We decided to go back to Phoenix to get the wyverns turned into armor for our group of adventurers. The populace of Bristol regarded us as heroes, and the mayor wrote a letter for us to take to Phoenix, stating that we had fought in self-defense and the defense of the city. Someone from Bristol let us borrow enough wagons and horses to take all of the wyvern parts back to Phoenix.

I didn't really relish the idea of going back to Phoenix, let alone wasting even more time on this mission. However, I did want to be able to wear one of those wyvern bitches as a suit of armor. Besides, what we don't use we will sell, and that will get me some more money.

We arrived, talked to some leather worker. We sold him the wyverns after we got what we needed from them. It would take him about a week to get our armor made, and another week to get it enchanted.

I had a nice new set of Green Wyvern armor, complete with full body protection, neck protection, a helmet, gloves, boots, and even a cloak. I had the armor, except for the cloak, enchanted to protect me even further. I also had my bow enchanted so that its arrows would do more damage and my sword enchanted so that I could hit a little more easily. I am not keen on the idea of using a bow that is enchanted in such a way, as I like to rely on my own skill. But, even though I am an expert swordsman, I am nowhere as good with my sword as I am an archer. Afterall, my last name is Archer, not Swordsman. To get all of this, I ended up selling the armor that I got here when I was last in the city.

We then went back to Bristol, returned the wagons and horses, and moved farther on. While sleeping at the camp, I was awoken by the yell of Schmendrick as he was rudely awakened by an arrow in the side.

I got up to my feet to see what was going on, looking around. I was greeted by a burning pain that went through my entire body. I looked around trying to see what it was, only to have the same pain yet again.

Suddenly, Mort came running nearby and he attacked what appeared to be two skulls that floated in the air, surrounded by a purple radiance. Damn, I am getting tired of fighting the undead. And these things attack by burning your entire body. I'd rather fight something more normal, like a skeleton or a zombie, at least then I have something to defend against. These things just have to be near you.

I swung my sword at one, but it dodged. Enemies always dodge my attacks it seems. I thought about options and realized that I need to get some sort of tactical advantage, and not fight these damn things on their own terms. I ran off, knowing that I can outrun them. As I was leaving, Mort fell asleep for some reason.

I ran over to Schmendrick, as after he yelled out he went back to sleep. I pulled out some of the Dust of Disappearance that I bought at Phoenix. I used some on me, so that I wouldn't be a target for the archer that was still out there. I know what I can do with a bow, and I am worried that whoever it is can do the same.

As soon as I got up to Schmendrick with some Dust of Disappearance, he got up. I made him invisible anyway, even though my original plan was to turn him invisible and get him out of the battle myself. Mort had also woken back up at this time, which was a good thing. I was worried that he would have been killed.

I joined the others and we killed those flying skull things. It took a long time for all of us but Crespin and his ghost-killing sword, who cut through them like he would a man. The fight was over, so we moved our camp and went back to sleep.

As we were traveling the following day, we came upon a figure wearing black robes, facing us as we came his way. He told Schmendrick that he wanted "the book". Schmendrick at first knowing what book that he was talking about, and then pretended that the man had figured it out, and he put down a book after rummaging through the pack of his mule that he bought in Bristol. The figure picked the book up and then disappeared.

Around midafternoon we came upon a village. The people looked strange, and didn't speak our language. Well, one of them was educated enough to speak the only language worth speaking. He was a middle aged man. Mort talked to him, and he told us that they were a Solothreni village, and that we are only three days travel from Dagonhold. Incidentally, that is the destination for this entire mission.

The morning following the celebration, I presented Mort with the bow that I had made from the wyvern's wing. It is of fine quality if I do say so myself. He thanked me for it, and I could tell that he was impressed as he hefted it and tested its pull.

Ivan, that representative for Dathan that provided the necklaces last night, arrived at the tavern. As soon as we were all assembled, we were to go to the estate of Serena Fehr. It was a keep at the top of a path that lead through some mountainous forest.

We didn't want them to know that we were coming, so we went stealthily through the forest, avoiding the path itself. Vance scouted ahead, and then he returned and told us the layout of the estate, which was more like a small keep.

Griswold then turned Crespin and Vance into a sort of gas. They were then able to fly away. However, they had to leave most of their equipment behind. I carried Crespin's things. I kept his ghost-killing sword handy just in case.

This cemented my suspicion that he was the one that created that noxious gas from two nights ago. He must have gotten mad that I called him Old Man. Cranky as he is, he probably over did it a bit. He is an old man, the grumpy geezer.

The rest of us approached the keep stealthily. Vance started going back to where we were before, not knowing that we had arrived in the forest below him. Mort suggested that I shoot him. Griswold said that it wouldn't hurt him, or rather it would hurt, but wouldn't do any real harm. I shrugged, figuring that we had to give him a signal to join us that wouldn't jeopardize our stealth. So, I shot him up the left leg, up through his middle, and out of his head. That'd get his attention, for sure.

I was right, it did. He lowered to where I shot from, and Griswold returned him to his normal state. He got fully equipped again, and as we were sneaking ahead, Vance hit me in the back of the head pretty hard. It didn't get past my wyvern-skin armor, but if I wasn't armored it probably would have hurt. So, Vance can hit hard after all. I had wondered at times. Still, that was a sucker-punch, a bully tactic. I decided to not push the issue. For one thing, he was probably just getting me back for my beautiful shot. For another, well, we were sneaking around.

Mort and Ivan went up a lower, 10' portion of the 20' wall. Vance and I followed. There were three guardsmen at a tower that Mort and Ivan had pushed over the edge onto the ground below. The went down screaming, and I found out later that two of them had broken both of their arms, this must have been Mort's doing, and the other had broken his leg.

While Vance and I were sneaking towards Mort and Ivan, a figure in plate mail had came out of the main entrance. He started yelling at Griswold, who was flying, quite visible in the air above. As he was speaking the Silothreni language, I have no idea what he was saying.

After Griswold and the man yelled back and forth a bit, Mort and Ivan went down and joined in on the conversation. I stayed up top with an arrow aimed at the man in plate mail. Any false move, and he'd be a dead man.

After the group rambled on for a bit, Griswold told me that we were going inside, so I should join them. I went down to the main gate and went inside the keep with them, ready to kill any that stand in our way.

I was told that the man is named Leroy. It was a pretty nice place. My observations were interrupted by the screams of a woman. Her screaming then stopped abruptly. We rushed over to see what was going on. My other friends probably had something to do with it.

Lydia and Schmendrick were near Crespin, who was grabbing onto some woman. He was dressed in a helmet, loincloth, boots, and gauntlets. She looked like he was trying to rape her. There was some white stuff hanging from the ceiling that looked like it could have been from him. Could it? No.... later I was told that it was a web the Schmendrick had shot at the woman. He must have been taught to aim his magic from Griswold.

Leroy told us that she was blind and that her name is Allison. Mort and Ivan questioned the household. I kept nearby in case of the need for immediate violence.

Schmendrick used his illusion magic and made Mort look and sound like Allison. He, or rather, she talked to Serena Fehr. The lady is nuts, and she really really likes Allison, if you know what I mean.

It turns out that Serena's brother, who is a Silothreni noble, was the source of the wraith ring. He gave it to Serena, who gave it to her mother. He is probably the reason that she is so nuts. What a piece of filth. He sounds like a Silothreni version of Slaine. I hope that we can go kill him. Both this brother and Slaine would be even better.

At Serena's keep, someone pointed out that Schmendrick still had that book of magic that was Migos'. Schmendrick refused to look at it, as did Griswold. I shrugged, and offered to look at it. I figured that they were afraid that by looking at the book they would be somehow tempted to learn it. So, in a way much like an alcoholic needs his booze, a mage that looks at a book of dark magic will need it. I don't use magic, so I figured it wouldn't hurt me. Besides, maybe I could prove to these two mages that seem to doubt my courage that I can be more courageous than they are.

Schmendrick gave me the book and I made sure that I was in the non-magical area when I opened it, just in case it did have some sort of enchantment on it. I wonder why mages go to such great lengths to make their books as fancy as this one. Is it some sort of mage prestige thing to have a book that is more intricate than another mage's? The book was written in gibberish, probably this Silothreni crap that is supposed to be an excuse for literacy. It did have some mathematical formulae in it, which I think was probably just made up to further make the book look like it is something really special. There were some pictures of undead things in it, though, and at the end there was even a vampire that looked kind of like Crespin.

As I narrated to the others what I was seeing, Griswold decided to take a look at it after all. He must have thought that if I can do it and not get hurt, he could to. He apparently could read the gibberish, so I suppose that it wasn't in Silothreni after all. Maybe there is some silly language that nobody speaks anymore that wizards have to learn in order to cast magic.

We again called Sujo through one of those three amulets. After a little while the dragon came with Sujo and his boyfriend riding on the back of it. After saying a few things to Schmendrick, they took Migos and that book with them. Serena didn't say anything, so we didn't impede him from taking Migos. She must have been OK with it.

It turns out that she wasn't OK with it. She had been in a stupor since we came back, and we never noticed. She snapped out of it when someone jerked her shoulder, and she never saw Sujo come, and was angry that we let him take Migos. We pointed out that she didn't seem to care, but that only made her more angry.

She said that we must get Migos back. I pointed out that Sujo did have the ring, which I suspected that he made, and now he had Migos and the book, both of which contain evidence that can lead to the source of the problem, which may in fact be Sujo. If so, we have been giving him the evidence so that he can destroy it before it seals his fate. I am not sure if the others believe that Sujo is behind it, but I think that he might be. Maybe I can shoot his dragon in the eye. Then we can skin it and make some even better armor.

She then teleported us near Dagonhold. We marched in with her, looking like we were her bodyguards. She marched us past a guardsman that would have said something if it were not for the glare that she gave him. I hoped aloud that we could see Dathan without having to go through those damn gardens again.

It turns out that being a noble has advantages. She barged in on him and his company. She demanded to talk with him, and he excused himself from his company and went to a private room to the side to speak with us. Good, no boring gardens.

We told him about our encounter with Migos, and that Sujo had him and the book. He agreed to allow Mort and Griswold to take part in the interrogation as soon as Sujo arrived. The rest of us were then able to sit in an observation room and watch the interrogation but not take part in it. It was interesting, to say the least, and many of us made jokes about what was being done or said. Dathan remained with us, and I wonder what he thought about our levity at the sitution. He probably had to stifle his laugh many times, probably wishing that he didn't have to act so proper all of the time.

Migos admitted to making his mother a wraith, and that he had two other wraiths as well. One went to Pangoria, the other was north of Tristan, leading what we had heard as the army or undead that was killing everybody. I wonder what is going on in those two locations. Perhaps they have been defeated already. Surely we are not the only people in the land that are capable of beating up on undead.

According to him, he had been the underling to some Fallen. As if that were any big revelation. There were two of them that seemed to hold sway on him more than any others. He had names that he made up for each of them, for they had refused to give him their actual names.

Afterwards we traveled to the mausoleum. On the way, as Vance was scouting ahead, he came back with a squirrel that he said was talking to him. I thought that he must have eaten too many nuts as that is what had become of him. We had a good laugh, but he really believed it and followed the squirrel to where it showed him.

I got my bow ready. Either in case of a trap or should I decide to remove the influence of the squirrel from poor Vance as it tormented him. It lead us to an area that was on fire. Griswold put out some of it with his water magic. The squirrel showed us to three bodies. One was a woman that had been burned to death, another was a man that had been cut in half, and the third was a man. The squirrel jumped onto his chest, and Schmendrick then healed and awoke him.

The man introduced himself as Darby, and the squirrel is his little buddy. He said that he and the others were protectors of some magical tree that held inside of it a demon creature. What he described as a Fallen had come, killed the other two, wounded him, and burned the area with fire, and released the demon creature from the tree.

These Fallen sure are busy people. They seem to go around just to give us things to do. I wish that we could collect pay for going after them, as so far we have done a lot of freebies lately. Darby then went with us to the mausoleum to help us beat up on the Fallen.

Inside the mausoleum, Vance opened up a secret stairway beneath the sarcophagus that was near where the black-armored Migos was. We went down quite a ways on a spiral staircase. At the bottom was a crypt.

Mort noticed that there were skeletons lining the walls. Being as Mort likes to hit skeletons in case that they might be enchanted to fight us, he swung his axe at one. It moved out of the way. It didn't survive a second swinging of his axe, however. A black smoke rose up from the destroyed skeleton as its remains crumpled onto the floor.

As predicted, the other skeletons started moving as well. We got back near the stairs so that we coul d fight from a defensible position. I and Vance would act as archers, Mort and Crespin would be the front line. There would be a switching of places with the front line should it be necessary. Sergeant Grumby was our leader, as he was the only one capable of leading us in such a massive battle. There were hundreds of the skeletons, maybe thousands of them.

Schmendrick cast his spell of bravery on us again. He didn't want there to be anything to mess with our line. I supposed that he didn't want us to flee in terror by some evil magic, leaving him exposed to danger.

The battle was most glorious. Crespin, Mort, and I had a little game of one-upmanship going on, trying to outdo the other two. We fought in a coordinated manner, bringing destruction upon the enemy at the commands of the barking Griswold.

Barking Griswold asked me to perform some rather tricky shots. Well, they would be tricky for anyone but me, that is. May Jathax, the god of my parents be proud. I did whatever Griswold asked me to do flawlessly, if not better than he commanded.

There were times that I needed to act as a swordsman. It is a good thing that I have become a master swordsman as well. Griswold and the others seemed impressed that I had become so good, especially considering that before meeting the group I had never used a sword. In fact, the sword that I use is my first sword.

The first two phases of the battle Crespin was able to outdo Mort and I somewhat, while we two kept even. In the third, and incidentally final, phase of the battle, I doubled my efforts. Mort and I kept even still, but we both outdid Crespin. We three finished the battle with minor wounds, as did Vance.

Griswold and Schmendrick were not so lucky however. They both had fallen unconscious from wounds. Darby helped to heal them up. I was ready to give Griswold my healing potion if magical healing were not available quickly enough. He has proven this day that he is worthy of my respect.

The black smoke from the skeletons was in the air around us. As the healing was taking place, I looked around at the carnage and then at my companions. We did something that only happens in legends today. These companions of mine are heroes. I reflected on my own achievements during the battle. I am a hero, too. And my companions know it.