Early evening, soldiers arrive and ask after Holy Men. They mention a necromancer and some undead and needing help.

Me I am back to helping with dinner preperations and no one even thinks of telling me, the ex-monk / mage about it. I only hear about it much later.

About the time the Duke himself comes because some subordinant got the message all confused. They are looking for a Specific holy man. One who cast a powerful Purification spell that originated in this camp.

No one here knows who that could be (myself included because I did not cast such a spell, I cast a Dispel Evil, which is different from what they are talking about.) But he is told all the holy men went with the group he sent for originally. Things would have continued this way save Varlissa over heard the guards talking to the Duke and she stepped forward, "Pardon sir, there is one other here. But he is not so much a holy man as a specialist Holy Mage and ex demon hunter. I don't know about casting any Purification spells, but I know he cast a powerful Dispel Evil, it was so strong all the local demons and such were forced from the area. Even the city glowed with the power of his spell."

The Duke glares at the men he sent the first time, "That is the one we are looking for. He is needed as there are some side effects of that spell that need to be seen to and the spirits who answered are refusing to cooperate with any other holy personage."

The other adventerers are all "OH HIM." nodding, "The Skworg killer, right."

The Duke about fell out of his saddle hearing that. They let him and some of his people inside the camp, where he got to see the remains of the Skworg on a roughly made display stand. A couple bards tell the tale. Very incorrectly to as they got the story 3rd hand.

Dale, being nearby corrects them allot, tells the Duke even the mage states he won more by luck than skill and the bards are full of hot air. But He and his companions witnessed part of the battle and can verify at least 3 dead Skworg and a partial destruction of their Palace by an experimental spell cast by the powerful holy mage, Rob.

My reaction on meeting the Duke was to ask if he was staying for dinner as we had found some wild mint and other spices and were making a lovely desert tonight.

He sighs, I am so not what he was expecting. He quietly explains the situation to me as I work on my part of making dinner. I nod and let him talk.

"So this guy was causing all these problems. Secretly took over the castle and such. But now a group of high level sorts have him and won't let him go till, what I show up and talk to them ?"

He nods, "From what they say yes."

I think about it, look toward the town and focus, can't sense anything at this range so that is a moot point. "Who are these beings ?"

"They call themselves the Lords of Light." he states.

I look over at Annassa, "Any clue who they are ?"

This lady, who dresses like a classic nun, but different holy symbol, explains, "The Lords of Light are Archons who work for the Gods of Good and the Gods of the Sun, they are the protectors of Dawn, Noon, and Dusk respectively."

I nod, "Ah, not the same as the beings of that name from my homelands then. Where I am from the Lords of Light are high level dieties. Justice, Love, Hope, Mercy, and Life."

The girl thinks on it and nods, "I can see why that as a group gets such a title. They don't manifest I take it."

"Send Arch Angels, Archons and Lights mostly. For reference" I say to the Duke, "A Light is above an Archon in the rankings." he nods, "But below a Seriphim, who are below the Greater Dieties and tend to be the work force of the upper levels. Or so I was taught."

He nods, "Will you come peacefully or will I need to use force."

Annassa sighs, "My lord the last few people who tried to use force on him are all under 6 inches tall. He really is not someone you want as an enemy."

The wide eyed look tells me he has not heard about the Paladins or slavers. I smile at him, "I don't play fair or favorites. I also don't unshrink anyone who annoys me to the point I feel they would do better as fairy sized persons."

Different girl, nicely dressed, "He shrank a group of Artimal's Paladins who tried to hurt him cause he took out some of the Skworg before they could. Probably wanted what ever magic weapons he found to. There are over 40 little tiny thieving bastards out there now."

She looks at me, "They jumped my party a few months ago and took every magic weapon we had because 'We do not have the right to them'. " she looks at the Duke, "According to that lot, Only they should have magic weapons because their god is the lord of battle."

I grunt, "Go after my weapons and shrinking will look like a pleasant alternitive." my face has gone dark and the light in my eyes is brighter. Bright enough for the Duke to now notice it and step back a pace.

I think he is just now getting how dangerous I can be.

I look at the two priestly sorts, "So are these archons from the side of neutrality ?"

The nun, "No, they are aligned with Good and enjoy purging evil from the world. Sometimes a wee bit to much."

I slowly nod and sigh, "They claim I sent for them, while in reality I was simply setting up a defense against those with evil in their hearts, in this case a group of slavers pretending to be under your command. Told to forcibly collect mages to serve you. I am going to assume that cause otherwise you would be my enemy and my enemies don't live very long." I calmly point out.

He nods, "I don't need slavers to get willing persons to serve me. I have plenty of mages in my troops. Though from your description of type I can imagine which group tried that stunt. There is a high demand for war mages in some circles. So mind controlled and enslaved mages are used by some less scrupulous countries."

Knight to his right, "We have only your word that you are an ex- warrior or demon hunter. Mage you have proven, priest not so much."

I shrug, "Believe or don't believe. I don't care one way or the other. I don't know you and you don't know me, other than by my words and actions. As for you, I know absolutely nothing about any of you. No one here has even mentioned you to me, other than your here to take the city because the Baron has been lax in his duties."

The Duke nods "Actually we found the Baron and his family in the dungeons and a look alike animate corpes working as his front man. This necromancer Darris Burr was running everything from the shadows and not very well from what I can see."

Nun, "Well enough that you did not bother showing up for a decade. What he miss one to many taxes for your highness ?" she sounds bitter.

Left hand knight mutters "yes actually he did" but I am not sure the others even heard that.

I move off to hand over the stuff I been prepping to the main cooks before returning to the Duke, "From the sound of it you got yourself 3 gung ho Archons who jumped on my simple spell for their own reasons. I certainly did not cast a spell powerful enough for them to be here. Also I don't serve the forces of Good and Light, I am a Champion of the Balance. Neutral."

He glares, "I can force you to come."

"No you really can't." says a very dangerous voice behind him. He slowly turns and I get to see my first dwarf. But behind him are a bunch of adventurers I have never seen before. The ones around me look a combination of scared, relieved, and nervous.

The dwarf looks at me, "You were pulled here from another world I hear."

"Yes." I state and he nods.

He looks at the duke, "People like him tend to be seriously over powered and dangerous at the least of times, add to it he took out an event all on his own. And I did check that zone, just came from there. The Skworg palace is half gone. Not burned down, Gone blasted appart. The Star Wolf event area is down 2 respawn points and now has a good sized crater at it's center. Probably going to make a good pond after the spring rains get through with it.

From what the witnesses to these events tell me, in both cases he did that with 1 spell. A spell niether of these skilled magic users has ever heard before. To make you understand, that spell destroyed an area over 900 ft across and 300 ft deep. He is by far the single most dangerous war mage in the present existance.

Then I also learn he is an ex-holy warrior with monk type training who specialized in demon fighting. Those are rare skills and with them he can kill you and your knights here with out resorting to magic. So really, your not a threat to him, at all."

Everyone is looking at me, some in awe and a few in fear. The party, having witnessed what I am cable of already knew all that and are the only ones that I see that are not now staring at me.

The Duke stares at me then back at the dwarf.

"If I did not trust your judgement McFarren I would not believe it. But as you are who you are, I will take your word on it. But still, we can't even get to the villain to arrest him because these 3 archons will not let him go till they talk to this man."

I shrug, "Tell them you talked to me and I was not interested in talking to them. If they have a problem with that I am not hard to find. I show up on the Astral plane rather clearly or so I have been told."

The nun mutters a prayer then looks at me while holding a lantern, her eyes get huge, "Oh yes, he is very hard to miss on the astral alright. Lots of spiritual power. I can see why those three want to converse with him. They are known not to believe in Neutral, probably want to work out if your good or evil."

I look at her, "I so know the type. Black and White world view. True Paladins have a problem of going that way to." I sigh, "Look sir, I understand your possition, but the feeling I am getting from my gods is not to go. They don't believe my meeting them would be healthy, for whom I don't know. They are not really very forth coming with that information. But then the Lady of Mysteries is one of the Dieties I answer to."

The nun coughs a laugh. The Duke looks mildly confused, the other one states, "Marllynda"

The Duke then nods in recognition, "I did not know that title for her, just that she is one of the gods of magic." he states.

The nun nods, "And a Neutral Power to boot." she looks at me while covering her lantern, "So who else is in your pantheon ?"

"Goddess of Time and Space and Lady Luck are the others I call on the most. Otherwise Mercy, who is actually a rather scary individual, and I have called on the Light and the Lady once but really that was a spell my mother taught me to turn undead. I still don't really know who the two mentioned there are."

I watch 5 priest roll their heads forward, or shake them like they got water in their ears.

Old man in gold robes with blue line tats all over him, "What did you use That charm on ?"

"Zombie. Ran in to what Dutch called a Necro-Dryad. She sent zombies after I used a exorcism technique to bind her to her tree. They, the zombies, did not survive the Radient spell, glowed very bright, then nothing left of them but their boot marks in the earth."

Goldie looks at the Duke, "Minimum of a level 6 priest to do that, level 8 holy warrior."

I shrug, "I retired at level 12 as a holy warrior." Several people nod to that.

Goldie, pure curious, "Who did your mother worship ?"

"God of Knowledge and Prediction, Metaphysical Church was the name .... The gods are not letting me say the name of that god. Strange feeling that."

Goldie and some of the others all nod, "They don't want the rival god known here in case of conflict or something."

I shrug, "I never understood my mothers faith. She tried to explain it to me a few times but" I shrug.

The nun ask the head cooks something, then picking up her lantern, "I will go talk to these archons your highness. I am a priestess of the Light after all, maybe they will listen to me. At the very least I can inform them of Master Rob's nature and whom he answers to, god wise."

The Duke nods with a sigh, "I hope you can reason with them my lady Patricia. I am at my wits end to tell the truth." he glares at me, but wisely keeps his thoughts to himself.

After the Duke and his party leave with the nun, MacFarren comes over. Everyone is defrential to him I note.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

He sighs, "The Duke is not really a bad man, but this is just one of many problems on his plate and your not cooperating is not helping."

"My gods told me to stay away from those 3 beings. I do what they tell me to do. Mostly as when I don't they make sure I regret it." I point out, "As for the Duke, I don't deal well with pushy people. I don't care if your a King or a God, I don't react well against the pushy sorts. I am stubborn and blunt and lacking in social graces. I am old and cranky on top of that.

I got yanked out of my world by some blasted outsiders cause they seemed to want to see how someone with my training would do in this world of yours. But your people are so primitive to my way of thinking and I got to learn to survive here. I am scared to, which makes me more agressive. Presently I have to use a translation spell just to talk to you lot, cause I don't really know any of your languages. While my own language is very close to the language you all use for magic. Which means I have to be constantly careful I don't use any of a number of common slang terms from home and accidently trigger a spell or blow something up. Do you know how hard it is to speak with out using slang, when you have used such slang your whole life ?"

MacFarren leans back after my flood of words and slowly nods, "Your also under a great deal of stress and that is not helping matters. Your not the first to be dropped in to our world by forces trying to disrupt things. Won't be the last either I warrent. As for our level of technology. I can't say really. The better tech is mostly in the bigger cities. But depending on the kind of world your from we maybe primitive to you. Or maybe not as primitive as you think."

"Indoor plumbing, hot and cold running water, electricity in homes to run lights, for cooking, for using on machines to wash clothing, heating water or cooling the houses. Machines capable of doing millions of computations a second that help run our society, machines that fly through the air at great speeds, ones orbiting the world, sending images and messages and information all over the world." I sigh.

The look on those around me is one of wonder, MacFarren sighs, "We got indoor plumbing to some degree. Underground sewers and some running water but only cold as its from huge tanks over some of the nicer homes or appartment houses. The rest, I would not even begin to understand."

"Has anyone even thought to use windmills to pump water in to those tanks, or move it over greater distances ?" I ask.

The blank look tells me they haven't but MacFarren grins, "Well no, but see you put forth something we never thought of and with work we may yet get that done. You can be a help to us if you think about it. I am sure that is one of your worries, what you will do with your life here. What kind of work are you capable of. If you will have to sell your belongings to make ends meet and so on."

I nod, "Pretty much. Though given my skill sets I can think of some things I can do. But I don't know if there is much calling for a crippled martial arts teacher with a bad temper and the ability to blow up things."

He chuckles at that, "Well what form did you learn ?"

"Master of Wind style using a staff, but I have practiced in all forms of the Storm style to start with and understand Energy Manipulation, which is the basis for all the attack forms. Mix that with my magic for bigger booms to. I worked out how to enhance my magic with my Chi and a touch of Holy, mostly my mixing prayers in to my spells. That is what I used on the Skworg ship, what you called the Palace. That was a sky ship, crashed one from the look of it. Also what I used on the Wolf Event. I even mix it with my unnerring strike spells. Mostly lightning and fire attacks there. Lighting is actually easier for me most of the time. But only cause I learned how to use magic to keep from getting all the static shocks I got otherwise."

He chuckled over that last bit and nods about the rest, "We can always use another teacher at the Guild truth be told and while you may find us a primitive lot, your understanding, great or small, to your peoples technology may help us be better there to. Now understand, the Adventurer Guilds are neutral to the Kings and countries. And there are several such guilds. I am the local Guild Master to the Arcadia guild, which is one of the largest in this world. This lot that came with me are some of my more powerful members to. They tend to make the rank and file nervous just because of that.

Now you don't have to be a member of the guild to work for one either if you prefer to keep your self a free agent. I can't claim to understand how your world works our if your people have guilds or not."

I shake my hand side to side, "Kind of. Guilds like yours, in my world have become more hobbiest kinds of things. We never had adventurer guilds as such. More like clubs on that front. Guilds were usually dedicated to specific businesses or concerns."

He nods, "Well in this world, Guilds are businesses. You can talk to the people here about us, learn the pro's and con's of them. There are 2 guilds in this town for example, and the people here are a mix of both."

I see people giving him a wide eyed kind of look, "I think they are surprised your not triing to overtly sell me on your guild over the others. But I know enough about sales to know that your actually making yourself look good, more caring sort than other wise. My normal work was in sales, I was a merchant for a long time." I fail to mention I was not a very Good merchant, but that is what I did for a living for most of my life. Retail. Even took collage courses in it. "I understand a great deal more than people realize, add to that I can see aura's which gives me a better understanding of motivations of the people I am talking to. Mind you that is a learned ability. Took years to unlock it and longer to understand all the little varients and meanings I can see. Also I talk to Everything, sometimes things talk back. Find more enchanted objects that way than many would imagine."

I hear one person whisper to one of the elder adventurers, "It's bad when you talk to the walls are they talk back."

Elder, "Depends on if it's the wall or the person on the other side of it. Or a spirit you cant' see. I suspect he can see such spirits, people like that either learn to deal with it or go mad. Or both, which in my opinion explains so many holy warriors."

Elf looking woman (long eared type) standing next to him, "The big man can hear what you two are whispering about." she is looking at me as she says it. I don't react to that, but am amused to see the two men jump at her words.

MacFarren does not comment on that, "Well I will leave you with an open offer to come to my guild and maybe see if you have what it takes to be a teacher."

"IE you want to test my skills and see how skilled and possibly dangerous I am. Which actually does not sound like a bad idea as I am not sure about that myself to tell the truth. I have not done much with my warrior stuff for over 20 years." I sigh, "I am SO out of shape."

That got several startled chuckles from the crowd. "On that, I am not opposed to it as I said, I want to know myself. Figure out how out of shape I am to and what I need to work on to get myself back in to a proper fighting form."

Annassa nods, "That is not a bad idea and Rob, The Guild Master here is normally a hard headed, rock souled person who will do his best to grind your spirit in to dust. I know, I have worked for him for 10 years. He is only this nice when he wants something."

"I believe I pointed out my problem with that sort of treatment." I say to her.

He nods, "Need lots of magical defense around you."

I consider, then grin, "Would not save you if you managed to really piss me off. I just well, master of wind style means I can generate a completely mundane attack that can shatter stone from 15ft away. Using air pressure."

He blinks, looks at the golden one who nods, "Oh yes that is true. Masters of the Storm don't Need magic to kill at range. Wind style is nasty as most attacks are invisible to. Unless your trained to see them that is."

"It's only noticable on the things around you." I nod.

MacFarren slowly nods, "So yell at you while I am inside a stone room. Got it."

Evil smile on my part, slow and with that added feeling of coming doom. I perfected this smile when dealing with HR pricks back in the day, I notice it works well here to. "You treat me with respect I will do the same with you. Otherwise I will just have to go else where."

As we are talking another group arrives, big brutes with a tiny slimey feeling man at their center. The other priestess moans, "great Elsworth is here. He is the slime, I mean guild master of our rival guild, the Greystone's. Mind you Rob, he is The Guild master, not like MacFarren who is just this districts General Manager."

I nod, "I can feel the slimy feeling the moment he walked in to sight." I tell her, "I have a strong urge to see what would happen if I tried to banish him." she chuckles at that.

The gnomish looking walking slime approaches our cooking group. I wink at MacFarren, "So thats what, 6 more for dinner sir ?"

He grins, catching on to what I am doing. "8 actually. Two of mine are still outside."

"We have beef sausages and some wild mint we found so tonights meal is a bit better than normal camp fair." Annassa tells him, "The girls are working on their mint ice milk treat."

The big brute behind MacFarren lights up, "Oh that is gooood. I love their ice milk treats."

Slime looks mildly confused. It's obvious he was not expecting MacFarren to be talking about dinner reservations.

He looks about then at MacFarren, "What is going on here ?"

MacFarren looks at him, "Dukes army showed up to deal with problems with the Baron. So all the persons who were outside the city set up this tempory camp to wait out the confict. I just returned from checking on a couple of event sights some of my people participated in with a Free Agent and found the party leader is helping set up dinner for the people here." he nods at Annassa.

The slime looks at me, "So why is he talking to you ?"

"I provided the beef sausages." I supply to the little man.

MacFarren nods, "So he needed to know how much from his supplies to use for the dinner tonight. He has been kind about that and not even charged for them."

I shrug, "I use them in trade for being able to eat really. Otherwise all I would have to eat are them and some crackers I got. This way I get better meals out of the deal."

Elsworth thinks about that and really can't see a down side to that when your only other options are starvation. Still, "So why not charge a little for them ?"

I look at him, "I am not a money grubbing greedy pile of walking slime. " I leave out 'like you' and I think he missed that as his aura did not react to my words. But I think most the others there caught it given how HE is viewed by most others here.

Annassa adds, "It is the agreement we all came to when we set up this camp, to share food and resources as needed till the Duke takes his army and leaves. Only things turned out to be even more complicated than anyone knew. The Baron and his family were found in the dungeon and this necromancer was running everything with vampires and shaped zombies to make everything seem normal."

One of the 'bitch patrol' my name for the all women group who seems to always be trying to cause trouble, "A holy man cast a powerful spell, The Lords of Light showed up and tried to capitalize on it and use it to get the holy man in to their range. He is of a rival faith as them and you know how That lot reacts to those not following Thier gods."

Elsworth nods, "Convert or kill ususally is their tactics." he looks at me and the other cooks, "Lords of Light killed several of my priest cause they would not convert to their Gods. Claiming they were all evil."

MacFarren and I both get the same look of 'oh so that's it'.

I tell him, "The one who cast the spell is a follower of the Lady of Mysteries and thus Not one of thier chosen gods. So much makes sense now about why the gods told that one not to go there."

One of Elsworth's people ask something of the little man in whisper, Elsworth shrugs, then the big man ask, "What is that creature on display at the center of the camps ?"

MacFarren, grinning, "That is a Skworg. The free agent I mentioned managed to kill it and a few others to. Claims it was pure luck that he found those things weakness. I think the Gods guided him myself."

Girl mage in a witches hat and black but revealing robe, "Then he told everyone here how he did it. So if we run in to them we will have a chance at beating them."

It's obvious to me that he thinks I should have charged for that information. But he is motivated by greed and attracts those with similar motivations I am sure, or those to foolish to see him for what he really is. He is smart enough though to keep it to himself. "So" he starts, "What is this free agent going to do next ?"

"Talk of starting a school for his fighting style." the Golden one states.

The Slime slowly gets an inkling of what HE thinks is going on. Show and tell to build up a reputation, to attract students, to make a living.

He considers that, then takes his leave.

MacFarren sighs after he is gone. I on the other hand hold out a hand and chant a cleansing spell in the area around where that slime stood. Several 'things' all visibly explode in a line from where he came in from, lots of brighter ones where he stood, then another line leaving up the trail he left.

I look at the others, "He is surrounded by a kind of spiritual parasyte. I just removed them and the 'eggs' they leave behind. Nasty things those. Slowly removes morals and leaves only self entitled and greedy persons in their wake. People like him are carriers of such nasty things."

The priestess grunts, "So explains the slimy feeling he leaves when ever he is around."

I nod, "They actually identify as a kind of demon when searched for." I sigh, those things are very annoying and I think I will have to do an area blessing tonight to remove them and the other parasytes just to even out the playing field locally.

The Golden Monk shakes his head, "I have heard of those but don't begin to know how to even check for them."

"The air tends to feel icky, like there is a thin slime or whisp of webbing in it. If none are physically there then it's likely some kind of parasyte. The charm is not that hard to cast, but the words like to slip around the edge of consciousness for some reason."

Even with that warning, I give the words of the charm to them. Only the Monk can keep them straight when he tries to focus on the needed effect. Everyone else is surprised by that.

MacFarren nods, "The parasytes, being things that affect the mind as well as the soul are defending themselves from the spell by making you confuse the words."

I nod, "Sounds right. Annoying pest those things. Then there is the urge they give off to go and do something potentially stupid, in an effort to remove anyone who knows how to fight them."

MacFarren grins, "I can hear it to, something whispering for you to pat me on the head and offer me a bisquet. Like I am a dog or the like."

I sigh, close my eyes and Focus on the words and the forms I am sensing. I chant a prayer to the Light of Balance and the Lords of Justice and Mercy. Mercy can be a mean uncaring bitch at time, but she Loaths these sorts of parasytes with a passion. Justice is needed to keep her from cleansing the area in spiritual fire, which tends to just kill Everything. The Light is what actually Does the cleansing. The hard part is channeling all that power through my body and out via my aura. Always leaves me feeling like I got a hose attached to the top of my head. Screwed in to my skull. owowowowow.

2 people drop over in a dead faint. One person screams, starts smoking then disolves in to a very obvious demon before the light obliterates him. Other than that there is no physical reaction to what I just did.

MacFarren and his people are looking all over the place now and his people seem to be trying to huddle behind the GM for protection.

I sigh, "Strange thing to say but the Goddess of Mercy has almost no mercy to give to those kinds of things. She really hates astral and spirit parasytes, which is why I call on the spirits of Justice, they are the only ones around who can keep her from just clensing the world in spiritual fire. Which gets rid of everything, and everyone else to. Wee bit of overkill with that one. Makes my over kill look tame."

MacFarren nods in understanding, "I have heard some of the prayers to that one. Wording always makes it sound like it's part pleading and part flattery."

I nod, "Yeah, she can be like that. But still a good ally to have. I seriously need some pain meds now, but all the really good ones, that affect me, are back home. Asprin and such just does not work on me anymore." ingested anything really does not work on me if I am reading the sheet the Gods gave me right. "That spell always leaves me feeling like they just put a Tap in my head and poored Hot steaming substance through my body."

The priestess taps my shoulder, "What happened to those two ?"

I look them over via aura sight, "Seems they were possessed by something. Can't tell what anymore as they got cleansed to. They will probably wake feeling like they got the mother of all hang overs."

MacFarren and the Golden one both nod to that. Understandable really. They know I did a high level blessing, Golden whispers to MacFarren he estimates that was a level 5 or 6 priest type blessing. But definitely something with in a demon hunters repitar of abilities. People like me are rare but I have proved to them at least that I was not lying about knowing how to fight demons. Or at least banish them, even when they are hiding - though I admit that part was more accident than design really. I just wanted the pest gone. There are lots of different kinds of pest in the spirit and astral planes. Most are relitively harmless, but a few are down right dangerous. The irony that what drives off or kills most pest also gets rid of demons is not lost on me either.

I get back to my prep work as there is nothing I can do about the pain right now and this needs to be done if we are going to eat tonight.

Most the adventurers here just put me down as a high level sort and move on. Sure I am impressive in my own way, but right now we have work to do and people to feed. So my time for chatting is over.