Dressing Down

My final interaction with the doesn't talk very much twins was seeing the male version who briefly looked like me before resuming his normal appearence leave my shop with a grunt (it went unsaid, but the implication was to tell no one what had actually happened while I was away).  Thankfully my business was mostly there, and my not so doppleganger was at least a passable seamstress if only very workman. Sadly the rush of orders had tapered off in my absence/increased competition.  I still had work to do of course, but the boom of my early orders had died off and now I actually had to compete with others.

Still compared to trudging in the darkness of an Asylum it was a welcome change of pace to return to my normal business. Rolak was busy after the rebuilding, a harvest festival was coming up, and despite a lot of the local farms being burned during the war enough of them had replanted in time to have a decent showing. On top of that the Emperor had declared the entire empire in celebration of the recent revolution, so there were mini parties and events all over which included new dresses having to be made/tailored for all the new occaisions.

Nothing really terrible happened post Asylum (thank whatever gods I get no luck from), I heard reports of people coming across a broken town on the coast and burning the ground behind them after being attacked by horrific creatures, but that could have been anything in this world. Things just went as they go, and soon enough months turned to years and I just kept on chugging away at my store.  It was about five years and a couple ups and down before I even got involved in anything noteworthy.  It was the start of winter... And oh you'll have to check back tomorrow!

By Rojove I think He's Got It

The deeper we went the less normal the place looked.  Caves covered with gore gave way to caves that seemed to be made from human corpses.  The darkness even seemed to get darker beyond my oil lamp, like the black itself was now fighting us.  These things didn't seem to bother my companion, but they scared me as we went.  I mean I couldn't see in front of me, we had fought unholy creatures already, and I was really worried things were going to get a lot worse before they even looked like they'd get better (if better was even an option).  I felt my ribs ache with memory of being crushed as we came to a large chamber that appeared to be filled with blood.  The lantern light did not penetrate the darkness beyond about a foot in front of me, so I couldn't tell how large the chamber was, but from the sounds of echos huge seemed a good estimate.

"So do we like ask him to die or whats the plan here?" I broke the silence with one of my helpful suggestions. It got a nasty glare from my female companion (that all she had for me nasty glares, it was how I knew she was truely female if not truely human).

"You know Lorentino..." Her rebuke was cut off by an emergence of a person from under the blood/water. His clothes were tattered, skin looked pale and his eyes from what I could see were all white no pupil anymore. Though he just emerged from the blood/water he also had a bit of drool leaking from his lip.  It was quite the different look from when I last saw Rojove I can't see he looked better though its not like I really thought highly of him and that his look of dishelvement didn't bring a smile to my face.

"Lorentino." His voice was obviously not his own he was acting as a vessel for the creature, "You have not won this fight Lorentino, I will be back and your suffereing will be eternal, I will no..." Rojoves talking was cut off mid creepy slur as my companions bullet annihilated his head.

"It's not here," She sighed, it was the type of sigh of someone who knows they failed to do something they set out to do.

"That's a good thing right?" I was trying to be hopeful we would get out of this hellish place and leave it behind us.  The lantern oil seemed to be going low. She looked at me and sighed again, but turned around and started walking out the way we had come in.  We made our way out of that hellish Asylum, and as we did the place seemed different, like the creature had originally been there when we showed up, but in fear it left before we got to it. I mean it was still creepy, scary and disgusting, but we were leaving it and as we did I could hear things falling apart faster now.  I guessed whatever power had kept the place working faltered without the creature there and it was now going to just be destroyed.

Leaving the rusty hell I felt a sense of relief and blinding light, apparently it was day as we emerged. My companion did not look happy to be finished but I sure as all thats right in the world was.  I wanted to get back to my shop while I still had a shop! So I didn't wait to make a camp, I got on my horse and companion or no I was out of there.  We hadn't exactly succeeded, but I honestly don't think success was possible, this creature did not want to be killed, and it had the means to escape its own demise.  Also to be perfectly frank I think having seen my companion in action the creature leaving was the best result for us.  I don't think we could have killed it, or it can be killed anyway.

All the same I felt pretty good putting this whole thing behind me and hoped against hope that I never had to deal with any of these people ever again.  So far and this is many years later, I have not!

Jumped the Gun

"You truely are a weak little creature." Bedside manor of my dark companion? Pretty awful.  I mean I'm not like sunshine and lollipops or anything, but I don't insult the person I injured for in fact getting injured.

"Thanks I'll try in the future to be more bulletproof." I have not in fact tried to be more bulletproof.  Not intentionally mind you, but I don't really know how one can do that.  She was bandaging up my shoulder with fabric from my own clothing (I was not asked before this occured, and would have vastly prefered to go bandageless if it meant screwing up my look!). I don't even really know the point of the bandage here, the wound was closed by her weird molten bullet upon entry.  All her bandaging did was highlight I was in fact wounded.

"And another thing Lorentino, when were you going to tell me you were corrupted?"

"Look I take a little graft here and there, but I wouldn't say I'm totally corrupted." Thanks folks I'm here all week tip your waiter.

"You do understand the creatures here are all a result of the corruption you yourself carry in your veins? Are you so stupid to not understand what that means?"

"What so I'm better bait than you thought previously? Please I've been worse I can deal with this." It was true I'd gone full corrupted once, though I did have to be healed through necromancy, its not a huge deal honestly. Ok it is, a dark version of me would probably be pretty bad for the world in general, but at that point it would be totally awesome for what was left of my mind.

"Better bait yes, but now I'm more at risk you moron, if they corrupt you then your use as bait is gone, if they haven't already gotten to you." I could sense I was about to be looking down the barrel of a revolver soon, or I would have had a loud thumping noise came crashing towards us.  I slid over to the side of the disgusting cave wall, my companion got to her feet revolver leveled and ready. What emerged  in the Lantern light was some large man beast creature.  Blackened from corruption, with an ugly tusky mouth it looked at the two of us and roared.  My companion roared back her revolver once again firing blinding flashes in the half darkness.  I covered my eyes and hoped she could gun the creature down. I heard her revolver stop just in time to see the creature slam her backwards, apparently her bullets worked great on me less on the beast.

My companion went flying and hit the gore caked cave wall with a thud, she was still moving but not as spry as she had been previously. Worried I was about to be alone in that hellish place with no real sense of direction I sprung into action, leaping up with my sword at the ready. I was able to get on the creatures back, using my sword as a sort of climbing tool (this despite my injury, weak my ass spooky lady!).  The beast howled in pain as I stabbed my way to the top. Unfortunately when I made the top the creature started to buck crazy.  It was like the worst horse ride ever, he swung too and fro trying to shake me off as I tried to hold on with my bad hand and remove my sword with my left to try and put an end to the creature itself.  I could hear my companion had started shooting again (which partially scared me having been shot by her already, it wasn't unheard of while I'm clinging to the back of this creature she's shoot me again this time "accidentally"). I didn't have a lot of time to ponder getting shot though as the creature slammed me and itself into a wall.  Not going to lie that hurt a whole lot especially in my just got shot shoulder. My grip was fading as the pain threshhold increased, the creature was trying to grind me into the wall.

Going off desperation I wrapped my arm tight around the creatures thick neck and set my own arm aflame (thankfully magic flame you conjure is generally safe for you, sometimes, it really depends honestly sometimes I've done something like this and had burns, other times I've bathed my hand in flame and had nothing, I think its something about other acclerants or something? Its not exactly something I've "studied" really because who wants to set appendages on fire!?). I felt my arm get some give and then it went all the way through the creatures neck decapitating the beast.  It collapsed forward tossing me off the creature, the head came rolling with me and landing at my feet as its body landed with a thud.  I'm sure it could have looked all heroic but honestly I just fell off and groaned in pain.  I also burnt all the hair and clothing off my right arm which smelled fabulous even in a horrid place like this.

"We have to hurry Lorentino, this was just a scout I'm sure other creatures are coming." I didn't even get a thank you! Just a move Trezlan.  I tell you no one ever says thank you anymore! You know what they say "a little politeness goes a long way when murdering the damned!" I mean it must be true THEY say it!

And Down We go

In the deeps you go tromping
Something lies below goes chomping
You should have stayed in the light
Now you are in for a Fright

You have no idea what you are in for
You should have shut the door
Time to take a bow
They come for you... NOW!

-Poem scrolled on a cave wall in what appeared to be Blood

So yeah deeper under the Asylum any manner of man made construction falls away, and simply became a cave system covered in gore (I'm not joking rotting decayed corpses were everywhere the further I went in, which again much like the poem I found above indicated maybe just maybe I should have turned around).  I did happen to find fresh foot prints most likely from my companion, so in the absence of any kind of navigation I could at least follow these.  So there was that, though it did occur to me it could have also been a trap from the creatures that tried to kill me above.

To this end and because it seems I was constantly losing my sword to other people I enchanted the hilt with a blood curse.  Well I tried to, I've never been really good with writing out curses (damn you writing in blood on an uneven surface!) so either I had it be a blood curse, or whoever got it would immediately get my life force transfered to them (funny how those two curses are so similar in wording, it does come to mind why I couldn't simply just create my own curses, well you know spell curses, I've invented whole phrases for what my life throws at me). I hvae to admit I was feeling a little safer despite being clearly in a terrible place and safe was the furthest thing from me entirely. I was feeling so safe I didn't even notice I'd found my female companion until she put a bullet right through the right side of my chest (hows that for gratitude! Thanks for finding me, here's a bullet).

"You will not take me so easily monster." I knew immediately that the creatures that had attacked me above had obviously lead her away in much the same fashion.  Clearly though I should have figured this prior to just coming upon her in a cavern and approaching with my lantern out sword sheathed (I never really learn do I?).  The bullet sizzled on the way out, now I'm not a gun expert, never claim to be really, but even I knew back then (and even now) that its not natural for a bullet to be super heated on exiting a gun normally.  It was a blessing because it closed the wound it created.  Still the shot did mess up my arm a bit and cause me to drop the lantern which thankfully didn't break but again the precious oil inside sloshed out a bit more.

"Nice to see you too." Shock hit then, well shock and all the built up fear and anxiety and lack of sleep.  I collapsed like a necromancer shot near his heart (I think maybe? I've never looked inside my chest my heart might not actually exist, something that has been alledged by people).  I remember thinking before I passed out "God I hope that actually was the lady I came down here with." And then the world went black.

Doubles in the Dark

Certain things you can count on when you are all alone in a scary place.  Sounds even ones like dripping water take on a whole new terror, there is never enough light to show you everything you want, and the physical manefestation of the evil in the place trying to take on your persona to fool you into thinking you are going crazy.  Ok so that last one might be unique to me personally, but still it seems like the more dark and scary some place is, the more likely I'll run across another me, either in a mirror, or just out in the open. Its not like I don't talk to myself enough!

To my credit I was doing as my dark female companion had asked me to do before. I was staying put hoping she'd come back. As time seemed to stretch into forever (so like five maybe ten minutes?) I got worried she was not coming back.  And thats when I stepped from the darkness.  Well not exactly me, it was me in a nicer set of clothes not covered in blood and not as scruffy looking (look I can admit after time on the trail I look fairly nasty, I don't travel well). He seemed to look me over with condescion, as if appraising me to be what I appeared to be and finding me lacking.  Which to tell you the truth should I ever come across a copy of myself looking like I normally do, I'd judge myself pretty harshly (Again I mean lets not forget the creepy shape changers).

"So this is what we're reduced to, huddling in the dark hoping some strong woman comes to save us?"  His voice was mine, but not quite, kind of like when someone mocks your voice.

"Can we just skip to the part where you try and kill me, I mean this act might work on someone who isn't half as crazy as myself, but I know crazy sir, and you sir are no crazy!" I'll admit anyone else this fake you or is it? Act might work on, but I'm Trezlan "Batshit Crazy" Lorentino! I'm a guy who was locked within himself by an evil master. I'm someone who routinely has to talk to himself to cheer up his day! Some spectre mimicing my look won't even make me blink! Well other than normal blink responses. He lunged at me, hands twisting from mine in to some kind of weird hook hands, behind me there was another of the same type of creature (actually kind of smart, distract from one angle, try and kill from a seperate one). They also had me sitting down, though that worked to my favor.  I ducked backwards from the first attack which dodged the second perfectly! In falling backwards I went to pull my sword out of its hilt (because stupidly I'd left it idle in a dark scary place, what can I say I'm not a smart swordsman) and brought it into the second attackers midsection slicing the weird shadow creature in two, while his own lunge decapitated the former me.

They did knock over my oil lamp, spilling some of the precious light fluid on to the ground, but outside of that complete failures (so I guess they were a bit more like me than I'd like to admit, self hey yo!!). I was still in the prison section and despite my hopes my female companion was not returning.  Now a smart person would just leave, but I've never been smart, and I figured the only way out was down (clearly I'm terrible at room geography). So with a heavy sigh I picked up my little lantern and went deeper into the blackness, hoping that no more copies of me were waiting, or if they were, they were a bit less condescending!

Don't be Afraid of the Dark

"Take this lantern." She had been carrying it when she saved me from the whateveracreature, but I was of course distracted. It was unlit but that was not a problem for someone who uses fire like I do.

"Is that all I am to you? Bait and someone to hold the light?"

"I don't even need the light, but I figured you'd want to see something." One more strike against her humanity (if I didn't already think she wasn't human to begin with). Past the bath section there were stairs that lead down, as we walked down them I heard the echos of our feet and saw dust rise from the footfalls, no one had gone this way in quite some time.  The stairs themselves were metal and in fairly good shape honestly, which was a bit of a relief considering the state of affairs of the rest of the place (wouldn't want to have another accident crashing through the stairs).

The light wasn't much of a relief, I mean it showed me what was around, but not much beyond that.  So all it really showed was what I wasn't seeing.  I did have the twin revolver using being from another whatever, but her treatment of me didn't exactly inspire confidence in the "If Lorentino is in trouble I'll save him" part of my brain. We came to the bottom of the stairs and found a section of cells, the bars were marroonish black I could see from how the coating was on the bars it wasn't a natural rust. There were a few skeletons broken and scattered about, whatever treatment this place offered it wasn't high on the "curing" set I figured.

"Lots of blood, not a lot of skeletons." I saw three skeletons but there were over forty cells from what my limited light could see.  My companion didn't say anything, she didn't really have time, from the shadows emerged half corpses.  I say half because they were missing skin and muscle in some places, and had way too much in others.  She drew her pistol and started firing, the ignition of the powder with each shot causing enough flash to screw with my eyes, even with the lantern providing light.  The corpses were howling at us half gutteral screams that would chill the bones of a lesser man. I waded in with my sword, swinging with my left keeping the lantern steady with my right. The creatures went down easily enough, though the blood gore, and piles of corpses started to obscure my vision (you try hacking something up in the darkness while someone fires a loud revolver next to you). I didn't even notice in the heat of the battle that I lost my companion. I had become so deafened and blinded from her firing/hacking up the corpses my self.  That suddenly I was all alone with my little lantern and a pile of corpses.  Still in the prison area, but she was no where to be found.

"Crap." It was all I could think of really.  I'm sure it was intended, that whatever dark horror was in this place wanted to seperate us and used this opportunity to do it.  All the same, I clutched my little lantern with a bit more fear.  Its not what was in the dark that scared me, it was what would set foot in the light.  Because honestly the most terrifying creatures don't fear the light, they love it, tells them where their victims are hiding.  Sleep well tonight knowing that, as I slept in that Asylum cell area surrounded by the remains of half corpses and covered in their gore. Hint I DIDN'T SLEEP AT ALL!

Looking for a place to Crash

Caraway Asylum was a very large building.  It looked like at one time it had been smaller, but over the years had simply grown into the massive structure of twisted steel and stone we saw in front of us.  The metal was rusted sadly (just once I'd like to come across a beautifully maintained evil hideout! Just once!), and the stone looked to have decayed to match it or was originally blood red I couldn't tell.  It was a very tall structure, reaching to a large belltower like point at the top.  The doors leading in were oppressive double metal doors with huge knockers (insert breast joke here). My female companion strode forth and with a solid kick the doors were knocked off their hinges with a huge clanging crash.

"So much for subtlety." I mouthed under my breath as we stepped inside. The opening area was very much an admittance place, probably to keep up the illusion it was a real Asylum.  I could see a wooden desk that looked like it had seen better days and some rotted furniture for people to sit down in while they wait. Compared to the huge doors in the waiting room seemed kind of normal.  I did notice a small bell at the front desk and being someone who can't pass up a simple joke made my way too it.  I rang it a couple times and waited.

"This is the worst service I tell..." I fell through the floor at this point, I'm sure in the midst of rolling her eyes at me, my female companion mouthed idiot. I crashed through a couple floors before I found one that the floor wasn't rotted enough to support my wait, I could see above me a large hole from my entrance.

"You still with me Lorentino?" She called out from above, I could see from the light coming in from our entrance she had one of her pistols out.

"Yeah I seem to have fallen into a washroom or something, I see a lot of ceramic tile that was probably white at one point." It was now like everything else very red.

"Stay where you are I'll find a way down."

"Where would I go? And there's already a way down." There was, and its not like she was probably alive or anything.  I dunno what she was, if she was even a she at all (still don't really), but still she could have leaped after me.  Despite me asking where I would go I couldn't help but look around (I am what I am, and that is all I am). The room I crashed into lead to another larger room (maybe I was in the undressing area and the larger room was originally a bathhouse of sorts? I have no idea).  Light of course was almost nonexistant this deep in the actual building itself, so I decided to brighten things up with a bit of fire (always a bad idea, but I've never been a cautious restraint kind of guy). I saw what looked to be a pile of debris near the floor and tossed a bit of flame towards it.  Big big mistake, what appeared to be debris was some kind of multi legged insect from the foulest pits of the darkest hells.

As a positive I'd set it on fire, as a negative that didn't seem to slow it down.  Its carapace looked like it was almost metallic.  The front was a pair of nasty tusks that slammed into each other in a scary way (as if there was some none scary way of having an ugly pair of tusks in front of your mouth). My sword was out and my backpeddling began.  The room I was in was fairly large which again was a positive, but I'm fairly out of shape with regards to running, once again a negative.  It definatley was at one time a bath or pool, I could tell from it being deeper in parts and shallower in others.  As I got to the shallow end I found the nest of the creature chasing me, the crunch of broken bones as I stepped on its past snacks was unsettling. I was going to lose the cardio battle pretty soon so I had to make a desperate move I got near one of the walls of the pool and waited for the beast to try and lunge at me (didn't have to wait long it wanted a Trezzle snack pretty badly). I side stepped at the last moment and rolled past the beast.  Its tusks got stuck in the pool for a moment so I sliced off what I assumed was the head from the rest of the body.

Good news it was smaller, bad news, it was still alive! It unstuck its tusks and looked rather pissed at me for making it slimmer.  I could see it was spilling its insides all over places, but it was still trucking, and with less weight it was rather fast.  The fire I'd originally cast on its rear parts was also dying out, so the light was fading, the creature was faster, and I was tired.  I was about to curse the luck of being eaten by something three quarters dead when a gunshot rang out and struck the creature stone dead for good.

"Told you to stay put." My female companion looked none the worse for traveling to where I was.

"I went one room over, I didn't expect to run across whatever the hell that was." I flicked the goo off my sword and resheathed it.

"I heard those things are good eating if you're feeling hungry."

"The very thought of eating it almost makes me nautious."

"Humans, so concerned with the look of something to ignore the flavor explosion that lies within, oh well, come on we've got a long way to go and now the creatures probably know we are here." I did at least learn that whatever she was, human was not apart of it (her way of pronoucing it alone seemed to differentiate her from any living person ever). She moved beyond the pool area unfortunately towards a stair case leading down, and down we descended into the black heart of the Asylum, I know now that the bug creature in the pool was the least of the horrors that awaited us.

Don't Get all Carawayed

*Click* *Click* *Click* My female companion (she never gave her name despite me asking many times) kept clicking the chamer on her revolvers, she'd listen to one all the way through, holster it, and then listen to the other.  The sound was maddening, I was trying to sleep and there she was clicking those damn revolvers over and over again.

"Must you do that your guns are magical they can't misfire." I had to say something it was driving me even more nuts.

"You prattle on for two weeks and you can't put up with me checking the cylinders on my pistols? And they aren't magical they are regular weaponry, what you saw previously was just an illusion, I could no more conjure armor and weapons then you could display a bit of tact."

"How is an illusion not magic?"

"Its not magic that I conjured, but I see you've conceeded the main point of annoyance and now you're just displaying your lack of tactful conversation abilities.  Honestly Lorentino it surprises me you've lived this long with how annoying you are." Like huge swords sticking out me, her words wounded me deeply.

"Who are you people? Where is this place? What are we even doing here? If you have the ability to disguise yourself in plain sight to a person like myself, why bring me?" These were all important questions, and like everything else in my life I got about zero answers.

"This place is the town of Caraway, it was built around the Asylum here which is behind us on the hill.  Before you ask, the Asylum was originally built to house those who were ill, but became a place the rich sent their enemies or even relatives to be tortured and die. By no accident of course, the Asylum was built on the original lair of the creature you ran into in the sewers and the town around it was a distraction to keep prying eyes from his lair.  It was from here that the plans to take over Ronerawth were hatched and it is here the creature most likely has fled since it was not in the sewers where you ran across it." Her voice remained constant, as did her damn clicking of those revolvers. "As far as your involvement in this, you're the bait Trezlan, ordinarily the creature would slink off somewhere hide and return, but his hatred of you has lead him not to flee, instead he now plots to specifically destroy you, a benefit to my boss because his hatred of you will make him blind to my approach."

"So I'm the bait? That's all I am to you people?" It was insulting! I am more than bait, I'm the grand Necromancer Trezlan Lorentino! Look if I say that enough maybe one day I'll believe it!

"No of course not Trezlan, you're also a pawn to be used as we see fit, and right now we see fit for you to be our bait, be thankful thats all we want to do, now get to sleep and let the adults figure out how to deal with this situation." I tried not to pout, but damn it that was a pout worthy beat down! There is nothing worse than when you are working for people a lot more nasty then you are, and they are well aware of this.  I mean sure you say "Why didn't you just try and kill her?" Because when you reach my extended age, you know when you are outmatched by something you can't understand. Ordinarily this would be a good feeling, "working" with something clearly beyond my skill level should be a safe job.  NOT WHEN YOU ARE BAIT! Bait gets eaten, and I didn't want to get eaten, at the very thought of facing the creature again my ribs ached in pain.  So I didn't really sleep that well outside of Caraway Asylum, because honestly WHO FREAKING COULD?!

Give Me Asylum

"Trezlan Lorentino." Her voice cooed, it would almost be sensuous if there wasn't an aura of cold behind it.  Like an executioner's loving embrace right before they chop your head off. There were two of them, a stern looking man and a lithe female, both were dressed exactly the same, black suit coat and pants, white shirt, black tie.  Their faces looked off, not just because they were fairly narrow, but the coloring was all wrong, like they used a lot of make up to appear skin tone, but didn't do it well.

"Welcome to the shop, if you want to place an order I have to warn you I'm about a week behind due to a silk shipment thats been delayed." I gave them my sales speech even though I could guess neither one of them were going to be actual customers.

"Not what we are here for Mr. Lorentino." I noticed the male companion was now blocking the front entrance, I also noticed his boots, black metal looking things with spikes on the end, they also gleamed a little to bright for black metal.

"Curisoties?" My voice cracked a little bit I'll admit, while only two of them, I could feel a sense of dread coming washing over my shop like sweat down a whores back. She had moved to my front counter area, well almost like teleported, one moment she was by the door like her companion, the next right next to the counter.

"No Mr. Lorentino, our boss would like for you to find something you lost in the sewers of Dunlok." Boss, something I lost in the sewers? I'd heard the new government had went down there to purge the area of a blackness, but had ultimately found nothing. Now it was seemingly confirmed and this thing wanted me to try and find the creature that had crushed my ribs and almost killed me? How pleasant.

"I have no idea what you are talking about." When in doubt play dumb, its something I excell at. She put a hand under my chin and I could feel a chill run down my spine, suddenly it felt like the whole room was incased in ice.

"Trezzy Trezzy Trezzy, you know what I'm talking about, don't make me ask nicely," At the word nicely a stab of cold went through my insides, I figured nicely was not actually nice anything.

"I don't know where it went, or how to find it, its gone to the best of my knowledge." It was hard to talk, the air felt heavier squeezing each word out was a strain.

"I do know where it went, or at least where to look, and you'll come help." I didn't understand why, why if they had such power they needed me, but when confronted with the extremely powerful you don't ask too many questions lest they realize they don't really need you.

"My shop, I have work to do."

"My associate will take care of your customers while you are on vacation, he's actually looking forward to it." The man at the door scoffed when she said that but nodded his head.  I don't know if my customers would appreciate being served by someone who looked like a prettied up corpse, but it would have to do.

"I'll have to get my horse and some gear together."

"Already done Lorentino we leave immediately." She snapped her fingers and the room returned to normal, I followed after her as she indicated and her companion moved from the door to behind the counter.  I dreaded what business would be like when I returned, but that was making an assumption I would return, and I couldn't be sure of that either. My horse was the one I'd stolen from a Ronerawth officer before (it was mine now, most of the things I have came from previous owners anyway).  I could see my new traveling companion had loaded it down with a lot of different supplies.  I could see wherever we were going it was not a short trip. My companions horse was pale and white, for some reason I'd assumed it would be black like her suit.

I followed her out of Rolak, I felt a small twang of fear as the town disappeared behind us (we traveled west towards the coast). She didn't talk at all during the trip, a week of nothing being said as we traveled.  I talked, I never really shut up, but it was weird being told to not be quiet, she simply listened as I rambled on about business, about Rolak and its struggles.  In a way it was like having my own personal bartender to listen to me, minus the drinks and the social atmosphere of course. As we got closer to the coast we headed north into some rocky cliffs, I could see we were kind of following a road that looked to have gone unused for a while. I did notice the atmosphere of the area got more twisted and wretched the closer we got to what appeared to be a large cliff side installation.  Like grass stopped being grass and became dirt with weeds in it.  Wildlife sounds dissappeared, the whole area felt empty.

We came across the remains of a town shortly before the cliffs shot up towards the sea.  I could see a burned out sign that declared it "Caraway", most of the buildings were post torch. Blackened husks, about twenty in all that dotted the road side, my companion kept going unphased by whatever ever disaster had destroyed Caraway. She stopped outside of town and dismounted, I could see a large metal sign that advertised Caraway Asylum, the metal appeared all rusted, far too rusted for this to have just happened post war.

"We walk from here, gather the supplies from your horse and follow me to where I'll rest mine." It was the first thing she'd said since we'd left and I did as I was told, it wasn't like she was the repeat herself nice type anyway. She walked her horse over to the one patch of grass I'd seen anywhere, I swear it wasn't there before we'd arrived, but I wasn't about to question whatever dark power this lady had with her. I had taken off my horses saddle bags and slung my belt and sword sheath across my waist when I my companion changed in front of my eyes. One moment she was in the black suit, the next a dark suit of armor, complete with a large spikey mace, and a pair of pistols on her hips.  I knew that she was not of this world, but her outfit spoke to something I didn't want to cross, also made me wonder why they even needed me if they had such power.

"We'll make camp down here, tomorrow we'll enter the Asylum, with any luck this will be over before you know it." She directed me to ignite some tattered boards near where the horses were and as before I followed her lead.  I had so many questions of this being, but I figured better to sleep on it, you never pass up that calm before the storm, and in my mind I knew I heard a gale ready to blow through (oh how right I was).

Tailor Made Problems

It took a month before the shop area I had bought could be built.  It was actually fairly fast compared to other reconstruction efforts I'd been apart of (quite a few at this point sadly, the world is constantly trying to kill itself).  Mostly because Rolak was the site of most of the actual damage done during the revolution, and as such had most of the craftsman rushing out here to make a quick buck (can't blame them I mean I too ran out here to take advantage of the disadvantaged).  I was running low on Fiz's ill gotten money by the time I got the shop up and running with enough silk and clothing options to appeal to hopefully a diverse customer base.

I'll admit I was a bit worried I'd made a horrible mistake. I mean I was kind of in a major shop area and other shops were going up near me, but its not like I was a well known tailorer, and despite my shops large sign out front advertising "Lorentino's Clothing and Curiosities" (the only curiosity I was currently selling was my own tales of adventure, sadly no one bought those), I worried no one would actually take me up on the offer. The exact opposite occured.  Everyone took me up on the offer! My shop was flooded in a weeks time with people looking for clothing.  I wasn't aware at the time, but during the battle all of the tailors had been killed, and no one had apparently thought to come out there (except for me of course) and take up residence.  I was out of clothing supplies in my first week! I worked till my fingers bled and then kept going.  I was thinking of looking for help, but had no time to actually do it! Between fittings, sewing, and retrofitting older clothes (not my prefered method, but with clothing supplies at a premium at the time I had to make due).

I loved it! I felt like a part of the community, adding a worth to something that had none.  It was madness, but it was my madness. I also got to hear all about everyones issues, dislikes and general gossip while I worked (which helped a few times secure choice items before the other tailors who arrived a little later). Two months in my hands were marked up, but my coffers were overflowing! I even was able to finally get on top of orders to actually put up clothing just for general purchase.  I was starting to feel like a regular citizen, and at the same time a dread gnawed at me like no other.

It was too good, something awful was bound to happen, and as it happend I was sadly right. If you're an astute reader you can probably guess what problem reared up its head to confront me once more, and no not Morley. Tomorrow the Asylum.  Read at your own risk!

The War Within Ronerawth

While stuck in a rowboat with Morley is always an exciting conversational experience. I'll spare you all his snide quips as I did backbreaking labor for hours to save us from dying all alone in the sea. He has no appreciation for the sacrifices I make to keep us both alive.  It almost makes me sad I saved him from a fate worse than death (but no worse than he truely deserves). Anyway I'm sure you don't read to hear about my lack of morality and saving monsters (or maybe you do, maybe you're a monster, or Morley himself reading after he killed me with a poisoned book or something, yes poisoned maybe I eat the book DON'T JUDGE ME!)

Back to the topic at hand, the War in Ronerawth. Much to my surprise when Morley and I finally came ashore it was over, and the good side actually won (well good is a matter of opinion you'll see why in a bit).  I guess freeing the shorties, killing his number one advisor, and my other acts of random violence hurt the current Emperor in a way I could never have predicted.  Of course there were military blunders, the fact that the Church of the Fire God's people literally live for war and death and they were fighting, and that the emperor was at best a puppet of some dark godling in a sewer under the city probably factored into it.  But still clearly I won the war almost single handidly and no one knew that except for me.

Ronerawth in typical fashion didn't exactly do away with their emperor of course, or their military, it simply changed hands.  A new more lenient emperor was chosen from the none Fire God members (they are not a theocracy nor do they long to be) members of the opposing political group were executed publically as were their family members (yes even the children, I asked about that during the ceremony and I was told "Todays Children are tomorrows enemy" reliable logic, but it'll take some time for me to get the sight of a three year old girl lead to stand on a block and get shot with the rest of her family out of my mind).  The ceremony was macabre in a lot of ways, during the execution beautiful music was song from a choir, it was almost a religious ceremony with the pomp being exercised.

After the executions came the exiles, yes Ronerawth does not take kindly to those who rebel against her, even if it was for the right reasons.  The entire Church of The Fire God was banned from the country, their places of worship to be demolished by the government. Seemed a bit unfair for a group that helped depose a tyrant, but they didn't complain, and were allowed to keep their lives so they at least had that.  I was also told it was during this conflict that the Sins of the Fire God were created, an organization within the Church that trained young men into Assassins (I rather like the shortened sin, as its a nice double definition for someone who is a murderer).  During the Ronerawth conflict they were mainly older members who knew their way around death, but later conflicts would see the younger members go on to be horrific dead eyed murderers, even evolving into antimagical hitmen. Even now I know one of their members who is terrifying to me, his very life one of horrible, one day I'll write of this guy, and it will chill you, unless he's reading this, in which nicest guy I ever met by far.

For my and Morley's part in this conflict we slinked away to be in the shadows like we belong.  Morley returned to the lands of the Red Hand, cursing the ground of Ronerawth and vowing to never return (a total lie and he knew it).  Me I negotiated the quiet release of my library using the money I'd aquired from Fiz (hidden near my horse before I board that stupid ship, no way I'm losing that money). The books were written in weirdness anyway and were set to be destroyed as part of Aloitious's stuff, so it wasn't too expensive. With my library in tow I went back to help Rolak rebuild, I say help, but in reality it was because it was a fairly large town that had a lot of property suddenly coming on the market for really cheap prices, on account of it being destroyed in the conflict.

Thankfully no one knew me, they had heard of me, or had heard of a the hero or Rolak, but it wasn't me.  The stories blew me way out of proportion (even more than I do here) and so it was easy for me to disappear as just a small shop keeper with a large library. I decided on textiles, clothing and the like, because I was good at sewing and no one really bothers tailorers with needing help taking on ancient evils (well normally, I'll get to that). For the first time in a long time I felt home again.  I had property and thats all that mattered to me, well that and making a profit, stores don't fund themselves! Now if only I could have avoided the trouble that came looking for me, but you know how things go.  The more safe you feel, the more in danger you really are.  Well for me, everyone else its actually safe, such is the life of a Lorentino, is it any surprise I'm the only one?

The Key to Victory Is in Your Hands

"Nice of you to hang around Lorentino." Aloitious had a terrible sense of humor, he also had a terrible group of instruments and magicy looking things on a bench in front of me. His back was towards me, his hands going over a bunch of the instruments there, inspecting each one probably for dramatic effect.

"You know this cruise has terrible service, I'll have you know the bell hop didn't even take my bags or anything." I was glad his back was turned, it allowed me to work on my shackles.  Remember how I said they weren't the same ones I had before? Yeah there was a reason for that, these weren't anti magical. I tried to talk loud to overtalk the sound of the metal being melted, I was aided by Aloitious being overconfident to the point of a weakness.

"I think thats what I'll enjoy about ripping memories from you Lorentino, you're so spirited, Morley hardly says a word, but you? You seem like someone who'll never stop screaming." Yeah I forgot to mention hella creepy, I didn't know Aloitious for very long but I could see the similarities that would have attracted Morley to him immediately. He turned around right as the last link on my shackles broke and dropped me to the floor, his look of surprise was one I will savor for the rest of my life. To his credit he didn't call out to his guards, he just tried to stab the crap out of me with some kind of weird knife looking thing with hooks on it (look I'm a merchant, not an armorer, I'm sure the knife is like a sahiliaiaiahihouou who cares anymore!).  I used an ancient technique of punching him in the damn face (I'll admit its truely a practiced art). The first shot exploded his nose, the next few broke the teeth out of his mouth.  I'm sure you'll find it funny that two necromancers through down with each other and ended up like a child hood fight, the weaker of the two cowering as the stronger obliterated his face.

I was midway through punch five when he remembered he was a magic user and threw me backwards with such force I clanged off the metal (thankfully my ribs were mostly healed or that blow would have seriously hurt, not that it didn't, but it didn't seriously hurt and thats all that matters!).  Damn wind users throwing their power around like a child with a toy, not like us serious fire users who light peoples cigarettes and cooking fires with a glance, we are practiced artisans! He got to his feet slowly, his face a mixture of blood and shattered teeth, he mumbled out some curse I couldn't make out and gathered up his power for another shot.  Here is the problem with younger users, they aren't in tune with their powers, its all theatrics and bullshit.  I didn't have to gather power even though I was on the water, I'd already done it, I was prepared to kill him, just wanted the visceral thrill of smashing his ugly face.  There wasn't any pomp, no grand hand gesture.  One moment he was gathering for some crushing gale and the next I'd crushed him in a wall of flame, his entire body incinerated like a stack of used up paper.

I called for the guards their boss was in ashes and they joined him shortly thereafter.  I had my sword back for what good it would do.  Honestly I hadn't thought of much of a plan outside of kill Aloitious (so my plan wasn't perfect big surprise!)  The first guards dealt with I made my way below decks quick and quiet people weren't really prepared for an assault from within I'd hoped and thankfully was right. I found the powder magazines they used to load the big guns on the ship immediately and got to my task.  I'd found a keg of powder much like all those years ago on my return to my homeland and much like then poured some out along with myself back to where the other prisoners lay.  Most of them were beyond dead, mere shells for their master, what I was going to do was merciful for them.  No guards were here for some odd reason. I swear I'd seen more when I was drug in, but they were all on coffee break or something.  Morley was off in la la land, barely even concious to my eyes.  I hefted him onto my shoulder and drug him to the top of the ship, still spilling my deadly cargo behind me.  I found a life boat, put Morley in it, and with agonizing slowness lowered it to the water below, It was about a fifteen foot drop off the ship, but I had no easy way of getting down other than jumping.  Before I lept I hit the trail of powder on the keg and made my way over.  I could hear the stomp of boots coming for me, apparently my luck had run out.

Splash I hit the water it knocked the wind out of me, but I had to get the rowboat moving or me and Morley would join the ship into its watery grave. I slimed my way over the side and started rowing the boat as hard as I could.  Morley awoke from his trance with a sour look.

"Oh joy you got us into a boat to get blown up by the ships guns, brilliant Lorentino."  As he said that we heard an explosion that made the world vibrate with noise.  The metal ship ripped itself in two as the powder in the hold exploded in a fountain of sparks and screams.

"You were saying Morley?"

"Still going to die at sea Lorentino, you don't know where you are going."

"Anywhere but here Morley, anywhere but here."

I may not know Evil, but I know what I like

"What's the story here anyway?" I'd been hanging around for all of about five minutes before I asked, a record for me and asking whats happened.

"Oh its a lovely cruise we all just wanted to be secured to prevent sea sickness."  At least Morley had his fantastic sense of humor.

"You are a fount of knowledge." I hate being hung up by shackles, its so physically draining.

"He's draining us slowly to rip memories from us Lorentino, what more do you want to know? Other than of course that you just jumped into this as usual with no knowledge or further planning than 'It'll work itself out' honestly I'm shocked you are still alive with how utterly stupid you act about everything." It was mostly true, but still hurt.

"A slow rip? Why not just kill you and take the whole thing?"

"Because unlike your casual disregard for the art of necromancy he doesn't want to flood his brain with a bunch of useless information.  Apparently this technique was in one of the many books you just handed over to the enemy."

"I didn't know they were the enemy at the time Morley!" I didn't its a valid defense.

"Everyone is the enemy Trezlan, we are alone in a sea of enemies, in a way you are my enemy," Another truth, though more so than Morley probably actually admits, one day I'll have him right where I want him and he'll be dead and I'll live a quiet life of eternal existence, right and just after that I'll manage to turn my shit into gold and live like a king.

"Such a positive attitude Morley, when I get you out of here, after you thank me for saving you, you should totally look for a more up beat attitude." I think it would be healthier for him, all that negativity is doing him no favors! What can I say I'm a life coach.  Morley was about to offer a thank you and how he'll work on it when some bulky looking guards arrived and took me off the hook I was hanging on.  "I'll see you in a bit Morley, get your bag packed we are leaving." That line cost me a sock in the jaw as they drug me up to see Aloitious.

I almost heard Morley laugh as I was being lead away.  I think he was just laughing at the situation and not me personally.  But I wasn't lying, this was all according to plan! I've got plans on plans you see, master planner this one. I just don't write all my brilliance down here because I'm also humble and modest! So Humble and Modest I'll tell you all about how I stopped a power mad necromancer from destroying the world tomorrow! Well more like I stopped a guy from killing some other people, but he might have thought about world domination, you never know, some people do!

All According to No Plan

"Lorentino, thought we killed you, twice even." Aloitious was a scrawny looking short pudgy guy.  Almost the exact opposite to Morley in every way, I could see the benefit of him being an apprentice, much like having a puppy to kick. He sized me up like a butcher looking at meat, I guess I came off wanting.

"What can I say Aloitious, I'm a hard man to kill." It was true, though I didn't really feel particularly hard right now. Shackled staring at my enemy in the heart of his ship fortress, disarmed and disrobed only wearing my pants and boots.  He had my sword and swung it like a bored child playing with a stick.

"But not to catch apparently, couldn't even get the shackles off we left for Fizz I see. I'm frankly surprised you made it on board wearing them, means I'll have to probably have some soldiers killed for incompetence." They weren't the same shackles obviously, but Aloitious didn't seem like the kind of guy to actually inspect a prisoners restraints, he probably doesn't even know how they are applied.

"At least something good will come from this, well aside from me killing you and freeing Morley." He laughed and then indicated for his guards to drag me away.  I was taken from his cabin area where I'd been drug since I got "Caught" (intentionally this time, trust me it was all part of my awesome plan). And taken to the hold with a bunch of other prisoners, though from the looks of these guys they'd had it worse than I did most of them looked just about dead.  They hung my shackles next to Morley, he looked at me with his usual look of contempt, he too looked pretty awful, though thats Morley's usual.

"My hero."

"I got this Morley, just wait, I have a master plan and its already in motion."

"Great part of your plan was to get captured, well at least thats the part you are capable of." I noticed in Morley's voice he sounded more withdrawn, whatever Aloitious was doing to him was taking more out of him than he was letting on.

"Just you wait Morley, soon enough you'll be praising my genius."

"And at that point I'll know I died because I'd be in some horrible punishment afterlife."  Morley didn't have much respect for my amazing plan, but you'll see, you'll see tomorrow how amazing that plan was.  Well the journal will, if you are reading this I'm sure you aren't actually reading it day by day, which makes all of my allusions to later moments seem kind of silly.  Maybe I am crazy, well it wouldn't exactly be unheard of if I were.  All the same tommorrow I write of my climatic super plan that was ingenious.  I can tell you already believe me.

How to Properly Be a Stowaway

Now you might find yourself wondering how I managed to stay alive hiding on a boat of the enemy.  Or you might find yourself wondering why I cared to save Morley, or you may find yourself wondering if you really like the color blue or if its just a passing fad.  Regardless! Its actually quite easy to hide amongst large groups of people, even on a ship full of soldiers.  You see they still need greasy dirty people to look after the machines, or work the pumps, or take care of waste, so you just have to pretend to be someone greasy or dirty (pretend the optimum word here folks I'm a cleanliness is the path to righteousness kind of guy).

So I just put on some crappy overalls someone left in a locker, smudged stuff on my face and looked intently at machine parts anytime a soldier came looking. Watching the other dirty workers on the ship, I swear we were all just infiltrating it.  Sadly it didn't seem to stop us getting further to sea. I really had to wonder what we were even doing at sea.  Its not like the rebellion if it even existed any longer had ships themselves, and from the large cannons I saw below decks, the ship I was on could bring to bear some fairly hefty ordinance (I noted the locations should an accident need to take place to sink the ship, you know just in case). There were sections that were being patrolled more than others, I figured thats where they were holding Morley.  If he was even on the ship at all.  I just had Leland's word he was in the camp, and then a crazy person's word he was on the ship.  Not exactly the most trustworthy sources of information!

I could see sadly this was going to have to be a Lorentino plan kind of situation to find out what was beyond where the guards were hiding.  Though for the life of me I couldn't exactly figure out a good way in! Its not like I knew anything about a ship to bluff my way past some guards, and while the passing soldiers on the boat might not notice me when I'm in the engine areas, I'm sure they would should I try and get inside the normal way.  So I had to be devious.  I had to think of something that no one would ever expect.  So I was totally screwed you could imagine.

No Good Comes From Boats

Leland did show me where the harbor was, I'll give him that much.  I really wish he hadn't though.  The ship was there still collecting supplies, it was a fairly modern looking iron monster, with a huge paddle wheel in the rear and big tubes to release smoke and steam from the engines below.  The harbor itself looked like it hadn't seen use in a long time, rusted over metal and rotting wood were its main features. There were no other ships in the harbor, and the only people moving were what appeared to be laborers. Which lead to my light bulb moment of sneaking on dressed up as a laborer (which of course lead to me having to hide my sword, I opted for some string and tying it to my back, as long as I didn't lean over too much you couldn't really tell I had it up there).

It wasn't very hard to do surpingly.  Just throw some dirt on your face, grumble with the rest of the people moving stuff back and forth and look like you know what you're doing.  The guards over seeing the labor didn't really want to be there (it was raining again) and to be perfectly honest few people would ever seek to sneak aboard a ship full of armed people! Only me and probably some other crazy person who spends his days wondering if toenails are edible (they are not, no don't asky why I know this just accept it and move on).

I was about to silently celebrate my cunning plans success when I saw all the other workers leaving the ship rapidly and heard the engines start up.  Panic ran through me like a plate of bad food.  I had intended on getting on the ship, finding Morley and getting off before it ever left the harbor, now it would seem I was stuck on board with the damn thing as it started its journey!  It wouldn't be a Lorentino plan unless something went catastrophically wrong, and this was apparently no exception. With great dread I watched the shoreline dissappear and I slunk to the deck.  I hate boats.

Hall of The Forgotten Sinners

Whatever people may say about the Guard and its stance on magic.  They are nothing compared to the horrible that was and is Ronerawth.  Ronerawth actually got worse if you can believe that, back in the day they were just leery of magic users and more apt to lock them up at the drop of a hat.  Now they are just locking them up by default.  Sure they call the place "Sanctuary" and claim that its for the good of the magic users so people don't assault them or use them for experiments or something, but a cage with gold bars is still a cage (and I know a thing or two about cages).  How this relates to my current telling of the past, I'm getting there!

The steps down below felt like stepping into some new hell, there was a bounty of smells that made me long for the shit river around the internment camp above. Smells like that shouldn't exist in this world, they are terrible beyond apt desciption. I came down the spiral stone steps into rows of cells, hard iron doors engraved with anti magic runes, the cells themselves looking no bigger than small hallways.  Occaisional sounds came from within, Looking in the first couple I could see they were corrupted.  I don't know if they were originally corrupted or became that way from the years of imprisonment (when a normal person goes crazy they just go crazy, when a magic person does it, they normally go corrupt in a digusting way). I was kind of mystified as to why they had these people down here.  I mean I kind of understood, maybe they were particularly awful magic users? But there wasn't anything written down near the doors, I saw no guards.  Its like they just brought them down under the camp, locked them up and threw away the key.

The hall way seemed to just stretch on, each cell being the same group of shambling half corpses in the throws of slowly dying.  Some of them were dead and had not been removed, I was shocked there were no guards at all.  I was wondering if perhaps the people up above had been the only guards? I guess this explained why no food shipments came here.  What a horrible way to die. It seemed like the cells closer to the stairs were for the older inhabitants and further in were new ones. I didn't exactly want to know why such a dungeon existed to begin with. Towards the end of the hall I found someone who still seemed to have a grasp on her faculties.

"Please sir just kill me, don't let me remain in this cage." Her clothing was getting ragged, she was also thin, almost made the shorties up above look healthy.

"I'm not your jailor lady, I'm looking for a," I sighed trying to think of a term to properly call Morley, "A friend as it were, where are the guards? Or anyone for that matter?"

"They all left a couple days ago during I think night time, I don't know I can't tell down here anymore." She had a way of talking overly fast, I couldn't see that she was corrupt, but something seemed off.

"And they left you down here to rot?"

"That was the point to begin with, just when they were here they'd torture us to start, now thats gone at least, for now, might be back later finish the job, maybe, maybe they already did." She turned her head away from me faced the wall. Whatever damage had been done to these people I don't think I was going to be able to fix any of it (not that I was in the business of fixing anything as I've shown many times before).

"Do you know where they went?"

"Calibrary, a ship in a harbor somewhere, sometimes they'd take someone there, they never come back from it." She had been useful, and for that I was grateful.  I couldn't see a normal way to open the door from my side, but with the the proper amount of fire directed at the lock (sigils were scrolled to trap magic from the other side, not mine) I was able to melt the proper mechanism and the door slid open. She charged me, I don't know if it was out of fear, hate, or just wanting to end it all. For my sad part in this play I made it quick, my blade slid through her ribs and stuck out her back like some gross meat on a spit. I could almost hear thanks in her final moments.

If I was a good man I'd have killed the rest, but I'm not, nor did I want to risk one of the creatures doing more than just lunging at me.  I was puzzling how I'd actually get out of this hole since the hallway just ended in stone and the huge iron door had locked me in when I heard a loud explosion. Followed by Leland and a squad of shorties wielding confiscated weapons.

"Don't come any further I'll come to you." Leland and his group were about to get to the first cells and I held them back.

"Sorry about the delay in rescue, door was too heavy for us to open."

"On the contrary you were just in time, now do you know of any harbor nearby?"

"I think so, but its pretty old and disused from the war with the Red Hand."

"Perfect, Leland can you do me one more favor and show me where this is?" And so I left the hallway of the dead and damned.  As I said this was when Ronerawth was better, I'm sure that doesn't exactly inspire confidence with how far they've fallen does it? And the worst part, Ronerawth is one of the better governments around.  Let that shit sink in for a half a second and realize how horrible this world really is (well other than my continued survival in it).

Pavorosi's Perfect Plan

There's nothing quite like the feeling of being the decoy in an attack.  Its like knowing that at anytime you can die for reasons completely not your fault, and if you fail the entire operation fails.  Wait thats exactly what it is.  I don't even know how I let Pavorosi talk me into being the guy out front here.  Other than I was a normal sized person and he was a shorty who had recently escaped from the internment camp, its not like either of those issues couldn't be overcome!

I felt exposed as I rode in the little cart towards the camp, I could feel the riflemans gaze burning into me as I got in range.  It didn't matter the guy wasn't really looking at me and yawned, I could still feel his steely gaze signaling my doom.  I almost panic ran a couple times.  In the back of the cart hiding under some bags was Pavorosi, the horse I had stolen from the soldiers had a pistol and some explosives on it and Pavorosi had armed himself accordingly (never used a pistol to be honest, I have magic, why would I use such primative weaponry, also I have terrible aim).  I have to admit this plan wasn't exactly complex.  I get Pavorosi into the camp, he blows up a wall or two and gets the shorties running off, in the distraction I go down below and try and find Morley.  Sure some people will probably die in the confusion, but better dead than stuck in that camp (where they are the walking dead).  I just hoped the guards wouldn't look too hard at the rocks we'd stuffed into the bags.

"Back early aren't you?" There it was my moment of truth, the make or break situation.

"Had a load of food go bad, thought you guys could use it." He snickered a bit and waved me on, I breathed a sigh of relief and made my way back to the kitchen area. As before there weren't any guards over there because frankly they'd all probably gotten tired of looking over the shorties and hated their jobs.  I had to wonder if they were even aware of the prison under their camp.  I'm guessing probably not, or not fully aware.  I figured the interment camp was just a horrible cover for the terrible going on in the basement (if Pavorosi wasn't lying to me).

I moved the sacks holding Pavorosi in and waved him off, he pointed me in the direction of where he'd seen them take Morley and other magical prisoners and we both wished each other well in our endeavors. The building he directed me to appeared to be administration, the two guards standing outside of it looked sharper than their guard tower cousins, probably better trained as well. They held at their arms at my approach, but before they could say anything an explosion echoed south of me and shouts rose up all over the camp.  The guards started running towards me to either go towards the problem, or rightfully believed I was involved in what just happened. I didn't want to give them a chance to clap me in irons, so with my right hand I roasted the guy on my right and with my left I skewered his friend, it was over before they even knew what hit them. I continued on into the building and found no one else inside, I did find a heavy metal door with some arcane symbols scrolled on to it, with some effort I was able to get the door open.  I was just inside when the door swung back to being closed, as it slammed with a thud I heard a latch click on the other side.

"Crap." Stairs circled down into what was probably a pit straight out of some horrible nightmare.  With my sword held high and my resolve fading I continued into the depths another perfect plan executed that left me trapped with no visible way to escape.

Introducing Leland Pavorosi

"Devari finally sent someone for me? I'm surprised it took this long, are you going to kill me now or are you to bring me to him and then kill me?" I had set up a camp away from the internment area, I couldn't let them see I wasn't actually going to town at all, I also needed time to figure out if Morley was in there, or if not who actually was in there and if they could prove useful (I was fully aware that Ronerawths current government winning the war against the rebels if they hadn't already was very bad for one T Lorentino).

"Don't know a Devari, honestly I don't even know who you are, I need information on that camp and if you've seen a magic person in shackles recently." He looked surprised, I mean I guess I would be as well, its much more likely for someone you know to rescue you, rather than just some random stranger who just wants information.  Though from what he said he wasn't exactly expecting a rescue.

"You're an odd man for a killer."

"Not a killer, well not an intentional killer, my name is Trezlan Lorentino, I'm looking for a fellow magic user by the name of Morley, around my height, looks scary would have been wearing shackles and a look of utter disdain."

"And if I've seen this man?" We were situated across from each other at the campfire, he was sizing me up from behind baggy eyes.  I could tell eating for him used to be a thing, his stomach hung with a flabbyness that spoke to a more priveledged life, well priveledged for a shorty anyway.

"Tell me what you know, I'll let you go no strings no problems, don't tell me, I'll take it from you in a way that will not be pleasant." I try to not directly state I'm a necromancer to everyone, its bad enough I tend to give my name to everyone.

"Fair enough, I've seen your friend, he's still at the camp they've got him cloistered down below with a lot of stuff we aren't supposed to know is there, but since I was the cook there I saw when they brought food in for that section." I watched his eyes to make sure he wasn't lying, it didn't look like it, but with shorties you can never tell.

"There's a basement in that place? Where is it?" It seemed strange to have a lower subsection on top of a bunch of shanties, but I guess the internment camp was front for the horror below? Fantastic.

"You have to promise me you'll get the rest of them out of there."

"Why would I do that? Getting you out was hard enough."

"You've seen the conditions in there, we aren't criminals and we don't deserve this punishment for being born.  Get them out and I'll help you, leave them there and your friend will never see the light of day."  Now while it was tempting to think of Morley living out his unnatural life underneath a bunch of shorties, I really couldn't leave my enemies with such of fount of power, also despite my hard edge seeing those shorties in that condition was heartbreaking.

"Ok deal, but I swear if you are screwing me little man I'll make your last moment last for far longer than you'd ever want." He held out his hand and I shook it, a deal in full.

"Pleasure to do business with you Mr. Lorentino, the name's Leland Pavorosi treasure hunter extrordinare." The extrordinare part was the amount of bullshit the little man could spit out.  You'll want to note the last name, Leland is not the only Pavorosi I've run across in my life, and sadly I'm sure he won't be the last. He had a plan (they always do, its in the Pavorosi bloodline to have outlandish stupid plans) and I had to give him credit it was fully thought out, more so than any of mine.  Of course planning for me hardly lasts past the first fireball, especially assaulting a fortress made out of wood.  You know what they say, here today, burnt to a crisp by accidental magical explosion tomorrow! Ok I say that and no one else, but still the phrase remains.

Special Delivery

"You're not the normal guy."

"He got sick." It took five days for any king of delivery to made to the camp.  Another five for the driver to come back and him to run into an "accident" (yes I killed him, sure I bet his family will be without a horrible person who delivers old food to people locked up in an internment camp of misery, my heart bleeds for them).  For a food supply as I said it was pretty sorry looking food, mainly just old nasty bread. The guard at the front gate looked like the bored soldier type who envisioned grand battles against foreign forces but ends up doing something so mind numbingly boring he's let the job slack.

"Whatever get inside." He waves me past their wooden gate and I lead the small cart with a couple pack horses to where he designated.  Inside was as I had seen from afar, broken down shanties with overly warn muddy roads to travel down. The prisoners in the camp were shorties, all shorties.  I don't even know what their crime was outside of people being shorties (Ronerawth has a history of hating them, I personally find them annoying but not something I'd lock someone up forever for). They looked gaunt and beaten down.  Not very surprising considering the conditions.  I navigated to what amounted to the kitchen area and started to unload my supplies to a shorty who looked healthier than the rest, but still beaten down.

"Frink sick or something?" His voice was that of a seasoned con man, polite and welcoming, even if he was wearing rags and had bags under his eyes.

"Yeah came down with a case of sword flu."

"Never heard of that, is it bad?"

"Kills the person most of the time." We moved the bags from the loading area to the "Kitchen", I put that in quotes because it was basically a pit with a small cooking fire and a pot over that. There were some crude hand made wooden tools hanging on the wall.  The grubby shorty con man lead me over to a wall where other bags were. We swapped the empties for the full and made my way back to the wagon. As the shorty went to put the bags on I struck him behind the head with the butt of my sword and put bags on top of him, no guard noticed my deception and I was able to get back on the wagon and out of the camp no problem.  I would have liked to have warned the shorty prior to striking him, or have him be completely compliant in what I was about to do.  But that could have damaged my plan to sneak a prisoner out of there to get the lay of the land. I was just glad he stayed knocked out, or realized what I was doing. Nothing more embarrasing than trying to "rescue" someone and they screw it up. I should know, I've constantly been accused of it.

Internment Jerks

There are a lot of reasons for people to end up in an internment camp (totally different from a prison by the way, because internment is supposed to be temporary, where as prison, more of a long term thing), usually its a government transition thing.  One is taking over and doesn't want to have to deal with dissenters not agreeing so they inter them until they either murder them off, or "reintigrate" them into society, and the later kill them (see another thing thats nice about prison, usually they aren't just keeping you there until they murder you, oh crap I just said something nice about prison.)

Molarin Internment camp was more like Molarin hell hole. Guard towers overlooked shanties that no one should ever have to live in, the walls were all ten feet tall wood monsters with spikes at the top, and you could smell the filth and decay from miles away.  I don't know how long people had been kept in this particular space, but I'm sure if you burned it to the ground with them inside, it would be considered sweet release. I was actually thankful the rain had stopped until the smell hit me, it was like a combination of wet garbage and shit, probably because it was. The camp had been built on a small plateau which made approaching it difficult, on top of that they had installed a bit of a moat/latrine around it (a smart idea, I mean who wants to cross an actual river of shit?).  The towers were located at the four corners and staffed by men with scoped rifles. I got the feeling the men were more there to guard the people inside then to prevent crazies like myself from trying to get inside.

I found most of my first day at Molarin was spent trying to size up an actual option for getting inside save just burning my way in and hoping for the best.  I could see a small draw bridge over the shit river, but while I was watching I saw no carts going in or leaving.  With a heavy sigh I set up a small camp to observe the camp, I figured I'd have a long wait ahead of me, which meant dealing with the smell permeating my clothes.  I've always thought my life was shit, I didn't exactly look forward to smelling like it.