Drem Quickly looked around for any signs of Ker'eg. He knew they needed him because he had the best dark vision out of all of them. He looked harder and finally found Ker'eg on the ground breathing hard. Drem ran over there.
"You alright? Are you gonna live? For the love of Pholtus don't die."
"Drem, I'm fine, maybe a broken rib or something. It's Iera and Noj you should be worried about. That thing took them. Go find them, I'll be fine." Ker'eg urged.
Drem looked down and saw that Ker'eg was bleeding from his arm and his left side. He got up and went toward the obvious path of this creature. Running through the forest trying to catch a glimpse of the monster Drem saw a mixture of blood feathers on the trees. He really hoped that the blood didn't come from Noj or Iera.
"Hello!? Noj!? Iera!? Anyone there?" Drem called out.
No one answered. He sat quietly for a few minutes hoping to hear the crazy beast. He tightened the grip on his knife. He remembered when he first learned the powers of this knife.
The night that his parents were killed he took a chest that he found hidden under their bed. It had his name inscribed on it in infernal, his parents original language. He sailed down the stream until he reached a bank where he thought he was safe. He opened the chest at first he saw nothing. But when he looked closer he saw a small dagger at the bottom of the chest along with what seemed like instructions.
"Drem, if you are reading this we are probably dead," It was a letter from his parents. "the dagger inside this chest has been a family heirloom since we were born from the ashes of hell. Use it wisely and don't show it to anyone."
He looked around to see if anyone was coming, he looked the dagger over. It had a hilt wrapped in a red leather and the blade was no more than 6 inches long. It had a serrated edge and looked like it had never been used before. There were words inscribed on the blade along the non-serrated side. All of a sudden gnoll bandits popped out of the trees and bushes ambushing Drem. He screamed.
"Save me!" and then, the knife grew and grew into a longer sword. Drem's mind went blank. When he woke again 9 gnoll warriors lay dead on the beach and Drem was covered in blood. Over the years Drem learned to control and manipulate the power of his knife.
Suddenly from his right he heard a loud roar. He dashed over there and was confronted by the unusually large legs of an eight-foot tall owl. He saw Noj and Iera lying on the ground behind it.
"Die you crazy monster!" Drem yelled as he charged in with his knife.
"Servo meus vita quod attero is res!"
As Drem recited those words his knife let out a blinding light and extended out like a spear and pierced the monster through a wing. When the light subsided Drem held a long, thin, spear like sword.
"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Drem shouted as he repeatedly stabbed the injured monster in the head.
Blood spewed out all over the place and by the time Drem calmed down his clothes were stained with blood. He walked over to Noj and Iera. He picked them up and slung them over his shoulder. He walked back to the camp and found Ker'eg.
"Hey you saved them…" Ker'eg looked into Drem's eyes and went silent.
Drem had grown horns on his forehead and he had black eyes. Drem put the two girls down and sheathed his knife. His horns disappeared and his eyes turned back into green then he fainted.
"Hey Drem, are you alright?"
Ker'eg checked his pulse, found it still beating and let him sleep.
By morning Noj and Iera woke up.
Ker'eg pointed toward Drem and said "Thank him, he single handedly killed that beast and brought you both back to camp. I was to hurt to go help you."
"Really?"
"Really."
"Hey thanks for saving us." chirped Iera. Noj just nodded her head toward him, she didn't like the idea of thanking him.
Drem just slept peacefully in the tent. When he woke around noon the party started to hike again. Scavo wrote that the group had found an easy pass through the mountains but it never actually specified where it was. It just said it lead to a miraculous city. They had been walking for a good five hours and as the sun was starting to get lower. Iera made a discovery.
"Look! There's a hole in the ground!"
"We're not falling for your stupid elementary tricks kid." Drem said.
"No really look. There's a cave like hole in the side of the mountain!"
When Ker'eg looked at first he couldn't see what she was so excited about but when he looked harder he saw a cave hole about 6 feet high and 3 feet wide that was well hidden and camouflaged into the side of the mountain.
"Hey everyone into this cave!" Ker'eg said excitedly.
He hoped that he discovered a passage through to the other side of the mountains that Scovo was talking about.
As they walked through the entrance they saw that the cave went pretty far into the mountain. Even with there dark vision the end was not clear. They slowly walked through the cave. As they went deeper it seemed to get brighter and brighter with an unreal green light. After they walked for more than half and hour Noj pointed,
"Hey look there's a door?! And it's giving off some kind of green light."
Ker'eg gasped. They had discovered a door made of adamantine. With out a worry Ker'eg walked up to it and pushed open the door and stepped through. Everyone followed hoping that he knew what he was doing and where he was going.