Through the Desert and the Northern Forests

nce again I visited my guild mates in their tower. This time, a lot of people had gathered at the headquarters, amongst them brave fighters and mages. Rumors about murderers regrouping at the Chaos Shrine were told, so we decided to venture there and rid Britannia of the evil scum. Almost everyone of us had been killed and looted several times by those dreaded scoundrels, so we all had enough reasons to take revenge.

We headed west, crossing the desert and passing the Shrine of Compassion. We hadn't come across any murderer yet. Such looting raiding groups never stayed in the same place for too long. We had to hurry! We continued west on the road to Yew, looking for the Chaos Shrine.

Just for fun we whacked a cougar in the forest. Of course, everyone of us could have killed it by himself. But doing a few swings with the weapon was a good warm-up for battle. Then suddenly the world froze again, and a massive lag spike hit me. When I regained consciousness, I was alone. I had been transported back in time and was standing somewhere in the forest with nobody around. I didn't know what to do, so I decided to head back to the tower.

On my way back I came across an Ettin and decided once more to test my fighting abilities. As soon as I attacked, a dire wolf appeared and turned on me. I was fighting a giant monster and a dangerous wolf at the same time! I decided to slay the wolf first, trying to get out of the Ettin's way. After a few successful blows the wolf had enough and toddled off. I engaged the ettin in a long and hard fight. My abilities sure had improved, as this time the Ettin dropped to the ground with a gurgling sound, and not me. I had defeated the monster! He was carrying many useful things with him. As the area was said to be haunted by killers, I carefully proceeded easward until I reached a small bridge crossing a creek north of the Desert of Compassion.

Fortunately, no murderer was around, and I fought a skeleton instead. I grabbed a pile of gold coins from its corpse, and now I had to be even more careful. The more you have, the more you can lose!

I was now sneaking through the woods north of the Covetous mountains (to avoid the dangerous dungeon entrance) when I heard a grunting sound, which I reconized as the voice of an Orc. I held my axe with a tight grip and slowly approached the monster. When I peered through the branches, I suddenly froze: It was an Orcish Mage! I knew I had no chance defeating this monster, so I hid and waited. But the Orc didn't vanish. After minutes of useless waiting, I shouted for help. Maybe there was another adventurer nearby who could relieve me from this predicament.

Well, fortune favors fools. A stranger appeared and engaged the Orcish Mage. I came out of my hiding spot and supported the adventurer with the name of El-mirt with my axe. The orc cast one spell after another towards El-mirt, whose state of health worsened noticeably. I warned El-mirt and he ran away, followed by the Orc. The Orc cast two more spells and El-mirt fell to the ground. He was dead! Immediately the Orc turned on me, casting spells. He magically poisoned me and I failed to hide! I finally managed to get some distance between the monster and successfully hid.
I was feeling very sorry for the brave fighter, for he had lost his life and I wasn't even able to guard his belongings, because the Orc wasn't moving away. Then suddenly I broke out of my hiding place and ran. I ran and ran, and after a while the grunting of the Orc behind me got weaker and ceased. I was safe! Finally I reached the moongate and got back to Trinsic again!

02/98

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