The Adventures of An Afflicted
The Canthan Collision Saga
The Recap:
Derek the Haunted, once a Ritualist student of the famed Shing Jea Island Academy, is struck down with the deadly Affliction that sweeps Cantha upon the return of Shiro. When Shiro is defeated, Derek's mind is restored, but his body remains Afflicted.
He journeys across the lands of Tyria in the hopes of finding a cure. Along the way he meets an Asura called Dokk who travels with him. They fight their way from Cantha, to Elona against the tyrannical Sunspears, confront Shiro and the Lich and finally adventure into the Asura lands far north.
Once there, Derek is given a reverse engineered Totem of Man, which restores his human body to him. We left the pair at the shores of Kaineng city, looking across the water at Shing Jea Island, former home for Derek, who has decided after everything, not to go home.
This is the Continuing Adventures of An Afflicted:
"You are brought here on charges of the most heinous crimes," the Luxon judge declared authoritatively, capturing the full attention of the gathered crowds.
I wasn't overly concerned to be honest; I just had a feeling that things were going to work out somehow, despite the dubious circumstances.
"Murder!" declared the judge. "Indeed, mass murder!"
With that proclamation, the crowd roared in fury, which didn't do my strange sense of okay-ism any good at all. There were a lot of them here – it seemed like all of them. Even the dead ones had managed to turn up, albeit in boxes which were draped in red cloth, the colour of choice for the Luxon Armada.
The judge continued; "You are charged with conspiring against the Luxon people with our oldest enemies the Kurzicks." At the mention of the word Kurzick, the crowd hissed and booed like children at a puppet show.
"You," the judge – bearing in mind that this guy was supposed to be impartial until the case was heard – continued, "led our forces into a trap and murdered them in cold blood."
More booing.
"Pleading guilty will not save you," the judge added, a little more quietly, but with such venom I felt the hairs on my neck rise up in cold fear.
I spared a half seconds glance at the small creature that had been my companion these last two years; he stared fixedly ahead, radiating a growing anger that I knew would soon burst into flames.
Before that happened, I had to try and plead our case and hopefully cool the whole thing down. I cleared my throat and the booing erupted anew. We were in a large bowl like arena, hemmed in by steep walls of towering jade and the sound of those boo's seemed to echo all around.
I tried to speak again, but the noise drowned me out. The judge stared at me, almost daring me to try to speak, to defend what had happened.
So I did. And this is what I told them:
As eternally grateful as I am to the Asura and Norn for finding a solution to my Affliction, I really wish they'd told me that the reverse engineered 'Totem of Man' spell didn't last forever.
I'd been stood with my companion Dokk, staring out from the dockyard of Kaineng City at my former home on Shing Jea Island across the water and hadn't realised that the Totem had expired.
Oh the fuss it caused.
Dockyard workers screamed in panic and ran around like lunatics as they looked upon my bloated afflicted body in its transformed state.
Like a fool I spent a few minutes running around trying to convince them it was all fine, until I realised that the lumbering strides I was taking, weren't those of a human man, but belonged instead to an Afflicted.
I have honestly never seen a place empty so quickly.
With a quick chant I recast the Totem on myself and sure enough I returned to my original form. To be honest there wasn't much special about me, I am a tall male Ritualist with a very standard little beard, but it's one hell of an improvement on the face of an Afflicted. I was so glad to glance my true reflection again.
"I should probably tell you," Dokk started to say in his squeaky small voice, "the Totem of Man doesn't last forever."
I looked at him with disgust. "You don't say?" I asked sarcastically. "Why you couldn't have told me before…" I trailed off as I saw a company of men wearing the red armour of the Imperial Guard marching sternly towards Dokk and me.
I saw the Asura tense and he drew his staff forward, a little wisp of flame tracing through the air ahead of us.
"Lower your weapon," one of the guards told Dokk in a commanding voice.
"Yours first," Dokk replied referring to the host of swords that were unsheathed in unison by the highly trained Imperial guards.
The guard smiled and said, "You are under arrest in the name of the Emperor."
"Okay," I tried to say soothingly. "Maybe there's been just a tiny, little misunderstanding here…"
Suddenly the guard thrust his sword at me, stopping his blade far too close to my recently re-humanised nose. "Silence," he snapped. "You will accompany us to the Emperor and say no more."
"No more," Dokk chirped childishly prompting the sword to swing threateningly towards his small head. "Try it Bookah," the Asura stupidly baited the soldier, his grip tightening visibly on his staff.
With a sigh the guard surprised me and put away his sword simply saying, "Oh forget it, just follow me."
The rest of his squad sniggered at their Captain, who had been so easily overruled by the little man from the north. Four of the men moved in behind us and the Captain spun on his heel with a glance of hatred at Dokk and began a quick pace towards the Imperial Palace.
As we were marched away, I leaned towards Dokk and said, "Listen pal, you've got to learn to shut your mouth when someone sticks a sword in your face."
The Asura turned to regard me curiously. "I bow to your expertise in such matters Bookah," he told me with a courtesy bow and a grin on his long face.
I sighed, shrugged my shoulders, shut up and kept walking.
With our escort of Imperial Guards and a strange sense of impending doom, we entered Kaineng Centre.
A line of henchmen stood by the door, as they often did in places like this, hoping to pick up an adventure and of course, a share in someone's loot. We were waved past them and up the stairs ahead.
To the right, there were two men, one Luxon and one Kurzick, judging by their clothes, shouting bad poetry at each other and anyone who might be listening. I picked out the line; "through stone trees, unmoved by breeze" from one and "beneath frozen waves, entombed in jade," from the other.
I gave up listening to it. When were they going to get over it, I wondered.
We moved quickly past and round a corner to the private entrance to Raisu Palace. The guards pressed onward into the chamber of the Emperor himself.
As we entered the chamber, I saw him ahead, the Emperor Kisu.
The guards all bowed reverently and I did likewise. Dokk however, stayed firmly on his feet.
"Dokk," I hissed a whisper at him. "That's the Emperor of Cantha. Bow you hobgoblin."
The Asura didn't acknowledge my plea, but instead stepped forward towards the ruler of Cantha and demanded, "Why have you sent your goons out after us?"
"We're dead," I said in a hoarse whisper, which drew a laugh from ahead of me.
"You are indeed quite alive, Derek the Haunted," the Emperor said directly to me with a smile on his face. "And my goons, as you call them, have brought you to me at a perilous time for the Empire."
I thought I was going to throw up; the Emperor was talking directly to me. "Rise, son of the Dragon Empire," he commanded me.
Getting up off of my knee, I faced the man who led my entire home nation.
The Emperor turned to Dokk now. "You are a friend of Cantha too, Dokk the Asura. If that is what you choose to be," he said still smiling, but with a hint of threat in his voice.
"You have been summoned here because there is a great matter to attend to in the South of Cantha. Since you departed these shores, the Luxons and Kurzicks have been attempting to negotiate a peace treaty," the Emperor announced grandly.
"So, what do you want from me?" Dokk asked impertinently.
The Emperors smile faded. "This request is for you both. Your journeys have led you all over the lands of this world and you have survived in places where others have perished. You are respected throughout the lands and you may just have that extra special something, to make a lasting peace."
I was about to pipe up and say something, but the Emperor put up a hand to stop me and said, "I hereby decree; you are Ambassadors of the Dragon Empire and command you to help us. Though I still hope you will go in friendship."
"Of course," I began only to be silenced by Dokk.
"I have pressing matters of my own to attend," he said rudely. "I have no interest in this," he added and turned to leave.
At his attempted exit, all the guards stood and drew swords on the Asura, who looked about ready to start fighting back.
"Unfortunately," the Emperor began, "I didn't actually say that you have a choice boys. We need you, so you either go with the blessings of myself or you can enjoy a long stay in a prison mining Jade for the rest of your days."
My jaw dropped in shock. I'd always thought of Kisu as a benevolent ruler, but then I'd been taught that Shiro was a tyrant, until I'd met him and he'd helped us escape from those detestable Sunspears in Elona.
"I guess you never really know anyone until you meet them," I said with a glare in the Emperors direction.
He smiled softly then. "I'm sorry to force you in this way son, but with all the proper heroes off in North Tyria fighting Destroyers, I really have to work with what I've got."
The judge wasn't impressed by my storytelling so far.
I could tell because he threw a sizable piece of Jade at my head, which drew a trickle of blood, and yelled, "Get on with it!"
With a rub of my rapidly bruising eyebrow, I did continue…if only to survive a few more minutes before we were sentenced to death.
A day after our ill run meeting with the Emperor, we were ready to move out.
Dokk and I were given a couple of tamed Kirin's to ride on and a small company of guards to take us to the borders of the city.
"Remind me," Dokk said as he attempted yet again to mount his Kirin, "why did we come back here?"
"Well," I began thoughtfully, "I was coming home and then decided I couldn't go back to the Island while my ex was shacked up with the man I previously considered my best friend. And you decided to abandon your life and your people in favour of doing, I quote 'something else.'"
The Asura stopped struggling up his horse just long enough to meet my gaze. "Fine," he said at me, then mumbled something that sounded like "Bookah."
I hopped down off of my horse and gave Dokk and unwelcome shove up on to his saddle. "I did not need assistance," he told me defiantly.
I shrugged and smiled sarcastically at him. "Well luckily for you I'm here to help even when you're too stubborn to want me to," I said and hopped back on to my Kirin.
We had opted out of an escort from the Imperial Guard at Dokks request, so off we set, alone but for our horse, into the murky city that had once seemed so full of promise and hope to me.
As we went I was filled with memories of my first time here. Back then there had been fireworks in the sky at the death of Shiro and I had been an Afflicted stumbling around trying to avoid getting killed by anyone who saw me.
Not much had changed, there were no fireworks now of course, my affliction had been more or less cured and I was still in the company of the crazy Asura I had sort of rescued all that time ago.
We'd gone a fair old way, when I realised that we'd started seeing less and less people on the streets, until suddenly the city was silent and dead around us. Only the breeze stirred amongst the abandoned houses and streets. Even of the occasional Am Fah there was not a glimpse.
Looking around I recognised a shop across the way with burnt out windows. Ominously, perhaps deliberately, a Wintersday hat was draped on one of the sills.
I pulled my Kirin to a stop and Dokk, with some difficulty, did the same. The horse like creatures didn't like this place too much. A sense of nervous expectation permeated the air and the silence around seemed suddenly to close in like an invisible vice.
"Forget about it Bookah," Dokk said with a hint of warning. "We need to carry on."
"I know, but I didn't bring any Snowman summoners," I told him and nudged my Kirin back into movement. "They've probably all gone away anyway, let's just keep going," I added, trying not to sound too nervous.
When the Kirin refused to move, a lance of fear shot through me. Dokk likewise couldn't convince his Kirin to advance a step further.
Their came a noise of scuttling, from atop the roof of the shop and a small cloud of dirt and rubble fell from above on to the street.
"Oh crap," I said quietly.
"We need to go now Bookah," Dokk said and I noted for what seemed like the first time, nervousness took hold of him.
There was no time to react properly though; the Kirin's bucked back at the same time, throwing us both on to the dirty floor. Within a second, they were running and then out of sight as if they'd never been there at all. I didn't consider it immediately, but all of our equipment and supplies went with them.
The scuttling noise from above got loader then a creepy, high-pitched laughter came from all sides. We were surrounded utterly I knew.
Fear was replaced by horror, as Grentches poured out from every available crevice. "Now we're dead," I told Dokk as the little creatures surrounded us.
We stood back to back facing as much of the horde as we could. We never stood a chance. They jumped as one, landing on us and flattening us both to the floor.
I struggled to fight them off and succeeded in clearing a few from my head and arms. As I tried to stand the last thing I saw, before the world went black, was a Grentch smiling manically before it hit me hard around the head with a candy cane.
"Wintersday Grentches?" The judge said with some level of distaste.
"Yes," I answered, noting that the crowds in the arena had actually quietened down a lot and were listening quite intently to my story rather than screaming obscenities at us.
With a loud sigh the judge went on; "What has this got to do with anything? You're supposed to be trying to beg for your life and here you are talking about Grentches and bloody Kirins."
"Well, I can stop the story and beg if you prefer?" I asked hopefully.
The judge shook his head irritably. "No, no that won't do, you've got us all interested now. We don't get many tales down this way that don't involve Carp. You'll just have to finish the story then we'll get on with the execut…I mean, the rest of the trial."
"Okay," I said a little reluctantly not liking the previous slip one bit. What had happened to that earlier feeling that somehow everything was going to be fine? This was the weirdest hearing ever, but the story was providing one thing, an extension of life. So on I went:
I awoke to more sounds of that freaky high-pitched laughter but also something far worse, a loud booming laughter that seemed to echo from a distant ceiling.
Without opening my eyes – once they were open the creatures would know I was back with them – I tried to assess the situation. I wasn't tied up, which was probably a good thing, but I was lying on cold hard stone.
Suddenly the booming laughter stopped. "I know that you're awake Derek the Haunted," the voice suddenly said with a hissing malice.
I pretended not to hear, didn't even stir a little, though my heart beat must have doubled its rate.
"Keeping your eyes shut will not save you or the Asura," the voice said again. "He's not going to last much longer," it added.
My eyes opened and I propped myself up with my elbows. "Where's Dokk?" I asked hurriedly. "If you've hurt…"
I was cut off by a small voice from my left, "I am fine Bookah and also touched by your concern for my health," Dokk said with a slight smile on his wide mouth.
The voice cut in. "You're not fine my little Asura. You're in the presence of a God."
"We have been here before," Dokk said unimpressed. "And I did not see any God's then, just a gate keeper with a bad attitude."
The Reaper, Grenths voice in the living land and indeed, the aforementioned gatekeeper, radiated anger. I mean literally, I could feel the hatred blowing out of it – my longish black hair blew about in the breeze emanating from the creature.
You can't see the faces, if indeed they have faces, but you do know when you've pissed one off and unfortunately, on our last visit here, we had made a monumental misjudgement and had done just that.
"Listen," I said started, trying to placate the creatures malice, "we didn't mean to be nasty or anything last time, we're misunderstood a lot you know?"
Dokk gave me a sideways look, that both asked what I was trying to accomplish and called me an idiot at the same time – what can I say, he's got talented eyebrows.
"I guess what I'm trying to say," I added, basically playing for time, "is that we really like you guys, it's just that your pretty damned scary you know?"
The Reaper paused. "Scary?" it asked in that horrifying hissing voice of its.
"Yeah, scary," I told him.
He seemed to consider this for a moment. "It's the cape and the hood isn't it?" the creature asked with a weary, defeated tone in its freaky voice.
"And all the talking of people being in trouble and dying and meeting their doom in the Underworld and stuff," I put in.
"Even I will admit that those things are off putting," Dokk piped up.
With that, the creature pulled his robes up and bit, revealing skeletal legs beneath and sat down heavily on the stone next to us.
There was a moment of silence, before the Reaper spoke. "You know how long I've done this?" it asked what I guessed was a rhetorical question. When neither of us answered, it carried on, "Four thousand three hundred and seventy two years."
I whistled, impressed and a bit scared.
"Yeah, a long time isn't it? Anyway, in all that time, you know how many days I've had off? None. Not one. Never called in sick, never come in late, even on my birthday or Wintersday."
"Sounds like you need some time off to me," I said encouragingly.
The Reaper shook its hooded head. "No, there's nobody to look after the portal to the Underworld."
"What about them?" I asked pointing at the Grentches.
30 minutes later, me and Dokk were on our way out of the door with the Reaper dragging along reluctantly behind us.
"You're sure they'll be alright?" it asked concerned about the Grentches and their abilities to guard the gate to the Underworld.
"They'll be fine, take some time off," I told it. "Have a rest, you've earned it," I added with a reassuring pat on a bony shoulder.
As I ushered the creature away, I glanced back at the Grentches who were throwing something at each other and at the shrine…I don't know what it was, I'm not thinking about it anymore.
And by the Gods, I didn't tell the Reaper.
From our unique position at the defence table, to which we were now chained, Dokk and I braced ourselves for more berating from the judge.
And we weren't left disappointed for long:
"What next? You're telling me that you convinced the Voice of Grenth to take a trip to the pub?" the judge demanded. "This story is getting ridiculous," he added, with a new level of fury in his voice.
"Ridiculous," Dokk spoke up, "but strangely true. This Bookah has a strange way with people and indeed extra-dimensional creatures."
"Silence Goblin!" the judge yelled at the little man from the far North.
Unwise even with Dokk chained up I felt, but Dokk surprised me by staying silent. Suddenly, that strange feeling of well being descended upon me again.
I dared to speak. "Listen judge, you wanted me to tell this tale. Now you either listen to me and take in what I have to say or kill us now," I said authoritatively. Dokk gave me a sideways glance and nodded approval. He had a plan, I suddenly understood.
With a reluctant sigh, the judge looked around. "Anyone left carpe cooking at home?" he asked the crowd. "Sorry, you might want to go put the ovens out, we're going to be here a while by the looks of things."
With that a few people slumped off. "Consider this a stay of execution, Haunted," the judge said with some of the venom back in his voice. "I've got other things to do this evening you know."
"Sorry, judge," I said with a sympathetic air. "If it's any consolation, we've got somewhere we need to be too."
At that the judge laughed bitterly. "We'll see where you two need to be very soon," he said glowering at us. "Okay, anyone need the bathroom, I know I do," he said to the crowd. "Court adjourned for five minutes while everyone goes and gets themselves sorted.
Soon most of the court was empty, except for me a Dokk who couldn't move due to the restrictive chains.
"So," I said in an excited whisper, "what's the plan?"
Dokk looked at me. "What plan?" he said, not bothering to whisper back and drawing the eyes of the remaining crowd to us.
"The plan, you know, getting out of here?" I said, persisting in my fruitless whispering.
"There is no plan," Dokk said loudly. "We will accept the consequences of the law," he added loudly, which gained him a few shouts of 'encouragement' from the crowd. I won't repeat what they actually said, but suffice to say it wasn't very approving.
I tried one last time to get through. "Dokk?" I whispered a hoarse plea.
Dokk then turned to me and did something unexpected - he winked. "Of course I have a plan Bookah, how could you doubt it?" he whispered back.
Somehow I wasn't sated though. A cold nervousness crept back in me. Did he have a plan? I don't know, who can tell what an Asura is thinking?
Another minute passed in silence before the judge returned to the podium and called the court back into order. "Now, then," he said with a twisted little smirk, "lets get this over with shall we?"
Okay, so we didn't actually go to the pub with the Avatar of Grenth, in fact he bailed and left Dokk and I to navigate the corridors of the Shenzun Tunnels alone. The only thing he left us with was this stark message:
"A twisted act of vengeance in the name of justice will deliver you to my master before too long." And with that he was gone.
Trust me when I say, that didn't go down too well for me and bears too much resemblance to our current predicament for comfort.
So, alone again, Dokk and I navigated the tunnels beneath the city which eventually lead us to the South Gate and out unto the pastures that spread out before the Echovald Forest and the Jade Sea, a choice between fear and death, or fear and death.
It was at the end of the tunnels that my Totem of Man expired and my body expanded out again into that hideous form again. I was just about to cast the spell once more, when Dokk stayed my bulbous hand.
"Look Fishman," he said pointing ahead. "More of your kind," he added impolitely while gesturing to a horde of Afflicted that were lurking outside in the fresh air.
" Oh that's just great," I said irritably. "How do we get by them?" I asked exasperated. What happened to my luck? I wondered.
That's when Dokk pulled something out of the bag. He attacked me.
"What are you doing?" I yelled as he struck a ball of fire at me.
"Die foul some demon," he yelled in his tiny voice at me and fired again and again with his staff blazing away.
"Dokk, what are you doing?" I yelled between yelps of pain as I failed to dodge the blasts of fire time and again.
"DIE!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, which I saw behind his little head drew the attention of the Afflicted in the field. They started running towards us.
I panicked and called forth the spirits of Pain, Bloodsong and Agony. They attacked Dokk. "Ow," he shouted. "You cannot defeat me," he yelled more and blasted Agony back into the ether.
Then pain hurled a flaring ball of light at Dokk and with it, the Asura fell to the floor dead.
By that time the Afflicted were upon us. They looked with what may have been contempt at the dead Asura and then at me. Another Ritualist was there. "GRRRRRRghhh!" it said to me in Afflicted speak.
"Uh, grrrrgh!" I said back unsteadily.
"Arrrgghhh!" it 'spoke' again.
"Yeah, arrrgghhh, grr argh!" I responded a little more surely. I then scooped up Dokks dead frame and held him in the air. "GRRRRRR, ARGH!" I yelled aloud and was greeted by a chorus of much more happy sounding replying grr's and argh's.
"I'll grr be arrgh, off then," I told them and started towards the exit, with Dokk in hand. The Afflicted moved aside to let me pass, giving me an appraising pat on the back or two on the way.
"Staff Fishman," I heard whispered from above me. When I looked at Dokk clutched in my monstrous talons, his eyes were shut and he'd stilled his breathing, but he was definitely alive.
"Grrrr," I said loudly, looking around me furtively at the creatures who still celebrated my 'victory' then followed with a whispered, "What?"
Dokk whispered back. "Get my staff Bookah."
"Oh, staff," I repeated loudly, then caught myself. "Staff ragh! Grrr," I added quickly and waddled back over to pick the tiny stick off of the floor.
The Afflicted were giving me what I can only call strange looks – even by their twisted up, bulging face standards, these were funny looks…then they charged.
I ran as fast as my wobbling legs would carry me, with Dokk still held above my head with my right hand and two staffs – one Dokks, one mine – in my left.
It was no good though; the Afflicted Assassins easily keep pace as we exited the tunnels into the bright daylight ahead. The assassins started slicing my back with their long dagger like arms, which wasn't too pleasant – sort of added intense pain to my already reeling senses that had been blinded when we'd emerged from underground.
"Throw me my staff," Dokk said from above me. So I did and instantly the sky filled with fire. The Assassins were quickly pummelled by the torrents of flames, which poured from the heavens.
I wanted to ask Dokk what spell he's cast, but a flaming meteorite almost pulverised me, as it landed less than a foot from my side and I totally forgot the question.
"Keep running," Dokk shouted above the noise as he shifted round in my grip to get a better aim at our foes.
I didn't have any intention of stopping as the fire arrows began whistling past my head. The Afflicted had rangers.
With what little breath remained me I called upon the spirit of Pain once again, but before it had a chance to draw a bead on our enemies it was stomped on by a burley Warrior Afflicted.
Somehow I kept running, though my lungs burned as I struggled for air. I wished that I was back in my human form, which was somewhat more robust and suited to this purpose than my Afflicted bulk.
We were slowly going uphill, with Dokk launching everything under the sun, possibly even the sun itself. I didn't realise that there was that much fire in the universe, but he kept up a near constant stream.
For my part, I threw a couple of spirits up that got crushed just as quickly as they arose, but I like to think they slowed the advance of our enemies a touch.
Then we drew near to the Yeti's that lived at the top of the hill. They didn't like what they saw, so they attacked everyone. Luckily for us, they concentrated primarily on the mass of Afflicted behind, giving me time enough to stop, put Dokk down and cast the Totem.
I was Derek again. Thank the Gods.