Year 18

“Yep, Garrick’s been very impressed with you. I’d say a few more jobs and you’ll finally get invited to where all the magic takes place.” Sneaks says.
“I can hardly wait.” You say.
“Well geez son, don’t sound so enthusiastic. Last year you kept asking me if you were any closer to getting into the Guild headquarters.”
“Last year, I was still a bit more optimistic about my choice in joining the guild.”
“Oh? And how exactly did we fail you your majesty?”
“That’s not exactly what I mean, but if we’re going that route, I just thought I’d be doing slightly better while aligned with you lot.”

Sneaks starts laughing.

“Well that’s your first problem right there. Joining a criminal organization that’s currently feuding with another one isn’t exactly a stable future son.” Sneaks says.
“I know that too, it’s just…okay…I’m just a little concerned that we aren’t doing too much directly against the Ebony Claw Syndicate. I mean shouldn’t we be doing something more to decrease their power? Their presence hasn’t exactly decreased in the city and if anything it has only gotten stronger.” You respond.
“I dunno about that, I’d say they’re probably struggling like everyone else currently. If they were truly stronger in presence they’d be directly attacking us and some of our hangouts more often.”
“Well that’s still a problem since it’s still not progress, it’s just keeping the status quo.”
“So, what are you going to do? Shoot them all?”
“Well considering how many I have shot, I’d say it’s not a bad plan. Not to mention it’s something I could have easily done on my own.”
“And you would have been dead already on your own. But if you really feel like you could do better on your own then nothing is holding back from leaving. Why stay?”
“Because obviously I’m still an optimistic idiot.”
“I don’t believe that, I believe its MORE likely you’re just sticking around because you’re an infatuated idiot.”
“What?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, I know you still got a thing for Tanya after I told you to just walk away. I remember when we all had to work on that job together three months ago, I swear at one point with how hard you were starin’ at her, I thought you were going to whip your dick out and start wackin’ it right there.”

You laugh at that remark.

“You laugh because you know it’s true.” Sneaks says.
“Yeah well it certainly is a better reason than anything else I could come up with, and I’m not totally convinced that goal isn’t at least as possible as wiping out the ECS as a force in this city.” You respond.
“I dunno about that. You’ve at least killed Ebony Claw members, you haven’t even gotten a kind word from Tanya yet.”
“Yes I did! She said she couldn’t believe I was still alive and that I had to be the idiot bastard son of Yag eternally blessed with more luck than actual ability.”
“Hm. Well actually coming from her that IS a kind word. Congrats. At the risk of inflating your ego even more…and she’d probably kill me if I told you…she actually would somewhat agree with you on your views about the Ebony Claw. She sort of wishes we took the fight more to them too. Actually you could probably count me in that group as well.”
“So why the hell aren’t we doing more then and why isn’t Garrick being pro-active?”
“He actually is, just not in the way you think. He thinks an all out gang war would be a mistake due to them having the numbers. He might be right, I don’t know. But all that shit we steal and the Guild gets a cut of? That doesn’t all just go towards equipment and extra casks of booze for the headquarters. Some of that money goes towards more important things like bribes, paying off the Watch and getting a few underpaid bean counters on our side to muddle paper work on occasion.”
“Well that’s great and all, but how’s that fuck up the Ebony Claw?”
“It doesn’t, but it keeps a balance. You don’t think they don’t do the same thing? Try to manipulate the law in their favor? The only reason why the Holgard Watch doesn’t mess with either side much is because they’re taking bribes from both sides. They got best racket in this city. They practically never even have to do their fucking jobs! Garrick HOPES that one day he’ll be able to manipulate the right people that will cripple the EC, but I can say right now, he’s doomed to failure, because at his core, he’s too fucking nice. Bribery only gets you so far. To do what he wants to do, he’d need to rely more on blackmail and extortion, which isn’t something he’s too fond of getting heavily into.”
“Surprised nobody’s tried to kill him and take power from him.”
“I said he’s nice, not a pussy. There have been a few who have tried over the years, mostly before the EC established a greater presence, but the man isn’t unskilled in the ways of defending himself. Besides the Thieves Guild isn’t the Ebony Claw and because Garrick is so fucking nice, people generally like him enough that they’d rather keep him as head of the organization. Not to mention we don’t exactly have the most ambitious bunch in the Guild. Most of the really ruthless, kill their own mother types to get ahead join the EC. We’re not Joachimites, but I’d still wager that most of us in the Guild have just a few more scruples than the average EC member.”
“Yeah, well scruples doesn’t win wars.”
“No argument there. Look kid, I’m not sure what to tell you, except I do hope you stick with us. I don’t care what your reasons are, whether its for safety, or riches or your ongoing failed pursuit of Tanya’s demon pussy. We need more…for the lack of a better word…warrior types in the Guild.”
“Never considered myself a warrior before, but I suppose I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“Of course you will, that’s how I meant it. Anyway, I gotta go. Garrick’s holding some sort of meeting for some of us important elite. Tell ya what, I’ll try to convince Garrick to let you in the Guild’s inner sanctum already. I know it’s not Tanya’s inner sanctum, but here’s something that might help you in that goal, she’s supposed to be casing the Museum of the Ancients tonight. Who knows, maybe if you get there quick enough she might even let you help.”

As your eyes light up, Sneaks smiles and parts ways with you.

You of course don’t waste any time heading to the Museum of the Ancients.

You’ve never considered burglarizing that place before, but you suppose it makes sense that there would be some pretty valuable stuff in there. Though you imagine that it’s more protected than even some of the banks here.

You’ve only had the fortune of working with Tanya a couple times before and that was always in a group and she of course always limited her contact with you in those cases.

You still don’t exactly know WHY you’re as drawn to her as you are. Well you do and it’s probably due to her demonic heritage and whatever powers of charm she put on you. (Accidently you guess given her stand offish personality towards you)

Sneaks said the effects should have worn off by now since you don’t even see her that much. Granted you aren’t thinking about her all the time, but if you ever have the chance to be around her (Like you do now) you’re going to take it.

Luckily you manage to arrive unaccosted by anyone, the law or otherwise. Now you’re just hoping you find Tanya before the fun begins.

The surrounding area outside the museum, the place is more or less empty. There aren’t too many other people in the area other than a few Holgard Watchmen patrolling around which you keep clear of.

You look around to see where Tanya might be, but again its possible she already went inside. You bet she went in from the rooftop. Every time you’ve worked with her, she’s always favoring the rooftops.

Of course you prefer a more grounded approach so as soon as it looks safe, you simply run up to the front door and pick the lock, which is a lot easier than you thought it would be.

You look around the museum and mostly see a lot of oversized items that you’d need at least two people to carry to get out of here. Statues, suits of rusty armor, oversized tapestries and the like. While you’re sure some of this stuff is valuable to someone, it wouldn’t exactly be the easiest to just lift out of here. Though you haven’t seen or heard any night guards of any kind at all. Seems weird that this place doesn’t have any security.

You try to keep an ear out for anyone that might be walk around, but it’s nothing but silence. You start to wonder if she came and left already or maybe this was all Sneaks idea of a practical joke. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Since you can’t find her or detect anyone else roaming these halls, you decide that you might as well see if there actually is anything here that you might be worth taking.

Eventually after wandering a bit, you stumble into an area that seems more promising.

“Royal treasures of Old Galpatis” you say to yourself as you read the sign to exhibit room.

You don’t know too much about Galpatis except shit that your sister sometimes spoke about from some book she read. It was supposed to be a great empire thousands of years ago that destroyed itself as all these ancient civilizations tend to do for whatever reason. Probably had something to do with necromancy or something.

In any case you enter and see in the dim torchlight you see proper treasure that you could actually carry out of here. A lot of old necklaces, bracelets, crowns with gems and similar items behind glass, though some, like the weapons are mounted securely on the wall.

A couple of weapons that catch your eye are a pair of ornate looking dagger. Not even tarnished and definitely still usable. You probably could easily pry them from the walls though you’d have to reach a bit since they’re little higher than you.

Of course you do have your trusty glasscutter with you and you could just start getting to work on grabbing what you can from the displays.
> You cut the glass
You’ve already got enough daggers; you don’t really need to waste time getting some slightly fancier ones while there are obviously more valuable objects that you can pilfer.

You look around for potential traps or alarms around the display cases and find nothing, so you get started and begin carefully cutting the glass.

The jeweled crown is what really catches your eye. The regular jewelry is going to bring a nice price of course, but that crown isn’t like something you’ve ever stolen before.

You remove the glass and grab the crown. No sooner have you picked it up and that’s when you feel an unnatural chill in the air and you’re struck by a powerful vision.

You see a sprawling city though it’s much larger than any sort of city you’ve ever been to (granted you’ve only been to Holgard, but you can tell it’s much bigger than that). Also unlike Holgard everything is very orderly and the buildings are in much better condition in general.

At first you wonder if you’re seeing some city in the Delantium Kingdom since you’ve never been there, but something about this place seems different. Like you don’t think you’re even in the same time period. The people are dressed very different than you know. The building architecture isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen.

Once again searching your memory again of your sister’s old stories, you think you’re seeing Galpatis. Or at least some portion of the old empire.

Currently, you’re seeing everything from above. Almost like you’re flying over the city, but you’re not actually there. The only thing that is certain is that you’re still holding the crown in your hand.

Before you can ponder what exactly is going on, a voice suddenly pierces your mind.

“THIEF! DISCARD ME NOW OR FACE DIRE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR GREED!”

Well that command couldn’t be much clearer.

As far as you know you aren’t in any immediate danger, but then right now you’re seeing a vision and you don’t know what’s going on in the “real world.” For all you know you could be surrounded by guards.

The “voice” you’re hearing could even be some sort of protection to scare rogues such as yourself into dropping the crown.

You’re either going to have to mentally break the illusion you’re experiencing or drop the crown and give up on this prize.
> You drop the crown
There is some strange magic at work here and it’s obviously best if you didn’t fuck around with it. You play it safe and release the crown.

No sooner that you do so that you feel like you’re falling and then you suddenly back in the museum room again and the crown is back in its case with the glass once again intact.

“Shit, that was weird.” You say and stare at the crown a bit. You then immediately notice how much colder it is in this room. You aren’t even sure how long you’ve been actually sitting here.

Feeling uneasy, you stand up and head towards the exit of this room only to be stopped by a living statue.

“Fuck!” you shout, only narrowly dodging the statue’s swing at your head.

You turn to run out the other side of the room, but you then see two more statues blocking that way as well.

You desperately try to fight your way out, expending all your shots and destroying a good portion of one of the statues, but more of them come into the room and block your escape.

All it takes is one of them to get in a good hit. The bones in the left side of your face shatter as you go down to the floor from one of their punches. You try to get up, but the rest of your skull is crushed under a statue’s stone foot.


You’ve already got enough daggers; you don’t really need to waste time getting some slightly fancier ones while there are obviously more valuable objects that you can pilfer.

You look around for potential traps or alarms around the display cases and find nothing, so you get started and begin carefully cutting the glass.

The jeweled crown is what really catches your eye. The regular jewelry is going to bring a nice price of course, but that crown isn’t like something you’ve ever stolen before.

You remove the glass and grab the crown. No sooner have you picked it up and that’s when you feel an unnatural chill in the air and you’re struck by a powerful vision.

You see a sprawling city though it’s much larger than any sort of city you’ve ever been to (granted you’ve only been to Holgard, but you can tell it’s much bigger than that). Also unlike Holgard everything is very orderly and the buildings are in much better condition in general.

At first you wonder if you’re seeing some city in the Delantium Kingdom since you’ve never been there, but something about this place seems different. Like you don’t think you’re even in the same time period. The people are dressed very different than you know. The building architecture isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen.

Once again searching your memory again of your sister’s old stories, you think you’re seeing Galpatis. Or at least some portion of the old empire.

Currently, you’re seeing everything from above. Almost like you’re flying over the city, but you’re not actually there. The only thing that is certain is that you’re still holding the crown in your hand.

Before you can ponder what exactly is going on, a voice suddenly pierces your mind.

“THIEF! DISCARD ME NOW OR FACE DIRE CONSEQUENCES FOR YOUR GREED!”

Well that command couldn’t be much clearer.

As far as you know you aren’t in any immediate danger, but then right now you’re seeing a vision and you don’t know what’s going on in the “real world.” For all you know you could be surrounded by guards.

The “voice” you’re hearing could even be some sort of protection to scare rogues such as yourself into dropping the crown.

You’re either going to have to mentally break the illusion you’re experiencing or drop the crown and give up on this prize.
> You keep the crown
This is a unique form of security, but you’re no weak willed fool. You begin to try to disbelieve your surroundings and try to move.

Seeing as you’re in the air, it’s almost like you’re swimming. It’s all pretty surreal and you’re expecting this illusion to end.

“FOOL! IF YOU WANT THE SACRED TREASURES OF GALPATIS SO BAD THEN EXPERIENCE ITS TRUE GLORY!” The voice booms and suddenly you’re falling towards the city!

The shock causes you to panic because now this doesn’t feel like an illusion. You immediately drop the crown believing that it might correct things, but all that happens is the crown starts falling to the ground too.

At first you think you’re going to die, but then you notice that you’re falling not just towards the city, but you’re over an area which looks to have some large trees. With a little luck, MAYBE you can slow your descent before hitting the ground.

Shifting your weight slightly, you brace for painful impact of attempting to hit every branch on the way down.

When you’re within reach of the top of the tree, you desperately start grabbing at extended branches just within reach. You unsurprisingly break several of them trying to hang on, along with ripping your hands up pretty good. You’re very lucky you don’t get impaled and eventually you hit the ground bruising most of your body. You curse when you notice your pistol has broken into two pieces.

However, you’re still alive. Though in your dazed state, you realize that your “arrival” didn’t go unnoticed with several strangely dressed onlookers pointing at you. A couple of them even shout over at you.

You sit up and using the base of the tree you stand yourself up. You’re in a lot of pain right now, and it’s at this moment that you realize you can’t understand what any of these gawkers are saying to each other or you. Some of the words sound similar to ones you know, but it’s almost like they’re all speaking a different language.

You at first wonder if you hit the ground so hard that it damaged your head so you can’t understand what people are saying anymore, but given where you are and how everyone is dressed, you’ve got a bad feeling that you’re a LONG way from Holgard anymore.

And for all you know this could still all be some elaborate illusion.

In any case, you’re drawing a crowd and you’ve had enough experience to know that’s never a good thing. You quickly make your escape away from the crowd, especially when you hear more shouting coming towards your position.

You don’t know where the hell you are, but you’re guessing it must be a park of some sort inside the city. You need to find a secluded place and get your bearings.

As you move as quickly as you can with a twisted ankle and sore feet, you spy out the corner of your eye, the crown laying in the grass by some bushes. Seeing as this is what got you into this in the first place, you figure you might as well retrieve it.

No sooner have you picked it up again, you hear the voice again.

“STILL ALIVE THIEF? YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOU LOOK.”
“End this illusion…whatever you are!” you sputter.
“THIS IS NO ILLUSION. WHAT YOU SEE IS VERY REAL. JUST LIKE YOUR PAIN. YOU WANTED A GREAT TREASURE OF OLD GALPATIS. THERE IS NO GREATER TREASURE THAN LIVING DURING THE APEX OF ITS GLORY. TIS MORE THAN A SCOUNDREL LIKE YOU DESERVES!”
“Wait. You’re…you’re saying I’m actually here? I traveled back in fucking time?! Bullshit, this has to be an illusion!”
“DISBELIEVE AT YOUR OWN PERIL, BUT THERE ARE NO LIES AND THERE IS NO RETURN. YOU LOST THAT OPTION WHEN YOU STUCK WITH YOUR GREED. YOUR LIFE OF GREED HAS ALREADY COST YOU DEARLY. HOWEVER, YOU HAVE THE CHANCE AT A NEW LIFE IF YOU LET GO. CONTINUE ON YOUR PATH AND YOU WILL MOST CERTAINLY BE DOOMED.”

This is a lot to take in. You truly do not know what to make of all this. If this crown, or voice, or whatever is telling the truth, you are in deeper shit than you could have ever imagined.

You’re stuck not just in an unknown city or even a foreign land, you’re in a whole other time period!

You’ve got to think. Of course, while you’re thinking about how you’re going to survive in this new situation, you still might need a lot of coin to make it a little easier.

You look at the crown.
> You keep the crown
Again, this crown got you into this mess; you might as well keep it at this point. You tuck the crown away in your pack hoping that it stops speaking to you.

You limp away and eventually find your way out of the park. (Or what you assume was a park anyway)

You walk down a street catching a lot of glances. Most of the inhabitants of this city are human (Though you’re seeing a couple of races that you’ve never even seen before) so you’re not standing out so much on that aspect, but the way you’re dressed is definitely cause for intrigue.

Unfortunately for you, you’re so intriguing that when several military looking men come running in your direction they immediately begin shouting at you in a language that you still can’t understand.

You aren’t really in any condition to run and there are enough of them that you don’t think you could fight them all. You don’t even have the advantage of your pistol any longer.

Having no other choice, you attempt to play it dumb and make gestures that you don’t understand them. It isn’t really a plan, so much as it’s the lack of one since you really can’t understand them. Though eventually when they get exasperated enough, you understand them all too well.

One of the soldiers grabs you while another begins grabbing your belongings such as your weapons and your pack. They toss everything out, but when they see the crown, all of their eyes narrow and you know enough that you’re in even deeper shit.

You can’t make out everything they say in between the beating, but you think you understood some of the words as older forms of various swears. You also heard “emperor” which is very bad since as far as you can figure, the crown belongs to the emperor of Galpatis Empire.

While you expect to be killed right there in the streets, the soldiers eventually stop beating you and take you away in chains. Apparently they uphold a very civilized legal system here and you are to be properly judged rather than just executed immediately.

You spend months in a dungeon waiting for judgment. During those first few weeks you try to find a way to escape. When you never find an opening of any sort, you just give up. After all what would you escape to? You’re nowhere near home or anything else that you know. You are a man out of time.

Resigned to your situation, you spend the remainder of your time learning some of the language to crudely communicate with the guards or other prisoners. You learn manage to learn a few things that your sister would find very interesting seeing as she did read a few things about Galpatis. Your chances of ever telling her are nil of course. Still, you hope she’s doing a lot better than you currently are.

Eventually your day arrives and predictably your case is pretty cut and dry. You’re found guilty of stealing one of the emperor’s royal crowns (You guess he has several) and the sentence is death. You have to wonder why it took so damn long to sentence you seeing as they found it on you. You can only guess this place has a really backed up legal system on top of it being “civilized.”

While it doesn’t help you out, it makes you wonder if this was “meant to happen.” Like were you supposed to go back in time and steal this crown? Did this originally happen?

But then you didn’t really steal it at all or at least you didn’t steal it in this time period. The guards just found it on you, but they clearly were LOOKING for a thief. So what happened to the original one?

You eventually stop worrying about it; it’s not going to matter anyway.

The waiting period for the execution is happily a lot swifter and by the time you walk to the chopping block; you’re ready to accept your fate.


This is a unique form of security, but you’re no weak willed fool. You begin to try to disbelieve your surroundings and try to move.

Seeing as you’re in the air, it’s almost like you’re swimming. It’s all pretty surreal and you’re expecting this illusion to end.

“FOOL! IF YOU WANT THE SACRED TREASURES OF GALPATIS SO BAD THEN EXPERIENCE ITS TRUE GLORY!” The voice booms and suddenly you’re falling towards the city!

The shock causes you to panic because now this doesn’t feel like an illusion. You immediately drop the crown believing that it might correct things, but all that happens is the crown starts falling to the ground too.

At first you think you’re going to die, but then you notice that you’re falling not just towards the city, but you’re over an area which looks to have some large trees. With a little luck, MAYBE you can slow your descent before hitting the ground.

Shifting your weight slightly, you brace for painful impact of attempting to hit every branch on the way down.

When you’re within reach of the top of the tree, you desperately start grabbing at extended branches just within reach. You unsurprisingly break several of them trying to hang on, along with ripping your hands up pretty good. You’re very lucky you don’t get impaled and eventually you hit the ground bruising most of your body. You curse when you notice your pistol has broken into two pieces.

However, you’re still alive. Though in your dazed state, you realize that your “arrival” didn’t go unnoticed with several strangely dressed onlookers pointing at you. A couple of them even shout over at you.

You sit up and using the base of the tree you stand yourself up. You’re in a lot of pain right now, and it’s at this moment that you realize you can’t understand what any of these gawkers are saying to each other or you. Some of the words sound similar to ones you know, but it’s almost like they’re all speaking a different language.

You at first wonder if you hit the ground so hard that it damaged your head so you can’t understand what people are saying anymore, but given where you are and how everyone is dressed, you’ve got a bad feeling that you’re a LONG way from Holgard anymore.

And for all you know this could still all be some elaborate illusion.

In any case, you’re drawing a crowd and you’ve had enough experience to know that’s never a good thing. You quickly make your escape away from the crowd, especially when you hear more shouting coming towards your position.

You don’t know where the hell you are, but you’re guessing it must be a park of some sort inside the city. You need to find a secluded place and get your bearings.

As you move as quickly as you can with a twisted ankle and sore feet, you spy out the corner of your eye, the crown laying in the grass by some bushes. Seeing as this is what got you into this in the first place, you figure you might as well retrieve it.

No sooner have you picked it up again, you hear the voice again.

“STILL ALIVE THIEF? YOU ARE STRONGER THAN YOU LOOK.”
“End this illusion…whatever you are!” you sputter.
“THIS IS NO ILLUSION. WHAT YOU SEE IS VERY REAL. JUST LIKE YOUR PAIN. YOU WANTED A GREAT TREASURE OF OLD GALPATIS. THERE IS NO GREATER TREASURE THAN LIVING DURING THE APEX OF ITS GLORY. TIS MORE THAN A SCOUNDREL LIKE YOU DESERVES!”
“Wait. You’re…you’re saying I’m actually here? I traveled back in fucking time?! Bullshit, this has to be an illusion!”
“DISBELIEVE AT YOUR OWN PERIL, BUT THERE ARE NO LIES AND THERE IS NO RETURN. YOU LOST THAT OPTION WHEN YOU STUCK WITH YOUR GREED. YOUR LIFE OF GREED HAS ALREADY COST YOU DEARLY. HOWEVER, YOU HAVE THE CHANCE AT A NEW LIFE IF YOU LET GO. CONTINUE ON YOUR PATH AND YOU WILL MOST CERTAINLY BE DOOMED.”

This is a lot to take in. You truly do not know what to make of all this. If this crown, or voice, or whatever is telling the truth, you are in deeper shit than you could have ever imagined.

You’re stuck not just in an unknown city or even a foreign land, you’re in a whole other time period!

You’ve got to think. Of course, while you’re thinking about how you’re going to survive in this new situation, you still might need a lot of coin to make it a little easier.

You look at the crown.
> You discard it
The crown’s been nothing but trouble and you’re likely just going to suffer more by keeping the damn thing. Not to mention you don’t really want to put up with its scolding advice again.

Throwing the crown into the bushes you limp away and eventually find your way out of the park. (Or what you assume was a park anyway)

You walk down a street catching a lot of glances. Most of the inhabitants of this city are human (Though you’re seeing a couple of races that you’ve never even seen before) so you’re not standing out so much on that aspect, but the way you’re dressed is definitely cause for intrigue.

Unfortunately for you, you’re so intriguing that when several military looking men come running in your direction they immediately begin shouting at you in a language that you still can’t understand.

You aren’t really in any condition to run and there are enough of them that you don’t think you could fight them all. You don’t even have the advantage of your pistol any longer.

Having no other choice, you attempt to play it dumb and make gestures that you don’t understand them. It isn’t really a plan; so much as it’s the lack of one since you really can’t understand them. Though eventually when they get exasperated enough, you understand them all too well.

One of the soldiers grabs you while another begins grabbing your belongings such as your weapons and your pack. They dump everything out and then after a few words to each other, one of them points in a different direction and they all leave. Whatever it is they were looking for you didn’t have, though you get the very real impression that it was a good idea to leave that crown behind after all.

Of course your situation is still pretty damn dire. You’re stuck in the past and unless you get access to some really powerful magic, you’re going to be living the rest of your life here no matter what else you achieve.

You’re also at a disadvantage of not knowing the language or even your general location let alone how things work around here. The best you have to go on is a few old stories your sister told you and that’s going to have to be enough for now

The voice in the crown told you that you’d have to give up your roguish ways and start a new life, but that’s really not going to be possible even if you wanted to. Right now you can see that you’re going to have to steal to survive. Possibly even the basics like new clothes because you are really sticking out with what you’re currently wearing.

Once you get that down, then maybe you can figure out a way to get back to your own time.
> You time passes...
Year 21

“Oh come on Saldinius you can’t do better than that?” you say.
“Sorry, but times are hard right now, that’s the best I can offer!” Saldinius replies making a shrugging motion.
“Bah, fine. You’re lucky I got more important shit to do.”

You take your coin from Saldinius and make your way back to your humble room back at an inn. (Some things never change)

The Galpatis Empire might be going through a “Golden Age” but from what you can tell life is pretty much the same here as it was in your time. The poor bastards are struggling to survive, the rich bastards are sitting on their fat asses reaping all the benefits and everyone in between is just trying to make their own way to be a rich bastard and avoid becoming one of the poor bastards.

Still, you suppose you could have wound up in a worse city when you got stuck here. Galapolis is the shining jewel and seat of the Empire and it’s easily five times the size of Holgard ever was. There is no shortage of opportunity for a rogue like yourself here. Crime doesn’t change too much after all and if anything you’re probably a little more skilled at it than most.

That first year was really hard though. You sometimes didn’t know if you were going to make it or not. It wasn’t really the survival aspect, but more the mental aspect. True you didn’t exactly have a “good life” in your own time, but you still had ties.

Many nights you thought about your family and how you’d possibly never see them again. You even cried on more than one occasion. Maybe you left on bad terms, but probably in the back of you mind somewhere you thought that maybe you’d reconcile somehow with your mom and dad.

Of course there was your sister as well, though you probably thought about her more since you used some of the knowledge from her stories to help you through this.

You found the inner strength to carry on by learning the language, the surroundings and everything else you could. It’s quite the accomplishment really. Unfortunately the only thing you haven’t learned is how to get back home.

You haven’t lost hope on that dream though. Magic seems to be more common, or rather more impressive from what you’ve seen of it. The city of Galpatolis is protected by a giant invisible shield for example and when a dragon attacked (You nearly shit your pants when you saw one of those for the first time especially since it was much larger than the stories you heard) the beast couldn’t even penetrate the defenses and its breath attack was reflected back. Eventually it was brought down by more magical defenses that disintegrated it completely.

If the magic here has that power, then surely there might be a way back home with it. The main problem is magic seems to be highly restricted to the upper class. Like nobles and such. It isn’t even like you’ve ever found any practicing hedge wizards or witches. Those types apparently get rounded up fairly quickly or they probably live far away from the Empire, which is pretty damn large. (As far as you can tell you’re currently located where the Delantium Kingdom would be located and Galpatis Empire stretches much more than that.)

There doesn’t even seem to be any “divine magic” either or religion as you know it anyway. The citizens of the Empire all seem to worship the current Emperor as a “living god.” (The body just being a vessel for him until he discards it for a new one)

Deities in any other sense seem to be fringe beliefs at best or considered to be reserved for uncivilized barbarians that live outside the empire.

In any case, you’ve asked around and done as much research as you can on the matter and there is one place in the Empire which has slightly more relaxed rules on magic and that’s the town of Arcanius. Though it’s not so much of a town as it is a giant magic testing area. There is where all the less disciplined, unwanted bastard children of nobles who have minor abilities or just downright anti-social wizards go to practice their skills without as much supervision though apparently there is still a powerful warden that oversees everything.

The funny thing is, it isn’t restricted to go there, but there is little reason for the average non-magical person to do so. For one thing it’s a very long journey and not in the most hospitable place of the Empire (Close to the Cloudpeake Mountains) Second, it isn’t like the average Empire citizen wants to hang around a bunch of unhinged miscreant magic types. Though for you, it’s probably your only possible chance at getting back home.

In any event, you’ve raised enough coin and made the right shady connections to gain rare passage there. The use of carriages is a lot more exclusive during this time, let alone using them to travel to another city. However seeing as you’re heading to a town not many want to go to anyway, your obvious lack of nobility isn’t as much of an issue. Indeed you’ll probably be assumed to be another bastard.

The ride leaves tomorrow and you need to be on it so you need to get your rest. You spend the rest of the day and night packing everything you plan on taking, because if all goes to plan, you won’t be coming back.

You head to where the carriages are getting ready to leave and with a few extra bribes, bullshit explanations, and general apathy of the soldiers, you’re waved into one of the carriages heading to Arcanius.

It’s going to be a several day journey from what you know so you’re glad when you find that you have a carriage all to yourself. You’ll be able to stretch out.

Eventually there is some shouting heard outside, along with the crack of several whips. Before you know it you’re on your way.

You never were much of a reader before, but seeing how long this trip is going to be, you figured it would be a good idea to take some literature with you along the way. If you do manage to get back, you might even be able to sell this stuff for a hefty profit. Galpatis items would no doubt go for a lot. (And you’ve collected a few other small items with this in mind)

As you spend a few days reading some books (and improve your basic understanding of the Empire’s language in general) your thoughts start to wander a bit.

What if you’ve changed the future just by being here?

You’ve never pondered this before, but maybe it’s due to reading too much philosophy during the trip, but what if you’ve changed things?

You can’t imagine that you’ve changed that much since you’ve surprisingly haven’t even killed anyone since being here. You’ve stolen a lot of things, but is any of that really going to make a difference in the long run?

You don’t know.

What if you go back and there is nothing to go back to? Or more specifically what if you made changes here to the point that you don’t exist?

“Oh shit.” You mutter as you ponder this new possibility.

At first you were concerned that you might not be able to get back home. Now you’re concerned that maybe you shouldn’t go back home!

You go back and forth on this many times.

Staying here has always been something you thought might be inevitable anyway so would it really matter?

You get the impression that if you stayed here, you could probably carve out a future for yourself. You think with time and effort you could rise to be greater than your current status in the criminal world. Hell, you probably could get your own organization started.

For all you know you’re the founder of the Ebony Claw Syndicate.

Now you start to wonder if you were MEANT to be here.

“What the hell am I thinking? I need to go back! I can’t fucking stay here…can I?” you say to yourself.

In any case your struggles with metaphysical matters soon turn into very real struggles because your carriage (along with the rest) are suddenly attacked!

You hear shouting and the galloping of several horses. A look outside your window and you see a bunch of figures on horseback armed with spear type weapons and bows. At this range you think they might be green skinned. Probably orcs given the noises they’re making.

So much for Empire territory being safe everywhere. Granted you are currently closer to one of its borders, but you’d think that would just mean they’d protect it a hell of a lot better.

The carriage you’re currently on goes faster, but it’s obvious that the orc raiders are going to attempt to cut everyone off assuming they don’t kill everyone with arrows first.

Several of said arrows go into your carriage and you try to get as flat as possible. You really wish you still had your pistol. You’d at least be able to fire back.

“THEY’RE GOING TO CATCH UP TO US! EVERYONE TO ARMS!” you hear someone shout and the carriage comes to a halt.

Last time you looked, there was a hell of a lot of orcs. Granted you have some of the Empire’s soldiers with you and hopefully a few of the bastard passengers in the other carriages are above average with their lack of formal magic training, but it’s not going to be an easy fight.

You almost wonder if you should just run for your life. As strange as it is, you haven’t been in a real life or death fight in years since you’ve been here. You’re probably a little rusty. There’s also the fact that most of the people you ever fought with were other humans. Orcs are a whole different story. Especially this blood thirsty looking lot.
> You help fight off the orcs
You need to get to Arcanius. If you run and these assholes lose, then you’re in for a long walk. If you run away and they live, you can’t imagine that the survivors aren’t going to be keen on taking you along after you abandoned them, also resulting in a long walk.

You’re going to have to at least make the attempt, as much as you’d rather just run.

Still, there’s no reason to go rushing headlong into battle. On top of being on horseback, the orcs are armed with bows, spears and javelins. You aren’t some heavily armored soldier and you don’t have magic powers to fire back. If you still had your pistol this might not be as big of a deal since you could easily fire back at them. Since you don’t have any of those things, you figure you’ll continue to hide in the carriage until you see a suitable opening to attack.

You remain low to the floor in the carriage, occasionally looking out the window. You mostly the orcs circling about on horseback and using their bows to their advantage, though a couple of the novice mages are breaking up that advantage by slinging a few magic missile spells while hiding behind the shield wall that the soldiers have created.

For a while it looks like you might survive all this and not even have to fight after all.

Unfortunately that’s when the leader shows up. He’s not riding a horse either, but a chariot pulled by what looks like giant armored boars. Several of his people rally in front of him and they all make a beeline charge towards the soldiers, while others ride around to flank the sides.

To their credit, the soldiers hold the wall and a few of the mages don’t even run and instead try to take out the main force approaching, but ultimately the orcs have more numbers and the leader is tough.

His chariot crashes spectacularly into the shield wall, breaking through and trampling several of the soldiers. The boars and chariot aren’t in the best of shape either of course, but that doesn’t matter since the leader has already jumped off it and begin chopping people up directly with a huge axe.

“Shit. Should have left when I had the chance.” You say and leave the carriage as quick as you can.

Realizing that this is a lost battle, you quickly start trying to free one of the living horses still attached to one of the carriages (and desperately trying to get free of the chaos by trying to drag the carriage despite the fact that it’s dead fellows along side it are preventing such a thing)

Of course while you’re trying to do this one of the mounted orcs appears and gallops straight towards you. You try to get back in the carriage to avoid being trampled or cut down, but instead the orc grabs the last javelin on his back and throws it at you.

Predictably he’s a good shot and you’re impaled through the back and out your chest. Your death is instantaneous.


Year 21

“Oh come on Saldinius you can’t do better than that?” you say.
“Sorry, but times are hard right now, that’s the best I can offer!” Saldinius replies making a shrugging motion.
“Bah, fine. You’re lucky I got more important shit to do.”

You take your coin from Saldinius and make your way back to your humble room back at an inn. (Some things never change)

The Galpatis Empire might be going through a “Golden Age” but from what you can tell life is pretty much the same here as it was in your time. The poor bastards are struggling to survive, the rich bastards are sitting on their fat asses reaping all the benefits and everyone in between is just trying to make their own way to be a rich bastard and avoid becoming one of the poor bastards.

Still, you suppose you could have wound up in a worse city when you got stuck here. Galapolis is the shining jewel and seat of the Empire and it’s easily five times the size of Holgard ever was. There is no shortage of opportunity for a rogue like yourself here. Crime doesn’t change too much after all and if anything you’re probably a little more skilled at it than most.

That first year was really hard though. You sometimes didn’t know if you were going to make it or not. It wasn’t really the survival aspect, but more the mental aspect. True you didn’t exactly have a “good life” in your own time, but you still had ties.

Many nights you thought about your family and how you’d possibly never see them again. You even cried on more than one occasion. Maybe you left on bad terms, but probably in the back of you mind somewhere you thought that maybe you’d reconcile somehow with your mom and dad.

Of course there was your sister as well, though you probably thought about her more since you used some of the knowledge from her stories to help you through this.

You found the inner strength to carry on by learning the language, the surroundings and everything else you could. It’s quite the accomplishment really. Unfortunately the only thing you haven’t learned is how to get back home.

You haven’t lost hope on that dream though. Magic seems to be more common, or rather more impressive from what you’ve seen of it. The city of Galpatolis is protected by a giant invisible shield for example and when a dragon attacked (You nearly shit your pants when you saw one of those for the first time especially since it was much larger than the stories you heard) the beast couldn’t even penetrate the defenses and its breath attack was reflected back. Eventually it was brought down by more magical defenses that disintegrated it completely.

If the magic here has that power, then surely there might be a way back home with it. The main problem is magic seems to be highly restricted to the upper class. Like nobles and such. It isn’t even like you’ve ever found any practicing hedge wizards or witches. Those types apparently get rounded up fairly quickly or they probably live far away from the Empire, which is pretty damn large. (As far as you can tell you’re currently located where the Delantium Kingdom would be located and Galpatis Empire stretches much more than that.)

There doesn’t even seem to be any “divine magic” either or religion as you know it anyway. The citizens of the Empire all seem to worship the current Emperor as a “living god.” (The body just being a vessel for him until he discards it for a new one)

Deities in any other sense seem to be fringe beliefs at best or considered to be reserved for uncivilized barbarians that live outside the empire.

In any case, you’ve asked around and done as much research as you can on the matter and there is one place in the Empire which has slightly more relaxed rules on magic and that’s the town of Arcanius. Though it’s not so much of a town as it is a giant magic testing area. There is where all the less disciplined, unwanted bastard children of nobles who have minor abilities or just downright anti-social wizards go to practice their skills without as much supervision though apparently there is still a powerful warden that oversees everything.

The funny thing is, it isn’t restricted to go there, but there is little reason for the average non-magical person to do so. For one thing it’s a very long journey and not in the most hospitable place of the Empire (Close to the Cloudpeake Mountains) Second, it isn’t like the average Empire citizen wants to hang around a bunch of unhinged miscreant magic types. Though for you, it’s probably your only possible chance at getting back home.

In any event, you’ve raised enough coin and made the right shady connections to gain rare passage there. The use of carriages is a lot more exclusive during this time, let alone using them to travel to another city. However seeing as you’re heading to a town not many want to go to anyway, your obvious lack of nobility isn’t as much of an issue. Indeed you’ll probably be assumed to be another bastard.

The ride leaves tomorrow and you need to be on it so you need to get your rest. You spend the rest of the day and night packing everything you plan on taking, because if all goes to plan, you won’t be coming back.

You head to where the carriages are getting ready to leave and with a few extra bribes, bullshit explanations, and general apathy of the soldiers, you’re waved into one of the carriages heading to Arcanius.

It’s going to be a several day journey from what you know so you’re glad when you find that you have a carriage all to yourself. You’ll be able to stretch out.

Eventually there is some shouting heard outside, along with the crack of several whips. Before you know it you’re on your way.

You never were much of a reader before, but seeing how long this trip is going to be, you figured it would be a good idea to take some literature with you along the way. If you do manage to get back, you might even be able to sell this stuff for a hefty profit. Galpatis items would no doubt go for a lot. (And you’ve collected a few other small items with this in mind)

As you spend a few days reading some books (and improve your basic understanding of the Empire’s language in general) your thoughts start to wander a bit.

What if you’ve changed the future just by being here?

You’ve never pondered this before, but maybe it’s due to reading too much philosophy during the trip, but what if you’ve changed things?

You can’t imagine that you’ve changed that much since you’ve surprisingly haven’t even killed anyone since being here. You’ve stolen a lot of things, but is any of that really going to make a difference in the long run?

You don’t know.

What if you go back and there is nothing to go back to? Or more specifically what if you made changes here to the point that you don’t exist?

“Oh shit.” You mutter as you ponder this new possibility.

At first you were concerned that you might not be able to get back home. Now you’re concerned that maybe you shouldn’t go back home!

You go back and forth on this many times.

Staying here has always been something you thought might be inevitable anyway so would it really matter?

You get the impression that if you stayed here, you could probably carve out a future for yourself. You think with time and effort you could rise to be greater than your current status in the criminal world. Hell, you probably could get your own organization started.

For all you know you’re the founder of the Ebony Claw Syndicate.

Now you start to wonder if you were MEANT to be here.

“What the hell am I thinking? I need to go back! I can’t fucking stay here…can I?” you say to yourself.

In any case your struggles with metaphysical matters soon turn into very real struggles because your carriage (along with the rest) are suddenly attacked!

You hear shouting and the galloping of several horses. A look outside your window and you see a bunch of figures on horseback armed with spear type weapons and bows. At this range you think they might be green skinned. Probably orcs given the noises they’re making.

So much for Empire territory being safe everywhere. Granted you are currently closer to one of its borders, but you’d think that would just mean they’d protect it a hell of a lot better.

The carriage you’re currently on goes faster, but it’s obvious that the orc raiders are going to attempt to cut everyone off assuming they don’t kill everyone with arrows first.

Several of said arrows go into your carriage and you try to get as flat as possible. You really wish you still had your pistol. You’d at least be able to fire back.

“THEY’RE GOING TO CATCH UP TO US! EVERYONE TO ARMS!” you hear someone shout and the carriage comes to a halt.

Last time you looked, there was a hell of a lot of orcs. Granted you have some of the Empire’s soldiers with you and hopefully a few of the bastard passengers in the other carriages are above average with their lack of formal magic training, but it’s not going to be an easy fight.

You almost wonder if you should just run for your life. As strange as it is, you haven’t been in a real life or death fight in years since you’ve been here. You’re probably a little rusty. There’s also the fact that most of the people you ever fought with were other humans. Orcs are a whole different story. Especially this blood thirsty looking lot.
> You run
Remembering when your other carriage ride was attacked by bandits, you didn’t stick around and fight them, you took off and ran and it worked out (more or less). Seems like the same strategy should apply here.

You get out of the carriage and start unhooking one of the horses tied to your carriage. The driver who is still nearby sees what you’re doing.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing? You need to start slinging spells at those orcs!” the driver shouts.
“Yeah, well that won’t be happening.” You say.

The driver at this point grabs your arm.

“And why the fuck not?”
“Because I’m not a fucking wizard asshole!” you reply and then slug the driver in face.

He falls to the ground and you successfully get the horse free. You’re about to mount it when the driver once again attempts to stop you.

“Cowardly sonof…”

That’s all he gets out before you shove a dagger in his throat and kick him to the ground again. You don’t bother to retrieve the dagger as you see orcs quickly swaming the area, you just get on the horse and gallop away.

Your next plan is to follow the road and hopefully you’ll eventually reach your destination. It’s not ideal and you’re still not exactly sure of the directions, but you’re hoping you can figure it out as you go or hope that the Empire at least has signs on their more isolated roads even if they apparently don’t have proper security on them.

You haven’t gotten far when a javelin whizzes past you. You look behind and see two orcs in pursuit. You can’t really do much except duck as low as you can and try to outpace them.

You see a bridge in the distance and head towards it. You feel something hit your back, or rather your backpack. Fortunate that you were wearing it to block the arrow.

One of the orcs has dispensed with ranged attacks and is concentrating on closing the gap. When you get to the bridge, he’s almost on you and swinging a morning star.

You draw your sword and try to swing it at the orc. Unfortunately the orc’s morning star partially wraps around it. Between riding and awkwardly trying to fight, you don’t have enough grip to pull the sword back, especially since the orc is much stronger and pulling his own weapon back as well.

So you do the only logical thing and let go of the sword causing the orc to pull too much on his end, lose his balance; fall off his horse and over the side of bridge.

You don’t have too much time to celebrate however since the other orc hasn’t given up on ranged attacks and throws his last javelin at you. On the plus side it doesn’t hit you. The bad news is it hits the horse causing it to flail and causing you to also lose balance and go over the side of the bridge!

The water isn’t excessively deep, but the current in the river is strong that it instantly starts carrying your away. You no idea where the hell it’s taking you, but your main concern is trying not to drown.

You tread water for a while in your attempt to get to shore despite the strong current. Eventually you manage to grab on to a fallen tree trunk and drag yourself to shore.

You’re soaked, you’re cold, and you’re exhausted. You lost your pack during your time in the river and you have no idea where you are now, but you’re too tired to care. You lie motionless on the muddy bank you’re on for a moment just trying to gather yourself, but as they say, no rest for the wicked.

“Shit!” you shout just barely rolling out of the way of the large branch wielded by the orc who also fell off the bridge. You don’t know where he came from and you didn’t even hear him, but none of that matters right now. What matters is how you’re going to survive his assault.

Miraculously, despite losing nearly all your other possessions in the river, you still have one extra dagger on your person. You draw it, but you don’t have a positive feeling about your chances.

As tired as you are, the orc is fairly clumsy about swinging his branch at you so you manage to dodge. Obviously more used to fighting on horseback.

Still, the orc has a lot more endurance than you do and eventually he catches you with a glancing blow upside your head. You fall to the ground, dazed. Expecting the next hit to crush your skull, you hear the orc make a more anguished cry.

You look and see a woman dressed in fur clothing with a bow and she’s currently getting another arrow ready now that the orc’s attention is directed towards her and didn’t go down from the first shot.

She hits it again, but it keeps coming. Now she begins to panic, but still attempts to get off another shot. She misses though.

Meanwhile, you’ve managed to recover a bit, and once again you can take the opportunity to run while the orc’s attention is divided.
> You run
Having no pride and a strong sense of self-preservation, you muster up all your remaining energy and run in the opposite direction of the orc and woman.

You run a good distance through some trees, but you soon find yourself very winded and you have to stop. You don’t hear anything following you, so you take that as a good sign.

The problem now however is you are completely lost. You’re not even by the river anymore and you’re reluctant to retrace your steps lest you run into your greenskin friend again.

You rest a moment and figure afterwards you’ll get your bearings though you’re now so drained that the moment you lay up against a tree and close your eyes, you fall asleep.

When you wake up, it’s dark and you’re still in pain, along with being cold, the only good thing is you think you must have lost the orc since you doubt if you have reawakened at all

Since attempting to travel in this darkness would be foolish in your condition, you don’t try. You just continue to try to get some more rest and hope you can find your way back to some sort of civilization at this point because you still really hate the wilderness.

You close your eyes again and manage to get back to sleep.

At some point you wake up again. This time you couldn’t have been asleep too long since it’s still dark. However that’s not the important part. The important part is the fact that two red eyes are staring at you in the darkness.

And it certainly isn’t an orc.

You grab your dagger and rise to your feet, and that’s about all you manage to do before whatever the creature is rushes forward and completely overwhelms you.

Your screams are brief before its claws tear through your soft skin and its teeth rip out your tasty organs.


Remembering when your other carriage ride was attacked by bandits, you didn’t stick around and fight them, you took off and ran and it worked out (more or less). Seems like the same strategy should apply here.

You get out of the carriage and start unhooking one of the horses tied to your carriage. The driver who is still nearby sees what you’re doing.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing? You need to start slinging spells at those orcs!” the driver shouts.
“Yeah, well that won’t be happening.” You say.

The driver at this point grabs your arm.

“And why the fuck not?”
“Because I’m not a fucking wizard asshole!” you reply and then slug the driver in face.

He falls to the ground and you successfully get the horse free. You’re about to mount it when the driver once again attempts to stop you.

“Cowardly sonof…”

That’s all he gets out before you shove a dagger in his throat and kick him to the ground again. You don’t bother to retrieve the dagger as you see orcs quickly swaming the area, you just get on the horse and gallop away.

Your next plan is to follow the road and hopefully you’ll eventually reach your destination. It’s not ideal and you’re still not exactly sure of the directions, but you’re hoping you can figure it out as you go or hope that the Empire at least has signs on their more isolated roads even if they apparently don’t have proper security on them.

You haven’t gotten far when a javelin whizzes past you. You look behind and see two orcs in pursuit. You can’t really do much except duck as low as you can and try to outpace them.

You see a bridge in the distance and head towards it. You feel something hit your back, or rather your backpack. Fortunate that you were wearing it to block the arrow.

One of the orcs has dispensed with ranged attacks and is concentrating on closing the gap. When you get to the bridge, he’s almost on you and swinging a morning star.

You draw your sword and try to swing it at the orc. Unfortunately the orc’s morning star partially wraps around it. Between riding and awkwardly trying to fight, you don’t have enough grip to pull the sword back, especially since the orc is much stronger and pulling his own weapon back as well.

So you do the only logical thing and let go of the sword causing the orc to pull too much on his end, lose his balance; fall off his horse and over the side of bridge.

You don’t have too much time to celebrate however since the other orc hasn’t given up on ranged attacks and throws his last javelin at you. On the plus side it doesn’t hit you. The bad news is it hits the horse causing it to flail and causing you to also lose balance and go over the side of the bridge!

The water isn’t excessively deep, but the current in the river is strong that it instantly starts carrying your away. You no idea where the hell it’s taking you, but your main concern is trying not to drown.

You tread water for a while in your attempt to get to shore despite the strong current. Eventually you manage to grab on to a fallen tree trunk and drag yourself to shore.

You’re soaked, you’re cold, and you’re exhausted. You lost your pack during your time in the river and you have no idea where you are now, but you’re too tired to care. You lie motionless on the muddy bank you’re on for a moment just trying to gather yourself, but as they say, no rest for the wicked.

“Shit!” you shout just barely rolling out of the way of the large branch wielded by the orc who also fell off the bridge. You don’t know where he came from and you didn’t even hear him, but none of that matters right now. What matters is how you’re going to survive his assault.

Miraculously, despite losing nearly all your other possessions in the river, you still have one extra dagger on your person. You draw it, but you don’t have a positive feeling about your chances.

As tired as you are, the orc is fairly clumsy about swinging his branch at you so you manage to dodge. Obviously more used to fighting on horseback.

Still, the orc has a lot more endurance than you do and eventually he catches you with a glancing blow upside your head. You fall to the ground, dazed. Expecting the next hit to crush your skull, you hear the orc make a more anguished cry.

You look and see a woman dressed in fur clothing with a bow and she’s currently getting another arrow ready now that the orc’s attention is directed towards her and didn’t go down from the first shot.

She hits it again, but it keeps coming. Now she begins to panic, but still attempts to get off another shot. She misses though.

Meanwhile, you’ve managed to recover a bit, and once again you can take the opportunity to run while the orc’s attention is divided.
> You finish off the orc
While normally you’d take this opportunity to run, you’re pissed enough at the orc for trying to kill you in the first place and grateful enough that this woman just probably saved your life.

You run at the orc with your dagger in hand and manage to get it to the ground in its weakened state. You stab it in the back multiple times and don’t stop until the woman calls out to you.

“Okay. I think you killed it.” She shouts.

You snap out of your killing trance for a moment and see you’ve made quite the mess. You stand up breathing heavily.

“Fucking greenskins.” You exclaim, kicking the dead body.
“I hope this isn’t a possible invasion. We saw another one a few months ago, though he was much smaller and ran off when he saw us. He was nowhere near as big as this one.” The woman remarks.
“Fortunately for you that you weren’t where I just was, because there was a bunch of orcs that size on horseback about to destroy the Caravan I was part of.”

The woman shakes her head.

“I thought the empire was supposed to be making the land safe. So much for their promises, well anyway, thanks for saving my life. I froze up a bit when that orc didn’t go down with the second arrow.” The woman says.
“You’re welcome, but I’d say you saved mine first seeing as that orc would have caved my skull in if you hadn’t shown up.” You respond.
“Hm, I suppose that’s true enough. Guess we helped each other. So where was this Caravan and where were you going?”
“Shit, I don’t even know now. I know I was probably north east of here. There was a stone bridge and then I fell into the river and wound up here. I was travelling from Galpatolis and going to Arcanius.”

The woman’s eyes widen when you say that.

“I see. Why?”
“I got business there. I’d really appreciate it if you could tell me how I could get there from here.” You say walking towards her, but then you experience a moment of fatigue and your legs give out causing you to partially collapse to the ground. The woman goes to help you up.

“Hey, you still don’t look that great. Look, you’re barely in any condition to walk anywhere let along travelling all the way to Arcanius. Why don’t you come back with me where you can at least rest and heal up? I mean as I said, you did help me kill the orc. My village isn’t that far away.”
“Okay, yeah that sounds fine.” You say not really wishing to argue since she’s right about you not being in the best condition right now.

The woman tells you her name is Keira and her village is Tarvo. She goes on about how it was absorbed by the Empire decades ago and how they used to even have a sizable amount of soldiers there, but eventually they realized the village was never going to be a problem as far as rebellions go. As it stands there are only a few soldiers and a single Galpatis official who probably got sent there because he pissed someone off. As a result he doesn’t really enforce many official Galpatian laws other than something obvious like murder or rape and allows everyone to go about their normal lives.

Eventually you get to the village, which is fairly humble. It’s probably smaller than your old home of Teckleville.

“Hey Keira, you catch that hunting this time?” some other woman asks and points at you.
“Sort of. He was fighting an orc and we both brought it down together.” Keira replies.
“An orc? This close to the village?! Shit. We need to tell the magistrate about that! Not that I really want soldiers stomping about here, but if orcs are going to be a problem then I’d rather we have better defenses then we have!”
“Mm. Well, I need to get back to my home and patch him up.”
“Okay, but don’t Ardan see you taking another man inside your home! He might get the wrong idea!”

Keira makes a minor laugh and waves at the woman, though you notice Keira also rolling her eyes when she turns her head away.

You soon get to Keira’s home which isn’t large, but you suppose it’s big enough to serve Keira’s needs since she’s living here alone. She gets a fire started and you welcome the warmth since you’ve been near freezing since you got out of the water.

“You know you’ll get warmer quicker if you get your clothes off. Those are going to need to dry properly anyway.” Keira says.
“Um what?” a little taken by surprise.
“What? Is what you got under those clothes so impressive that you think I just won’t be able to contain myself? Or perhaps you’re just shy?”
“Well, after the day I had, I really wasn’t expecting it to end with a pretty woman asking me to take my clothes off. I’m half expecting you to turn into a monster of some sort which would be more in line with my luck lately.”

Keira chuckles a bit.

“Well that won’t happen, so perhaps your luck is better than you think. Perhaps even Yaz is looking over you.”
“Did you say Yag?”
“No, I said Yaz. You know, the god of fortune? I don’t suppose he’s worshipped in Galpatolis.”
“No, but he’s called Yag where I come from.”
“Ah. Interesting. I suppose divine beings go by many names though. Glad to know you weren’t one of those silly people that worships the emperor though I didn’t think you were really from Galpatolis since you don’t look like you are.”
“You could tell just by looking at me?”
“I could tell just by how you speak and act. You speak the language like you only just learned it. You’re obviously not a native Galpatian. Where are you from originally?”
“Eh, I’m originally from a small village far to the south. It’s so small, nobody really knows it exists.”
“Hm, I guess the Empire came and annexed your people too huh?”
“Something like that…ouch!” you say feeling the aches and pains in your body.
“Okay, I think it’s time you took your clothes off, you probably got some wounds that need patching up and I can get to them better if you’re naked.”
“I gotta say, this is still pretty unusual for me. That other woman mentioned someone called Ardan, I mean I don’t want your husband…”
“Ardan is NOT my husband.”
“Okay, well boyfriend then.”
“He’s barely that, and if he does come in here, he can just step right back out, because he pissed me off recently anyway. I don’t want to talk about that though. Besides, nothing is happening between us anyway. I don’t just become involved with strange men I find in the wilderness, so let’s get you fixed up.”
“Okay then if you insist.”

You still feel a bit weird about all this, but honestly with as much pain you’re in right now, you really aren’t thinking about Keira in that way. (Well at least not immediately)

Eventually Keira stitches up some of your wounds and places some sort of healing salve on them. She then gives you some spare furs to wrap yourself up in while your clothing dries. She tells you that you can stay here for a few days so you can heal up. As much as you’re in a hurry to get to Arcanius, it probably would be best if you rested.

As the days pass Keira says with you here, she’s probably spent more time in her home than she has since her mother died since she had to be around more to take care of her.

Apparently Keira prefers being outdoors hunting even when she doesn’t need to, even sleeping outside under the stars at times rather than coming home. She says that sometimes she’d like to travel, but she says she’s never quite had the nerve to do it. She’s not sure why exactly seeing as there isn’t much to tie her here except Ardan though once again she doesn’t speak much more about him.

Keira asks you a few questions about yourself, which you keep vague with half truths, misdirections and outright lies. You don’t want to discuss your real situation anymore than she wants to discuss Ardan.

Keira also tells you how to get to Arcanius though she doesn’t ask why you’re going again. Going by her directions, it’s going to still be a long ass trip, especially with no horse or other mode of transportation now. You don’t even have any supplies for such a journey though maybe Keira will give you some before you leave.

When you’re feeling slightly better you insist on walking about the village which Keira is happy to see since she doesn’t feel the need to check up on you.

You wander the village a bit and are mostly met with stares, but nothing more. A few people actually have heard about you since news spread in this village fairly quickly. It’s mostly positive, since killing an orc is something to be celebrated here. In fact a few people are so nice they actually give you some free food.

As you’re accepting a few of these free gifts, a couple of soldiers approach saying that you’re the one they’ve been hearing about and how the magistrate wants to see you about the orc found near the village since a few people have expressed concern to him about it.

Seeing as you aren’t really doing anything better right now and in no condition to resist. You go with the soldiers and follow to a slightly better looking building than the rest of the village.

The magistrate doesn’t look like the typical noble that you’ve seen many times before back in Galpatolis. He’s got more facial hair and a general less kept appearance. It’s apparent he barely gives a shit about formalities anymore since he gives his nose a quick pick and blows it out before even speaking to you.

The meeting isn’t very long. The magistrate just asks you some general questions about yourself and how you came to be in the situation where you were fighting an orc in the first place. You give him the same story you told Keira and he seems to accept that as a suitable explanation. He doesn’t even ask why you were going to Arcanius. The man just seems to be fulfilling the basics of his duties.

“I see. So the orc you were fighting was separated from his fellows. Which means these villagers are jumping to conclusions that there is an imminent attack from orc savages. Glad to hear it, since I doubt if those assholes in the capital would bother sending anyone up here anyway. Very well. You’re dismissed.” The magistrate says.
“Okay. Um, is there any transportation from here to Arcanius?”
“Sure, put one foot in front of the other and start walking. What? Did you think we’d give you a horse for killing a single orc that you apparently lead near here in the first place? I got more important matters to care of. Out.”

And with those words, the magistrate’s soldiers start escorting you out the office and soon out the building as well.

Well at least the law isn’t trying to arrest you for a change.

In any case, you get the strong impression you’ll have to steal a horse before you leave this place. Not before at least another day of rest though. You wander the village a bit more before heading back to Keira’s home.

When you arrive, she’s still not back yet, though she did say now that you’re feeling better, she might be gone a little longer. That’s awfully trusting of her to just assume some stranger isn’t going to take her stuff. You guess thieves aren’t a real problem around here since everyone knows one another and she probably believes you to be an upstanding person.

She doesn’t have much that you’d want to take anyway, not to mention you’d be quite the scoundrel indeed if you stole from a woman who has done nothing but help you. You aren’t quite that much of an asshole.

Still, doesn’t prevent you from being a little nosey and you look through some of her belonging that are more out in open.

As you’re picking up what looks to be a flute sitting on a small table by her bed, you hear footsteps behind you.

“So you’re the guy that killed an orc and has been living here with Keira? You are far less impressive than I heard about.” A voice says.

You turn around and see a large older man standing in the entryway with a small axe in his hand. You just can’t catch a break.

“And you’re Ardan I presume. Surprised I haven’t seen you sooner.” You say.
“I was out hunting and I come back after a few days only to find that another man is trying to steal MY woman!” Ardan exclaims.
“Okay look, I’m not stealing your woman. She’s just letting me stay here until I recover. In fact I should be leaving by tomorrow.”
“Oh so you think you can just fuck my woman and leave then?”
“I haven’t fucked her! In fact NOTHING has happened between us!”
“Oh we’re going to see about that. Come on.”
“What?”
“Come on. We’re going to both go see Keira. I know her better than anyone and I’ll know if she’s lying or not when I confront her with you there.”
“But she’s out hunting.”
“So? I know what grounds she prefers and that’s where we’re going. Now you’re coming with me or I’m going to break your legs and drag you out of here.”

Ardan grips his axe tightly after threatening you.

Well he’s no orc, but you doubt if he’d be an easy fight either. The guy is predictably crazy jealous and you suppose to can understand his view point, but that doesn’t change the fact that for all you know he’s going to just take you out to a more secluded place and murder you there.
> You go with Ardan
If Ardan has plans on killing you, he doesn’t seem like he’d be averse to doing it right here if need be. If you need to run, better that you’re not in an enclosed space to more easily get away.

“Okay, I’m coming with you. I really don’t want any trouble. When we get to Keira, you’ll see that nothing is going on.” You say and raise your hands up.

Ardan is still giving you a look that could kill but seems to calm down enough that he opens the door to let you go through it first.

“And don’t think about trying to run, I can split a grizzly’s skull with this axe from a large distance. Wouldn’t take much to do the same to the likes of you.” Ardan says as you pass him.

The pair of you walk out of the village and in this light and at this range, you see his face better and something about him looks very familiar.

“What the fuck are you staring at me for?” Ardan asks.
“Nothing! Sheesh, I mean we are walking together and sometimes I’m going to look over at you. You really need to relax, you’re going to see that Keira loves you, not me.” You say trying to calm him again.
“She doesn’t love me! If she did, she wouldn’t make me angry all the time!”
“Well what does she do?”
“What does she do? What the hell doesn’t she do?! She’s constantly having these ideas!”
“A dangerous past time indeed.” You say and fortunately Ardan doesn’t realize your sarcasm and instead continues to rant.

“I know! She does silly things like try to play that flute thing instead of focusing on more important matters!”
“Like what?”
“Like not wasting her time playing a flute for one thing! She’s horrible at it anyway and when I helpfully point this out to save her time, she gets pissed at me!”
“Wow, I can’t imagine why.”
“Also she wants to leave the village like there’s something more out there for her! There’s nothing that she needs outside the village that I can’t provide! I mean…”

If it wasn’t obvious before, it’s very apparent now that this Ardan is incredibly insecure and most likely controlling. You can see why Kiera didn’t want to talk about him.

Oddly, he’s ranting about her so much now that it’s almost like he’s angrier at her than he is at you now. A step up you suppose, you figure maybe there might be hope to get out of this without a fight after all.

Again though, he seems familiar somehow. Even his voice is starting to remind you of someone you know.

“She wants to leave me after all I’ve fucking done for her! I taught her how to hunt better! I was by her side when her mother was dying! And fucking another man is how she repays me?”
“Ardan, I didn’t have sex with Keira.”
“It doesn’t even fucking matter if you did or not. My point is, she’s letting a damn stranger live with her before ME! That just shits all over our relationship as far as I’m concerned! And another thing…”

And then it hits you. You can’t even believe it. You recognize this man. Or at least you recognize his facial features and voice. The beard was throwing you before, but there can be no mistake.

This Ardan could easily pass for your dad if your dad was more muscular and taller. You’ve also been yelled at your father enough that the voice is even similar. Ardan has to be an ancestor of yours! What the hell are the chances? Yag must have flipped the coin on the edge for you this time.

And if this man is indeed some ancestor of yours that means Keira is also! (You feel a little weird being naked in front of her now) It makes sense; she has similar traits that your sister has. Hell, now that you’re thinking about it, Keira does have a similar nose as her.

Ardan is obviously older than Keira by probably at least twenty years since she’s probably about your age. You sort of wonder how this relationship even got started, but then again an older guy with a much younger woman isn’t that uncommon.

Still, this is all almost too much for you to comprehend. A few days ago you were pondering if you were meant to be here, well maybe THIS is the reason! Your ancestors are obviously having problems; maybe YOU need to fix them.

Meanwhile Ardan is still complaining.

“Hey! Are you listening to me? We’re going this way!” Ardan shouts.
“Oh. Apologies. I was just thinking about your situation and I was wondering if you’ve tried being more supportive of her.”
“Supportive? I just told you all the shit I’ve done for her!”
“Yes, but it always seems like you’re doing these things and expecting a certain consistent behavior. I mean she’s a woman not a dog.”
“What do you mean?”
“What I mean is, it sounds like she just wants you to not yell at her so much when she wants to try something new. You telling her that she sucks at the flute might be the truth, but you could approach it a different way and not just tell her to give it up. You need to be more…sensitive.”

You can’t believe you just gave that as advice, but if that’s what it’s going to take to make sure you exist, then so be it.

Ardan scoffs as you continue.

“I mean if she wants to leave the village why not go with her? You’re both hunters no? Surely between the pair of you, you would have no trouble in the foraging for food and water aspect or even overcoming dangers.”
“Because I’ve lived here all my life and never felt the need to travel. I’m happy where I’m at and SHE needs to be happy too!”
“It doesn’t really work that way.”
“What the fuck would you know about it?”
“Okay, I’m not saying I’m an expert, but I know that talking to Keira the way you’ve been telling me you’ve been doing isn’t going to win her over. I mean I’ve spoke with her and…”
“So what then? You telling me YOU know how to talk better to my woman than I do? Is that what you’re getting at?”

You can’t believe your ancestor is THIS much of a stubborn asshole. Or rather you can, but you’re almost starting to feel sorry for your great grandmother many times over if this is the guy she’s going to have to continue sleeping with so you eventually exist.

“You’re not understanding me.” You say almost immediately realizing your poor choice of words.
“So you’re saying I’m stupid as well? You know what, you’ve been doing a lot of fucking talking, trying to fool me. Well I’m not fooled. You’ve obviously charmed Keira with your words and turned her against me!”
“Wha…how?! I only just got here! You were having problems with her long before I arrived!”
“Yeah well when I get rid of you that will be one less problem!”
“Oh shit!”

With a throaty yell, Ardan attacks you with his axe. Fortunately you’re a lot more agile than he is, so you manage to dodge his swings. You can’t even fight back, since you doubt if you could overpower him physically and you certainly can’t kill him.

“Ardan! Listen to me! I’m not your enemy!” you shout, but he isn’t listening.

You continue to back away and dodge, but you aren’t sure how much longer you can keep this up because Ardan seems to have a lot of energy in trying to kill you.

“Ardan! Stop” you say and just barely manage to duck Ardan’s axe.

Taking a risk, you draw your dagger and try to stab his weapon arm so he’ll at least drop it.

You succeed and he drops his axe. When you go to pick it up however, Ardan just decides to tackle you, however the pair of you are near a slope and as a result, both of you go tumbling down a steep hill.

You both roll down it gaining speed and eventually even separating from each other. You fortunately manage to grab on to some bushes growing along the slope. Ardan however keeps rolling and that’s when you see that the slope doesn’t stop on flat ground, but instead what looks to be a long drop over a cliff.

“Oh fuck!” you say

Ardan just manages to stop himself from going over the side completely by grabbing the cliff edge.

You try to run down as fast as you can without tumbling again.

“Ardan! Hold on! I’m coming!” you shout.

You get just in range and then that’s when you see his fingers slip followed by a yell. Your heart sinks and you can only hope that the drop wasn’t as far as you think.

The yell stops and you slowly look over the side.

And that’s when you see Ardan’s broken body on a pile of rocks. This is a complete disaster. You feel sick and you actually throw up.

If your time here hasn’t changed history before, it certainly has now, because your family as you know it, is dead. You sort of expect yourself to blink out of existence, but that doesn’t happen. You don’t know why, but maybe it doesn’t work like that because you’re still in the past.

But what happens now if you return to the future? Even if the mages at Arcanius can help you, you certainly can’t return to your time now.

You run through a gamut of thoughts and emotions just thinking about all this. In between the thinking you keep kicking yourself for stealing that fucking crown. It warned you and you didn’t listen.

You then ponder the idea that you keep going back to, “What if you’re meant to be here?” and that’s when you come to a damning realization.

“Shit. It’s the only way now.” You mutter to yourself and mentally prepare yourself.

When you get back to Keira’s home, you find that she’s home.

“Hey, there you are! I was thinking you left for Arcanius without saying goodbye. I mean not that you need to, but it would be the polite thing to do.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t do that. Not when you’ve done so much for me. In fact I was sort of wondering if you’d come with me.”
“Come with you? To Arcanius?”
“Nah, I’ve decided a change of plans and I’m just going to head back to Galpatolis. I know how much you said you wanted to travel and see new places, so I figured I’d ask if you wanted to come.”

Keira looks a bit surprised by all this.

“I…I don’t really know.” Keira remarks.
“What are you afraid of? You obviously have a wanderlust that needs to be sated and I’m willing to travel with you so you won’t be alone on the journey. I mean we can go to different places if you like, but I figured we’d start with Galpatolis since it’s a place I know very well and there’s plenty to do there. I mean you could even bring your flute if you like. I noticed one sitting on your table. Didn’t even knew you played, I wouldn’t mind hearing you.”

Keira briefly looks over at it and her eyes widen as if this encouragement is the first she’s heard in awhile from anyone. You take a deep breath and approach her closer.

“Look, I know this is a big change, but sometimes when big changes present themselves, your best bet is to embrace them. I know I haven’t known you long and maybe I’m over stepping a boundary here, but I think you’re meant for things outside of this simple village.”

Keira smiles a bit at you.

“You’re lucky you’re cute, otherwise I might not be so swayed by your charming words. However, I sense that you’re being genuine with me and I think you’re right anyway. I SHOULD follow my desires. I shall pack immediately!”

Keira suddenly kisses you on the cheek and excitedly goes to pack. Since you’re a little tired from accidently killing your ancestor and all, you tell her you want to get some sleep and start the journey tomorrow. She agrees and continues to pack.

The next day, Keira wakes you up at the crack of dawn and the pair of you leave Tarvo.

While you’re still a little groggy, Keira is very talkative and still very excited about all this.

You figure with as good of terms you’re on with her, by the time your reach Galpatolis the pair of you should have already consummated your relationship. A little on the optimistic side perhaps, but you really need to seal this deal because it’s not really your life you’re worried about anymore, it’s your entire lineage.

Sure you feel pretty weird about the fact that you’re going to be sexing up what is your distant relative, but you remind yourself, that this is the only way.

Plus it doesn’t hurt that she’s attractive and has a pleasant personality.

“Hey I meant to ask you before you made your suggestion last night, as I was coming home yesterday, someone told me they thought they saw you coming out of my home with Ardan earlier.” Keira remarks.
“Ardan? Never saw him. They must have been mistaken, though I’m surprised I never saw him.” You reply.
“Hm. Yes, it is strange. I thought he’d at least show up threatening you or something similar. He was very jealous and possessive.”
“Who knows. Hey, how about you play something on your flute?” you say quickly changing the subject.
“Oh I don’t know. I’m not very good and I only know a few songs that my mother taught me.”
“Well you can’t get good unless you practice!”
“I suppose that’s true. Okay! I’ll play The Laughing Elf and his Talking Unicorn.”
“I don’t believe I know that one. Okay, go ahead.”

Keira excitedly starts to play her song.

And she’s fucking terrible. You feel like your ears are being raped. You suffer in silence as she continues to play horribly all the while thinking, she has to get better in her later years.

At least you hope she does because it’s going to be a punishment if musicianship skips this generation. You also hope her poor skills on the flute don’t also match other skills involving blowing.

“How does it sound?” Keira asks.
“Like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Just keep at it.” You say with a smile.

While you’re not sure if your life as a rogue is over, but it certainly has taken a very different turn.