Once at the south gate you disembark and are given a last few words of encouragement by the owner before he is driven away, leaving you and your new horse alone at the gate. You are quickly joined by a group of three men similarly dressed to yourself and you all begin the ride out of the city on the road that will turn East towards Carn.

The first few days of the trip pass quickly, you see very few travelers on the roads and the border disputes with Carn aren't enough to have a large military presence on the roads so you only have to produce your papers once, when you come across a camp of soldiers from the First Company. You decide it would seems strange to ride on by them when it was nearing dusk so you all join them at their camp and spend a nice evening chatting over cooking fires.

The next morning you are all saddled up and preparing to leave the First Company soldiers who are traveling on foot when a call is raised of a fast rider approaching on the road. You feel a sense of unease and one of your company signals for you to be ready to ride hard if needed.

As the man approaches the small camp he slow momentarily to hand down a letter from his pouch "The Old Quarter is burning, Carn has attacked us. I Need to get news to the borders quickly." You are panicked by the news since The Old Quarter is where you grew up and your remaining friends still live there. You catch his arm as he makes to leave.

"We are riding the same way, let us accompany you incase something happens on the road."

The man nods his thanks and your small group sets out at a fast pace from the camp. One of your men rides close by and whispers to you "What are you doing getting us involved here?"

"I need more information about what is going on, besides if they receive news of an attack before we get there we will look pretty suspicious but if we arrive as guards for the Councils own messenger they wont take a second glance at our reason for being there." The man still doesn't seem happy but falls back as you ride up to the messenger and ask if you can read one of the letters he is distributing since you didn't get a chance back at the camp. His orders are to give them to every military detachment he comes across on way to the border so he happily hands you one.

You ride in silence the rest of the day with only brief breaks for lunch and dinner and ride a couple of hours into the night. You finally pull up near a small stream to let the horses rest and make a temporary camp for the night. You take the opportunity to tell your companions what you learned from the letter.

A couple of mornings ago two ships bearing Carn's colours had approached the docks in the Old quarter. One had pulled up and reversed course but the other sped up and rammed the docks, it seems it was on fire and filled with burning oils and other flammable substances. The first reports were all that had come in before the letter was sent but there was a fireball that tore through a huge area of the docks and started a fire that spread through the entire Quarter of the city within minutes. It had been dry for weeks and the Old quarter was made almost entirely of ancient timbers so you could imagine the fire tearing through it. The men around the fire swore and one finally spoke up. "Its the ships that councilor captured, they burned down the old quarter themselves to start the war, I'll gut him myself for this!"

You caution him to keep his voice down but luckily the messenger sees nothing amiss about the bits he hears of your men's reactions to the news, he joins you at your fire and you all share stories of the city, especially of the Old Quarter which you hope isn't as bad as the letter implies. As the messenger gets into his bedroll for the night the man supposedly in charge of the others speaks up.

"I was sent along to ensure we got the documents across the border no matter what happened, now this news changes many things but not our mission, if we can show it wasn't Carn that sent those ships we can prove the council did it and have our revenge. We have two choices, follow Glor's plan of arriving there as the messengers guards then try to slip across after nightfall, or we dispose of him to make sure we arrive before the news does so we can get across the border before they go into a lockdown."
> You can't risk arriving at a fort and being trapped there as the war starts, you think the messenger has to be killed for your mission to be sucessful.
Having decided by a vote to dispose of the messenger for the sake of the mission you all head to your bed-rolls and pretend to sleep. You wait until you hear the signal from one of the men and rise to find that the messenger already has his throat slit. You help them carry the body away from the road and hide it in some bushes, it isn't the best disposal ever but it only needs to last a day so you can get safely ahead.

You clear up any evidence you can see then all mount up and start riding towards Carn. What you did weighs on your conscience but you think that it was the only way so you push ahead.

The next few days are just made up of riding and very short breaks for eating and sleeping. You make it close to the border in great time and camp within half a days ride from the border forts so you can all rest and look presentable when you arrive. You fall asleep hoping that you have arrived ahead of the news and that you can get across safely. Yu think briefly of Amelia and what she may think of your choices so far but decide that she would also do everything it takes to stop the war. Pacified by that thought you fall asleep.
> The Border Forts
You all make sure your uniforms are clean and papers in order before you approach the fort, You expect to find some paroles but are amazed at the sheer amount of them and all the activity that is taking place. You have your papers checked five times before you even reach the gate where You finally get to ask what is going on as your let into the fort.

The guard explains that a messenger arrived the evening before from the coastal road, he had ridden from the city almost non-stop for days, swapping horses whenever he could. He had brought news that The Old Quarter had been attack and was burning and war was about to start. You all look stunned by what he said and he takes it to be shock at the news rather than the fact you had killed a messenger but were still beaten here. He lets you on through and your taken immediately to a small barracks where your given bunks and told that sadly the forts going into lockdown until everything settles down but that your welcome in all the normal areas like the mess hall.

You all settle in "So it was for nothing then?" you ask aloud.

"We had to do it, there was no way to know another messenger could beat us here by taking the coast road. Its all those bloody port outposts allowing him to change horses while we had to spare ours." one of the men replies.

"Either way we need a new plan, I'm the only one who really knows about construction so we cant hang around to be tested, what do we do from here?"

The men think for a bit and come up with several ideas but it is whittled down to two options.
> You make a run for it that night while there is still confusion about who should be where.
Having made your choice you all get your gear prepared and ensure the documents are well hidden. You made sure your gift from Amelia is in good order then you all wait. Night falls slowly and there is still a lot of people moving about when you leave the barracks. The food hall is nearer the border gate than your current position so you head there as cover first. You all grab some stew from a pot and taking some bread start to stroll around the fort as you eat. You pass several men fresh off duty doing the same thing so you don't raise many eyebrows. Once you near the gate you see that the small one man door in it only has a single guard.

One of your men approaches him quietly then faster than the guard can react, he strikes him across the chin with the handle of his dagger. The guard falls unconscious and you all slip through the gate quickly, closing it behind you.

You know the wall patrols wont take long to find the unconscious guard so you all start jogging as quietly as you can towards the border lines. You think you have made it when you hear the bells of the fort going off. "Thats it RUN!" you shout as you hear noise of men ahead of you. Your warning came too late and you all run right into a patrol squad as they turn to face you. You all draw weapons and attack.

You feel several glancing sword blows hit you but Amelia's gift saves you from taking any major wounds until you and the only other survivor seem to break out the other side of the squad.

Your about to run when you feel a blow to your leg and you stumble. Looking down you see a large gash across your calf and realize you can barely walk never mind run. You wave the other man on and turn to face the soldiers. At least one of you will get through with the documents you think as a spear stabs through your side. You think of Amelia as you collapse.
> You ending?
Sadly even if the other man makes it and stops the war you are still dead, no good ending for you.


You all make sure your uniforms are clean and papers in order before you approach the fort, You expect to find some paroles but are amazed at the sheer amount of them and all the activity that is taking place. You have your papers checked five times before you even reach the gate where You finally get to ask what is going on as your let into the fort.

The guard explains that a messenger arrived the evening before from the coastal road, he had ridden from the city almost non-stop for days, swapping horses whenever he could. He had brought news that The Old Quarter had been attack and was burning and war was about to start. You all look stunned by what he said and he takes it to be shock at the news rather than the fact you had killed a messenger but were still beaten here. He lets you on through and your taken immediately to a small barracks where your given bunks and told that sadly the forts going into lockdown until everything settles down but that your welcome in all the normal areas like the mess hall.

You all settle in "So it was for nothing then?" you ask aloud.

"We had to do it, there was no way to know another messenger could beat us here by taking the coast road. Its all those bloody port outposts allowing him to change horses while we had to spare ours." one of the men replies.

"Either way we need a new plan, I'm the only one who really knows about construction so we cant hang around to be tested, what do we do from here?"

The men think for a bit and come up with several ideas but it is whittled down to two options.
> You wait for a few days untill the panic is over then slip across.
You decide that security is too tight to make a go of it now so you all settle in to pretending to be good members of the Third Company. The others help out in small manual jobs that don't require skill and you offer services in some of the more complicated work. After three days of the light volunteer work you seem to be trusted by the men there and the initial panic seems to have settled down into a steady routine so you think it might be time to make your move. Messengers and runners keep arriving but you all pay them little heed now as you are concentrating on finding the best crossing point near the fort.

Unfortunately one of the runners came on the main south road just like you and reports about the finding the body of the messenger you killed. Its put down to spies from Carn trying to prevent news getting to the borders so the fort immediately goes on high alert. If you had known it was your own choice in killing him that lead to the lockdown being started again you might have even found it a little funny.

Sadly you didn't know any of this and only knew that the bells went off and everyone had to report to their bunks. No-one is told what is going on but the next morning you all see a small group of men with an unusual insignia arriving at the fort and heading straight into the commanders office. One of your companions informs you that these are from the 'intelligence' section and are very bad news. You cant risk them getting anywhere near you.
> You cant risk them finding you, run for it, NOW!
You nod to the men, "Right then we have to get out of here, take only what you can carry easily and pretend we are on patrol, as soon as we get near the lines we get across and run for it."

You all get into your Army tunics and strap on weapons then head out towards the wall, your stopped a few times but explaining you have been drafted in for wall patrol because of the lockdown gets you through the fort and to the gates. You find you're in luck today as you know the man on gate duty, he is someone you have been working with so you greet him and take the time for a quick chat before asking to be let through so you can start your patrol.

He pauses for a minute but your chat has put him off guard and he lets you through. You all start walking quickly towards the border line where the patrols are thinnest. Your beginning to think you pulled it off but suddenly hear a bell going off behind you and shouting starting up.

"Run!" you shout and you all start sprinting for the border. Arrows start falling from the walls behind you and one of the men with you falls with a bolt sticking out of his side. he waves you on and your forced to leave him behind. You feel something hitting you in the shoulder and realize Amelia's chain just saved you. You whisper a quick thanks to her as you run.

The arrows stop and you realize your out of range now. You really think your going to make it before you see a full squad forming up in front of you with pikes pointed in your direction. You are left with no choice but to charge them and hope you break through. You're mail saves you a couple more times and you cut down two men in front of you before a third gets a clean hit on you and runs his pike through your gut. You only think that you'll never see Amelia again before you die.


You decide that security is too tight to make a go of it now so you all settle in to pretending to be good members of the Third Company. The others help out in small manual jobs that don't require skill and you offer services in some of the more complicated work. After three days of the light volunteer work you seem to be trusted by the men there and the initial panic seems to have settled down into a steady routine so you think it might be time to make your move. Messengers and runners keep arriving but you all pay them little heed now as you are concentrating on finding the best crossing point near the fort.

Unfortunately one of the runners came on the main south road just like you and reports about the finding the body of the messenger you killed. Its put down to spies from Carn trying to prevent news getting to the borders so the fort immediately goes on high alert. If you had known it was your own choice in killing him that lead to the lockdown being started again you might have even found it a little funny.

Sadly you didn't know any of this and only knew that the bells went off and everyone had to report to their bunks. No-one is told what is going on but the next morning you all see a small group of men with an unusual insignia arriving at the fort and heading straight into the commanders office. One of your companions informs you that these are from the 'intelligence' section and are very bad news. You cant risk them getting anywhere near you.
> You they shouldnt have any idea about you and you have good paperwork, wait untill they leave.
Waiting till night seems like a better idea so you all prepare your gear and make sure the documents are well hidden then wait. Sadly it is not long before two guards arrive and ask you to accompany them to the commanders office.

You find the commander and the men from the intelligence squad waiting for you. They take your papers and look through them before speaking.

"Now gentlemen we have been tasked with finding some spies from Carn who have killed one of our messengers on the road to this fort. Your paperwork is all in order but it appears you all joined the third company very recently and most importantly you were all seen accompanying the messenger on his way here. Then arrived alone. Can you explain this at all?

One of your men speaks up "We rode with him for two days but he needed to make haste so he went on ahead of us, we just assumed he had arrived already."

The man looks at you all for a short time before smiling "Well we shall soon see the truth of that."

You are all grabbed from behind and lead down stairways until you are all in a large basement,  some dividing screens are set up and tables with straps brought in. Realizing what is about to happen one of the men tries to run but is immediately run through by a guard. The Intelligence man tuts then says "hmm a waste of information there, ah well three is more than enough, lets begin."

You are all strapped down and have some fluid poured down your throats before the screens are moved in to block you from seeing each other. You feel it taking affect and your muscles relax and refuse to respond, you become entirely paralyzed and unable to speak. The man comes to you first "Don't worry it will wear off after a few hours, and by then you'll be ready to talk."

He is true to his word and tortures you solidly for three hours  before you begin to be able to scream, he waits for you to stop before questioning you further. Once satisfied he turns to the guards. "I'll start on the others after a nice lunch, finish this one off and dump his body at the front, claim it was soldiers from Carn torturing him for information."

You don't even have time to object before the guards run their spears through your chest.


Having gotten yourself to what you believe is a presentable state you knock on the owners door. He emerges and gives you a once over.

"Well its not bad at all for a first try!" he smiles at you before fixing various parts of the suits that are hanging wrong and showing you how to put on cufflinks. "Well you wont ever pass for some highborn sop who lives in a mansion but I rather think that it makes you a better man for it. Now follow me, I'm sure my daughter has had enough time to change as well."

Your lead back to the large room where all tables and chairs have seemingly vanished and a small string quartet has started playing soft music, a few couples are already dancing near them on the open floor. The owner leads you to the side of the room to a small drinks bar.

"Ok its time I did my mingling and information gathering, the serious meeting shall begin in a few hours when most of the guests here are gone." He walks away towards a group of men smoking pipes before calling back "The music is just warming up, make sure you dance with at least one girl while your here!"

You're no master on the dance floor but you know the basics and as long as the songs are slow you're sure you could keep up. The music gets louder and more people move to the dance floor when you see two things happening. The Owners daughter enters the room looking beautiful in a flowing red dress and is immediately approached by several men asking her to dance, and the woman who approached you earlier detaches herself from the group she was in and slowly heads your way.
> The lady from before is beautiful, in a low cut blue dress and is clearly flirting with you in a way the Owner's daughter never did, meet her on the dancefloor.
You see that the daughter is still surrounded by men talking to her so you head onto the dance floor and meet the lady in blue half way. "Have you come to ask me to dance?" she asks coyly

"Of course my lady" you reply before taking her hand and beginning to dance.

The next hour or so passes rather quickly as the Lady dances much closer to you that you know is appropriate and keeps you to herself for the whole time the music is going. You do see the owners daughter dancing with a few men but she doesn't seem too happy. You consider asking her for a dance too but she has entirely ignored you since the dancing started and your current partner isn't sharing you.

Once the music and dancing has ended the Lady extracts herself from your arms with a little pout. "Sadly Glor this is where you have to go to a meeting and I have to head home, but I do promise I'll be seeing ALOT more of you soon."

Left with the strong suspicion she would be taking you home with her if she could you head over to where you see the owner and his daughter talking to a small group.

"Ah Glor just in time, we are all going to adjourn to a smaller room for some drinks and our little meeting." turning to his daughter he asks if she would like to join them but she says no and walks away without looking at you. The owner gives you and her a quick glance before muttering "Ah well." and leads you into the meeting room.
> The Truth
After everyone is seated the Owner addresses you "Now Glor I have explained a little of why we are here during our trip down from the mines. This family I have gathered together is for the purpose of getting the truth out and showing the king that he is being tricked. We have tried getting evidence straight to him but the rest of the council has him surrounded day and night and I cannot do anything for fear of being caught and this entire group being put in danger."

"Which is why we are sending an expedition." one of the other men joins in. "I am a commander in the 3rd company and will be sending some men along with a relief detachment to the border. they will be carrying proof of everything that has been happening over the past two years. We have had to wait this long as gathering the evidence without raising suspicion has not been easy but it is done now and we must hurry as we think the council are preparing for something big using two captured Carn ships. You will be drafted into the 3rd under my orders and send along as well, it'll become your job to help get the proof to Carn."

You think for a minute before answering. "Why are we sending the proof to Carn, why not get it to our king?"

"We tried, many times we tried, most of the men were killed and the rest searched and all the documents they had destroyed so they couldn't risk saying anything without proof, that would just lead to us all being killed before we could prove anything."

"so when does this expedition leave?"

"It was going to be in over a month, but now that your here, the man you know as the Owner of the mine your were in has planned to make them leave in 1 week. Your group will be riding alone instead of with a relief detachment but the papers we provide you should get you there just fine."
> A New Morning
You spend the night in the large mansion and you wake thinking you don't think you slept anywhere so comfortable before in your life. You find fresh cloths and a note inviting you to breakfast in the solar at the end of your bed so you quickly get ready and head out of your door.  You immediately realize that you are entirely lost and have no hope of finding the right room but are luckily saved by a butler who appears to materialize beside you arm.

Once you have been guided to the solar for breakfast you are left with the owner and a table laden with food. "All from my own farms and holdings!" he says happily "Now dig in, we have a long day ahead and you have received this invitation, so you may have a busy evening too I'd imagine." You inquire about his daughter but he says she broke her fast earlier.

You start on the food as you read the impeccably written invitation to dinner at Lady Bridleworth's manner house. Before you can even ask the owner tells you that its the lady you danced with the night before. Well you've never been invited to a dinner in a manner house before and she did seem very interested in you. You ask him if he could accept on your behalf and he gives a little nod to one of the footmen nearby who heads off with the invitation in hand.

The rest of the day is spent around the house and its grounds, speaking about the mission and plans for the next few days but you are mostly thinking about the invitation you received, luckily the owner is lending you a suit for the occasion so at least you will look presentable.
> The Dinner Meeting
As evening fell you are sent from the Owners mansion in a small carriage. It only takes a few minutes to reach the destination, which is a house almost the same size as the owners. You are dropped off and head up to the gate a little unsure of the protocol but the gate keeper greets you first. "Master Glor, my Lady has been expecting you, if you head to the main doors the butler will show you in."

Clearly someone has done some research on you if even their doorman knows you by sight but you think that this is what it must be like when living in high society so head on in.

You are met by the butler who ushers you into the house and through a small maze of joining rooms. You are finally led into a room with a single round table in the centre and several chairs around it, only one is occupied and the lady is wearing  an even more low-cut dress than the night before. She rises as you enter and you are about to greet her when she raises a hand to cut you off.

"Sadly Glor I had many VERY enjoyable plans for you tonight, and having dinner was the least of them, but we heard this morning that that despicable little man had moved his plans forward to only a week away because of you." You are very confused by this but she continues. "You see, he is a member of the kings counsel, but unlike the rest he is trying to foil the plans to start a war. One which we have been preparing for years, we would decimate Carn and double our territory in a matter of weeks. Sadly I am currently not on the council even though the king knows my family and myself so I have had to take steps to correct this. I help remove the meddling pest and I claim his seat, a fair deal no?"

"Wait.. But..." you stammer out

"Oh I know sweetie and I AM sorry" She looks you over like a hungry man looks at a steak "We really could have had so much fun. But part of the deal was I hand you over to these gentlemen from the councils intelligence section so I must give you up."

You feel your arms grabbed by men either side of you and are dragged through a sliding panel in the wall and down into a deep basement. You try and struggle, even as they strap you to the table. Sadly there are more of them than you and once they start injecting you the pain overwhelms everything.

During your torture you tell them everything, you even try to make things up to please them but they always know you are doing it and they make the pain worse so eventually they know everything you do. Once they are finished they untie you and let you stand. They have done relatively little damage to your body, it was mostly your mind that suffered. You head for the door but are blocked by a large man "Sorry but I'm afraid you were found here under a collapsed ceiling after heading to fetch some wine for the lady." he gently pushes you back into the room then shuts and locks the door. You watch helpless as the closing door knocks one of the beams away above you and the roof caves in on your head.


You rise at first light again, and quickly cover your fire with dirt. You head onto the road and search carefully for any sign of other men passing but find none. You must still be ahead of them, but you don't know by how much. You set off North again keeping your eye on the hills and woods to your left looking for any sight of a camp entrance or track leading away from the road.

After a few hours you come across a small track leading into the hills through a copse of trees and on into the bare foothills. Its a very small track and could easily just be an animal trail but you can never be sure as people are always loath to leave any large signs of a new mine until the have laid full claim to it and got a fair number of guards in place. You spend a few minutes trying to check for other clues but in the end cant decide if it was made by men turning off the road of just some animals.

You could follow it further into the hills and check it out but it would be slow going and if it turned out not to be the mine it would loose you most of a days walking.
> You push on North and look for a more promising turn off
You decide that the trial is too small and too close to your previous mine to be the new mine turn off so you continue North at a reasonable pace.

Through the day you pass a couple of even smaller trails but you decide they could be nothing but animal trails as they often pass under bushes and shrubs so you continue till nightfall. You can out into the trees again and have the last of your cooked hare meat. You fall asleep reasoning that if the mine is still ahead that you should pass it tomorrow.

Morning arrives and you set off North again but as noon comes and goes and you start to pass into the evening you still see nothing. You start to feel like maybe you made the wrong choice but you push on till night fall and make camp again.

In the morning light you take stock, you decide that you can head back and try the original trail, as long as your careful if you see the men approaching you on the road you can always double back North again. Or you can continue on and hope its still ahead of you.
> You head back for the side trail
Your turn back south and walk fast, always keeping an eye on the horizon for any signs of the men you passed but your see none. You push on at a reasonable pace till your forced to camp, in the morning you continue south keeping an eye out for the trail.

You come across it by the evening but now you see a large beaten down trail and the marks of a lot of people passing very recently.

Not only had the small group sent ahead got there first but since you had lost nearly 4 days going North then back the main group had also gotten their first by a few hours.

You Sigh and head down the trail yourself knowing that you missed out on the chance of the good jobs.


You decide that the trial is too small and too close to your previous mine to be the new mine turn off so you continue North at a reasonable pace.

Through the day you pass a couple of even smaller trails but you decide they could be nothing but animal trails as they often pass under bushes and shrubs so you continue till nightfall. You can out into the trees again and have the last of your cooked hare meat. You fall asleep reasoning that if the mine is still ahead that you should pass it tomorrow.

Morning arrives and you set off North again but as noon comes and goes and you start to pass into the evening you still see nothing. You start to feel like maybe you made the wrong choice but you push on till night fall and make camp again.

In the morning light you take stock, you decide that you can head back and try the original trail, as long as your careful if you see the men approaching you on the road you can always double back North again. Or you can continue on and hope its still ahead of you.
> You carry on North
You decide there isn't any point in going back so soon and head off North as a fast pace again, most of the day passes without signs of a trail.  As evening falls you see clear signs of damaged undergrowth and a clear path off into the hills. It must be the mine!

Glad you carried on North you strike off the road into the trail and head into the foothills loosing sight of the road behind you. You walk for an hour or two carefully following the trail further in when you see a man leaning against some trees beside the trail. He gives a small nod in your direction so you approach and ask if this is the entrance to the new mine.

"New mine? Now where did you hear that?"

You explain about your work on a mine further south and that you had heard rumors from your old Forman about a new mine opening in this area.

He looks at you thoughtfully for a minute then says "Alright if your fresh from another mine job keep going on this track for a bit till you see a big man with a woodman's axe, his names Pug, tell him Clay sent you, He'll tell you whats going on and get you sorted out."

Thanking Clay you set off again down the trail
> You pug
You walk for about half an hour until you see a huge man chopping some wood and stacking it into a cart, he pauses and leans on his axe while you approach.

"Are you pug?"

"That would be me, now who would be doing the asking all the way out here?"

"Clay told me to come speak to you, I'm a miner looking for work. He said you'd be the one to get me sorted out and explain the work here"

The big man laughed and said "right you are then, I'll be happy to explain it to ya". He waved the axe indicating the hill just behind him "Just over that rise is our camp, and even though I'm in charge I'm the only one that can ever be bothered to chop the wood for the fires, well I also enjoy it which is part of the reason I'm always the one here doing it but anyway you didn't come here for me to tell you about chopping wood. Were a small band here at the moment which makes it easier but sadly for you I wouldn't say were a mining camp"

"Not a mining camp?" your not sure how to take the news that they aren't a mining camp but Pug seems nice enough and you'd be happy enough to do logging or hunting work too "So what work are you doing out here then?"

Pug gives you a grin "Ah that would be banditry mostly, some robbery, looting and such like."

Your trying to think up a reply to his statement when you feel the wind being knocked out of you, looking down you see a steel arrow head pointing out of your chest. You fall backwards away from the grinning Pug to see Clay and a couple of others holding loading crossbows walking towards your head.

"Always nice when they come to you isn't it! This one said he just came off a job so should even have some good coin on him"

You try to say something but can only gurgle a little before darkness closes your eyes


You decide a night under the trees and a good chance of catching food are too good an opportunity to pass up so you head east into the trees till you're well away from the road. You set up a small camp and fire and set up snares out in the trees.

Not long after darkness closed in you hear some noise in the direction of the road and go investigate. You caught a Hare! you quickly skin and gut it and are about to head back to the fire when you hear noise from further towards the road. You walk quietly closer to investigate and see a large group setting up camp on the roadside.

You're about to leave the cover of the trees to go greet them when you over hear their leader telling a small group to go on ahead and prepare the mine camp. They are the workers sent to open the mine your looking for! You do a fast headcount and realize about 50 workers are camped there and many look experienced.

You decide that they must be the main team sent up to get the mining started and realize that they will have enough skilled workers to fill most of the mining jobs there, but unskilled labor is nearly always welcome- if on a much lower pay.

You think about it and you decide that you can either try to join up with them and risk the lower pay, or, you can try and beat the group sent on ahead and try and secure a better job at the mine site before word reaches them of their workers being so close.
> You approach the foreman for a job
You sling your hare through a belt loop and walk out of the trees towards the foreman's fire. He watches you approach with obvious interest, glancing at the hare tied to your belt. You hail him and ask if you might make use of his fire to cook your hare, you would of course be willing to trade some for a mug of the ale the man was drinking if he was interested.

The man laughs and agrees, you finish preparing the hare and start cooking it. Once its starts the cook through you sit down beside the foreman to see about getting a job.
> The new foreman
"Where are they off to so late at night?" you ask indicating the group vanishing into the night up the road as he trades you a full mug of ale for a chunk of meat off the fire

"They're the mine guards that marched up from the city with us, I sent them on ahead to give the news that we are almost there and to make the camp safe and ready for when we arrive".

You carefully start inquiring about jobs at the mine but he sadly informs you that they have all the trained hands that they need with them already but that you'd be welcome as unskilled labor, the pay would be much lower but that's all he could offer.

You realize with the guards sent ahead already that you wont be able to reach the camp before them so your left with the choice of joining them for much lower pay or heading back south to the city after all.


You turn Northward up the road thinking that the rumors of a new mine are too good an opportunity to pass up, and hey, even if it's false you don't mind spending an extra week or two on the road.

You pull out some of your dried meat and start eating as you walk, thinking you should probably set some traps and snares when you make camp that night to stock up some fresh meat. You spend an uneventful day walking North and see no other travellers. An hour or so before dusk you start looking for a place to camp. You can camp on the roadside, head into the trees to the east for cover while you sleep or walk an hour or so to the foothills west and hope for a spring or cave.
> You might be a traverler along the road, camp beside it
You decide it would be best to just set up camp beside the road and see if any other travelers come along during the night. You go a few feet east of the road to a nice looking oak tree and start setting up a camp for yourself as theres still some time till night sets. You Set a few snares further into the trees and build a nice fire for yourself then settle down for a while.

Just as darkness arrives you hear some noise in the trees, one of your snares has caught a hare! Gathering in the other snares you quickly skin and prepare the hare then set it cooking on the fire- its worth staying up an hour or two for some good hot food.

The hare eventually starts to cook nicely and you've just pulled its leg off to start eating when you hear some noise coming up the road. You keep eating as you watch a large group coming towards you. They slow as they reach the fire and the one in the lead walks over to you.

"Hail stranger, mind if we set up camp with you for the night? I could even trade some ale for a little of that hare if your interested?"

You haven't had ale in a week or two now so you readily agree and watch the group start to build a couple more fires and set out their sleeping rolls. The man who had talked to you first sends a few of the group off North up the road then joins you by the fire with a small ale keg under one arm.


You have just run your sword through the last of the 6 bandits when you hear a cry for help. You jog over to a large chest. Upon opening it, you find a beautiful girl locked in with a rather large amount of gold.

"You must be Amelia" you say, as you boldly lift her from the chest.

"I am!" she replies breathlessly, "You must have gotten my hidden message! Thank you for rescuing me. The way you challenged all the bandits to a sword fight at the same time was so very heroic!" You lean closer....

You wake up and take in your surroundings, holding a tiny hope that one of your dreams had been reality and not just fantasy. But all you see is your one room hut, mostly empty and worn down.

"Last night it was a dream about escaping from an amazing tower of riddles ruled by an evil magician and today it's a hero rescuing princesses... I must be losing it."  You get out of bed, get dressed and take stock. One bed, a desk with your open pack and a chair by the cooking fire are all the furniture in the room. You slowly re-fill your pack with your cloths and hunting gear. The fire went out during the night leaving the room dank and chilled so, realizing you had no reason left to hang around, you stuff your sleeping sheet into you pack, sling it over your shoulders and head to the door.

Looking out you see the dirt streets and hastily built shacks of the work camp you've been living in the past few months.

Do you:
> You put off speaking to your boss and go back in for a last look around
Your boss will be busy shouting orders at people anyway so talking to him can wait.

You turn back inside and have a good look around for anything you might have missed. You rummage under the bed and behind the desk, you even check the pot over the fire for any scraps.

But all you find is an old, completely rotted apple under the bed which smells so bad you chuck it into the coal embers as soon as you pick it up.

Sighing, you admit that your already carrying everything you own and head out the door to speak to the foreman of the camp.


You survey the battlefield that you’ve created. All sides have been at war for a long time, and also evenly matched. Who will win? It will all be decided on tonight.

“Hey! Its time to go to bed!” you Mom says coming into your room.

Or at least it would be, if you didn’t have to go to bed!

“Aw Mom! I was just about to do something!” you protest.
“Well you can do something tomorrow, right now its bedtime, you know the rules. But before you do remember to brush your teeth and put these toys away.”
“But…but can’t I leave them out? I got everything set up and like everything! The final battle for the universe is going to take place!”

Your Mom surveys everything you’ve set up. You have a myriad of unusual toys and figures standing next to each other. You have plastic knights standing next to space men defending a castle made of blocks on one side while across from them has a combination of green army guys in vehicles and some metal robots. And yet on the far side of your room is another army set up consisting of dinosaurs and some other monsters. She just smiles at your creativeness.

“Very well, it looks like you went to a lot of trouble, so okay. You certainly do have a vivid imagination to come up with some of the games you do.”

Happily you go brush your teeth, and think about the battle that’s going to take place tomorrow! General Razor will try to storm the castle and Lord Justice will defend it! And then the Dino Demons will try to destroy everything! It’s going to be so cool!

After brushing your teeth, you head back to your room where you carefully step around the figures you’ve set up with care and get into bed. Of course as usual, you don’t fall asleep right away; you read a couple pages of your favorite comic book first. Man you wish real life wasn’t as boring as it is. There’s no magic, no super heroes, no giant robots, no nothing! You often wished you lived in a world with all of those things.

You turn off the lights in your room when your Mom checks on you again and demands you go to sleep. You’re still a little to wound up to fall asleep though, so you just lie in your bed thinking how tomorrow’s battle is going to play out.

Of course one bad thing about having an overactive imagination is letting it run away with you. Your room is dark, with only the dim moonlight shining in and creating creepy shadows on your walls. You begin to think the shadows are moving, begin to get a little scared and hide under the covers. Then you think back to something your mom told you the last time you got scared like this: “Monsters aren’t real. Nothing like that exists in this world.”
Of course she’s right, after all you just thought the world you lived in was boring by not having those types of things in it.

You slowly peer out from under your covers, but unfortunately this isn’t the work of your imagination. These shadows ARE moving and now they’re right by the side of your bed. Red dots form their eyes and a bluish light form their grinning maws. Before you can cry out, one of them puts its hand over your mouth and puts its other hand to its own with its index finger to its lips. (Or rather where its lips would be if it had any)

“Shhhhhhh, the master wants to see you…there will be plenty of time to cry then, little one. Open up the portal.” The shadow says

Suddenly a purple portal opens up where your closet is, and two of the shadow creatures grab and carry you into it. The shadows run around you as you’re carried down the green tunnel which the portal has lead into. They excitedly talk about how their master will be pleased for getting you. Of course all you’re doing right now is panicking, and you start to struggle to get away, surprisingly, you manage to break free of their grip and start trying to run back to where they entered this thing.

“Get him! He’s trying to run away!”
“Do it quickly before the portal starts collapsing!”

As you hear the shadows giving orders to each other, the portal tunnel that you’re in is indeed starting to flash and blink a lot, when you look down at your running feet, the purple light “supporting” you disappears every now and then revealing only blackness. You can see your room just up ahead and you ALMOST reach it, before the green tunnel disappears completely.

You yell and scream about how you wish you back home as you fall through the endless void, and while that doesn’t happen, you do suddenly appear someplace else…

You land roughly, scraping your legs and knees and getting your pajamas all dusty. After brushing yourself off and rubbing your hurting legs, you get a better look at your surroundings.

You’re in what looks to be the middle of nowhere, though there is a small group of rickety looking houses nearby, probably a small village.

One thing is for certain, you know you aren’t on Earth, because, a small multi-colored lizard like creature with three eyes scurries by your feet and into the wilderness beyond. You’re still scared, but also fascinated by this place; however, you realize you need to figure out how to get back home and what exactly is going on.
> You head to the village
Upon entering you see many of the villagers just sitting outside their houses doing nothing, though a couple of them are lazily plucking some sort of stringed instruments. They barely pay any attention to you at all.

You know you’re not supposed to talk to strangers, but in this situation you don’t really feel like you have a choice, so you ask one of them for help.

“Hey, I need some help, these shadow things attacked me…”
“Wazzat? Shadows? Shadows don’t come ‘round here boy, we’s got ourselves a wizard to protect us! If you got shadow problems, maybe you should talk to him. He’s a pretty smart guy. He’s in that nice lookin’ house over there, the one with the roof! Careful though, he’s usually in a bad mood. Argues with his wife constantly too.” The fat villager says going back to drinking whatever it is he’s drinking.

Not knowing what else to do you head over to the wizard’s house. As you approach you can hear arguing from the inside.

You knock on the door which is opened by a young woman dressed in a waitress like outfit. She’s pretty, but looks very tired, behind her appears an older man who doesn’t look much like a wizard at all.

“Whadda you want kid? We ain’t buyin’ anything!” he scowls.
“Are you really a wizard? You don’t look like one.” You remark.
“That’s because he isn’t a real wizard. He’s a lazy charlatan!” the woman answers.
“Shut up Talia, I was good enough to get YOU.”
“Yeah, that’s because I was too young and naïve to know any better! I knew I should’ve married a knight!”
“Hah! And what knight would marry a serving wench like you?”
“Melcar, I don’t have time for your nonsense today, I have to go to work. Can you at least TRY to do something productive while I’m gone, like casting some cantrips to cut down the overgrowth in the backyard? Sheesh, I think I saw a nest of Furms making their homes in there and you know much I hate those little purple things! They infest everything and then you can’t get rid of them! So can you DO that one thing, if nothing else?”
“Yeah, yeah.”

The woman throws her hands up in dismay and leaves the house, leaving Melcar and you alone.

“So, what’s your deal kid? I know you ain’t from this backwoods village because I know everyone here and you actually look like you bathe every once in awhile. You lost or something?”

You explain your situation to Melcar, somehow he doesn’t look surprised, but he does look a little more interested in you.

“Hmm, sounds like the Nightmare Tyrant. He has a habit of snatching people from other dimensions and draining them to harness his power. Those shadows you encountered are what’s left of his victims. I’m not entirely sure of his methods for choosing, but I do know he only takes those with strong imaginations though. It’s probably why he prefers children since they tend to be more inclined to think up fantastic things.” You were lucky to escape from him.”
“Well how do I get back home?”

Melcar looks at you a moment before replying.

“You interested in doing a little yard work?”
“Uh…”
“I’m really busy with an experiment, and I just don’t have time to mess around with clearing the overgrowth in my backyard. If you do it, I think that’ll give me time to complete my experiment, as well as giving me time to look up the spell that can take you back home.”
“Well okay…”
“Good, there’s a scythe in the back. You shouldn’t have too much trouble.”

Melcar closes his door and you walk around the back, which literally looks like a jungle. The grass is almost as high as you are and the scythe is a little too unwieldy and large for you to use properly. Soon tiny purple people appear and angrily throw small stones at you and squeak some sort of jibberish. They apparently don’t like you trying to tear up their home.

You don’t see how you’re ever going to finish this task.
> You try to scare away the purple people
You try to scare the little purple people much like you’ve ran after pigeons in the park, however the purple folks won’t be chased away so easily, this is their home after all, they just nimbly get out of your way and continue to pelt you with stones, which are really starting to hurt at this point, and a particularly large stone smacks you in the head knocking you out.

When you wake up you’re nowhere near the Wizard’s house anymore, in fact you’re quite a ways outside of the village! The purple people must’ve dragged you here. As you groggily get up, you wish that someone would help you. Just then a shadow looms over you, at first you get scared again, but fortunately this one is attached to someone. You look up and see a woman dressed in leather armor, she carries a bow on her back and a sword by her side. She gives you a serious look while she grabs your hand to pick you up. You notice she has pointy ears.

“Boy, what’re you doing out here? Don’t you know it can be dangerous out here? Do you live in that village?” she asks.
“No, I was trying to look for help there. There was a wizard who said he could help me get back home if…”
“Wizard? There wasn’t any strong magic activity detected around here boy. Where are you from?”

You explain your story, as the woman listens intently. Much like the wizard you ran into earlier, she doesn’t seem surprised.

“Mm, yes you are a lucky boy indeed to escape from the Nightmare Tyrant, most never even have a chance. I think you better come with me, my name’s Lyssia”
“But the wizard…”
“Trust me, you’ll be safer with me, than that so called wizard you mentioned. Sounded like a hedge wizard that was just getting you to do some grunt work that he didn’t want to do. He couldn’t help you against the shadows, let alone get you back home. I might be able to though, well the Captain might anyway. We’ll head back to my platoon’s camp.”

You feel somewhat safer with Lyssia, not to mention she seems like she’s more readily going to help you, so you follow her. Eventually you arrive at a fairly large camp with armored knights, horses, and tents. Most of them look like they’ve been doing a lot of fighting recently and are still recovering from their wounds. When you enter the Captain’s tent, you see him looking over some maps before he looks up at you. He’s a man of average build, but his weathered and tired face shows the signs of having been in battle several times. His armor displays likewise.

“Lyssia, you better have a good reason for why you’re bringing this boy into my presence. This is a mobile military unit; you know we can’t be coddling civilians, let alone children.”

Lyssia explains the situation and the Captain’s attitude towards you changes to a more sympathetic one.

“Escaping from the Nightmare Tyrant’s minions is no small feat, especially for one unprepared for such an encounter. The terror they radiate is normally enough to paralyze most with fear. You’re obviously not a battle hardened soldier to such horrors, and there’s no evidence of any magic about you. You must have an innate strong will, boy. Which is good since you’ll most likely have to deal with them again.” He says grimly.
“Again?!” you exclaim.
“Yes, unfortunately the Nightmare Tyrant isn’t fond of losing those he marks for capture. He has no doubt sent his Shadow minions to look for you. Fortunately you have us to help you now. We are a recon team for the Parran Empire, we’ve been fighting the Nightmare Tyrant for years, trying to find a weakness with little success. Though after some searching we think there may be a powerful weapon that can help us. It’s in some ruins a few days from here, or should be. One can never know for certain with old legends. Now, I have a duty to defend innocents from evil, but I also have a duty to the Empire. I simply cannot take this team all the way back to the Empire just to drop you off there where our wizards can send you back home, I have a mission to complete first. You can either stay with us and then after the mission we shall all go back together, or I shall send a couple of my men with you back to the Empire. Keep in mind the Shadows are probably looking for you and they tend to hunt in swarms, so the more people defending you, the better.”

You really want to go back home, but you’re a little worried about not having all the protection you can.

“Well can’t Lyssia go with me?” you ask hopefully. Lyssia smiles a bit at your request, but the Captain shakes his head.
“Sadly no. While I can certainly understand and admire your judgment of wanting her to go with you, I cannot allow her to do so, as my mission will undoubtedly require her skills. As I said, I will send to two of my men, but that is all I can spare if you decide to head back to the Empire.”
> You head back to the Empire
The sooner you’re out of this place the better, so you request to be escorted back to the Empire where their wizards can send you back home.

“Very well, I’ll send Paladins Salzat and Lakri with you, along with an official letter explaining your situation. Good luck and may you return home without any ill-fated encounters.” The Captain says handing you the letter for safe keeping.

You are presented to Salzat and Lakri who are explained their mission. Salzat doesn’t look pleased; in fact he gets angry and exclaims his skills would be better put to use fighting the Nightmare Tyrant and other evil creatures, not looking after a child. Lakri on the other hand looks relieved. After the Captain shouts him down and tells him to obey orders, Salzat grumbles and gets on his horse. Lyssia puts you on your own horse, you’ve
never ridden one before, but she assures you that these are the best trained horses in the Empire and will serve you well. You’re told you should reach the Empire in a few days.

Soon you’re off with your new travel companions They couldn’t be more opposite. Salzat is a mean looking man with scars all over his face who barely speaks to you, but his armor is impeccably clean and well taken care of. It even has a shine to it, almost as if it was brand new. (He doesn’t seem to wear a helmet though, perhaps that might explain all the scars) Lakri on the other hand is much kinder and talkative to you. His armor looks like its seen better days though. It’s metal that looks hastily welded together, badly dented and even showing signs of rust! Unlike Salzat his suit of armor has a full face helmet which he’s wearing right now and Salzat has chosen to taunt him about.

“Lakri, why are you wearing that thing? We aren’t even going into battle you coward! I swear I don’t know how any of you can see in those things anyway. I need to be able to swivel my head as quick as possible so I can see the next enemy I have to slay!”
“Leave me alone Salzat! I like to make sure I’m protected! I don’t want to end up all scarred and ugly like you! I intend on getting married one day!” Lakri sputters.
“Feh! I don’t need to look pretty; my DEEDS will win the hearts of damsels!”

“How did you guys become Paladins?” you ask. Surprisingly Salzat answers your question right away.

“Well unlike Lakri here, I didn’t have royal family connections. I worked my way up through the ranks and went through special training so that I could become a weapon against evil and serve the Empire. If I could wipe out all the evil in this world myself, I would not hesitate to do so. There is no greater deed than to serve the cause of good and righteousness and right now my talents are going to waste escorting you!”
“Yes, well I for one am glad for the break from battle. This is a nice change of pace than fighting trolls, shadows and other such nastiness. I wasn’t really looking forward to going to those ruins the Captain mentioned either. Sounded dangerous.” Lakri says.
“Yeah, well we know you’re a coward anyway, and a disgrace to the Paladin name.”
“I’m not a coward! I…just want to live alright? I mean is it so wrong that I prefer my life to not be at risk every five minutes?”

“Why did you become a Paladin, if you don’t like to fight?” you ask.
“Oh, that’s a long story…let’s just say my Dad wanted me to.”
“But you’re a grown up, shouldn’t you just be able to do what you want now?”
“Ha ha! You think just because one grows up, you aren’t subjected to being told what to do by your parents? Guess again. Ah well, perhaps you have less demanding parents. You must certainly like them, if you wanted to get home so quickly to see them again.”

Before you can answer, Salzat suddenly looks up in the sky and draws his sword.

“Shut up! I sense something…”

Suddenly the sky grows considerably darker within only a few seconds and screeching can be heard from above. Dark winged creatures begin to descend from the sky

“SHADOWS!” Lakri shouts.
“Alright! And here I thought I wasn’t going to get to vanquish evil today! Come on and be destroyed foul creatures!” Salzat laughs.

At this point Lakri and Salzat show their differences again. Lakri panics to the point that he fumbles and drops his weapon before yelling that you all should make haste to escape. Salzat on the other hand turns to face the winged Shadows. You don’t see how he can possibly fight them all himself though.
> You follow Lakri
You’re in no position to fight a bunch of flying Shadows, you’re not armed with anything, and nowhere near being a warrior. You take you horse in the direction that Lakri headed, leaving Salzat behind to fight the Shadows, though you aren’t safe yet as a few of them are still in pursuit of you.

“That’s the one the Master wants! The little one! Get him! Get him!” you hear raspy voices shout behind you.

Soon your horse has almost caught up to Lakri’s. Lakri seems to have forgotten that he’s supposed to be DEFENDING you!

“Hey! Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me?” you shout at him, while briefly looking behind you to see how close the Shadows are.
“I…I’m sorry…I just…ARGH! Shadows! Gotta get away! Don’t follow me, they’re after you!”

Lakri must be so frightened for his own life that he’s gone half mad! Seeing that he’s not going to lose you, he ends up jumping off of his horse and running off into the wilderness in an effort to ditch the Shadows. It works for him since they were never after him and they continue to follow you and are starting to close in…

Soon one is close enough to grab at you, in an attempt to rip you from the back of the horse.
> You attempt to punch at the Shadow
With your free hand you attempt to punch the flying Shadow, but unfortunately it deftly dodges your attack and you unbalance yourself causing you to fall off the horse.

You don’t land on the ground though since the flying Shadows swoop in to catch you before that happens. Of course now you’re in their evil clutches. They laugh and cackle with glee as they take you back to the Nightmare Tyrant.


You’re in no position to fight a bunch of flying Shadows, you’re not armed with anything, and nowhere near being a warrior. You take you horse in the direction that Lakri headed, leaving Salzat behind to fight the Shadows, though you aren’t safe yet as a few of them are still in pursuit of you.

“That’s the one the Master wants! The little one! Get him! Get him!” you hear raspy voices shout behind you.

Soon your horse has almost caught up to Lakri’s. Lakri seems to have forgotten that he’s supposed to be DEFENDING you!

“Hey! Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me?” you shout at him, while briefly looking behind you to see how close the Shadows are.
“I…I’m sorry…I just…ARGH! Shadows! Gotta get away! Don’t follow me, they’re after you!”

Lakri must be so frightened for his own life that he’s gone half mad! Seeing that he’s not going to lose you, he ends up jumping off of his horse and running off into the wilderness in an effort to ditch the Shadows. It works for him since they were never after him and they continue to follow you and are starting to close in…

Soon one is close enough to grab at you, in an attempt to rip you from the back of the horse.
> You hold on tight to the reins
You pulls away from the Shadow and hold on as tight as you can, hoping that somehow the horse can outrun these creatures, or at least hoping that someone can help you.

No sooner have you thought this, when suddenly you hear a sizzling sound followed by an ear piecing screech from above. The Shadow trying to rip you from the horse has been struck down by some sort of bolt of lightning. Soon another Shadow is destroyed in the same way

“Cursed Shadows! Just hold on to the reins boy and keep moving! There’s a town up ahead where you’ll be safe!” you hear someone yell at you. You notice some trees and rocks along side of the road, but no people. Whoever it is helping you must be well hidden.

Eventually all the Shadows following you have been destroyed by bolts and you make it into the town, though you aren’t sure of what to do or go next, but for now you’re just glad to be alive. (Your horse has even clamed down a bit)

While you just temporarily rest on top of your horse, you hear the voice of the person who helped you again.

“Ah there you are, glad to see you’re alright. What’s a boy like you traveling by himself in these dangerous times anyway? The wretched Nightmare Tyrant’s minions seem to be everywhere nowadays.”

The one who’s helped you looks like a little different from what you expected, this man looks more like a warrior, but not like the knights you encountered earlier. More like a barbarian type. He’s bristling with muscles and has a large axe carried on his back.

“You don’t look like a Wizard.” You say.
“Of course I don’t, because I’m not.”
“I thought only Wizards could cast spells.”
“Oh that lightning bolts back there? That’s thanks to this magic ring I found a long time ago. Though I think it’s out of charges, it’s useless except maybe to trade with now. Here, why don’t you take it.” He says giving you the ring.

“Thanks. I’m supposed to be heading to the Parran Empire to get back home.”
“You live in the Parran Empire?”
“No, but they’re supposed to have Wizards there who can help me get back home.”

You go into detail about your adventures to the barbarian; he seems a lot more surprised by your tale than the rest you’ve told have.

“That’s some tale boy, though I have no reason to disbelieve you, given the things I’ve seen since my own travels as well as the things I have heard about the Nightmare Tyrant. His darkness has even reached my old homeland far north, though my people tend to be nomadic and the land doesn’t really contain anything of major importance. We had more problems with the usual menaces of giants and trolls more than anything else.”
“How come you’re so far from home?”
“Well as I said, my people are nomadic in nature, and I guess I’m even more so. I wanted to see other places outside of my homeland, so I traveled south to where civilization tends to thrive. I’ll most likely return one day.”

Before you continue this conversation, you have just realized you don’t really know the route to get to the Empire. The Paladins were supposed to lead you there and now both of them are gone. You don’t know who else to ask, you’re all by yourself again and this barbarian did help you, so you give it a shot…

“Hey, um…could you help me get to Empire? I don’t exactly know the way.”
“Me? Well, I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask, seeing as I’ve never been there either, though I’m sure that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, all I need is a few directions from someone and I could probably get there quickly…sure why not? As I said, I’ve never been to the Parran Empire lands so it wouldn’t really be a wasted trip for me, but we probably should find a room somewhere first. Also I’ll need to ask for directions. My name’s Qualan by the way.”

Qualan rents a room for the pair of you, but he doesn’t stay, instead he says he’s going to go ask for directions and explore the town a bit, and for you to just stay in the room and not to open it for anybody. He has the key, so he can let himself in. Soon you’re alone again in a relatively barren room. It’s pretty boring in here, but you try to keep yourself occupied, namely by thinking of all the people and places you’ve encountered since you’ve been here. In fact this is the first time you’ve actually got the chance to reflect on this little adventure. You also wonder about your Mom, she’s going to be worried about you and probably have the police looking all over for you! And when you finally do return, what will you tell her?

You don’t know, but what you do know for certain is that you DO want to get home as soon as possible. You find this place very fascinating, but the Shadows and the Nightmare Tyrant who’s taken an interest in you is something you can do without. You just wish you had something that you could fight them off with…

No sooner does that pass through your mind when you notice something glowing under one of the beds. You cautiously check underneath it, and find a short sword. It faintly glows with a white light for a moment longer and then fades back to its normal color.

After “playing” with the sword for a bit, you suddenly realize that you created the sword, or you at least made it appear. In fact you’ve caused quite a few things to occur just by “thinking”. It seems like every time you “wished” for help, it suddenly arrived.

Maybe you have magical powers here or something similar, this all can’t be a coincidence.
> You wish to be back home
If you knew that it was a simple wish that could get you home, you would’ve done it a long time ago! You begin to think really hard about going back home. You close your eyes and try to visualize it.

For a moment you think you’re succeeding, but suddenly all you begin to see is a black void and Shadow creatures. Something terribly wrong is happening. You really know it when you open your eyes and see nothing but darkness and you are being held down on some sort of smooth cold surface by Shadows and you no longer have your sword. A sinister voice emanates from the darkness and you’re completely paralyzed with fear.

“Ah, yes I knew it would only be a matter of time before you tried that to get home. Fortunately I made plans ahead of time to prevent that from occurring. Of course, in a way you ARE home. Your new one anyway. Soon you’ll be one of us… after a few alterations of course.”


You pulls away from the Shadow and hold on as tight as you can, hoping that somehow the horse can outrun these creatures, or at least hoping that someone can help you.

No sooner have you thought this, when suddenly you hear a sizzling sound followed by an ear piecing screech from above. The Shadow trying to rip you from the horse has been struck down by some sort of bolt of lightning. Soon another Shadow is destroyed in the same way

“Cursed Shadows! Just hold on to the reins boy and keep moving! There’s a town up ahead where you’ll be safe!” you hear someone yell at you. You notice some trees and rocks along side of the road, but no people. Whoever it is helping you must be well hidden.

Eventually all the Shadows following you have been destroyed by bolts and you make it into the town, though you aren’t sure of what to do or go next, but for now you’re just glad to be alive. (Your horse has even clamed down a bit)

While you just temporarily rest on top of your horse, you hear the voice of the person who helped you again.

“Ah there you are, glad to see you’re alright. What’s a boy like you traveling by himself in these dangerous times anyway? The wretched Nightmare Tyrant’s minions seem to be everywhere nowadays.”

The one who’s helped you looks like a little different from what you expected, this man looks more like a warrior, but not like the knights you encountered earlier. More like a barbarian type. He’s bristling with muscles and has a large axe carried on his back.

“You don’t look like a Wizard.” You say.
“Of course I don’t, because I’m not.”
“I thought only Wizards could cast spells.”
“Oh that lightning bolts back there? That’s thanks to this magic ring I found a long time ago. Though I think it’s out of charges, it’s useless except maybe to trade with now. Here, why don’t you take it.” He says giving you the ring.

“Thanks. I’m supposed to be heading to the Parran Empire to get back home.”
“You live in the Parran Empire?”
“No, but they’re supposed to have Wizards there who can help me get back home.”

You go into detail about your adventures to the barbarian; he seems a lot more surprised by your tale than the rest you’ve told have.

“That’s some tale boy, though I have no reason to disbelieve you, given the things I’ve seen since my own travels as well as the things I have heard about the Nightmare Tyrant. His darkness has even reached my old homeland far north, though my people tend to be nomadic and the land doesn’t really contain anything of major importance. We had more problems with the usual menaces of giants and trolls more than anything else.”
“How come you’re so far from home?”
“Well as I said, my people are nomadic in nature, and I guess I’m even more so. I wanted to see other places outside of my homeland, so I traveled south to where civilization tends to thrive. I’ll most likely return one day.”

Before you continue this conversation, you have just realized you don’t really know the route to get to the Empire. The Paladins were supposed to lead you there and now both of them are gone. You don’t know who else to ask, you’re all by yourself again and this barbarian did help you, so you give it a shot…

“Hey, um…could you help me get to Empire? I don’t exactly know the way.”
“Me? Well, I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask, seeing as I’ve never been there either, though I’m sure that wouldn’t be too much of a problem, all I need is a few directions from someone and I could probably get there quickly…sure why not? As I said, I’ve never been to the Parran Empire lands so it wouldn’t really be a wasted trip for me, but we probably should find a room somewhere first. Also I’ll need to ask for directions. My name’s Qualan by the way.”

Qualan rents a room for the pair of you, but he doesn’t stay, instead he says he’s going to go ask for directions and explore the town a bit, and for you to just stay in the room and not to open it for anybody. He has the key, so he can let himself in. Soon you’re alone again in a relatively barren room. It’s pretty boring in here, but you try to keep yourself occupied, namely by thinking of all the people and places you’ve encountered since you’ve been here. In fact this is the first time you’ve actually got the chance to reflect on this little adventure. You also wonder about your Mom, she’s going to be worried about you and probably have the police looking all over for you! And when you finally do return, what will you tell her?

You don’t know, but what you do know for certain is that you DO want to get home as soon as possible. You find this place very fascinating, but the Shadows and the Nightmare Tyrant who’s taken an interest in you is something you can do without. You just wish you had something that you could fight them off with…

No sooner does that pass through your mind when you notice something glowing under one of the beds. You cautiously check underneath it, and find a short sword. It faintly glows with a white light for a moment longer and then fades back to its normal color.

After “playing” with the sword for a bit, you suddenly realize that you created the sword, or you at least made it appear. In fact you’ve caused quite a few things to occur just by “thinking”. It seems like every time you “wished” for help, it suddenly arrived.

Maybe you have magical powers here or something similar, this all can’t be a coincidence.
> You don't wish
Something instinctively tells you that “It’s not going to be that easy.” You remember back when the Shadows first tried to take you, you wished you were back home and it didn’t happen, you ended up in the middle of nowhere. There’s no telling where you might end up if you tried it again. So far “little wishes” have worked for you, so you’re going to stick with the current plan of getting the Empire wizards to send you home and use your “powers” only when necessary.

You eventually fall asleep with your new sword by your side, you’re awakened by Qualan in the morning.

“Hey, get up boy let’s get going… where’d you get that sword from?”
“Huh? Oh…well uh I found it under the bed.”
“Sheesh, I know I’ve forgotten a few things in my travels, but never a weapon. That’s just unthinkable. You probably should have a sword anyway, I’m not sure how it is where you’re from, but a boy your age would definitely be somewhat familiar with a weapon of some sort by now in my tribe.”
“Where were you?”
“I told you, I was getting directions to the Parran Empire, and exploring the town a bit…well okay I was exploring the tavern, in fact I eventually explored the floor of it. Oh well at least nothing was stolen, not that I have anything left after spending it all at the tavern…hey you still have that silver ring? I think I might need to trade for a horse. I can’t be accompanying you efficiently if I’m not on horseback as well.”

After giving Qualan the ring back, and uses it to buy a broken down nag, you and he are on your way again. You and he talk during your uneventful travel; he’s very fascinated with your world as you are with all the adventures he’s been on. Soon you come to a split in the path. You ask which way to go.

“Well, both of these paths will eventually lead to the Empire, but one of them is a lot quicker. There’s a catch though, back in town I was told the quicker path is currently under complete control of a vicious goblin tribe. Apparently they’re attacking anyone that goes through there. I heard The Empire was supposed to send in some soldiers to take care of the problem, but the Nightmare Tyrant is a more immediate and dangerous threat and as such they’re concentrating their efforts on him instead. The second path is supposed to be safe and clear, but it’ll take longer. We’ll probably have to make a camp somewhere, before we even reach the Empire.

“Let’s take the safer route.” You say.
“Alright, but keep alert anyway, just because I heard it was safe doesn’t necessarily mean it is.”

You and Qualan travel further with no unexpected encounters. When it begins to get dark you half expect Shadows to come attacking you out of the sky again, but this is a natural darkness, night is merely falling. Qualan suggests that you should make camp and you do so. You and he eat the provisions he bought from town. He comments on how bad they are and next time he’s just going to stick to hunting in the wilderness for food next time.

You’ve never slept outside before, so like most things in this adventure it’s a brand new experience for you. One that makes you really wonder why some of the kids at school have said they like camping so much. You’re definitely a city boy!

After trying to get comfortable several times and not worry about bugs crawling on you, you fall asleep, but not for long. A noise awakens you and Qualan. The horses seem agitated as well.

“Qualan?”
“Shhh! I heard it too…be prepared for anything.” He says standing up and readying his axe.

Soon a large figure lurches out from the darkness. It’s another Shadow, but not like any of the ones you’ve encountered before, this one is bigger for one thing, almost as if its armored and for another it looks vaguely familiar. The black figure is hard enough to make out by the campfire, but when it speaks you know immediately who it is.

“At last I’ve found you boy.”
“Salzat?”
“You know this…thing?” Qualan asks getting ready to attack.
“Briefly, he used to be one of the Paladins sent with me to take me back to the Empire.” You reply backing away.
“And I still have to waste my time escorting you around!” Salzat hisses. “Come boy, my new master the Nightmare Tyrant wants to see you, it would be unwise to keep him waiting, the agony will only be much worse the more you resist…”
“Take the horse and ride boy! I’ll dispatch this monster!” Qualan shouts at you.

You’re sick of running at this point, and Qualan needs your help. Besides you figure you can actually do something now with your new sword, which you draw out.

“Boy, I told you to get out of here!” Qualan exclaims as he defends an attack from Salzat.
“Ha ha! Good. Saves me the trouble of chasing down the little fool!” Salzat laughs.

While he’s laughing you take the opportunity to stab at him. He attempts to dodge, but you manage to slightly wound his leg. This causes him to bellow in a hissing shriek. Qualan hits him with his axe, but it doesn’t effect Salzat like your attack did. Salzat retreats back a bit to recover.

“YOU MISERABLE LITTLE WHELP! YOU HURT ME!” he says before getting ready to charge again.

“Boy, your sword can hurt it, but I’m better with wielding such a weapon, toss it to me and I’ll dispatch this creature!” Qualan quickly says bracing himself for another attack.
> You toss Qualan your sword
Following Qualan’s advice that he would do a better job at fighting Salzat you toss the sword to him and he meets Salzat’s charge.

Qualan lands what would look to be a powerful blow, but instead nothing happens! In fact you’ve noticed that it’s stopped glowing. Salzat winces a bit from the hit, but he doesn’t stop his own attack which fells Qualan. The sword flies out of his hand and disappears into thin air. It would appear that without your belief in yourself, the sword lost not only its power, but ceased to exist altogether. You attempt to wish for another, but you’re too panicked to think straight and you’re having a hard time concentrating altogether. Soon Salzat’s hulking shadow form has grabbed you, and your mind is filled with nothing but terror. He carries you back to the Nightmare Tyrant. You soon join Salzat and the rest in everlasting shadowy torment.


Something instinctively tells you that “It’s not going to be that easy.” You remember back when the Shadows first tried to take you, you wished you were back home and it didn’t happen, you ended up in the middle of nowhere. There’s no telling where you might end up if you tried it again. So far “little wishes” have worked for you, so you’re going to stick with the current plan of getting the Empire wizards to send you home and use your “powers” only when necessary.

You eventually fall asleep with your new sword by your side, you’re awakened by Qualan in the morning.

“Hey, get up boy let’s get going… where’d you get that sword from?”
“Huh? Oh…well uh I found it under the bed.”
“Sheesh, I know I’ve forgotten a few things in my travels, but never a weapon. That’s just unthinkable. You probably should have a sword anyway, I’m not sure how it is where you’re from, but a boy your age would definitely be somewhat familiar with a weapon of some sort by now in my tribe.”
“Where were you?”
“I told you, I was getting directions to the Parran Empire, and exploring the town a bit…well okay I was exploring the tavern, in fact I eventually explored the floor of it. Oh well at least nothing was stolen, not that I have anything left after spending it all at the tavern…hey you still have that silver ring? I think I might need to trade for a horse. I can’t be accompanying you efficiently if I’m not on horseback as well.”

After giving Qualan the ring back, and uses it to buy a broken down nag, you and he are on your way again. You and he talk during your uneventful travel; he’s very fascinated with your world as you are with all the adventures he’s been on. Soon you come to a split in the path. You ask which way to go.

“Well, both of these paths will eventually lead to the Empire, but one of them is a lot quicker. There’s a catch though, back in town I was told the quicker path is currently under complete control of a vicious goblin tribe. Apparently they’re attacking anyone that goes through there. I heard The Empire was supposed to send in some soldiers to take care of the problem, but the Nightmare Tyrant is a more immediate and dangerous threat and as such they’re concentrating their efforts on him instead. The second path is supposed to be safe and clear, but it’ll take longer. We’ll probably have to make a camp somewhere, before we even reach the Empire.

“Let’s take the safer route.” You say.
“Alright, but keep alert anyway, just because I heard it was safe doesn’t necessarily mean it is.”

You and Qualan travel further with no unexpected encounters. When it begins to get dark you half expect Shadows to come attacking you out of the sky again, but this is a natural darkness, night is merely falling. Qualan suggests that you should make camp and you do so. You and he eat the provisions he bought from town. He comments on how bad they are and next time he’s just going to stick to hunting in the wilderness for food next time.

You’ve never slept outside before, so like most things in this adventure it’s a brand new experience for you. One that makes you really wonder why some of the kids at school have said they like camping so much. You’re definitely a city boy!

After trying to get comfortable several times and not worry about bugs crawling on you, you fall asleep, but not for long. A noise awakens you and Qualan. The horses seem agitated as well.

“Qualan?”
“Shhh! I heard it too…be prepared for anything.” He says standing up and readying his axe.

Soon a large figure lurches out from the darkness. It’s another Shadow, but not like any of the ones you’ve encountered before, this one is bigger for one thing, almost as if its armored and for another it looks vaguely familiar. The black figure is hard enough to make out by the campfire, but when it speaks you know immediately who it is.

“At last I’ve found you boy.”
“Salzat?”
“You know this…thing?” Qualan asks getting ready to attack.
“Briefly, he used to be one of the Paladins sent with me to take me back to the Empire.” You reply backing away.
“And I still have to waste my time escorting you around!” Salzat hisses. “Come boy, my new master the Nightmare Tyrant wants to see you, it would be unwise to keep him waiting, the agony will only be much worse the more you resist…”
“Take the horse and ride boy! I’ll dispatch this monster!” Qualan shouts at you.

You’re sick of running at this point, and Qualan needs your help. Besides you figure you can actually do something now with your new sword, which you draw out.

“Boy, I told you to get out of here!” Qualan exclaims as he defends an attack from Salzat.
“Ha ha! Good. Saves me the trouble of chasing down the little fool!” Salzat laughs.

While he’s laughing you take the opportunity to stab at him. He attempts to dodge, but you manage to slightly wound his leg. This causes him to bellow in a hissing shriek. Qualan hits him with his axe, but it doesn’t effect Salzat like your attack did. Salzat retreats back a bit to recover.

“YOU MISERABLE LITTLE WHELP! YOU HURT ME!” he says before getting ready to charge again.

“Boy, your sword can hurt it, but I’m better with wielding such a weapon, toss it to me and I’ll dispatch this creature!” Qualan quickly says bracing himself for another attack.
> You defeat Salzat yourself
You have to defeat Salzat yourself. It was your thoughts that created the sword, by your own sheer force of willpower. If you believe in yourself, you’ll be able to defeat Salzat, you know you will.

Salzat predictable charges at you, Qualan attempts to stop him, but once again his axe does nothing and Salzat smashes him in the face with his free hand, knocking him out. He’s about to finish him off with his sword, but you prevent this from happening by stepping in and parrying the blow. For some reason, you feel much stronger than you ever have before.

“Whelp! You will be sustenance for the Shadow Tyrant!” Salzat hisses and tries to break through your defense, but your confidence and sudden increase in strength don’t make you fear his threats or him. Your sword glows brighter causing the red dots that are Salzat’s eyes to close in blinding pain. While he temporarily shields them, you press your advantage and strike Salzat multiple times causing him to unleash an unholy scream before dissipating.

You’re breathing hard after the battle, and you sit down to catch your breath. Qualan’s regaining of consciousness makes you jump again.

“Hey hold on there, it’s just me! Wow, that really hurt.” Qualan says holding on to his face. “Looks like you took care of him yourself. In my tribe you’d now be a man with all the benefits and respect as such. For defeating such a powerful creature you might even be considered an honorary great warrior. Here, take this.”

Qualan gives you some sort of strange tooth. Its larger than a humans that’s for sure.

“What’s this?”
“A troll tooth. It’s customary to take a trophy, but seeing as you fought a shadow, there is none, but you should have something to symbolize your hard earned victory, as well as possibly saving my life. Also know that you have made a permanent friend with no only me, but my entire tribe if you should ever meet them. It is our way.”

You are filled with pride and pocket the tooth, while thanking Qualan.

The remainder of the night is uneventful. The next day, you and Qualan bump into a regal looking carriage making its way in the opposite direction. The driver looks annoyed that you’re even on the same road as him, let alone in the way.

“Hey you peasants! Get out the way! The Archmage is on very important business in the name of the Parran Empire!”

Your eyes immediately light up in hope.

“A wizard?” you ask.
“An ARCHMAGE, peasant boy! And I told you and your barbarian servant to get out of the way!”
“Servant? I’m NO ONE’S servant! I am his friend!” Qualan raises his voice in a tone which makes the driver flinch a little.
“Erm…well yes, but I still need you two to…”
“Driver, what is the hold up here?” an old wild haired man in a robe asks getting out of the carriage. “Who are you lot?” he then asks you.

“You’re a wizard from the Empire! And I need to get home! You have to help me!” you blurt out handing the Archmage the note that the Captain gave you. He reads it and nods as you tell him the rest of your tale.
“Hmm, you are a very lucky little boy. Not many get away from the Nightmare Tyrant, you must have a strong will.” The Archmage says inspecting you. “I sense that your sword isn’t natural, yet I can’t determine its magical origins. Yes, you DO have some sort of power boy. Ever thought of being a wizard? We could use someone like you against the Nightmare Tyrant.”

For a brief fleeting moment your adventurous side almost jumps at the chance. But still, you don’t want your Mom to worry about you anymore than she probably is right now. You still don’t know what you’re going to tell her.

“No, I want to go home.” You reply.
“Very well, we can’t have people here that don’t want to be. I can teleport you back home right now if you wish. I myself don’t like to use it for travel unless it’s absolutely an emergency. I still prefer to take life slower and travel the old fashioned ways, of course that’s not really an option for you being from another dimension and all.”
“I can go right now?”
“Oh sure I can get you there real quick. And don’t worry; the Nightmare Tyrant won’t be able to ever steal you from your home world again. He’s only able to perform that feat of interdimentional kidnapping once on a person. Hence the reason why he was so eager to get his hands on you before you could escape again. Now the problem is once I start to open the portal, you need to get going fast. It will undoubtedly alert the Nightmare Tyrant to this location where upon he’ll try one last time to capture you. I’ll certainly help, but this spell will be requiring most of my energy and concentration so hopefully your barbarian friend here will be able to fend off some of the Shadows. Since I’m afraid my driver will most likely be hiding under the carriage the entire time.”
“Hey!” the driver says.
Qualan steps forward and nods.
“Of course. I will do everything in my power to help him get home.”
“Okay then, but that axe isn’t going to do much good, let me enchant it first…there. Now let’s begin.”

The Archmage begins to chant while you and Qualan wait for the spell to take effect. The driver looks nervous the whole time, but he hasn’t hid under the carriage yet.

The wind begins to blow strongly and once again that familiar darkness begins gather once again. This time it’s followed a stronger sense of malevolence.

You suddenly hear a menacing voice in your mind.

“Boy, did you think you could escape from me? I am the Nightmare Tyrant! Destroyer of life! Your power will be mine and you WILL serve me!”
“NO!” you scream out in defiance!
“Don’t listen! It’s the Tyrant’s way of trying to get inside your head! Don’t let him do it!” the Archmage briefly shouts and then continues his hand gestures.

Shadow creatures come descending out of the sky screeching horribly as usual. Qualan stands in front of you ready to take the brunt of the attack.

“Almost done!” the Archmage shouts.

The shadows swarm your position, and you and Qualan attempt to fight them off. Your sword fortunately is glowing brightly, which at least keeps them from overwhelming you. While you and Qualan are fighting them off, the Nightmare Tyrant’s voice booms from out of nowhere and clearly audible to everyone.

“FOOLS! Attack the wizard! He’s the one who can create the escape portal!”
“Too late Tyrant! Quick! Get in the portal!” the Archmage commands as a blue portal opens up and he discharges lightning bolts from his fingers to destroy some Shadows attacking him.
“Go! We’ll be alright! We can hold them off!” Qualan adds.

You’re sort of worried about Qualan, but you realize you have to go now. The Nightmare Tyrant bellows again to his minions about not letting you escape as you run for the portal and entering it.

You are enveloped by blackness followed by swirling colored lights. Your sword also flickers in and out of existence. It’s all so strange and overwhelming to you that you pass out.

“Hey! I told you breakfast is ready, are you going to sleep all day?” you hear your Mom call from downstairs as you awaken in surprise.

You quickly look around your room and nothing looks out of place. Your Mom hasn’t seemed to notice that you were gone, in fact it doesn’t look like you even left.

Was it all a dream?

You shake your head trying to decide if it was, then you notice a big tooth on the floor next to the toys you set up yesterday. The troll tooth and oddly its right next to a barbarian figure. Strangely it has a pleased look on their faces.

It wasn’t a dream. It was real. Created by the power of your own imagination. You decide you’ll keep this information to yourself though, since nobody would ever believe it!

You had an interesting adventure, but you’re glad to be home you think as you go downstairs to eat.


The sooner you’re out of this place the better, so you request to be escorted back to the Empire where their wizards can send you back home.

“Very well, I’ll send Paladins Salzat and Lakri with you, along with an official letter explaining your situation. Good luck and may you return home without any ill-fated encounters.” The Captain says handing you the letter for safe keeping.

You are presented to Salzat and Lakri who are explained their mission. Salzat doesn’t look pleased; in fact he gets angry and exclaims his skills would be better put to use fighting the Nightmare Tyrant and other evil creatures, not looking after a child. Lakri on the other hand looks relieved. After the Captain shouts him down and tells him to obey orders, Salzat grumbles and gets on his horse. Lyssia puts you on your own horse, you’ve
never ridden one before, but she assures you that these are the best trained horses in the Empire and will serve you well. You’re told you should reach the Empire in a few days.

Soon you’re off with your new travel companions They couldn’t be more opposite. Salzat is a mean looking man with scars all over his face who barely speaks to you, but his armor is impeccably clean and well taken care of. It even has a shine to it, almost as if it was brand new. (He doesn’t seem to wear a helmet though, perhaps that might explain all the scars) Lakri on the other hand is much kinder and talkative to you. His armor looks like its seen better days though. It’s metal that looks hastily welded together, badly dented and even showing signs of rust! Unlike Salzat his suit of armor has a full face helmet which he’s wearing right now and Salzat has chosen to taunt him about.

“Lakri, why are you wearing that thing? We aren’t even going into battle you coward! I swear I don’t know how any of you can see in those things anyway. I need to be able to swivel my head as quick as possible so I can see the next enemy I have to slay!”
“Leave me alone Salzat! I like to make sure I’m protected! I don’t want to end up all scarred and ugly like you! I intend on getting married one day!” Lakri sputters.
“Feh! I don’t need to look pretty; my DEEDS will win the hearts of damsels!”

“How did you guys become Paladins?” you ask. Surprisingly Salzat answers your question right away.

“Well unlike Lakri here, I didn’t have royal family connections. I worked my way up through the ranks and went through special training so that I could become a weapon against evil and serve the Empire. If I could wipe out all the evil in this world myself, I would not hesitate to do so. There is no greater deed than to serve the cause of good and righteousness and right now my talents are going to waste escorting you!”
“Yes, well I for one am glad for the break from battle. This is a nice change of pace than fighting trolls, shadows and other such nastiness. I wasn’t really looking forward to going to those ruins the Captain mentioned either. Sounded dangerous.” Lakri says.
“Yeah, well we know you’re a coward anyway, and a disgrace to the Paladin name.”
“I’m not a coward! I…just want to live alright? I mean is it so wrong that I prefer my life to not be at risk every five minutes?”

“Why did you become a Paladin, if you don’t like to fight?” you ask.
“Oh, that’s a long story…let’s just say my Dad wanted me to.”
“But you’re a grown up, shouldn’t you just be able to do what you want now?”
“Ha ha! You think just because one grows up, you aren’t subjected to being told what to do by your parents? Guess again. Ah well, perhaps you have less demanding parents. You must certainly like them, if you wanted to get home so quickly to see them again.”

Before you can answer, Salzat suddenly looks up in the sky and draws his sword.

“Shut up! I sense something…”

Suddenly the sky grows considerably darker within only a few seconds and screeching can be heard from above. Dark winged creatures begin to descend from the sky

“SHADOWS!” Lakri shouts.
“Alright! And here I thought I wasn’t going to get to vanquish evil today! Come on and be destroyed foul creatures!” Salzat laughs.

At this point Lakri and Salzat show their differences again. Lakri panics to the point that he fumbles and drops his weapon before yelling that you all should make haste to escape. Salzat on the other hand turns to face the winged Shadows. You don’t see how he can possibly fight them all himself though.
> You help Salzat
You jump off your horse to grab Lakri’s sword in an effort to help Salzat who is already in the midst of battle, with the Shadow creatures who have almost completely enveloped him.

You swing the sword, but its still a little to big and heavy for you to weld properly, you hit a few of the Shadows, but its no use, they outnumber you greatly. Soon one of them manages to deprive you of your weapon and two more snatch you up and carry you up to the sky giggling about how the Nightmare Tyrant is anxious to see you.