A land of turmoil.

A land far away.

Moving forward in distance

Stepping backwards in time.

An army without a purpose.

People without hope.

But the winds of change are blowing from across the ocean’s tide. Far travelers have come from across the other side.

---

From “Fall of the Imortals” by Gilbarco Xerithon"

I need to talk to my father about setting up a trust to run our new business. I’ve been shopping all day long, and found something nice to wear finally. It’s not too stuffy or uncomfortable. Now I just need to find Thyll Allyran-al-clan. He’s going to be my escort to a meeting. I figure he’s buff enough to be impressive as a companion, as well as having the capacity to seem intimidating should dear old Dad waffle on my requests.

He wasn’t ever around when I was a kid. This is the least he could do for me. The old bastard owes me something.

“Are you sure you want to do this sir?” Exeter sighs. " This is something I have to do Templeton you are still in charge until the new company holders arrive. I have left detailed instructions for all of you, no questions asked you treat them with the same level of respect you had for me and do whatever they ask as long as it is reasonable. I have to pay for my sins and with my own life if it comes to it. If the relay is activated and they come back there is no telling what they will do with the people of this world. Now that I remember everything I understand why The Explorer did what he did so many years ago." " Remember to have logistics ready to help them out if they need it."

“One more thing once I am through shut of the portal and enter the coordinates into the encrypter give it only to the priest or to the Professor. "

So we killed a dragon type thing, and freed some hostages. Thyll, Ender, Freya and Ivy ran golems up against it while Adan and I ran some controls in this booth that helped out. As a result of this mayhem, we were each awarded Class S Delver status, and the title of Dragonhunter upon our return to Foundation.

Class S, hell yes! This is the kind of thing I’ve been working for all of my life!

I got an envelope with some kind of fancy invitation inside of it to go to a casino and lay down some cards. I’m pretty good at cards, so I accepted. It was from someone who called themselves the High Rollers. At first I was really suspicious. I mean, I did just get a hellacious gift from the Lady recently and luck seems to get drained or stolen in some of these casinos as a matter of course.

Turns out, the High Rollers all have chips just like mine. They weren’t interested in stealing mine, it seems to be more of a preservation society and fellowship of those who currently own chips. Sully is the leader or spokesman, he wears a weird zoot suit but seems cool. Jill is a cowgirl, boots and all. Borov is a fancily-attired Dwarf. Finge is a scaly Dragonborn.

All of them made me feel welcome, and Sully seemed a bit amused at my initial lack of trust. I mean, knowing what I know about the chip, I am surprised more people aren’t after it. I guess I can’t really push my luck with this thing like I wanted to at first. The pit bosses and casino lords would first be suspicious, and then be pissed.

These guys seem pretty okay to me. I suppose it will be nice having some folks around who know what I’ll be experiencing as the owner of one of these babies.

All in all, a pretty nice return. But we’ll go back out again soon, I’m sure. After all, we are Class S now!

Our time in Grozniv was a success. The temple that we entered had tests set up to try those that entered and reward those that succeeded. We battled a Minotaur and met an Avatar of a God. As a reward we were all given one question to answer or a trinket of some sort. I took the chance to get something extremely powerful as a risk of my life. He then produced a Deck of Many Things, to which I pulled from. The first, transformed alignment and suddenly switched my views of this world, now being Evil. The second was the Key, a basic caster wand to help in my spellcasting. I was extremely lucky not to die, tho the downside of the evil no inside me has yet to be explored.

I’m not sure what happened. The avatar was there and talking about his interests. All of the images depicting his rise to power. I felt drawn. It felt right. All this time I had been driven to glorify my clan in as spectacular a way as possible. But I never felt my clan would approve of me as I was. I had been outcast for my unconventional ways, just before the pirates attacked. By the time I found out, it was too late to save anyone. All that was left was vengeance. The pirates had had such an easy time with the clan, they never thought one of us could actually fight. They learned better. I didn’t just wade into them, that would’ve been suicide. No I set traps, sabotaged their ship, poisoned their supplies, picked them off slowly, until they were sick, tired, demoralized. Then, what was left of them, could not put up a decent fight when I came. I challenged the captain first. He was overconfident, the surprise on his face permanently hanging over the ruins of the town hall. The rest surrendered. I tied them all together like a prison train, then I executed them. The first two didn’t understand what was happening. The next three screamed for mercy and law. The last one just bared his neck for the cut. His was the hardest, because he knew he deserved it, and accepted it. I’ve been in limbo ever since.

Then he showed me a way. A way for personal peace, and clan acceptance. They did not like the mercenary I was. I think they would accept the Champion I am becoming.

So we cleared out what we could of the Tunnel, met a metallic noxious-breathed bull in combat and defeated it, and ended up meeting a powerful individual who gave us gifts.

We went back to report our findings to the Pope but I was consumed with other matters. The fellow we met had given me a lovely little sapphire chip. A gambling token. It was charmed but I didn’t realize how powerful it might be, until I met Her.

She told me exactly what I needed to know about this charm.

Now I’m feeling pretty darned lucky…

So we’ve been up and down the halls of Somewhere, and recovered… a girl. From the past. Well, maybe not so much a girl. She looks like one, but her body was engineered by Xethanians it seems. Her name’s Vodella, a sexy looking thing but I’m not so sure she understands biological imperatives. I like her in a sort of lost puppy dog way, and I don’t want to see her get hurt.

But we’ve been set to a new task, so I guess I won’t be seeing to her safety anymore. Professor Flynn gave us the choice to go to either Grozniv or Guttenberg for our next assignment. Seems we are doing well, performance-wise. We decided to go to someplace that wasn’t a desolate prison island.

But Grozniv is cold as hell. Even the winter clothes we’ve acquired don’t quite seem to keep a chill off. On the ride up, I saw a prime sample of Grozniv manhood, though. Tall, burly, muscular, bearded… what’s not to love? He took off when we arrived at our destination before I thought to ask his name (or maybe I just forgot what with all that delicious muscle blinding me), but I’d sure love for him to warm my bed while we are here.

Gotta focus on the job at hand.

There’s a tunnel we have to check out. Vellmarson raiders are attacking the people stationed there and living nearby, so it’s our duty to find out what’s in that tunnel that is so important and how to stop the raids. The Priest guy mentioned Dragon Cobras living around there as well. Said they were dangerous as hell. I’d love to see what all the fuss is about.

I slept alone last night; it’s good to keep a sort of tension just under the surface when we are about to do a job, it keeps me on edge. I’ll have to find a way to relieve it once we are done though. Hmmm… wish I had gotten that big beautiful guy’s name.

Well we got rid of Lord Valmont and his children, minus his pure daughter of course. After we uncovered the secret room, unrecorded before our unveiling, it seemed the keep and possibly the island was ours. If this turned out to be the case, we would have a nice headquarters for “5 o’clock Somewhere.” We have already taken haste on claiming the manor keep and branding it as “Somewhere.” As we head back for a much deserved rest, I thought to myself “I know tomorrow will bring a new adventure for sure,” looking at each of the group, admiring them individually, “Quite the adventure indeed.”

So all is said and done. The keep we’ve named Somewhere is pretty much ours to do with as we please. Cool, because I’ve always wanted a keep! The thing is defensible, we know that for a certainty. And it’s former owners, welllll… they have no use for it now.

Seems they were all up to summoning some nasty thing, but we put the kibosh on that in a hurry. It had eyes and mouths everywhere when it appeared, but cold steel was good enough to put it down after some effort. Not sure what the bosses want us to do with the prisoners, but the keep is the Guild’s now.

So maybe with this jump into the fire, we’ve earned ourselves some newfound respect. And a chance at a more in-depth exploration! Seems this place was some kind of research facility.

Although with the creature we slew to gain control over this place being what it was, I’m certain further exploration will be a very interesting ride.

But now we have a keep, so there’s that!