"So now that you aren't part of the band of evil and horror," Skylar gestured back towards the mansion wearily. "What exactly was going on? I mean you know, what exactly would that ritual do?" Skylar didn't particularly want to know but he needed something to keep him awake and alert. In reality, he just wanted to pass out but this wasn't the place nor the time.

Still fading in and out, he opened the pack and pulled out a random scroll. Reating always helped him focus. He slung his bag on his back, gently placed a hand on Jameson's should wither an apologetic smile, and started to read using Jameson to guide him over the awful terran. PLus, who knows what new magics he might find!

Jameson sighed at the caravan master's silence and wondered what else is he keeping from the group. The caravan master has been helpful all these time but Jameson was still worried about his true allegiance, could he be a spy sent here to monitor them, ordered by their leader through telepathy? Only time will tell. Jameson was hesitant to talk about the group's plans with him around but it doesn't seem like he had a choice, he'll just have to spare details if need be. He then said to Skylar, "I suppose destroying these materials might slow down whatever they have planned, but I doubt it would stop them or else they would've came after us. I think we should learn what we can from them for now."

"No point in asking him too, he doesn't seem like he wants to answer our questions." said Jameson as Skylar placed his hand on his shoulder. He turned to have a look at Skylar and he could tell that he was visibly exhausted which was no surprise, Skylar has been casting spells non-stop in the past hour or so and it's beginning to take a toll on him. Jameson then said to Skylar in a softer tone, "You wanna talk about what happened back there? You were clearly absent and you mentioned an 'Alexander', was he someone you knew?"

Again Skylar flinched. He seemed lost for a second before looking up for the scroll. His face fell and he took a shuddering breath.

"My family was targeted by cultists down South. Almost every single Altzan can cast magic from the second they can read. Our blood at base contains a potent reserve of magical energy, making it one of the best spell catalysts available." He chuckled darkly, "So they attack us. Hunted and caught us one by one to use in their rituals. We fought back. Oh we nearly had them beat out of our towns too. But some of us turned. They got greedy, conspired with the cultists, and destroyed us from the inside." His mouth was set in a hard line and fury twisted his face.

"My mother" he spat the word, "was the matriarch of our family. One of the best battle mages of our time. She turned too. Found out when I woke up to a burning house and my little brother on the altar, insides opened and drained of all his blood. I tried my best to kill her but I just can't cast battle magics, let alone at her skill." Tears started to well up in his eyes and his voice dropped to little more than a whisper.

"As to back there. Magic, despite our attempts to manipulate and catagorize it, constantly changes and fluxutates, changing the rules and effects as it wishes if the will isn't strong enough. Magic often innately enhances emotional responses and creates a feedback, furthering one's experiance of the emotions." He pursed his lips and looked down, "In cases of extreme stress or trauma, it often forces you to relive the event and substitutes that reality for the current one. You see, hear, feel, taste, smell everything that happened again and again. The cultist triggered the memories and I saw her instead. I aw my brother Alexander on the altar before her. I smelled the fire and death. So I tried to change it. Thankfully, killing the cultist made me remember she didn't die and brought me back. Who knows what else I would have cast and who I would have caught in the crossfire. I had a few elixirs to hold it at bay but they broke when the caravan threw us to the ground and without supplies, I can't remember more."

Skylar leaned a little heavier on Jameson, struggling just to keep his eyes open. Hopefully, they would find a relatively safe place soon.

Jameson felt bad for Skylar upon hearing his story, a whole family hunted down solely for their blood and a mother who would sacrifice her own child for evil, Skylar had practically nothing left which explains why he left for the North. "I'm sorry to hear that Skylar, if it's any consolation, you might not have been able to save your brother back then, but you managed to save us now. I appreciate what you did back there, as much as I'd like it to end without a fight, I doubt that's possible given the circumstances. You certainly gave that cultist quite a hit." said Jameson in an attempt to provide Skylar some comfort and confidence. He felt Skylar weighing down on him even more, if they break into another fight, he doubt Skylar would last. "Hang on there, we'll group up with the rest of the gang and find a place to rest." said Jameson as he placed his arm around Skylar's waist to better support his weight.

Jameson then looked to the rest of the group, "We've been walking for quite a bit now, I don't suppose any of you know how we can find Raven and Ivan?".

The caravan master sat on a nearby fallen branch, looking at the various individuals in the group. "Hmm... I suppose 'egina is dead or worse by now, but as for what they're doing..."

He paused and looked at the sky with sunken eyes.

"Believed in a lot once, I did. Thought the South was 'ell itself. Bick'rin an' bick'rin an' death... I was jus' a wee lad when the village burned. Sart'rian army, it 'twas. Scorch'd earth, they call it. Jus' wanted to see the world burn..." He sighed. "Got n' offer, took it. Helped them in the North, came down, started farry'n gents up... none of 'em made it. North'rn towns an' folks of pure heart, dead, an' my job is to add to 'em. Recruits. Any'un was fine."

He looked back down the path towards the house. "Last good 'un up 'ere, she was. Only 'un to keep the forest clear, but she din't clear 'em from demons. Demons came to 'er, she refused to 'elp them, they... convinced 'er." He said the last words very grimly.

"'er mother, see, was the Dungn'ess, that witch sorceress who was a big thing half a decade ago... ya' know?" Continuing on, he spoke ever more grimly "an' that blood's useful. They wan' to summon a demon of demon's nightmare. Jus' one can throw everythin' off balance... they put the junk on the table last time, tol' er not to touch it, an' now we have it. Only demons read the stuff, 'er mother kept it for whatever reason. That book-" he pointed at Baldur - "is one of a series for bindin'. No bindin', no control. 'ey can do it without the lore, 'ey just need to get more time. 'ey have the one 'ey need... 'tis too late, 'ey probably goin' to..." His words faded out, back to mutters.

And as for the scroll Skylar was examining, it was utterly blank.



Three soldiers sat on logs in a round clearing ahead of Raven, each in armor, two chain-mail and one in half-plate, two laughing at some undoubtedly dirty joke a third cursing at a rock and wet stick over a sloppy stack of logs. Each had swords and shields besides them along with various other weapons, and the half-plate soldier had a crossbow at his side. Two shields were facedown, but one was facing up and carried the emblem of House Regarick, a southern faction known for its few but elite soldiers and plentiful cheap mercenaries.

"Alright Ivan... Listen up." Raven said in a whisper. "I don't know how these guys will react to us if we show ourselves. They're mercenaries of a certain faction I believe, meaning they aren't automatically good guys or bad guys as a whole. Just guys, based on their emblems. We have two choices... I could go out alone, but they might be startled and attack. But if you approached them with me, they are less likely to be intimidated by a man who's traveling with a child. If I die, your survival becomes significantly more difficult."

"Oh yeah, there's a third option as well. Leave these lads alone. But they could also be our source of survival."

"So what do you think, kid? If you think my decision-making is so stupid, then you decide what we do here."

When he caravan master sat, Skylar sighed with relief and quickly followed suit. His legs ached, his hand burned still, and his eyes felt like lead. He rubbed the back of his neck, easily out a crick he'd managed to work into it somehow. He looked up at the caravan master.

"You ferried people up this way into a slaughter house? Jeez man that's pretty brutal." Skylar sighed, resting his head on his hand. "But why did they let us live and leave if they killed everyone that came up here?" After hearing why they needed Regina, he wanted to go back but he wasn't in any condition. One more spell and he'd probably pass out from exhaustion.

"How about I go in first?" Ivan offered. "If it turns out they are hostile, I can shoot at them a few times with my bow. I bet I can take out at least a few of them. Then you can get the rest. At least one of us gets out alive that way."

@Oliver "Sounds like it could work... I mean, what random mercenaries just open fire on a kid? Probably very few. But I don't think I should let ya just walk out in front of armed soldiers by yourself, my gut's telling me that's a cowardly thing to do. So I'm revealing myself as well."

Raven walked out into the open whenever Ivan did.

"Charles Stiles, mystery diners! Good to meet you."

"Hello lads. My name is Raven and this is Ivan. We're not here to be of any threat to you. In fact, I've got to warn you that there's some pretty serious dangers ahead that I suggest you avoid. Please don't attack."

Ivan shrugged, then nodded, pushing his way out of the trees until the group could easily see him. He said nothing, listening as Raven did the talking. Even though he was tired and sore, he wished he was doing more for the group. He kind of felt like somehow he was being a liability. He chewed his lower lip, picking a wet leaf out of his hair. It had been a while since he'd vomited, and now he was feeling more hungry than nauseated. If the group didn't attack them, he decided he would ask if they had food to offer. He knew they'd probably give it to him if they did. Somehow, everyone seemed to hate the thought of starving children.

Baldur looked down at the book that he had in his clutches as the Caravan demon told him what it was. A book that would allow those demons to control something potentially worse and cause some major damage to the Earth potentially. He had inadvertently slowed down what might have been the apocalypse but he didn't stop it. And now Baldur was filled with two sense of dread, one from the thought of those demons taking over the world and another as he saw that figure that had been haunting him ever since he entered this gods forsaken forest. This dread however was soon replaced by a strong sense of determination with a tint of anger at the demons.

"What if we used these things and summoned this 'demon of demons' before they can and we use it against them? We've got a head start over them plus we've got enough magical knowledge here to trouble shoot the parts we don't know plus we've got a demon to read the book." Baldur said, with an almost visible fire in his eyes. For the first time in what seemed like decades, Baldur felt a sense of purpose again. "Also, before any of you say anything about the ethics of summoning this thing just think about this. If we don't they will and they'll use it to do a whole lot of bad while we can just banish it after we're done with it." Baldur said as he tried to rationalize his idea to the more Lawful good of the party. Finally Baldur turned to the Caravan man and looked him straight in the eyes "I've done a lot of bad in my life too but I think this might be a great chance at redemption. You can make up for all the innocents that you brought up here and avenge Regina." Baldur finished as he took a deep breath and waited for everyone's reaction.

Upon seeing Ivan and Raven the group immediately donned their swords and shields, with the half-plate soldier picking up the crossbow. "Right, that's far enough." The half-plate soldier stated. "Pick it up." He threw a small metal ball at Raven's feet. "You first, then give it to the kid."

The shorter of the chainmailed men spoke up. "Come on John, they're southern. They're not exactly border patrol."

"Hell with their looks, I want to know for sure, if I wasn't here you'd be dead for naivety. Pick it up!" the half-plate soldier barked as he lifted the pre-loaded crossbow.

Raven looked down at the ball. The only way this thing could be of any use of determining anything would be if it were magical. He made sure his amulet was touching him, then he picked it up. Then Raven passed it, along with the amulet, to Ivan. He worried it was a trap at first, but logically that would be unlikely because the man said "I want to know for sure."

Jameson leaned against a nearby tree, he wasn't as exhausted as the rest of the group but he needed to rest his back after that ordeal. He shook his head in disapproval upon hearing the caravan master's words. These demons are seriously evil and need to be stopped, but Jameson was as curious as Skylar as to why they just let them go instead of sacrificing them. Everything just seem too awfully suspicious.

Jameson then sighed at Baldur's idea, as insane as it sounds, it seems to be the only way they could beat all those demons but Jameson wasn't too approving of it. "As much as I agree that we need a powerful being to defeat them, I don't think summoning a demon of demons is a good idea. If we mess up the binding spell, we're gonna bring doom to us all or maybe even worse. Then there's also the problem of banishing it." Jameson paused and sighed, then said in a softer tone, "It's not easy to control a demon."

Ivan twirled the ball around in his hands. He was thinking that this was probably some sort of magic item to detect their allegiance or alignment or something. Either way, he wasn't too worried about being killed right now. If the men wanted to kill them, they would likely do so with weapons rather than tying to trick them into picking up deadly magic balls. He handed it back to one of the chainmailed men with a raised eyebrow.

The soldier with the crossbow kept it raised at the pair, but seemed to relax slightly under his armor. "Refugee?" he asked.

"Southern?" One of the chainmail soldiers asked. "Name's Marell, by the way. This fellow-" He pointed to the one with the crossbow - "Is John, fellow across is Barnaby." Barnaby took the metal ball. "It's been a rough week, can't be too careful after what's happened up there."

Barnaby dug through a pack to his side, bringing out a half loaf of bread. "Rest is soaked.." he muttered as he tore off and threw a piece to his fellows. He tore two more pieces off. "A whole village up there dead." He stated soberly. "Probably more. What parts are you from? You look southern."

"I am from the southeast. Медведьстрана." Ivan said, looking down a bit as he said it. His was a poor country, ridden with disease and poverty. The government wasn't terribly corrupt, but crime filled the streets. Even with his asthma and propensity for finding trouble,Ivan was probably in less danger out here than he was back at home, to be perfectly frank. "Ve are heading North. The rest of the caravan got... separated. Ve may have ran into trouble on the way up."

"I am southern as well. I come from Vaguek. It's in the Southwest. Currently we are hoping to avoid running into a demon. There's some possessed mud up ahead. I suggest avoiding a certain house up ahead as well, some nasty things go on in there." Raven said, looking at the two peices of bread. "You know, I'd really like one of those and I'd be very appreciative if you'd give me and this kid some bread. We haven't eaten since the issues with our caravan. And maybe we can discuss what actually happened in the village you speak of, since you don't seem to be on the move at this very moment."

"Jameson's right you know. Plus we probably don't have half the materials to open a proper portal." Skylar sighed. He tossed his bag gently towards Baldur. "I snatched everything off the tables. There are two blue books with moons and a puzzle box in there that are mine. Feel free to look through the rest. I'm down to do it if we decide we have everything. We only slowed them down after all. What could we do that they aren't already going to do?"

Skylar started fading out and slumped as his eyes shut and everything faded to black. He couldn't fight sleep now that they had stopped.

Baldur took a look through what Skylar had managed to take off with and gave a satisfied smile as he stood up form his crouch. "I'm no demonologist but it seems to me like we have exactly enough materials here to get the summoning going. There's a small amount of guessing going on on my end but I'm pretty sure we could pull this off." Baldur said with a giddy smile as he handed the book he stole to the caravan master.

"Could you read the book and tell us how exactly we need to set this up? I've got a rough idea but summoning isn't exactly my strong suit." Baldur said as he began drawing rough lines in the ground as he marked where to put the various pieces from Skylar's bag.

As Baldur worked away he once again found himself filled with that all to familiar sense of Dread only this time it was much stronger. Baldur stopped what he was doing and looked up into the forest to see a pale white figure staring at him from the forest only this time when he focused on it the silhouette didn't disappear, it simply stood still and watched the group. Baldur quickly got back to work and hoped no-one would notice the creature in the forest.