Fear the Reaper

We continued down the path in silence, some of us holding our heads. Bran finally broke the silence.

"What was in that drink?" he asked, holding his head painfully. "I kept having these strange dreams. I was in a boat in a lake, and we were getting attacked by ghouls. And this nymph of the lake kept pushing us into the water."

The dream seemed awfully familiar. "I was in the boat in the dream as well. It seemed like Garg was controlling the nymph and the ghouls." Garg shrugged.

"I was a Bard," said Ryn. "I didn't know that I could sing."

"I was attacked by an old woman," said Kale. "I think we raided a caravan."

"I was in a tree in my dream," said Tiny. "This wood nymph kept summoning branches to attack us."

"And poison us," added Firinne. "I kept on getting poisoned until I was near death. Why am I always the one who is near death?"

"I was the one who died last time," noted Carlagnios as the trudged along the path.

"Oh, that's right," said Firinne. "What about your dream? Were you attacked by nymphs as well?"

Carlagnios frowned as he struggled to remember. "I was ... kicking a soft, white orb toward a net that was posted in the ground."

"OK..."

As we continued along the path, Tiny, our incredibly perceptive dwarf, could see a flicker of the other world that Carlagnios could also see.

We heard a high pitched humming sound. After a while, we felt as though we crossed over into the other world.

We entered a humid jungle. The light was dim, almost like twilight. There were no stars above us in the sky.

Carlagnios continued to lead us along the path. Occasionally, the space around the path would warp in strange ways. The light level was constant, never changing. And large beetles scurried along the ground below us.

"This is kind of creepy," noted Kale.

Suddenly, the surface of the swamp began to bubble and boil, and graves spewed up to the surface. From these graves arose three Spirit Devourers and a Reaper.

One of the Spirit Devourers engulfed Ryn, but Ryn was able to break free. Bran and Firinne struck down one of the Devourers. The creatures seemed particularly susceptible to Firinne's and Tiny's attacks -- perhaps because of the holy, radiant light that they used.

Two of the Devourers swallowed Garg and Firinne. Firinne was able to break free, but Garg was trapped. The Devourer began to consume Garg's soul and spewed chunks of his soul all over us.

Garg was able to break free, and Firinne struck down and killed the Reaper with a radiant blow.

Tiny kept us all alive, but one of the Devourers captured Tiny, rendered him unconscious, and threatened to kill him. Firinne smashed the Devourer and freed Tiny.

After we defeated the creatures, we discovered a cruel looking black rod in a old urn in a surfaced grave. Kale noted that it was a Vicious Rod.

There was no good place to rest, so we continued on. Eventually, we found a large, cylindrical building that rose from the swamp like a wide tower. The building was metal and had blackened windows. The building did not seem to fit the rest of the swamp.

There was a rough, long bridge that led to the front entrance to this building. The bridge was rickety and wooden. Strangely enough, the bridge seemed to have been built recently. We could smell the scent of fresh pine from the wood.

Bran led the way across the bridge, checking for traps as he moved. We reached the front door of the building, which had been torn off its hinges. There stood a statue, guarding the way.

The face of the statue suddenly came to life. "No one may pass -- save for the 100," it demanded.

Carlagnios replied, "I am one of the 100."

"Welcome, 100," the voice said, and the face froze back into stone.

Getting the Book on the Twisted Line

Bran shouted to the approaching party. "Hey! I mean, 'Halt!' Who goes there?"

"It's us!" they replied. "Who are you?"

We quickly discussed what we should do.

"Hey!" they ahouted. "Are you going to come out and parlay with us or what?"

"We have a wizard," warned Bran.

They approached us. They were a group of men, wearing broad brimmed hats. "You've stumbled into the wrong stretch of hell, friend," one of them said. "This isn't a place you're allowed to be."

Ryn noticed that one of them was making a symbol recognized by other members of the Book Club. Ryn smoothly stepped out of the shadows and made a gesture in response.

The leader of the party looked surprised. "OK, why didn't you say you were members of the Book Club?"

"Well, we're in a strange land, and we are not sure who to trust."

"That's fine," their leader replied. He introduced himself and his party. "I'm Nighthawk, them's Ace, Happy, and Fibs. We call him Fibs 'cause he lies. And by 'lies', I mean sits on his ass. The ugly fellow is Stitches; he's our Healer. And him what's riding drag is Chuck Wagon, our Feeder. Don't mind him; he's full as a tick."

He looked at us. "What are you doing here?"

"We're -- uh -- looking for morons to harvest," Kale quickly replied.

"So, how long have you been here?" asked Ryn.

"I was born and raised here," answered Nighthawk. "We control the Book around this area. When were you last here?"

"About ten year ago," replied Ryn, "when I was 12."

"Well, things here are run by a new guy here -- Caro. He seems to be doing a good job."

"KAY-row?" asked Carlagnios.

"What happened to his predecessor?" asked Ryn.

"Muse? I don't know. They don't tell me." Nighthawk shrugged. "I'm not Inner Sanctum."

"Well, I hope you don't mind if we pass through," said Ryn.

"Are you headed on the Twisted Line?" asked Nighthawk.

We looked at Carlagnios, who simply shrugged.

"Don't tell mean that you ain't got the Book on the Twisted Line," sneered Nighthawk.

"We could trade you a book for the Book on the Twisted Line," suggested Kale.

"Sure," replied Nighthawk. "Which one of you is the Finder? What do you have to offer?"

Tiny and Kale both raised their hands.

"That's a lot of finders," remarked Nighthawk.

"We could offer you a book on Sour Well or the Bonebreaker," said Kale.

Nighthawk considered the offer. "Well, this is a hot place. It's a good pokeout."

"So are these."

After some haggling, Kale was able to exchange the Book on Sour Well with the Book on the Twisted Line.

"Great," said Nighthawk. "What's say we camp here tonight and share the watches? We could have some drink and share some stories."

"Sounds good."

"OK," said Nighthawk and turned to one of his comrades. "Pass the bottle of Eau de Joy."

After much drinking, the night passed uneventfully, and in the morning, we went our separate ways.

The Path to the Centenarchy

Carlagnios knew how to get to the Centenarchy. "I can write down the ritual for you," he told Kale.

Kale replied, "Wait, you know how to write?" Carlagnios glared at him. "OK, OK," Kale stuttered, digging into his bag for a magic quill from the Old War. "Why don't you just explain it to me, and I can write it down.

Carlagnios proceeded to explain the details of the ritual. As he explained more, we began to realize that we could not perform the ritual immediately. First of all, Carlagnios was still far too weak to take part in the ritual. And then, we were lacking the components required for the ritual.

"Maybe we could we sell Carl to get the components needed?" suggested Tiny. Carlagnios growled back at him.

"Perhaps it's best if we head back to the Siege City, the city of the dwarves," said Kale.

We flew back to the city with our vulture drakes. As we approached, we could see the tops of the towers that protected Siege City. And the ballistae on top of the towers began to fire at us.

"Hey!" roared Carlagnios. It was fortunate that he was still weakened, or the testy Dragonborn fighter would have attacked the dwarves manning the towers.

Tiny wisely suggested that we land and that he should approach the towers. "Hello!" he called to the dwarves at the top of the towers.

"Who goes there?" one of the guards asked.

"We are looking for some components to complete a ritual. Could we find the components here?"

The guard shook his head. "I feel that you've come to the wrong place."

Tiny raised his hammer, Loom, into the air. "Do you see this hammer?"

The guard squinted for a moment and recoiled in surprise. "Are you the one who wields Loom? Why didn't you say so? Come in."

They took care of our Vulture Drakes and led us to Ionel Brownstone. "Yes, we can get you the components," answered Ionel. "We'll need to go back to the House of Mages."

We returned there, where we exchange 5 of our gems for the components needed for the ritual. "We would also like you to rest here tonight," suggested Ionel. "From what I understand, you had a difficult journey, and one of you had to be raised from the dead."

"I was, but I am not weak!" snarled Carlagnios before his drooping eyes sagged shut and fiery snores blew out from his nostrils.

"I've prepared quarters for you," said Ionel. "We will see you in the morning."

The next morning, Ionel and Pesker the Younger came to greet us.

"While you were gone, the council convened. The signs are right. We are ready for The Return when you are ready."

"The ... Return?" asked Tiny.

Ionel recited, "And Po said: 'When these eleven portents come, cast this hammer, Loom, from thy hand. Cast it into the moat of thy exile. The hammer shall return in hand of a mighty warrior. And he shall cast you from your exile and you will return to the rich hills of your birth. Heed his call.'”

He paused and looked over Tiny.

"We were ... thrown off by the 'mighty warrior' part ..." He paused to gesture at Tiny. "But," he sighed, "on the whole, this seems like it fits, and our auguries are not overwhelmingly negative." He shrugged.

"So," he continued, "how do we go back?"

"Well," said Tiny, "we could help with The Return, but we're on a quest somewhere else."

Ionel smiled. "No need to worry. We need to get our people ready for The Return." He handed Tiny a horn. "Just blow this when you are done with your quest and are ready to help us."

Kale noted that this was a Horn of the Highway, an arcane item.

Tiny eagerly took the horn and began to fiddle with it.

"Can I try it out? What happens when I blow? Can I try blowing softly? Would that be OK?"

Ionel shook his head. "You must not blow the horn until you are ready. Otherwise, you might call us too early." Tiny looked sorely disappointed.

"Now," Ionel continued, "we must make ourselves ready. We will have stout hearts of stone ..."

"Ah," interjected Tiny with a gleam of recognition in his eye. "Have you met the stone men before?"

"The ones we sent with Loom saw the stone men from a distance. Now you must go and complete your quest."

With that, we left the city. We left the Vulture Drakes behind us -- the ritual was a walking ritual, and we had no use for the Drakes.

Beneath the open sky, we began to perform the ritual. Kale and Garg assisted with the ritual. When it was done, we could see a path in another world -- a path that now appeared in our world.

Carlagnios told us to follow the path and led the way. He said it would take a day to get to the Centenarchy.

As we followed the path, we could feel the eyes of other creatures upon us -- creatures that we could not see. We could see the path in our own world, but we could not see anything else from the other world.

We finally reached the entry to a valley. Bran decided to try riding the Ebony Fly to the sky to see if we could see more of the area. But as he flew farther from Carlagnios, he felt as though he was not following the same path. He returned to the ground.

Then, somewhere in the distance, we heard a party approaching us.