With that we took our leave, getting back on the 1 through San Francisco was a nightmare. People came out to intercept us three times, each time with the same result. We would notice some idiot was screaming and waving a Sword, Baseball bat, or crossbow, we would continue on as if we did not see or hear them, as soon as a bat was thrown or a crossbow shot in our direction, the Ladies and I would stop and engage.

The first group was smart, they took the olive branch (Large Cannabis Joint), the other two groups took a bit more convincing. We slowed to a stop as a tall fit redheaded teen, stood in the way with an enormous, jagged rust covered spear made of rebar pointed directly at my wife. Before he could say a single word, Julie had thrown one of her shuriken and contacted his chest, the magick happened and his face was shrouded in pitch black darkness (and he had a knife stuck in his chest about 3 inches deep). Julie then kindly asked him to lower his spear, put it on the street, and back away. After he made it about 10 steps Julie released the darkness he was enveloped in, by that time we were long gone on our way to the Golden Gate.

Once arriving at the Golden Gate Bridge, we had no issues until we were about 75 feet from the end when we saw the giant Crowganaught from LA slide down the hill on the opposite side of the bridge.

“DAD! Are you seeing this big mother fucker?” Hillary asked. “On it, Honey, can you and your mother please take cover behind the blown out big rig we just passed? He is too big to come out here, but I assume he will start picking up those burnt-out cars and start throwing them our way.” As I said that I was getting out the big Barrett from my ring. I set it up on an old Ford Mustangs hood facing the end of the bridge.

I was so glad Flex converted this to a semi auto sniper rifle and extended the magazine to hold powerful exploding Aether bullets, these ones are not armor piercing, but will explode on impact. I racked the slide, sighted this fucker in, and let her rip. I put one round directly between its eyes and cracked the top of his beak. The next shot landed in his right eye, causing him to start moving towards us, tearing up the suspension cables on the side of the bridge.

“Julie I’m pretty sure I have his full attention, try to sneak around the north bound side of the bridge and get to the other side. Once you’re there put a couple of those darkness shuriken in his head and find cover.” I said to my bride.

“Of course, he’s really slow, I’ll put at least four in his head and pull Hillary into somewhere safe. What are you going to do, Derrik?” Julie asked as I put another round into the Crowganaughts chest.

“I am going to keep his attention while you two get out of here, once the darkness hits him in the face , I’m going to try to push him over the side of the bridge with my new exploding bullets. He is already close to the edge near the section he destroyed, thrashing around.”

Julie and Hillary went around to the north bound side of the bridge and ran for the other side as I kept up and hit him with two more rounds, one to the side of its now badly broken beak, and one in it’s left knee, doing my best to get him off balance. If it wasn’t for the explosive rounds, I don’t think he would even feel them at all, but the explosive rounds are certainly taking a toll. The Crowganaught caught sight of the girls running behind him, Julie easily peppered his head with her darkness shuriken, only, they had no effect. The massive beast moved to intercept my wife and daughter, and once again Julie was amazing….

Julie saw the Crowganaught change directions and come lumbering towards both Hillary and her. Julie, being the mama bear she is, grabbed her Katanas, and moved with un-natural speed. She was right where she needed to be when I let one go right into the beasts’ other knee. The Crowganaught went down on one knee and fell onto the deck of the bridge. Julie had positioned herself to be right next to where his head fell and sliced with all of her might across the throat with one and stabbed the other directly onto the first wound then slicing up to the sky; perfectly removing his gigantic head in the process. Julie was surrounded in a blinding bright blue misty light, that swirled around her for moments and then entered her body via eyes, nose, and mouth, a small bit of the same light enveloped both Hillary and I as well. Once the swirling blue mist had finished entering our visible orifices, she slumped on to the ground and passed out momentarily.

“Derrik!?! Where is Hillary? Is She ok? Are you ok? Did I kill it?” My bride asked insistently. “Yes, it’s me, I’m okay, Hillary is okay, you look to be okay, and the big mean fucking monster that just tried to kill us is quite dead. Thanks to your, uh, Ninja like reflexes and those swords of yours, Dojigui the ogre slayer and Oni Maru were almost alive.” I mentioned. “It’s true, once I drew them, I felt as though they were assisting me in killing that giant monster.” Julie replied.

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“Bravo, little Matron Mother! Bravo, indeed!” We heard from the depths of the Robin Williams tunnel north of the bridge. We walked towards the voice only to see Matron Mother Kilurden Standing in between us and the entrance to the tunnel. “You must know that sooner or later, your entire family will be with us in our Terran Capital. You will serve our Mistress, as will your daughter. Your man-beast on the other hand, no matter his immense potential, will become a member of my harem, he will be your gift to me for bringing you back to Lolth, and also for sparing your life. I must retaliate for the killing of all of my most precious pets! You have no idea the difficulty of transporting a Crowganaught across the cosmos while the planet is locked down by the system.” Kilurden barked with authority.

As she said her last word, I was about to pull my Hammer out of my ring and let it fly when Julie responded for all of us. “Matron Mother Kilurden. We have no intension of going anywhere with you. MY Husband, MY daughter, and I are going to ride through that tunnel, and continue on our journey. You can either move out of our way and move on with your day. Or we can help you move, and I think that might ruin everyone’s day.” Julie responded in the coldest manner I had ever experienced.

“Bwaaaaaaaaaaa Haaaaaa Haaaaaa, little Elfling. You are perhaps the most entertaining creature I believe I have ever met. You are so cute, so angry and so tuff! You live because I allow it. I could kill all three of you with a snap of my fingers. It wouldn’t even register until you found yourself in the afterlife. You live because I deem it so. Bringing you back to Lolth, giving your daughter to her and enslaving an Arcturian. All of these things will create great favor for me in the eyes of my mistress. She will be so enamored with my cunning and resourcefulness that I will surely be rewarded with a place by her side back in our home world. Away from this outpost on the fringes of society, I will have my prize…..”

As she uttered the last words, I made my hammer materialize in my hands as I threw it with all of my might aiming directly at her chest, I imbued Gravinox with as much raw Aether as I could muster and off it flew, at a speed that in the short 50 yards broke the sound barrier and moved so quickly my eyes could barely register its flight. I threw it, then it was embedded in the side of the tunnel 15 yards behind Matron Kilurden. She was also missing her entire left arm from the shoulder down and spraying black blood all over the street. I then opened my hand and cast Return to Sender and my mighty weapon materialized in my hand once again. As I looked up from my hands the evil Drow Mother was gone. I checked my notifications and was surprised to see how much we gained from killing the monstrosity, and also that my efforts to kill Kilurden were unsuccessful again. And then we heard it…

“I will see you before you reach your destination….. You will be mine, as you are MY PRIZE!!!” Kilurden Screamed somewhere in the darkness of the tunnel.

The Rinn Family

June 25th, 2028, Northern California

=Learned Spell=

Aetheric Teleport – Level 100 (Epic)

Aetheric Teleport allows the caster to create a teleportation bridge between two known spaces.

<200-2000 Aether depending on the distance of travel>

=Learned Spell=

Psionic Puppet – Level 200 (Epic)

Psionic Puppet allows the caster to manipulate almost any sentient being and use them as a living puppet while the spell is in use

<250 Aether per min>

After the brawl with the giant Crow-man, and the subsequent hammer throwing through the arm of Matron Mother Kilurden, I have been able to use an extremely powerful teleport spell, as well as a gravitational manipulation technique, as well as an Aetheric Mind control spell, two of which Kilurden used while in my presence, the other must have come from one of the Drow Warriors I killed at Stanford. I’m guessing I have some sort of ability to mimic or steal spells from others after I see them used. I’m going to practice the teleport spell once we get to Talos. Maybe Adam will have some answers, he seems to know more about me than I do. Julie gained a few levels from the Crowganaught kill, and her Katanas also grew in strength. Hillary was just happy to be back on the road headed to a semblance of safety.

We made it through the north bay, up to Sonoma and through Napa up to the 5 and everywhere we passed was either on fire or looked like it exploded, and the fire had already burnt out. No buildings were left unscathed. In these less populated areas, we started to see fewer and fewer survivors, the drive through lake county to I-5 was even less eventful. The Aether bikes were amazing, they didn’t require fuel but once every 4500 miles, and it was just two liters of water. They went fast and handled like a dream. The only downside was that you were exposed to the elements. Luckily the outer gear that we got from Flex was completely waterproof and kept our bodies at a pretty constant and comfortable temperature. The helmets we all got help to keep the rain out of our eyes and also provided a map that aided us in our journey. We met the 5 at a town called Williams, we continued north to Talos.