Chapter 5
" A Path Set On Skulls And Paved In Blood "
page 20 ' Moments Of Transition That Are Born In Pain '

- Previously -
As Dio walked into Micheal's encampment and opened up the Gate he was able to escape along with Cade, Enutrof, Elly, and Kai. A couple of seconds of travel and they were over six hundred miles to the west, as the bird flies. As they crash landed to the ground Kai's jar of saki rolls in front of him and they all look up to see Sebastian who says, "Kill them, all!"

- Now -
Kevrin walks up behind Sebastian and mentions to him, "Umm Sir these are the adventurers who helped us out during that Port Drake inccodent. You congradulated them yourself." Sebastian takes another look down at them and says, "So they are, belay that last order." and with that all of the Crimson Knights stand down and everyone relaxes, except for Dio who charges at Sebastian. Dio plunges his knife directly into Sebastian's heart then his other hand started to glow that same blackness as it did before and he plunged his hand toward Sebastian. Dio's hand hits Sebastian in the stomach and nothing occurs to Dio's surprise; so he tried again and again until Sebastian got annoyed by it. Sebastian grabbed both of Dio's hands with one of his and tossed to poor kid over a hundred feet to land on and break a table and with that Dio fell uncontious. Elly seemed horrified and scooted back on all fours away from Sebastian.

That aside Kevrin lead the party to a tent where they would be able to rest up for awhile, however he warned them that the Crimson Knights would be leaving this area pretty soon. As Kevrin left Celine peeked her head into the tent, sheepishly, then entered greeting the enitre party saying how she was happy that they were all safe since it has been awhile since she's seen them last. After some conversation Celine told the Party how Sebastian's people found a couple of Gates not too long ago and now it has been one of Sebastian's major undertakings and she has been helping Kevrin out since he has gained rank to General. Ellly returned from her well deserved bath feeling reenergized and finding someone she knew from before, Violet. Violet ran into the tent up to Cade to give him a big hug, "I'm so glad that you are alive. All of you." After some rest and baths, which were really needed (again), Elly told the Party that she wanted to travel directly toward Miragon to get in touch with the resistance and Clive's father, Nicholas, because, "He. . . he doesn't know that Clive was killed in East Cameron." Elly felt really sad about loosing Clive when Cade told her to "get over it" and "if you are going to cry everytime you hear Clive's name your worthless." and with that Elly got angry at Cade. But, Kai asked Elly why she seemed so frightened when they first came here. So Elly explained that she was scarred because Sebastian is
"Longinus," says Jonis as he then walks into the tent. Elly says that when Clive returned after talking to his father the last time he told her about that. The reason for Jonis's dissapearance was because, "I thought that Dio would be comming here, though I thought that he could travel farther. I didn't think that he would of needed the way of the Gates, so it must have been another reason why he used it." Jonis then explains that the Crimson Knights are just treating him as a friendly traveling merchant and that he was going to be traveling with them for awhile.

Both Elly and the Crimson Knight would be traveling to Miragon eventually, however they were two different paths to be taken. Kai and Enutrof decided to travel along with Elly while Cade, Myr, and Dio traveled along with the Crimson Knights. So this is where the Party decided to split into two groups. Even though this happened around the same times I will be following Cade and Myr's group first.

Cade, Myr, and Dio (who was along for the ride and unaware of what happened recently in Melaar's tunnels and Micheal's hideout) boarded Sebastian's Airship to travel a few hours up north. The Airship landed near the half remains of a tower, which the Party remembers seeing from Melaar's visions. Alminster, a Crimson Knight, relayed a request from Sebastian about a report that they got from a little burg by the name of Hommlet that was less than a day's travel away. He said that some bandits were attacking and taxing the town to death. Celine was able to join the Party to help out with any messes and Alminster joined as a representative of the Crimson Knights. It took them a better part of the day to travel to Hommlet and when they arrived they got a very unfriendly welcoming. However with Alminster doing the PR work and the Party checking out a few bars for information they were able to find out that the bandits were using an old house a couple of kilometers outside of town. Cade and Myr left Hommlet with Celine and Dio towards the house in the direction that they were told. A few hours later they found the house that was sitting on top of a small hill with no good cover within three hundred feet of the two story building. They circled around it seeing the monster that the villargers were talking about, but from their distance they were unable to discerrn what type of beast it could be. Taking the stealth route they crept up slowly toward it trying to keep hidden from any of the view points from the windows in the house. Making it up to the house Celine took front attack on the Manticore that was chained up right after it launched some of its spikes from its tail towards Cade. Celine was able to land a few good hits along with Dio who came forward to do some damage of his own. Myr launched a volley of magic missiles before he started pelting the beast and the man who came out the back door with some fireballs. Both of them fell quickly and hearing some movement inside the Party rushed in, but with some very narrow halls there wasn't much room for the extras to fight in.

They started to do a room to room search of the building looking for anymore bandits around the area. As Cade found the kitchen area a group of the bandits came out from a door down the hall and as a response Myr let loose another one of his fireballs which ripped right through them and started the north side of the building on fire. After taking out a couple of other bandits the Party took the stairs at the south part of the building up to the second floor. Searching a few rooms they found a halll that had a nice red carpet that led up to a door that Cade went to check the keyhole to see what was behind. And the door was kicked in knocking Cade to the ground and Rigger stepped out from the opening. Rigger got some heavy damage from Myr's volley of magic missiles and a few of Cades bolts, unfortunitally Dio didn't do anything and the small hallway prevented Celine from helping too much. Rigger delt some serious damage to the Party but was soon taken down and with that Cade searched the room that he came from levitating the chest that was locked in his room. The Party quickly exited from the building before anymore structural damage occurred from Myr's fireball. Resting the chest outside they found a collection of a thousand gold of which Cade took half and gave the other half back to the little village after they announced that Hommlet would not be having any more problems from here on out. Alminster gave them Sebastians thanks and some five hundred gold for their successful mission.

After they arrived back at the Crimson Knights' camp they hear that the Knights would be leaving soon because of something that Sebastian has to attend at Miragon. Before they left Cade visited Violet to talk with her a little bit. She was so happy to see him that she gave him a few potions that she made 'especially for Cade'.With some rest the Party was joined by Kevrin, Violet, Celine, Alminster, and Sebastian who left with about half of the Knights who were there to travel to Miragon for the Festival.

At the same time that Cade, Myr and Dio left with the Crimson Knights Enutrof and Kai left with Elly to travel directly towards Miragon. Traveling directly south first they found themselves in Edgewater where Kai purchase a horse for Elly to ride and perhaps Enutrof too. Elly explained that she was sorry that she didn't tell the Party before about Sebastians true identity being Longinus, who was a major instigator in the Mage War over fourty years ago, but she didn't find out until Clive returned that last time. Even though she was sure that Clive couldn't have been killed like that there was still this empty spot in Elly's heart everytime she thought that she might have to live her life without him. Still about two days from Miragon the Party saw a small stack of smoke floating up into the sky and a small group of peasants running towards them. The Peasants told them that their caravan group was attacked by some rebels and they were running for their lives. Rushing as fast as they could down the road towards the four caravans that were lined in a row with the last one burning they saw that the only survivors left were a mother, father, and daughter. Kai ran directly up taking out two of the bandits with Enutrof landing a couple of arrows in the chest of another. But by the time Kai took out the four bandits that were attacking the family the father, Roger, had already been killed. The Party stacked up all of the food and other valuables from the remaining caravans onto the one where Amy (mother) and Sophia (daughter) were riding on. They told the Party that they were traveling to Miragon for both the festival and to go live with Amy's sister who lives there and they accepted the Party's protection services while they all travel there.

Elly knew the Party deserved and explination, "These people were once part of the same rebels that Nicholas and I are part of. But because of a major occurance only a few years back and some problems between Python and Clive there became a sepertist movement. Python was one of Nicholas's best pupils but he always had an air about him, something I just never could trust. When Nicholas called the still then young Clive his successor and put me under his protection instead of Python, he became very angry. Python, he had, well I would call it a delusion that I was in love with him and kept making advances on me. I guess that was the last straw for him so he took who he could and gathered other types of bandits and took to thievery. Most of the rest of the Rebels just left and a few ones who believed stayed to help. This is my last straw, I have always hated how they ruined our name, please I ask you help me take out Python once and for all. I know that he has taken up refuge in a keep that is like a day from Miragon. It would be a personal favor if you were to help me with him." The Party of course agreed to this. Arriving near the location they left Amy and Sophia in the caravan at the road to wait for them while they went to check on Python's hideout.

Sneaking up to it they saw a small two story keep surrounded by a ten foot wide moot and a draw bridge leading to the door that entered inside. Kai circled around the outside to come in near the back as he threw up a makeshift grappling hook that he used to climb up to a second story window which was shut tight. Elly leviated up to that window to Knock it open as Enutrof used all of his might to climb up the rope. Kai jumped into the now open window to find some sleeping quarters that three guys were already using to sleep in. He was able to stun all of them so he could tie them up and hide them under the beds. Elly transformed herself into the form of one of the bandits and entered another room so she could get some of those guys to follow her back to the sleeping quarters so Enutrof and Kai can knock those two out. Finding one last door that was at the end of the hall they kicked in the door after Elly found out that Python was in there talking to two subordinates. Because Elly scouted the room out before hand the Party was able to prepare by casting both mage armor and shield on Kai and Enutrof. Elly kind of hide behind her two big friends as Kai took her Shock Gloves and started to electrocute Python as Enturof took on the two subordinates. Doing heavy damage with his fist and with the help of Elly's shock gloves it didn't take to long before Python dropped.

Kai still powered up quickly ran downstairs to take down any stragglers that were down on the first floor. Python's body lie dead on the ground as Enutrof searched around to find his stash of loot in a chest that was locked and defintally trapped. Meanwhile downstairs Kai took down over half of the guys and made the rest surrender since only one of them was able to hit him once. Kai made some threatening remarks and told tehm that they had to right their ways and become farmers and help people out from here on out. Those frightened bandits agreed. Enutrof brought the chest downstairs and tried to open it himself, which was a mistake because he fell down and wouldn't wake up. Elly ran over to give Enutrof as much help as she could. But inside the chest Kai found a Composite Longbow, some 600 gold, a dagger, and two potions which Elly was able to easily identify as Blur and Aid. However as the Party was checking over the keep on last time they were unable to find Python's body anywhere, which even Elly was surprised about.

Joining back up with Amy and Sophia everyone in the Party jumped upon a horse that they rescued back from the caravan attack. With the sun setting over the Sword Coast to the west and Nott & Mani (the two moons) rising in the east the Party continued the last leg of their journey to Miragon.
With the same two moons rising over his shoulders Jonis sits on his perch ontop of one of the packing crates on the deck looking at the mysterious character of Sebastian. On board of the Airship 'Defiance', Sebastians flagship and main mobile headquarters, Myr and Cade enjoy Celine and Violet's company as well as the rest of the Crimson Knights as they tag along to Miragon. While standing alone on deck Dio looks out towards the west to see the last rays of the sun shine over the dark blue waters of the Sword Coast. Under his breath, "A thousand years to remember how to kill him. That's what I gave you and you couldn't even tell them. You were a worthless investment Melaar. There must be another way to get back into my sisters favor, its too bad I will miss all of this excitement."

In some of the darkest alleyways of Miragon they step out of the shadows to approach the one who was betraying them all for just one wish. "So tell us, where can we find it?" they ask him.