The Future Ogre King Campaign!

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

I was talking with friends, swimming in the ocean, doing everyday fun activities that I hadn’t been able to do in a while. We’ve had a lot going on lately and a break was in order. Most of the day was a breeze until nightfall when everything came crashing down.

Liana flew out of Christian’s room yelling for us to get ready to go. Christian ran outside practically naked, only wearing a few magic items. Liana said that her brother Derek sent a message: “The city of Loudwater is being attacked now. Please help immediately.”

We all gathered together and Liana teleported us to the back entrance gate of the city. We could hear sounds of fighting, pain, and death. The air was shivering cold and as we entered the city, the cold became painful. We quickly cast protection spells, prepared ourselves for battle, and charged in.

It was pouring cold rain inside the city. Civilians were hiding and running away in fear; some were being attacked and killed. There were dead bodies littered on the floor underneath 3 inches of water. Pirates and knights were fighting against aquatic elves armed with tridents, nets, and short spears. Derek was on top of his tower launching fireballs upon enemies. Landon and Yeger noticed a blur moving around inside the rain…it was Kendra, the water elemental sibling. Liana saw her sister Kendra and immediately flew toward her.

Landon charged in and gutted the nearest enemy with his scimitar. Yeger flew up, dive-bombed downward, and slashed five enemies in a circle. Christian launched a barrage of arrows. I fired spells and ran into the center of attention for all enemies to attack me. Many charged and couldn't hit me, but a few lucky blows landed. The whole battle was brutal. I was fighting for my life, dodging blows, suffering from severe cold, and blasting my most powerful spells.

The enemies were resilient and Kendra was untouchable. She kept moving and firing large area spells that affected everyone! Eventually, she cast "Frozen Heart" twice upon Christian and he fell unconscious. When this happened, Yeger and Landon became more aggressive and charged her mercilessly. But it still wasn't enough. She started summoning large ice glaciers and dropping them on top of Yeger to slow him down.

Landon got surrounded by aquatic elves and couldn't get away. He was gradually overwhelmed and near death. Derek used fire magic and blasted all of the enemies around him, but it was too late. The moment Landon was free from enemies, Kendra finished him off with two weak hailstorm spells.

We were beginning to lose hope until a giant snake grabbed Landon and dragged him to safety. It was a snake summoned by Christian! We thought he was dead, but our old friend Bahd used potions to heal him a bit and gave him cold protection. Liana chased after Landon to heal him as well.

Landon returned and cast “Blade Barrier” which helped defeat more enemies. Eventually, all weaker enemies were defeated and Kendra was our last opponent. We all concentrated our attacks upon her and it took a while, but we finally defeated her. I cast “Frozen Heart” twice and Derek cast “Internal Meltdown” twice. She finally fell unconscious. A black and purple spirit oozed out of her and Kendra faintly whispered “Thank you”.

We thought it was all over until we heard footsteps, lots of them; but we couldn't see anything. Christian tried teleporting us all out, but there was magic stopping teleportation. So he summoned a huge centipede to dig a hole out of the city. Yeger was impatient and picked up Kendra to fly out of the city. Seconds after he took off, the Ogre King appeared in front of him and smashed him onto the floor with his huge greatclub. Liana charged and thrust her daggers into the Ogre King's chest. The Ogre King seemed unaffected as he grinned and pummeled Liana onto the floor next to Yeger and Kendra.

Christian summoned another centipede to dig a hole and save everyone. I created ice walls to protect our group and block off the centipede holes. Christian also summoned a rhino to block off the holes. We all jumped into centipede holes and ran outside of the city. We all made it out alive except Derek. He stayed behind to fight the Ogre King and gave us time to escape.

We watched as the city of Loudwater fell apart. Buildings collapsing, fire raining down upon the city, and there was nothing we could do about it. Christian explained that he has the "True Seeing" spell which allows him to see invisible creatures. The Ogre King had an invisible army charging into the city. We had to run away because we would have all died. At least we saved Kendra, but we lost Derek and Loudwater city. Our mission was a failure.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Christian teleported us back to our pirate ships and that's where the hard work began. I spent an hour working non-stop on healing my friends' wounds. I healed Christian, Liana, Kendra, Landon, and Bahd all simultaneously. I used bandages, healing herbs, thread and needles, stitches, and anything useful. I was running from one bed to another trying to keep everyone calm and comfortable as I worked.

Surprisingly, Landon wanted to learn about healing. I healed his wounds first, then he followed me around and I spoke aloud about everything I was thinking and doing so that he could learn as I healed others.

Yeger has regeneration, so he didn't need healing. I gave him a bag full of money and told him to find our unicorn friend and resurrect Derek. As he left, Altier and Isabella came in and asked what happened. Yeger filled them in and they decided to go back to Loudwater to retrieve any lost treasure from the ruined city and battlefield.

Yeger, Altier, and Isabella returned from their tasks shortly after I finished healing everyone. Altier and Isabella were very successful and retrieved expensive items. Some items were donated to party members and others were sold for money.

Yeger, however, returned my money to me with terrible news. Derek refused to be revived from the dead. Derek told Yeger that he had lived too long and done more harm than good in his life. Derek sacrificed himself to fight the Ogre King and save us. He wanted to die on good terms and rest in peace.

I had a feeling this may happen because Derek was forced to work as a warlord for the Ogre King and he attacked and killed many innocent people. Derek's decision was too much for Liana and Kendra to bear, so they ran out of the room. Christian spent the rest of the night consoling Liana while Yeger helped Kendra.

Derek also told Yeger something very surprising; he said that his siblings should trust me like a brother since I'm a water elemental and a loyal friend. I was proud and inspired when I heard this. It meant that I had big shoes to fill if I was supposed to be a good brother. So I accepted my new family title with honor and went to work.

I spent hours meditating, talking to the Earth with magic, and developing elaborate plans to take down the Ogre King. I also spoke with Garth; he filled me in on the details about how to save the underground and his people from the Ogre King. We had to defeat the most powerful earth dragons in order to gain their trust and help.

I found Gestalfa and purchased a few scrolls and a message stone that would help us in the upcoming battle. Isabella passed by and I gave her the items. I told her we would need her help and she agreed knowing that dragons have hordes of money. She also went into a private room with Gestalfa...

Landon accompanied me throughout the night, but I eventually sent him away so he could sleep. I already meditated earlier, so I continued my work and plans to ensure a better future. I promise that we'll take down the Ogre King and never get sucker punched again.

Next morning, I helped the pirates cook a magnificent breakfast for everyone. We ate and then teleported to Garth in the underground. We spoke briefly, obtained maps, and went searching through the underground. I followed the maps and lead our group safely to the earth dragons. It was a large lair with baby dragons playing and loud echoing voices. The voices said we must prove ourselves and a large stone door closed behind us. Time for battle.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

The walls roared, baby dragons sank into the ground, and then all was quiet. Isabella hid behind a rock and began using some of the scrolls I gave her. Everyone else either readied themselves for surprise attacks or cast preparation spells. Then two huge copper dragons came out of the walls. One dragon shot acid breath at us while the other swooped by and attacked multiple people. It also picked up Yeger and slammed him into the wall. We all fired attacks upon that dragon to free Yeger, but it wouldn’t let go. It took Yeger into the wall…

Using one of my scrolls, Isabella ran into the wall, grabbed Yeger, and teleported him out to safety. The baby dragons came out of the ground and surrounded Landon and I. They were using cheap hit-and-run tactics. They had trouble getting through my defenses and I bombarded them with powerful ice spells, so they stopped attacking me and went over to Landon. I tried my best to help him, but I also had to focus on the huge dragons.

The battle was long and dangerous. Yeger kept attacking one huge dragon head-on while the others were attacking from a safe distance. Isabella jumped in and out of hiding to sneak attack the dragons. We defeated most of the baby dragons, but Landon was greatly wounded. A huge dragon had also damaged and snatched Christian out of the sky. He almost took Christian into a wall, but I cast “Ice Glacier” on top of the dragon. He never saw it coming and plummeted onto the ground.

The dragon appeared weakened and Landon wanted to kill it, so he charged valiantly and missed. The dragon destroyed Landon, but showed mercy with his final attack and didn’t kill him. Landon was unconscious and Christian summoned centipedes to bring him to safety. He also used the centipedes to cause ruptures in the ceiling and collapse rocks on top of the few remaining baby dragons.

We defeated the weakened huge dragon and it faded into the ground. The last huge dragon, however, was vicious and persistent. It went underground, came up behind all of us, and attacked everyone. Someone had used a potion on Landon, but he was greatly weakened and barely managed to block the dragon’s near-fatal attack. The dragon also attacked Yeger and I, snatched both of us, and slammed us into the nearby wall. Yeger fell unconscious from the blow.

Christian shot a very important arrow that set Yeger and I free. I landed on the ground and dove to catch Yeger's limp body. Yeger has regeneration, so he soon woke up and prepared to attack the dragon. The dragon came down upon us; Yeger missed his attack and the dragon killed him. It also dealt me a few painful blows. Isabella jumped out of hiding and threw every weapon she had.

The dragon took those hits, then grinned and cast a spell. I forgot that dragons could cast powerful arcane magic. The dragon suddenly appeared behind Isabella and destroyed her with 5 physical attacks. It happened in the blink of an eye; she had no chance of defending herself. This wasn't teleportation, this was "Time Stop". At this point, we had to defeat or kill this dragon quickly before he did it again.

I fired my two strongest ice spells and prayed for the best. Christian fired more arrows, but it wasn't enough. Landon surprised us all by casting an incredible spell..."Power Word Kill". The huge copper dragon died...battle over...mission accomplished. I ran over to Isabella and immediately closed her worst wounds. I stabilized her, but she needed further attention. I poured a cure potion down her throat and she breathed easier.

We heard the voice of the other huge dragon from below. She said "you have earned our respect and trust. We will help create an ancient mythal and protect the underground. Take half of our hoard of gold and leave the rest so that I can resurrect my fallen husband and children." We each received 50,000gp and traded our worst magic item for an improved version in the dragon's hoard. Then we teleported back to our pirate ships.

Once again, I had to tend to my allies' wounds. I spent an hour healing everyone. We paid our friend, the unicorn, 50,000 gp to resurrect Yeger. We each also received an extra 50,000 gp and a message from random cities. The city leaders have learned about our efforts to defeat the Ogre King and want to secretly provide monetary aid from time to time.

Luckily, Isabella did not die from the dragon's savage attack. But she was badly wounded and I took extra care of her in my personal room. After a few hours, Isabella was clean, fully healed, and shocked. She started saying random things in rapid succession. She was worried, angry, going through a mix of emotions. I calmed her down. I'm sure she's been through rough times, but perhaps never so close to death as she was today. Sometimes near-death experiences bring out memories and unusual reactions from people.

I listened to Isabella for the rest of the night. She told stories, shared her dreams, and opened her heart. I never questioned her; I simply nodded and respected her. After a while, she asked "why did you save me?" and I asked "why didn't you hide or run away?". Then we both said "I panicked" and looked at each other. It was a special moment we had never experienced before...our minds were connected. I admired her honesty and she admired my understanding. The rest of the night was bliss.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Isabella told me about her last run-in with smugglers a few years ago. The mission went bad, she gave up her stolen goods, went into hiding, joined us for protection, and the smugglers now want her dead. They sent her a message to meet tomorrow at the docks of Waterdeep.

Yeger had the idea of disguising himself as Isabella. Christian had the idea of casting the "Sympathy" spell upon Yeger's weapon so that evil beings are attracted to him. This was a great way to protect Isabella and lure bad guys to us in case they were planning an ambush.

Altier remembered an alleyway in Waterdeep and teleported us there perfectly. Yeger, disguised as Isabella, walked out into the open while I jumped into the ocean and swam under the docks and boats. A few sailors and criminals approached Yeger to "touch" his weapon. Yeger sliced them away and Altier threw daggers while hiding in the shadows of the alley. Isabella found a great hiding spot and used a "Ventriloquism" scroll so she could speak for Yeger.

Yeger finally reached the destination and a cloaked man walked out. Yeger tried to bargain a deal, but the man made it clear that Isabella's death was the only solution. Then archers on the city walls fired numerous arrows upon Yeger. We all charged into the battle, firing spells, ranged weapons, and etc. There were 4 archers hiding and sniping us, but Isabella used a "Glitterdust" scroll and quickly revealed their hiding spots.

The cloaked man charged Yeger, but he jumped into the air and took flight, thus revealing his true identity. The cloaked man hid and sneak attacked our group a few times during battle. I helped freeze and kill many enemies. I cast "tidal wave" and sent ships flying into enemies, destroying everything in their path. It was a bit extreme, but felt good!

Christian learned a dangerous new trick...he can now use Time Stop, appear unnoticed behind an enemy, and fire 5 deadly arrows in the blink of an eye. This along with many other tactics quickly ended the battle. Isabella was about the kill the last guy, but Altier stopped her and interrogated the guy. He told us where the smugglers' secret hideout was and then we saw lots of knights and ogre soldiers heading toward us. We teleported back to our pirate ships.

We spent the rest of the day discussing future plans. The group wanted to raid the smugglers' hideout, but we needed more information. Christian was dreading this mission because it will be very dangerous taking on an entire guild by ourselves. They'll have traps and enemies hidden all over the place.

We also received a letter from a mysterious half-feline woman. She told us about her homeland, which is now plagued with undead and she wants our help to purge the undead so that her people can inhabit and rebuild the land. Not the safest and most cheerful mission; but if we help her people, they may help us against the Ogre King.

That night, Isabella stayed in my room again of her own free will. It was a nice surprise. I'm paranoid about assassins trying to kill her, so I cast ice walls around us while she slept. When she woke up, I tranced to replenish my magic. It wasn't a big deal and I plan on doing that every night until we kill those smugglers. She thanked me...I was glad.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Today was an easy day. Relaxed, hungout with friends, and helped Isabella do a little reconnaissance on the smugglers. They have an underground base of operations in Waterdeep. There's a sewer entrance which leads to a series of underground areas and, eventually, to the docks where they receive their illegal shipments unnoticed.

We managed to capture a new recruit and he said there are so many traps that the initiation for the smugglers is to be able to walk through the whole base without triggering a trap. If you trigger a trap, the trap or the smugglers kill you.

That took all day to accomplish. At sunset, two new people teleported onto our pirate ship. They spoke with Isabella first and then came down to me. I was in the middle of a trance when they knocked and asked to come into my room. I told them to come in.

They were both human. One sat right next to me and began meditating. The other spoke about undead and a half-feline woman who needs our help to purge the land. They gave me a brief explanation about their lives and recent activity.

Jack was once human, but now he's an alien who uses "Alter Self" to stay in human form. He became an alien to discover new technology and weaponry. He fights with hunting/healing magic and two high-tech pistols. While on an alien ship, he discovered a magic battle occurring in the land of undead and came to investigate. He took an escape pod and crash-landed into the battle.

Arthur is a wandering mage whose god wants him to help purge the land of undead. He fights using force/strength magic. He also claims that our trance is different because I meditate for nature and he mediates for the cosmos.

They both came to the undead land for different reasons, but fought together against hordes of undead and a mysterious mage who was hidden throughout the battle. An undead man named Rafael helped them survive long enough to escape and meet the half-feline woman.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

At our pirate ship, we were discussing what to do next. We decided to head over to the undead lands to help the half-feline woman. Isabella proved herself very useful in the battle with the dragons, so we brought her too. I was also not letting her out of my sight until we resolved her issue with the smugglers.

Christian teleported us to the edge of the undead lands. Sure enough, we saw the half-feline woman walking toward us. She said hello and approached us. Altier stepped forward to shake her hand, then he suddenly fell limp and the woman teleported away with Altier! We heard a call from behind us, looked back, and realized that it was the real half-feline woman and her half-bear friend. Whoever kidnapped Altier was an impostor.

They introduced themselves and we told them what happened. They explained that some undead have the power to alter their form and if that creature cast arcane magic to hurt Altier, then he may have been the leader of the undead in disguise.

Shortly after, another surprise occurred...some of our allies teleported next to us. Our favorite elemental siblings (Liana, Garth, and Kendra) and Bahd appeared and offered to help us purge the undead lands and save Altier. Another surprise visitor walked up to us...a gray elf wearing elegant robes. Arthur told us not to attack...this was Rafael, an undead creature in disguise who helped him survive and escape the undead lands.

With no other choice, we accepted everyone's help and split into 2 groups. Arthur said he got surrounded by hundreds of undead last time, so being in two groups will allow us to help each other and keep from getting totally surrounded. Liana, Kendra, Garth, Bahd, Isabella, and I formed one group. Christian, Rafael, Landon, the half-bear, and Arthur formed another group. The half-feline and a few refugees formed a third group and followed behind us as support in case of an emergency.

We started exploring the undead lands and fighting our way through hordes of undead. There were skeletons, zombies, undead dragons, devourers, and nightcrawlers. Most of these creatures were dumb and tried to charge and hit hard, but the devourers used magic and tried swallowing our allies a few times to suck out their life energy. The nightcrawlers actually inflict lethal negative energy every time they touch you. This is a very dangerous mission and I'll be happy if we all make it out alive. I hope nothing terrible has happened to Altier.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

It was strange watching my new allies struggling. They appeared…weak. As an undead creature, I forgot what it was like to be mortal and scared of death. We traveled through the undead lands killing monsters and searching for my stupid master. With such great power and armies of undead, he could have done so much more but chose to do nothing instead.

There were many perks with helping my new allies. I loved casting “Earthquake”, watching undead monsters fall into fissures and being crushed to death. As an undead creature, I’ve become a little insensitive over time and maybe even forgotten my purpose. These new allies reminded me of their plight with the Ogre King and showed me that there were more important things in life than studying the undead.

They also provided the right opportunity to finally leave this damned land. I could have left a while ago with magic, but things felt unfinished. At first, I thought it was interesting that the undead had their own established place in the world. But then I realized there was no civilization, progress, or goals. It was simply a land for undead idiots to run around.

I felt sorry for the half-feline woman who had a grand purpose. She wanted to restore the land to its incredible glory and revive her nearly-extinct species.

These new allies were strong enough to defeat my master and help restore the land, so we teamed up and hunted my master. There were many heroes jumping forth to help fight. In fact, we got intercepted by hordes of undead three times and our allies fought them for us while we continued hunting my master. Eventually, Arthur used his survival instincts and led us right to him.

There was a giant throne and plenty of undead creatures wandering nearby. This was no easy battle because my master is an arcane magic spell caster. He also has an apprentice. During battle, they both were invisible, hiding, and casting annoying spells at our party. I had cast “Foresight”, which allowed me to be aware of incoming attacks. But my allies were not so aware.

I screamed at Landon and he barely managed to block a massive death spell that blasted our party. Christian was launched backward, unconscious or killed by the attack. The others managed to survive, but then three Balor demons appeared at the blink of an eye and cast “Firestorm” spells everywhere! The sky looked like hell raining down upon us.

We were also bombarded by delayed fireballs exploding at our feet. There was even an annoying figure hiding and throwing daggers at us. My allies identified him as Altier, but he was an undead enemy now and had to be dealt with.

The battle continued in this manner, our party being harassed by spells, daggers, and summoned monsters. We needed to find our hidden enemies and kill them quickly. But I was too busy dealing with annoying monsters who kept charging me. I blocked their attacks, disabled their limbs, and knocked them away continuously. I also cast “Earthquake” to kill and slow them down, but they were relentless.

Thankfully, Isabella joined the battle and began using scrolls to cast multiple “Glitterdust” spells. She accidentally revealed the arcane spell casters and our party went to work. Christian miraculously returned to battle and helped kill my master almost immediately, but the apprentice proved harder to deal with.

The three Balors were under his control and nearly killed Arthur with physical attacks and grappling him with fire whips. Isabella threw many daggers and weakened the Balors enough to release Arthur. But the Balors turned on Isabella and all cast “Insanity” spells. She dodged two, but the third spell should have destroyed her mind. Arthur proved his worth by protecting her with an unusual ability. He saved her life and she ducked into hiding.

Arthur quickly began pummeling Altier with multiple floating force weapons and hands. Altier nearly croaked, but a sudden blast of anti-magic dispelled everything! My bag of holding became useless and all of my magic scrolls burst out onto the floor. This anti-magic attack also weakened my allies and they began taking significant damage from monsters.

Luckily, Landon cast Mass Heal and helped everyone. We finally knocked Altier unconscious and killed most of the undead minions. But the apprentice escaped with teleportation. The battle ended and our other allies eventually caught up with us. The half-feline woman, half-bear, and refugees thanked us for everything. They also promised to help fight against the Ogre King if needed.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Altier changed back into his normal form. We wandered the lands looking for any remaining undead to kill, but they all disappeared. Thankfully, everything was slowing turning back to normal due to the death of the undead leader. His apprentice escaped…hopefully he won’t return.

We returned to our pirate ship and it was completely destroyed. Two other pirate ships were healing crew members and salvaging the wreckage. I started helping and healing the injured as well.

Yeger told us that Finley the half-angel attacked the pirate ship. While they fought each other, smugglers attacked Jack, the alien, and kidnapped him. They also left a letter saying “Bring Isabella to us within 24 hours or Jack dies”.

The group was tired and in need of rest. I protected Isabella and I within my ice prison while we both rested. At first she felt troubled and vented by saying it was all her fault that Jack was taken. She also said she may leave after saving Jack.

My heart slowed a bit…but I knew it was a bad time to discuss it in detail. We needed to rest and go save Jack; so I told her “I wish you wouldn’t leave, but you can do whatever you want or need to do. I’ll support you either way.” She thanked me with a soft kiss on the cheek and went to sleep.

When everyone was ready, we teleported to the front of the smugglers’ warehouse. Altier and Christian used magic and created two balls that attract evil beings. They opened the door and rolled them inside. There were smugglers inside hiding with invisibility. A few approached the balls and we attacked them. Three smugglers who were not affected were hiding behind crates and sneak attacking our party. I froze a few with magic while the rest charged in and/or fired arrows.

After defeating them, we found a hidden passage that led down stairs into multiple rooms like a dungeon. It was chalk full of enemies and traps! Arthur used floating magic weapons to set off traps and help us get through faster. Smugglers were attacking us in every room, around every corner. We fought our way through, trying our best to conserve magic and resources.

Landon disabled traps on a door; then a rhino came charging at him! Using quick thinking, Arthur cast “resilient sphere” on Landon for protection. Then he dispelled it and Landon killed the rhino. It poofed into smoke and 30 daggers came flying at him! Landon took severe damage and barely survived, so I pulled him out of the way and we eventually killed the smugglers. Landon healed himself and we continued onward.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

We fought our way through more enemies and Landon disabled any remaining trap doors. We heard men retreating and falling back to their leader, so we followed and finally made it to the last room. We knew what to expect here, but there’s always unpleasant surprises.

Landon and I walked in first as the tanks ready for an onslaught of daggers, but nothing happened immediately. The room was large and Landon spotted most of the enemies hiding behind barrels, jagged walls, and other obstacles. But he also spotted one particular enemy we never expected…Finley the half-angel. Landon informed our party quickly, but he didn’t spot the smuggler leader, whom was very dangerous.

The smuggler leader cast “Miracle” and our most fragile group members suddenly appeared in the middle of the room! All of the smugglers came out of hiding and attacked with daggers. Christian barely managed to teleport back to the entrance of the room, but Isabella and Landon took significant damage. Finley cast "Implosion" and killed Altier!

Christian cast "Time Stop" and summoned dire lions near Finley. I continuously froze enemies, giving allies the chance to kill them. The smugglers and their leader kept witling us down while Finley was busy imploding Christian's summons, which was better than imploding us. Thankfully, Landon cast "Mass Heal" and kept us alive.

Arthur summoned multiple floating weapons and hands to injure and grapple enemies. Landon charged Finley and began pressuring him. I froze the smuggler leader, but he teleported to somewhere else in the room and hid. Isabella continuously killed frozen enemies as well.

The smugglers all used hit-and-run tactics, which made them hard to kill. Christian eventually found the hidden leader and tried finishing him off with Multi-shot, but just before all of his arrows hit, the leader magically glowed and dodged.

Many were now dead, so Finley teleported out of battle. The smuggler leader teleported away as well, but smiled before leaving. Landon heard a faint beeping sound and yelled at everyone to leave immediately. Christian asked where Jack was. Landon quickly looked around and spotted a hidden door. He ran over and grabbed Jack, who was unconscious and gagged, cast "Dimension Door" to get back to us quickly, and Christian teleported us all back to the pirate ship. We heard explosions while teleporting away.

When we arrived at our pirate ship, Isabella wasn't with us. The group said she ran off before the explosion, but I started looking around the ship hoping that she too teleported back. Landon stopped me and pointed out something in one of my pockets. It was a note from Isabella. She must have slipped it onto my person during battle without me realizing it. The note said "Thank you for everything, but fighting the Ogre King is not my dream and I don't want to cause you trouble or fight half-heartedly. Goodbye."

I was at a total loss. I didn't know how to deal with this and Altier needed to be revived. But the unicorn was gone. Gestalfa was crying and yelling out because Altier was his favorite customer and Christian kept saying stupid things to try cheering him up, which only made matters worse. Gestalfa said it was hopeless unless another creature came flying in, like the unicorn, to save Altier. Sure enough, Christian pointed at the sky and laughed as a strange blue creature came flying in...

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

This strange blue creature floated down to us. He began talking with Christian, but my mind was elsewhere and I needed to get away. I plane shifted to Dunkoon’s outer plane. Dunkoon is the nature god that I pray to for magic. His domain is peaceful, but most importantly, time flows much faster there. I went there to trance and think about everything boggling my mind.

I was angry at myself for letting Altier die; angry at myself for letting Isabella go without putting up a fight. It felt like the right thing to do at the time, but maybe if I had fought for her things would have been different. However, her letter was clear. I understand why she left and I respect her decision, but that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it.

After my trance, I felt like I had to do something drastic and crazy. I had too much anger and emotions to keep it all in. Finley attacked our pirate ships and killed both Altier and the unicorn. The Ogre King has taken over the world with countless armies and is responsible for all of the world’s troubles, including my own. I needed to do something to put a dent in his operation.

I plane shifted a few times randomly and appeared near Gheldaneth, one of the Ogre King's many cities. I found a military barracks and started blasting my most powerful spells. I launched ogre warriors into the barracks with a tidal wave spell. Then I cast freezing spells to hinder warriors charging me. I cursed at everyone with insults about their loyalty to the Ogre King.

More ogres surrounded me and started pounding with their clubs and greatswords, but my defenses were impenetrable. I froze all the enemies around me, jumped into a nearby fountain, and created a thick ice igloo around myself. Then I continued launching attack spells upon my enemies.

Suddenly, I heard explosive blasts that greatly weakened my ice igloo. Ogre warriors took advantage of this and shattered my igloo, then continued attacking me. They claimed that nobody accepted the ogres and their only hope was to help the Ogre King crush all other races. They believed in his horrible cause and were willing to fight to the death. Unfortunately for them, I was feeling unusually merciless.

I continued my onslaught and destroyed the military barracks. Then a mysterious creature began launching fire spells at both the ogres and I. I did not attack him; I shrugged off his spells and remained focused on the ogres. Fortunately the ogres considered both of us enemies and we agreed to help each other for the moment. Together we laid waste to all the ogres.

However, 4 arcane spell casters appeared and began launching their most powerful spells at me. I shrugged off their first 8 spells, but I forgot that I was standing in a fountain of water. Their next spells were all electricity and they fried me good. But I continued fighting along with my new ally and I narrowly survived.

After battle, he introduced himself as Azar, a fire elemental spell caster. He asked why I attacked the city. I briefly explained myself, then we saw more ogres and mages in the distance and I decided to plane shift us to the Plane of Positive Energy to heal my wounds faster. There we talked more and I showed him a history book about the Ogre King. Apparently he had no idea who the Ogre King was and he doesn't remember his own past.

I told Azar that we would help him discover his past and he agreed to join us. I plane shifted many times, hoping to end up near our pirate ship, but had no luck. I messaged Christian and he teleported over to pick us up. He met Azar and offered to carefully explain everything to our allies. It would be complicated because Azar is a fire elemental and so was Derek, our dear fire elemental brother who died months ago.

When we arrived, I went to trance in my cabin while Christian took care of Azar and our friends. After a while, many of them came to my cabin and we discussed everything about Azar, Derek, and future plans to defeat the Ogre King. Liana was very interested in learning more about Azar, but Kendra was annoyed and immediately began doing her own research to discover his past. Kendra wanted to prove that Azar was not at all related to Derek or themselves.

Amador Vida, the mysterious blue man who came flying out the of the sky also shared his story with us. He is a divine spell caster who's been looking for us for months. He offered to resurrect Altier and our friend the unicorn for free! I hugged and thanked him with all my heart. He resurrected both of them as promised. The unicorn thanked us and went back to his god. All is well for now.

When I went to sleep that night, everything became clear in my mind. Isabella left in order to live out her dreams. I thought it was selfish, but now I realize everyone needs to be selfish at least once in a while. I enjoyed being reckless; freezing bad guys, launching tidal waves, and destroying buildings.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

I finally met everyone and they’re all wonderful people, but they’ve been through hell and back. They’ve been battered and beaten by the Ogre King and his minions. They seriously needed a party with food, festivity, and cheer. So I messaged everyone I knew in order to make it a blast.

We had food, alcohol, girls, friends, family, music, and laughter all night long. Yeger had a drinking competition with Landon and Garth. Landon cut out after three drinks but Garth kept going and eventually puked. Yeger drank all night long and everyone was cheering him on.

Yeger also flew around and peed on Christian! He freaked out and shot 4 arrows at Yeger’s chest! Then he grabbed a random girl and teleported away. Yeger shrugged it off and kept partying.

Bahd was making girls laugh by doing tricks with his large goat. Landon rode the goat like a cowboy and showed off his dragon scales to attract three women. Eventually, they went to a cabin on the pirate ship and slept together. Kendra came around looking for Yeger, but he was gone. I saw him fly off to a nearby forest, so I went looking for him after the party ended.

In the nearby forest, I found a dinosaur corpse picked clean. This was a bad sign because Yeger drank a lot of alcohol and maybe went looking for trouble. I kept looking around the forest and eventually heard loud screams. I flew as fast as possible toward the sound and found Yeger’s broken corpse. It must have just happened because the blood and wounds were fresh. I cast the “quick revival” spell and, luckily, it worked.

We talked for a while and apparently a Tarrasque attacked him while sleeping in a tree. A voice was talking to him about “free will” and Yeger didn’t respect the voice at all. He cursed at it and thought it was a god, but it wasn’t. The voice was a person who was angry at Yeger for killing the dinosaur. What a strange story.

Jack and Landon found us. We talked for a bit and teleported back to the pirate ship. Since Icefist slept through the entire party, he was listening to all the party stories now. Rafael was doing research about Azar’s mysterious past. When we returned, the group was very interested in Yeger’s story. Kendra told Yeger that she was looking for him at the party and wanted to dance, but Yeger didn’t seem to care at all.

After an exchange of funny comments between all of us, Yeger wanted to bash more heads in. Icefist suggested going to one of the Ogre King’s cities to kill Ogres. Yeger, Icefist, and Jack teleported away and came back 15 minutes later with wounds and weapons to sell. They did business with Gestalfa and everyone got what they wanted.

I’m glad I found this group. I feel useful and needed here. Most importantly, everyone looks happier now.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

Amador suggested that we train for a full day and we all agreed whole-heartedly. We've never done it before and I'm sure we have plenty to teach and learn from each other. Everyone took turns training with each other throughout a 12-hour period. First, I trained with Rafael. He attacked me with unrelenting force. I did my best to defend against his attacks, but I still took damage and had to take breaks to regenerate my health. I did the same defensive training with Landon as well.

After a few rounds with Rafael, I trained against Yeger. He was easier to deal with because he doesn't deal as much damage as Rafael and he's predictable with his focused strike attack. I blasted him with as many reflex-based spells as possible because that's his weakness. I also kept him prone on the ground with multiple "Ice Glacier" spells. By the end of our training, my spells were mostly depleted, but he was still alive. His advantage is being very hard to kill.

My last training session was with Azar, the fire elemental and newest member of our group. I let him bombard me with as many fire spells as possible and my mission was to survive. I dodged and protected myself against everything he threw at me, but he deals a lot of damage! I had to take a few breaks to regenerate my health, but it was a great training session.

At the end of the day, most of us ate dinner and went to sleep. But as an elemental, I don't need to eat or sleep, so I asked Liana to give me a dancing lesson. She laughed at first, even teased me a bit about how I planned to dance and sweep Isabella off her feet. But then she taught me and it was fun. This was a nice way to end the night; too bad life can't always be like this.

[Aerin, the half-elf priestess]

During the week, we received numerous distress messages from the psionic creatures in the Plane of Negative Energy. However, we've been busy dealing with everyone else's problems here in our world. Can't anyone take care of themselves? As an undead, I jumped at the chance to visit the Plane of Negative Energy. I've never been there before and the strange dimension actually heals me.

Azar (our new fire elemental mage), Yeger (the idiot half-angel), Jack (our recent damsel in distress), Altier (our expensive friend who dies a lot), and I teamed up and ventured to the Plane of Negative Energy. We found a small city of psionic creatures fighting against floating white bubbles (positive energy creatures). Why were they here? The psions told us to go past the city and find the portal. As we traveled, I had to stab myself occasionally to keep from overloading with negative energy.

We followed the path and found a giant portal with a horde of positive energy creatures. Altier noticed that they looked ghostly. They must have come through the portal and accidentally transformed as a result of being in an environment the opposite of their own. Very interesting...and why haven't the psions closed the portal yet? There was a psion mage trying to close the portal and three psion warriors protecting him.

Our group charged in and fought the positive energy creatures. Yeger, with all his might, quickly fell unconscious as the creatures' special attacks overloaded him with positive energy. The smaller creatures charged us all head-on, trying to touch and infuse positive energy into us while the larger creatures stood back and shot large blasts of positive energy.

Azar, being the smartest of my allies, started damaging the enemies and our group with wide-area spells. Yeger woke up and they quickly realized that they needed to hurt themselves so that the positive energy creatures would attack and heal them. After this grand realization, we defeated most of our enemies. Luckily, the psion mage finally began closing the portal and the positive energy creatures were sucked back into their dimension.

The psions thanked us for helping, but then received another distress signal from the city saying that a large army of mechanical monsters were attacking. We rushed over and saw dozens of medium-sized mechs attacking psions with swords, maces, and spears. In addition, there were two larger mechs tearing psions apart and one gargantuan mech using two chainsaws to shred buildings like paper!

Yeger charged the chainsaw mech head-on, swung his metal greatclub, and launched the mech into a building (completely destroying it). The mech returned the favor by using its chainsaws to grind Yeger into the floor. He fought on his back for the rest of the battle, using circle strikes to wipe out approaching enemies. Yeger is a tough warrior and makes a good distraction for us to take advantage of.

I defended the psions by charging mechs, disabling their limbs, and launching them away. They tried charging me, but I threw multiple sais at incoming enemies, disabled their legs, and blocked their weak attacks. I also cast an "Earthquake" spell that stopped all enemies in their tracks and sent a few into fissures for instant death. However, this also damaged the city buildings and I realized that I couldn't do it again without destroying the psion city that we were trying to save.

My tactics bought enough time for Jack and Altier to lay waste to multiple mechs with ranged attacks. Jack hid on top of a building and attacked repeatedly without being noticed. Altier, however, was running, hiding, and attacking on foot like a champ. They both killed many enemies and contributed significantly to the battle.

Azar, however, took the MVP award for this battle. He continuously launched an onslaught of fire spells upon all mechs. They had significant resistance to fire, but he overpowered every spell he had to get the job done. By the end, all mechs were scorched or melted into the ground. The psion city was safe for now.