May the eyes of the hallowed gods y lightly upon you.

  - The traditional welcome of the city of Al-Lazar.

  Raising the visor of my helmet, I drew in a deep lungful of air. The slight notes of rot and metallic copper wafting up made me wince at the stains that adorned my cheap robe. Almost instantly, the countdown to assign my points began and I put all of my attribute points into Constitution, and my new skill point into Drain. The spell was a good choice, I decided, as it both healed me and could also be used offensively. Also, if I was being completely honest with myself, it was pleasant to use, save for the rasping sibint voices that always accompanied its cast, promising unspeakable things. The spell would have to do as a substitute for a good coffee.

  As the adrenaline left my system, I slumped heavily onto the forest floor as Kidu began butchering the Karil. Patches began to nuzzle my face as I brought myself back to some sembnce of mental order. Interesting, I thought between bored breaths, my little twist on throwing knives was recognized by this world as a sort of special combat skill and cost Stamina to use. Perhaps I could learn other skills by experimenting in a simir fashion?

  Not caring to look at the bloody work in progress, I took the moment to relieve myself behind a tree, making sure to wash my hands with a little water from my drinking fsk. Leaning against the tree, I took a moment just for myself as a fragment of mental respite. Regaining some sembnce of forced calm, I checked over my gear, noting that the boss of my shield was dented a little from my encounter, before rejoining my companions.

  The donkey looked forlornly at me as Kidu continued with his messy work, while Elwin was searching the clearing for something. I patted Patches’ head affectionately and fed her a carrot from the bag. She dispyed her great appreciation by braying loudly.

  “Got some!” Elwin shouted, which caused Kidu to pause for a moment from his butchery.

  Wending my way over to Elwin, I looked to where the Rogue was enthusiastically pointing. Near where the Karil had been basking were several clumps of silvery-blue moss.

  “Moon Moss, and a lot of it! We’ve got Hell’s own luck, we do!” Elwin shouted, his voice going up by an octave, as he began scraping it off the bark of a fallen tree. I joined him in his bor, and together we stripped off as much of the visible moss as possible. Even though my hands were covered with the thick leather of my gloves, I could feel a tingle every time I gathered up the strange pnt. It was a strange sensation, though not particurly unpleasant, and I guessed that this was probably due to the moss being magical in nature. Perhaps the moss was the very reason that the Karil had chosen this clearing for part of its territory?

  Butchering the creature and gathering up all the moss from the clearing took the better part of an hour-and-a-half. I contributed by patrolling the clearing and encountered a trio of jackal-like creatures who were drawn to the scent of freshly-spilled blood. Their fur was a dull brown, with soft gray spots that broke up their outline. Close to our recent kill, their tongues lolled in anticipation and hunger and they barked a warning at me. Leaving my visor raised, I did not break eye contact and cast Entropic Aura. The invisible dark waves of the spell flowed over and through the beasts. Sensing that something was amiss, the trio quickly whined and yelped. They soon turned tail and fled towards the depths of the forest. Sighing in mild disappointment, I brought the dark energies back inward and ended the spell.

  Returning to my companions, I saw that they had reduced the Karil to bloody chunks of meat, bone, cws, teeth, and hide, all of which were neatly stacked into piles. Despite having eaten earlier in the day, the smell of cooking meat on an open fire caused my stomach to rumble with hunger. Elwin was cooking three rge chunks of meat on the open fme, occasionally adding salt and spices.

  I sat down next to my companions and waited for the meat to finish cooking, while Kidu finished off his st few chores. In good time, the meat was cooked to perfection and tasted like a mix of beef and chicken. It was grilled beautifully on the outside and seasoned well with hot spices, adding a delightful kick to the meal. My companions all tore into the delicious meat, not caring much for table manners out here in the wilderness.

  “Karil makes for good eating,” Kidu stated bluntly, which drew a ugh from Elwin and me.

  “I must say, well-fought everyone! To more victories to come,” I said as I raised my canteen in cheer, washing out the st taste of Karil from my palette.

  The toast was taken as a signal to move, and my companions started to break camp. Leaving behind the offal to rot in the clearing, they loaded up a worried-looking Patches with the spoils of our test encounter. Kidu once again led the van of our formation, and in my estimation, he was leading us in the direction of the river that we had crossed in our hurried escape from the mines. Sneaking back a look at the clearing, I saw the earlier trio of jackal-like creatures barking with glee and tearing into the offal, bones, and other parts of the Karil that we had no use for. On a whim, I silently cast Identify on one of the scavengers. I believed that the spell completed a little faster despite my heavy armor.

  Spotted Uakari - (Lesser Canid lvl.7)

  Health: 73/80

  Stamina: 30/35

  Mana: 4/4

  I viewed the canids as little threat to my party, despite Patches’ braying in anger at the small creatures. Pulling the donkey by the harness, I finally convinced the stubborn creature to continue by feeding her another carrot, which she chomped on angrily, narrowly missing one of my fingers.

  We were following a beast trail now, the forest growing steadily darker as less and less sunlight filtered down through the higher branches of the canopy. Strange gliding lizards flitted from branch to branch above us, gulping down colorful buzzing insects. As we marched along the forest floor, Elwin donned a small iron pot helm from one of Patches’ bags. He tightened the leather straps around his chin as he looked cautiously above, almost tripping on a tree root as he did so.

  After an indeterminable amount of time in the eternal gloom of the Sainba, we came across a recently-fallen giant of a tree blocking the trail. The leaves of its branches were still green and only half of its roots had been uprooted, creating a split down its otherwise solid trunk. Kidu ushered for us to check its upturned roots, remembering the alchemist’s instructions, and sure enough, exposed to the air were growths of hairy mushrooms that resembled a broom’s head. Holding pieces of cloth to their mouths, Elwin and Kidu began harvesting the fungi. They quickly stuffed all the mushrooms within arm’s length into their bags, while Kidu was pyfully mocking Elwin for being zy. I told them that we would need to leave some space in our collective packs for River Root and Lurker hide, so they hurriedly finished their gathering. Once more, we made our way around the fallen behemoth of a tree and off in the direction, according to Kidu, of the river.

  Our party continued to make good progress through the depths of the Sainba, but eventually, Elwin began to fg and called out to us.

  “Enough! We shouldn’t go on anymore. By my reckoning, it will be nightfall soon and we should find a pce to make camp,” the Rogue excimed, hands on his knees in exhaustion.

  Kidu snapped from his reverie, as going through the forest had an almost meditative effect on him, acknowledged Tucker’s suggestion and led us off the trail. I had more than enough energy to go on, but not enough mental energy to argue. Shrugging internally, I followed the Hunter.

  One foot forward, then the next, brushing away any vegetation, scanning for threats, all done almost without a thought. My behavior was now an ingrained subconscious repetition.

  Eventually, the Hunter led us to yet another giant, this time the venerable colossus of a tree was surrounded by growths of one of my favorite pnts. Snap-Honey pnts ringed the tree, growing along its trunk and sprawling over its exposed roots like Venusian jade sentinels. This variant of the carnivorous pnt had pink maws that were lined with sharp spiky yellow ‘teeth’.

  A dark maw opened at the base of the tree’s trunk, hollow and promising shelter for the night. Kidu didn’t even bother with his earlier trick of triggering the biting heads by throwing a small stone at them. He merely waded in among them, his spear hewing away at the pnts and leaving behind a clear path for us to follow.

  Occasionally a Snap-Honey would weave its way through his guard of fshing steel only to bite ineffectively against his armor. As soon as a pnt head tched onto him, he swiftly tore it off, hardly missing a beat. We followed in his impressive wake of destruction until we made it to the tree’s hollow.

  It took a little persuasion to make our donkey enter the hollow of the tree, but once I soothed her with some sweet reassurances she willingly went inside. Once inside, having torn off the spiky ‘teeth’, I fed my faithful beast a whole Snap-Honey head.

  Immediately my companions began to make camp, with Elwin collecting the fallen Snap-Honey heads and Kidu gathering up fallen dry branches. Somewhere along the way, the Rogue must have acquired some flint. He struck one of his knives against a dark gray stone to start a fire. Once the merry bze had been started, Elwin and I took off Patches’ saddlebags and brushed her down, which she thoroughly enjoyed.

  Kidu was sprinkling salt on some Karil flesh, wrapping the meat in the heads of the Snap-Honey before pcing them on the open fmes. The fmes caused the pnt heads to shrivel and cling closely to the meat, and a pungent, heady aroma filled the air. My mouth began to water in anticipation of the evening’s meal. Soon enough, the darkness grew as we sat around the solitary fire, which was causing dancing orange and red fmes to throw strange shadows into the forest.

  Patches, in a moment of intelligence that surprised us all, went out of the tree's hollow, and away from our campfire, to relieve herself. To all of our amusement, she gave us a ‘look’ before returning to the safety of the hollow of the giant tree.

  “You know what? That’s one remarkable donkey,” jibed Elwin, clearly amused.

  “The trained beasts of my cn do simir,” said Kidu, trying to not look impressed, fondness nonetheless entering his voice.

  “She is great! I wonder if my magic did more than just heal her?” I asked, which just drew a few noncommittal or ignorant shrugs.

  “Ahh, anyways, I think our meal is ready! Aha, dinner is served!” Excimed Elwin as he pulled a delicious parcel delicately out of the fire and began blowing on it to cool it down.

  Kidu used a stick to stab through a parcel of salted Karil meat wrapped in Snap-Honey head, and waited for it to cool naturally. I followed suit and, after a short while, judging that my meal was cool enough, I bit into it. An orchestrated explosion of fvor filled my mouth. The lizard meat was salted to perfection and the added sweetness of the Snap-Honey enhanced all of the fvors.

  Taking off my gloves, I gobbled up the rest of my portion and greedily began on seconds, savoring the honey aftertaste. Once I had finished, I washed my hands with some water. Kidu had promised that we would make the river tomorrow, so saving water was of little concern to us.

  My companions went about their tasks for the night, checking their equipment and gathering firewood and a dozen other chores that camping required. Sure that I would be of little assistance, I did not offer them help. Instead, I volunteered for the first and second watch. Once they had finished, we talked of matters of little import. Soon enough, Kidu and Elwin, exhausted after the day's exertions, retired for the evening.

  At the start of my watch, I cast the dark spell Drain on a giant of a tree at the edge of my magic’s range. I did this to keep my senses keen, the strengthened spell siphoning energy quicker than before.

  Alone with my thoughts and the pleasant sensation of my magic, I focused on filtering out the voices that promised unspeakable things. The voices were not the sign of madness—not quite. Or maybe they were, but I had grown so used to them that I no longer recognized the stain of insanity. Still, if madness was the price of survival, and with it greater power, then it was a price that I would gdly pay.

  Arranging my thoughts like soldiers before a march, I had a chance to truly think about my next move as darkness stole over the Sainba Forest. As I grew in power, so too did I grow in the agency of my choices. The quest messages still puzzled and worried me. Was it a measure of some divine will that drove them, that provided structure to my experience? Or were the messages part of a game where the wagers were paid in blood and pain? Or, was it my own will and actions that influenced the quests? My mind continued to ponder these thoughts long into the night, going around and around in convoluted, abstract circles. My mind settled on the memory of the woman who was connected to Jongshoi, my first human kill in this nd. I concluded from her age that she was probably his now-bereaved mother. What possible vengeance was the harpy pnning?

  A touch on my shoulder broke me out of these thoughts, Elwin’s mischievous smile snapping me back to the here and now. Gratefully. I unrolled my bedroll and, still in the protection of my armor, rested for the night.