**The Tale of:  Finnan Goodbarrel,  AKA Kaelysis, AKA Kae As a young Halfling on my wedding day the entire village gathered to celebrate the union of me (Finnan Goodbarrel) and my life long friend and companion Cora Hilltopple. We were to combine last names to be Goodtopple and live out the rest of our days in a little hut on the edge of the village nestled between the edge of the forest and the side of the cliff. The morning festivities of a gigantic breakfast filled with corn, cheeses, breads, berries, and lots of ale proved joyful and gay. Emotions soured when my youngest brother Elden blew a forbidden horn that he had been secretly crafting for the past few months ever since Cora and my betrothal was announced. With the recent fighting of all sorts of armies nearby, horns and louder noises were outlawed for the safety of the village. The horn blasted until one of the elders was able to wrestle it away from Elden and everyone became silent and listened to hear whether or not our village location had been compromised. Just as everyone started breathing normally, another horn sounded, this time from off in the woods. I took off at a run towards our soon to be hut as Cora had previously stolen off to it to prepare for the noon-time wedding. Stumbling from being drunk I rounded the corner to see multiple beings in leather armor and painted faces with skulls for helmets charging towards our village. Fear crept up inside as I froze just long enough to see the gigantic attackers swarm past the hut and the hut catch fire. I quickly went around the first house, dove in a ditch and pulled a drying animal hide over myself. The world spinning from both the adrenaline and the ale, I listened as the attackers stormed past. It seemed like an eternity later that I heard a scream come from the direction of our hut. I poked my head out and seeing that the attackers had passed, I jumped out of the ditch but tripped over something and fell to the ground. As I rose, I looked back to see what had caused me to fall and realized that it had been one of two daggers that were in the ditch with me. I tried to pick them up but the blood rushed to my head and I blacked out falling back into the ditch. I come back into consciousness as a kicked pebble falls into my face. Groggily I sit up and realize that one of the attackers was carrying Cora over its shoulder towards the center of the village where more screams and cries called out moment after moment. Grabbing the two daggers I crawl out of the ditch and yell as I charge the attacker. As the attacker that is at least twice my height turns, I throw one of the daggers but it flails in the air and falls short and to the left. Still running towards the giant attacker, I see them lift up a crossbow and aim it right at my head just as I trip yet again and go towards the ground. The crossbow bolt rips through my right ear sending blood spurting out and intense screams echoing in my mind. A moment later the screams seem to stop as when I hit the ground, the dagger I carried pierced my just under my rib cage on the left. While the pain was present, it no longer seemed connected to me but seemed to be off in the distance. I slowly lift my head to look up at the attacker and Cora and notice that she does not appear conscious. Is she knocked out? Is she dead? The monster lets loose a deep throaty laugh while standing over me and then said something in its foreign dialect with the only word I recognized being 'Halflings'.  “____________________________________________” A foot then connected with my stomach and I flew into the side of the hut. As the world swirled and crumbled around me, I repeated what the creature had said over and over until the entire world slipped into darkness. Coughing up dust I awoke with pain seemingly seeping into every single part of my body.  As I excruciatingly wriggled out of the destroyed hut, the smell of ash and something wretched came across my nose. I must have been out for at least the rest of the day as the only light was being cast from the moon with everything taking on an eerily white glow. I sat propped up against the broken wood and looked around trying to remember what had happened. Slowly, the previous events came flowing forth as seeing the daggers lying on the ground, prompted the pain in my stomach to double. I once again repeated the saying of the monster that kicked me. Looking to the left, the remnants of Cora and my hut sat black and still. Cora! Is she alive? What had the army done with her? I struggle to my feet with the help of the wood and grab a small stick to help me move while clutching where the dagger had executed its work. With the world spinning but likely from a loss of blood, I slowly stumble and stagger my way through the village. Most huts no longer stood and a few still had ashes that would crackle in an unorganized chorus. My family house, which doubled as the butcher shop for the village that I worked at, was no longer standing. As I approached the village center, I saw the remnants of a hut directly in the middle of what should be an empty space. Curious, I inched closer until finally I was forced to the ground with the weight of realization; it was not remnants of a hut but rather the skeletons of the villagers that had been thrown in a pile and brought mostly to ash. Tears stormed from my eyes as quickly the recognition of what had happened tore even bigger wounds into me. I lay on my back, tears flowing down the sides of my face. Things would never be the same. All of my family, gone. All of my friends, gone. Cora, gone. A deep pit formed in my stomach and the will to live slipped away. My eyes closed and I wished I had brought the daggers so that I could rest with Cora and everyone else that was so incredibly wronged this day. Metal clattering together nearby woke me from my wanted void. It was the middle of the day from the way the sun reached out so harshly. My mouth completely dry, my voice crackled out asking who was there. The noises around me stopped and then a purplish creature with horns sticking out from its forehead. It pulled a knife up and held it against my throat. It then produced a small pouch from its waist and poured cool water between my lips. It tried speaking to me but we could not understand each other. Eventually through holding up my hands I was able to convince them that I was not hostile and had no weapon on me. The creature went to a cart and after rummaging around, came back with some leaves and items in jars. After caring for my wounds and providing a tiny piece of bread, she put me in the cart and continued scavenging the area. As I lay semi-conscious in the cart, my eyes drifted over and saw the creature coming back picking up a shiny object from the ground but before I could make out the engraved shape on the object, my eyes drew closed and I drifted off. As we made our way South, we were careful to keep out of the way of other travelers and spent nights on the outskirts of towns and inns. Through the days I tried to learn her name but finally settled on calling her Two-Horns. During the nights, she would steal away only to come back with food, coin, and sometimes rare looking items. While not being able to communicate with her was difficult, we got along well enough and before we knew it, we were within view of the city ________. That night, things went very differently. I slept as she stole off into the night as usual except this time, she never returned. I waited until the sun was high that day hoping that she would return. When I was convinced something had gone wrong, I crept towards the nearby inn. There were multiple horses of the King's guard_____(?) outside with two of the guards stationed outside. Shortly, my friend was being led out in chains by four more of the guards and they galloped away towards the city. I returned to the cart still distraught after having lost everyone in my life once again. I searched through the cart for anything that might give me an idea of where we had been going in the city or who we were going to see. After emptying out the cart, something struck me as odd with the way the cart was built. Upon closer inspection, there was a secret trap door in the bottom of the cart and within it, a number of pages with letters and words scrawled among them. At least, that's what should be on them. Without being taught to read, I knew that I had to find someone to translate the scribbling on the paper into words that I could hear. In the city, I looked for a run down tavern that did not have many people in it. The creatures in this city passed by me without so much of a second look.  The maiden in the tavern tried to throw me out telling me that this was no place for kids. It wasn't until I lowered my hood that she realized I was no child. Luckily she and the man behind the bar spoke Halfling and I was able to ask them for help with translating what was on the page. The man took the parchment and starting looking at it quietly. He read for a few seconds before turning pale and shoving the paper back to me and urging me to leave. The few patrons quietly lifted their heads to see what was happening. My protests were not heard as he kept pushing me towards the door saying that he did not want any part of that here. Confused, I looked again at the paper but nothing had changed for me. What could make this man so scared. I wandered through the streets looking for another location I could ask someone for assistance. I walked past another tavern when I stopped dead in my tracks. There was another creature that looked so very like the one that saved me - the two horns coming out of its forehead and a light purple shade to its skin. I cautiously approached the creature and asked if it could help me but alas, just like with my friend, they did not speak Halfling. I put the papers down in front of the creature and gestured for them to read it. After a moment, the creature looked down at the papers and shortly looked up with a look that seemed to question how I got the paper. Without wasting time, the creature pocketed the paper, tossed me over their shoulder and quickly made for the door leaving its half eaten meal on the table. I was thrown to the ground in an alley, had a bag put over my head, and then picked up again. The bag was removed and looking around I seemed to be underground with just a few torches lighting the walls. A woman’s voice called out from behind in words that I did not understand to where I answered that I could not understand in Common. She then changed her language to Common and demanded to know how I came into possession of the letter. Before I could respond, one of the men tossed a bucket of some liquid onto me while another one pulled grabbed one of the torches off the wall and held it at the ready. The woman firmly stated that if there was any hint of a lie, I would be burned to ashes. After taking a breath, I proceeded to tell the woman all of the things that happened from the monsters attacking my village, to Two-Horns saving my life and caring for me, to Two-Horns getting taken by the King’s guard ____(?). I finished with how I found the letter in the secret compartment within the cart and tried to find someone to read it to me. Without knowing where to go or who I should be looking for, the second person I showed the letter two brought me to this cave. For the first time the woman glided into view with a hooded cape covering her head and blocking her face. She was quickly talking to the one who carried me to this place. Everyone started moving about and started towards the doors. The woman turned to me and for the first time I saw her face, or rather part of her face and another part that was mostly a black metal. The dull black metal that covered the left half of her face seemed to extinguish any light that should have reflected off of it. She gave a thank you for delivering the letter but then said she would have to leave me hear whale they moved locations since they were not sure who else had seen the letter or whether Shabis (who I knew as Two-Horns) would tell where they were currently located. All of them left behind me and there was little light except the fading flickering of the disappearing torches. Tossing myself to the left, the chair fell over and one of the ropes came loose. Most likely, these people had not tried to subdue a halfling before and had done a subpar job of it. I stood up and raced as fast as I dared in the almost pitch black toward where the creatures had left. After going for almost 100 ft, my foot hit a stair and I almost fell face first but quickly regained my balance and continued up the stairs. A closed door soon opened to reveal a staggering amount of light on street with not many on it. After shielding my eyes, I look left and barely catch a glimpse of a robe as it swung out of sight down another alley. Keeping my distance, I trailed the robe of the group of 4 robes down a few streets. They soon stopped and climbed into a horse carriage. Knowing that my opportunity of learning more about Shabis would disappear without the mysterious robed people that took me captive, I dashed as quick as possible towards the carriage just as it started moving. With a leap, I grasped the rail of the carriage and pulled myself to safety. About 5 minutes later, the carriage slowed to a stop and the robes exited and taking a look around to be sure no one followed, proceeded down a pathway between a number of buildings. I removed the fabric that was covering me from view and proceeded to follow them down the pathway. It wasn’t long before I stopped abruptly to a knife at my throat and forcefully marched forward down the pathway. The human with the knife to my throat called out to someone called Thyira and shortly the robed woman with with mask of darkness appeared. A slight smile crawled across her face to see show up once again at her doorstep. After hearing how I found her again and so quickly, she stated that she was impressed by my determination and loyalty to Shabis and offered to have me stay with them and learn skills to help me in my quest to destroy those who massacred my village. I shortly was given a new name, one that would both match my history as well as strike fear into those who would oppose me. The name given to me was Kaelysis meaning: “and death follows”. I was told to not give my name to anyone unless they were confirmed to be either a friend or enemy but to refer to myself by the name Kae in the presence of those that were neither. I spent six months with the organization training to lie, steal, intimidate, improve my agility, be unseen, and see dangers before they struck. My skill as a butcher and my time spent hunting allowed me to quickly impress those around me with both knife and bow. One day my training was cut short as Thyira came to speak with me. She spoke of how she has not been able to decipher what was said to me by the monster that killed Cora but had a source tell her that they had heard a similar language in the far off Continent of Koehlas. She stated that she would smuggle me across to Koehlas in exchange for two things: sending her back stolen items until I had paid double the cost of the voyage and for me to take part in a rescue. She assured me that it would not take long for me to pay her back as the beings in Koehlas have more valuable items in their homes. The rescue was to save numerous members of our secret organization that had been imprisoned over the last year. Upon finding out that Shabis was among them, I quickly accepted and we spent the next two days going over the plan. The prisoners were being relocated to a ship to be sent across the seas to an undetermined destination and this would be the only chance we had to rescue those of our own. The night finally came when we were to perform the rescue. I was selected to climb the guard tower and kill the lookout so that the rest could sneak onto the boat, take control of the ship once it left the harbor and rescue the prisoners. I silently crawled up the ladder to the guard tower and promptly knocked out the guard that was sitting on the bench. As he fell to the ground I caught him and lowered him to the ground to reduce the noise. I then signaled to the team to run down the alleyway towards the ship. Everything was going smoothly. The prisoners were just finishing boarding the ship but the team would have plenty of time to sneakily board as well. That was when I looked back down the alley. A single guard was about to turn the corner and would surly sound the alarm when he saw the large group moving towards the dock and the boat. I pulled up my crossbow and quickly took aim. My finger started closing on the trigger when I hesitated. Could I really take another life? Would I be able to live with myself knowing that I was the one who hastily pulled someone from their loved ones into the black abyss? Mere moments were all that I had before it would be too late and the guard would raise the alarm. How could I take this guard from his family? Family…. Shabis and the organization were the closest thing I had to a family and they would likely die if this guard raised the alarm. It may not be much, but all the people I knew were either moving towards the ship or already on the ship. I could not lose everyone. The sudden realization brought calm to the previously wobbly hands guiding the crossbow.  The guard had turned the corner and come to a stop squinting at the scene in front of him of the 20+ creatures advancing towards the boat. He took a breath in and was about to yell for the alarm when my crossbow bolt went straight through his neck. A look of surprise passed over his face as no sound came out of his mouth and he started leaning towards the wall. He hit the wall with a slight thud and his spear fell to the ground with a light crackle. Nervous that someone would have heard the slight sound, I looked around and was pleasantly surprised when no alarm was sounded. Just as my heartbeat slowed by even a millisecond, a cry of “ATTACKERS!” rang out. Spinning in an arc while unsheathing my dagger, the guard behind me’s head was separated from its body and his cry became silent. He must have gained consciousness again just when I took my attention off of him and put it towards the guard below with the hole in his neck. Frantically I looked towards the ship to see guards streaming off the boat to protest our forces on the narrow dock. We still outnumbered them but the narrow dock would make it take longer for us to push through and get to the ship. As quickly as I could, I climbed down the ladder and started running towards the fight. BAM! A door crashed open right in front of me bringing me to a complete stop as Guards come racing out. 2, 4, 8, 16 guards filled the street and quickly moved towards the ship. Our forces were almost through the guards on the dock but it had not happened quick enough. The ship was pulling away from the dock and at the same time the guards from the building crashed into them from behind. I take another few steps towards the fight when more guards appear from around the left side of the building. It was over. There was nothing I could do now. I took off down one of the side streets and heard a voice calling out from behind me “There’s one!”. Knowing that I was not as fast as the guards I only had moments to find a hiding place. I turned the first corner I came across and jumped on a basket to a barrel to a windowsill and leapt up towards the lantern holder bolted into the wall. Using my momentum, I grabbed the metal and swung below the lantern releasing just in time to gain enough height to reach the roof. Pausing as my body thumpt against the wall and almost losing hold of the roof, I pulled myself up onto the flat top of the building and lay as flat as could be as I listened to the boots racing past below. How could I have let them all die? Why did I not just kill the guard in the tower as instructed? I thought I could keep some part of myself and refrain from killing but that hesitation had cost me everything and everyone. I had hoped to be strong enough to protect those I cared about, but in order to actually protect them, I would need to not hesitate with killing if ever it was needed. Everyone in my life who I have cared about died because of me. If I was not drunk I could have possibly slayed the monster and rescued Cora. The village may have burned, but I would have the most important thing in the world rather than nothing. If I had not hesitated at killing the lookout, maybe Thyira and the rest of the organization would still be alive. Actually, it’s possible I could have saved Shabis twice; once if I had been with her at the Inn and once again if the rescue mission had succeeded. Now I had nothing. Noone. The only person left alive was Shabis, on a ship and going anywhere. I awoke to a blazing hot sun scorching down at my cracked lips. I crept off the roof without being seen and joined the beings in the streets. Not knowing what to do I remembered that Thyira had a source over in Koehlas so I could possibly have an ally in my attempts to find both Shabis as well as the monsters that murdered my entire village. Sneaking on board would be simple enough but spending all that time crammed and hiding would not be nearly as good as actually being welcomed onto the ship. Plus, the next ship would not be leaving for three weeks and I needed something to do while I waited. I spent all the time from that moment stealing everything I could get my hands on as well as improving my skills. The next time my friends or family were in danger, I would not let them down and I would not let them die.  Be prepared Koehlas, Kaelysis will be there soon. People of note: Finnan Goodbarrel/ Kaelysis/ Kae - Me. Finnan was given name, Kaelysis was adopted Cora Hilltopple - To be wife (murdered with the rest of my village) Elden Goodbarrel - Youngest brother (blew horn that caused invasion of village and dead) Shabis (Two-Horns) - Friend who saved my life (captured by the King’s guard and imprisoned) Thyira - Leader of underground organisation and teacher of rogue skills (sent me to Koehlas) Items of note: Home continent - Renadar Village name -  Secret organization -**