Agro Shartun

Agro Shartun
(pronounced "Ag-row Shar-tune")

He had been born the lifeless son of The Fury and The Keeper. Doomed to lie forgotten in the bowels of Eternity, he pleaded with his father to grant him a chance at life, to prove he was worthy of a place among the Dark Six. The Keeper consented, and bound the new soul into His finger. His mother bestowed upon him the name Shartun. Though it granted him protection for his soul, his father's finger was also a tomb. He required a wielder in order to gain power, and only by eventually overpowering the mind of the weilder would he be able to gain a body. Centuries passed, and no suitable weilder emerged. Shartun drifted from continent to continent, from person to unworthy person, and, just when it seemed he would forever be trapped in the small, black, skeleton-shaped rod, along came a certain inexperienced Dread Necromancer. She knew the legend of the Son of the Keeper and she suspected the artifact she just happened to have stumbled upon might have something to do with it, so she carried it off to her fortress in the Demon Wastes. Once again, time was wasting away while yet another mortal waste of flesh poked and prodded him and failed to learn anything. She even tried different spells and elixirs and still, he didn't respond. It looked like it would be another lifetime before any chance of a possible weilder would appear.

Something twinged in the back of his mind. He had been meditating, and this unexplainable spark interrupted. Something was happening. That meatbag woman had finally left him alone, and though that was a relief, there was something else going on.

He felt a new presence. Two? Three? Several people had rushed in suddenly and he turned his attention to them. Two changelings stood staring into the room that was his altar. He could sense others, but the movement of one of the changelings drew his focus. The little man was casting a spell. Suddenly, Shartun realized what the spell was- that mortal imbecile was Consecrating his altar! Shartun, by his own volition, rose up from his altar and attacked the man. The changeling tried to defend himself while his associate made to grab the assailant and it was then that she appeared.

Another of their companions came to help. She was very obviously a warrior of some sort, and carried a scythe. She pulled the caster changeling out of Shartun's attack and when her golden eyes fell on him, she was inexplicably drawn to him. She went from defending her comrades to fending them off as she fought to claim the artifact. Shartun felt the pull- he willed it to strengthen. Surprisingly, this resulted in the other changeling being drawn to him as well. The auburn-haired woman fought the man off and the instant her hand touched him, Shartun knew his weilder had finally found him.

This woman, Neria Coppermane, was a half-lycanthrope who had suffered persecution all her life at the hands of other mortals. She carried a bitter hatred for these beings and Shartun could feel that, given time and just the right circumstances, she could rise to a power formidable enough to exact her vengeance. This, he decided, was the right circumstance they both needed. It would take time, but after so long, what was a few more months? He knew she would need time and experience to gain a power worthy of his new body, and when that time came, he would break her will and devour her mind and soul. Afterwards, nothing could stop him from becoming a god at long-last!

He introduced himself as Atropos (if she or her friends didn't know his real name, it was less-likely that they could try to control him) and forged a deal with her. All was going according to plan right up until the time came for him to take over...

Shartun had transported Neria far away from prying eyes and explained his desire to merge their beings. With the promise of greater power, and with no reason to distrust him thusfar, Neria agreed. Transforming into a small, black skeleton, Shartun clawed his way up to Neria's shoulders and, in an agonizing ritual, burrowed deep into the back of her skull, fuzing his form into hers. He immediately made to break her mind, but experienced defenses he was not prepared for. Her will was much stronger than when she first found him, and she blanked her thoughts against his onslaught. He was shunted into the back of her mind, unable to escape from this new prison, and erased from her memories completely.

It took seven days of struggling and re-vamping plans before Shartun could finally complete the fusion of his being to Neria's. He lost much of the control he had planned on having over Neria's mind during the original attempt, but rather than spend yet another lifetime forgotten in the recesses of a mind, he opted for a compromise of sorts. The result presented itself on the night the ships docked outside Silver Cliff Castle.

Neria was brought to her knees by the overwhelming pain as the final stage of the fusion began. She lost track of time as white noise filled her mind, her vision blurred, and agony wracked her body. It felt as though her skin were splitting and her bones were wresting themselves free. A voice called to her in the confusion, and the torment began to lessen. She focused on the voice, but couldn't place it. It might have been someone she once knew. An image began to form behind her eyelids. The voice was coming from that blurred figure, and it seemed familiar, somehow. The more she concentrated on it, the less she suffered, and the more the vision cleared. It was a small, black skeleton with two pairs of long, needle-like fangs. Its tiny hand was outstretched to her and she reached out to it. The voice rang clear as she drew closer, and as the image sharpened, she remembered him. "Atropos."

Neria took his offered hand and instantly he disentigrated and absorbed into her arm. She could feel their cells, their souls, even their minds merging. As it drew to a conclusion, she realized his real name was Shartun, and she knew everything he had learned over the decades. Her vision cleared, and she was standing just inside the treeline outside of the city wall.

Because Neria had been female, this new being was predominantly female as well, but because of the introduction of Shartun, some aspects of the creature's appearance and attitude gained a certain level of androgeny. When it spoke, it spoke with two voices- one masculine, one feminine- simultaneously. This being was not of the typical mortal realm; it was a creature that was one with its own soul- an Outsider. It was unnaturally pallid in complexion; the scars of Neria's former trials were nearly lost in the pallor. The eyes, though previously red, now burned with a feverish light. It also bore wicked talon-like claws on both hands and feet as well as two pairs of evil, needle-like fangs. It needed no rest, and no regular sustenance, though it would soon learn of an all-new kind of hunger.

'Neria' surveyed her surroundings. She felt a myriad of new sensations, but none as strongly as the sense of nearby life. She took a step and something felt different. She looked down at herself and realized why she had been in such great pain- there really were bones covering her skin. A moment of shock was replaced by pleased fascination as she realized this was her armor. She could summon the ebony skeleton to errupt from her flesh, and the blood that ran from the wounds coagulated and ran together around and under the armor to act as a secondary barrier. She took a moment to explore this new form and found that she had talons, fangs, and even a tiny skull embedded into her forehead. She realized she had no weapon aside from the claws. As she considered it, the palms of her hands ruptured into bleeding wounds. She stared at them, mildly concerned, until that is, the blood began to flow out and away, taking on the form of an ebony scythe. It solidified, and sat, ready for use, in her open hands. She laughed with delight at her new abilities and found that, if she released the scythe, it dissentigrated into nothing before it touched the ground. It was wonderful! She wondered what else she could do...

She darted into the woods and ran. She ran because she felt a part of her had never experienced the sensation before, and she was surprised to find that she was even faster now than before. As a half-lycanthrope, she had been faster than normal, but in this form, she was incredibly swift. She paused a moment to savor the new power flowing through her veins when she caught the scent again. It was the scent of life, of sustenance greater than food or drink. A sudden impulse hit her- she had to have whatever was producing that intoxicating scent. She eased back up to the treeline and there found the source- two guards stood watch at the city wall. She didn't see the men; she saw their essence, their lives, and she wanted them. Part of her thought to be cautious, but the desire for the living energy was a tough animal to tame. She approached the guards eagerly. They were unsure of the creature coming to them out of the night, but their defenses weren't prepared when she attacked, and they fell quickly in glorious, bloody heaps. She watched, entranced, as their energies coalesced into glowing wisp-like orbs and pulled free of their still-warm corpses. She wondered what they would feel like, what they would taste like. Just thinking about them drew them to her, and she clutched one delicate soul between her clawed, bloody hands. It was warm and fluttering and smelled so good... She sank her fangs into it and felt it tremble, as if it could feel pain. Could it? Either way, it was intoxicating. She bit it several more times, and each taste seemed richer, sweeter, and somehow savory as well. She couldn't control herself any longer- she devoured the essence whole. The second soul was a little harder to draw back within reach, as if it heard it's companion's cries and was trying to flee. She summoned it back nonetheless and sucked it down to join the first. Sated, she returned to the forest to retrieve Kinnik and Sithis. They were wary of her at first, but, after she dismissed the armor, they felt a little more at ease, and together they returned to the ship. Neria realized she would need new clothes at some point, considering the armor wrecked anything she tried to wear, and most people questioned nudity. She felt discretion would prove to be an alli in the long run. She would deal with it in the morning.

The next morning, she made her way into town. She noticed an increase in guard activity, but paid little attention to it. She stopped some local people to inquire about a cloak-maker, and they directed her to a business further uptown. The proprietor was a friendly shifter fellow who agreed to make Neria the suit of clothing she described. He would have it and a couple of back-up copies finished by the next morning. He also offered her a discount if she could provide some of the hides needed for the materials. She took note of it and left. She rode through the streets into a shady part of town. Here, questionable characters slunk in the shadows and loitered on corners. They were people of poor repute and were less likely to be missed. One such character exhibited the intestinal fortitude to approach her. She sneered, rejected him flat, and rode on. He grumbled a particularly rude comment as she rode away and slithered back into a darkened alleyway. Little did he know she had heard him and marked him as a 'donor'. In shadows down the street, free from prying eyes, she dismounted and disappeared into the alley. She caught up to the man before he emerged on the other end and slammed him into the wall, her arm across his throat cutting a scream short. "I was wrong. It seems you do have something that interests me," she smiled, baring fangs. His face fell, horror draining the color from his skin as she dropped her arm and plunged her fangs into the soft tissue of his throat. With little effort, she ripped free and watched as he bled out. The wound was too deep for him to scream, and in moments he was dead. She consumed his lingering soul and tossed him beneath the filth of the alley.

She rode out to the forest and killed some time, and some large beasts, and took the skins back to the tanner in town. She returned to the ship and stabled Sithis, then walked into the harbor town that evening to peruse the local tavern life. She walked in and all activity stopped. All eyes watched her walk to a table in the back, some with suspicion, some with distrust, but all with fear behind them. Those sitting near her table found refuge elsewhere, and she sipped her drink in peace. Two men at the bar were whispering, and she heard them mention retrieving some inquisitor, and then one of them left. A short time later, a rather important-looking man entered the tavern in the company of several guards. Neria didn't need to guess- she knew exactly who they were looking for. The inquisitor glanced around the room, saw her, and approached. She offered him a seat and a drink; the former he accepted and the latter he declined. He introduced himself and asked to learn her whereabouts for the previous night. She gave a vague response, and asked why he was concerned. It was then that he informed her that two guards had been found brutally slaughtered and a third man located inside the city had died from a severe neck injury. As he questioned her, he became increasingly suspicious. She led him on a game of cat and mouse for a while and he grew agitated. They both knew there was no evidence linking anyone to the two crime scenes, and she knew that without that, he had no grounds to arrest her. Displeased with the route the interrogation was taking, he took his leave, but advised that she return to the ship for the remainder of the night. So saying, he signaled for two guards to accompany her. She had had her fun for the night, and left shortly after the inquisitor. The guards shadowed her like good little obedient dogs and, though she did tease them a bit, she returned to the ship.

The next morning, it was nearly impossible to get into town. Guard duty had increased and it seemed every inch of street and wall was being patrolled. Neria still needed to pick up her cloak. She managed to reach the wall without gathering attention, but when she tried to climb it, found the surface too smooth to be scaled. Frustrated, she tried thinking of alternatives. Approaching the guards and asking for admittance was out of the question- they'd most likely throw her in the brig just for talking to them. She wasn't familiar enough with the city layout to know if there were secret passages anywhere. This seemed to be one of those times when wings would really come in handy... She felt a sharp pain just over her scapulars. It was growing by the heartbeat and she had to concentrate to keep quiet. Suddenly, something popped and she felt the skin split as a rigid projection forced its way out of her shoulder blades. Her shoulders were throbbing, but the pain was subsiding. She glanced back and there, sticking up out of her back, were two large, diaphonous black wings. They flexed at her thought and a thrill ran through her- was there anything this new form couldn't do? It took a lot of concentration, but she finally got the wings to work in unison and in one powerful downward thrust, she was airborn. She was ecstatic with her latest discovery, but knew she had to maintain her stealth to avoid detection. She flew to the merchant's shop and landed in an alley behind the building where she could fold her wings away unnoticed. The place was crawling with guards. Using the shadows, she slipped up to the main road to wait for a guard unit to pass before entering the shop. Unfortunately, her focus was on the guards and not on her footing- she kicked a pebble just as the unit was passing. The guards stopped, looking for the cause of the noise. It seemed no one could see her and they would soon leave, when one of the guards moved a step closer, staring with great intent at the exact place she stood. Something had given her away. He ordered her to come out, and she just stared at him. When the other guards began to pick her out of the shadows, she simply stood there, arms crossed, as though she hadn't been hiding, just standing there the whole time. They accused her of lurking, and she accused them of being overzealous fools in need of corrective glasses. They asked and she told them she was there to see the shopkeep about some goods she had commissioned. One guard went to check her story and came back with the news that the shop was closed. She hadn't expected that. Exasperated, she made to return to the docks, but the guards stopped her. They decided they would try to place her under arrest. This pissed her off, and she drew herself up to full height, tensing her muscles and making full eye contact with each guard. The result worked pretty well; some were downright terrified of her and others were thoroughly intimidated. Still, one over-eager moron moved to apprehend her. She really didn't want to kill someone out in the open- it would give the inquisitor a crime scene to compare the other two with and that would just be troublesome for her. Instead, she summoned the wings in a painful, bloody flurry, scaring the hell out of the guards some more, and took to the sky. Retreat now was better than being locked up and left behind when the ships disembarked later in the morning. She returned to the ship just as the town warning bells began to toll. She landed on shore, hidden by debris and plants, and dismissed her wings, then boarded the ship. She was stopped by Adonteon, who asked what all the commotion was about. She gave him a brief overview and he informed her that Tailswisher had just finished a project shi'd been working on for a long time. The group now had a completely secure, secret mansion hidden in another dimension with a secret, invisible door that could only be opened by a pre-approved person with the right password. Adonteon told Neria the codes and she left to make use of them. The guards came and searched and found nothing. They sought out ir'Bahkes and told him their version of what happened and their suspicions, and he demanded Neria be brought to him. She went, figuring that if she had to kill every goody-two-shoe guard onboard, at least it would be a while before the other guards noticed- maybe long enough for them to be on their way by then. Ir'Bahkes spoke to her privately in the hallway, asked her to wait, then dealt with the guards in his office. They left and he called her in to threaten her about harming 'innocents of Aundair'- she had to supress a scoff at those exact words. She, better than any, knew that those of Aundair were anything but innocent- they had gone out of their way multiple times to persecute and harass her without just cause, but explaining that to another of their lily-white bloodline was a waste of breath. He finished his threat and she left to return to the mansion.

On her way, she passed a young man she didn't recognize. He was sitting on a crate looking impatient. She asked him what he was waiting for and he replied that he had brought a delivery from town. As it turned out, the shifter had sent her clothing to the ship and all her trouble had been for nothing.

She really hated Aundair and all its stuck-up, self-righteous people. By the sound of the newest plans, she wouldn't have to worry about that for long- they were heading for Rekkenmark in nearby Karnath. From there, their little group would carry letters for the King of Karnath informing him of the troubles in his neighbor country. Supposedly, these letters could get reinforcements sent to Aundair. Supposedly.

Everyone in the group was given letters of identification and the royal mail. They were put on a cutter bound for Rekkenmark and turned loose. Neria was surprised to find that she was quite capable on the water- she couldn't remember having much marine experience in either former life. On they sailed and eventually crossed paths with a huge serpent of brilliant color. Briar spoke to it and gave it something and it went on its way. Neria was working out how to skin a creature that large...

Later that evening, a heavy fog rolled in. As they drew closer to it, Neria noticed a peculiar form masked within and, upon closer inspection, determined it was a ship. It was, in fact, a wrecked ship set adrift on the river. They came alongside and moored some lines to it and several of them went aboard. The crew was very, very dead. It had been pillaged completely, with the exception of the captain's log, which warned of an oncoming mist, and then an attack by pirates. The captain had apparently been killed in mid-sentence, but the pirating lot had left their own message- they promised to return. Sure enough, a call went out from ondeck moments later. A ship was fast approaching. Everyone on both the wreck and the cutter watched from their respective places as an unidentified vessel charged through the waters and slammed into the prow of the cutter, smashing it clean off.

The pirate vessel began mooring itself to the two victim-ships as Neria disappeared into shadows to summon her wings. She flew over, surveying the attackers, and soon located the crew's captain. Surprisingly enough, this captain, a beautiful lady-elf, radiated an undead aura. No matter, undead were just as good at returning to dead as the living. Neria attacked. The captain retaliated with her own vile weapon- a chain whip that appeared to constantly drip blood. However, when she succeeded in landing a blow on Neria, she took little damage. The captain appeared mildly concerned, but her attention was soon drawn away as her first mate fell under attack as well. Neria couldn't see anyone harassing him, so apparently Marcus had joined the fray! They continued trading blows a moment longer, when suddenly a hydra appeared, clawing its way up the side of the pirate ship. Seeing the pirates panicking, Neria realized it wasn't a pet of theirs. It turned out to be Briar in one of her animal forms. She was drawing a lot of damage, and soon fell back into the water. Neria and the captain had ceased their scuffle momentarily, and before they could resume, another creature's head loomed over the deck. A large green dragon had joined the battle. It wore a certain, familiar crown, and Neria knew it to be Briar. The dragon roared and rampaged, and the battle raged on. During the worst of it, Eurface fell. He lay dying on deck, and the sudden availability of a higher-level soul entranced Neria. She fought the urge for an instant, but couldn't resist long- she suddenly appeared at his side and sank fangs into him, devouring his soul as the captain, Briar, Revania, and some crew members stared in disbelief. Riding the rush of power, Neria returned to the captain as the battle continued around them. Rather than continue their altercation, however, Neria came with diplomatic intent. She informed the captain that they had no interest in maintaining the cutter once the group reached Rekkenmark- if she would provide safe passage for all of her crew, they would leave off at Rekkenmark, and the cutter and whatever they left on board would become the property of the pirates. The captain considered this and, surveying the heavy damage her own men were suffering, consented. They called a cease-fire and spread word of the truce. Neria took time to introduce herself to the captain, who in turn introduced herself as Captain River of Blood. She left to tend her crew and ship.

Neria was left facing down the angry people of her own crew who had witnessed her claim Eurface's soul. Briar, severly injured, had returned to human form. Others who had been onboard the wreck now joined them on deck of the pirate vessel. Kolache demanded to know what happened to Eurface and Neria told him. He took the body of his friend and returned to the wreck to try to save him anyway. Revania reloaded her rifle, and took aim at Neria. She was extremely upset at what she viewed as betrayal and demanded an explanation from Neria. Neria was surprisingly cold and casual about the ordeal and told them that, considering the many times the Church had tried to use magic to influence Atropos or take him from her or enchant her or change her alignment towards him or study him without consent, it was hardly an act of treachery, simply delayed retribution. She felt that Eurface no longer served a purpose- specifically her own purposes, but she kept that to herself- and since he was dying anyway, she felt his soul would better go to use through her. Revania was outraged- she fired several rounds into Neria, who still took surprisingly little damage considering the strength of the attack, and announced that she would be leaving the group. They left Neria standing on deck amidst the pirates. She considered a thought that had been gnawing at the back of her mind for some time- everyone still referred to her as 'Neria', but she was by no means the same 'Neria' they had begun adventuring with all those months ago. That Neria had always held out the small glimmer of hope that someday she'd find a place where the people would accept her, no matter how much evidence she gathered to the contrary. The group would continue to treat her as that weaker-willed person, someone to be pitied for her misfortunes, not to be taken too seriously unless she was on the battlefield. A new name would help clear their confused and befuddled conceptions.

She thought it unfortunate that Revania would be so self-righteous [she thought that Revania, carrying the name 'Kinslayer', had killed her own people- would that not be a form of betrayal in itself?] because she, unlike some of the party members, was very useful, especially in battle. It was a marked loss.

The cutter was tethered to the pirate ship and away they sailed for Rekkenmark. Most of the group was upset and thoroughly disturbed with Neria's latest behavior- some wondered exactly what changes had happened during her disappearance. Surprisingly, some weren't obviously bothered by it, perhaps because they only heard about it second-hand, rather than witnessed it personally.

Marcus and Adonteon decided on a return-trip to the wrecked ship to search more thoroughly for 'supplies', so it was with some curiosity that Neria turned to see who was approaching her. It was Kolache, and he was visibly shaken and upset. He wanted Neria to release Eurface's soul. She sneered at him. Did he not realize his own soul was at stake as well? She was prepared to play him off when he told her of the AAA. Not just random babbling as usual, but real information- he told Neria that if Eurface were resurrected, he would be able to help provide a steady supply of souls from which she could feed at her leisure. She considered for a moment, then told him that she would, in fact, release Eurface, if he could gather enough souls to compensate for her loss. He could bring several weak, a few mediocre, or one strong soul, but whichever method he chose, the power of the souls had to at least match the amount she would lose when she released his beloved cohort. He considered it for a while; it was, afterall, an evil deal. He asked how long he had to provide the souls and she told him she would not release Eurface until all the souls were accounted for, so the sooner he wanted his friend back, the sooner he'd bring the exchange. She also warned him that should she need to summon anything before he completed the agreement, there was a chance that part of Eurface's soul could be used up. He agreed.

Later, news of a plan reached Neria- it seemed Kolache was desperate for his cohort's return, as he planned to take down Captain River of Blood herself. Neria had to supress a bark of laughter: he didn't realize the captain was some type of undead, and even if his plan played out, it would gain him nothing. He was asking for help to carry out his plan. Neria nearly lost her control. She told him to provide the souls for the exchange; she never said she would help gather them. She was killing time on deck before the show started when the sound of someone running caught her attention. It was one of the pirates, so she paid him no heed and returned to staring out over the prow. Moments later, a nervous troop of pirates tentatively approached her. She turned to face them nonchalantly. One (who must have drawn the short straw) spoke up. They had been ordered by the captain to detain all 'guests' aboard the ship due to a disturbing rumor running amok. Neria moved suddenly, just shifting weight from one foot to the other, but it was enough to cause them to visibly jump. She grinned enough to flash fangs and told them she'd heard no rumors. They told her the captain could fill her in- she wanted to speak to her anyway. Neria consented and followed them to the captain's quarters. There, River of Blood told her that one of her men had overhead a conversation in which two of Neria's group were apparently planning to kill the captain. Neria feigned ignorance about the goings-on and didn't argue when the captain asked her and her group to go below deck until they arrived at Rekkenmark. She should have resisted, but figured that would lead to a fight, and even she didn't want the beneficial deal between herself and Kolache compromised. The crew had yet to find Kolache or Briar, so Neria and Tailswisher were led below and put in a holding cell. She wasn't really concerned- she figured she could get out of the cell if the need really arose.

Tailswisher squished hirself into a corner as far from Neria as she could get. Neria noticed, and chuckled to herself. This ability to cause fear in other beings was at least a fun source of amusement! But Neria remembered the last time she saw the Chakat and recognized an opportunity. She sobered, and walked toward the creature. She told Tailswisher that she had seen a familiar expression on hir face when shi lost Sardonis- shi hungered for vengeance, but lacked the ability to turn that desire into power. Neria could help hir there. Tailswisher calmed a little when shi realized Neria wasn't fixing to steal hir soul, and felt compelled to tell her of plans to make war machines of epic abilities. Neria was right- shi wanted to avenge Sardonis more than anything, and shi felt that her creative abilities would serve the best outlet to attain that goal. Neria let hir talk, but considered the news internally. If shi could make these machines, they would be capable of mass-destruction, and mass-destruction of bodies meant mass-release of souls. She liked where this was going. By the time Briar was joining the party, Tailswisher and Neria had an accord, and the tension in the cell was significantly lower. Neria moved away to look around the brig area and noticed an odd, greenish light glowing underneath a door. She asked the guard about it, and he said something hurriedly about the doctor working and then he left. A muffled noise came through the door, then fell quiet. The three looked on with some suspicion and something was said about the light resembling necromantic energy. Neria made mention of the captain being undead, which the other two found surprising, but it seemed verified by that odd glow under the mysterious door.

Sometime during the discussion, a disembodied voice joined the conversation, and it turned out to be Kolache. He was angry that no one would help him attack River of Blood, and Neria reminded him of their deal. It was decided that his surrender would probably be the best, and safest, bet for Eurface's soul. She also told him that she had set up a believable excuse for him to play on with the captain- she told her that Kolache was very upset about the loss of his cohort and was thus acting irrationally. He took the advice, with a very dark, serious gleam in his eye at the mention of missing Eurface, and surrendered. He was locked in with them and there they waited. Sometime later, the captain came in to speak with them. She would give no direct answer to any question, and spoke as though no one was there. She walked over to a sconce protruding from the wall near the cell and pulled on it. Before anyone could figure out what she was doing, they found themselves underwater.

She had teleported them into a very deep depth of water. No light penetrated this far down, but Neria could still make out the auras of her comrades. Briar and Kolache were doing alright, but it appeared Tailswisher was panicking. Neria remembered that Tailswisher had a phobia of water, and moved to help hir. She reached out to hir and the Chakat panicked even more at her touch, swallowing some water before realizing the touch was friendly. Briar shifted into some sort of shark form and Kolache and Neria, still clinging to Tailswisher, hitched a ride. They began their ascent through the water. Somewhere along the way, there appeared to be a rock ceiling of sorts above them, but as they drew closer, realized it was an illusion. They swam on. Suddenly, in the distance, figures moved. Neria could make out the auras, but had no clue as to what sort of creatures they were. They drew closer, and Neria prepared to shift, when Kolache stopped her- she had nearly forgotten the risk to Eurface. Briar apparently knew of the beasts, because she did something and a protective field surrounded them. The creatures tried to break through, but appeared to be unable to cross the barrier. They could, however, spray some thick, nasty goo and some managed to get through ahead of the shields and coat the group. Tailswisher was doing poorly, very near drowning, and Briar made the decision to quicken her swimming. It could risk their own health, but oxygen was more important overall. They were rising quickly, the creatures falling back, when Briar began acting oddly. It seemed the creatures were messing with her mind somehow, but she finally overcame it and moments later, they broke the surface. Neria realized that during that whole encounter, she hadn't needed to breathe. Before she could marvel at yet another new development, however, she realized Tailswisher was unresponsive. The Chakat had drowned. The soul was there, she could see it drifting nearby, but her will was strong enough to let it go this time. The other two realized the loss, and Kolache made snarky comments about Neria devouring hir soul too, which she chose to ignore, until Kolache became surprisingly aggressive and demanded the immediate release of Eurface. Neria reminded him of the terms of their agreement and that to release the soul out in the middle of the ocean would not bring him back- he could in fact, ascend to the afterlife and decide to not come back at all. Kolache threatened violence and Neria was ready meet it head on, when another issue reared its ugly head. Kolache tried to levitate out of the water, and found he could not breathe. He fell back into the waves, and Briar focused more on the goo still coating them. She realized that the stuff could be potentially troublesome, depending on its specific after-affects. She told them that until they knew if they had been infected by the stuff, they would have to be very careful- it could, as in Kolache's case, cause a person to have to stay in water in order to breathe, or die if they went on land. There were other possible outcomes, but for the time being, they thought it best to just get to the island they had surfaced near. She knew of a way to remove the slime and its effects, but would need a healer of sorts to do the job. Perhaps there was one on the island...

Turns out the island was inhabited, but, after securing Kolache in an oil-treated canvas rigged to hold water, the group soon discovered the denizens were all but helpful. Briar managed to find a cure for Kolache along the way, and so the canvas was then used to drag Tailswisher around. Agro (still going by 'Neria' to the party) led the way to a nearby settlement only to discover it was populated by completely apathetic meat-bags. Upon entering the city, she realized that something [else] was wrong with Kolache and Briar. The longer they stayed in the town, the more like the current townsfolk they became. Agro made her way to the city center where a large mansion stood. Briar had, by this time, wandered off, and Kolache walked right into the mansion. Feeling ever-more like a babysitter, Agro used more caution. She called out before entering the building and, to her surprise, someone actually answered. A bewildered older vampire responded and invited her in. They spoke a while, and it was evident neither wanted the group there. Agro didn't let on that she knew the guy was a vampire, but she maintained her defensiveness, especially when he excused himself momentarily. While surveying her surroundings, she noticed a large, ornate tapestry depicting none other but the emblem of the Blood of Vol. When her host returned, they spoke a little longer, and then he told her where to find some teleportation chambers that would get them off the island. To the relief of Agro and the vampire, she gathered her group and, after a little trouble of magical sorts at the gate, they left, heading northwest to the island's capital. Once outside the town, Briar and Kolache returned to their normal selves and they devised a plan to fly to the next destination. They set off, carrying Tailswisher between them, and eventually arrived at the city.

It was a massive metropolis gleaming with wealth and prosperity. Agro picked up instantly that there was an abundance of various undead sorts strolling about with several living humanoids blended in. Surely someone here could direct them...

The city was crawling with supporters of the Blood of Vol- everywhere were banners with her emblem and people and buildings were adorned with her colors. Agro questioned a nearby vendor and discovered he was a refined snob, after kicking her out of his shop and closing up business. The group moved on, questioning other people, but always getting the cold-shoulder and some snarky comment about 'not being invited'. They ended up at the gates to the enormous castle of the city. An undead guard stopped them and, proving at least mildly intelligent, they explained their predicament. He contacted someone in the castle and proceeded to turn the group away. They resisted, and he warned them that an armed force was on their way to kill the 'enemies of the Blood of Vol'. Agro was beyond pissed, but she had an unsettling feeling about the city and decided against unleashing a genocidal force. She followed as Briar headed for the docks. There they encountered a few more snooty bastards and then finally managed to charter a ship that would at least get them to mainland. Set to leave early the next morning, Agro took the opportunity moments before launch to hunt. She claimed two drunken souls and then retired to the ship's hold. They were all set for their eight-day voyage, and things were going fairly well, when one afternoon Briar told the party that she had been contacted by Adonteon and he would be teleporting to the ship to take them all back to Rekkenmark. When she told the first mate, he warned her that the plan would not work- the ship was protected from teleportation spells. He offered the group an alternative: they could take a rowboat and go to a nearby island from whence Adonteon would be able to complete the plan. They took the opportunity and, after a brief run-in with some fish-like creatures, spent some time beach-combing until Adonteon would contact Briar again. He finally did, and she told him of the new plan. He teleported in, grabbed the group, and they appeared near their mansion just outside Rekkenmark.

Not long after rejoining the group, Agro learned that Eurface had been reincarnated (she had angrily released his soul after Kolache's last tantrum at sea) and Kolache and he had both deserted the group. She kept the immense fury she felt to herself and made a note that should she ever see either of them again, she would devour their souls and burn them off for some needless display just for spite. Her hatred of the Fudstuv family jumped a few notches.

Later, Agro, Briar, and the still-lifeless Tailswisher accompanied Marcus into Rekkenmark to get the dead cat revived and all their travel papers updated. Briar had put a spell on Tailswisher to shrink hir down to normal cat-size in order to get hir into town with fewer questions. They got hir to the temple and got hir resurrection underway. They then went to get their papers amended, where Agro requested the name on her papers be changed from Neria Oleandris Coppermane to Agro Shartun. Since learning River of Blood had listed 'Neria' as 'deceased', she figured now was a good time for the new name to take effect. She had considered possible names for some time, and finally settled on Agro- meaning 'fury, aggression'- and Shartun- the true title of Atropos. Marcus took care of the fees and they left to check on Tailswisher. Agro considered Marcus's generosity as they approached the church; she actually liked the halfling. He had proven useful in more ways than one, was quite clever in diplomatic situations, and (perhaps his greatest asset) was not a bleeding-heart goodie-goodie. She knew she could count on him to do what was needed to turn a bad situation into a benefit. Her considerations were suddenly interrupted. Someone she didn't recognize had called out 'Neria'. Her companions both had turned and wore curious looks. She turned, bristling. "There's no one by that name here," she snarled, staring down the two strange men. The same guy opened his trap and rattled off something else, and Agro realized that only one person's voice could have such an instant, grating effect on her nerves. Like a ghost from some horrible nightmare, she found herself staring down Morty Morvec. Something had happened to him, though- he was younger, and something else... whatever the difference, it didn't help her to like him any more. The other guy with him was unknown but Agro still felt hostile towards him. Perhaps it was his association with Morvec, but she had a feeling there was more to him to hate than his taste in companions. The guy introduced himself as... a Fudstuv. He also revealed that both he and Morvec were changelings, and then Agro understood exactly why she felt such an intense and immediate dislike of them. They blathered on about their search for Kolache and Eurface, and finally took their leave. Briar and Marcus continued on into the temple while Agro waited outside. She cooled her temper by observing her surroundings. She noticed what appeared to be an announcement board tacked to the front of a nearby building. She sidled over and found an assortment of documents pinned to the board. Among them was a job posting: it seemed Rekkenmark Academy was needing someone to help train their recruits in combat. She figured resurrecting the Chakat would take a little more time, so she headed over to the Academy. Along the way, she got directions to the training field and soon arrived to find a session underway. She waited until the Captain called for break, then approached. They talked a while, and when the Captain asked about her weapon of choice, she answered "scythe". He looked taken aback, saying that the scythe was merely a farmer's implement. She stared at him, unmoved, and in an instant had ripped a gash in each of her palms. The Captain gaped at the bleeding wounds, but his shock soon turned to disbelief as the blood coagulated and spread out from the wounds, growing to form a wicked black scythe. "Mine is no 'farmer's implement', Captain," she stated, brandishing the weapon. "But I'm sure you don't want me training your fresh, young soldiers with a blade like this." He agreed and instead offered her another, less intimidating scythe. She accepted it and released her own. He watched with some concern as the blood-made weapon dissentigrated before it ever hit the ground. The trainees were returning from their break, and several had noticed the fresh meat on the field. They gathered nearby while some of the more seasoned warriors began placing bets. How long could a skinny girl with a field hand's tool stand against Rekkenmark's soldiers, anyway?

The Captain called the group together. He summoned a first-year student, told him to strike to wound not kill, and put him in the ring. To Agro, he gave the instruction to strike to teach. The gate was closed, and the fight began. The young warrior charged, and Agro evaded him easily. Several more times he attacked, and with each attempt Agro deflected effortlessly. Seeing the major gap in skill levels, the Captain called a cease-fire and dismissed the young recruit. In his place, he called out a second-year student. Into the ring strode a tall, broad warrior weilding a heavy warhammer. Arrogance painted a smirk across his face as he looked down at the little female before him. The round began, and he charged. His hammer connected solidly with Agro and she hit the ground. The smirk was just breaking into a smile when he realized his opponent wasn't staying down. Agro had turned the momentum of the hit to her favor by rolling with it, and now she leapt to her feet at his side. She struck back, and the fight gathered in fury. Again, the soldier swung and landed a solid hit, and this time Agro shrugged it off, snearing. He couldn't believe that anyone, much less this simple female, could just laugh off one of his most powerful attacks. He let his emotions get the best of him, and his next charge was ill-planned. Agro avoided the attack easily and appeared inside his swing radius. She caught him under his jaw with the dull of the scythe and flung him effortlessly across the ring. He landed heavily on his back and the fight was over. He was led from the field while casting an unstable, angry glare in Agro's direction, but behind all that macho anger and attitude, there was fear. By now, the crowd around the ring had dwindled- it seemed once the 'fresh meat' proved she was no push-over, not so many were anxious to cross blades with her. Of the remaining onlookers, the Captain selected an upper-level warrior, this time a female. The Captain told her to fight to disable, and the battle began.

The soldier feinted a couple of attacks to get a feel for her opponent's abilities, then charged. They traded several blows and then the battle turned serious. The soldier lunged with a whirlwind-like attack and one strong hit landed heavily across Agro's back. The soldier smiled, knowing her weapon had connected. She turned to observe the damage when her victory was cut short. Part of Agro's back was exposed through her sliced-up clothing, but only one thin line cut her flesh. That line surrendered a single drop of blood, then sealed shut. A sound distracted the soldier from her disbelief- Agro was laughing. Not a mocking laugh, but one of... delight? The soldier lowered her weapon and disengaged. She told her Captain that she had just used her best skill, and it had only scratched Agro- she was outmatched. The Captain agreed, and called an end to the skirmish. The girl left with the few who had remained to watch when the Captain dismissed them. She was not pleased. The Captain, however, seemed quite pleased at Agro's display, and paid her for her trouble. He then directed her to the messhall, where the recruits had retired for the day.

Agro went to the mess and, to appear a little less strange, grabbed a bite to eat. She claimed a table and found that most of the students gave her a wide berth. She wasn't surprised. But then, the soldier she had just fought appeared at her table and sat down across and a couple of seats down from Agro. She ate furiously, eyeing Agro as she ripped into her meal. Agro broke the silence: she commended the girl on her fighting. The girl looked bewildered- she apparently had not expected Agro to speak. She muttered a wary response, and the two wound up conversing nicely for a while. An unexpected guest stopped the conversation- Marcus showed up. Once Tailswisher had been revived, they had left the church only to find no sign of Agro. He suspected she had been imprisoned for some various offense, but was surprised to learn that instead she had procured a job. He had been eyeing Agro's companion, who was quite attractive, until he learned that she had been the only fighter on the field to draw blood on Agro. The girl excused herself, Marcus ultimately ended up going back to the mansion, and Agro retired to a nearby pub. She was enjoying not being run out of town for once- that and a pint of Rekkenmark's finest- when Briar stopped in. She got a drink and the bartender flirted lightly with both of them (must've been a slow tip night..) and then Briar engaged Agro in a light version of girl-talk. Apparently the group decided that the latest Fudstuv and his accomplice should have a room in the mansion since they would also be accompanying the group on their travels. Agro was NOT pleased by the decisions, but didn't let that ruin her mood. They talked a while longer while Briar told Agro of Adonteon's plan to kill an ettercap (whatever the hell those things are), then returned to the mansion. Sithis and Kinnik appeared to be in good health and spirits, so Agro took them hunting for a while. When they returned, Agro took care in grooming both pets, then spent some down-time in her room in the mansion. In a few hours the group would awaken and then they'd go a-hunting those ettercap things.

Morning wouldn't come so easily for Agro, however. As the others began to stir and prepare for the day ahead, she fell into a trance. In this vision, a bonfire roared with intense heat directly in front of her. She looked around, but all that existed was the furious pyre. Despite the boundaries of the vision, Agro could actually feel the heat from the blaze enough to scorch her lightly. She found herself mesmerized by the fire and soon realized it wasn't just the flames- there was a figure in the fire. It grew and filled out to be a very tall, very beautiful woman. She stared down at Agro with some mix of pity and other emotions that Agro couldn't comprehend, but felt thoroughly enraged by for an instant. Being the terse creature she was, Agro broke the silence with "Hell of a hot flash you got goin' there." The woman appeared shocked, and then mildly amused. She spoke, and after a brief round of anonymity, she revealed herself to be The Fury, mother of Shartun. She expressed some degree of concern over the union of Neria and Atropos (her Shartun)- she divulged that Shartun had been a lifeless husk of a creature when born, incapable of attaining the power Agro now possessed. She was... curious- to say the least. She did, however, recognize the capabilities of this merger. She let it be known that Agro could very well attain god-hood at some point, but The Fury felt that too much of Shartun's father, The Keeper, was being expressed. She offered a way to bolster that power through her own abilities. Agro was wary, for she had yet come to understand those earlier feelings of hatred towards the vision. She questioned The Fury's motive, and found that Shartun felt that his mother had abandoned him. The Burning Lady did not fight back, as Agro expected- she instead pleaded to be allowed to help her child in order to try to atone for her earlier failings. She offered the power to prevent Shartun from being used as a pawn, or taken as a slave, in the coming war. Agro, feeding from Neria's memories of her crime against her own children, laughed and shrugged off her suspicions. She accepted the offer, and The Fury reached out to her. She told her she would not regret her decision, and laid her engulfed hand upon Agro's shoulder. The contact burned like a real wound, and Agro suddenly found herself standing in her room in the mansion, skin smouldering with a slightly darker, larger than human handprint on her shoulder where The Fury had touched her. The agony set in immediately. Agro had gone so long as an undead-like creature that she had forgotten simple experiences. The light hurt her eyes, sounds were murder on her ears, she smelled things potent enough to leave a lingering taste on the back of her tongue, and even her bare feet on the cold stone floor delivered some essence of pain. She had returned to the living.

Once she regained control over the initial shock, Agro followed the scent of breakfast (how could she have even forgotten THAT?!) to a now-empty kitchen. She heard voices in the mansion's interior and followed. Something was amiss. Standing in the doorway between the infirmary and the courtyard, she heard Briar complaining about cleaning up... blood? Sure enough, a trail lead across the hall toward the housing section. As she watched, though, Invisible Servants were already cleaning it up, and by the time Adonteon and Berliner returned, it was gone. Briar appeared then and, after everyone's shock wore off, Adonteon produced a small scrying mirror for Agro to look into. She didn't know what their problem was until she saw her reflection: her eyes had gone from their feverish, slightly clouded red to an intense, inferno crimson, her once-pale and rough faded red hair was now a gleaming and lustrous bright auburn with copper and gold highlights, and even her once-deathly palor was transformed into a vibrant, glowing complexion with an almost luminous fiery undertone throughout. The small Atropos skull centered on her forehead had even changed from ebony to alabaster-white. Whatever The Fury had done, it had certainly returned life to Agro... but what had been taken in exchange?

She didn't have long to ponder. In moments, Tailswisher rejoined the group and the mystery of the hysteria and blood trail was discovered. Apparently, Tailswisher had flown off hir rocker at some point much earlier in the morning and sawed off her own hand and replaced it with another- this time metal and of hir own design. Shi had been discovered unconscious on the floor of the infirmary in a puddle of hir own blood. Members of the group healed hir as best they could, which was apparently enough, because shi was up and ready for the ettercap hunt.

Finally, the group was assembled and it looked as though they would be departing any moment, when Berliner and Morty suddenly fell ill. It seemed they had an unknown allergy to lobster, and fell into a terrible sickness. They were left behind in the mansion to recouperate. Finally (for real this time) the group was ready, and Adonteon cast a Teleport spell to quicken the trip. They hadn't been Teleporting long when they were suddenly- and violently- shunted out of the spell. They fell from several feet in the air to land haphazardly around some unknown area. Everyone was dazed and disoriented, but they knew the spell hadn't misfired when they heard shouts and orders surrounding them. As the effects wore off, Agro found herself encased in some kind of unfamiliar structure. The rest of the group was being beaten into submission by men bearing the crest of House Tharashk. She recognized that emblem and knew one that travelled with them- sure enough, a ghost of Neria's past approached: Leon. He was as arrogant as ever and took great pleasure in telling Agro that she was trapped in a Force Box and couldn't get out and, since his intelligence told him she didn't have to eat, that would be a very long time. She struck at the barrier in frustration, and found that the Box resisted very effectively. Leon walked away proudly leaving Agro to watch helplessly as her comrades were beaten into submission, forced to surrender, and (in Adonteon's case) nearly killed because of his immunity to non-lethal damage. Briar alone was left un-bound: turned out she had no charges against her, and was thereby useless to the bounty hunters. The men loaded Agro onto the back of some sort of trailer while others secured everyone else into prison cargo holds, save Briar, whom they left unconscious with a note and a bag in the field. Agro continued trying to destroy her prison, but she discovered that not only did her natural weapons have virtually no affect on the stupid Box, but she couldn't summon her Ebony Blade. She became enraged, and discovered one of the new gifts of The Fury- when in Fury form, she gained a noticeable boost to her power. She felt there was more to it, but due to her circumstances, could only experiment on a very limited scale. She attacked the barrier yet again, and discovered that she could in fact damage it, but the damage was minimal and would take some time to accumulate. By then, they had been loaded up and were on their way to some unknown destination.

As the sun sank below the far horizon, the prison escort pulled into the desolate little town of Night's Fall. The denizens looked about as lively as one of Adonteon's undead creations; that is until Agro got hauled into the town. As day fell to dusk, Agro felt a harsh pang- with nightfall, she 'died', returning to her original grave-touched form. The shock and terror that stared up at her from their faces let her know the townsfolk weren't under any crazy-ass old vampire's powers- they were just really miserable until something scared them senseless. The caravan anchored down for the night and Leon, upon seeing the transformed Agro, seemed even more smug with himself. Agro, despite being in need of souls from the shift, summoned her Blade and attacked the damned Box again. Leon seemed surprised for an instant, but quickly regained his cocky attitude and spent some time strutting about with a stupid smirk on his dorky face. She swore vengeance on him (among other things, none pleasant) and released the weapon, seeing the damage was still minimal. While plotting, she realized a young man had entered the camp nearby. He was talking to Leon, who had wiped the look off his face and now stared at the visitor with boredom. Agro eavesdropped.

It seemed the young man was actually a teenager of the town and was imploring the mercenaries for help against some sort of creatures. According to the tales, the town had always had occassional problems with spider/human creatures, but in the past weeks, the incidents had exploded. People were now disappearing at an alarming rate- nearly twenty a week. The creatures were to blame, without doubt, but with no aid the town was left to a slow death by predation. Leon dismissed the kid. This only angered the youth, who redoubled his efforts to pursuade the troop. Leon knocked him back again, but this time the boy verbally assaulted him. By the sound of it, the neighboring Houses had been made aware of the town's plight, but nothing had been done. The boy stalked away, coming Agro's way, and she got an idea. As he passed, he cast her a wary glance, only to find her hard gaze fully upon him. He faltered a step or two, just long enough for her to signal for him to approach. He looked around- it couldn't be anyone else she beckoned to, he was the only one there... Still, he looked back at her uncertainly and pointed at himself. She gave him an impatient look that read 'Of course YOU- who the hell else do you see?!' He glanced around again. No one seemed to be paying him any attention. He eased closer. She told him that she heard about his problem, and it just so happened she and her crew could take care of those spider critters for the town. In return, all she needed was for the boy to free her associates. 'How do I know you won't just destroy the town? You certainly look evil enough to consider it...' he thought to himself. Little did he know Agro could sense thoughts whenever she chose, but he was fixing to find out. "I know what I look like, kid. But don't I also look like someone capable of taking care of your infestation problem?" she reasoned. He was flabberghasted. She didn't have time to waste on this. "Yes, I can read thoughts, 'amazing', I know... but the point is you're concerned for your town. I can't give you anything to make you believe that I won't hurt your little town... except my word. My interest is not in common folk. I've got a much larger target in mind," she explained, casting a dark glare towards Leon and his men, drinking happily around a firepit. The boy was concerned about being tied to not only the escape of some sort of prisoners, but also of aiding in the murder of House officials. Agro informed him that, if done right, no one would know he had anything to do with it- his only role was to free the prisoners in the holding cells. After only a little more persuasion, he agreed to help.'' Damn... maybe hangin' around that halfling is rubbing off on me. Diplomacy never works for me like that!' ''

A while later, as the guards became more inebbriated and distracted with local townsgirls, Agro glimpsed movement in a nearby shadow. The kid had come to uphold his part of the bargain. Instead, it was another of the local girls with a tray of some assortment of food. Agro half-listened as she spoke with the half-orc guard nearby. Apparently the food was for the prisoners, but she seemed way more interested in this chump-ass little frog spawn than in doing her job. Agro was trying to find something else to distract herself with when she picked up on a couple of things the girl spoke of- specifically something about being raised by orcs, then she spoke in Orcish, which appeared to surprise and please the green dude, and then she released the tell- she spoke of a wolf named Dagmar. Agro cast an uncertain look toward her and realized that the girl was actually Briar. She also noticed that the boy was taking advantage of Briar's distraction and was making his way to the prison cart undetected. Agro continued to look uninterestedly around the camp, but she listened intently to the goings-on nearby. Briar led the guard away and the boy got into the cart with relative ease. Agro waited with barely-contained anticipation. Finally, the boy emerged and slunk off into the night and shortly Agro could just barely make out the faint rustlings as her friends gathered their gear and initiated their escape. Agro was fighting to appear calm and unsuspecting, and perhaps it was her eagerness or maybe it was simply the desperation of the situation, but whatever the real cause, it was Adonteon who risked it all and stepped out of the wagon first and immediately cast Dissentigrate on the Force Box, destroying it. Concurrent to Adonteon's appearance, Leon just happened to look up and saw instantly what was happening. He yelled a frantic warning to his men and booze and floozies went flying as the men leapt, rolled, and crawled for armor and weapons, but it was too late- Agro Shartun unleashed her wrath upon her enemies as she summoned her most powerful form; in a heartbeat, she became the Goddess of Slaughter, a being of terror absolute, and then she simply disappeared. Leon made a mad dash into his nearby tent, thinking himself undetected. The camp was in full turmoil, and no one noticed a flap on Leon's tent move ever so slightly. He was hunched over an open trunk, digging through scrolls and papers frantically. The hairs on the back of his neck began to prickle and he spun around, scroll in hand and there she was. Crouched only a few feet away, his Death prepared to spring.

Leon stumbled to his feet, letting a scroll fall open as he moved. Words fell in a torrent from his mouth, but he was too hasty. Agro caught on to what he was doing- casting another Force Box- and darted out of its reach just as the spell solidified between them. The tent was uprooted and cast aside as Agro charged around the obstruction, giving furious chase after her quarry. Leon snatched up a handful of what appeared to be random papers and scrolls and bolted into the forest. He moved with ridiculous speed, even for Agro's abilities. She took to the air and was fast approaching. She had him in sight and was in the process of lining up a tackle when he suddenly spun around and chucked a familiar ball-like object at her. Too late, she realized it was a type of binding ball, the same thing he used to subdue her in their first encounter. It burst into multiple magical metal bands, encompassed and incapacitated her. She hit the ground, a volley of curses and violent threats spewing out in a variety of languages. Leon took no notice- he was hauling his ass out of danger. Agro struggled with the device for several moments before finally overpowering the bands. Infuriated and denied her victory, Agro took flight again, this time returning to Night's Fall. Her associates were wrapping things up with the remnants of Leon's men. Several were wounded, a couple were dead, and the rest were beating a hasty retreat. Unfortunately, several of her team were also in bad shape. She landed, which panicked several onlooking villagers. Someone screamed, and Agro responded in her usual sarcastic (but humorous) way: " 'Aaaaghhhh'... yeah, I've heard it before. Get over it." She furled her wings against her back and stormed over to her beat-up companions. They recounted their fight and she summed up her adventures with Leon, then, just as she turned to 'check on' the dead and dying soldiers (i.e. consume their souls), she realized a local cleric was on scene and several of the men were being carried to the chapel by townsfolk. This denial did nothing but irritate Agro's ever-growing bad mood. As she devised a scheme to claim those delicious souls, something was said about tracking down the still-escaping House Tharashk group. Some members didn't want to waste the time (or their very-limited spells) to catch them, but then it was revealed that Tailswisher had been captured. With this in mind, Briar shifted into her dragon form and everyone climbed aboard. Agro unfurled her wings and joined in the chase. It only took a few moments to overtake the caravan. Agro saw instantly who lead the group- it appeared that Leon had found his way back to his men. Briar landed directly in front of them, blocking their path. She let loose a tremendous roar, which panicked the oxen and caused them to bolt, overturning the passenger cart near the back of the caravan. Agro landed stealthily in the shadowy forest near Leon. She knew she could get to Leon before his men could save him, but two things held her in check: one, she didn't want to have to kill him quickly. She had much bigger plans for this particular meat bag. Two, she knew her spell-casting comrades had complained of being very-nearly out of spells and starting another round with the caravan would not play to their benefit. That decided, she stood glaring in the shadows as the others bartered for their friend. In the end, Tailswisher was released, Marcus- realizing the men were just doing their job- paid them for their troubles (a pay-off, perhaps?), Leon requested the return of his chest of scrolls (Marcus had acquisitioned it) but when no one claimed to have seen it, he let it go, and then he made some whiney, snotty remark about how the party should right the toppled cart for him, to which Briar remarked by crushing it beneath her dragon bulk, and then the party left.

Once back in town, they realized the townsfolk had already removed all of the wounded and dead from the battlefield. Disappointed, Agro dismissed her Goddess of Slaughter form and tucked her wings against her back yet again. People were casting them wary glances, but Agro paid no mind- she saw the boy lurking in an alleyway. She appeared near him where the townsfolk couldn't see. They spoke hushedly- he was very quiet and introverted- but she got his name- Rorrik. They traded idle talk and Agro discovered she had a lot in common with the kid- everyone in his immediate family was dead, his mother had abandoned him, and the townsfolk hated him. Poor guy had hit a soft spot on the murderous fiend, and she felt... sympathy? Oh well, even evildoers need sidekicks. They spoke of the ettercap infestation, and it was decided that it would be best for the townsfolk to spend the night barricaded into the town hall while the group was taking care of the situation. Rorrik agreed, but had his concerns that no one would listen. Agro knew just the person for the job. With the diplomatic help of Marcus, the townsfolk were persuaded and rounded up for the lock-in. As the streets emptied, the group reconvened to discuss the upcoming hunt. They would need bait. Adonteon offered up a solution- he pulled from his pack a jar with something suspended in a viscous fluid inside. He opened the jar and commanded the thing to move. It was an ettercap baby, a 'souvenir' from his and Marcus's previous adventure while Agro and the others had been stuck on Stupid Vampire Island. He had apparently killed a whole nest of them and kept this one, zombified it, and stuck it in a jar... further purposes were unknown. The group vehemently refused to use the thing as bait as it would more than likely result in the ettercaps swarming the village, and the queen and nest would never be found. Adonteon quieted the thing and returned it to the bag, dejectedly. Rorrik spoke up and volunteered to act as bait, astounding the whole party. Some refused the plan, but others, among them Agro, considered it. It was his town under attack, his people he wanted protected, and the kid was technically an adult. If he wanted the role, Agro wasn't going to stop him. She would, however, at least make sure he stood a chance at surviving. It turned out Rorrik did own a decent set of armor and even a couple of short swords. Agro told him to conceal the armor beneath common clothing and to hide the blades on his person should he need to stall before the party could reach him. He had the armor but needed to retrieve the swords. As he left, the group continued their planning. The spellcasters were still needing to rest to recover spells, so they decided they would use this night to finalize their tactics. The group disbanded, and Agro drifted through the shadows toward where Rorrik had headed. She scanned the walls surrounding the town as she went. All seemed peaceful, which was the universal sign that the proverbial crap was fixing to hit the fan. Out of the silence, Agro heard a muffled 'umph!', as if the air had been knocked out of someone. She whipped around, facing the direction of the disturbance and there, skitttering quickly over the edge of the wall, was a spider-like humanoid carrying a web-wrapped human-sized bundle. Briar had apparently also heard, because she was the first to call out an alarm, but Agro was already nearly to the wall. In an attempt to stop or slow the creature, Adonteon slung his pack around and pulled out the ettercap baby-zombie and yanked it from its jar. "Scream!!" he commanded, and it obeyed. With a high-pitched, eardrum-piercing keen it wailed. The sound alone nearly incapacitated Agro for a moment, but the sudden appearance of a pale, hideous face over the wall reclaimed her attention. She slashed at it brutally and split its face on one side. The creature hissed, but the wound closed back over as Agro watched. The creature disappeared into the forest. By this time, Briar had appeared. As Agro's wings expanded for flight, Briar shifted into a bat form. They took off, and it was quickly apparent that Agro's flight speed easily overtook Briar's. Bat-Briar opted to hitch a ride- she clung to Agro as they tore through the forest, ever-gaining on the escaping ettercaps. Agro's dark vision was really good, but it took her ability to detect life auras to find the ettercaps in the dense understory. There were definitely two, but she was after the one with the cargo. She easily caught up to the creatures, but lagged behind, hoping to lure them into a false sense of security. After a while, the ettercaps split away from each other, and Agro glided silently in the wake of the kidnapper. It began to slow down. At one point it stopped and appeared to check its surroundings for pursuers. Agro, with Briar in tow, hid in nearby shadows as the creature scrutinized the forest. Finally, it moved on, but swiped at something. Agro responded and effortlessly rolled out of the path of the trap the ettercap had sprung. Sensing nothing in the trap, the ettercap visibly relaxed, and calmly made its way into a clearing. As they approached, Agro realized that the clearing was not natural. It looked as if some monstrously gigantic creature had thrashed about, uprooting entire trees in its tantrum. There was an odd, green glow all over the ground in one area of the destruction, and by it they could see the ettercap making its way towards the larger of two massive caverns in the ground. At this, Briar was left to keep watch over Rarrek while Agro returned in great haste to the awaiting party. Several minutes later, Agro broke through the thick forest at the town wall. She explained the situation and, when questioned by Adonteon about the details of the clearing, she hastily responded. Both Adonteon and Marcus had knowing, guilty looks on their faces at her suspicions of how the clearing was made, but they had no time to deliberate. Adonteon cast Teleport and in seconds they stood with Briar outside of the largest cavern. She said she had tried to stop the creature from taking Rorrik inside, but it had scurried down into the darkness much too quickly for her to catch. They scrambled down into the pit without another word. Agro and Briar stood on the dirt and stone floor inside while the others made their way down. Adonteon and Marcus managed alright, but Tailswisher lost hir grip and landed unceremoniously in the filth, covered in spiderwebs. Agro approached a nearby entranceway and discovered a slumbering nest of ettercaps. She stepped back and motioned to Briar and Marcus. "See that room right there? Torch it," she hissed. They stepped up and the fireworks started. With two different types of flames engulfing the room, the ettercaps were dropping like flies. Some tried to run for the door, but were cut down by Agro's Ebony Blade. They made short work of over twenty ettercaps, and with the last few cowering in a corner, Agro strolled in and grabbed the leg of the nearest live one. She dragged it out, screaming and pleading. She had picked up that some of the creatures spoke Infernal, and so using that tongue, she ordered the creature to guide them to its queen. She warned it against leading them into traps, and at that Adonteon used some of what was left of his spells (since no one had had a chance to rest yet) to zombify five of the fallen ettercaps to use as trap detectors. The creature agreed and, kept in check by the Ebony Blade hooked around its throat, it led the way. At the first turn, it crawled the wall. Agro stopped it short, questioning the presence of traps. It seemed the creature didn't understand what a trap was, so it was enlightened. Agro nearly took one of its legs off for its carelessness, as a pitfall was revealed in the path. Afterwards, the stupid creature stopped at nearly everything, warning of, "Trap." Finally, it seemed to get the hang of trapfinding and led on without too much trouble. Some of the traps still managed to catch the group- there were some issues with pitfalls and webs, and then there was the Spike Wall Corridor. To pass the latter, the group had to maneuver down a length of hallway by clinging to the ceiling, since the entire floor was rigged with pressure plates that would cause wicked spikes to stab out of the walls down the entire pathway. This atrocity caught Tailswisher and even Agro in its assault, but shortly after, they entered the Queen's Chamber.

The Chamber was an enormous cavern, lightless and dank, with nothing but a foul, lingering mist discernable in the center of it. Life energies revealed to Agro that there were several smaller creatures, most likely spiders or weaker ettercaps, lingering around the area, but cloaked in the fog was a disturbingly massive beast emitting a massive life signature. That was important, but not what she was after... then suddenly she saw it. Hanging from the ceiling like a silken offering was a human-sized coccoon. By his aura's color, Rorrik was still alive, but in serious danger if the party didn't act quickly. Nonchalantly (so as not to alert the queen of her knowledge) Agro asked Briar and Marcus if they could see Rorrik. They couldn't, so Agro told them to start the assault- she'd take care of it. Her first move was to kill their guide (a guarantee that it wouldn't give them any trouble). In a furious beginning, fire, giant elementals, and other aberration-killing tactics were unleashed. They quickly realized that what they saw of the Queen was only part of her- they were standing on a threshold nearly forty feet above the cavern floor. Agro didn't care- she took to wing. She positioned herself to extract Rorrik and charged. She was almost to him when an enormous clawed appendage swung out of the fog and slammed into her, sending her careening. She regained herself before she hit the ground and shook it off, realigning herself for another try. As the Queen became distracted by her party-members' attacks, Agro once again darted in for the steal. This time, she evaded the Queen's flailing arms and reached Rorrik. Unfortunately, the webbing holding him was much stronger than Agro anticipated, and it took her a moment to slice through it. Finally, it broke, and she headed for the threshold. The Queen caught her with another swipe, but it was a glancing blow. Agro took the hit, but made it back to the party in one piece. Once earth-bound, she clawed Rorrik out of his silken prison to discover he was alive, but heavily stunned. She left him in the care of Tailswisher and Marcus.

As Agro joined the battle, she realized the battlefield was filling up. The Queen had summoned two monstrous tarantulas, while Briar had invited a huge fire elemental and a gigantic purple worm to the party. The elemental was burning off spiderwebs and two enormous giant zombies (provided by the resident Dead Guy, Adonteon) were working on squishing the tarantulas. The purple worm had the Queen in its jaws and was working on grappling her. It hadn't been working effectively enough, though, because Briar had also turned the cave's floor from Rock to Mud, which caused the Queen to sink in ten feet, then she reverted it back from Mud to Rock, preventing the Queen's escape. The Ettercap Queen had already taken a significant amount of damage by the time Agro joined the fray, but she was still twitching, so Agro summoned the Ebony Armor and stepped up. With the Ebony Blade in hand, she rushed the Queen, and with a furious assault, she split Her Royal Highness wide open. The aberration gave a great scream and collapsed in an acidic cloud. The party retreated to the overlook, which remained safe above the poisonous fumes. Rorrik had been revived and stood staring in disbelief at the battle. Marcus had dumped all of Leon's scrolls and paperwork out of the chest (which had been concealed in his Bag of Holding) and disappeared for the moment. Tailswisher, after taking care of Rorrik, was gathering up the scrolls. The acid cloud was just starting to dissipate when Briar charged into it. Adonteon and Agro weren't sure of her mental status, but after watching her search a moment, it was obvious she was looking for something in particular. Agro dropped down into the gloom and claimed the head and the hide of the Queen, then turned her attention to the rest of the party as they unearthed what Briar had been searching for- a massive, solid metal book, written in some uncomprehensible hand. She opened the tome and began to read. For a while, she read through the pages, then closed the book. It was too heavy to carry back, but it seemed that was unnecessary- she knew the book. It seemed she had received a vision of this artifact recently and knew she had to find it. However, when she began to tell the party of its contents, there was a change in the Druid. She became ashen and shook as though her nerves were rattled. She had discovered the locations of all of the Gates and the names of the people who would have to be sacrificed to close each of the five Gates that were currently open. She gave them:

1. Corey Brogan

2. Sam of Sharn

3. Son of Neria

4. Daughter of Neria

5. Briar of the Thorns

The party was dumbfounded. Briar took a breath and collected herself. She announced that she was leaving the party to seek out Raithos, hoping that a cleric of his level would be able to assist her in finding both the other people who would close the Gates and perhaps finding a way for her to close her own Gate without resorting to suicide.

After Briar's departure, the group returned to Night's Fall, where Marcus and Agro decided it could greater benefit Rorrik's reputation with the town if he turned in the Ettercap Queen's head and explained the harrowing tale himself. The kid forked over the head, muttered a short, unembelished version of the fight, and stood by awkwardly as the townsfolk poured around him, joyously preparing for a day of feasting. Agro and Marcus were observing nearby. Mildly irritated, she appeared beside Rorrik, startling some passers-by. She questioned him about the lack-luster story and missing his golden opportunity, to which he replied with some goodie-goodie answer. She just shook her head, and the three left the building. As the festivities began, the group disbanded for each to amuse themselves as they saw fit. Marcus, Berliner, and even Adonteon put on a fantastic show for the villagers which included an amazing shadow-puppet retelling of the Ettercap fight. Agro, after disappearing long enough to 'return to life', went out with a hunting party to procure game for the feast. They returned a few hours later with plenty of meat- the largest single creature being Agro's dire elk. The feast was prepared, and just as the dinner bell rang, Marcus ended his show, and everyone made their way to the long tables. The mayor directed the group to a special table set up in a place of honor and it was then that Agro realized a newcomer had made her way into town.

She looked to be a middle-aged human and, judging by her bright and shiny white clothes, was maybe a cleric of some sort. Agro distrusted her. When she was asked to bless the meal, it was obvious then that she was in fact a cleric. Agro made a note to keep an eye on her. The feast began and throughout the entire ordeal villagers kept approaching the group with words and gifts of appreciation. The gifts were mostly small trinkets, but Agro was just relieved that for once a town realized that they had helped.

After everyone had consumed their fill, Agro killed some time wandering around the town and noticed that Berliner had taken quite an interest in the cleric. She caught up to them in the inn and there overheard Berliner spewing every secret the group had to the still-total-stranger cleric. Just as she moved to intervene, Adonteon showed up. She told him what was going on as Marcus approached. She turned to fill him in and almost didn't realize as Adonteon made for the chattery changeling. She briefed Marcus on the situation and looked back just in time to hear Adonteon not helping the situation. In his attempt to stifle Berliner's flapping trap, he was unknowingly giving out even more information in the presence of the cleric. Marcus and Agro shared a special face-palm moment which was quickly interrupted by Feasting: Round 2.

Once the festivities started winding down for the day, the group dispersed. As darkness fell, Agro disappeared long enough to 'die' (revert to her Keeper form), and then passed the night riding patrol around the town... at least that's how it would appear to any casual onlooker. She was, in fact, looking for soul donors and had remembered Rorrik's warnings about highwaymen nearby. She rode out a few miles, but found no trace of humanoid activity, so she settled for some game animals and brought the carcasses back to 'restock the town supply'. As dawn broke, she retreated to the inn, 'revived' (took on her life-like Fury form), and discovered the party was planning a return-trip to the ettercap lair for the book, at Berliner's behest. Agro was immediately suspicious and though she had no interest in returning to the site, felt it was better to keep tabs on Berliner and Morty and their new pal Leeanawn, the White-Garbed Goodie-goodie. So the party went afield yet again to piddle around the Queen's cavern. While nearly everyone else muddled about in the dark, dank hole, Agro stood watch. There really wasn't that much to see until a nearby powerful magic aura caught her attention. Her interest piqued, she '''THIS SECTION HAS BEEN HEAVILY EDITED (DELETED) TO PREVENT OUT OF CHARACTER KNOWLEDGE INFLUENCING THE GAME! UPON COMPLETION OF THE GAME, OR WHEN THIS KNOWLEDGE IS DEEMED 'SAFE', THIS INFORMATION WILL THEN BE REINSTATED!''' and found Varrak's book right where it had been left. The Changelings attempted to decipher the manuscript, but could tell little about it. The Cleric had much better luck, but could only tell the history and lore of the book's existence- its message was still illegible. Before vacating the area, Adonteon used some spell to carve a massive stone slab out of the cave wall where it would fall and conceal the book from future explorers. They returned to the town.

Adonteon mentioned making a quick trip into Rekkenmark, to which Agro and Marcus were quite happy to accompany him. They Teleported to the outskirts of town. Adonteon went to go see a man about a scythe, Marcus headed into town to see a shop about some jewels, and Agro guided Sithis on a leisurely stroll through the streets. She was still toting the great mass of ettercap hide and was looking to give it purpose. After asking a few knowledgeable-looking soldiers, she learned of a reputable armorsmith and paid his shop a visit.

She learned that the shopkeep could indeed fashion a custom armor suit for her, but it would take nearly a full month to complete. Agro consented and the order was placed. As she was leaving the shop, she decided to head down to the training fields to see if she could pick up a quick job. Captain Ir' Castith greeted her warmly, but said her level of expertise wasn't needed at the moment. She stood watching the training for a while, and then got a suprise visit. Agro was just about to leave when Dannor stormed onto the field. The young woman was obviously thoroughly pissed and looking for a fight. When she saw Agro, she stopped short, quite surprised to find her there. Agro knew she needed an outlet for her fury, and when Dannor looked toward the arena, Agro nodded. They entered the enclosure and Dannor cut loose with a powerful flurry of attacks. Agro took several solid hits and was bleeding quite freely. The wounds didn't bother her- Dannor's carelessness and complete lack of control over her temper is what fueled Agro's retaliation. True, the girl was landing good, solid blows, but her swings were wide or over-exaggerated, leaving massive openings over vital areas. Such carelessness on the battlefield would definitely end this promising soldier's career early, so Agro thought it best to point out these flaws in training. She took the next opportunity offered and landed a heavy hit that sent Dannor flying. She hit the arena wall and slid down, unconscious. The Captain, who had seen the volley of attacks Dannor had been delivering, intervened and called for volunteers to take Dannor to the infirmary. He let Agro know that the girl was still breathing and would probably be fine. He was not angry at Agro, but seemed disappointed in his recruit. Training was called for the day, so Agro left. She had learned a little something from Dannor while they sparred- apparently Marcus was to blame for her anger. Agro figured he needed a 'training session' of his own... She stopped by the infirmary, but the doctor she spoke to informed her that Dannor was still unconscious, but could have visitors the next day. She headed to the mansion.

What she wasn't aware of was that Marcus had stopped by the training grounds just in time to see Agro getting hacked up by Dannor, and, planning for the worst, was spending the rest of the day (possibly his life) hiding. Once she returned to the mansion, his disembodied voice let her know what exactly had transpired between him and Dannor. Agro, realizing the cause of Marcus' folly was simply he had been hanging around Adonteon too much (HORRIBLE with the ladies and diplomacy!!), let him know his life was no longer in any immediate danger- Marcus stayed hidden just to be sure. [He really is a smart little dude...] Just for the fun of it, however, Agro did spend the night randomly clawing at/ looking under/ jiggling the doorhandle of Marcus' bedroom door, just to terrorize him a bit. It was her 'anti-Adonteon therapy'; guaranteed to prevent any more slips in dealing with temperamental people that might take their frustrations out on Agro!

They spent the next morning in Rekkenmark. Agro wanted to check on Dannor's status at the infirmary, Adonteon had gotten bad news on his scythe (was going to take nearly a month for it's completion), and Marcus had had an off-day even with his 'acquisitioning' and apparently wound up getting cursed. He wanted to speak with a cleric before leaving to see if anything could be done to remove it. They set off to take care of business and a little while later, Agro darkened the doorway of the infirmary. She spoke to the doctor from the day before, who told her Dannor had regained consciousness at some point, but was currently sleeping. Agro told him she'd be back later. She killed some time around town and, true to her word, returned that afternoon. Dannor was awake and, when she saw Agro enter the room, averted her gaze in humility. Agro stood at her bedside, arms crossed sternly. She asked how she was feeling, and Dannor gave a sheepish "Okay." Agro took a breath to begin her well-prepared lecture, and was suddenly cut off. Dannor apologized for her behavior and admitted that it was wrong of her to take such anger out on a trainer instead of on a training object. She also acknowledged that her inability to control her anger would get her seriously injured or killed on the battlefield. She went on and on, and by the end of her apology, she had covered every major point that Agro had so carefully thought out for her lecture. Agro wracked her brain for at least something to chastise the girl about, but there was nothing. She stood there, eyeing Dannor oddly (brain farts throw off even the most wicked creatures!). Finally, she conceded. "You just lectured yourself over every point I was fixing to hit you with. Dang it."

She smirked a little, despite herself, and found Dannor had relaxed as well. They talked a little longer, and Agro offered to help Dannor learn to use her anger to her advantage. Agro knew the girl would have to confront her fury in order to control it, and thought a girl's night (or day, in Agro's case) at the tavern might help. She told Dannor that once she was out of the infirmary, she would take her drinking. Dannor responded with a cautious look and told Agro that she wasn't sure about dating a woman. Agro nearly hit the floor with shock. "What?! No! Drinks, damn it! Not date!!" she barked. Dannor was laughing heartily at the reaction and Agro realized that the so-serious warrior had just cracked a joke. She sighed, rolled her eyes, and pointed threateningly at the bedridden girl. "You better watch it, unless you want me to give you another reason to stay in here!" The growing smile on her stern face gave away the false threat, and Dannor was still chuckling as Agro left. Satisfied that no permanent damage had been done, Agro figured she still had some time to kill. She might as well scout out the nearby tavern!

She had never been much for drinking (except when under magical influence), but it was funny how being unable to do or enjoy things made her miss them while in Keeper form. Daytime Fury form was a whole different story, though, and she made her way up to the bar. She heard chairs being pushed back and looked around cautiously- she was used to tables clearing in fear or defense when she entered a room- but was surprised by the fact that the soldiers in the bar were actually making room for her?! She was shocked, but the change put her in an unnaturally good mood, and she ordered the town's special- and a round for the house. Everything livened up really quickly afterwards. When she finally managed to pick herself up off the barstool to leave, she had to wade through many of Rekkenmark's finest soldiers to get to the door. She tried several times, but finally managed to fall across Sithis' back, give a slurred "Letsh go home, Shishish...Shithish...Horse!" and managed to get back to the mansion (all thanks to the intelligent mount).

When she got back to the mansion, she was surprised to see that both Marcus and Adonteon had finished whatever business they had in town and were ready to Teleport back to Night's Fall. Marcus, however, would be leaving with a parting gift- during his escapades back at the gem shop, he apparently met unexpectedly with the shop's former owner, now deceased, and received a parting curse. They had no idea what the consequences of the curse were, but Marcus was in no hurry to find out, either. With that in mind, they returned to Night's Fall where Agro disappeared into the inn to sleep off her afternoon binge. When she awoke that night 'dead', the effects of the drinking were long-gone, so she took Sithis and Kinnik- by now known as her 'clean up crew'- and rode off into the night to collect a soul or two.

The next day was pretty much routine- she 'resurrected' at sunrise, napped briefly, and then sought out the group. The plans for the day had originally been to head toward Korth to take care of business with the King, but the Changelings had other plans. They were hell-bent on getting that big, heavy book that nobody could read from the ettercap lair. Agro thought it was a frivolous (and most likely stupid) thing to do, so when they left with part of the party, she stayed behind with De' Cante and Marcus. They weren't gone long, and soon the group was reunited and began the Shadow Walk to Korth. But, what seemed like a simple plan turned out to be a damn-near fiasco.

As they trekked through the Shadow Realm, something in the distance caught Adonteon's attention. He mentioned it to the group, and Agro realized that the something was actually two ridiculously huge serpentine figures... and they were watching the group. As others began identifying the gargantuan creatures, they began moving toward the group. Leeanawn warned everyone that the creatures were aberrations of the Shadow Realm with psionic abilities and a taste for enslaving and torturing humanoids. Adonteon pulled the group out of the Shadow Walk and as soon as they returned to their home plain, everyone took cover. It was a good precaution; moments later the creatures joined them. It seemed as if the group had successfully concealed themselves, as the aberrations lay motionless several yards away. Agro wasn't entirely sure they were capable of seeing anything anyway- their bodies were snake-like, but the heads looked more like unopened flower blooms with no discernable eyes. All those observations were fixing to be useless, however, because the Changelings decided to take action.

Berliner and Morty stepped up and picked a fight with the beasts. Agro would've been happy to let them have the fight all to themselves, but the creatures retaliated by spraying some acidic substance all over the party. The incredible amount of damage that one attack caused inspired the group to scatter. Agro and Marcus were still concealed, but somehow the creatures were able to track them- that's when Agro realized the damn things didn't need eyes, they could Tremor Sense. Marcus and Adonteon scrambled beyond the reach of the freakish serpents, Leeanawn took flight, Tailswisher hid near the forest, the Changelings realized they'd opened a can of worms nobody was ready to deal with, and Agro got pissed. She called upon her Fury and unleashed a Fire Storm on the aberrations. Their stupid-looking faces suddenly split into tentacle-lined gaping pits of fangs as they screamed and thrashed under the burning barrage. The beast that the Changelings had wounded in their instigations began to levitate overhead while its comrade slithered closer. Another acid spray doused the party and the hovering beast let Agro know exactly how it felt about her Fire Storm by pounding the crap out of her with its own wave of assaults before grappling her with a tentacle as it prepared to devour her. At nearly half-health from a single attack, Agro was looking rough, but livid. There was a sudden rustling of wings, and Leeanawn appeared nearby. She snapped off a couple of quick spells, one of which was a healing spell for Agro. Recharged to full, Agro was really surprised that the confirmed goodie-goodie- *ahem* Leeanawn- would step into the fray to heal an obviously non-good person, and she would consider this singular act more deeply after she had re-decorated her room in aberration hides. One of the other spells had acted to free Agro from the creature's grasp, but the moment had inspired an attack plan. If one of those things were to swallow her, she could unleash irreparable havoc on its insides... It was a good idea, but she didn't get the chance to pull it off. Once again, Berliner, who had ordered Morty to run away after taking extensive acid damage, lunged headlong and mindless into the fight. One thing led to another, the more injured of the two aberrations suddenly vanished after Agro left a fiery trail up its spine and tried to hack its head off, and then before anyone could act, Berliner was grappled and tossed down the gullet of the remaining creature. It immediately disappeared. Agro was not sorry in the least to see the Changeling fall, but another idea had reared its ugly head during the fight- those aberrations were big enough that the entire party could ride on one, they were powerful enough to lay waste to nearly any city, and they were intimidating enough that they could be used to get damn near anything from anybody, or to simply be a legion in itself. Agro wanted one. For that reason only she was willing to engage in the rescue plan the rest of the party was throwing together, but she knew that she would have to disguise her intentions. Once again, though, the Changeling crashed her plans; before a solid strategy could even be devised, he reappeared, covered in gods-knew-what, and unfortunately alive. It was around this time that Marcus alerted the group to another missing person- Tailswisher had vanished during the battle.

After Morty was recalled to the group, they set out with Agro tracking the Chakat through the forest. They walked for a long while, then suddenly came across an oddity on the forest floor. A gold cog lay in the leaf litter. Leeanawn cautiously approached the cog and carefully moved to pick it up. The moment her fingers closed over it, strange, wiry filaments burst from the metal and entangled her. She fought against it, but it pulled harder as the ground seemed to open up into a gaping chasm. Everyone found themselves sucked into the pit and, after a few magic attempts at freedom, the group found out that magic, if it worked at all, was thoroughly distorted. Spells cast didn't hit the intended target, or they were the wrong spells altogether. Finally, the group just let themselves fall. They realized that there were machines of some sort within the portal, and the deeper they fell, the louder the sounds of the machines grew. After some time in this 'falling' state, they finally touched bottom. Luckily, it was more like an abrupt stop, and not a splattering fell-off-a-mountain type impact. The blackness began to clear and before the party lay a scene fresh from a postcard. There was a cottage surrounded by impossibly green grass in an open, park-like forest, with a bright blue sky overhead and a shining sun glistening in the sky. Something was wrong.

Upon closer inspection, they realized the whole thing was made of metal. The blades of grass weren't something you'd want to roll in- each leaf was in fact it's own little blade, and if the group wasn't cautious about what they touched, they received a sharp, bleeding reminder. After taking a moment to adjust to the crazy metal world, the group began exploring, and top of the list was the cottage. They peered in the window (which was a clear pane of metal) and saw inside everything was also made of metal, even the food on the metal plate at the empty metal table. There was no sign of Tailswisher. They continued to search, and found a metal man who did nothing but stare blankly past them, but that was it. They went in the cottage and things got even more weird. Adonteon was first to open the door, and he nearly panicked. Agro was looking in the window at the same time, and saw nothing but the cottage interior. He claimed to have seen Ashtakala. Agro didn't believe him until he opened the door and motioned her over. Sure enough, there was Ashtakala. He closed the door and opened it again, and behind the door was another place. This happened several times until the door opened on a macabre scene: the room became a richly decorated chamber with a roaring fire in the fireplace. Stretched on the floor in front of the hearth was a large cat hide with paws outstretched and mouth agape. But it wasn't the skin or the unexplainable puddle of blood pooling out from under it that made it unsettling; the fact that the skin belonged to Sardonis and that his open, accusing eyes followed them around the room made it disturbing. Agro recommended that they leave the cottage immediately, and Adonteon and Marcus were all too happy to acquiesce. At some point in the searching, Agro discovered a scene similar to the original, except it was snow-covered. Even the snow was metal and kept cutting everyone, so they didn't spend much time there. When they returned to the original, sunny scene, they noticed a spy. The small, cloaked creature darted behind the cottage, and Agro followed. She was prepared to tackle the thing when Leeanawn intervened with a peaceful solution: she talked the creature out of hiding with the promise that it would not be hurt. It finally came out and spoke to the party. It was a female cat creature, and a kitten at that. She told the group she could help them escape the strange world, and it knew where to find Tailswisher. Something about the kid didn't sit right with Agro, and she couldn't help but feel her hackles raise everytime she looked at it. There was something familiar about it, and Agro had a strange sense growing in the back of her mind that she knew where they were. Leeanawn said something nice to the kitten, and it giggled and bowed, revealing two sets of arms and even more fiery tiger-like stripes along its arms. Agro knew the signs of a rhakshasa when she saw them and immediately went defensive. She growled at the creature and pulled Leeanawn aside to warn her what they were dealing with. She also had a feeling that they were somehow trapped inside Tailswisher's dreams, but she kept that quiet.

The kitten agreed to lead them to Tailswisher, so when she started walking, the group followed. The creature led them through the cottage, to another place in the cat's mind, along a strange walkway, to a giant mechanical door. It was missing a piece, and when Leeanawn produced the golden cog, the kitten took it from her and used it to open the door. Therein was another cottage exactly like the one they had left behind. The kitten said Tailswisher could be found inside, but when they entered, shi was no where to be found. The kitten seemed surprised, and as the group discussed options, the kitten disappeared. Agro didn't like the vanishing trick at all, but figured it could be dealt with if they could get out of the Chakat's mind. She searched the cottage and happened to find a note. It appeared to be a map. It was good enough for Agro- she led the way the map indicated, and after a long while wandering around, they finally came to an underground cave filled with treasures. The map indicated that this was the way out. Something didn't feel right, so of course the Changelings jumped in to make things worse. One of them grabbed at a particularly impressive piece of gold, and a great clawed hand swiped at them. From the darkness came a gigantic golden mechanical dragon, with Tailswisher chained to its chest, unconscious.

Apparently, at least some of the party had had the same feeling about being in Tailswisher's dreams/head, because as the dragon monstrosity stalked toward the group, Leeanawn concentrated on it for a moment, and the beast actually shrank a size. The idea caught on quickly. Unfortunately, the dragon managed to pull off some attacks of its own, causing ridiculous amounts of damage. At this, Marcus extradited himself from the fight, while everyone else scrambled to try to heal themselves before the next onslaught. Agro decided to give psychological warfare a shot and willed herself to appear as Sardonis before the beast. 'Sardonis' cried out for Tailswisher to save him, but was instead pummeled mercilessly by the mechanized lizard. It had not occurred to Agro that similar but more vile tactics had been used against Tailswisher's fragile psyche, and hir only way to cope with the trauma was to immediately attack all 'Sardonis' apparitions. With this newfound knowledge literally pounded into her skull, Agro dismissed the illusion and focused as best she could to heal herself. She succeeded, but was still mad as hell. The onslaught continued, during which the dragon's mouth was sealed with a magnet (a surprise idea from Agro), it sprouted a second head, was trapped in a lava pit, was sandblasted, and was 'stoned' [bad pun intended!] with boulders. Agro stepped up with another amusing idea- she focused on the creature and altered the dream to install a power switch on its back. Adonteon noticed it and charged to kill the power, but the switch was partially stuck. As the dragon prepared some kind of final blast, Adonteon forced the switch to half-power. The power beam weakened noticeably, but the dragon was still building for its grand finale. An attempt was made to free Tailswisher sometime during the final moments, but it failed, and the group braced for the impending blast. They were in for a surprise, though- the dragon swallowed the blast, resulting in an immediate and messy self-destruct. As the dust settled, they found Tailswisher lying in the debris where the dragon had been. Shi was unconscious, but unhurt. As the party began to search for an exit, they were interrupted by two more small, hooded creatures. They said nothing, and before they could be questioned or identified, the group found themselves waking up in the mansion.

In moments, the party was assembled outside Tailswisher's room. They pounded on the door until shi finally opened it. When interrogated about hir dream world and how shi managed to trap everyone inside it, shi claimed ignorance of the situation. (Apparently someone at least got a good night's sleep!) It was determined that hir unborn fiendish children were to blame, and Agro became irrationally violent. She stormed out of the mansion before she 'accidentally' devoured any souls.

After spending the rest of the night hunting in the forest, Agro finally returned to the mansion with her fury under control- more or less. She revived about the time everyone else was deciding how to carry on to Korth. It was unanimous- they were walking. It would take about three days to make the trip on foot. The group set off and had walked quite a distance when Agro and some others began hearing voices. The language was unfamiliar, very deep, and very slow. The party practically disappeared in an instant. Once they determined that the owners of the voices weren't moving, Agro crept closer. She followed the sounds to a clearing in the forest, but saw no one. She was about to crouch down beside a large old tree when something about it caught her eye. The tree had arms. And legs. She looked up at the 'tree' and saw it also had a face... and was talking. She had no idea what these things were, but the last time she had dealt with a talking tree it had been that stupid, useless Ancient Druid Tree of the Gate Keepers. She wanted nothing to do with those damn druids unless she was harvesting their souls. She backed away slowly and returned to the group. Without a word, she got Sithis and Kinnik and made to ride around the grove of stupid druid tree things. The others caught up to her with some confusion. She finally told them what she'd seen, and Leeanawn decided to go commune with the freak-forest. The group paused long enough for Leeanawn to satisfy her curiosity and return, then they set off again. She told the group that the creatures weren't actually trees, they were some kind of thing known as treents. Agro didn't really care- she figured they were involved with druids one way or another and therefor sucked.

As they traveled on for the next couple of days, the group came across some goblins and their ridiculously-concealed traps. They scared the hell out of the obnoxious humanoids, then Marcus re-rigged a couple of their traps so the goblins would be ensnared in them when they came back to collect them. They rode on and later that afternoon suddenly found themselves being followed. They stopped and Agro realized they were more than being followed; they were surrounded. One of the party called out, and a growling, female voice responded. 'She' claimed to be lost and too afraid to approach the party. Marcus and Agro disappeared into the forest simultaneously. Marcus had his own agenda, as did Agro, and she appeared suddenly before a flank of the surrounding enemy. They were worgs. Agro had no time to waste on such a weak threat- she summoned her Fury and ignited a fiery barrier behind the worgs, trapping them between fire and the party. The plan was working so far; the worgs were properly intimidated and with a little more luck Agro would soon have a backstock of soul donors for when they got into Korth. The impending success must have triggered something in the Changelings, though, because for the umpteenth time, they completely wrecked her agenda. Berliner summoned some kind of water spell and doused the flames, freeing the worgs. Leeanawn managed to ensnare several with another spell, but was more interested in chastising them before also turning them loose. Agro was not pleased.

The last leg of the trip was relatively encounter-free, and by the next day they were standing in the ridiculously long-line to get into Korth. Leeanawn and Marcus skipped to the head of the line and got through hours ahead of everyone else with their ridiculous diplomacy skillz. Agro and Tailswisher finally got through a while later, and Adonteon got sent to the back of the line when his Gortanos were denied access. They spent many hours that day just trying to get through the lines that would get them to the guy who got them to the next line to stand in the line to see the Chancellor who put them in a two-day waiting line to see the King. While they waited to hear back from the Chancellor, the group disbanded, with Marcus seeking a place to sell his stolen goods, Leeanawn doing good, churchy stuff, Adonteon fishing at the docks, the Changelings doing something obnoxious, Tailswisher getting temporary employment, and Agro trying to find a Temple of the Dark Six. Leeanawn had great luck on all her endeavors, and Marcus managed to sell off some incriminating evidence, but Agro had nothing but bad luck and wound up wasting most of the night.

The party re-joined late that night at the mansion, which had been secretly set up in an alleyway near Tailswisher's 'job'. The next morning, Leeanawn treated all the town's derelict poor to an awesome feast, and maybe it was just Agro, but it really seemed like the cleric got a little extra shiny afterwards. The next day or so passed much the same for Agro- she killed time wandering around town (since she couldn't kill anything else without causing trouble!) and then hunted critters by night for sustenance. Finally, the day rolled around when the Chancellor contacted them. They went back to stand in line again at the castle, made it through to the Chancellor, and learned that for all their time and trouble, only two people could see the King. Diplomacy was needed, so Leeanawn and Marcus were chosen. The party made sure they knew the important points that needed to be made regarding the foreign army, and then they waited. Agro was infuriated at the waste of time and stormed out of the castle. She spent the remainder of the time poking around the city. After a while, she figured the meeting was over and either everyone was in jail or waiting at the mansion. She went back to the mansion.

Surprisingly, no one was incarcerated, and the group was actually planning for some event. She was later told that the King wanted them to capture one of the horned women and bring her in alive- a bad idea, as far as Agro was concerned, but what the hell- a fight's a fight. Now the group just had to wait another couple of days or so for supplies that the King offered. Another day passed (the lack of combat was really starting to irk Agro) and Leeanawn showed up with a crate from the Chancellor. They had apparently wasted a whole damn day for a box with a handful of healing potions in it.

Despite the disappointing 'assistance', the group Teleported well outside of Fairhaven and began planning for the hunt.