I'm trying to limit the speed a bit so nobody gets left behind.

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You shake her hand as the girl introduces herself as Andrea Lothar. She doesn't even look at the others and she turns and leads the lot of you outside and then south. Out of curiosity, you ask her what the tunnel is for.

"It's a secret exit so the baron can sneak people past sieges." Andrea tells you and shows the steel key she opened the tunnel's entrance and exit with. "The thing only opens to a person of the Lothar family carrying this, and even then, only from the inside." She throws the key over her shoulder so that it lands right next to the now closed exit. She doesn't explain it, but you figure that if the tunnel can't be used to enter the castle, the key's not going to be any use in whichever case.

The woman leads the lot of you south. She does not pay attention to you anymore, so you decide to take a look at the company you are in. You're followed by eight cultists, five of them are men and three women. Most look like your average villagers, except maybe with a little dirtier clothing. Their ages span from the barely adult Charles to one elder lady at the back.

You fall a bit back to talk with Charles. You ask him what happened to Jallan. "After you fainted up there, in the forest, I got him to wake up." He tells you. "He healed my hand and your face and led the people back to the village. After we split up to our own homes, he left to take you to your inn. He told me before he left that we should play it low for now and that I should think up an excuse for my wound. He never said anything about himself, but I assumed he'd stay in town...

So, where are you going? Mind if I come with you as well?"

You ignore the last part. "I guess we're wanted men now. We'll have to get out of Baron Lothar's lands as soon as possible..."

After a moment of silence, Charles laughs. "What did I tell you about the Baron back when we first met? A total-"

He never gets time to tell what the Baron is as Andrea suddenly springs around and gives him a fiery gaze. You walk the rest of the day in silence.



A little before sunset, you climb up into the foothills and decide to go find some location that could house your numbers. To your surprise, Andrea tells the rest of you to keep following. Soon you reach a small cave behind a copse of trees. "My father takes me hunting here in the summer." She explains. "We usually stay in this cave for a few nights and ride out into the mountains in the days between."

The place looks like an average natural place, untouched by man, at first. Soon, however, you see Andrea remove a large stone leaning against one of the walls and take out a bunch of camping equipment. There's not enough for the lot of you now here, but there's definitely more than two people need. You decide to ask about it later and instead help her set up a few tents and get a campfire started. Some of the cultists travelling with you aren't dressed very well for camping, and it isn't long before they are circled around the flames, warming their icy-cold limbs.

You take Charles and Andrea out of the cave, deciding that if you're going to have the talk with them, now is as good a time as any.

"Charles, Miss Lothar, I want you to understand something." You begin after getting out of an earshot. A good enough start. "I'm not some hero on a quest to save the world. I'm not a knight in shining armour. I'm just a dwarf who doesn't know who he is. You two may assume I'm just being modest, but I'm not. I have no plan, I'm not going anywhere in specific. We're going to take these people to where ever they're safe, and then I'm going to... I don't even know what I'll do then."

Andrea looks at you, puzzled. "I thought you're going to see the Stonetear."

It takes you and Charles ten full seconds of staring her until she understands that neither of you knows what 'the Stonetear' is. She gasps. "I'm sorry, I thought it was a commonly known story. My mother read it to me when I was a child."

Charles shakes his head. "As if nobles knew what the common people do besides paying taxes..."

"We know plenty more than a failed magician's apprentice, Charles."

A smile suddenly spreads on his face. "I may not be an apprentice anymore, but I know magic. If I know magic and I'm not an apprentice, doesn't that mean I'm a real mage now? And besides, I've never liked the name Charles. I decided when I started to study that the day I'd become a mage, I'd be called by my wizard name..."

A PLAYFUL YOUTH.
A FEARLESS MAGIC-USER.
A GOOD FRIEND.

Think up of good Wizard Names for him. I refuse to call him Charles for the rest of the game.

Oh, and for those who didn't know, I like to imagine that names such as "Arugal", "Antonidas", "Ur" and "Kel'Thuzad" are 'Wizard names', which human magi take upon finishing their apprenticehood to make themselves seem more cool or stuff.

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Co-creator of UFS, a joint urban fantasy setting.

Fantastic! Someone besides Jallan knows what the Stonetear is! Now we don't have to track him down.

Charles Smith will henceforth be called Rincewind.

Actually that name sounds terrible to me. I'll try to think of a better one.

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Redwind!!!!!

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I'm just gonna write some name ideas I can come up with in this instant, I can't guarantee they won't be lame though.

Coraden
Rádal
Telgan
Malgar
Calsander
Dalvinar
Atram
Algon

I don't know if a few of these already exist, are too similar to something or mean something silly in any language, but feel free to ignore them if you wish.

I like Atran, Coraden and Redwind. We need one more suggestion and I'll initiate a vote between the four nominees.

Or maybe I should make "we don't care, you're named Charles and that's what we're gonna call you" a choice.

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Co-creator of UFS, a joint urban fantasy setting.

Tammuz. Name taken from Sumerian king.

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Redwind sounds nice, like a Wizard's name and not one of common men.

You can even make cool "slogans" with it like:
"They call me Redwind, because only bloody storms remain of my enemies." ^^

I rather like the ring of Redwind as well.

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VOTE #5: Charles' wizard name

A) Redwind
B) Atran
C) Coraden
D) Tammuz
E) Nothing

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Co-creator of UFS, a joint urban fantasy setting.

Redwind^^

Hell yeah, the Redwind name lives on!

FOR REDWIND!

Redwind sounds cool, I think it suits him more than the other options.

Atran

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Warlock, Lord of Scrolls of Lore: Shut up, Timolas

While Redwind certainly is a cool name, I can't help but think of a certain mage called Redhair.

And so, in order to defy the rest of you, I vote for my own creation: Coraden.

Hail and glory to General Redwind I say.

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There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.

You waver dangerously close to heresy! http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/mediawiki...r_Amatheon.jpg

Also putting my vote in for redwind in case you didn't count me already.

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Sorry about the extended inaction sequence once again (it's basically been going since you chose to break into the castle). I'll get the basic "WTF do we do?" stuff out of the way so you can take your party out for a spin.

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Co-creator of UFS, a joint urban fantasy setting.

"And besides, I've never liked the name Charles. I decided when I started to study that the day I'd become a mage, I'd be called by my wizard name, Redwind."

You nod to shut him up and turn back at Andrea. "What is the Stonetear, then?"

She gives a sigh and closes her eyes. "It's been years since I last heard the story, and it's a complicated one at that. It's about the founding of the dwarf nation of Khaz Modan.

As I recall it, the dwarves today don't really know where they originate from. They do know that they wandered into the mountains north of here several millennia ago and chose to settle down. A simple fort was established on the slopes of the greatest mountain of the land and a dwarf named Ragnar Anvilmar was made its first king.

Soon, however, disaster approached them. Gnolls, who inhabited most of the land from the Wetlands to Stranglethorn in those days, started raiding the dwarves' farmlands and trade routes and got bolder by the day. King Anvilmar sent emissaries to talk the gnolls into peace, but they refused to accept diplomacy as a solution and thus it came to war. The dwarf-king marched a small band of warriors south to the valley from where the tribe attacking his young nation originated from.

King Anvilmar's men fought valiantly for an entire day, but they were no match for their numerically superior foes, and defeat loomed upon them. In the final hour, however, a weapon thrust itself out of the mountainside and flew into the hands of the dwarves' leader. With the spear, made of granite and yet as durable as cold steel, Anvilmar vanquished his foes and won Khaz Modan its first war.

The king made the spear, which he dubbed the Stonetear, 'Bhar'ur' in the dwarven tongue, a part of his his attire, something he never went anywhere without. He believed it to be a gift from a bunch of gods the dwarves worshipped in those days called 'the Creators'. Before his death, he ordered for the weapon to be buried with him in the site of its original appearance. There it still is, in Khaz Modan, buried with King Ragnar Anvilmar."

You three stand in silence for some time. You have a tingling sensation you can't quite place, as if you're onto something important even though you can't tell what it is. Then you are suddenly on your knees, your hands flying to your forehead as you shift to somewhere else entirely.

"Oh yes. It is unfortunate." The other dwarf says, coughing slightly and smiling despite his words. "What you are facing requires something of divine origin to defeat. In our modern world, there aren't many things that would be of use to you. That human hero, Sherman, claimed his shield was granted to him by the Holy Light, but the item is lost nowadays. The druids of Caer Darrow are rumoured to possess something that originates from a moon goddess of they serve. And then there is the Stonetear, but we wouldn't want to go graverobbing from the founder of our homeland, now would we, Thurgrim?"

The others are holding you up as your vision ends and you come to. It takes a moment for you to remember where you are again. You lie that you are just fatigued after the escape from the castle and suggest the three of you go back in.

Andrea shares some salted meat she took with her from the castle and you melt snow in a small cauldron to get water. That's all the ten of you get to eat and drink. You idly remind yourself that the one of you who looks least suspicious has to visit a settlement and buy supplies when you next see one.

Andrea takes the first watch shift. You don't get sleep for a long time, and even then your slumber is restless and plagued by echoes of the vision you had. Eventually you're woken up for the last shift and given Andrea's sword to defend yourself in case something happens. You sit on a stone and ponder what you are facing as the vision voice said.



The next morning you gather the people together, loan a map of the kingdom from Andrea and point out your current location. "We're here, a day's travel south of Lake Everstill. We need to get the lot of you to a safe place where the Baron isn't likely to discover you. If we go to Southern Redridge and find some peaceful village, they'll be likely to buy an excuse such as your homes having been burnt by bandits. Grand Hamlet..." You trail your finger westward, into the eastern border of the municipality labeled Sunnyglade. "Is farther away and the lands we'll have to travel through are more thickly populated, so we'll have a harder time getting there, but since it's a larger township, you'll be able to blend in better and Jallan said that there's a cult of Mnesthes there. Perhaps they will lend assistance."

The opinions seem to be squarely divided. Four of the cultists (including Charl... Redwind) want to go south and four want to go west. Andrea doesn't care either way, so eventually the humans agree that you should make the call between the two locations.

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Ugh. Just need to get rid of those extra cultists in a way that isn't "they all fall down a cliff" and you'll get sandboxing.

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Co-creator of UFS, a joint urban fantasy setting.

I think we should get them to sunnyglade.

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Oh, and "Southern Redridge" means Deadwind Pass before corruption.

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Co-creator of UFS, a joint urban fantasy setting.

I change my mind

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I want to go find the cult of Mnesthes. Maybe Jallan can be found there. I still think he might be useful to us, plus I like the guy.

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There is no creature on earth half so terrifying as a truly just man.

Was it "Deadwind Pass" before it became a gloomy fall to your death kind of place?

In any case, I think Sunnyglade is the better option. It would be nice to meet up with Jallan again.

Depending on where you believe Sunnyglade to be (Tower of Azora?), Redwind might be able to secure some magic spells to help draw out some more of our memories.

Seems like we tried to steal the Stonetear for some purpose that required a divine weapon. "Thurgrim Stonetear" might very well be a code name we came up with for ourselves. We should reflect on that vision we had in our downtime and try to remember who was talking to us about the divine weapons. In our travels westward, avoid people who might know the Baron in order to protect Andrea's treason.

I'm starting to get really interested

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Sunnyglade = Darkshire

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Co-creator of UFS, a joint urban fantasy setting.

The correct choice is to look for the cult of Yuber. Obviously.