fellowadventurer

[fellowadventurer]

Journal Entry 7: The Final Battle... and The End of the Journey

The Evil King rose in the form of a terrifying demon with an aura that could turn anyone into terrified prey for miles. There was no saving him. We had no choice but to fight- for the King and for everyone else affected by the Evil King as well. It was a difficult battle, with both sides trying our hardest, but with our experience from this entire journey, we were able to power through. Near the end, our entire party was exhausted, but we all had this feeling that the end was close. I threw the finishing blow with my blade, and the Evil King was killed.

The skies began to clear and the evil aura disappeared. Several of the Evil King’s minions ran over to pick up his body and left the scene immediately. A loud croak came from behind me, and I saw the King who was once a troll revert back to his original form. Unused to his human body, we all lifted him up to help him take is first steps back North to where his kingdom is. With the journey coming to an end, we were anxious to see what will happen to the once stone kingdom.

[fellowadventurer]

Journal Entry 6: Against the Evil King

We made it to the Evil King’s castle which was a tall tower that pierced through the clouds. We slowly went our way upwards, fighting monster guards that scattered throughout. The entire tower was old and almost falling apart as if it had been abandoned many centuries ago- the walls were torn, it was dusty, and we feared that the stairs could crumble our weight at any given moment. Old memorabilia were placed all over the tower. Pictures of a happy aristocratic family, a family dog, and a woman who King Omenn immediately recognized. She was the one who the dragon was talking about earlier. The King was sentimental, but we couldn’t stay looking at the picture for too long.

Then we finally met with the Evil King, who looked to be waiting for us alone this entire time. The King ordered the Evil King to lift his curse and turn his body and kingdom back to normal. The Evil King cackled and said that he couldn’t because he enjoyed watching the King suffer the same way he did before he proceeded to attack us. Even though it was just him, his strength was possibly equivalent to the dragon that guarded his castle. We felt we were unmatched but we powered through every single one of his hits. Then, the fight was over, or- at least we thought it was. The tower shook violently, and everything fell apart. We held onto any stable infrastructure left but it was pointless when everything below you crumbled. 

When we all recovered from the shock, the tower was gone. Has everything been solved? Is the journey over? That was my first thought, but when I looked at the King, he was still in his sorry state. Perhaps the curse was permanent? I had so many thoughts running through my head, but that soon ended when the King’s body rose from the rubble.

The battle is not over yet...!

[fellowadventurer]

Journal Entry 5: Who is the Evil King?

It has been a long journey, and we were finally getting closer to the Evil King’s kingdom. There was only a couple problems though. A wide cliff acting as a moat for the castle was deep, and at the very bottom was completely covered with long, pointy spikes. The second, unbelievably, was what initially appeared to be a magnificent stone statue was actually a large and very menacing dragon. The dragon looked to be very old and unmoving, as if it had been frozen in time long ago. When it moved it looked at us with determination to protect this castle. It was a silent battle. The only sounds exchanged were the clash of our swords, fire being blown, and incantations of spells. No doubt the dragon was strong. It felt like we weren’t able to make a single scratch on it as if we were ants attempting to move an immovable boulder. The ancient dragon finally spoke. Its voice was hoarse and slow, but it was a sign that it no longer wanted to fight.

It pleaded us to not hate the Evil King, despite his evil misdeeds, for his heart has been shattered a long time ago. It was revealed that the reason why the Evil King was the way he is now was because of a woman he once loved. They were close friends but she fell in love with King (blank) of the Northern Continent. The King promised to the Evil King that he will always protect her, but because of the war, an evil magician from the Other Kingdom assassinated the woman to stir the Evil King. The evil magician was immediately caught and executed, but Evil King was distraught and furious that the King did not keep his promise, thus cursed him and his kingdom.

The King did not say anything but his face was full of sorrow. He truly loved that woman as well, but he must have struggled being able to properly face the Evil King who was suffering as well. The dragon told us that it was impressed by our fighting and wanted to support us in some way by taking us over the cliff. Angela asked why all of a sudden, and the dragon responded that it was because the King is with us, and also because it felt that we could possibly save the Evil King of his misery.

We were all very grateful for the dragon’s kindness, and so, we rode on its back and get even closer into meeting the Evil King so that we could lift the curse on King Omenn.

[fellowadventurer]

Journal Entry 4: In Remembrance of a Past War

There was some issues when we were in the ship. We couldn’t have the King show himself in front of the passengers, so we had to put him inside of a luggage for the entirety of the ride. He... was not exactly happy with the situation... or how he was treated in our entire journey so far. There wasn’t much of a choice though. It’s either to appear in public and terrify everybody- making ourselves vulnerable for alienation- or to just hide and stay quiet. Hopefully once he is able to return to his original form that he wouldn’t conduct some royal order against us.

We made a stop at a pristine chapel that has a huge graveyard across from it. The graveyard was much larger than the town miles away from it, holding more people than its population altogether. The majority of the graves there were not for the people who have passed from natural causes though, but instead for all the dead soldiers from a past war a long time ago. Since this is a new continent and unfamiliar land we’re stepping on, we asked around the chapel if they know where a map of the entire continent would be. We bumped into the Father as he was in the midst of a prayer and exchanged a few sentences of pleasantries with each other.

Suddenly, we felt the ground violently shake, and the voices of panicked men shouting echoed throughout the sanctuary. Then the shaking stopped, but we started to hear another set of shouting coming from outside. We rushed to see what they were for and ahead of us, the somber graveyard we passed through before has turned into an expansive poisonous swamp. It was growing bigger, approaching closer towards us like a tsunami that is on the verge to destroy everything in its path. Hands dug out of the soldiers’ graves and in just seconds an army of undead soldiers was on its way towards us with an intention to kill. The chapel was in an uproar. Fights ensued over whether to escape to safety or wait for their imminent deaths. Some have already  attempted to escape to the nearby town in search of their loved ones before their final moments. The Father ensured us that he will try to handle everything himself and let us leave for our fight.

Just like the maze, fending against the overwhelming sea of undead soldiers felt endless. Not to mention we were running low of antidote herbs and magical potions that were supposed to keep us all from dying of poison because of the swamp. After an eternity, we came face-to-face with an army general who was leading all of these soldiers.

...

Perhaps, we were all tired. Perhaps, the poison has made my memory muddy. I didn’t remember much of the fight itself in all honesty. The wails of the general as he tried to tell us his story of the past war was all that I remember. A kingdom from another continent. Not from the North nor the South, but they invaded this continent and wreaked havoc in every corner. Everything was lost. Despite being well-developed as a continent before, everyone was struggling to live, and the generation after that also struggled. With the King of the Southern Continent now losing his sanity, hope for the old prosperity to return was gone. All of the soldiers forgot what they were fighting for as every last one of them was overwhelmed by the sheer power of the Other Army. We took down the general and released him of the torment that has stayed within him and his army. Then, the swamp finally cleared and all was well.

We woke up on the beds within the sleeping quarters by the chapel. A person who works there told us that the Father was waiting for us at his office. When we came to, we saw the King waiting with the Father. The Father said he has gotten some context of what happened to King Omenn and his kingdom and sent us his prayers. To aid us on our journey towards the Evil King’s kingdom, he gave us a map of the Southern Continent before we left the chapel to go further south and proceed towards our final destination.

[fellowadventurer]

Journal Entry 3: The Ice Witch

While we had hoped for consistently warmer weather, the temperature started to drop as we got further and further south. It wasn’t until we got to Sunny Port that we finally found the root of this anomaly. The entire port was buried in a blanket of ice and was a total ghost town. We tried approaching some of the people scattered around, but they have all been frozen stiff. I accidentally got my hand stuck on one of them like a dog getting its tongue stuck on an ice pole. I curse these clammy hands of mine. Besides the port itself, even the water was frozen over, making all the ships practically unusable. The only place that wasn’t frozen over surprisingly was an inn that its owner, a priest, and a ship captain took shelter in. We talked to everyone in hopes that we would get context for what has just happened to the always sunny port. There wasn’t any unfortunately. The most information we got was from the old ship captain who said he felt an eerie aura coming from one of the major ships that goes towards the Southern Continent. We placed a bet that that aura may have something to do with the abnormal weather and went back outside to the docks where the ships are.

The evil aura got stronger the moment we stepped onto the ship. There was nothing on board so it must have been inside of the ship, was what I thought. A cackling sound was heard when we got into the interior. Following the sound, we rushed towards the source and met up with a woman who called herself the Ice Witch. We were prepared for a fight, making use of the small space to get close to her and attack. She was fast, and her long range magic attacks were nothing to be scoffed at, but we powered through and came out of the battle victorious. The Ice Witch’s screech as she was defeated pierced our ears, but the once freezing cold temperature started to raise and as we left the ship the port was back to its original form as if there wasn’t a blizzard in the first place. Everyone who was frozen came and thanked us, and we met with the ship captain who offered to give us a free ride as a sign of gratitude.

With the ships now working, we take a major step forward as we travel through the seas towards the Southern Continent.

[fellowadventurer]

Journal Entry 2: A New Ally

The sky was etched a vivid shade of orange and purple, a sign that night is soon to fall upon us. Typically monsters at night are much stronger than their daytime counterparts. With how tired the three of us were, we collectively decided that it was time for us to rest. We made a stop at a small village but because of the King’s appearance, he had to stay outside near the village in order to not scare the residents. There were some complaints and comments by the King, but we had no other choice. The very next morning Cypher and I went to the vendors to replenish our supplies before continuing south to the tropical Sunny Port which would take us directly to the Southern Continent. We briefly chatted with the vendors and a lot of them complained about a maze that suddenly appeared several miles south of the village yesterday. It was blocking the way to the Port that they weren’t able to get their shipment of goods. One vendor mentioned a child getting caught inside of the maze while playing with the other children. A woman who later introduced herself as Angela appeared behind us looking distressed, saying it was her brother that got lost. There was a small search party that went looking for her brother but they too got lost inside the maze. Since we were on our way south we decided that it is best to help the villagers find the lost boy and search party. The woman looked very grateful and asked if she could join our party as support inside of the maze. And so we gained a new temporary party member.

A side note. When Angela met King Omenn, she was initially surprised to see a talking monster, but after hearing his story, she was quick to understand.

The maze was pitch black from the inside, covered in vines with thorns pointing in all directions. (blank) deducted that they could be poisonous as they resemble some of the plants from the Solanum (nightshade) genus. We had to watch our steps with a dull lamp guiding us, but it was just as useful as going in the maze blind. It felt endless. Once, we tried to turn back, but the crazy part was the place we came from looked entirely different than when we moved forward. Our bodies ached from walking, until we heard several voices and a boy crying in the near vicinity. We pressed forward to the source of our hopes and stopped in front of a dark, ghoul-like silhouette who called himself the Guardian of the Maze. He had no intention of letting us go, so without much of a choice, we had to fight him. His attacks were no joke. Within a single turn he could have easily wiped us out. Thankfully, we had enough medicinal herbs to keep all of us sustained, and Angela being there helped us greatly as she aimed repeated balls of fire and enchantments towards the enemy.

We gained a sense of accomplishment as the ghoul’s body, along with the maze, disintegrates into dust. Angela rushed over to her brother who was with the people from the search party, and it looks like he was hurt by the poisonous thorns. As we no longer have any antidotes in stock, we had to rush back to the village to get him healed. I don’t remember what happened the moment we came back. I have a vague memory of me rushing back to the inn to rest for the remainder of the day, but when I came to, Angela was the first one to greet me outside. Everyone was happy with the maze being gone and the missing people coming back. Her brother is safe now and resting at home while their parents are tending after him. Angela looked like she wanted to say something else, so I asked her what was wrong. She told me she wanted to join our party in hopes that she could protect her loved ones properly. I felt in-debt to the help she provided us to clear the maze, so I let her join.

Our temporary party member is now an official member of the team. We moved onward south to the ever so Sunny Port where we take a ship to arrive to the Southern Continent.

[fellowadventurer]

Journal Entry 1: The Beginning

There were three of them. Three monstrosities as you would call them- floating like a herd of sharks surrounding their prey, preparing for the right moment to strike. Cypher and I weren’t sure what they were exactly, but our gut instincts told us they could be beholders, with their spherical bodies, a single eye that refuses to look away once you’ve been targeted, and Medusa-like eyestalks that look like they could petrify you- if their horrifying appearance hasn’t already. But they can’t be? Because weren’t they supposed to be underground? Why are they out in the sunny fields? They were fixated on something in the center, but it was difficult to tell what it was exactly. It wasn’t human for sure, as its skin was ghastly green like a frog, but we were compelled to save it from the situation it was in. The highlight of our battle with these beholder lookalikes was the stench. The stench was incredible... in a bad sense. It was like a mix of bovine-after birth and dead flesh, a strange contrast but you will know when you’re there yourself. We had to make this quick as beholders like to end battles quick.

Thankfully, since the environment the beholders were in wasn’t an ideal place to have a battle, we were able to finish them off quickly. Cypher went over to confront the cowering creature, and it turns out he could talk. He introduced himself as King Omenn and said his kingdom has been turned to stone by Evil King Allistaire of the Southern Continent. The King was able to survive, but he has been cursed into an ugly dwarf of a troll. He’s been searching for the Evil King in order to get his curse to be undone, but because of his appearance there isn’t anyone willing to help him. The King wasn’t lying, as several rumors from the nearby townspeople have been talking about how the Northern continent’s government has been under chaos since the Kingdom of the North stopped functioning. Cypher and I were obliged to help the King.

And so marks the beginning of our journey to search for the Evil King of the Southern Continent.