's when Kaboom, the creator of duck—" A quack, from Kaboom. "—summoned his very before mentioned creation. His duck opened its mouth and shot out a massive laser beam that vaporized the helicopter as well as a few buildings behind it!"
Violeto: "What in the world?!"
Jovlane: "Finally it was just the blade giant. We did an epic back and forth. Trading blow after blow with each other. But luck favored him, for he was able to sink a good hit on me, impaling me with his arm. If i was a simple mortal then that would have been the end of me. But I am the Uhik! The supreme and all powerful gladiator! Instead of falling I grabbed onto him and lifted him over me, pulling off a suplex that dropped us both down a couple of floors—"
Violeto: Further losing all hope. "Oh, oh goodness—"
Jovlane: "—As he laid defeated I screamed a victory cry before jumping back up to join my friends. The commander of that bozo brigade was super pissed off, probably even pissed himself out of fear. As a last fuck you he summoned fourth fifty fireballs at us!"
Violeto: "No, no, no, no—"
Jovlane: "But in perfect unison, we all caught them mid launch and punched all fifty right back at that little bitch!—"
Violeto: "Goddamnit, Jov!—"
Jovlane: "Just before he exploded into flames we all turned around and walked away because the battle was ours!"
Violeto: Angry and exhausted. "Alright I get it! We had our battle with the cultists. But what you said was so far from reality that I won’t even try to salvage it. Like for example many of us wear casting spells but that’s all they were, SPELLS! Not parrying entire hoards of foes or vaporizing helicopters with gatling guns, and NONE of the major parts of the building were destroyed as collateral!"
Jovlane: "Agree to disagree. Anyway….after that was over we met up with the future stranger in person and he told us our fate. That we were destined for greatness! Also that I was destined to be fully recognized as the Uhik across all of the realms!"
Violeto: Exasperated. "I mean, I guess that was fairly accurate. Anyway, that my fellow adventurers is the tale we saved the Future Stranger from the clutches of the cult leader. Lastly for tonight I will leave you all with a moral to take away from this experience and that is to never—"
Jovlane: Cutting in for the umpteenth time. "The takeaway is that we’re awesome! And what I said was 300% accurate!"
Violeto: "Okay, you what, THAT'S IT!"
A 23rd Circle Spell
This spoken story was told by Stoker Bram.Hello, my name is Stoker Bram, a member of the Wolves of Sydathria. I'm going to tell you a story that - if I heard someone tell me - I would tell them that's bullshit. Understandably so. But it is true - you can ask any of my friends - they’ll tell you that it truly did happen… except for Olivier and Lyra because they weren't a part of the group yet… but I'm getting ahead of myself, and you're in your seats winding what I did. You know how magic normally only has nine circles? Well… I cast the biggest spell anyone has ever seen, or will see again. I cast a spell of the 23rd Circle. The Wolves… speaking of them I should tell you who they are… the Wolves are my best friends, and the only people I care about… so I will list them in no particular order. Zimri… he's the smart one… Lucy… is sad most of the time… but has a good heart… Elyssa… she’s scary strong and could kill me… Olivier… she kinda wants to kill me… but it's my fault that she wants to do that but she's a good healer… Saska… they know alot about magic and god… Knives… she’s a party animal… and then there's Lyra… the newest member, and really nice. So those are the Wolves of Sydathria. For context, they’re good people who try to make sure that the world doesn't end. And now you're probably wondering how, why, and where. I’ll give you the answers. I will start with the where - and that's kinda hard to explain… So it was in Verbera, which is a small island in Myzelis, full of magic monsters and a shitty god named Tanirst who likes to ruin peoples lives for a good story… …I'm getting off track. Verbera is one of the worst places to go vacationing at, unless you're one of those crazy people who like dark tourism or something. So we were there right? Wrong, well… kinda… right? Me and the Wolves of Sydathria were in a place called the Dreamlands - which is a different plane of existence in Verbera, which is somehow ten times worse than Verbera. It’s ruled by a even more evil elder god which - if I told you the name of it - would gain power and be summoned in this Realm so we would be absolutely fucked so I WON'T DO THAT… …you’re welcome, by the way. So there we were, in the hellscape of a different plane of existence, and we needed to get to a certain city to save Lucy’s sister. But that involved going through a town that we were told beforehand was going to be a bad time. But I wasn't too worried about it. We saw a lot of shit before this. How would this be any different, right? That’s until I saw the walls of this town, for the walls weren't made of stone or wood… but of not-quite-dead, not-quite-alive people. At least, I think they were once people, because if it wasn't for their faces of agony and the noises that they were making, it would be hard to think those shapes were ever people. Despite that, we marched on towards the town, which had a strikingly different vibe. The town was bright and colorful, and the people were partying and having fun. But… they weren't quite right. They looked like people but didn’t at the same time. It was like asking a child to draw what a person looks like. Some of them had too many arms, some had limbs that were too long. But they all wore masks of different colors. It was unsettling, to say the least. But we kept on walking forward - even when a freakish bird was trying to talk to us. But then Zimri realized that we were also wearing the masks. And, to make matters even worse, the lords of the town were headed our way, and the god forsaken masks on our faces forced us to bow down to them. I couldn't stand it. So I forced myself to stand up, which caught the attention of one of the lords wearing robes of yellow. And even though I couldn't see their faces, I knew they were looking straight through - no, not straight through me - down at me, disgusted at me. I was disgusted at this lord for forcing me to bow down. So I flipped him off in his non existent stupid fucking face. And at this moment I realized I fucked up. I fucked up so hard. I remembered the wall of suffering, and exactly how powerful these lords are. I was going to die and I put everyone I ever cared about in danger. All because I was too stubborn to bow down to someone. But right before the lord in yellow was going to take me, I had an “Ah ha!” moment. Because there's a funny thing about the Dreamlands - magic works different there, and you can use your life energy to make spells more powerful. So I used all of my magic - and felt my body wither as my body was turned into a vessel for magic. It was the most agonizing thing I ever put my body through to cast a 23rd Circle Suggestion spell. I said to this lord… “I suggest you leave us alone if you know what's best for you.” By the power of luck being on my side, the spell worked on the lords… and not just that. You know that evil elder god I talked about earlier? Yeah… so I convinced them that I was that evil elder god in disguise. Which happened to be a really good thing to convince them of, because just then one of the henchmen showed up to attack us… but the lords attacked them, thinking “Whoever this person was, was trying to harm the evil elder god who we’re buddy buddy with.” So they attacked this henchman, thinking that the henchman was an impostor. In the midst of the chaos of those two groups fighting, we ran away and finally escaped that town with no harm done. So, that's the story of how I cast a 23rd Circle spell.
Wolf Song
This song, composed as a ballad version of a marching song that would be sung acapella with call and response, was created and performed by Katya.My name is Katya. I was once a member of the Wolves of Sydathria. We parted ways a while ago on good terms but I still think of them, often. How can I not? I'm going to sing today. It's a song dedicated to us, to the Wolves, about our mutual fight against the Darkness That Lurks in the woods. Imagine if you will, at the end of this song, a whole pack all the voices joining together, singing and howling as one.Where there are fangs
There is a howling
With sharpened teeth
We walk the night
The crescent moon
Shines down no lighting
We bite the dark
To make it full
The Woods belong to no one
Horrors make their homes
And homes of structures are built beneath the trees
As wolves our home is nowhere
We go where there is need
Our home, we follow; a pack’s whoever leads
Where there are wolves
There’s hunters following
Even at night
They seek us out
The crescent moon
Smiles maniacally
With blunted teeth
It tears us raw
But still we fight
But still we stand
Our bloody paws
Feeding the moss
We bear our fangs
Like sturdy pines
We keep our home
We keep the night
The Night, The Night, The Night
the night, the night, the night
A thousand wanes we’ll slaughter
Becoming full under our bite
Stardust and the Autognome
This spoken story was told by Viktorine StarStalker with the aid of visual illusions.My name is Viktorine StarStalker, and I am the Necromantic Wizard for the Umbral Knights. I am a halfling gnome, with elvish features. With pale skin, black long braided hair, dressed in robes borrowed from a Fae Queen of the Spring Court, I conduct my magics through my violin bow, as I have designed it to be my wand as well. The rest of my party is made of a Warforged Artificer Gunslinger named Jayce, a Human Druid named Seamus, who is part of the local oppressed population, and another Warforged who wears the hats of multiple roles who goes by Lochrane. This is a story about the future of a land, its protectors, and one brave little Autognome. Let's understand the world we star in to begin. The land is called Veșnică, and it's at the bottom of the world. I came from Gylidd, with many voices heard and stories. The people in Veșnică only had one story, one voice; the silver dragons. And anyone who challenged this was killed, imprisoned, or had to hide. One of our key players was an imprisoned fae by the name of Stardust. She is a queen of her people, with powers to match her station. She was betrayed and locked away, her powers used to feed and keep parts of Veșnică flowing with eternal spring. It also kept the people to never be allowed part of the proper cycle of nature. Never be allowed the powers to cycle and be renewed. When she finally freed herself, everything and nothing was the same. Attempting to get help from old friends, Stardust was betrayed again. Barely being able to save herself, she stumbles upon a silver coin. One that promised her help in her time of need, and all she had to do was follow her heart. Help would come, power will be held again. We, the Umbral Knights, move to Eastlee, the place where outsiders land for the first time. It had a beautiful castle, older than the people who’ve owned it for a thousand years. Multiple churches of the different dragon religions of this island. The place where the betrayers have been siphoning Stardust's powers. And it’s where her madness, a curse from the Shrike of Hsira as he was mantling, stuck. Using her home, a flying island by the name of Storm’s Respite, she destroyed the castle of Eastlee and the magics that was protecting the ocean from falling into a hole to nothingness. As well as striking the black dragon's church, where her magic was being stolen. We were in Eastlee investigating the coins and their corrupting influences. And when the madness of Stardust visited Eastlee, our choice was to save the people of Eastlee instead of the people in charge. By doing so we found the siphon, and were able to rectify this by planting a magical tree. The tree is a blessing from Vrokíva, and was able to bless the land and restore what was stolen. As the tree was growing, two random beings came into town. One of them is an ally riding on their trusted steed. The other, a small mechanical humanoid falling from a portal through time. The Autognome had landed. We never learned where he came from, or the monks who knew we needed help from the future, but he was a brave soul who bonded with us immediately. The Autognome was never shown to have any powers or fighting capability, but it didn’t stop him from joining us in flying up to Storm’s Respite and stopping Stardust. As the Umbral Knights start the fight, and look for the coin that is causing this madness, the Autognome grabs an item given to him from the monks. A bean. Appearing directly in front of Stardust he “Deploy’s the Bean” and plants the bean into the small batch of land. Stardust disintegrates the Autognome, killing the mechanical man immediately. But she is too late to stop the power of the bean. To this day, I do not understand how, or the magic involved; a pyramid sprouts from it. Not a plant pyramid, but a pyramid for a Mummy Lord of unimaginable powers, who is in service to a patron that Lochrane of the Umbral Knights serves as well, and one who can contain the curse madness of the coins. During the fight Seamus, our druid, and myself go to the core of the Island, and find a giant crystal heart powering the entire island with one of those silver coins attached to it. We dislodge the coin, with Seamus saving my life by taking a discharge of energy that would have surely disintegrated me. While this is going on, the rest of the Umbral Knights are dealing with Stardust. They get her on the ropes, and in her desperation is able to disintegrate Lochrane. And right after her killing of Lochrane, the Mummy Lord known as Raemorna did the same to her. Stardust is defeated, the Umbral Knights commandeer Storm’s Respite and get it out of the city. With the powers used by the crystal heart, and a wish spell by Raemorna, we were able to bring back Lochrane. But the Autognome was outside our powers. By destroying the corrupted body of Stardust, her powers and soul was able to move forward to an uncorrupted body. Returning to her senses, Stardust has been doing everything in her power to protect the people and fae of Veșnică, her stolen powers slowly returning. The Umbral Knights are attempting to united the people of Veșnică, and protect the innocents who are caught up in a power play that has been in the making for a millennium. As for the Autognome, the only thing we can do for him is pass along his story. Nothing reminds of him, he had no tools, weapons, or anything that could show he existed and was here with us. Nothing except our story, told to anyone who will listen. There are so many more voices here in Veșnică than are allowed to be heard. So many stories, legends, beings who should be known who have been wiped from existence and time. I don’t have the time or ability to tell them all. But I felt this story was worth being told, and I hope you all did too.
The Tales of Dirk Dangerously
This spoken story was told by Askeladd Jensen with the aid of visual illusions.We've probably met before, though my face is probably hard to place. Some call me Sir Guy Pierce, others Kasper Hawser or Dirk Dangerously; But when at work in honest I am simply Askeladd Jensen. It's a pleasure to tell you a story this day. The land of Skafisle is a cold and troubled place these days, but it is not without it's heroes. The Den is one such group, and I found myself a part of their company for many, many months. Some members came and went from time to time, but there was something of a core group that stuck with it until the end; Juniper Medani, our half-elf cleric was a bit judgmental but that did seem on point for a servant of the god of law Arostophens. Valgrim Cobblersson, a gnome artificer who was passionate of footwear and deadly automatons. Nova Wolfsdotter, a warlock shifter and the purest definition of chaos. Kumoko, A shifter created as the result of arcane experiments imbued with sorcerous power. Qinnelis, an elven spellblade of incredible skill. While I was happy to help them find the phylacteries of Skaff alongside them, I was not without my own personal agenda. After a lot bit of scheming and by stealing a magic compass from a foolhardy friend, I had finally found a treasure I'd been looking for for years. The only trouble was it was in the hands of an assassin's guild lieutenant by the name of Amilia Andrega. So for the first time in a long time, I told my companions of my needs and the unusual nature of the treasure, and my enemy, and they agreed to help. All but one, Juniper Medani felt in the eyes of her god that I should not slay the assassin, but bring her to justice if possible before she'd agree to help. So, with twinkle in my eye and a lie to cover my bases we were on our way to Coastbreeze. When you aren't hunting for assassins, the town is actually quite pleasant. Crawling with mono-task automatons, its people are freed up to create art, study magic, socialize or do whatever pleases them. After a little pressing here and there, we discovered that the Specter assassins had taken a hide out in the sewers, and went to investigate. Our next difficulty was not getting our hands on this treasure (to my credit, I'm very good at what I do), nor finding the assassin's (as the magic compass could point us in the right direction), but convincing Amilia Andrega away from her cohort of assassins long enough to capture or kill her. Though she had all the charm of a rabid manticore, with help at her side she was so about as dangerous as one. Fortunately, we had worked out a plan long before we set out through the sewers. I would be busy securing the treasure with Kumoko, so I left the others to get Amilia's “help”. If there is one great way to catch a criminal, it's to hire them. The real trouble was sealing the deal. Sadly Juniper could barely lie to save her life, Nova couldn't be trusted to stick to a story, and Qinnelis had all the charm of a stoic stump. So it fell to brave Valgrim to make Amilia the offer that would see to her capture. Amilia was naturally very skeptical when her minions led us to her lair, but Valgrim stepped up with gusto. With an elaborate but believable story, he convinced her that there was a deadly monster guarding a phylactery that we needed her help dispatching. If she was willing to travel with us to the monster's lair and help kill it, she'd get 2,500 gold. As the old saying goes, “money talks.” and despite her apprehension about teleporting to the capitol of Vrittania, she agreed to help with the “job”. As the others were negotiating, I crept around through the assassin's lair with Kumoko. The assassins were easily dodged with my stealth-craft and Kumoko's magic, until we came across Amilia's trophy room. Bones of former victims, weapons and gold were strewn about the room in a macabre fashion, but our eyes were drawn to a well locked treasure chest, guarded with an alarm spell. We were stumped for a minute, until I asked Kumoko about dispelling the abjuration. Embarrassed that she forgot she could do that, a quick casting and a cunning use of lock picks saw us to the contents of the chest. Kumoko did seem surprised at the simple nature of my prize, but that didn't stop her from looting the rest of the contents as I slunk away to get ready for the next step of the plan. It was easy for Kumoko to sneak back under cover of invisibility, and given her size it was a simple matter for her to wriggle into an empty backpack that Nova was carrying. As for me, with my prize acquired I snuck ahead to the council hall of Coastbreeze. Before the others arrived I used my disguise kit to assume the role of Kasper Hawser, half-orc rogue of The Den arriving fashionably late. A strange choice maybe, but I considered there was a chance however slim that Amilia might ID me as a contract hit that got away. There was a concerning moment when she arrived; Questions of who I was, why I was late, why I couldn't meet with her in the sewers. It just goes to show that I am an exceptional liar; Exceptional makeup, solid accent work, wearing a shirt drenched in stale booze and a story of a monumental hangover cemented me as, “An oaf who needed to get it together.” in her eyes. And so the scheme continued. Using a teleportation circle that the Skafisle government had been happy to make available to us, we teleported to Arostophens, the capital of Vrittania. It spoke to Valgrim's efforts that Amilia would even step foot in the Arostophens, let alone its Chamber of Governance with such a bounty on her head. After the disorientation of teleporting, we struck. Hurling Beads of Force at Amilia, we had hoped to capture the assassin quickly and bring her to justice. Not once, but thrice in quick succession Amilia dodged the spheres, angered at our confusing betrayal. Blades were drawn, spells flew and my anger slipped loose. Before I took to thievery, I was just an actor. Learning scripts, embodying a character and their emotions. I thought I knew how to embody hate in a role. Amilia taught me to hate. I showed my thanks, plunging my short sword Byleistr into her back several times. The others moved in support as guards were summoned by confused citizens, Juniper throwing spells to subdue Amilia, Qinnelis and Valgrim dual cyclones of blade work, Kumoko slipping in and out of her backpack to hurl spells with Nova. I'm ashamed to admit I lost my cool, laughing and taunting Amilia as she threw herself out a two story window to escape. I pursued, crawling down the capitol building with spider climbing boots and planting bolts in her with my trusty hand crossbow, the Humbler. Despite our efforts and injuries, it truly looked for a moment that she might have a chance to slip away. She could have gotten away, warned her associates and had an entire assassin's guild breathing down our necks had it not been for one cunning move. Qinnelis, the mighty Qinn took aim from high up in the capital building and unleashed a winding bolt of magic at Amilia. In a blinding flash where once was a crazed killer was a confused, pink dolphin flopping in the street as our deft wizard polymorphed her. Heroic stories don't often include the ugly details. We had to explain ourselves to the town guards for some time. Juniper had a lot of sway, thanks to her role in the town's clergy. I got chewed out by her and several guards for starting a fight in the High Chambers of Arostophens, and we were threatened about losing our teleportation circle privileges. I'd been chewed out before, by professionals. Handing Arostophen brass a top figure to the Specter's assassin guild had a way of calming them down. What was the treasure you ask? Hmmmm. That night I had a dream, a memory from many years ago. A cold winter's night, not far from the Cann Market in Gylidd. The end of a lovely evening as a voice whispered in my ears, “Hey, close your eyes for a sec.” A gentle laugh as my hands are guided and gently wrapped around the horns of the beautiful tiefling woman standing in front of me. “I thought you said that was uncomfortable.” She just smiled, blushing a bright yellow. “Perhaps I just want to keep you trapped,” she said as she wrapped her hands over mine. A gentle tilt, a tender kiss. Snow blowing in the breeze. I smiled as I tossed in my sleep, gently holding my fiancée's horns. Things weren't right yet. But I was one step closer. Closer to our dream.
