Where was I?

Oh, yes. The city.

Rybath was the first city I had been in for any length of time and I fully intended to make the most of it.

So of course it didn't happen. To be fair, I did make the most of it the next time I was in Rybath-

Ah, yes. Jumping ahead of myself again.

We arrived in Rybath through a portal which led us almost immediately to Raymond, a dwarven wizard of no small skill. After a brief conversation we decided that we were rather tired and were taken upstairs to an Inn Raymond apparently owned. I almost immediately passed out the minute I got to my room.

The next morning, Raymond met up with us at breakfast. After some information about Kissenth (the dragon we were 'fated' to kill) and some negotiations involving some items we had found, he left to go study his tomes and find the answers to a few questions we had asked him.

Most of the party left shortly thereafter-

Why? Well, Raymond agreed to create some kind of dragon-slaying weapon for Bellum. You'd think he had more than enough to satisfy him. Anyway, the creation of such a device required some rather unusual ingredients. Like a xorn's heart and a wyvern's tail. Fortunately, I had a xorn's heart-

That was the three-armed creature that tried to eat all our metals.

Anyway, we didn't have a wyvern's tail. Several members of the party decided to go traipsing off through a swamp to find a couple. I declined as I had better things to do than slog through a leech-infested swamp looking for a winged creature that wanted to eat me. And I said so.

While Falahara, Annu, Molistead and myself were finishing our breakfast; we overheard a couple of guards talking about an overly large panther. Specifically one that took several arrows without slowing. Apparently a panther charged the city walls the previous evening, got shot several times with arrows, than ran back into the woods.

This caused Falahara to prick up her ears. And boy, can she do that. She decided that the werepanthers that we had met a month or so ago were here and that we needed to go investigate.

The whole thing rang false to me and I said so, but I was ignored. So the four of us left town where the panther had been. Shortly thereafter, we found a note. A note addressed to Falahara.

She gave me a rough translation that the were-panther we met two months ago had tracked us down and accused Falahara of being a were-panther. He also said he wanted to meet that evening in the graveyard.

The whole thing reeked of being a trap and I said so. Repeatedly. The entire day and throughout the trip to the graveyard. I was ignored the whole time.

Falahara went alone to meet with this Jaga while the rest of us hid and watched. We were not able to hear the conversation, but Falahara walked away angry. She told me that she'd tell me the details once we reached town.

Of course, the minute we walked back into town we were immediately detained by the city guard and interrogated. It seems that the note had been found and was replanted by the guard to find evidence of lycanthropes. And since we had found it and acted on the note we were assumed to be in league with the lycanthropes.

My interrogation lasted an hour or so. We were all released eventually, with a stern warning that we were being watched.

After being released, Falahara finally relayed what had transpired between her and Jaga. Jaga apparently was a bounty hunter who had been hired to bring our heads in. Falahara told him that we would double his fee if he would leave us alone, and agreed to meet us in three nights to take his payment.

This sounded like another trap to me, and I said so. Again.

Nobody ever listens to me.

As it was quite late in the evening, what with going on fruitless errands to the graveyard and being interrogated by a bunch of jack-booted thugs, we decided to go back to the inn and go to sleep.

Come to think of it, I think the guards ordered us to do something like that.

Anyway, while I was sleeping the sleep of the just, I was rudely awoken by a loud banging in the room next to ours. Where Molistead and Annu were staying.

I immediately jumped up, grabbed my rapier and charged out the door. Falahara and I broke the door down, and I jumped into the room screaming "DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"

I'd better explain that. A few weeks previous, I had purchased a hat which allowed me to change my appearance. I altered my apperance so that I looked like a six-foot tall knight in black armor.

Man, I loved that hat.

Fortunately, it startled the attackers enough that we were able to kill several of them before they tried to get away. The attackers, a cleric of Shar and her henchmen, tried to get out the way they came in. Which appeared to involve some magical gateway of sorts. Since that didn't work, they ran back out the door and tried to get to the street.

It very nearly worked. I went after the priestess of Shar and managed to get a few good hits in before she cast a spell which struck me blind.

That in and of itself wasn't quite enough to incompacaitate me, but a few seconds later I heard a voice in my head.

It said "Rejoin the Master".

I think I blacked out. Probably from the priestess hitting me when I couldn't see.

While I was unconscious, I had a very disturbing dream. Someone claiming to be my father. along with a host of creatures, were demanding that I rejoin the demon lord I had been attempting to spurn the past few months. They said to go to the graveyard to recieve it's favor.

I awoke shortly thereafter. The enemies had been dispatched, and the inn was crawling with members of the city guard, who had been alerted by Molistead throwing fireballs all over the place. That and filling a street for a full block in either direction with enough webs to choke a roc.

I quickly explained my problem to my companions, and we all agreed that we needed to do something about the demon. Soon.

So we traveled back to the graveyard. The four of us were attacked by another ... thing.

It had bat wings and a body I won't attempt to describe. Whatever creature my soul had been pledged to, it certainly had a variety of minions at it's disposal.

The fight was extremely difficult, mostly due to it's ability to create large walls of ice. Molistead's ability to make nearly anything fly proved quite useful. Quite honestly, I'm not sure if we could have defeated it otherwise.

I also remember it was powerful enough that I could barely scratch it with my rapier. It really worried me about what I'd meet the next time this demon lord sent another one of it's minions.

Never occured to me the next time I'd go to the demon lord and fight it on it's own territory.

The city guards trusted us a little more after that incident with the demon.

The guards had been tailing us ever since we were interrogated, making sure we suddenly didn't transform into werebadgers or something like that.

After watching us kill a demon, they concluded that we might not be members of this Black Blood organization.

Yay for our side.

They allowed us to go to the next meeting and attempt to kill Jaga. They told us that they would be watching the battle but they could 'spare no resources to help us'.

Typical.

So we rested for the next two days. Quite honestly, I don't remember much about it. I was still rather upset with my newest brush with the demonic forces.

Finally, on the third evening, we met with Jaga and tried to kick his butt.

Note I said 'tried'.

We assumed that he'd be alone, or at worst have another werepanther along with him as backup.

Stupid. We should've known better.

Instead, he had an entire pack of wolves at his disposal.

The battle was brief. Molistead fell almost immediately. It turned out that the wolves weren't ordinary wolves-

No, they weren't lycanthropes. Almost as bad though. These wolves had the ability to breathe blasts of bitterly cold air and ice at people. One caught Molistead full in the chest.

Annu and Falahara rushed to save him. I tried to attack Jaga, but he drank a potion and started to fly away.

Trying to save Molistead was a noble goal, but in this case a unsound tatical move. The wolves ganged up on Annu and she fell next.

With her down, they transfered their attention to Falahara.

I fully expected them to take her down in a few moments, then turn their tender attentions to me. Falahara's good, but I didn't think she could take down an entire pack of wolves by herself, even with me helping.

I quite honestly expected to die.

But we were saved from a most unlikely source.

Garth showed up.

Garth was the dog-like creature that was originally charged with commending my soul to hell. And avenge the death of the high priest of Mystra all those months ago. Apparently, Garth was still watching over me, because he saved all our lives.

He appeared, and in an eyeblink Molistead, Annu, and Garth were gone. A few seconds later, he reappeared and whisked us away.

We appeared back in the Temple back at the Paths of the Dead. Where I killed that demon that had been living inside me.

You think I'm obsessed about demons? Heh. Let's just say they colored a lot of my views during that stage of my life.

In any case, Garth left us there. I stayed with Molistead and Annu while the clerics tended to all of our wounds. Falahara immediately went to speak with Talingar, the head of the order. A nice guy who happened to have rather large wings on his back.

What did Falahara speak with Talingar about? Ask her.

In any case, a couple of hours later Talingar teleported us back to Rybath. The next day the rest of my companions arrived back in town, bearing a rather bloody wyvern's tail.

About a week later, we set off to kill a dragon.