Scott's Adult League Chronicles
Feb 21, 2016 22:39:20 GMT -8
Post by Scott on Feb 21, 2016 22:39:20 GMT -8
Twenty First of Secondmoon, 16049
Dear Asteria,
I am sure you understand the need for the somewhat roundabout manner I employed to get this letter to you, and I hope that it finds you well. How have your lessons been? I assume that you have been practicing, even without me there to look over your shoulder all the time. Have the priests been treating you well? What about father? I hope that my sudden departure did not upset him too much. I really am sorry I didn’t tell you before hand, he must have been furious. But, my training has progressed well, which I hope he will find pleasing. Perhaps if I return home as a guildmaster he will allow me to pursue illumination work formally, but, well, I do not have high hopes. Then again, at the rate i have been advancing I may even progress beyond guildmaster. It is difficult not to learn quickly as an adventurer—if you do not learn, you die.
Dearest sister, I realize that you will worry about me, and I doubt anything I say will assuage you. But, I am in good company. The others in this adventuring party are quite competent, and although some are a tad…odd…all of them I have met so far have been quite pleasant. They have not pried much either, for which I am grateful. Even my silence did not raise many questions, although that is perhaps because I resorted to a somewhat extreme measure to deflect such inquiries. And no, don’t ask for details; you don’t want to know. But, I am afraid that my silence has not stopped my outbursts entirely. I lost control earlier today, while fighting a slime creature of some description.
We were in the Suthenlor jungle, which is full of a staggering variety of things that want to eat you. Undead for one, which we encountered twice with strange creatures called Morgul Muds that can continuously reanimate them, as well as flowers with the breath of a dragon that will eat anything that comes close to them and giant walking stick-insects. There were also some animals that you would have loved, which resembled black house cats with white specks all over their fur. They were quite curious and somewhat playful, and had a handful of magical abilities. They helped us when everything went wrong. Some of our party had been killed and captured by one of these Morgul Muds and its accompaniment of bone warriors, which resemble skeletons with bone weapons instead of regular hands. We journeyed into the forest to rescue them, but the journey out of the forest was difficult. In particular, there was a pool of silver liquid sitting by the side of the path. I know that I should have let it alone, but my curiosity got the better of me. You know how I am. But in this case, my curiosity got people killed.
I had dipped the end of my scarf into the liquid, to see what it was. Someone in the party came up and touched it, trying to sense any magic. The liquid sort of ‘jumped’ from the scarf to his hand, and immediately it began attacking the rest of its body. One person who tried to help him had the liquid spread to his arm as well, and the same thing occurred. As this was all going on another party member dipped his whole sword into the pool, and it spread to his arm as well. In an attempt to restrain him he was killed, but not before it spread to another as well. I…I killed him in order to prevent the liquid from spreading further. I was loath to—you are well aware of how I get around blood, not to mention the fact that he was an ally, someone I was getting to know and trust. I just didn’t know what else to do. But that wasn’t the end of it.
A strange creature of some sort, roughly human-like in shape and made entirely from this silver fluid, had awakened at some point during all of this. We later learned that it is called a “demon slime,” and there was little we could do to it. It spread itself through touch, and whichever part of the body it spread to it seemed to gain control of, even going so far as to reanimate corpses and manipulating them like puppets despite their wounds. Many in our party, or at least those who were not already dead, fled. I can hardly blame them. Knowing the events that followed, the rest of us probably should have as well. By the time the chaos settled somewhat, there were three people that were entirely coated by the slime, and were fighting against us. At this point most of the remainder of the party fled, and some of these beings chased them. One stayed near me, and as it turns out my “blessing,” if you could call it that, proved most useful. The liquid, which clung so easily to others in our party and forced them to act against their will, simply fell away from me. At this point our former allies seemed to be relying on it quite heavily, as the liquid would flow up weapons and around shields to reach the target. I was able to kill one because of this, as well as another ally that the one I killed had animated with this fluid.
It was then that I lost it. To be honest I remember little of what happened next. I do remember…shredding…some of my allies-turned-enemies, tearing them to pieces to prevent the demon slime from animating them again. At the time, I thought little of it. All I could focus on was destroying these things they had become. I killed three, maybe four in all, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter. Or perhaps I was wounded, I do not know. As I understand it, at some point those cats I mentioned earlier came by, and somehow removed the liquid from those who were still out in the forest. I was able to make it back to town safely, although the same could not be said for many others in our party.
I’m afraid, Asteria. I don’t know how long I can do this for. The longer I bottle it up the worse it becomes, until it bursts out all at once. I hurt people today, people who I have come to know, at least a little bit. You know I’ve hurt friends before, but this was worse than any of those brawls or practice bouts. I killed them, tore them to pieces, and I didn’t even spare it a second thought. They were just bodies to be cut down, not people at all. What if a still-functioning ally had gotten in front of me? Would I have killed them as well? What about you? Had you been there, would I have cut you down also? The only solution seems to be to ensure that I fight only when necessary, or only with things that we are required by law to kill anyway. This is elven territory, so there are actually a fair number of such beings. I can only hope that will be sufficient. Even then, though, I fear that the next year will contain far, far more combat and bloodshed than I can conceive of at this point. I hope that I will be able to return safely to you in the future.
Luckily the incident in the Suthenlor was the only one of its kind today. I actually died this morning, and spent about half the day trapped in my body before I could “wisp out” and return to town. A group of us had been traveling towards the old capital of Eon Ion, where the haunt of Queen Chelse Amathesta resides. Her sorrow at the loss of her lover manifests itself as an enormous storefront teeming with haunts and other spirits that expands and contracts around the capital. Those that get trapped in the storm begin to feel some of Queen Amathesta’s torment and misery. Unfortunately, myself and two others did in fact get stuck. Our party had journeyed out towards the ruins while the storm was small and centered on the capital, allowing us to make some headway. But, unexpectedly the storm expanded, and we were forced to flee. Even before the clouds enveloped us we could feel the first whispers of agony, and one of our party members fell Another and myself tried to help, but he was a centaur and was to heavy for us to carry. Then another party member fell, an elf. At this point I was forced to abandon the centaur, since I could not carry him alone, and I attempted to drag the elf with me out of the woods. Alas, I could not move as quickly while carrying him, and I was caught in the shroud. I will not go into details, but suffice it to say that death was not an unwelcome thing.
Despite dying I was able to recover just fine, but by then the day was almost over. As I understand it at some point our party encountered several groups of Geb military, and dealt with them accordingly. Because of their proximity to Eon Ion Geb is something of a problem, and so it is an ongoing mission to patrol the waters between the two nations and clear out any pirates in the area.
The final mission took place after dark, and, I am excited to report, it involved dragons! Two of them in fact, both iron dragons. One of our party members, a gnome, had just received a sword of some description, and wished to awaken it. He sought out a dragon to do so, although why he did I do not know. Either way we eventually found ourselves standing in a large cave, faced with two full-grown and completely terrifying dragons. It was dark, and so their overall shape was fairly indistinct, but I cannot even begin to properly describe the absolute enormity of these creatures. Also, as it turned out they were a tad aggressive, but again my so-called blessing was most useful. One of the dragons employed its breath weapon against the party several times, but each time it had no effect on me at all despite disabling all the limbs of everyone else struck. It apparently decided that this was “interesting,” and that I could “run away if you want.” I stayed, although I also was certain to keep out of the creature’s way. I do not know what happened after that, only that the dragons ate one individual from our party and allowed the rest of us to depart safely. I think that I shall endeavor to avoid any dragons in the future—the seem dangerous, to say the least.
That is all, for now. Perhaps I will send another letter soon. If father’s business ever takes him down this way, you ought to stop by the Silverlight Inn. It is where all of us adventurers are staying, and I would love to see you again!
Love,
~Atlas
Dear Asteria,
I am sure you understand the need for the somewhat roundabout manner I employed to get this letter to you, and I hope that it finds you well. How have your lessons been? I assume that you have been practicing, even without me there to look over your shoulder all the time. Have the priests been treating you well? What about father? I hope that my sudden departure did not upset him too much. I really am sorry I didn’t tell you before hand, he must have been furious. But, my training has progressed well, which I hope he will find pleasing. Perhaps if I return home as a guildmaster he will allow me to pursue illumination work formally, but, well, I do not have high hopes. Then again, at the rate i have been advancing I may even progress beyond guildmaster. It is difficult not to learn quickly as an adventurer—if you do not learn, you die.
Dearest sister, I realize that you will worry about me, and I doubt anything I say will assuage you. But, I am in good company. The others in this adventuring party are quite competent, and although some are a tad…odd…all of them I have met so far have been quite pleasant. They have not pried much either, for which I am grateful. Even my silence did not raise many questions, although that is perhaps because I resorted to a somewhat extreme measure to deflect such inquiries. And no, don’t ask for details; you don’t want to know. But, I am afraid that my silence has not stopped my outbursts entirely. I lost control earlier today, while fighting a slime creature of some description.
We were in the Suthenlor jungle, which is full of a staggering variety of things that want to eat you. Undead for one, which we encountered twice with strange creatures called Morgul Muds that can continuously reanimate them, as well as flowers with the breath of a dragon that will eat anything that comes close to them and giant walking stick-insects. There were also some animals that you would have loved, which resembled black house cats with white specks all over their fur. They were quite curious and somewhat playful, and had a handful of magical abilities. They helped us when everything went wrong. Some of our party had been killed and captured by one of these Morgul Muds and its accompaniment of bone warriors, which resemble skeletons with bone weapons instead of regular hands. We journeyed into the forest to rescue them, but the journey out of the forest was difficult. In particular, there was a pool of silver liquid sitting by the side of the path. I know that I should have let it alone, but my curiosity got the better of me. You know how I am. But in this case, my curiosity got people killed.
I had dipped the end of my scarf into the liquid, to see what it was. Someone in the party came up and touched it, trying to sense any magic. The liquid sort of ‘jumped’ from the scarf to his hand, and immediately it began attacking the rest of its body. One person who tried to help him had the liquid spread to his arm as well, and the same thing occurred. As this was all going on another party member dipped his whole sword into the pool, and it spread to his arm as well. In an attempt to restrain him he was killed, but not before it spread to another as well. I…I killed him in order to prevent the liquid from spreading further. I was loath to—you are well aware of how I get around blood, not to mention the fact that he was an ally, someone I was getting to know and trust. I just didn’t know what else to do. But that wasn’t the end of it.
A strange creature of some sort, roughly human-like in shape and made entirely from this silver fluid, had awakened at some point during all of this. We later learned that it is called a “demon slime,” and there was little we could do to it. It spread itself through touch, and whichever part of the body it spread to it seemed to gain control of, even going so far as to reanimate corpses and manipulating them like puppets despite their wounds. Many in our party, or at least those who were not already dead, fled. I can hardly blame them. Knowing the events that followed, the rest of us probably should have as well. By the time the chaos settled somewhat, there were three people that were entirely coated by the slime, and were fighting against us. At this point most of the remainder of the party fled, and some of these beings chased them. One stayed near me, and as it turns out my “blessing,” if you could call it that, proved most useful. The liquid, which clung so easily to others in our party and forced them to act against their will, simply fell away from me. At this point our former allies seemed to be relying on it quite heavily, as the liquid would flow up weapons and around shields to reach the target. I was able to kill one because of this, as well as another ally that the one I killed had animated with this fluid.
It was then that I lost it. To be honest I remember little of what happened next. I do remember…shredding…some of my allies-turned-enemies, tearing them to pieces to prevent the demon slime from animating them again. At the time, I thought little of it. All I could focus on was destroying these things they had become. I killed three, maybe four in all, and lost consciousness shortly thereafter. Or perhaps I was wounded, I do not know. As I understand it, at some point those cats I mentioned earlier came by, and somehow removed the liquid from those who were still out in the forest. I was able to make it back to town safely, although the same could not be said for many others in our party.
I’m afraid, Asteria. I don’t know how long I can do this for. The longer I bottle it up the worse it becomes, until it bursts out all at once. I hurt people today, people who I have come to know, at least a little bit. You know I’ve hurt friends before, but this was worse than any of those brawls or practice bouts. I killed them, tore them to pieces, and I didn’t even spare it a second thought. They were just bodies to be cut down, not people at all. What if a still-functioning ally had gotten in front of me? Would I have killed them as well? What about you? Had you been there, would I have cut you down also? The only solution seems to be to ensure that I fight only when necessary, or only with things that we are required by law to kill anyway. This is elven territory, so there are actually a fair number of such beings. I can only hope that will be sufficient. Even then, though, I fear that the next year will contain far, far more combat and bloodshed than I can conceive of at this point. I hope that I will be able to return safely to you in the future.
Luckily the incident in the Suthenlor was the only one of its kind today. I actually died this morning, and spent about half the day trapped in my body before I could “wisp out” and return to town. A group of us had been traveling towards the old capital of Eon Ion, where the haunt of Queen Chelse Amathesta resides. Her sorrow at the loss of her lover manifests itself as an enormous storefront teeming with haunts and other spirits that expands and contracts around the capital. Those that get trapped in the storm begin to feel some of Queen Amathesta’s torment and misery. Unfortunately, myself and two others did in fact get stuck. Our party had journeyed out towards the ruins while the storm was small and centered on the capital, allowing us to make some headway. But, unexpectedly the storm expanded, and we were forced to flee. Even before the clouds enveloped us we could feel the first whispers of agony, and one of our party members fell Another and myself tried to help, but he was a centaur and was to heavy for us to carry. Then another party member fell, an elf. At this point I was forced to abandon the centaur, since I could not carry him alone, and I attempted to drag the elf with me out of the woods. Alas, I could not move as quickly while carrying him, and I was caught in the shroud. I will not go into details, but suffice it to say that death was not an unwelcome thing.
Despite dying I was able to recover just fine, but by then the day was almost over. As I understand it at some point our party encountered several groups of Geb military, and dealt with them accordingly. Because of their proximity to Eon Ion Geb is something of a problem, and so it is an ongoing mission to patrol the waters between the two nations and clear out any pirates in the area.
The final mission took place after dark, and, I am excited to report, it involved dragons! Two of them in fact, both iron dragons. One of our party members, a gnome, had just received a sword of some description, and wished to awaken it. He sought out a dragon to do so, although why he did I do not know. Either way we eventually found ourselves standing in a large cave, faced with two full-grown and completely terrifying dragons. It was dark, and so their overall shape was fairly indistinct, but I cannot even begin to properly describe the absolute enormity of these creatures. Also, as it turned out they were a tad aggressive, but again my so-called blessing was most useful. One of the dragons employed its breath weapon against the party several times, but each time it had no effect on me at all despite disabling all the limbs of everyone else struck. It apparently decided that this was “interesting,” and that I could “run away if you want.” I stayed, although I also was certain to keep out of the creature’s way. I do not know what happened after that, only that the dragons ate one individual from our party and allowed the rest of us to depart safely. I think that I shall endeavor to avoid any dragons in the future—the seem dangerous, to say the least.
That is all, for now. Perhaps I will send another letter soon. If father’s business ever takes him down this way, you ought to stop by the Silverlight Inn. It is where all of us adventurers are staying, and I would love to see you again!
Love,
~Atlas