At this past Neridia gathering, we were fortunate
enough to be visited by the Herald, who speaks for
those who remain. Those who remain, by the way,
refers to the Great Wizards. If you do not know who
the Great Wizards are, then I would refer you to the
history of Neridia, and Aurellis' notes on them. They
can tell you much more than I can on the subject.
However, the history of the Great Wizards is not what
I am writing this to discuss. I am instead writing to
tell everyone about the mission that was undertaken to
learn one of the truths of the Herald. On this
particular mission were Squire Jokarius, Squire
Candidate Titania, Ashe, Xylon, Jimmy, Dale, Bling,
and myself, I believe.
The Herald took us to an orphanage just outside of
town, and we assumed spirit form. We watched four
girls trying to go to sleep. One of the girls had the
nose of an elephant, and it appeared she had been
gypsy cursed by another one of the girls. Two of the
girls were trying to sleep, while the elephant girl
and the gypsy girl continued to be loud. Finally, the
man who ran the orphanage came in and told the girls
to go to sleep.
We watched as they went to sleep, wondering what we
were supposed to learn from what we had seen. Then,
suddenly, a hooded beast came out from under one of
the beds and grabbed the elephant nose girl. Squire
Jokarius and Ashe quickly attacked, and were dragged
under the bed as well. The rest of us looked around
and decided to follow them.
When we got out of the portal, we found that we were
in another place, probably the spirit plane, since we
seemed to be able to physically affect things. We
were attacked by some undead creatures, but were
rapidly able to dispatch them.
We then heard a voice say, "Not scared of death?
Well, how about spiders?" A spider then appeared, but
with eight of us we were able to rapidly dispatch it.
It provided little challenge.
The voice then came again, and said, "Not scared of
spiders? Well, how about dragons?" A dragon
appeared, and though it was a small dragon, it was
quite powerful. Each of its blows would damage you no
matter where it hit you, even if you blocked it with
your shield. Finally, though, by using our skillful
dodging abilities and the quick healing skills of
Xylon, Ashe, and myself, we were able to take down the
dragon.
The voice did not seem impressed. It said, "Not
scared of dragons? Well, how about clowns?" We were
then attacked by a clown, but we took it out in short
order as well.
Finally, we found the source of the voice, who was the
very same beast who had abducted the girl, and still
held her. Squire Jokarius moved in and removed the
hood the beast wore, and then we found ourselves all
returned to the orphanage, including the girl. We
hoped she would not remember whatever had befallen
her.
When we left the orphanage, I spoke to the Herald for
a moment about the Truth we had learned. He told me
that "he" feeds on fear, and also told us that we had
been sent on the mission by the Great Wizard known as
Golem. I do not know who the "he" that the Herald
spoke of was. I would like to speak to Golem, but
fear that I will not get the chance unless there is a
need to.
And I suppose if there's a lesson to be learned out of
this, it's "don't look under the bed."