Purge the Night Away

You would think that murdering an entire continent of people would be hard work.  And you'd be right! I didn't get to participate in the puring other than hearing it from a far (thanks whatever gods for small favors) but from the screams and shouts from the brothers it was a lot harder than having people line up to be put to the sword.

For his part Dezryan sat back on his horse listening (because he's blind did I mention that?), I don't know if he normally participated or just added his moral support to their entirely immoral actions. And yes I judge them immoral which tells you how bad they have to have been.  I mean if you are killing everyone you are "saving" where do you stop? Why not kill everyone in the world before they wrong you or wrong themselves? I tried to make these arguments to Dezryan while we were traveling between massacres, but that just lead to him encouraging his horse to to faster (because nothing says "I'm listening" than why don't you suffer some more?).

These purges continued into many nights, always afterwards the brothers would gather around a campfire and eat heartily and boast about the work they'd done to "heal" the land.  I for my part was kept tied to Dezryan's horse, under guard from whoever had drawn the short straw that day.  They fed me their scraps, so there was that, because letting a person die of hunger after murdering an entire town that day would be cruel and unusual.

And so it went for an entire week. I was actually surprised that we hadn't run across any real evil (well you know aside from the callous dicks I was saddled with).  When we came across a walled in town that was very quiet... And thats where I'll pick up with the next entry!

The Brothers Jerk

"Take his weapons." Dezryan always the negotiator was making sure I was completely unarmed in his presence.  Not like I had much of a choice a bunch of guys in suits of armor vs me in my rags? If I had my magic maybe, but revolvers have that really crappy having to pull them out and aim them requirement for murder, and thats why magic will always be better. We were still out in the open though, I felt this was a bad decision, even surrounded by burly men in shining armor. On top of taking my weapons they also bound my hands, because unarmed, basically naked, and without magic was not defeated enough. With my hands bound they tied a rope from my wrists to Dezyran's horse and then continued marching on, I'd say its the most humilating time in my life, but sadly it doesn't crack the top ten.

"I know why you're here and the answer is no." Dezryan again, we were in the back of the column of his brothers with good distance between us and the forward group.  Personally I thought it a bit silly to have the leader not protected by others, but the blind man had shown he was more than capable of handling threats in the past.

"You don't even know why I'm here, personally I wanted a vacation and I heard the lands of the east were a hot bet."

"You're a terrible liar, I've heard your some kind of businessman, I don't see how thats actually possible."  You ever been drug by a horse at a slow pace naked in the heat and the dust? Trust me it sucks.

"What do you want me to say in the face of you saying you won't help me with my problem."

"But I did help you with your problem, you were insane and a danger to others, I had two options kill you and do the world a favor or trap you in an anti magic bubble thereby minimizing your impact on the world and sparing your life.  So if you look at it from my angle I was more than gracious to you."

"Right just like you and your brothers murdering everyone in this land."

"This land is corrupt we are purifying it the only way it can be purified."

"By killing everyone."

"If there is nothing left to infect there is no longer an infection, don't worry Trezlan, when we are finished we'll ship you back to Ronerawth." And with that our conversation was over.  Dezryan lead his horse forward (I have no idea how, he's freaking blind!) and I stumbled behind like a drunken fool being brought before the constable for my crimes. Honestly I felt really stupid assuming Dezryan was some kind of altruistic monk type.  I should have known any order that is lead by the blind would follow darkness (HA!).  I also felt sorry for Ruk, here I was thinking Dezryan could help him, and his order would just as suredly murder them than help.  Some saviors they are!

White Knights To the Rescue

There are certain things you expect when wandering the wastes during a time of evil (yes I've done this more than once, yes the other stories will eventually make it in this journal). You expect dried corpses next to supply wagons. You expect ghost towns haunted by either the evil itself or secondary creatures exploiting the power gap (happens all the time, lesser forms of filth take over in places greater ones abandon).  Hastitly made new graveyards recently picked over by humans being as terrible as usual (graverobbery in the midst of tragedy is probably the most vile thing I've ever witnessed and I've seen some pretty vile things). Last, but certainly not least horrible is the smell, the damned areas always smell like a mix between wet garbage, shit, and mold.  You'll know the smell if you ever get in an area overrun by evil, because its hard to miss, though pray pray you never ever smell it yourself.

What you never expect is a band of knights riding in to save the day.  In this case I'm speaking of something that truely actually happened.  I was walking the road to the north feeling under dressed and underarmed when I heard the clomp of hooves.  Figuring the flesh creatures had somehow turned horses against us (horses are already evil enough, believe me they'll kill you and everyone you've ever loved without a single thought, such is the mind of the beast) I ducked into the sticker bushes near the road side (thus once again reuniting myself with an old foe, for their part they pricked the hell out of me). I'll leave out that the pricker bushes provided zero cover and I basically was standing in dust anyway so when I lept to the side there was a cloud showing where I'd gone as well as my foot prints.  Shit I said I'd leave that out, damn writing in pen.

Less about my bad hiding spot, and more about what was coming.  Knights in white armor on horse back.  At first I thought I'd actually gone crazy again (I can't even recall at what point how many times crazy this would make me), but even I knew that madness would not create this insane of an illusion. At the sight of me hiding in the bushes they stopped, the lead Knight hopped down from his horse and drew a sword (no fire arm just a very bright and deadly looking sword) and approached me.

"Stand and die knave." Not the friendliest greeting to be had I'll admit.

"I'd prefer to squat and live, you know if its all the same to you."

"We are here to cleanse this land of your evil monster stand and fight!" I have to admit at that I started to laugh pretty hard and did leave my bush.  I stood up to my full heigh and in all my mostly naked, scratched up, covered in dirt and scraggly bearded glory.

"I'm a monster? Are you insane? At best I'm a wandering vagrant lost in a land clearly out of its damn mind!" He had the sword at my throat now, my had fallen to my own revolver, but no way could I beat him to the draw as it were.

"We are aware that the creature of this land likes to hide in unlikely places, and you sir are an unlikely place."

"Thats the dumbest logic I'd ever heard of, are you just running around killing everyone who looks like they've had it rough in a land full of flesh monsters?"

"Yes."  Damn the one thing I hadn't counted on someone being dedicated to crazy.  For a moment I imagined all the people fleeing this disaster these idiots had killed and thought how stupid I was for coming to this land of damn madness.

"Wait Brother Loud (prounouced like Lude but I know how it was spelled, I saw it on his tombstone... Oh if that ain't an allusion to something... that is how I know how all of these names are spelled despite being prounounced differently)." One of the other armored knights had emerged behind Loud, he had dismounted as Loud had while the other knights remained on their horses stoicly allowing him to murder me.

"What is is Brother Corle (pronounced Corelay) I am about to purge the darkness from this man." I've heard killing people called a lot of things, this was the first I'd heard it called that.

"Master Dezyran wishes to speak with this man."

"The master with this man? Surely you must be joking."

"I am not Brother Loud now stand down." I was in a bit of a shock, I hadn't heard of this Dezryan fellow but I liked him already, well I thought I did, turns out... I was brought to back of their column, on a smaller horse dressed in a simple robe and wielding one of those weird bladed staves was my blind man.

"You son of a..." Corle and Loud restrained me, Dezryan looked on (well as much as a blind man looks at anything).

"Hello Trezlan I hear you are looking for me." And thats where I'll leave you for today.  Because I'm a dick like that and my hand hurts.

The Aftermath of Cowardice

Ok confession time (maybe I should retitle this journal to "Confessions of a Horrible Person" though I've seen several journals with similar titles, I'm sure my confessions are a lot worse), the real reason I didn't attempt to leave my junk pile was not fear, it was cowardice.  I didn't want to be with Ruk and his group anymore, I was terrified of what fate I'd set them on and I just wanted out.  I think I had already started to distance myself from the group during the escape purely to run away and have an excuse for it, that I also got attacked in this only helped me "escape" (and by escape I mean attempt to be killed and get buried underneath wooden rubble).

When I awoke smoke was filling my nostrils, buildings had been burning all night and the fire was starting to burn down the one I was in (hence what woke me up).  Ordinarily fire wouldn't scare me too much, but without magic I was a bit more leery of the stuff of course.  I did manage to get both my revolvers from where they'd been discarded and out of the building without getting singed, so points for Trezlan!

The town was littered with corpses of the skin creatures, which was at least a partial sign they weren't cannibals (look I took what I could get in the bad situation I was in).  Or if they were, they didn't their own.  I had to get out of the area before I could really explore the rest of the buildings looking for bullets, or supplies (I at least still had my cantine, though I lacked what most normal people call clothes, thank god it was a hot area, if the temperature had been lower I'd have frozen to death). So I looked like a naked vagrant holding on to a semblance of clothing, I added to that covered in ash (I mean I have brown skin anyway, but the ash totally not a sexy look on me) and I was runing out of bullets.  Doing a survey I had 15 possible bullets left.  So everything I had was loaded in my revolvers.

I noticed which direction Ruk and his group had gone from the corpses leading in that direction so I went the opposite way (again as much as I wanted to help some heroes, well I didn't want to actually do that, I confessed earlier...).  So they went east and I went north.  I figured the white creature would write me off and I could hopefully luck into finding that blind man, I mean why not? My entire life is a random sequence of events that happen to work in my favor most of the time, why not this one?

Adventures with Skin Monsters

"Move!" That was Ruk yelling at us all, the skin creatures were coming fast, we'd killed a couple getting out of the basement and between that and Jules screaming (of which she was continuing to do) the entire group was alerted, and there were a lot of them. For my part I was using my pistols on anything that came close, it was about a 70/30 shot on if they worked which was better than when I'd previously tried them.  Ruk was firing on anything, instead he had his hands full basically carrying Jules, the twins were freezing and setting everything on fire they could see. The town which had looked just run down before now looked like something out of a nightmare, flesh creatures howling, buildings caught on fire, and our small group running down the middle of town hoping to dodge both things. For my part I was doing pretty well to keep up with the group and try and take out the damned creatures as best I could. I did look in horror at my gunbelt as my ammo was slowly disappearing (naturally you can't fire and drop bullets and not run out of them).

I was actually looking down at my ammo when I felt a fleshy hand wrap around my neck.  I turned up to look for Ruk and the rest but they were gone.  It was my own fault for basically walking backwards and firing, they had darted off down a side street and I'd kept on walking, and I would have kept on walking if the fleshless thing hadn't grabbed me.  I tried to load the bullet I'd snagged from my gun belt into my revolver, but she'd lifted me off the ground and the round hit the dirt with a slight puff.  The creatures face was missing, or I should say where there were normal face features there were bloody holes.  It screamed at me and then hurled me into a nearby building, I was thankfull the glass of the former storefront window was not there or that probably would have been all they wrote for Trezlan Lorentino.  With the impact the revolver I'd been trying to reload went skittering across the ground, it dissappeared under a shelf that currently had stocked nothing.

The creature shrieked again and the wooden empty window disentigrated into wood chips.  It was moving slow, slow enough for me to grab my other revolver and not fire it because it too was empty as I was reloading the first one before I got to the second.  I tried to kick the legs out from under the creature, but it didn't work, whatever grounded it was not in the bloody stumps it walked on.  It did stop the creature for whatever that was worth.  I could feel magic being raised up, whatever had been done to me had not stopped my ability to at least know of magic.  The air around me felt tingly and then the floor under me was gone.

There was no basement in this store only the crawl space under the floor boards, but her attack had caused the shelves and other forgotten furniture nearby to collapse on top of me.  Not painful, but a little alarming. I figured I was pretty much dead at that point, the creature would plunge an arm through the wreckage and finish me off, but there was nothing.  I heard boards creak up above and then it was gone.  I didn't dare move, whatever it had done it figured it'd finished me off and I wasn't about to dispell it of that notion.  I could hear the howls leaving town, probably chasing after Ruk.  I also heard a strange song over the screams of the creatures.  I figured that was that lady in white, denied her sacrifice she was coming after it in earnest.

Or maybe she was merely after me, wanting to rid herself of the former necromancer she'd run into before I ruined whatever plan she was up to.  Either way I was too afraid to move out from my place of hiding.  I was actually so afraid I went to sleep, its amazing what fear can do for you! Well fear and a bunch of junk on top of you.

Back to the Business of Awful

"What's that god awful smell?" I figured it might have been whatever was in the cigarettes me and Ruk were smoking (because I'd been having coughing fits the entire time I had been smoking it much to Ruk's amusement).

"Get inside fleshies are coming." Ruk moved with the swiftness of someone worried about getting eaten alive (Sad to say I know that exact speed having run that way multiple times). We ran down stairs and Ruk put out the fire (which in the darkened basement made everything pitch black). I'll give Ruk credit, he was at least a leader of his crew keeping them quiet and not freaking out while we were potentially about to become food.  The smell grew stronger and then we could hear them, wailing and screaming in some forelorn horror speech. I was actually wondering at the time how these creatures snuck up on anyone.  Ruk would explain that only when they are in groups do they tend to make the noises.  Ordinarily their attacks were like I'd sort of witnessed at the compound, they send in one of their own looking like a person (don't ask where the flesh comes from, you don't want to know) and then once that person has disabled the armed people in the camp, the horde shows up to murder the rest. So what looked like a random thing was actually a very common thing during this darkness.  Now you'd think that people would stop inviting in strangers, but no matter how self sufficient your community is there are ways for things to get inside, most of the time relating to male sex drives or motherly instinct to protect children.

The wailing drew nearer as the horde passed over head.  I could hear footsteps, Jules looked to be on the verge of screaming and Ruk noticed and put a hand over her mouth.  The twins were pretty calm, I'll admit I was a bit worried, but thats my natural state of being. Just when it looked like things were going to pass by we heard the trample of feet over on the floor boards over us.  Jules couldn't keep it in any longer and screamed like a girl worried she was about to become a meal would scream like.

"Shit." We were in it, so I figured I might as well admit it.

Look Its Complicated

"What are you doing out here anyway Misser Lorentino?" I tried to spell Mr. how Jules tended to say it (and she said it often) it made me wonder if there was some kind weird dialect for the money'd class in these lands that made them sound like damn idiot or if Jules was a unique moron.

"I'm looking for a man, he did something to me and I need to find him to undue it." And I wanted to kill him, yes he saved me from me, but he also TRAPPED MY MAGIC INSIDE ME LIKE AN ASSHOLE! He effectively gave me a death sentence and didn't even bother to tell me about it.

"Is anyone from Ronerawth going to help us?" Ruk had gone off with the twins to "hunt", I was left alone with Jules (because heroes are idiots, sure lets leave the ragged clothed older guy with two pistols with our one lone idiotic female who barely manages to feed herself without injury).

"No, the seas are too bad to cross, and to be honest they don't care either way." I'm not the best sugar coater, so of course this lead to Jules crying like someone who just told her her entire land is doomed, because yeah I just did that. Of course this was the moment that Ruk and the twins showed up and Ruk immediately blamed me for telling the truth I guess.  He told me to stand outside and he'd "deal with me" have to say I wasn't really feeling great that I was probably going to have to kill a yokel and doom the other three to being killed by the lands of the flesh monsters.

Ruk emerged from the store front he didn't bring his rifle which had me feeling a little better, he took something to smoke out of one of his pockets, they were hand rolled and he offered me one, I accepted, and he lit our cigarettes with a small lighter he had previously used to start the fire in the basement.  "So we're right truely screwed aren't we?"

"Well if your plan was to wait for help, yeah its not coming." He sighed and looked up, it was night time, the stars were shining bright.

"Well you made it right? Others could come."  He didn't believe it, his tone of voice was that of resignation.

"Aren't you guys heroes? Can't you like save this land with some mystical something or other?"

"Shit thats just what I tell Jules to keep her from freaking out all day, to be honest all I am is a guard, I'm supposed to bring her to a spring where some white haired something or other will stop this for a time and we can go back to being what we were before, nothing more." I had underestimated Ruk, he was more like me than I liked, because honestly seeing anyone like me is terrifying.

"And the twins?"

"In case the witch doesn't accept Jules, magic is dangerous and the group we were with was afraid of them."

"I've see the spring and the lady, she isn't going to save anything."

"I have to try Lorentino, you understand that right? Some heroes right? A scared boy dragging three girls to be sacrificed so we can continue to fight a losing war against evil that is spreading in this land."

"You could always just try and actually kill the evil, I've seen evil its very killable, well normally." I didn't know why I was giving this boy confidence, if he did delay this monstrosity it would make it easier to find my blind man, but at the same time, I can't stand when people assign destiny to others, destiny is just a way of saying "Screw you stop asking."

"How can we stop it though?"

"Well the white thing can stop it right? We just have to find a way to force her to do that without a sacrifice and I happen to know there is a person somewhere in these lands who has that ability, we just have to find him." Ok so I did also have the thought it was better to travel in a group looking for the blind man, instead of you know as I normally do wandering helplessly.  Also I wasn't sold on the sacrifice as anything but a way for Ruk and his friends to get killed, and I'm not a huge fan of that, because as always I felt sorry for the hand they had been dealt and wanted to try and stop that.

And so it went that Trezlan Lorentino joined their party in earnest, well sort of earnest I mean I was using them for protection against this horrid wilderness.

The Trouble With Heroes

Everyone thinks of "Heroes" as good people. Well everyone but me, because I know how damn destructive and dangerous heroes are (and not because I'm more of a villain type person, shut up!) Heroes are the type of people who believe that their own self righteousness and overall goal overrides peoples desires (not to be confused with my accidental destructive tendencies). What I mean by that is they tend to think in the service of "saving the world" they tend to almost damn near destroy it, or at least destroy how it currently functions.  Not that that was a huge issue with the lands of the east since everything looked pretty much destroyed already. All of that to say when a group says there are heroes I start looking for the exits, well more than usual, aside from a group telling me they are a wandering harem looking to service bald men with huge... egos, I tend to avoid groups in general if that wasn't readily obvious.

The leader who I'd previously identified as yokel was named Ruk (I swear they always have some short verbal name, its like whatever messed up god who chooses these heroes has a prefence against longer names, hence why Trezlan will never save the universe), he was a simple farmer before the evil spread, handy with a rifle despite damn near killing me (need we forget he almost took my head off at the squinting at a distance range, well I won't forget it, I'm sure you already did, you dick). He was dressed in simple farmer clothes, overalls, a shirt that looked like it was about as comfortable as the pricker bushes earlier, and shoes that didn't quite fit. His face was as clean as the desert is dry, I figured he was one of those naturally lucky people who didn't have to worry about shaving or looking like a damn vagrant like I did.

The co-leader, and obviously deeply in love with Ruk was Jules (not short for anything, her actual name was Jules which told me her parents were damned idiots).  She was a city rat, dressed in formerly nice clothes that had seen more dirt and grime than she probably had ever seen in her entire life.  She was from money prior to the lands going to crap and talked in an aristocratic voice that betrayed years of looking down on others for having less money than her (I too share this tone of voice, but its more looking down on others for not being as awesome).  She was the useless member of the heroic group, mainly there I think to look cute or to complain about things (don't ask me why but every group has this person, hell I have this person even when I'm by myself... crap self burn).  Jules was really benefitting from being one of the only women not currently without skin, because as best I could remember she was nothing to write home about, despite me writing about her right now, moving on!

The twins rounded out this sure to die horribly group of idiots.  Sara and Jara (because Jules parents were not only the only horrible parents in the lands of the east, and if I'm being honest I'd toss Ruk in there too, no my name is glorious screw you), they were fire and ice magic users respectfully (because much like useless female companions who serve no purpose, underage magic users of incredible power also flock to heroic groups for reasons I'll never understand).  They were from the farms where Ruk worked his days (he actually worked on their fathers farm, thereby iniating the connection between them).  Both were dressed fairly plainly, had blonde hair and looked similar but Sara had a nasty scar on her forehead that made it easy for her to spot from her unmarked sister. It was hard being in a camp with a fire users, magic I'd had for centuries but was currently locked out of.  It was like seeing a rich person living in your house, it felt wrong.

So those were my new temporary companions.  I say temporary because I am not a hero, nor do I engage in acts that are intentional heroism (I state intentional because frequently mine is of relcutant or accidental heroism). Though I did stay with them longer than I'd like, a circumstance of being a stranger in a land full of FREAKING SKIN MONSTERS DID I NOT TELL YOU THAT ALREADY!?

Heroic Judgement Problems

I tend to view my life as a sequence of events between horrific problems.  Like I was dying of thirst so I found a water spring and took care of that, only to run across and anger some kind of godling creature.  In resolving one issue I stumbled upon something a lot worse.  All of this in the course of trying to resolve my magical impotency (THE ONLY KIND I'VE EVER HAD!), I'm sure if I was so inclined I could go back over this very journal and note that every entry deals with a problem in one way or another.  Though thats not entirely fair since I've skipped entire centuries of nothing purely because nothing happened, but look don't devalue my theory because its not always true, accept that I'm right and we'll move on? Ok, ok.

Back to the more immediate situation, that being I still looked like some kind of vagrant gun thug wandering around a world gone to crap by freaky flesh creatures. I did have some water stored up (someone had left a nice canteen near the spring, probably before becoming some horrible creature so I made sure to wash it out thoroughly before taking it with me), which at least resolved the immediate dying of thirst angle. I didn't have much of a lead to go on for my hunt for that blind jerk other than him being around here somewhere, which was of course pretty bad since he was the entire reason I was here in the first place.

I didn't even have a map or general lay of the land.  I knew west of me was the coast, all other directions though? No clue! The entire land was a mystery, I couldn't even find a reliable road, either because of the evil in the land or because the area where I landed didn't believe in proper roads!  This is just an explination how I managed to stumble through every bush, random plant, and damned spikey pokey thing in the area! I was more cut up from the general vegetation than I'd ever been from getting in fights with actual enemies!

I'll paint you a picture.  I was cut up from a bunch of vegetation, my scraggly red beard had grown in thick and disgusting, I had a pair of pistols hanging on my gun belt that was the only not ragged looking part of my attire, and I was unnaturally thin.  Is it any surprise the first group of people who weren't flesh creatures took a shot at me?

I had stumbled out of some particularly nasty pricker bushes (more apt a name I'll never know) and was having a reasonable discussion at a normal volume about my displeasure with the bushes when a bullet wizzed by my head (I could tell from the hissing noise and then the bang, see you always hear the miss before you hear the shot, or in some cases feel the pain before you hear the shot).  I drew my own pistols in response and I guess that action showed my potential murderer I wasn't some slavering flesh creature.

"Whoa sorry about that." It was that kind of backwoodsy farm folk accent everyone who subsisted off shooting varmints and planting crops have.  I don't know how this accent manages to override any regional or political region, but it does.  We were a good distance apart, I could see what looked like four specs on the horizon (so even if I could have fired, which I wasn't sold on in the first place with my pistols I probably would have hit a whole lot of nothing).

"You're sorry? You tried to kill me and you're sorry?" I'll admit I was a little outraged.  The group quickly started coming in my direction.  The specs took shape and I could see farm boy and what looked like his harem, well two barely old enough to form sentences young girls, and one might be about breeding age one, so not exactly a great harem, but in these times I'm sure you took what you could get.  For a brief moment I worried I'd stumbled upon another slaver, unfortunatley it was worse they were "heroes".

"Look mister I'm sure you want to shout and yell and all the rest, but this place ain't safe out here, less so if you'll be hollaring." I couldn't argue with that, well I could, and normally do, but in this case wanting to not be some flesh eating creatures dinner I decided it was best to follow the four and voice my displeasure later in a safer circumstance. They lead me from the bloodying pricker bushes to a ruined town that I had some how been close to but not noticed. They also seemed to be following roads I could not see.  Damned locals, I tell you its like they hide these things so that foreign invaders like myself would never find a proper path ever!

They had made their camp in the basement of what looked like it had been a store prior to the evil invasion.  It made sense to hide in a basement, though since there was a fireplace in the basement and they were using it, they weren't exactly masters of hiding. I could see they were all armed, so that threw out the slavery thing (unless he was keeping them slaves through another means, I have no idea I've never been east before).  So I had to ask now that we were safe.

"What are you guys doing out here? Just surviving?" They looked at each other sheepishly like what they were doing was kind of embarrasing, until yokel talked.

"We're heroes, were going to save the world."

"Well," I paused rolling over the all the words in my brain for this particular revelation "Shit."

Allow Me to Introduce Myself

There is a benefit to a natural cave, they are usually carved by water of some sort and because of that can be relied upon to still have some water in them (not from the carving you half wit, sorry feeling a little fiesty).  All of this to explain why I would A. Go into a cave, and B. Not expect to die horribly (not that I didn't expect to die, but you know thats my usual, when I get up to pee in the middle of the night 50/50 shot I worry I'd die).  Thankfully the cave wasn't that deep (I say thankful because any deeper and something horrible could be in it), it was actually just a natural spring that looked like a normal traveler stop.  There were tracks in dirt and a little wooden area with a pump for getting the water.

Why the idiots at the compound didn't build their compound over here by a damn spring? I'll never know, though I had walked what I felt was a long way (in the thirst madness I have no idea how far I'd made it).  I did drink until I threw up because I was that thirsty (I heard you can kill yourself with water, water way to go, YOU LOVE THESE YOU KNOW THAT!).  I was in the midst of recovery when I heard foot steps in the soft sand coming into the cave, I readied one of my pistols hoping that the round in the chamber would actually fire (again I had no guarentees).  It was mid day outside so the light spilling into the cave was enough to show the woman in white who had entered.  She was dressed in light clothing (befitting the desert like outside), it would have been transparent if not for the layers (so no cheap oogle moments, look I'm a man I have needs DONT JUDGE ME!) Her hair was white and waving, not wavey, but waving, it flutered in a non existant breeze, moving almost like snakes.  It was the hair and overall whiteness of her skin that had me almost wondering if I wasn't having another hallucination.

"Curious." The voice reverberated in the cave like she was speaking through an amplifier, loud enough to almost hurt my ears.

"Not actually my name, but sure you can call me curious if it makes you feel better." My voice was cracked from having not spoken very much in a long time, also probably from age.

"A broken man from Ronerawth, I have to wonder if you are here to destroy the evil plaguing this place or join with it." She guessed Ronerawth from my accent, I personally feel I don't have one, but I guess everyone from the area does, especially in the lands of the east.

"None of the above, I care little about whatever is going on here, just here for one man." Yes I'm that selfish, I would doom an area to damnation even if I could help, which I don't feel I ever really "help" anything. The creature (because even I'm not stupid enough to think it was a real person) moved in flicking motion, one moment she was at the mouth of the cave, the next right in front of me.  It was then that I became aware the only reason I knew it was there with me was because it wanted me to know.

"Do you know why things are the way they are here?"

"Nope." She tilted her head, I kept my revolver steady even though I suspected it would do little against her.

"You know nothing of its lands or its troubles and yet you came here seeking a man inspite of that?"

"That's about the long and the short of it."

"Curious."

"Still not my name, but hey I kind of like the sound of it." Have I mentioned I'm an ass in the face of annihilation? She ran a hand over my face, her skin was ice cold despite coming from outside.  It started as a caress but she halted halfway through and got a sour look on her face.

"Necromancer." Her voice picked up a shrillness that vibrated off the walls and did hurt my ears. I smiled, previous this creature was thinking of me as some kind of curio, now it saw me as something else.

"Not currently, its what I'm hoping to fix." She withdrew, flashing to the front of the cave like a piece of cloth in the wind.

"You'll die here and do the world a favor." And with that it was gone.  I got a sense I just angered something better left to not knowing of my prescence, but you know me, thats not how I roll! I figure by the time the world is consumed by a ball of fire, I'll be the cause of that having finally pissed off something even I couldn't take down by luck or circumstance.  And I'll be laughing the whole time.

Dry Times

You'll notice in my entirely small list of things I took from the compound I didn't mention I brought water.  Ordinarily this wouldn't be a huge issue since in most normal areas water can be found nearby to be drank (like say a large body of water I arrived in, sadly salt water is useless for drinking without being able to heat it up, and I didn't take pots, pans, or ignition materials). The lands of the east though were apparently suffering through the worst drought in the history of droughts (for those wondering how the sea could be having a continuous storm of horrifying proportions and the east be dry as all dry? The answer is simply magic and I'm not just bullshitting you as usual, err ever).

So I didn't have water, adequate clothing, pistols that would reliably fire, or even a good amount of food to survive on. Clearly I was ready for wandering a land filled with creepy flesh monsters that can look normal until they bloom into some horrible skinless shrieking beast of nightmares (thats obvious sarcasm unless you couldn't pick that up).  It took one day for me to be so dehyrdated I worried about taking a piss for fear of losing precious nutrients (I mean its not like as a slave I was living high on the hog anyway). Day two lead me to halucinations of me (naturally anytime I hallucinate its always a seperate me with which to converse, sometimes I think I'm so lonely I imagine myself as the best person to talk to, and I'm totally right). This version of myself wasn't really a talker though, he was just leading me to bump into things and to flail about like someone dying of thirst (what a dick!)

The third day saw me running into what else, a gods damned cave.  And of course because I was dying of thirst I thought "Eh what bad thing can come from a cave?" Aside from just about every damn evil thing I've ever run across in the history of ever. And thats where the next entry will jump off from.  I'll leave you with a taste, I don't die of thirst, but I do find the secret to happiness in life (the second part is totally a lie).

Oh So That's The Evil

I will say this about slavery, at least it lets you take your mind off your other problems (not an endorsement of slavery, I'm just saying with my awful life it was nice to not have to worry about something other than you know tilling soil and hauling crap from place to place).  I was working all day and sleeping until I got rudely woken up in the morning.  It was hard work, but it was honest work, though it was kind of delaying what I'd come east to do! As the days became weeks I started to worry about myself. 

It had been fifty years since I'd had magic or done magic, specifically necromancy.  Ordinarily this wouldn't worry me, because in my experience using up a life gives you more than their life and I always had the ability to take more. But at that time I was starting to feel my age (which would be fifty not two hundred plus).  Bones and muscles hurt in ways that they previously didn't and former just annoying pains started to become excessively more worrisome because again I couldn't simply take a life to fix them (have I mentioned I'm a terrible person? Because I totally am).  Which made each day of slave labor putting me more and more at risk of actually dying.

All of that to say I was starting to feel the need to actually get back on track with my actual quest when we had a vistor at the gates of the compound.  I say visitor but it was more like a refugee, a very pretty woman who was begging for us to let her in. The men running the compound weren't about to let a new slave go to waste immediately invited her in and brought her up their house.  The other female slaves gave each other knowing glances and I kept plowing my field.  It was hours later when the sun had gone down for the day and I hadn't seen the idiots with guns that I started to wonder just exactly what had happened.

I was laying down for the night when I heard the scream, it was one of the house servants screaming.  I got up from my crappy hay pile (yes the best kind of sleep, a discarded hay pile, I recommend you all try this lavish lifestyle at least once, so you too can wake up with hay in uncomfortable places).  The house was dark, which wasn't unusual, except everything was dark.  The entire compound normally had lamps lit all night to ward off the evil or whatever but now there wasn't anything. Screaming kept coming from the main house but I couldn't see anything (it was a moonless night as well, and I'll be honest I have terrible night vision).  I stumbled in something that I thought was crap (the leaders of the compound when drunk tended to just go wherever and expect the slaves to clean it up, so it wasn't unusual to step in shit no matter where you were), but turned out to be a mixture of a person.

My eyes adjusted better and the entire courtyard was covered in the remains of people.  I was wondering what the hell had seemingly ripped itself out of the former occupants when what appeared to be a walking skinless lady came slowly screaming towards me (sadly not the most terrifying thing I've seen in my life, but definately in the top 10, why do I have a top 10?) I'll admit I went to use magic, it had been so long a part of me I didn't even think.  Of course I didn't have any magic and the walking corpse kept walking and screaming. Now I had no idea how that corpse had become animated, and to tell you the truth I did not want to find out. So I did the smart thing and ran away.

Well partially smart, I ran towards the house (its not my fault they had all the weapons, including my pistols).  Inside was a horrific scene, blood coated walls, body parts were scattered everywhere and the rooms were in dissarray. I didn't go further in, but I'm sure it was actually worse, thankfully one of the idiots in his hurry to commit offense to mankind had dumped his gun belt with my pistols just on the ground, it was covered in blood and had a hand reaching out for it (not connected), but the pistols looked still fine.  The screaming was coming on louder my pursuer approached with inevitability.

I drew my pistol, pointed it at the flesh creature and fired.  Or tried to fire, there was an unwelcome click from the hammer hitting and the creature kept coming.  Frantically I pulled the hammer back and fired again, nothing.  I could feel the heft of bullets, so it wasn't unloaded, but perhaps the damage from water logged had messed up something in the pistols mechanism.  With my left hand I drew the other pistol and with some thumb stretching managed to pull the hammer back on that pistol as well and fire, or try to, it too was coming back with a click.  The creature was approaching its mouth had opened wide like that of a snake, to eat me or unleash something I have no idea.  I was pulling the hammer back on both pistols as fast I could, I had 16 attempts between them for a working bullet and I hoped I'd get one before being eaten.  Between 5 on my left and 7 on my right both guns roared to life which surprised me with recoil enough to hurt my wrists, but it did splatter my screaming corpse lady.  Her extended jawed face about a foot away erupted in blood and flesh fragments as the two bullets found their target.

I breathed a sigh of relief and then got the hell out of the complex.  I didn't know if there were other things there, or what in the gods name had happened to the corpse lady, but I didn't want to ever find out. I thought for a moment of getting supplies or more bullets from the house, but the remains of my attempted cannibal skeleton was enough to make me welcome the extra ammo on the gun belt and some vegetables from the garden and be gone. It wasn't exactly a great start to my time east, I'd been enslaved and then damned near eaten, but I at least knew sort of what my enemy was, flesh creatures, joy!

The Slaves Dilemna

You know something always bugged me about my bit of enslavement in the lands of the east (other than the whole enslavement thing).  For one, how did they know I would be on that beach? Did they just often swing in there and check to see if washed up sailors were on the beach so they could enslave them? Who does that? Should I start doing that? Is there some kind of hidden slave market for washed up sailors? These are the questions that plague me at night (well that and what does the color blue look like to blind people).

Anyway color observations aside, the group who enslaved me were from a small compound near the beach.  It was a walled in location of two shacks and a larger house unit (similar to what my aunt way back in the day ran for her hunters).  The shacks were where the slaves stayed (slaves as in plural though I was the only former "sailor" in their company), the main house was where the armed men stayed (yes all men, and aside from myself all the other slaves were women). I was used for the hard labor in the compound, that being tilling soil and other menial tasks to keep their crappy barely enough food to eat farm going.

One of the longer living slaves informed me that this compound sprung up in the wake of the great evils take over (better to be a slave to a group of armed men than to suffer whatever malady was with this powerful evil).  They were such a small group and didn't venture far from their own little land to draw the notice of the as of yet not really spoken of evil (no one in the camp gave it a name or even explained what it was, which made me wonder how such an evil had taken over an entire continent that both The Red Hand and Ronerawth had interests in and no one cared!)

The men for their part treated the slaves fairly and reasonably, just kidding they treated them as awfully as a group of jerks who are given free reign of their own little kingdom tend to do.  The women were brought to the main complex at night and returned every morning a bit more worse the wear.  My own experience was at least a bit better, aside from bad language and threats of violence I was left to simply be their pack animal (demeaning but not the worst slavery I've experienced, yes its sad I have a scale).

And so my life went, I tilled fields and watched a group of armed men be a bunch of dicks to a group of women who felt they couldn't strike back.  Again I went to sleep every night wondering "Is magic really worth this amount of stupidity?" The answer of course is yes, but I really felt that I made a stupid move and I should have just stayed home (also known as every night I go to sleep ever).

Hello New World

I had washed up on the shore hours before. I hadn't really moved, instead I decided it was a good idea to just become one with the sand and ship debris washing up next to me.  The storm that had destroyed captain Fred's ship was not present on the beach I was on, it was actually a pleasant day if you can believe that. All of that was to say that I was lying on a beach coated in drying sand in clothes that were partially torn, and fully waterlogged.  About the only good thing I had going for me was I still had both of my pistols, though with all the water I knew they probably would not fire, and I did not know if I could find new bullets that fit their chambers (its not like Hanlon made none standard pistols or something, but my knowledge of the place I sailed to? Between zero and zero).

I was actually having a pleasant nap pretending what was going on was not actually going on (have you ever done that? Tried to sleep a problem away? It never actually works, but it feels good in the short term). Until I heard that that hammer click.  I don't know why people iniate conversation with a gun in your face by pulling the hammer back.  I mean they already have you at the end of a barrel, whats that extra half second click going to do other than make it more possible for an accident? There were four of them, all had rifles but only one had their barrel in my face.

"You breathing?" I opened my eyes, well eye, I had one half of my face in the sand, so my left eye was the only visual I was getting.

"Probably." I was laying on my stomach, but its not like they couldn't have seen me breathing all the same.  Sand tasted awful by the way.

"Well then get up." Always nice to have armed men giving orders to you like you should have been following them from the get go (men in authority always tend to assume you know they are the authority even when they are not). I noticed as I stood up that they were all dressed in a lot heavier clothing than my torn to shreds pants and shirt looked like.  I didn't feel cold, but they didn't have an inch of skin showing, not even on their faces, just covered up scarves with slits for eyes.

"Look I think we got off on the wrong foot."

"You're from a shipwreck right?"

"Ok so maybe we are on the exact foot we should be." One of the none holding a gun on me people unhooked my pistols and ammunition.

"You are our slave now sailor."

"Really we have to do this?" A heavy hit to my head and ropes binding my wrists answered that question.  I found myself really longing for my magic again, if only to show these people I'm a slave to no one! But back in horrible reality I had sailed across the world to become someone elses servant, I tell you there are times I feel stupid for even opening my door.

Storm Surfing

"WOOOOOOO!!!" Captain No Teeth (his real name was Fred, No Teeth sounded more dignified) had been howling like a banshee ever since we'd basically been flying in the middle of a horrible storm. He was having a great time, me I was worrying with each lurching smash that the whole damn ship would explode into little bitty pieces.

"This is fun to you?"

"Of course, the most fun I've ever had and I have to thank you Mr. Lorentino for letting me go on my last voyage."

"What? You're last voyage? Why would this be your last one?" Aside from the obvious of course.

"Pretty much dying Mr. Lorentino, most of my parts aren't really working right anymore, I figured I'd go out on top."

"On top of what a huge wave?"

"Exactly!" We landed with a thump and once again felt my head smack against the wet ship deck with a thud. We were in the midst of waves rolling all around us, the wind was loud enough to drown out half of the conversation I was trying to have with Fred.  I was wondering how things could get worse when a bolt of lightning struck the mast and split the ship in half.  I looked on in dismay as Fred's half disappeared behind me and my half which had part of the sail (and I use that term loosely) kept on trudging ahead.  I mean it wasn't like Fred was really "steering" the ship anyway, but it was still a little frightening to see only part of the ship you were just on continuing on while the rest of it apparently drifted to the bottom of the sea.

I didn't really have a lot of time to worry about the fate of Fred as the raggedy rope I had been worrying about gave way and I was set loose from the partial ship I had been attached.  Into the dark rolling water I plunged.  I spent a lot of that time trying to stay afloat amongst the waves.  At some point I lost track of all the kicking, screaming, and tiredness.  I worried for a moment about no one remarking how I died in the sea on a foolish attempt to regain my magic when I blacked out from exhaustion.  When I would awake things were about to get worse (how can they get worse from damn near drowning? Well you'll find out!)

Windy Days Are Here Again

Have I mentioned how much I hate being on a ship before? Well let me reiterate I hate sailing, I hate transport by ship, I just hate the idea of travel on water in general (I've tried all methods, none of them are fun, easy or worthwhile). No matter how they've advanced over the years you can't take the motion out of being on the water, or that you are all alone in the middle of a large body of water and if the ship goes down you die! YOU DIE IN THE WATER ALONE!  Also you can't see the bottom, so who knows whats down there? I have no idea, could be sea spiders the size of ships, you don't know, it could be down there, waiting for you in the depths, their sea spider fangs hungering for your flesh!  Ok sort of lost my point.

Anyway I hate being on a ship normally, this ship was old, parts of it were rotting, and we were sailing in the worst storm I'd ever been a part of (and not directly or indirectly caused...)  So it appeared all the other sane people were right and I shouldn't have been out on the water.  The captain of the vessel was some old guy with a beard down to his knees and a couple of teeth rattling around in his head. I staggered my way up from the hold down below and shouted at him to try and get his attention (not exactly the wisest course to do to someone steering a ship in a huge storm).

"Where are we going?" It was a valid question in my mind, becuase despite clearly being in a storm, maybe we were sailing in the wrong direction or something.

"East you said you wanted to go east!" His voice cracked a couple times in the yell.

"I thought no one wanted to sail east?"

"I didn't! But you won that drinking game fair and square so here we are." Yes dear reader, I defeated the worst ship captain of all time in a drinking contest and my victory got him sailing east.  I don't even know how thats considered a win.

"At least this is the worst of it right?" I had to ask because you know optimism is my only friend.

"Worst of it? Son this is the best of it, we haven't even got to the actual storm yet!" My heart sank with that little revelation, and then I lost my footing and smacked my head fairly hard on some railing.  So you know, a total win. He offered me a rope length of rope as I struggled back to my feet.

"Whats this for?"

"To tie yourself down, find something sturdy though, old girls got some rot in her, but we'll make it Mr. Lorentino, or we'll die trying!" That wasn't very reassuring, nor was the rope which looked as ragged as the rest of the ship.  I hate when someone uses the "or die trying" statement, because thats ridiculous, dying while trying something is just an eloquent way of saying you failed.  Its not like history really writes kindly to those who "died trying" because thats ridiculous.  So anyway all of  that is to say tying myself to the ship wasn't really a reassuring moment, and I was pretty sure I'd drunkenly agreed my way into dying aboard a ship in the middle of nowhere (see theres that optimism again).

I was almost right as well, but for that you'll have to read the next entry...

Really No Body? Not Even Crazy Jim?

"For the Last time Lorentino I have no one who can take you east." I was at a dive bar at one of the many ports of Ronerawth (because when seeking the best for your dollar, go to the place with the cheapest booze and loosest women). This had been my fifth trip to a dive bar in an as many port cities and the response was much the same at all of them. It's frustrating when everyone keeps telling you something and you can't just bribe or yell at them to change their opinion.  Sadly it wasn't some great evil or anything that was keeping them from sailing east, but the damn weather and their utter lack of spines for taking on some horrible ship destroying storm that was once in a century blowing through the coasts like I didn't even care!  So it was raining almost nonestop and walking outside was soaking me to the bone within a few seconds, surely some idiot err kind faithful soul was willing to take on a damn challenge!

"This is a conspiracy!" Always a conspiracy, when I wake up in the morning with drool on my pillow? Conspiracy (I do not drool, or snore, despite complaints to the contrary over centuries, thats how deep that conspiracy goes!)

"Mr. Lorentino I tried I looked up and down the coasts I've even went over what you suggested for the price for a ship, no one wants to sail east." This was my last contact for this kind of thing, not that I had a lot of contacts in shipping, but what little I did have were all completely unhelpful.

"I'm going to have to get a ship my damn self aren't I? This is ridiculous."

"That would be suicide Mr. Lorentino I really can't advise you to do that." I walked away in a huff.  I figured the difficulty would come from finding the guy who locked the magic in me, not actually getting to the damn place he was! Stupid sailors! I was so angry I drank myself into a stupor (ok thats a bit of a lie I drank a lot during those days anyway, the anger just made the process go faster). When I woke up I was a on a ship sailing somewhere and my stomach felt like it was doing a dance with my ass.  So you know a weird way to wake up, but not the worst way I've ever woken up!

The Magic is Inside You

"What did you do to me?" A question I've frequently asked of a lot of people (its become a running theme in my life, again speaking volumes to the misery I'm in).

"I didn't do anything to you personally." Technicality's are how I win arguments not other people damn it!

"Well your order did and now look at me, I'm powerless, I stink from all the different treatments I've tried and I'll probably die now, do you understand what thats like?"

"Well not the first two, but the last one is something everyone except you seems to be perfectly fine with."

"Because you are all idiots!!!" I was pacing amongst the corpses of our previous foes, this is what happens when you get into a conversation after a battle, you don't care too much about what your current surroundings look like.  Even if your surroundings are covered in blood and bodies of former cannabilistic ghoul things.

"I can see why you are afraid Trezlan, afraid to face your judgement, but see it from our perspective, we were called in to help a damaged necromancer/pyromancer who had been murdering people indiscriminately, we either locked your magic inside you to mininmize the damage, or we killed you." I wanted to rage at him for what had lead to my madness, but he was right, they always are those rational actors not driven to madness by torture.  I was mad at the world even though it wasn't the world that hurt me, and here I was mad at a person who didn't even do anything to me. Now a rational person might see this as a revelation point, not me though, because I'm about as rational as a guy who can conjure fire with his hands that lives by stealing life from others.

"You should have killed me, better than leaving me like this! And whats this all about? Show me a taste of your world and what you do, and tell me you won't help me? Thanks a lot FOR NOTHING!" I went to stomp off and he grabbed my shoulder I was really close to killing him, which would have proved exactly what he was saying.

"We agreed to meet you so you stop looking for us Lorentino. My order is neccessary in this world, I don't expect you to understand that, but I do expect you to respect it.  I personally can do nothing for you, but if you let me finish you self centered idiot, the one who did it can reverse it, if you can get to him." Always a catch of course, but this was better than all the recipes I'd been trying (probably less smelly).

"And I can assume you lost contact with him in a far away place."

"Exactly." I sighed, but listened all the same.  Apparently the man who locked the magic inside me had set out on his final mission across the sea to stop some ancient blah blah blah, look I'm sure you don't care about the specifics (because its not like I won't tell you eventually anyway, maybe ok I'll be honest don't always tell you the specifics, look back off!).  All you need to know is I had a mission, I had a goal to free myself, and I had to get out of a place that smelled worse than I did.  It was nice to know that what had been done, could be undone, I just had to find a man who set out on a suicide mission to stop evil with no magical ability and no connections in the area he went to.  See simple.

Other Peoples Monsters

*Blam* I had fired one revolver emtpy already and the creatures were still coming, whatever they were I gave them points for survivability.  I could see my blind companion had used his bladed staff as some kind of pole vault to impale one and then spring into another completely unrelated horrible creature thing (they weren't super horrible, just kind of raggedy clothed and hard to kill sons of whatever misbegotten whore mothers spawn, they also had really big fangs).  I was backing up as they approached, going for wounding shots to the legs over shots to the chest as those didn't seem to be doing me a whole lot of good.

"Don't let them bite you!" I heard the blind man call out from amongst a group of body parts and blood.  I found myself very thankful that despite him not needing it, apparently he lit his sleeping area, gods know that if this was to be fought in the dark I'd be a dead man.

"Why not?" I had holstered the empty revolver and drew my fresh one blasting it almost empty immediately to prevent a particularly large beast from eating me.

"Whatever they have spreads by bite, you get bitten you become them."

"Good to know." I mouthed asshole under my breath, I had backed myself into a wall and had to do a fast reload, ejecting shells as fast as I could reload them in.  I had finished just in time for a particularly spry little jerk to come leaping at me, I caught him mid leap right in the head, the round obliterated the head and coated me in the remains, his limp body smashed into me and knocked me over.  I could see from the carnage the battle was over (for now) the blind man was shaking his weapon clean.

"What were they?"

"Constant sources of sorrow for me." It was as descripive a term for annoyances as I'd ever heard. My revolver was still smoking, it shook a little in my hand as my nerves got to me.

"Well glad that we had this little chat."  I have to say my normal issues versus the blind mans made me feel better I had recently only dealt with annoyances.

"You don't even want to know why you can't use magic, or have magic used against you?" He said it in a way that implied there was more to the story, of course there was, there always is.  And tomorrow I'll explain, naturally.

Just One Moment To Speak

"Have to admit little worried when a blind man holds a blade to my throat." I still think it was a valid concern, the scoff the man made told me he did not (naturally).

"There are other ways to see other than just your eyes." Cryptic, creepy, and cvague (had to keep the c thing going) this is known as a threefer in people holding weapons to your throat.

"Yeah do those other methods result in less people getting a really close shave, or more?" He lowered the weapon and waved his hand for me to follow, which again I was following a blind man, you make the joke.

"I don't need eyes to know where you are, the smell is more than enough." I'd have complained, but he was right, I probably smelled something awful for a variety of reasons. We ducked down some small alleys and went into the sewers (naturally I mean when you smell bad, whats some stinky sewers on top of it).

"I thought we were supposed to meet at the library?"

"That was before I knew two seperate groups are following you, quite the sought after man Mr. Lorentino." Thankfully the sewers we went into seemed to be underused, which happens frequently in Ronerawth cities, they are built and rebuilt so often what used to be a sewer becomes a catacomb.  One of the central jobs of the town guard is to make sure the beasties don't overrun the catacombs and attack the cities, most of the time they are safe, most of the time. Unfortunately despite my wanting to speak to this guy we round a bend right into a group of subhuman monstrosities picking over what I could only assume was his former camp.

"You know just once I want to go underground and not have to fight anything." I tried to say it under my breath, but I should have known the blind man would have very good hearing.

"Me too, I think supringly enough these things are for me and not for you, I know you are carrying a revolver I hope you know how to use it."

"Of course, though you won't get to see how good I am." A boast and a sight joke, yes folks I'm just that good. And that's where I'll resume tommorrow, staring down some monstrosities with a blind man who I hoped could fight.  I'd say this is just another day at the office for me, but honestly this one was kind of a new one to me.

Banshee Boogaloo

"Look she beast I just threatened to shoot a couple guys in the crotch to get them to leave, don't think I wouldn't do the same to you." Though I was a bit worried her crotch would somehow eat the bullet, I don't know how, I don't know womens anatomy very well if thats not already blindingly obvious.  Though to be fair to myself I didn't know, and still don't really know if the harpy was a damn woman!

"That's very unkind of you to say Trezzie."

"Keep calling me Trezzie and I swear to whatever gods you believe in you'll be meeting them soon." She touched my hand and I recoiled like her hand was made of fire.  I will say she was dressed better than I last saw her, now she looked like a cheap hooker after a night of hard drinking.

"My boss wants a word."

"And I want to be left alone, but apparently that ain't happening.  If your boss wants a word, heres the word. No." I got up to leave but she was behind me in an instant grabbing a hold of me like a lover of old, revulsion is too polite a word to use here.

"Come on Trezzie just listen to us." I disentangled myself from her immediately and had to keep my wits to pull a pistol and put one between her eyes (its harder to justify murdering a woman in a library for the crime of touching you, well that and I didn't have enough money to do just that).

"Stay away from me, this will be the last time I say that before something else of mine speaks." I had a hand on my revolver to emphasize the last part of my sentence.  She backed off and I left the library.  It was a total waste of my time, not only no blind men, but two seperate groups of jerks.  I still didn't know what the harpy wanted or what her group was after, and I figured that would come to a head later, but that was again later (I always procrastinate with my problems until they confront, kidnap, and violate me as a person).  I was so wrapped up in my anger I didn't even notice I'd gone the wrong way to leave the city.  I did notice when a blade appeared under my throat, the blade was attached to one end of a staff held by a blind man (a scary proposition for anyone).

"Trezlan Lorentino, nice of you to drop by." It wasn't the worst way I've been greeted by someone I was looking for, which I think speaks for how awful my life really is.

Ball Busting

The meeting place was a library, I like that in Ronerawth society had advanced enough that public libraries had become a thing (because private ones were all over, I myself have a fairly large one). It was nice to think that enough people knew how to read/wanted to read to neccesitate such a building.  True most of the books in there were lies made up by Ronerawth to make themselves feel better about living under the whims of despotic emperors and businesses serving those emperors, but what the public doesn't know won't get them executed for not following a law.

Libraries are a great place to have under the table meeting in as well.  They are fairly public, you have to keep your voice down, and lighting is usually pretty good.  On top of that most of them are located near authorities, so if you feel the meeting might go sour you have back up not too far away (or the threat of back up, as the town guard in some places isn't worth the shout for help). It also allowed me time to search through the public library for my affliction, it was ultimately useless, but a drowning man takes anything that looks like rope, even if its the tentacle of a monster dragging him down (Kind of lost that metaphor).

It was while I was fake reading a book to hide that I was taking a nap when the first of what would sadly be several jerkholes came up to me (I swear every year I get a new fan club who hate/love me, you would think with living as long as I have that the number would decrease not increase, alas that is not my life). There were two of them, dressed nicely suits, no outward awful smells, they looked liked they'd bathed recently, compared to my homeless vagrant with a gun look I'm sure they actually looked more like they belonged.  I did notice they weren't blind, so clearly they were not the people I was looking for.

"We know what you're doing." It was quiet a threat, the man on my right said it, but it almost felt like they were both saying it, I dunno I was tired and they woke me up from my nap.

"Napping? Didn't realize that was a major crime." Lead with confusion, work your way up to outright derision, take notes folks.

"You're trying to take over our government for your friend Councilman Morley." I laughed, I laughed long and loud, I got uncomfortable glances from the other people in the book lined room.  The men who had taken seats to my left and right shifted uncomfortably.

"Right of course the man who betrayed me and left me to be tortured for months, I'm totally working for, wow you guys are great."

"You can try and deny it all you wan..." The sound two clicks caught the gentlemans attention. My revolvers were buried in each mans crotch, the hammer locked back had them dangerously close to being gelded.

"I know you want to lay out some big conspiracy theory, and ordinarily I'd love to hear it, but I'm waiting for someone who is not you, so move along before I blow your balls out your butts."

"This isn't over Lorentino."

"Of course not, it never is, but for now, you're done, I'm done, you're gone and I'm going to wait here, now move along!" They got up stiffly and I uncocked the hammer on my pistols and slid them back into their holsters.  The suited men left at a rapid pace and I drifted off to sleep again, only to be woken up again by a shrill voice that just remembering causes me pain.

"Hello Trezzie Poo." And that's where I'll leave you, wondering what the hell the harpy wanted, and how it took an act of god to keep me from killing her, killing her like a million times over.  Like if I found a way to resurrect someone, I'd do it to this lady, just so I could enjoy killing her again. I'll just leave it here the fantasies get worse from here.  See you tomorrow.