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[JoeGKushner]

Ah, the new week. I've got another one coming soon. Whoever said that it wasn't as easily as I thought it would be was 100% correct on that one. Sorry for the delay.

As I watched Jolan and the wounded litorian leave, I knew that my group would have to act fast. There might not be as much forgiveness in Iriana's heart if we didn't return with that ring soon.

With no time to waste, we headed off in the direction we believed the ring to be. The traveling wasn't easy with me and my comrades heavily armed and armored but with the greenbond's help, we managed to avoid the worst of the natural hazards and didn't have to dig too deeply into our iron rations. It's too bad that in addition to finding the food that the litorian couldn't cook it. Ah well, I couldn't expect Charon to do too much. After all, he wasn't really a member of our party. Still, it was nice to have someone competent in the wilderness with us.

One one morning, as we prepeared to leave for camp, we encountered a group of adventurers or at least, I assume adventurers. Their leader, a human with fiery red hair and a rakish smile, moved up into our encampment twirling about a greatsword as if it were a child's toy. “I am one who hates the rhodin and their thrice-damned allies!” He boldly proclaimed.

Whatever element of surprise he may have had was lost as my own sword was out at this point. My anger began to boil over. Here I was killing rhodin by the dozens and this fool claimed I was their ally? This human? Why did his people not all have this brave hundreds of years ago? I explained to him that we actually hailed from Ebonring Keep and were on a mission for the Magister who now ruled it.

“All who come from the keep are allies of the rhodin.” I was about to say more but didn't need to. A snarl from Rugar, our jackal headed champion of death, drew the attention of the speaker from me. “Does this look like something a friend would do?” He chuckled as he held up one of the largest rhodin skull's that he'd taken as a grisly trophy. The man's perky demeanor instantly fled and he grew silent. “I have misjudged you I see. Farewell.”

The funny part is I kept thing that these fools thought that we were supposed to be afraid of them. With my battle advisor and champion of death to back my play, I don't think that the human realized how close he came to committing suicide by attacking us.

We continued our travels but felt that something was watching us. The greenbond seemed unconcerned though so I gave it no thought but when the champion of death started sniffing the air and Kelyvn slowed down and started to look about with narrowed eyes, I knew something was up.

That's when the tree attacked. Well, not actually the tree but something dropped from above, the same color as the tree with horns, claws and sharp teeth. Kelvyn managed to leap back, taking only a minor gash in his shoulder. By the time I charged the thing, it was already in the sky again where my comrades hurled spear and shot bolts at it. It ducked behind the tree and we tried to keep our eyes on it but failed to do so as the thing leapt down again upon my war advisor. Poor akashic. He wasn't meant for such combat.

The thing wasn't as lucky this time though as I managed to land a solid blow, followed by my sibecai comrade, killing the thing. “This is a dire omen if even the green turns against us.” The litorian whispered. I agreed with him. It seemed that every day this journey became more and more trouble.

That night would prove me correct. As I sat on watch with the greenbond, small spiders attacked. I laughed at first as the things weren't able to pierce my armor, but the litorian, and my sleeping comrades weren't as lucky. The venom in the spider's bites began to take their toll with the champion of death struggling to swing his sword and the greendbond almost collapsing due to strength loss. Only I, with my heavy armor, managed to avoid most of the bites. We managed to clean up the spiders and move our camp and as we did so, the first thing out of the Champion of Death's mouth was, “And let us never speak of the spiders again.”

The next morning, most of our comrades were still weak but we went back to make sure that there would be no more spider attacks. Perhaps that was a mistake as a giant spider, concealed in the trees above, dropped on us. This wasn't the same type of scenario though. Half our group wasn't asleep and unarmored. We made quick work of the create and searched it's lair, finding a few gold and a heavy gold idol that resembled a loresong faen dancing without shoes on a tabletop.

We continued on the road and had the good fortune to encounter a young verrik lady named Anyanca. We shared food and campfire with the litorian managing to find enough food for all of us. She claimed to be a witch studying the Floating Forest and had lived in the area for a few years, currently hunting down plants and herbs before losing track of time. We shared some of our own stories and made her feel at home.

It was a good thing we did as in the morning, she provided us with some healing and some hazelnuts that she claims would help us when we were pressed hard. A good change of luck from the way things had been going so far.

As we neared the edge of the forest, we saw a small hillock. A large stone was set before it and as we drew closer, we recognized it as a burial mound, one large enough for a giant with the stone acting as a grave marker. Writing was carved upon it in four languages, I recognized the Common and Giant and my comrades informed me that the others were Faen and Verrik. The text read, “Here lies the body of Ji-Condur, beloved of all free peoples. Warrior, leader, scholar, hero of the war against the dramojh, and the builder of Ebonring Keep. A giant among giants, he came closer to blending the Wardance with the Caretaker than perhaps any other ever will. We are lessened by his passing.”

Ah, here was one of my people. One of the legends of my people even. I nodded solemnly towards the marker, hoping that the reverence I felt would be felt by Ji-Condur himself. My moment of peace was not to last as I heard another walking down the road, a heavily armed and armored someone, a large someone walking down the road. It was the distant straing of a song being sung badly in a deep bass voice and the one singing it was a gaint of a man with pale green skin and pointed eiaths with no hair.

His armor, a breastplace and his huge sword at his side, indicated that he was a warrior of no small skill. Especially the sword as it was larger than my own blade and was dire on top of that. He slung a pick in a slow motion as he moved. As he drew closer, he looked us up and down, “Do yeh fear the chorrim?”

“Why fear what isn't fearsome?” I returned. To this he merely shrugged his shoulders and began walking towards the grave.

“What goes on here?”

“I've come to put right a wrong. Folks be thinkin' this Ji-Condur was some king of hero or other. I'll hear it no more. He was a right bastard like all his folk.” His gaze settled heavily on me and my hands clenched the hilt of my greatsword until I felt the knuckles threaten to tear. “I'll let 'em all know today what ol' Merek thinks of 'em.” He hefted the pick and pointed at the mount. “Any of yeah got a problem with that?”

“Your opinions are yours to express freely. A gift that the giants gave the land when we liberated it from the dramojh. You're right to dig up this mount however, is not and must be earned.”

Well, perhaps that was a mistake. He charged me dropped the pick and pulling out the sword. Gods, he was a huge bastard! The sword crushed down on me and I felt the world spin. I knew that I hadn't pulled my own blade up in time to block the sword. I couldn't see, couldn't breath. It was as if a thousand hands crushed my chest and prevented me from breathing. Then relief came over me as the greenbond laid a soothing hand on my shoulder. “Strike him down giant or we will all die!” he snarled through fangs.

And I did. I struck him but was still so stunned from the dire huge greatsword cutting into my flesh, that I failed to do anything other than move him back a step or two. What happened next was amazing. Perhaps inspired by seeing a giant, one of those who gave his race sentience, or perhaps some dark whisper of death itself drove him, but Rugar launched himself forward with a vengeance. He plunged the bastard sword two handed into the chorrim's leg and through it and pulled the blade down, cracking the leg open like a chicken bone.

The chorrim's eyes rolled up in his head and he died. Thus would perish all of those who sought to taint the giant's legacy to the land and personally, all those who continued to delay us in getting the ring.

The greenbond spent the last of his magic's healing me, and we continued on, towards the mountains to seek out some trees that grew a mile high.