I was lured to the town of Travar by rumors that representatives of House K'tenshin would be meeting with a Theran t'skrang, an airship captain. I arrived in town upon the fifth day of Rua, and began my search. While asking around a traditionally disreputable tavern (better than I'd expected honestly), I had the good luck to meet with an Ork troubadour, Ganru by name, who knew where I would be able to find my prey. I was not the only one asking questions in the tavern that day, nor was I the only one for whom Ganru had an answer. Ganru had his price though, in exchange for the information, and assistance as a distraction in my strike, I had to pledge to aid him in freeing his wife from slavery on a K'tenshin plantation in the Servos. The other who had sought information from him was a human woman in town, looking for information on a thief; Ganru cut her the same deal, though for information on the whereabouts of Valos the thief.

A trusting fellow, the ork gave me the information, and so the three of us went for a round of drinks at the bar where the captain would be meeting the K'tenshin the next evening. A rowdy place, the Horny Mare seemed almost ideal for my plans.

I spent the day in quiet meditation, hoping that perhaps at last I had found my quarry. Sunset found my new companions and I gathered around a table at the Horny Mare, watching the K'tenshin in the corner.

The captain appeared. I knew at once that he was not the mud that murdered Neela. I knew also that I would not let him leave the room alive.

My companions and I had an "argument" which escalated to open violence. Unfortunately we all had such poor aim that our projectiles landed in the crowd. I'll admit that the ensuing brawl was, perhaps, slightly more intense then I had intended, but it covered my approach towards the Theran admirably.

When I was perhaps, ten yards from him, he gave a shriek and fell to the ground, writhing in agony as wounds from an unknown source ripped into his flesh. The K'tenshin backed away from the writhing man, and I had only too knock a few brawlers together to clear my path to him. I cried, "Horror," though I knew that no such being was responsible for the captain's agony. The path between us emptied, and in an instant I was upon him.

Even as Icecrest cleaved his bones, the otherworldly forke continued its assault upon his flesh. When at last I had taken the life from him his body rotted in but an instant, leaving only putrid flesh. None challenged my claim of Horror taint. From the much I took his boots, his blade, and 50 pieces of silver.

After the brawl, my companions and I were quick to the docks, where Ganru had a ship waiting to take us to the plantation where his wife was held.

We were three days on board the V'strimon ship. They put us off near to the plantation, but, for safety, we would have to cross through the Servos. As we left the boat and waded to shore, we were accosted by a trio of reptiles that had been doing their best log impersonations. One of them apparently believed that my axe looked edible. Icecrest reached its stomach, but I fear you'll need a potent nethermancer if you want to know how it tasted.

The woman, Amber Hope, finished hers off with a flourish of her twin hawk hatchets. Ganru was not faring so well; I mercifully ended the life of his 'log' as well.

After drying from our trek through the river, we ventured into the Servos. It was sometime before midnight when the attack came. Amber gave a shout; I had only time to turn as an insect, larger than any I had seen before, was upon Ganru. With two strikes of its scythe like claws Ganru was on the ground. With just as many strikes of her twin blades, Amber took the head from the beast.

Two hours or so after the fight with the bug, found us still near to its corpse. Ganru's injuries were severe, and even the salves and potions he had with him had made little difference.

Amber and I heard a rustling from the trees around us, we called out in Throalic, challenging whatever was there to show itself, if it wasn't too cowardly; and the head of a dragon appeared through the foliage.

After my initial shock, I soon realized that the head, large as it was, was closer to the ground then my own. I also noticed that it was wooden. The t'skrang in the mask addressed us in their native tongue, challenging our presence in their territory. I informed him that we were simply here to liberate a slave from the nearby plantation. The tribal seemed pleased by this, and offered to take us (and our wounded friend) to his village, if we would agree to help them raise the plantation. I do not know Amber's thoughts, but I have little love for slavers, and less for K'tenshin. I was only too happy to agree.

When we reached their village, we met with a windling and a k'stulaami that had been brought to the village under similar circumstances.

After dawn I awoke, and found a familiar looking boulder sitting outside the entrance to the hut. I was certain no boulder had been there before. The boulder looked rather conspicuously like one that I had seen in the jungle and in Travar now that I think of it. How long the obsidiman illusionist, Orin, had followed us, I cannot say. So now we were five amongst the tribals.

Just after sundown that evening we attacked. The k'stulaami sailed upon the winds, and set fire to the far end of the plantation. We liberated the slaves, and the obsidiman used her gifts to burn the plantation to the ground. At the end, bodies of the dead slaves joined in the battle, digging free of the earth and descending into the burning plantation to slay their former masters.

The skeletons brought forth the treasures of that place, and laid them at our feet before crumbling to dust. All the silver we divided amongst the freed slaves and the weapons as well. Some baubles of jewelry, and a threaded blade (crafted by the same artisan as that of Theran captain) I kept. A beautifult water sculpture and the balance of the weapons we gave to the t'skrang and their chieftain for aiding us.

We and the slaves boarded the ships of house V'strimon that Ganru had waiting for us; all save the windling who chose to wander the jungles with her beast friends.

Amber had grown anxious during the days that we traveled up river, compelled by her oath to aid the ork, though every day had taken us further from her goal. She asked me if I would travel with her in search of the thief, and I assented. We parted from Ganru, the k'stulaami, and the obsidiman at the foot of the Byrose.

Alone, Amber and I approached a small niall; I do not know even now whether it was independent or K'tenshin. We secured passage on riverboat south. Amber demanded they go with all possible haste, and so even after a bit of haggling we paid a large pile of silver for the short journey.

True to their word the riverboat carried us as far up the Byrose as they were able. They set us down near the foothills of the Dragon Mountains, along the eastern edge of the Badlands. Not a happy place to be.

We traveled into the mountains, searching for signs of the kaers that Valos was looking for in the region. We made our camp for the night. Amber and I were awakened during the night by a cave crab, though it caused us little harm, it took us a very long time to subdue the hungry beast through its thick shell. We returned to sleep, intending to carve and cook the crab in the morning.

When we awoke with the dawn, the carcass was gone. Not a single leaf had been disturbed, nor a single grain of sand moved, but the shelled monstrosity was nowhere to be found.

We found the cavern in which the beast had laired, and found it empty. We packed our gear quickly, and resumed our journey.

Around noon we had reached a narrow canyon strewn with boulders. A chill raced across my flesh. I drew Icecrest and fell into a martial crouch, looking for the source of the spell. Another chill ripped across my flesh, leaving bits of frost upon my hairs.

I spun about, but still my assailant was hidden. A webbing of ice thorns appeared about me, slicing into my flesh and holding me tight. Amber leapt upon a boulder across from me, and saw the construct that would ambush us. "Jehuthra!" she cried, and began to battle.

Fear closed upon my heart, as I struggled against the ice. Jehuthra, a horror construct. I knew of them, but had never before fought a horror. Until that moment I'd almost thought the tails of the horrors exaggerated; thought that they had left our world.

The beast knocked Amber from the stone, opening a deep gash in the process. She fell, hard.

The mystic ice that held me finally melted in the warm air, and so I dove behind a boulder while the arachnid was distracted by my compatriot. I circled it, keeping clear of its sight.

Amber circled the boulder behind which it lurked. She took it from behind, and I came at it from the side. Her hatches bit deep, and my axe bit deeper.

Amber's wounds were deep. The beast had torn of handful of blood pebbles from her chest, and her Horror Fend charm was spent. I gathered the remains and the webbings from the beast's body. Together we returned to the crab's cave so that Amber's wounds could mend.

While Amber slept I wove a thread to Life's Breath, the vial given to me by Elkezar. When she awoke I gave her both my last healing potion and a draught from the vial. Throughout that day we rested in the cavern.

Feeling better after her day of rest, I felt it was time to replace the blood pebbles in Amber's skin. She agreed, but refused to allow it unless we could find sufficient spirits to get her drunk. We had none.

Instead I used the back of Icecrest to knock her unconscious, it was dangerous, but it would be more dangerous for her to wander unprotected through the Dragon Mountains.

At dawn I gave Amber another draught from Life's Breath, and she awoke. We seem to have a stoic understanding of each other. Though we had known each other only a short while, our faith in each other was absolute.

That day we named ourselves Heart's of Vengeance, and we named the cavern which had sheltered us Blood's Rest.

Three days we spent in Blood's Rest mending from wounds, at last we were prepared to resume tracking Valos.

We emerged from Blood's Rest, and walked right into a dragon.

I've never seen a dragon before, it was larger than I'd ever thought possible. His scales were a glossy gray, tinged red about the edges. He wanted to know why we had lingered so long in his territory, and he could sense some of what we had done to the cavern.

We explained our purpose in being in the mountains, and that our battle with the jehuthra had left us injured, so that we had not been able to travel for sometime. We explained that we had chosen to name the place which had sheltered us so ably.

The noble dragon indicated, not thanks, but something like it for destroying the horror construct, and for leaving the cave crab for it to eat. He gave to us permission to use the cave, and offered us his aid in finding Valos. Amber readily accepted his boon, and so he waited for his return.

As he soared away, all I could think of was how graceful he was in the air; of how short our drakkars fell of such grace.

I sat where the dragon had left us, for two days I meditated upon the grace of the dragon's flight, until I was disturbed by a loud, squishy thud. I opened my eyes to find a brutalized and charred corpse lying not far from me, nearly naked except for a targeting eye still anchored to his skull.

I looked up, and switched from a meditative pose to kneel as the dragon landed. Amber emerged from the cave, fury and hopelessness warring across her face as she looked upon the corpse.

I looked askance at the dragon, and gestured towards the corpse. "May I?"

The dragon nodded and I approached the corpse, laying my hand upon its one true eye, charred as it was.

The last moments of the thief's life flickered before my eyes. I watched, through his own eyes, as a he crept through a cavern lined with the most heart achingly beautiful formations of living crystal I have ever seen. His thoughts revealed the lie he had told in Travar. He had not come in search of kaers, but dragon lairs.

As stealthy as the fool thought he was, I experienced with him the shock of being snuck up on. A sudden blow and we were lying on the ground, on our back. Our vision filled with a mighty site. As terrified as I was of the noble dragon who had granted us this boon, this one was larger still. Mountainshadow himself had caught Valos unawares. In a moment his monstrous talon penetrated our flesh, followed by flames that seared the flesh from our head. At last came the teeth, and merciful oblivion.

I awoke sometime later, still suffering the wounds Mountainshadow inflicted upon the imbecile.

Though the fool was dead, it seems that his journal may yet contain the information Amber seeks. That journal, however, has become a part of Mountainshadow's horde. I asked of the noble dragon, who now seemed only slightly smaller after being nearly eaten by a great dragon, what service we could perform to gain access to the journal for a few short days.

The dragon left again to ask his sire what service we could perform.

Again I kept vigil where last I had seen the dragon, letting my wounds mend with the aid of Life's Breath and time. In time the noble dragon returned, with an amulet for the Great Dragon Usun, in the Liaj.

We thanked the noble dragon for his aid, and after his departure made haste with our own from Blood's Rest.

We journeyed back the way we had come, seeking transport along the Byrose to 16 Towers and beyond.

We found a Niall early in the morning, and booked passage to 16 Towers.

We arrived in 16 Towers, the very heart of my enemies's strength in Barsaive. Though our trophies were concealed, we boldly walked the streets.

Though there was some tension, I uncovered the names of both blades, learning these and their full histories from the smith that made them. Death's Needle and Pain's Tongue.

I had some difficulty convincing him with my tail that I had taken them from orks, at one point he even sent for the guard, but a strange screaming fit suffered by one of the smith's kaisa distracted the guards from questioning me to deeply, I had only to demonstrate my lack of taint, and I was free to go with blades in hand.

I left the smith's shops, and approached the tower of the Carinci niall, recent immigrants from Thera. I had to go to attempt and identify the boots I had taken from the rotting airship captain. As I drew near I found many who looked like my quarry. The shape of the crest was almost so; and their colors... such a perfect match that I had to struggle to maintain my cover as a stupid crystal raider.

I found a member of the niall who had known my victim, from Thera. I learned the name of the boots, Life's Dance. I used the same tale with him as with the smith.

As I left the tower, I stopped to speak with one of those who had the coloration of my nemesis. I told him how beautiful his scales were. I told him how I had never seen their like. I asked what family he could possibly be from. And so now I know that the family my enemy is MUDX.

The day after my discoveries, we purchased passage west from 16 Towers, to the Mist Swamp, to the Twilight Peaks. It was a short journey, and we entered the mountains of my home without trouble.

As we crossed the mountains, passing through Stoneclaw territory, we were accosted by a sextet of ice flyers. Thought Amber called out a warning, they were upon me before I could react. The first shredded my flesh and knocked me to the ground.

I lost sight of Amber in the swirl of feathers, and again the ice flyer got the better of me, raking a deep gash in my leg before I was able to kill it. Though victorious, the battle left both of us hurting.

It was three days before we were again fit for travel. Three days of hiding on the mountain, and dressing the ice flyers. To say I was paranoid would be an understatement. Had any more ice flyers, or worse, stumbled upon us in those days... Well, let's just say they would have received much honor in the eyes of Thystonius.

It was already late in the evening when we at last reached the home of Ulig Stoneshaper Firewalker on the slopes of Mount An'grak. Though she had only prepared food for herself, she offered us what she had. We, in turn, shared our ice flyer meats with her, and ate a respectable dinner.

I told her my tale, all of it, though perhaps I didn't detail precisely how much trouble the ice flyers had been.

We stayed with Ulig for 7 days. Amber helped around the house while I labored in the forge. From the ago'chad of An'grak, and the shattered remnants of Amber's horror fend I fashioned a new one and bathed it in alchemical ingredients I purchased in 16 Towers.

After 7 days we left Ulig, to return to her work in peace. We could stall no longer, our quest calling us towards the Liaj.

We arrived at the Swiftwind moothome. I introduced Amber to my mother and also to Elkezar. I have not shown her the children; I would not have her see me cry.

We are in luck, the Galesaber only arrived yesterday, and my co-husband has agreed to take us to our meeting with Usun. In two days I shall stand on the deck of Galesaber as we leave port, for the first time since...

We left on the Galesaber well before first light. We caught a strong wind, like a breath of hot air exhaled by Death himself, and made fast time to the jungles known as the Liaj. The sun was still hours from setting when we at last came to rest above the land of Usun. I called out to the dragon, announced our errand. The only response was a single wyvern, breaching the canopy to assault us. The lone creature did not get far, the ship's magician rendered it insensate before it could strike us, and we traveled on before the fell beast could recover.

Nearer to sunset, we still had encountered no sign of the great dragon, and so we again drew near to the canopy, and I repeated my declaration. This time I interrupted not one wyvern, but three. Their sheer ferocity is unimaginable, were it not for Amber, I fear that both I and the valiant crew of the Galesaber would have met a bloody end in the belly's of those things.

We were able to bring down one, and the ship's magician had rendered another of our adversaries insensate, but it was Amber who valiantly leapt onto the back of the third and kept it from decimating at least me, and likely the bulk of the crew.

After the battle, we secured our trio of prizes, and fell back to the upper atmosphere to recover. After our brief respite, we again dipped towards the canopy, not as close as the last time. Desperate, I removed the amulet from the box and cloth in which we had kept it secret. I marched to the prow of the ship, and held it aloft, so that the whole of the jungle might see it. A third time I repeated my request for an audience.

That was when the vines moved. The Liaj came alive and clutched at the Galesaber, dragging it towards the moist death below. At first I was panicked, what abomination had my polite request called forth now? And then I saw him, rising from the canopy, indescribable. With a motion I stopped the crew's attempts to disentangle us, and fell to my knees before the great dragon.

The amulet was delivered, and Usun bid us to leave the jungle and never return. We took the quickest route out of the Liaj before stopping for the night.

We reached the moothome early the next morning, and began dividing up the spoils of our battle with the wyverns. The bones of one I claimed as my own. The skins of all three, we gifted to Sk'lag Prowjumper, for he alone of all in the moot can make the best use of them. The rest of the bones and spoils were divided amongst the crew and those members of the clan and moot that can best use them.

Four days we stayed with my people. For her valiant defense of the Galesaber, Amber was given honorary membership in our clan, though I fear she still has much to learn if she wishes to become a true clanmate of mine.

The Galesaber, carried us to Blood's Rest, and then headed out to Death's Sea to look for Thera'in bloated with cargoes of True Fire. Amber has begun the near ritual of waiting for the Noble Dragon to reveal himself. I've cleaned the cave up a bit, and left some relics of our recent trials here.

I've now resumed my part in the ritual of waiting.

Two visitors today. The first was the Noble, we verified that we had delivered the token as instructed and delivered to us the journal for which Amber had worked so hard.

Almost before the Noble was gone, she had begun shredding through the book. As she read, I had it transcribed, so that she might take notes upon the replica.

While she was working, I wandered down to the river and began gathering the wood necessary for building a small fire, and larger furniture. As I bent to gather up a large log, I heard a twig snap at my back.

Quicker than a cat I'd dropped my bundle of wood, spun, and raised my axe to find... Orin. How long the obsidiman has been following us this time I have no idea. Her arrival left both Amber and I feeling rather... tense around our strange visitor, a tension that Orin seems unable to fathom.

Apparently prior to her abortive ambush of me, she succeeded on taking Amber, who was deep in study of the hard won journal, by surprise. I've never known an ago'al so skilled at placing others on edge as this one.

On the plus side, although Orin's chair-crafting abilities will never prove her free of horror taint, her table crafting skills should clear up the issue.

Amber has completed her detailed examination of the journal, and with my help compiled a full transcription of it, annotated as to the peculiarities of her own quest. Now we two, and Orin, shall resume our position of waiting for the Noble.

The Noble Dragon returned promptly, as previously indicated. We have returned the journal to it, and thanked it for all the trouble it has gone to upon our behalf.

After the Noble had departed, we completed the concealment of Blood's Rest, and set out for Bartertown upon a flying carpet owned by Orin.

To date our travels along the Serpent River have been remarkably free of incident. Today we happened upon a quintet of saurals along the river's edge. As we may have a need for additional cash once we reach Bartertown, we paused for several hours to harvest their valuable organs.

Amber accidentally stepped on the head of one, and the thing's powerful (and valuable) acid ate a largish whole in her boot. With what little skill I have in the art of seamstress I made a new boot for her from the hide of the one that cost her first.

Bartertown, at last something to distract me from the tedium of our trip up the Serpent; a chance to prove my honor in conflict with merchants from across the land.

Upon arriving I asked Orin where she had last seen Ganru; as she and the k'stulaami had traveled here with him. I found the troubadour performing at an inn known as the Happy Gargoyle. I took the piece of tin that he's had the audacity to call a sword, and presented him with the choice of either Death's Needle or Pain's Tongue, regaling him with the history of each.

In the end I passed on both Pain's Tongue and its history into his safe keeping, that the weapon might see use in a proper legend.