Tankertons Great Adventure

[Zero-Feeling]

Chapter 1 - The Awakening

I find myself in a cold and frigid place, yet I am not cold. The air is crisp and fresh, the freshest I can remember breathing in. My clothing has much to be desired, yet I still don't know how I they got on me. My skin is fresh like a newborn, no visible scars to be had, yet I am fully grown and at the age I was before I found myself here, where ever here is.

I start to wander about, exploring the area I'm in, I hear a strange voice telling me I've died and it has brought me back to life, a second chance it says, the last chance I will get. Where is this place and where is this voice coming from?

I see a shaft of light the voice tells me to step in to, glowing red with a faint hum about it. I step in and find myself bedazzled by ancient runes surrounding me, then a flash of red, now I am standing in a room, it looks like an inn, but knowing where I just was, I can't be sure. I open the door in front of me and find it is an inn. I think to myself for a moment, "was this a dream?", then look down and see I'm still wearing the rags I was wearing in the other place.

End Chapter 1

[Zero-Feeling]

Chapter 2 - Andoria & the rats.

I make my way through the inn, no one seems bothered by what I'm wearing, as if it's a normal thing around here. I'm now in the inn's main room, several people stand about, doing their normal daily things I suppose. I walk over to a man in red, he seems to look important, possibly someone in charge. The man speaks to me as if he knows me, telling me if I am looking for work there is a job board with job listings on it. He continues to tell me there are people from other towns that post on the job boards and these boards can be found at every town in that towns inn.

This all seems a bit confusing to me, yet I go with it for the time being. I continue to speak to the others in the inn, some giving me the opportunity to help them out for a nice gold reward, these "quests" as they call them, seem rather simple in nature, almost as if they want to just give me the gold, I can hardly argue with an offer like that.

I make my way out of the inn and find myself in the middle of a blizzard, frigid as a witches soul. I see a sign through the snowfall that reads "Goods & Supplies", this is where I need to go to get some real clothes. First stop, the smith, armor strewn across the shelves, weapons hanging from the walls next to the sheilds, it's almost like it was waiting for me.

The other merchants items were of little use to me, only finding a few things of interest, I left to fulfill some of the towns job requests. In to the mill I go, fresh armor, sheild, and sword at the ready for whatever I might find down in the basement. As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I hear the screaching of rats, it's an unpleasant sound, for sure. Hacking and slicing, stabbing and chopping, the rats fall one by one. These rats are quite large, much larger than any I remember seeing before this place. As I make my way to the farthest corner of the basement I see the mother of all rats, huge as any rat I've ever seen, eyes red as blood, and it's teeth, sharp as razors. It was much more challenging to kill this mammoth rat than any of the others, it actually put up a damn good fight, especially with the aid of the other rats it was with. In the end, I was victorious, carving its head open with the final blow. I took the rats already exposed skull back to the mayor as proof I had killed the rats in the mill. The Mayor was happy to see the rats were taken care of and rewarded me for my efforts. I think I shall rid the storage barn of its spiders next.

End Chapter 2

[Zero-Feeling]

Chapter 3 - Andoria's Creepy Crawlers

Fully charged with adrenaline from smashing and bashing the rats in the mill's basement, I felt it would be no big deal to take on the storage barn's giant spider infestation, I mean, how big could these spiders be right?

As I open the door to the barn I hear the scuttling of what I would guess are the spiders feet across the walls of the barn. With great confidence I swing the barn doors open and step in, blade at the ready for anything that comes my way. As I get a few feet in, the door slams shut and several, what's the word I'm looking for, Ginormous* spiders drop from the ceiling, blocking my exit, as if I was going to run. The first spider came at me with fangs dripping with poison, the second steady on its heels. With a steady arm and blade at full extention, I lunged at the spider closest to me, green ooze spraying from its fresh wound. As I remove my sword from the spider's abdomen, I continue to slice into its chest before the blade completely emerges.

The second spider takes advantage of my inability to defend myself as my sword is embedded in its brethren, biting my leg with its venomous fangs. This only seems to enrage me more and I slice through its thick exo-skeleton, spraying the barns interior with its blood. I make haste towards the last spider, it has now taken a defensive stance, soaking its front legs in its venom. It swings at me, causing me to stumble, or is it from my previous wound? Either way, I must end this soon so I can tend to my wound, now swollen to the size of a mellon. With all my might, I lunge toward the spider, it sprays me with venom, yet I continue on. My blade strikes true and the spider falls to the ground with a thud. I survey the chaos looking for any other movement, there is none. I have done what I said I would do, the barn has been cleansed, or at least I thought it was.

Looking around I notice a stairway leading up into an attic, I hear more of that scuttling sound. I take a deep breath and head up the stairs, tending to my wounds on the way up. As I reach the top of the stairs, I take one more deep breath, then proceed to finish the job. I stab, slice, and hack my way through the spiders till I reach the largest, obviously the queen. I rip into her like she was beef jerky and I haven't eaten in a week. Thinking that I would need proof that I had rid the barn of this infestation, I cut out the queens silk gland. I hand over the gland to the mayor, looking quite disgusted at the sight of the gland and the spider parts dripping from my armor, he gave me the gold for the job, making a joke that I should probably use some of the gold to re-polish my armor and take a bath.

End Chapter 3

*Ginormous- The combination of giant and enormous.

[Zero-Feeling]

Chapter 4 - Andoria's Mongrels

Now that i was sufficiently equiped and stocked up on supplies, I thaught I should explores my surroundings a bit more. As I exited the town, three guards stood at the gate, the cold not seeming to bother them much. I decided to strike up a conversation with the one without the weapon, it seemed he would be the logical choice of the three. I asked the guard why they charged a tax to get in to town? His reply was rather sound and seemed like a reasonable excuse, though with only three guards at the gates, the bandits wouldn't have much of a challenge taking the town.

I asked him about the strays he mentioned and offered to rid the area of these mangy muts. The guard tells me the pack never goes far from town, usually just to the north of town on the hill. With sword in hand, I go forth to face these strays. I fight off a few just before the hill, they seem rather hungry, that would explain them attacking anything that moves.

I start to make my way up the hill, fending off a few more dogs, my blade cutting in to their flesh, it's almost no challenge. I continue up the hill, more and more dogs attack, they jump at me, some of their claws make it past the armor, I'm now bleeding again. Seeing that my previous wounds have been ripped open, i take a short break to tend to my wounds. It was a short rest, just long enough to rebandage my cuts.

I've just reached the top of the hill, I see the Pack Leader, his yellow eyes glaring at me, teeth showing, hair standing on end in a display of anger. He charges me with two other dogs, they bite at me one right after another, at first I feel almost overwealmed. I take a deep breath and with a roaring yell, slice into the pack leader's chest, it's blood gushing out on to the white snow. The other two dogs continue the attack, but onl for a moment, they too are gutted bu my blade. I grab the pack leaders corpse and proceed to skin it for my reward from the towns guards. It's a hack job to say the least, useing the end of my sword to try and skin it.

I turn the mangled hide into the town guard and collect my reward. seeing how the town was short on gold, I chose to take an extra fullplate from the town armory. With a little bit of ajustments, it fit me quite well, other than the colors, that is.

End Chapter 4

[Zero-Feeling]

Chapter 5 - Medicine

While back in the Snow Cat Inn, a rather odd gnome by the name Dr. Mugner mistook me for another guy he had sent to collect some medical ingredients for. I kindly informed him I wasn't who he thaught I was, but I would help if I could. He explained to me what the situation was and that if I could get the supplies for him, he would be willing to pay me. I agreed to go get the ingredients he needed and headded to the dock.

The trip across the water wasn't that long, if you look hard enough you can actually see the town from the dock in Andoria. While out on the water however, the lake we were crossing seemed to go on forever, both east and west. I can surely see why they have this ferry system now.

As we pull in to the town, the boatman says in an almost yelling voice, "Welcome to Rasmar". I've heard this towns name before from when I spoke to Mayor Jorgenson in Andoria. He had told me he only traveled this way a handful of times and that he didn't really know the town so well. I begin to stroll along the cart path, keeping an eye out for this Guardians Hall the doctor spoke of. As i round the corner of a building, I see the Hall, it's kind of hard to miss, it being the only stone building in town and all.

I hurry into the Hall and look for Carrie Goodstone, the lady Dr. Mugner said i must speek to for the ingredients. Carrie was surprised to see me comming to her asking for more of the ingredients, ingredients she only had a small supply of, explaining she had already given another man those ingredients earlier. Though se was still a bit confused about the whole situation, she gave me three of the items I needed and directed me to Herremeese to speak with Juniper Jun'et. Apparently she could supply me with the other two items I needed.

I made my way to the ferry man again, telling him I needed to go to Herremeese. Again we set sail over the massive lake, this time headding west. The trip took quite a bit longer than the trip from Andoria to Rasmar, but was much warmer as well. With the wind blowing off the lake and into the mountains, shooting up the slopes, then crashing back down and doing it all over again, I think I understand what they mean by lake effect snow.

I finnaly reach Herremeese, a quiet little town with a rather nice looking town hall and mage tower off to the side. I go into the General Store where I was told Juniper would be, selling among other things, the ingredients I need. After a bit of a haggle, she and I finnaly reach a price for one the ingredients, the other she said, I will have to go find myself.

Juniper had told me I would find the last ingredient, a Swamp Lilly, just outside of town on the edge of the swamps. She also told me to be careful, the monsters out there are very dangerous. As I head out the gates, the guards give me an odd look, almost like they question why I'm out here with these beasts. It's no bother to me what they think, so I continue on my wat south to the swamps.

After a bit of walking, I reach the swamps. Theres a foul stench about them, as if something was rotting in the sun, something that had been there a long time. making hast to find the flower, i spot a creature. It's a tall and somewhat slender creature, tan in color with razor sharp claws. As I glance to the right of it, I notice the plant with the flowers on it. I dash to the shrub, cutting off a flower with my blade. The monster spots me, makes a horrible sound, and starts to charge at me. I run back to the town, not looking back for a second. As I run, I feel sharp needle like pinches striking at my backside. I don't stop running till I reach the guards, who at this moment see what I have drug back with me. They attack the beast and slay it before it can take another step, it's green blood spraying out across the feild.

As the guards walk back to their posts, the gate guard asks me if I would like to go back into town, this would cost a fee of course. I told him yes, I needed to take the ferry back to Andoria to deliver some ingredients to a doctor. Without delay, the guard lets me pass, wishing me good luck with my task. I hop back on the ferry and inform the ferryman to take me back to andoria.

As soon as the boat docked, I headded to the doctor with the ingredients. Dr. Mugner was quite pleased that I was able to get the items in such a short amount of time, especially when the last guy had already taken the original ingredients intended for him. As the doctor was about to head into the room with his patient, I reminded him of our agreement. Without pause, he whipped out two viles of potion and a bag of gold, turned and said "thank you" and proceeded into the room. I suppose I can say it was worth the gold, but it cost me almost as much to get the items.

End Chapter 5

[Zero-Feeling]

Chapter 6 - The Hunter

Tired of roaming the same area for days, I decide to hop the ferry to the closest town across the lake, Rasmar. Said to be the main farming town for the Alliance, headquarters for the Guardians, and to top it all off, the newest area for me to explore. As I step off the ferry, I recognize a familiar site, an inn. Where theres an inn, theres work to be had.

I walk in the door and imediatly make my way arround the room, offering my services to anyone that needs them. No takers on this visit, so I hit the job board. theres a job for a Jesslo fella to get him a grizzly tooth. I can handle this, so I head out the door to find this guy. It turns out he's standing arround outside his house smoking a pipe.

As I introduce myself to him, I notice a few scorch marks up the side of his house, not just one mind you, several. I hesitate to ask why hteres so many areas of his house that have been set on fire, but before I can ask, he blurts out "I keep falling asleap while smoking". That explains that, and might also explain why he posted a job for someone to get a grizzly tooth, and as he states, a cougar hide and a stag hide as well. He just forgot to post that on the job discription.

I take the job and head out of town to the nearest woods, one thats over run with razorback boars. They were everywhere, almost like they were a pleage, there were so many. I took it upon myself to rid the woods of a few boars while I went to find this grizzly bear I needed to take a tooth from. They squealed in pain as I hacked through them with such ease. As I was about to slice into another, I saw the path to the grizzly's den.

I make my way down the path, not knowing what I will find arround the next corner. My blade is drawn, boar blood still dripping off the tip. As I round another corner I see it, the grizzly's den. It's pitch black inside, looking in from where I stand. I pull out my torch and light it, bringing a bit of light to the edge of the cave. Slowly I make my way into the darkness, the light from my torch doing little to light my way.

The cave is dark, I hear the groan of the grizzly in the distance, my armor must have woken it. I drop the torch a few feet in front of me to reveal the grizzly in all it's might. It's standing on it's hind leggs, teeth showing, arms swinging from left to right, this is truly a great display of dominance. I lunge at the beast, yelling at the top of my lungs. I'm less than a foot away from the bear as it swings at me, hitting my sheild as I stumble to the ground. I start thinking this may have been a bad idea, am I really strong enough for this yet?

The bear charges me, claws ripping up the ground as it gets closer, teeth as big as house spikes, the ones that hold the stones in place. I get up off the ground and ready my sword, slightly wedging it into my side, it will be more stable this way. The bear bites at my armor, piercing through my leg as it does, blood begins to pour from under the twisted metal. I stab at the grizzly, sending my blade into it's left shoulder. This just seems to enrage the grizzly even more. It charges again, faste, like i never even touched it's shoulder. I grab my sheild and lay it against the cave wall, my blade in both hands, fists clenched as tight as possible. The grizzly lunges at me with it's mouth wide open. This is my chance, I have to act now. I lunge back at the grizzly with my blade extended as far as I can get it. The bear plunges itself onto the blade mouth first, ripping it's face in two.

The grizzly drops to the ground with one final moan. I have done it, I have killed the mighty grizzly bear, but I have paid the price. I look down at my leg, blood still pouring from beneath the metal. aI need to get this taken care of before it's too late. I grab the bears seperated jaw and make my way back to Rasmar. I make a quick detour to the local medical supply store and but some bandages for my leg and drop off my armor at the smithy to have it repaired.

When I finnaly get back to Jesslo, he's passed out on his doorstep with a lit pipe in his hand. I can completely understand the burn marks now. I wake Jesslo up and with a few mumbles and a snort, he wakes up. He seems surprised that I came back, especially comming back with the tooth that he needed. He paid me the job fee, thanked me for the job well done, and I took my leave. I told him I would still concider finding the cougar and stag pelts, but not at this time.

I went back to the smithy and collected my armor, now with one shinny leg. I need to get it looking like the rest of this armor before anyone notices.

End Chapter 6

[Zero-Feeling]

Chapter 7 - Penguins & Combat Dummies.

After the last adventure, I felt I needed to go back to Andoria to polish up on my skills a bit with the Andoria Guard's combat dummy. The location of the dummy was a bit odd if I do say, to place it in the basement of the Snow Cat Inn, even stranger might be the fact that you have to go in the back door to get to it.

The room the dummy is located in was rather dim, only lit by a few scattered torches. I take out my sword and start swinging, As I do this I notice how well built this combat dummy is. It was able to withstand my greatest blows without shattering into splinters. I decide to take a bit of a closer look at the dummy, noticing theres some metal, some wood, and straw. what threw me off were the runic inscriptions along the base of the dummy. This makes sense now, the dummy is enchanted. I wonder if they can enchant my armor or sheild for me here, like they did for this dummy.

I continue to whack away at the combat dummy for another hour or so and call it quits. I head over to Captain Frillo to ask him about these runes and if they can be inscribed into my armor. He tells me a traveler came by and sold the combat dummy quite some time ago, the mans name was Ruin. No one knows where he came from of where he went when he left, but they did say he had some of the finest smith work they had ever seen.

I thank frillo for the information and ask if theres any other combat training to be had here. His reply was simple, yet strange. He said I should try and catch a penguin, they are quick on land and even quicker in the water. As I go back out to the towns core, I notice just how many penguins there are in town. What the heck, I think, as I set chase to the penguins.

End Chapter 7

[Zero-Feeling]

After a good nights rest from chasing all those penguins, I spoke to the mayor, who once again reminded me about how Barney still needed someones help with the voices he'd been hearing around the crypts. Thanking the mayor for the reminder, I head west out the gates, saying hi to the guards as I pass them. As I enter the cemetary grounds, I notice Barney staring up at a spire on one of the mosoliums, almost as if he were in a trance. I walk up to him and ask him what he's doing, since I can't tell just by looking. He explains that he's waiting for the voices to tart up again, they tend to do so more when it's quitet.

A few moments later, waiting in silence, making sure not to move too much, I hear these voices myself. Amazed that I could hear them and that he wasn't going crazy, Barney asked if I would be willing to go into the crypts to see where they are comming from. Since I had nothing better to do, I agreed to do so, as long as I got something for my troubles. Barney agreed, but said I needed to go get the key to the crypts from his house. He tells me the key is in a cabinet just inside the door and that I need go no further in to his house than that.

As I start to walk away to get this key, Barney hands me the key to his house, explaining that I'll never get in without it. Not really knowing where to find Barney's house, I just walked in to town and looked for any buildings I hadn't been in yet, and as luck would have it, I found his house on the first try. I entered his house, looking in to see what I could see, I hear a voice comming from upstairs, Barney's wife is asking who I am. I explain that his husband sent me to egt a key for the crypts and I was leaving as soon as I got it. Just as I had said the word key, she shouted in a rather angry voice, it was in the cabinet right in front of me, continuing to shout a few obsinitys about what I was doing.

I head back to the cemetary with key in hand, quick in the step now, it going to be dark soon. Just as before, Barney is standin there waiting to hear the voices. I tell him I have the key and I'll be headding down as soon as i check my gear. While I'm checking it, Barney rambles on about how he'd been taking care of the cemetary for almost 60 years, and in all that time, he had never heard anything like this before. I assure him that I will find the source of these voices and put a stop to them if they are a threat to anyones safety. With a pleased look on his face, Barney wishes me good luck as I step in to the crypt.

End Chapter 8

[Sponsored content]