After placing the water in his components bag and yet again being bummed out he couldn’t fit in in the worn belt pouch he wore he continued along out into the forest. The shadowlord forest was smaller than darkwood which was nice. Having it bisected by the town made things a little weirder to navigate. There wasn’t really a way to bypass the town by way of the forest. Maybe that was weird or maybe it just made it a little easier to navigate this world of text.

In a lagoon area adjacent to the river Isaiah got a bit of a surprise when he wandered into an area by accident.

Vexia, The worst Seahag

Vexia attacks you!

You hit Sea Hag.

You hit Sea Hag.

Sea hag hits you.

HP: 55/60

You miss Sea Hag.

You hit Sea Hag.

Your sword tells you: What does this do?

Mana falls from heaven.

You hit Sea Hag.

Sea Hag missed you.

You hit Sea Hag.

You hit Sea Hag.

Sea Hag drops dead before you.

Isaiah checked out the corpse of the sea hag. She had a pile of coins and some strange stone. He offered the corpse and collected the loot. Not being far from town, Isaiah headed back and tried to sell the stone hoping it might be worth something. Sadly, the general store shopkeeper wouldn’t even take it saying it was worthless. If the loot was worthless then what was even the point of dropping it? Frustration caused Isaiah to just offer the stone because it was taking up inventory space. The sea hag was named Vexia though. She was a named monster, not just one of the numerous sea hags that could spawn wherever in a field. There might be something there but Isaiah’s player wasn’t sure. Isaiah’s player had only done one quest; the pipe quest. He wasn’t exactly a questing expert. It looked like Vexia could keep her secrets for now. Maybe secret singular. That worthless stone was just one item if there were more secrets to be found from Vexia he didn’t know where they were hidden.

Isaiah just stood in the square of Verbobone for a while idling while his player was thinking what to do next. He had enough money to pay for the ferry back to the main continent and to leave this island behind. However, the main thing he wanted to do he hadn’t accomplished. He really wanted to find Silvanus’s temple so if there was a tea party there he wouldn’t be the elf that missed out because he couldn’t find it.

In the spirit of exploration Isaiah continued looking around. He really hoped the temple wasn’t in some dungeon area. All of the temple’s he’d found so far were next to cities and could be accessed by anyone without having to fight monsters to get there. Granted, most of them he hadn’t any idea where to find them but the ones he’d found included: Mystra, Lathander, Helm, Talos. All of those temples were either right off the road or not far from one. The annoying thing about this Island of Deku was that there wasn’t much of a main road. The town was a bit of a hub but it was surrounded on all sides by forest.

Thinking enough time had passed for Jarrow to respawn, Isaiah headed back to Jarrows tower with hopes that he could cheese his way into getting another scroll that was higher than 3rd level. Much to his surprise, Cheezu was still there plucking away. Isaiah didn’t disturb him. If someone was willing to try to tackle that higher leveled drow as a newbie mage then he likely didn’t need any distractions. Isaiah’s player silently cheered him on, ‘hang in there little guy you can do it. It will just take a while.’

Isaiah wandered around the forest trying to figure out what he was missing to get to Silvanus’s temple but not with much luck. He got turned around a bit and not quite lost because the area wasn’t very big but it took a little bit of walking in circles to get back to a place where the peer command would give him a clear shot back to town. He went back to the inn and ordered some water and food and idled a bit. Asking about the location on the lines might get snapped at because it was ‘in character’ information. If he asked, he guessed the reply would be two words that he had seen to a lot of people’s questions: ‘ask IC.’ For people who were new like this it came across as cold and uncaring. He pondered how much luck someone playing an Ogre, Goblin, or Drow would have asking someone IC for help. Just lacking motivation to grind more experience, Isaiah's player decided to check the help file for Silvanus. He thought it kinda weird that there would even be paladin’s of Silvanius. Silvanius was a deity that valued balance in the forests. Silvanus aka the Oak Father covertly sponsors brigands and secretly breeds and places predators to maintain balance in nature. Silvanius is a woodland neutral deity not a goodly one that would sponsor paladins. However, bringing this up to Schatten might not be a great way to romance her. First, the fact that he was researching her might make him come across as a bit of a stalker. If someone came up to him and began poking holes in his own background’s viability they would come across as annoying and pedantic. Maybe it was all part of an elaborate character design by her player. The elf maiden who comes across as an upstanding member of the community but would turn on either good or evil with deadly intent if her goddess so willed it. This didn’t fit with the pedestal that Isaiah’s player wanted to put Schatten on. She was pure and holy. He liked her better that way so if there were a couple little things to overlook then so be it.

Isaiah ordered another water and drank it and went inactive while his player decided to start writing a background for his elven character. He drew inspiration about how he started out as a priest character, then switched to a fighter class. The fallen priest aspect might work. He could always rewrite it again if he didn’t like it.

Isaiah’s Background:

I am Isaiah, I loved my God with all my heart. Dare I say that I still do? First, I must say, many thanks to the curious one for seeking to know about me. But it is not I that really matter but the power of the one who sent me and chose me to be a prophet.

Let me tell you my story: I lived in a small elven tribe across the sea. My family was not noble, they lived their lives as uncommon wood elves in that they tended to an orchard instead of wanderings like wood elves are prone to. They told me many strange tales when I was young like that of elves that had eyes of amber like mine were trying to dominate the elven kind. It was silly, a silly tale. I never wondered why none of the other elves looked similar to me when I was young. My parents stated that elves turned against the gold ones though in a great battle. I'm not sure why but they told me this, I thought little of it. In my younger years, I sought to do the same to live my life at a half-paced level, seeking selfish goals. I often fell victim to the self pity sense I could never keep up with the stronger and faster sylvan children.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

But several years later in one preordained snowy day that all changed . . . Walking home from school (often I would seek out old elves who isolated themselves deep in the woods for schooling) A blizzard's frosty mist slammed into the woods that were my home. Being only a fledgling, I was scarred. I feared death and what would happen to me if this frost and now-increasing snow took my life. It made me ask the question that turned my life around. Where would I go? Would I go to heaven or some other place? The Holy spirit within me convicted me of the truth. I had sin in my life. I wasn't perfect and the wages of sin were death. Yes, physical death is a result of this cursed world's sin but spiritual death as well. I knew I had hated before and done bad things. I need a clean slate. I needed to be washed from my old self.

"I needed the new birth"

My parents taught me many times about this new birth. But shamefully I rejected it over and over again. Postponing it day after day after day, until the prayers of my parents caught up to me this day . . . this day is white as snow. Convicted, I look up to the sky and saw the sun behind the clouds. Tears screaming down my eyes and frosty slakes melting on my then childlike cheek I cried out to Him, The God who is the light of the world. But through my remorse and repentance I found a new birth.

In tears I said, "Save me O Father of heaven, For I am a sinner I know only your gift that you give freely to any who ask can save me. Please I call upon you for this gift for I'm not worthy of your love. "

My God leads me to preach his message of the New Birth in many realms. Yes I haven't nor do I claim to be perfect but. The father of lights is working on me. And every good and perfect gift comes from you, my father. At times I've been a wayward follower but still even today in my disgraces of the past I trust in Him.

Later when I came to these realms many years ago I was a little intimidated. I arrived in shadow coming in from the boat docks. The city was full of odd creatures called humans and others speaking a strange language. I was a bit intimidated, so I left heading west into the quiet forest. Feeling dejected, I saw a pond and watched the sunrise there. Seeing the sunrise was always that thing that could calm and comfort me in the worst of times.

Saying some prayers for this new realm, I asked for a kindred spirit. That prayer was answered with a new friend. A half-elf with sungold hair and a gaze that was neither condemning nor judgmental walked in to watch the sunrise. She seemed the only one around who had time for someone as new to the realm as I. Her spending time with me taught me a valuable lesson.

It's not power that matters but people.

Light was always like a mother to me, when I was young and lost she took me under her wing. She was the first friend that I ever had in the lands of shadow. She was a spiritual constant in the tumult of emotions that would sometimes pervade my life. The most memorable moment I had with light was when I was praying in the temple and she walked in and I heard her soft voice, "Wow a prophet no less."

Later, I made many friends such as Taaveti(he trained me somewhat in the ways of mages), Whitefalcon (kinda aloof but a good guy), Jody (she was a good girl who really got a kick out of lighting elementals), Margath (was really scared when the nameless one came as a dragon and stole the girl you were protecting), Ax, and, slore (she sold me all kinds of neat stuff). I knew harmony but he was always killing people myself included. There were many people who were nice to me and I advanced both in clerical powers and magus powers. But that is what my problem was . . . power. I was so busy advancing that I forgot the holy calling for which I was chosen.

When I became convicted of this, I knew I could stay no longer. I made a long post on the main board talking about the new birth and how one could acquire the free gift of my God. I felt a great sense of loss because all this time I could have been using for my God I had spent on myself. I knew my words would fall on deaf ears. I quickly packed my things then I headed to the docks and sailed for many months back to my homeland.

I spent much time in solitude and in prayer back in my homeland. I would climb upon the highest mountains and watch the sun and relax. Other times I would read and study the sacred scriptures memorizing them and hiding them in my heart so I'd never forget them and be led astray once again. For many months I did this, for time passes quickly for elves.

Then I saw her, The love of my life and the destruction of it. I had heard about the dark elven kind before but had seen little of them. She was huddled in a corner behind some rocks hiding from the coming sunrise. By drow and even elven standards she was a great beauty, that is not what caused me to turn against my elven instinct to either fight this evil creature or flee for safety. Learning from my experience on shadow that people really matter, not power or other racial barriers, I was intrigued by her. Upon approaching her, she lashed out at me with a multi-barbed whip. I quickly dodged it because the attack was quick but not entirely accurate. She hissed some curses in a dark spider-like language and continued to try to wildly assault me.

For some reason she never saw me good enough to find the mark. At first I thought it Devine intervention but looking closer she had a birth defect in her eyes, something that is cause enough for capital punishment in her people. That is why she fled. She was lost in this surface world and abandoned by her familiar evil realm when her secret was found out. I knew that she was at a vulnerable stage in her life. So daily I prayed for her conversion, never turning my back upon this wicked spider but taking care of her and feeding her as well. I taught her of the elven language and she told me her woes and came to understand . . . yes . . . for sure it was a gift of my God upon a member of the forsaken race. I thank him for it.

"But it was never meant to be . . . drow and elves can't be as close as her and I were . . . I . . . I never should have allowed myself to get so caught up in her."

Then it came, a message from the elven high counsel. I was summoned. I went to stand before them, they gave me one command and dismissed me. I was to turn my new found love into them for judgment. This was the first time I had ever lied and the cascade of events which left me leaving to bury my holy symbol with the corpse of my wife.

We fled to the only other place I knew of back to the land of shadowgate. When we arrived my bride told me that she was with child. I was both excited and scarred for I knew the child would be of mixed lineage. We hoped against hope that the child would be granted such grace as my wife was several years ago. Alas, but it seemed even though we raised him with life and love he stuck to the nature given him. It's so sad. Even thinking back it makes me wish to weep. For one night while I was out hunting for the family I came back to find see my bride's last breaths. She had a dagger in her back. I held her and wept over her saying she was going to be ok. The last words she said were:

"I know heaven waits for me, so don't you shed a tear. We'll live eternally. I'll be waiting for you there." I spent the whole night weeping over the body of my dead love. I didn't care that she was a drow. The fellowship of the father of lights we shared together made that seem so small. Her lifeblood stained my hands on the desert sand. As is the elven custom I burned her remains in the sands of the ocean beach dunes in the north east corner near shadow. Feelings of remorse and sadness coursed through me. I cast my holy symbol into a tidal pool where it would be buried in the sands when the tide came in.

I fasted and prayed by the sea for almost a month, drinking only water from a small spring of fresh water nearby. Time passed quickly but I knew what I must do. I knew now that is was wrong to go against the laws of our people. So, I searched out for my son, not to condemn him (though he was guilty) but for repentance. Finally he sought out the drow of this land and learned what it was really like to live like them. A cold lifeless void so lonely that one seeks to harm all those around them. Looking back to the life he once had he felt regret. After being harassed by the citizens of shadow for his lineage he came back to me and I finally obeyed that order that was given me by the high counsel. We took a long boat ride across the sea back to my homeland.

The verdict was death by beheading. He never said a thing to me. I prayed for his conversion and pleaded with him night and day but he looked away empty.

After the execution an elven guard came and gave me a note found in my son's cell. It simply said, "I believe now . . ."