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Library: Delecti's and Zach's story

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Author: Zach
Date:Nov 2 1995

Delecti's and Zach's exploration in the Great Northern Swamps

 
  It was a beautiful day when I (Zach) and Delecti came up with
the foolish idea to go and try our luck in the dreaded Great
Northern Swamp. We had already tested our strength against the
Lizard Gladiator and The Undead King Zortin, both times emerging
victorious - and even cleaned half of the city of the vicious
battlefungi.
 
  It was noon when we arrived at the edge of the swamps. Only a few
minutes earlier we had been getting constantly pestered by swarms
of hungry insects. Now they were all gone. It looked like no 
living being could enter that place.. and live to tell about it.
Well, we were stupid enough to go there, just to check the place
out, the two of us, two up-to-the-teeth armed maniacs. Delecti was
a lot more sturdy than me, but I was small and agile, able to dodge
more hits than Delecti.
 
  At first we were amazed by how weak the nasties we encountered
there were. We ran into a couple of Mist-Warriors, Wisps and
lizards, all were quite wimpy and barely got us scratched 
before we sent them into the depths of hell. The swamps were 
very confusing - everything looked the same, and in no time, 
we were hopelessly lost. After running around for a while we 
happened to run into an interesting looking place - there was 
a ladder leading up. We tried peering up but couldn't see 
anything because of the mist. Suddently several lizardmen and 
a wisp jumped us - an ambush. One of the lizardmen was clad in
tattered robes, embedded with mystical runes. The lizardman
started to mumble something in a mystical tongue - obviously
trying to cast a spell.
 
  We reacted quickly, in a few seconds Delecti managed to slash 
the mage's stomach wide open with his sword. The mage almost 
lost consciousness and was stunned. It staggered backwards, 
trying to hold its entrails in with its other hand, while still
continuing the incantation. Tough fucker.
 
  We realised that we couldn't take out all of them at once, we
were severaly outnumbered, so we decided to flee. Because of the
confusion Delecti didn't flee in the same direction as me and we
got separated. I myself stumbled on a slaad, but got lucky and 
managed to get away from it before it laid it's razor-sharp claws
on me. I was completely lost, and couldn't see but a few yards in
front of me because of the mist. I heard something coming towards
me, and because I was wounded I decided to hide behind the dead
tree that was closeby. A lizardman priest walked past, only a
couple of yards away from the tree I was hiding behind. I was
barely alive and had no idea on what had happened to Delecti.
Earlier we had agreed on that if we got separated, we would try
to get out from the swamps and meet outside. The situation looked
bad for me because I knew I was lost.
 
             *                *               *
(Delecti's version of what happened to him)
I was still bashing the shit out of the lizardmen when I noticed
that the lizardmen that had been fighting Zach were coming at me.
Since I couldn't see his corpse anywhere I suddently realised 
that he had fled. I knew I couldn't take them all out alone so
a tactical withdraw was in order. (ok.. ok... I started running
like hell... big deal :) For some reason the monsters didn't hunt
me and I managed to get away. I wasn't sure whether Zach was alive
or not, so I decided to try to get out from the swamps. If Zach
was alive, he would be trying to do the same.
        
             *                *               *
(Back to Zach)
I stumbled on a quite a lot of slaads and lizardmen on my way out,
luckily not too many of them noticed me and I was able to get to 
the edge alive. And there he was, Delecti had found his way there
too. We decided to get a good night's rest and try the swampns 
again the next day.
 
  We woke up in the morning, both in quite good shape. We couldn't
see a reason why we shouldn't have entered the swamps again, so we
did so. After walking for a while we ran into a lizard priest and 
decided to kick the shit out of it. We just both charged at it. 
It was not a short fight, as we at first had foolishly thought, 
few times the priest mumbled some weird words at me and I felt my 
life drain away. Luckily I survived the spells. Finally the priest 
fell, it was able to take unbelievable amounts of damage before 
dying.
 
  After the fight we checked our wounds and noticed that we were
surprisingly well off. I was wondering what those spells really did
to me, if anything. Well, we continued our voyage, ran into a 
couple of Mist-Warriors and let them out of their misery.
 
  We were trying to find the ladders we had found earlier.
Foolishly we forgot to use caution when moving around and we
ran into an ambush, planned by two grey slaads. We had heard
stories about the incredible strength of the slaad and knew
there was no way we could be able to cope with the horrible
monsters, so we ran. Delecti wasn't quite as lucky as I was
and got surrounded by the two slaad. I ran out from there, but
stopped a few hundred yard away, waiting for Delecti to arrive.
Finally he came, almost a minute after me, his body bleeding
from many wounds. The slaads were nowhere to be seen so we
decided to rest a bit and take care of our wounds.
 
  After a few minutes we decided to go on. Pretty soon we ran
into the lizardman mage we had encountered earlier. He seemed
to be ready for us and instantly pointed his finger at Delecti
and chanted a few words of power. Delecti seemed to be choking
to death so I slashed the mage hard, straight into his chest
and the mage lost his concentration and failed the spell. The
mage regained his balance and hit Delecti in his leg and 
Delecti fell. The mage had surprised us and was much stronger 
as a fighter as you'd think, so we had no way to win this 
fight so we ran.... right into another grey slaad!
 
  The situation was hopeless, there was a wisp and a slaad there,
both ready for us. The wisp charged Delecti and I tried to be ready
for the slaad. I tried to dodge his claw, but somehow he knew what I
was doing and clawed by stomach, my mind passed out for a few seconds.
The slaad lost interest in me and started looking greedily at Delecti's
sandals. It grabbed him from the arm and lifted him up, snatching the 
sandals off his feet with one swing of its other claw. It made a sound
that vaguely resembled laughing. When I came back to my senses I saw
that Delecti had been able to release himself from the Slaad's grasp
and was doing his tactical withdraw thing(running like hell). Another
Mist-Warrior emerged from the mist, the monsters had me surrounded,
there was no way to run. I was able to get a few good hits on the wisp
and it even fell to my blows, even the Mist-Warrior took grievous 
wounds before the Slaad managed to tear me in two. I could see myself
floating above the two parts of my corpse, but slowly I drifted away
from the material world, and into the spirit world.
 
             *                *               *
(What happened to Delecti)
  After the slaad ripped off my sandals, I managed to stab it in its
eye with my sword. Howling in pain it let my arm go, but managed to
slash me with its other claw, tearing flesh and breaking several of
my ribs. When I turned to run, the slaad slashed me again, this time
hitting my head and sent my helm flying. Everything went black. When 
I regained my senses the slaad or the other monsters were nowhere to 
be seen - I was alone.
 
  I knew I was in deep shit. I somehow knew that Zach had been killed
and I could easily face the same fate in a matter of minutes, if not
seconds. I decided to run for it. I did run alright, right into another
slaad, which almost tore my arm off. I still had energy to run but the
slaad followed me, and with a few swift hits, finished me off.
 
             *                *               *
(Zach)
  We were both in hell. There we waited until a powerful cleric,
whom some know by the name of Coren decided to revive our mortal
forms, and call our spirits back into our bodies. Few minutes
later my spirit got summoned to Coren's castle yard, he mumbled
a few words and I was alive again. I could see Delecti's corpse
on the floor, lifeless. Cored muttered a few words in a mystical
tongue and Delecti's body started to move. I was amazed, all our
belongings were still on us, except for Delecti's sandals and helm
that the slaad had ripped off. Then I understood it, I had to write
a book about this, I had to worn other mortals about that place. I
thought we were lucky at first, to stay alive. I now knew it was
not possible for inexperienced fighters like us to stand against 
powers like that. Maybe someday, we will be ready to face the terrors
of The Great Northern Swamps, and actually have the sense of dragging
a healer in there with us :P


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