The day began the same as any other, but that was about the only thing
that made sense that day...

Asmoth rose from the hammock that swayed to and fro in the aetherhold
of his ship, Water's Guardian. He quickly dressed and threw on his
greatrobes that were hung over a piece of the hold, then spent the
next few minutes wearing and rubbing all of his enchanted jewelry,
causing things like levitation, waterwalking, waterbreathing and so on
to take effect. Afterwards he walked over and picked his tahto staff
up from the corner of the room, sat down on the floor and crossed his
legs indian-style and closes his eyes. He pushes his mortal senses to
the limit, preparing for the days activities, everything from blocking
out sleep to sensing the shifts in the fates and sensing when people
die.

Slowly his eyes open and he stands up, his face more alert and
focused. He walks out the aetherhold and the key sigil on the ground
flares brightly, slamming the door shut behind him.

In the center of the boarding deck to the Water's Guardian is a
shimmering orb of light, this orb is the link to whatever dock he's
connected to. Currently it's the aetherplex, he walks into it and
pictures the aetherplex, everything goes black for a moment and there
is a sense of weightlessness and then suddenly he's standing in a
crowd of people who are standing in the aetherplex. He turns and
faces the portal again and reaches his hand out towards it, searching
for the portals of Celest, he finds a route through an aethershop and
arrives to be greeted by a regiment of Cavaliers and Archons to whom
he nods and they tilt their heads in return.

Asmoth walks down to the pool of stars and looks through the crowd,
looking for a friendly face or anybody interesting and finds none. He
pulls his hood up and double checks his magical protections and heads
off east down the road towards the harbor of New Celest.

He approaches the harbor and steps off of the dock easily, his foot
stopping about an inch above the water's rippling surface and he walks
off in a southeasternly path, his destination on this day is Itecia,
the old island that is infested with Gorgogs that he hunts down for
the noble Merian, Marinus. Marinus pays a 100 gold bounty on each
dead, plus grants him some good faith with the gods, some people call
it Karma and Asmoth can use all he can get.

A sudden wave comes and Asmoth struggles to hold his ground, but when
you're walking on an enchanted cushion of air, you don't really have
too much traction and he goes tumbling off with a wave, it pushes him
too far east and instead of hitting his destination of the bay, he
shakes his vision clear to marshy ruins. Then looks down and shakes
his head as his robes are filthy and dirty and says, "There goes
another cleanse enchantment wasted." with a sigh.

Suddenly a young man runs past, armor shining and gleeming in the
light, Asmoth assumes he's simply a page out hunting alligators or
pythons in the swamp as they don't put up too much of a fight, but
then he catches a glimpse of the mans face and it is a mask of fear.
Asmoth turns to chase after the man to see what plagues him when
suddenly he sees for himself what the young man is running from. A
Demon, black skinned with red eyes comes running into the room,
followed by a charcoal armored man and it says in a grating, evil
voice, "He is close master! I smell his fear!" and turns to look at
the man who nods his head and says, "Bring him to me." the demon
begins to spin in a circle whispering ancient and evil magic that just
makes Asmoth's lip curl to hear them, and with an amazed but extremely
frightened look on his face, the young man comes walking in on stiff
legs, obviously against his will. The evil man just laughs and says,
"So you thought you could kill our spectres and steal them to offer to
your god? And didn't even have the proper respect to ask one of us.
Spectre island is ours, it's part of the Sea of Despair, and you will
learn a very hard lesson today whelp."

Asmoth quickly gauges the charcoal armored fellow and his demon and is
surprised he hasn't been seen yet, but he is walking in the shadow of
Yesod, a high magic that cloaks you from others. The demon approaches
and holds onto young man, and starts to whisper dark magic into his
ear while tearing at his skin, leaving large gouges of bleeding skin.
The man's eyes go out of focus and his face twitches, he's obviously
trying to fight the effects and failing. The Magnagorian obviously
has the boy out matched in might and magic. Asmoth decides to step in
and save the boy, but in a way as to confuse the magnagorian.

Asmoth steps in quickly and locks the boys right arm into a hold with
his staff and arms, then flings the boy out of the area to the north,
leaving him in a crumpled, though alive, pile. He then turns and
takes his staff and slams it down into the ground with both hands, the
staff wobbles and vibrates hard, he then launches himself at the
magnagorian, and slams his staff into the man's right and left arms in
quick succession, causing a spasm up his left and right sides,
paralysing them. Asmoths right foot streaks up to the sky and comes
crashing down hard on the top of the man's head, sending him to the
ground with a stunned look on his face. Quickly following up that
blow is a hard swipe with both hands on the end of the staff that
nails the man in the head, causing the staff to quiver and vibrate
more. He then kicks the man roughly in the side of the head as he's
laying down.

The battle isn't won though as the magnagorian growls a gutteral roar
and the demon comes at Asmoth, raking him with it's claws, causing
unbidden fears to come to the front of his mind. But Asmoth knows
these are not natural fears and concentrates on focusing his mind and
finds he clears his ailments quickly. He then spins on the man and
bounces his staff again off the man's head, the vibrations getting so
strong you can almost hear a humming in the air where his staff is, he
then launches another kick to the head. Follows up this combination
with a strong strike to the center of the chest, causing the
magnagorian to spit and wheeze, then again swings his staff at both
sides of his body, paralysing the man again. The demon comes on again
and Asmoth has to fight through another few fears and wounds, he
quickly takes a sip of a health vial he wears around his neck and then
spins and nails the man again with the staff in the head, causing more
vibration.

Now the staff is causing a low whirring noise as it spins through the
air and he spins in a circle bringing the full force of the staff down
on the man's chest, who blinks in surprise and grasps at his chest, he
staggers some but keeps his feet. The next kick lays the man out and
another swing to the head causes the staff to shake so hard it's
almost hard to keep a hold on it. Asmoth dodges the demon's embrace
and says, "Alright, I'll give you this chance to yield Magnagorian.
Take it or leave it." He raises his staff above his head and towers
over the man.

"T-To Nil wi-with you Monk!" The man manages as he spits blood out of
his mouth. Asmoth shakes his head and says, "You first" then quickly
pulls his staff down, bashing the man hard on the heart. He gurgles
for a second and fixes Asmoth with a look that could kill and then
goes limp. His ghost rising from the corpse.

"You may have saved that boy monk, but I will be back, death is but a
boon to my kind. I'll see you another day." and the ghost trails over
the swamp and back towards the sea where Asmoth loses sight of it. He
looks to the north and finds the man looking none the worse for wear,
with a few potions and mending salves open in his hands. He
approaches him and says, "You gotta watch out for Magnagorians, they
look for any excuse to kill those who are un-prepared." The young man
nods his head a few times and says, "Thank you so much for saving me
there. Without you I wouldn't have lasted too long, that demon was
horrible it was causing me to see the most un-natural, scary stuff I
have ever seen or even thought of!" Asmoth nods and says, "Nil is as
powerful as it is wicked and can kill quite easily. Do you have a way
back home? Can you teleport?" The man nods and says, "Yes sir."
Asmoth nods and says, "Good, name's Asmoth, I'm a monk, if you need
me, call me, I do what I can."

The boy nods and begins to search the air in front of him, there are
barely visible threads there that he's focusing on, and a moment
before he vanishes he says, "I'm Albernathy, Thank you again." And his
face dissolves into a mist of sparkles along with his body and
vanishes.

Asmoth turns and walks away, making his way back towards the gorgog
cavern, he is still walking a few inches above the water and looks
down as he is striding across the bay, he sees a large shark with a
shovel-like nose, it is swimming back and forth attacking something
underneath the water and he pauses, kneeling down on his cushion of
air to see what it is. A flash of blue and silver comes out at the
sharks flank the water becomes stained red with the shark's blood, he
follows the movement and sees a female Merian who glances up and nods
to him, then quickly moves in and finishes the shark. With a few
kicks she launches herself out of the water and lands down near
Asmoth. He says, "Are you alright? Those things are nasty and fast."
The merian laughs and says, "I'm fine Kephera, but thanks for your
concern. Where ya headed?" Asmoth points to a distant shape on the
horizon and says, "Itecia". The lady looks and nods and says, "Well
good luck to you Kephera. Walk in the light" she bows, then pulls a
cubix from her pack and touches it, vanishing into it with a POP.

Asmoth arrives at the destroyed huts and ruins that mark the isle of
Itecia. He makes his way along the paths and up the trail into the
mountains, then finds the cave. Loud groans and bellows are heard
from in the cave and he knows the Gorgogs are definately home. Asmoth
bows his head and chants the words "Ooshphet Lumphet Angphet" to
himself and feels the vibrations of the mantra take effect. He can
move faster, heal faster and his body is hardened against damage.

Ever since Asmoth began to fight the creatures and evils of the basin
he has adopted a keen focus on fighting. A place inside himself that
he goes and lets his body and mind control his actions. In this state
of mind he wades through the cavern slaying Gorgog after Gorgog and
doesn't miss a beat.

Suddenly in his mind he sees the face of Albernathy, the young man and
hears his frightened voice in his head, "Asmoth, I am getting hunted
by that man again, and he brought a friend, please come help me again,
I don't have anyone else to turn to!" Asmoth nods and touches his
temple, thinking of Albernathy's face, "Where are you, can you run
away somewhere safe till I get to you?" The man immediately answers,
"Desert, near Celest, but they are watching the road for me, I have to
retreat, but this desert is scalding, I'm going to run up the road,
the one that leads past Dairuchi, do you know it, I'll hope they won't
follow me!" Asmoth says, "Very good, when you think you've lost them,
let me know, I'll teleport to you and we will see if we can get you
outta there." Asmoth turns and runs over to the tower on Nyalia and
gets his reward from Marinus, just in time to hear the voice of
Albernathy, "Go I'm in a safe spot for the minute!"

Asmoth reaches forward and starts tugging on strands of aether, and
finds the one with Albernathy's imprint on it and travels through it,
appearing right next to him, staff at the ready. "Where are they?" he
says quickly. "Down the road, they don't appear too familiar with
this territory so I think that's why they aren't charging in." Asmoth
nods and walks over to the exit to the road and points a diamond on
his necklace at the area, a wall of ice rises up from the ground and
totally seals the road off. "Hopefully they don't have a way around
that, then we can avoid a battle all together." he says.

Asmoth turns for a minute and looks around, the area appears to have
been ripped from the landscape, the road just ends, bricks are hewn in
half, as if something just cut the road off of the planet and yanked
the ground away. A gigantic crater is all that's left. "Where are we
Albernathy?" He says a little mystified. Albernathy quickly glances
over at Asmoth and then back to the wall, "I don't know, I just ran
down this road, I normally never go past Dairuchi." Asmoth nods his
head and looks around a bit.

Asmoth walks around a bit and finds a statue, made of a strange rock,
it's multi-colored and resembles a Dracnari. The statues right arm is
missing from the shoulder down, making it appear incomplete but none
the less mystifying.

As Asmoth looks at the statue's face, he leans back away quickly. Was
that just a movement he saw in the stone's eyes, no it couldn't have
been. There is a hissing sound behind him and he hears the young
squire gasp and the unmistakable sound of swords being drawn from
their sheaths. Asmoth spins and walks up next to Albernathy and
swings his tahto down into the ground hard, holding onto the end of
it, it bounces and shakes in his hands with a subtle vibration and he
holds it out across his body, at the ready.

A hole appears in the middle of the wall, and suddenly it explodes out
from the center and the rest of the wall falls into quickly
evaporating pools of water. The flicking tounge of a taint wyrm comes
sliding into view with a lithe viscanti on it's back, holding a
twisted staff that Asmoth knows marks her as a Geomancer, Masters of
earth and the tainted magic that makes them so deadly. Following
behind her is the same Nihilist from before, this time his body
doesn't reveal the human form it held earlier, now in the place of
living blue eyes is the mask of horror that shows him as an undead.
Deep in the recesses of his skull is a glowing red fire in each
socket, that burns a little brighter upon seeing the objects of his
desires. The man smiles and cracked dead flesh falls to the ground,
parts of his bony jaw visible, adding to his gruesome stature.

Asmoth glances between the Geomancer and Nihilist and quickly decides
to take the Geomancer first, He leaps into the air and spins, cracking
the Geomancer in the top of the head, knocking her from her mount.
Asmoth senses some static in the channels of psionic energy and
suddenly is fearful and unable to move, as well as feeling slightly
drained, but he's fought mages before and he quickly eats a small
sprig of herb known as pennyroyal, then takes a sip of bromide from a
vial on his belt. Albernathy follows Asmoth's form and is attacking
the Geomancer while she focused on Asmoth, he hacks into her chest
with two savage swings and leaves her staggering under the blow.
Asmoth then swings his tahto staff around hard with two hands and
cracks the geomancer in the skull, then follows up with another kick
to the head. The Geomancer suddenly gets a stupid look in her eye and
screams, "I LOVE CHEESE!". Asmoth grins and Albernathy is struck with
a beam of energy from the symbol in the Nihilist's hand with a grunt
and takes another few swings out of the woman. Asmoth looks at the
woman with burning intensity and can tell that she is weak and has not
much left. He slams the right side of his staff into her skull, then
spins and strikes her with the left, and finally kicks her in the face
with such force her neck snaps backwards and she falls, her ghost
rising from the corpse and the taint wyrm begins to scurry away.

Asmoth looks over himself and takes a sip of health, then turns and
starts to approach the Nihilist, suddenly the Nihilist raises his
hands and a beam of light comes flying down from the sky right into
Asmoth. Time slows, the flecks of skin that fall from the undead
guardian slow down to a crawl, taking a single step is like walking a
mile all the sudden. The guardian laughs and ducks a few swings from
the squire. His demon latches out and grips the squire, who begins to
writhe and try to escape. Asmoth reaches down to take a sip of his
phlegmatic vial, when he suddenly gets sick to the stomach, thinking
of swallowing is heinous. He closes his eyes and focuses on his mind,
finds that balance in his mind and feels a few burdons fall from him.
He attempts to drink again and after the liquid flows down his through
his parted mouth, he lurches into real time. Nearly falling forward,
he jams his staff into the ground to steady himself.

The squire has escaped the demon but is looking around with fear in
his eyes, yet is still managing to swing and score a few strikes
against the Nihilist, Asmoth smiles and comes at the Nihilist,
striking him hard in the right and left arm, causing a spasm, then
kicking the undead beast in the head, which floors him. A quick check
on the squire shows him shaking off the claws of the demon, leaving
large furrows of blood in it's wake. Asmoth attacks again and again,
he begins to throw a few kata's together and eventually knocks the
Nihilists to his knees, where suddenly a silver sword sprouts from his
chest with Albernathy stands behind him, chest heaving and arms
shaking. The undead fiend looks down at the tip of the sword and the
fire in his eyes flickers and fades, his corpse falling to the ground,
pulling Albernathy off his feet.

Asmoth walks over towards Albernathy and smiles, helping the man up,
"You did well Squire, you fought through the fears the demon and his
master plagued you with and ended his foulness, at least for now."

"Now I recommend we rest a bit, then head back to your city." Asmoth
turns and walks towards the end of the road, and leans on the statue
with no arm, looking back across the crater at a shimmering bubble,
that floats in the air. Albernathy takes a seat on a large rock that
is near the roads end, nursing a few wounds and sipping from his
health vial. Asmoth leans against the statue and the ray of mercy
falls upon him, small scratches turn into unblemished skin, bleeding
wounds knit themselves together under their own power from the light
that he stands in.

Down near the corpse of the Geomancer, the ghost wafts back in, it's
form turning more and more solid, the features dead and evil. And the
lich solidifies and reaches down to pick up it's staff. It opens it's
undead mouth wide and spews forth noxious red smoke and poison, then
stomps on the ground a few times, causing it to shimmer in the heat of
the desert. Asmoth quickly turns around and is caught off guard. The
undead woman lifts her staff high and a torrent of tainted, elemental
power poors forth from the staff, slamming into the chest of Asmoth.
He is blasted off the ground and shot backwards, his consciousness
fading, he twirls in the air, his grip on his staff solid, yet the
rest of his body limp. Until the last thing Asmoth sees before
passing out is the form of a pyramid, with a flash of flame. And all
goes black...

Darkness...

Empty Darkness...

Asmoth floats in a void of dark, his thoughts rolling slowly back to
him. He tries to move his body and finds he can't feel anything. He
can't feel his body, he can't feel his face and he can't seem to move
his view from the location of endless black. Suddenly he grows very
tired, his sense of consciousness starts to wane, the vision blurs and
what seems like ages later, he feels rough gravel under his body, and
his arms are bruised and sore. It takes monumental effort to simply
open his eyes and Asmoth hisses in dismay as the bright light of
sunlight blinds him for a moment.

He feels something nudge him in the rib sightly and reaches out to
touch it, it's hard, soft and leathery, he opens his eyes in a slit
and looks up to a Dracnari man with a set of robes with golden thread
spun throughout it representing flames.

The Dracnari looks down at him and says, "What manner of creature are
you, some type of bug?" Asmoth opens his eyes and cranes his neck up,
"Kephera, haven't you heard about our coming from the undervault?"
The dracnari frowns, creases on his brow, "Undervault? Kephera? I've
never heard of such a thing." Asmoth looks around to find the
surroundings similar to where he remembered being last, yet strangly
different, "Where am I?" he says to the Dracnari. A surprised look
crosses the draconic features and he says, "Why you're in the
outskirts of Gaudiguch, where else would you be?"

Asmoth's mouth falls open, and he sits back, his thorax resting
between his legs, a look of shock on his face.

**Next Part next month!**