text: The figure charges towards you, its sword held tightly in both hands and pointed forward so that if it gets within five feet of you, you'll be dead. You dodge to the side and the blade-wielding creature nearly runs into the wall, but then turns about before you can even fire a bolt. He comes straight towards you again, and you fire a crossbow bolt straight into his face. It hits him in the forehead, though you note a slight advantage as he brings his sword up in an ill-fated attempt to block. When he cannot knock the bolt aside, his sword weights down his arms for a brief moment and his sword goes down to the side.
  
  You only have a few moments before he recovers and comes towards you again. In that time, you might be able to get to the portal, though it's unlikely that you would reach it in time, and you'd have to go around the demonic figure. Your wrist-bow is still loaded, and you have easy access to a large number of bolts for your crossbow, so that might be your best option.
  
  Perhaps, however, doing battle on this thing's terms might suit you. You could put a knife neatly into its neck, judging by the way that its head is tilted slightly upwards. You just hope that the maneuver would not end up terribly wrong, likely getting your head removed in the process.
  
  He's almost manage to get over the unbalancing effects of his failed deflection and of the crossbow bolt which is quickly burning away, so you'll have to act now, whatever it is you're planning to do.
  
  > fire your wristbow at his throat
  The arrow flies true, and strikes his unarmored neck. Obviously he wasn't expecting that, and perhaps it is also his weak point, for he staggers backwards and spits up a large among of blood. Clutching the wound, he snarls angrily, drops the sword, and begins advancing, despite the fact that its life is flowing out from in between its lips, out of its nose, and most of all, around that deadly bolt that you fired.
  
  Falling to its knees, the thing looks up at you in shock, then falls forward on its face and dies. The body bursts into flame, and then the sword quickly shatters, slowly falling to dust. You turn towards the door, wondering what awaits you beyond it. Going through is your only choice, though, you notice soon, for your portal back home has closed. There's probably some way to open it, you simply do not know how.
  
  > Through the door
  You walk forward slowly, trying not to collapse from the sheer fear of the situation. You almost got yourself killed, and the portal behind you has closed, so the only way out of this room is the door. Sighing, you step through the door and look around. The hallways branch out in three directions. You see a compass lying nearby and pick it up. It shows that you are facing north. Therefore you can tell that the hallways go north, northeast, and northwest.
  
  It seems a simple enough choice, but you decide that you are going to examine the area to see if you can find anything else. After a bit of searching, you come across a mark etched on the ground. It points towards the wall. How strange! Deciding that following its advice may be a good thing, you walk over to the wall.
  
  There appears to be a door here, hidden in the hopes that whoever might venture here would not find it. You reach towards it and push on it, but it will not open. There is no knob, making attempts to open it when it obviously opens outward quite problematic. Eventually, you wedge your dagger into the crack and push the door open.
  
  Inside the room is complete darkness, and you can't see anything. Because there's light out in the hall, this confuses you and, also, to some degree, repulses you from the sight. The hallway heading north is straight and gets ever wider as it goes along. You can see a door in the distance. The other two hallways, on the other hand, go farther than you can hope to see.
  
  Where will I go? you ask yourself silently, looking at the different options again. The room nearby you will not enter; your fear takes over and makes sure of that.
  
  > North
  After thinking for a while, you decide that heading north is probably the best idea because you can see where the hallway goes to. As you head along it, the torches become more sparse and you reach for your own, only to find that it is gone. You must have dropped it earlier. Either way, this hallway is where you are going.
  
  Despite the fact that you can't see, you can tell where you're going easily because this hallway is straight. Your nervousness grows as you walk along the pathway, looking side to side even though you cannot see. It is instinctive. You are too used to having to watch your back for you to simply give up the habit when it will no longer help. Besides, it can't hurt anything, can it?
  
  After about thirty seconds you reach the door and grasp at the knob, turning it slightly. Of course, you berate yourself when you find that it is locked. You're going to need some way to open it, but when you look around you, you don't find anything. Eventually you just insert one of the bolts from your wrist-bow into the lock, and it pops open.
  
  Pushing the door open slowly, you can see the person you came to kill. His back is turned to you, and he appears to be deep in thought. This is your chance, but perhaps in his home territory, he will be too strong for you. You don't really want to find out, so you try to think about how you might lure him out. The most obvious way would be to make a noise and run, but that could easily get you killed.
  
  > kill him now while you've got the chance
  You rush towards him, daggers clutched in your hands, and attempt to strike him from behind. He easily leaps to the side, though, and draws a pair of wickedly sharp swords that are on fire. Those weapons aren't even beginning to melt under the heat of it, and how are they burning in the first place? Metal isn't supposed to be able to burn.
  
  You have little time to think of that as a chop comes towards your neck, and you duck under it, kicking out towards his legs. He stumbles backwards and raises his swords again, charging towards you. While he is still on his way, a bolt from your wrist-bow strikes him in the chin, knocking him back to the ground.
  
  You approach, ready to finish him off, when he jumps up and sends his sword into your side. The pain is excruciating, but then your hand hits something on your belt. It is a glass vial of some sort. You aren't sure what it is, but you raise it to your lips. This is your only chance, and you hope desperately that it's a healing potion of some sort.
  
  Before you can drink it, though, it is knocked out of your hands, and for the better, as well, because it was a flask of acid! The sword then comes down towards your head and you attempt to fight as best you can despite the wound that is making everything much more difficult.
  
  > knife him in the neck
  Your dagger comes up and strikes him, and he staggers back, groaning. His swords fall out of his hands, then disappear and reappear in their sheaths. The creature vanishes entirely, but then you hear footsteps and see your foe charging towards the closed portal. You chase him, firing your wrist-bow to no effect, when he opens the portal somehow and leaps through.
  
  You follow him.
  
  > Continue
  The portal remains open, but it'll probably close soon. You don't know much about these things other than the fact that they are unstable, but that knowledge tells you that it won't stay the same way for more than a few minutes. You were lucky to find the portal earlier, before it faded away into nothingness. Thoughts about this situation are quickly replaced by more urgent ones, because after all, a powerful servant of the Dayel is scouring the forest looking for you.
  
  And you want him to find you. That mere fact would normally be enough to scare the living daylights out of you. Right now, though, it's just one more thing that will PROBABLY get you killed. You seem to deal with a lot of those situations. How many times today have you been nearly killed? You can't exactly count them. Every time you try, the pain from your injuries makes it difficult to focus.
  
  You can hear the creature coming your way and as you want him to find you, but not know that you want him to find you, you decide to make some noise. Running towards a tree, you manage to brush by it, and trip over a root. The thud can definitely be heard by the thing, for it comes running towards you. Rolling to the side, you push yourself up and aim your wristbow towards the source of the footsteps.
  
  Your bolt flies and hits the onrushing enemy in the chest, causing him to slow down enough that you have time to draw out your crossbow and fire it. The bolt sails over your enemy's shoulder and he continues running towards you. Reaching towards the box hanging at your belt, you fumble trying to get out another bolt, and are about to fit it on when the sword comes towards you.
  
  Leaping out of the way, you collide with the tree and drop your crossbow, then spin around and take a knife out of its sheath, blocking the first sword chop. A simultaneous slash comes towards your legs, but you leap and twist out of the way of it. He tries to kill you by bringing his swords together but you pass through the trap, draw a knife, and manage to knock his right-hand sword away.
  
  He turns to grab it while blindly stabbing at you with his remaining sword, which cuts a hole in your cloak but doesn't cause any actual harm to you. Laughing wildly, you jump forward and land behind him, though he immediately spins around and nicks you with his blade.
  
  Your dagger stabs forward just as you hear the portal collapsing in on itself. Good, you think, smiling, and stab towards your opponent. He is eventually pushed back by your reckless attacks and constant disarming of him, and you manage to get one good jab at him before he disappears into the distance. That way, after all, if he disguises himself, you'll still be able to recognize him by the blatant wound.
  
  It's time to start working on a way to find him, though, because standing around here all day is not going to make this thing that you want dead, dead. You're actually going to have to put in a little effort of your own. Where to start?
  
  > go back to the village
  You wander into the village, thinking that you might find the servant of the Dayel there, going past the guards, who are, of course, dead. But then, most of the people in the village are dead. You find that out as you search the whole area. They were killed by the underling you met this morning, most likely, and if not... you shudder at the thought. Too many of those possibilities also end in your death.
  
  Looking through the first few houses you find, you don't see anything of importance. There are a lot of dead bodies, all killed by a sword -- that of your would-be murderer. Eventually, you come across a building where you heard some sound earlier. There is a noise coming from downstairs.
  
  Deciding that caution is something you've already thrown to the wind a thousand times, and once more can't hurt, you go downstairs and look forward. There is a man lying on the ground, squealing, with a dagger driven into his side. You run over to him and bend down.
  
  "Who did this to you?" you ask, and his eyes widen, then he points behind you. Spinning to the side, you look behind you at the same time and see a woman with a crossbow looming before you. She fires a bolt into the man's neck then is gone before you can react. The dead man is pushed backwards somewhat, revealing an even larger pool of blood than you had previously thought was there.
  
  Noticing that his arm is splayed out in one direction with a single finger pointing, you check your compass. He was pointing to the east when he died. What could that mean? His other arm was also pointing in the same general direction. This confuses you.
  
  Staying here probably isn't going to help you, seeing as the woman has disappeared -- and you're rather certain she's the Dayel's servant in disguise -- so you decide to look somewhere else, but first pay your respects to the dead man.
  
  > head back to the forest
  You look through the forest, scouring it for the better part of a day, but nothing. Sighing, you look around and find nothing but darkness, for night has fallen. You hadn't realized it. Where can you rest?
  
  The village seems to be the only logical choice, but the deaths there make it somewhat less reliable than normal. Either way, you decide to head there; out in the forest you are certain to get killed. Along the way, you meet a woman who asks for you to follow her.
  
  You feel compelled to accept and go with the woman, only to have her take you to a lake and force you to walk by the water. She fires a crossbow bolt into the back of your skull, and you collapse forward, into the waters, sinking towards the bottom of the lake.
  
  You never reach it, not even in death.