<Archers Vow> The Journey Continues!

[Ivory]

It looked like we had gotten ourselves wrapped up in the business of gods!!!

Perhaps we needed to speak with another god about this.....cazic thule?

I'd heard rumors that morals could go to his plane though a gate just sitting around in the swamps....but that it was dangerous in doing so!

Then again, I'd fought dragons...giants....undead....living...."Humm, how dangerous could it really be?"

Kadest, of course, was willing to go.

We discussed it and decided that this journey would be more dangerous than any we had done before. Perhaps we would need even 4 people in total as when we killed the poacher king?!

Well, we already had 2....and with a little searching we had found another elf to join us. The bard Murri. I'd met Murri before on some of my adventures, so this seemed like a good start.

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After some more searching, we found some others willing to go.

A dwarvish paladin named Evangelos....though he was only as big as me, 51.

A halfling druid named Kolsh....that seemed good, druids were pretty handy.

And we even found an ogre!! A shaman named Teeton!!

Besides Murri and Kadest and myself....that meant we had 6 people!!!! Seemed like we would be extra safe with so many adventurers!

So we began to gather in the swamp...having gotten secret information to where the planar portal was located from gnomes (many gnomes died to get us this information).

Getting to the portal was surprising easy! A couple easily defeated spectres and an erudite were all that was stopping us from entering!!

I prepared my strategy....if we were to get into trouble, I would use my snares and flame licks to gain the enemies attention! I could do that to a couple of monsters as I've done before with giants! I would be a hero, everyone would rejoice!

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After preparing ourselves....we all took deep breaths.....and jumped through!!

As I came through the other side I could barely make out Murri as he ran over the hill we had appeared on.....and chasing him, were monsters! 1...2...3....4.....oh....this wasn't good....this wasn't good at all....

We all rushed down the hill as Murri sang his songs and kept running! Ohhhh mannn, there were far more creatures in here than I had thought!! I froze!! What should I snare?! Should I flame lick?! Who....who do I shoot?!

I backed against the wall....trying to assess the situation....Murri was hurt, I started with him....trying to heal him, but he kept passing by me too quickly!

The two druids stepped in and each charmed one of the gorillas.

Well, at least that was a start!

Then we peeled one of the creatures off of Murri..... ok, ok, this wasn't....too bad....

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As everyone began to get a little more comfortable....we actually began to make some progress against the one we had pulled away from Murri. The two gorillas being mighty warriors in themselves!!

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Then the dwarf paladin jumped in with the gorillas to fight. Ouch, it seemed like he definitely hurt from the creatures bites. I began to get worried again....

But we managed to kill one of the creatures after Murri....then another....and finally a 3rd. But as we fought, more creatures saw Murri running around and decided to chase him too.

Even though we were winning....the number of enemies we were facing was growing!

Suddenly everything went wrong!!!!!!

First for some reason monsters that were chasing Murri broke off and killed our dwarf!!! Then the druids died!!!! And the shaman!!!

"Get us out of here!! Teleport!!!"

But it was too late.....there were too many....everything went dark.....

Moments later....we woke in the swamp....stripped of our weapons and armor!! Had we died?! Did Tunare save us?!

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It didn't matter now! We were given a second chance!! .....but, what were we going to do? Without our equipment, invading the plane of fear would be even harder....

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As we came to the planes portal again, we saw another naked adventurer. Qelen the high elf. Had he met the same fate as us? Saved by the gods?! But stripped of his possessions by the thief Cazic?!

It looked like we were in this together....we had found a 7th member.

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We sat around and discussed our strategy to recover our things...this would be hard....harder than ever....I didn't even know if it was possible!

Then Murri stood up and said he would go in first.....alone!!!!!!

He had already let us survive for so long before....and now....he offered to go in first to distract them!!! Not only that, but also find our equipment and bring it near the portal!!! Alone!!!!

"No Murri!! You can't!! Not alone!!!"

"But...I must.....it is my duty, as an elf!"

The bravery!!!! I was never so proud to be an elf!!!!!!

The ogre cried many tears as Murri walked into the portal.....and there was silence.....as we all waited for his signal to enter.....

Things were quiet a little too long though....had he died?! Was he captured?! Kidnapped!???! Forced into cazic thules dungeon and had gnomish things done to him?! Turned into a dark elf?!??!!

As my mind raced with all of the horrible things that had surely happened to Murri....his voice came from the portal "Ok, zone in".

He was alive!!!!!!!!

We raced into the portal also!!! Ready to save him!!

When I got to the other side of the portal though....I saw Murri was pretty hurt....what had happened?! He also wasn't anywhere to be seen....

It looked like this wasn't going to be good....

Still, no monsters had attacked the rest of us...so we raced down the hill again and found our equipment.

Suddenly I could sense Murri died!!!!

It wasn't a good sign....probably....

Then, from over the hill, a group of monsters came rushing at us!!!

"Get us out of here!!"

The druid began to cast his spell as our brave paladin fought the creatures....

Then, it finished casting....we were saved!!!!!!

Moments later though, we appeared.... still in the plane of fear......this time deep in the middle of it.....

"Wait....what?!"

"Oh....ohhh.....this isn't good........"

I looked around in every direction and monsters were walking through the forests of fear, still unaware of us.....giant squid soldiers...gorillas....floating eyes.....

"I meant get us out of here to somewhere safe!!!!"

The other druid was way ahead of me though!! He had already begun casting his spell!!! Just as the creatures around us had seen we were there and coming towards us!!!!!

Thankfully the spell finished before they could reach us.......we vanished....

When the magic cleared, we were really safe this time!!! In the commons!!!

But our job wasn't over....... we had to go back!!!!!!!

Though, the paladin was losing strength. With all of this battling becoming too much for him, and thankfully he had his equipment back.

So he bid us farewell.

Luckily we found a new 7th person....the great barbarian shaman Hukas the Mighty Bear!!

I knew his power already! Though even with him here, I'd learnt the plane of fear still wasn't something to be taken lightly!

But, we had another problem....with 7 people someone had to stay outside of the group.....

I volunteered. After all, I'm an archer, I don't get hit! So it was better to have Hukas in the team to be looked after by the cleric!

"Rosen....take this....just in case...."

Hukas handed me a cap. He told me it was magic....and to touch it if there was no other way out. The druids wouldn't be able to help me this time.....

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[Ivory]

After preparing, we again entered the plane of fear..... with most of us having our equipment this time and Hukas here, we managed to charm the gorillas and begin fighting....Murri distracting them as normal.

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Everything was going fairly smoothly this time......we killed a few more creatures, and the gorillas were doing their thing.

Sure some more creatures had joined the fight, but nothing too bad I thought?

As I ran to snare a creature away from the group, I heard a wooshing sound.

Strange.....I turned around towards the group....

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They.....were ....gone.....

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How could this happen?!?!?!?!?!??!?? !!

The cowards!!!!!

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Then I remembered the cap!!!! Was it too late?!

I closed my eyes and stuffed my hand into my backpack and frantically felt around as the creatures attacked me!!!

Then I felt it....a sharp sting....

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When I opened my eyes .....the creatures were gone.... and all around me I saw dead people staring into the distance......

Was I alive?!? What....where......

Was this a vision?!?! What was to come if we didn't stop Innoruuk?!?!?!?!

Noooo!! I couldn't let it happen!!!!!!!

I closed my eyes again and when I opened them I was in the commonlands, with normal dead bodies all around. Whew.

It looked like I had made it out alive!!! But just barely!!!!!

.....

We decided to try again!!! One last time!!!

Again, Murri distracted the creatures ....though I noticed there were far less of them this time....

After a bit of fighting....we actually reached a point where we had killed everything after Murri.

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Had we done it?! Had we....broken into the plane of fear?!?!

Yes!!! We had done it!!

We had achieved something great that night!!! Entered the plane of the gods and defeated their minions!!!!!

But it was getting late and we were weary from so much adventuring.

Perhaps trying to speak with Cazic Thule about Innoruuk wasn't the best idea.....I think I might just try to find that druid instead.....

[Vilkata]

WTB the film rights.

[Ivory]

The next day when I woke up in the swamp, I noticed a lot of people rushing past me.

It was pretty unusual seeing so many in such a place like this!!! I wondered what they were up to....so began following them.

I was shocked when I saw them enter the secret tunnels towards the Plane of Fears portal!!...and before I could even catch up to them, they had jumped through the portal! Without even preparing!!

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I knew what I had to do....I had to save them....

I prepared myself for another trip into the plane of fear, knowing how dangerous it was....and jumped through the portal after them!

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When I appeared on the other side though, I saw they had quite the force assembled! Still, I knew this place probably better than all of them....having been to plane of fear the day before.....they would surely need my arrows to keep safe.

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So I took a position overseeing the group on a small hill nearby, helping to fall the enemies that noticed us!

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They sure had a strange group though....I even met a dark elf shaman!!! ...

I'd never seen a dark elf shaman, though dark elves are tricky....and pretty savage, so it doesn't surprise me too much I guess.

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Things were going fairly well....we were killing the monsters without too much trouble. So in preparation for the next ones, I began making more arrows....

But, things got quiet.....a little too quiet....

When I looked around to see what was going on, I noticed half of the party had left us to sit on a nearby hill!!

They had formed some type of ball.....a bait ball?! What...what kind of monsters had I joined?! There were high elves and wood elves in that ball!!! The elfmanity!!

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But before I could protest the savageness.....an army of cazic thules minions rushed out of the forest towards them!!!

It was too late!! The bait ball was too tempting!!!!!!!

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Little did I know it was a trap! They were all mages! And joined together their magic to create a giant explosion that killed all of the minions!! They had simply moved away from the rest of us to avoid catching us in their blast!

Then...from the forest....a rumble came.....

"My minions!!"

It was Cazic Thule himself!!! Angered by the sudden death of so many of his followers!!!!

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It looked like he wasn't in the mood to talk.... we were going to have to defend ourselves. I was sure it was going to be a long fight....but luckily I always keep bags of arrows on me!

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We fought for what seemed like forever....and as the battle waged on, I was starting to get a little nervous. My arrows were vanishing quickly from my bags... well, I guess not vanishing, just they decided to use Cazic Thules back as their new quiver.

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I reached into my quiver for another arrow....but I was out!!!.....

Though I wouldn't be stopped so easily! As every good archer knows, you always keep a back up quiver of special arrows!!!

So I pulled them out and kept firing, this time even stronger than before!!