Chain 023: Sword and Sorcery

Chain 023: Sword and Sorcery
Location: Bones of the Earth
Age: 31
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+1000] A Selfish World, A Cruel World, The Only Thing You Keep, The Nail That Sticks Up, To Live In Interesting Times, The Plaything Of Your Betters
(Abilities: Savant, Regeneration, Multitalent, Achron, Sorcery Savant, Lifting Yourself Up, Keiraku Hikou, The Stars Shine Upon Me, Hokuto Shinken)

[50/2000]   To Truly Live
[100/2000]  A Well-Traveled Road
[200/2000]  The Will To Live
[300/2000]  One Of The Wise
[600/2000]  The Arcane Craft
[900/2000]  The Heart of Man
[1200/2000] The Making of Myth
[Free]      A Wanderer's Cloak
[1300/2000] A Thief's Satchel
[1400/2000] An Occult Tome
[2000/2000] The Eye of Set

It was more than amusing to see my surroundings almost not change at all. A remarkably similar world, or at least this area within it, but with a decidedly more 'ancient' feel to it. Well, aside from the fact that there was no sky, instead finding myself in massive caverns upon caverns, barely lit by luminescent fungus and filled by strange creatures. Some of whom were not entirely friendly, to say the least.

I found civilization down there, in a surprisingly time. Some of those present were hostile, but most not, which was nice when the population of this civilization looked more Muffet than man. My arrival had been foretold; I was given a simple pack, containing a tome and a compass, nothing more. I would later learn that the pack was not as simple as it first appeared, but ignorant of this, I struck forward to find the surface - which was, to these individuals, a myth at best.

I got turned around in the caverns many times, on my journey. The first I found after the spiders were similarly-equipped snake-people, and it seemed I had been pointed in their direction to end a war. I would have happily been ignorant of this and continued on their way, but having smelled "the stench of spider's kin" on me, they decided that I needed to be sacrificed at an appropriate temple to their god. In turn, I slew their high priest when he attempted to end my life, and took their most treasured artifact before leaving, which weakened them all to the point that they could no longer wage their war against the spiders.

There was much more that I saw on my way to the surface world. But it was not just that, but any number of too-convenient impediments and hindrances that set me in certain directions. I spent years travelling underground, found and lost love a handful of times, to say nothing of friends of all shapes and sizes - often I would join a party of adventurers or wizards, and in so doing I was able to learn some of the arcane arts. Enough to learn more on my own, and to discover the properties of the satchel I carried. Too, I found, the compass didn't have the properties I thought it would. It did not point my way to the surface, but toward the places I had been - I had been not been traveling toward a point, but AWAY from what I knew. Fantastic.

I traded the compass at the next parcel of civilization for a map that claimed to lead to the surface. It was decidedly less fancy, but more effective.

It is of little surprise that I spent five years wandering before I divined the enchantment on the compass, and all of six weeks' travel to actually reach the surface after that point. Even if the map was inaccurate, it was effective.

If only things had calmed on the surface, but it seemed that everywhere I traveled, I was cursed to deal with the worst that the sun-blessed races had to offer. Bandits, rogue wizards, bandit kings, always thrown in my way, with the dregs of civilization in their wake. It meant that even if I had been enriched, there would be few places to spend the money. Fortunately, the tome I'd gained helped with something more permanent; knowledge.

I missed the underground, to be terribly honest, but it was good to feel the sun on my skin and to see the sunrise.

(For the love of- would you people stop calling me Muscle Wizard?! What do you mean, you saw me cast Fist?!)