Eulogy for Jon

Here lies our *ahem* friend, Jon Storm.

Yes, we are all...........................saddened.

But let us not be and instead, remember the person he was.

He was the glue that held us together.

True, he got us into many sticky situations.

True, our ideals never really gelled.

And true, because of him, we were always stuck.

Nevertheless, nothing could break so strong a bond.

Rest in peace Jon.

Cierra's father tells the rest of the party that it'd be best if they went out of town and hunted Ekstrom while he clears up the mess in town. The group take the rest of the day off to recuperate and buy items. Cierra's dad wants to enrol Rayne in the bardic college (B.C.) so together (along with Cierra) they go to see ol' Cerian. Meanwhile, Richard bluffs Guy that there are cookies and milk at the local spa and forces him to take Jesse (Guy later realises that it's an all-female spa and he has to wait outside for Jesse for an hour). In the guesthouse, Ovario questions Richard's actions and he says menacingly: "Need to take care of bad blood." Ovario nods his head knowingly and leaves. Richard and Crummy taunt Jon and eventually knock him out. They sell him to a local hillbilly for some gold to be made into glue (*GASP!*). Back at the spa, Jesse exits and is looking might fine. Guy compliments her and she blushes deeply. She grabs his hand and strolls to a nearby candy store to treat him for being so patient.

Back at the guesthouse, Cierra asks Richard what to do with the magic journal. RIchard and Crummy fight over it and scribble stuff in it. After exchanging a few words, they discover that they're "speaking" to a Corporal Jorvin of the 6th Saduca Enforcers but the writing stops after that. When everyone has gathered in the guesthouse, they head to Corrin. Along one of the highways (there are four), they get stopped by a highway robber (Rickman). Just as things seem to take a turn for the worse, Quinlan and Merrick appear behind the party. Apparently the couple are friends with Rickman. The 3 of them chat for abit and during so, Rickman informs them that Dario has put out a bounty on the owner of a nearby villa; Ekstrom. Merrick explains tot he group that while the 4 highway men are thought to rob passing caravans, they are actually employed from the government to keep the highways safe. The bandits are allowed to take a toll from each caravan. Merrick realises that Rickman and his pal Vinnie are very far from their usual spot (Rickman's wife is guarding the highway) and that they are here to collect Ekstrom's bounty of 200,000 gold pieces. Rickman says that the villa was bought in secrecy (Eks used 7 accounts)and is surrounded by a vast amount of undeveloped land. It's a one day's travel to get into the area of the villa and an additional day to reach the villa. Guy suggests that they work together; Rickman takes the bounty and the party take Daria. For now, they agree on this plan. Rickman soon introduces Vale, his cleric of Thor (but doesn't even wear armour and sneaks around). Everyone sets up camp for the night. The group soon makes friends with Tim (a 7ft tall longbow man). Quinlan talks to a 14 year old girl called Longshot who can throw daggers really REALLY well. She grabs a blanket and in three quick steps, climbs up a tree and goes to sleep on a branch. Richard stands by the fireside and plays on his violin a lullaby. Almost instantaneously, Longshot flings a dagger at him and he gets annoyed. He cotinues to playing and she throws a dagger that slices all his violin strings. Richard, now enraged, takes out his rifle and shoots at her but misses as she is nimble enough to dodge such an attack. Merrick scolds Richard for giving away their position. He orders Richard to go back home. Richard rides off and catches up with Ovario who was following the group at a distance. Ovario's plan was to follow the bandits behind all the way to the villa. Suddenly, they hear a sound like someone falling off a horse. Ovario feels the ground and detects that there are 3 beings nearby. They run in the direction of the sound to find Quinlan on the ground and two elves standing over him. Richard charges at on of them while Ovario casts entangle. One evades the entanglement but the other gets stuck and stabbed by Richard in the throat and dies instantly. "What are they doing here?" asks Ovario out loud. Quinlan recovers from his grogginess and cleans the blood off him. Ovario concludes that they should stick together; safety in numbers. Richard finds the elf's head and brings it along. At the encampment, Rickman reprimands Longshot. Guy offers her some candy and she grabs some, climbs up a tree, and sulks. Richard, Quinlan and Ovario appear and suggests everyone set aside their differences. Ovarioa claims that they might be surrounded by elves. He also states that Longshot is his daughter. It seems that Rickman had an affair with Ovario's wife so Rickman adopted Longshot which might explain why she hates him so. With nothing more, everyone goes to sleep.

They awakenthe next morning to see Rickman and Longshot having a tiff. She huffs and jumps into the trees disappearing. Everyone sets off through the forestnot knowing whether Longshot is with them. Halfway there, everyone hears a twig snap (oooooooo~, scary!) and ready their weapons. They continue advancing. Rickman stops the group after awhile and announces that they'd be breaking cover soon. They head to the right by means of jungle bashing. After some time, they reach a clearing covered by tents with ammo and weapons underneath. One of the warehouses nearby has smoke coming out of the barely visible chimney. Two humans pass by carrying a crate each containing potion bottles. Quinlan heads on first to check the layout but doesn't find much. Crummy and Richard sneak up beside the building. Immediately, they hear a twig snap and see Longshot fire off two daggers. There's a shimmering and an elf beside Crummy falls dead. Crummy and Richard nearly shit their pants but check the elf's body before heading into the building; dragging everyone of the adventurers with them. Inside, they find elves within jail cells that seem to have the life force sucked out of them and most appear to be in a catatonic state. Crummy shoots all 6 elves. In the next room, they find an elf with one arm shackled to the wall, missing a leg and arm.Crummy kills him too since he couldn't be woken up. The adjoining room holds another six cells with elves and Crummy goes a-slaughtering again. In another cell (in the next room of course), they come across a very sexy female elf. She explains that THE RED KNIGHT (bum bum BUMMMM!!) feeds on them. Crummy asks Guy nicely to stand under the viewing hole and crummy fires a bolt; killing the gorgeous elf girl. He opens the next door and gets a bolt in the chest (karma.....BITCH!). The party apparently entered a guardroom. All in all, the group manage to kill all 3 guards but Crummy got PWN3D (told you....karma)!!