Jim watched Markus follow the man in gray priest robes curiously, but decided that he'd rather continue with his plan for the day. With a shrug to himself, he stepped into the crowded Hunter's Guild building and moved to the Job Boards. It didn't take long for him to choose one and, after confirming it with Grena, he was setting out to hunt wolves, find herbs, and investigate signs of monster attacks on the road.

As he walked, Jim checked his arrows, they were fine, tested his bow, nothing wrong with it, and played with his trick knife. As he moved the blade between the different configurations, he tried to determine what part the rune played. Clearly it was important, but it was so small, that he couldn't make out the finer details; how the Dwarven smith had managed to put it on the whole thing was beyond him. Noticing that he was approaching the gate, Jim sheathed his dagger and waited his turn to exit the city.

After being waved through by the guards who had accepted his Hunter's token as identification and reason, Jim settled himself in for a lengthy walk as he moved to where the farmer's cart had been attacked by, in his words, "terrible, huge monsters with great big, red eyes!"

"Probably just some wolves," Jim muttered to himself as he walked. "Oh look, Goblin's Eye right by the road! Yoink!"

Jim had been walking for several hours by now and was just approaching the turned over cart with the dead ox laying where the farmer said the monsters had attacked him. Shaking his head at the destroyed body of the poor animal, Jim turned his attention and gaze on the ground around the cart as he studied the dirt carefully for any signs of what had destroyed the cart, killed the ox, and frightened the farmer so badly that he'd sprinted from the site of the attack all the way back to the city several miles away.

"The ox has no edible meat left on the body," Jim observed as he crouched next the beast that was beginning to smell horrible from the elements and the sun's heat. "Looks like a bunch of bones were, uhm, ripped? out and broken. Marrow or something, I think. No saving the skin for anything either, they ripped that into too many pieces when they attacked. The paper said that the farmer only saw two of them before he ran, couldn't have only been two wolves that did this."

"The dirt's not helpful, everything's broken into dust and none of it has been moved into the shape of footprints, so that's a bust," Jim muttered unhappily as he rose and dusted off he pants. "Think, Jim, think. What else is weird about this?"

As he turned his head and examined everything about the scene, it hit him.

"There's no edible goods in the cart," he realized. "The farmer said he had just bought a bunch of dried meat, beans, flour, sugar, salt, animal feed, and oats. Where is all that? The bags aren't even here, whatever did this took them with it? Which way did they go?"

Raising his head, Jim turned and began to study the ground and brush on either side of the road.

"That's a big gap in the brush," he muttered. "Maybe something's there."

Nocking an arrow, Jim moved carefully to the observed gap and examined the ground further, making sure to also pay attention to the plants around him. His efforts were rewarded quickly.

"Something big definitely came through here," he observed in a whisper. "Trampled the bushes into the ground and didn't care about the thorns. Still got hurt by them, there's blood going to the cart. See if I can find more of it."

Turning back to the cart, eyes down, Jim followed the small trail of blood carefully before he noticed a problem.

"Whatever left the trail healed quick," he told himself as he observed the small dot of blood that showed the end of the blood's trail. "The other blood spots were larger, but this one is the smallest and it's only a few feet from the start. What could have healed so quickly?"

Turning to look deeper into the forest, Jim peered into the suddenly darker-seeming woods and tried not to swallow nervously. He failed.

"This is not going to be easy," he muttered to himself. "Nothing to do but do it."

Creeping through the forest, Jim stepped carefully, avoiding sticks, rocks, and roots that might have tripped him as he attempted to avoid making noise. As he moved further through the trees, the ground began to show signs of disturbance, as though a large creature had moved through the area and not cared for whatever might have attempted to track it.

Carefully, Jim continued to follow the trail deeper into the forest. As he moved he noticed that the area was almost totally silent, devoid of any living creature but himself. Birds didn't move from tree to tree, singing to each other as they searched for bugs, squirrels and rabbits didn't rustle leaves and bushes as they dashed for safety from him, larger game didn't show itself as he passed by a small stream that would have been perfect for the animals to quench their thirst at. Deeper and deeper he moved, and as he did, Jim felt his own trepidation rise as caution wormed its way into his every movement and he still found no signs of animals or creatures beyond the trail that he followed.

Nearly an hour of creeping through the dead silent forest later, Jim carefully set himself behind a tree and observed the mound of rocks that rose twenty-five feet into the air. Vaguely, he could make out a gap in the rocks that left an opening he could peer into. The area inside was dark and he couldn't see anything, but the trail that he'd been following went directly into the small cave.

"Let's see what's there," he muttered to himself before creeping forward and toward the cave.

As he approached, he raised his bow and turned his head to search in all directions for his potential quarry. He didn't see anything until he focused back on the cave. Crawling out of the small opening was a creature with dark blue skin mottled with a green and yellow pattern on its back and shoulders. As it pulled itself to its feet, Jim noticed that it was nearly ten feet tall and twice as wide as him. Baring cracked, yellowed teeth, the monster roared at him and charged.

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Panicing, Jim pulled back the string of his bow and sent an arrow arcing toward the monster. More by luck than skill, the arrow embedded itself into the creatures bulbous, red eye and popped the orb with a slight spray of fluid that painted the ground with a mixture of blood and ocular fluids as the creature screamed. Distantly, Jim was aware of a second creature making its way out of the cave, roaring in anger.

Drawing arrows as quickly as he could, Jim fired several times at the screaming monster before turning his attention to the second one that had passed its partner without a second glance. As the second creature approached him, Jim moved backwards as fast as he could while still firing. Roaring in pain at the arrows that kept sprouting in its hide, the second creature dove toward him and forced Jim to jump back as far as he could.

Pulling back another arrow, Jim noticed that the first monster was gone and that there were only a bunch of arrows on the ground, scattered as though they'd been thrown there. Before he could process the sight, a powerful grip squeezed his leg and visciously yanked him backwards, causing his head to crash into the ground.

Crying in pain, Jim barely noticed that he was hanging upside down until the first creature lifted him as high as it could and glared at him with its remaining eye. Jim noticed through the pain from his cracked skull and the now broken leg in the creature's grip, that the eye he'd managed to destroy was wriggling and a small orb was beginning to shape itself in the socket. Before he could do anything else or process what was happening, the monster roared and swung him as hard as it could into the ground.

With a gasp, Jim jerked upright, screaming as he cocked a fist back. Without stopping to look around himself, he flung himself from the bed and threw himself to the nearest wall as he faced outward toward whatever might be attacking him. Eve stood in front of him, hands raised in a calming gesture as he began to process the soothing words that she was speaking.

"....James. Calm down, it's okay, it's over. You're safe now, James," she told him as she stepped slowly toward him, voice soft and soothing to his frayed and torn nerves as he jerked his head from side to side, searching for another attacker.

"James? Can you hear me? Can you understand me?" Eve asked gently as she stepped into arms-length of him. "Do you remember who I am?"

"Eve?" he asked, confusion filling him. "What's going on? I was just fighting, something, and then it grabbed me and-"

"James, look at me," Eve ordered, her voice still gentle. He turned his eyes toward her as he felt his heartbeat slow every so slightly. "You've died in Astrana. It was a bad one and usually those sorts are blocked out by the player. Before I let you back in, you have to talk to me. Tell me what happened and work through it. I need you to be detailed in your explanation, it will help. Just focus on me and if it starts to get too much we can talk about something else until you're ready. Okay?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding as he felt the adrenaline drain slowly from his system. "Yeah, I understand. Where do we start?"

"Let's sit down," Eve suggested, motioning to a couch as she took his hand in hers. "It'll be more comfortable for you."

"Okay," he nodded as she guided him toward the couch and they sat.

With a deep breath, Jim opened his eyes and looked at the massive cathedral entrance that he'd been respawned at and looked around at the bustling priests and other members of the Church's staff.

"Can I help you, Last Star?" one of the pretty, young women standing next to the entrance asked as he looked around. "The Lady Sylvar's teachings ask that we serve all equally, you know."

"I'm fine," Jim told the priestess wearing the battlepriestess' clothing of Sylvar, Lady of Love, Mistress of Elves. "Thank you though,"

"We live to serve," she bowed to him as the others near her followed her lead and echoed her words.

Turning from the bowing women, Jim moved to leave the Cathedral of Light and set off in search of Barnabus' shop. If anyone could answer his questions about what had killed him, Barny could. He hoped.

"You're certain that you watched it grow a new eye?" Barny asked as he puffed on a pipe he'd pulled from somewhere.

"I am," Jim nodded. "I didn't get a look at the rest of it, but I'm pretty sure that it pulled all the arrows I shot it with out of its skin and had all that healed too."

"Not good," the Dwarf muttered unhappily. "Not good at all. You need to get back there and kill the damned things. Soon."

"Why?" Jim asked. "What were they?"

"Trolls," Barny spat. "Bloody swamp trolls that are close to mating and sending a bunch of the little shits running through the forests. If that happens then we're all fucked."

"Why is that bad?" Jim asked.

"Swamp trolls are immune to poisons," Barny explained. "Acid is by technicality a poison, which means that you can't kill the damned things with a bottle of acid the way you can a normal troll or a mountain troll. You can only use fire, and in a forest that hasn't seen rain in a few weeks, that means the whole damn thing is a wildfire waiting to happen. Especially if you go galivanting through the whole place with a lit torch. Fucking miracle that no one's burned the place down since your lot showed up."

"But that's not the worst of it," Barny continued as he took a pull from his pipe. "If swamp trolls are in the forest, that means that somethings moved into the swamp and it's got the damned things scared shitless enough to pull up roots and set out for greener pastures."

"Got any ideas for how I can kill them without burning the whole forest down?" Jim asked hopefully.

Barny was silent for several minutes as he continued to smoke his pipe and thought about Jim's question. Finally, he spoke.

"If you can get yourself some sort of enchanted weapon that can cause heat damage, then you can whittle them down," he finally said. "It won't scare the things as bad a fire would, but it would burn them badly enough that their biggest problem was taken off the table."

"So as long as I can burn them badly enough, they won't heal?" Jim confirmed.

"They'll still heal," Barny told him. "It's just going to take a lot longer and you'll be able to kill them before then."

"Got any weapons that fit the bill I can borrow?" Jim asked. "I'll be sure to bring it back."

"I don't," Barny answered with a frown. "Fire enchanting is dangerous when you live near a forest, so most people don't bother with it without a good reason. Besides, I'm not that practiced at enchanting. Just know some basic runes and I can play with them well enough to make some interesting stuff."

"Could you teach me to make runes?" Jim asked hopefully. "If I can make the runes, then I can enchant my own weapons for this."

"Rune carving is difficult," Barny told him.

"But I'll make a deal with you," the Dwarf said after a minute. "I'll give you my copy of the basic rune alphabet and the rules of use and I'll teach you how to carve the runes. In return, you'll promise not sell anything you enchant in this city. Deal?"

"I'll take it," Jim nodded. "I need to be able to take out these trolls and I don't have the time or money to wait for someone to make a weapon with a fire enchantment for me."

"Then let's get started," Barny said as he pushed himself up. "I'll go get a rune chisel and the book and you'll listen to what I've got to tell you about it all."