The morning found a huge crowd of eternals riding out of the city, with Bob and I bringing up the rear and Maria and Dalmar leading the way.

"Twenty three very angry women, all going to live and train at a castle deep in monster country" Bob said softly, his eyes on the group of women around Maria "that doesn't worry you a little bit?"

I shrugged and gave a sort of yes no nod before saying "Probably not the way you mean it. It's not like in reality where you could kill off some leader and take his place, so this group will always have Maria, and for that matter, you and I, to deal with. And really, about the only crime we worry about anymore is murder and slavery. A single dungeon crawl gives you all the money you need, so unless one of them decides to become Genghis Kahn, there's not much else they could do to irritate us"

Bob considered my words, grinning at the sight of Maria laughing as she got the women to follow her in a rousing rendition of 'Hi Ho, off to work we go', to tease a chuckling Dalmar. We started trotting along behind as Bob said "Yeah, that makes sense. Hard to get out of reality think I suppose" he glanced over to add "but take it from me, overconfidence gets you in some pretty bad spots"

Damn, he was right. I held out a fist for a fist bump and said "Thanks"

He and I stopped at the gate so I could swing down and exchange grips with the guard Captain. He gave the large group of women riding away a confused look and asked "Lord Loser. If I might ask...?"

I laughed and patted his shoulder before saying "Off to the Forbidden Lands Captain, so nothing to worry about. We'll refrain from irritating the orcs if they avoid us, so I doubt there'll be any repercussion from riding through their lands. Tell the governor I'll be back through in a month or two to see how things are going, but to send word to Mudtown if he has any problems with eternals. Telina's paladins are in Marisian City, but can be here in a day if necessary"

He gave me a confused look at the one day thing, but did a bow/nod and said "Of course. Safe journeys"

I hadn't had an opportunity to spend time with Bob for quite a while, so was interested to hear how things had been going. He was level nine now, having gained a level during a fight with some mid-level bandits. As with the other paladins, his abilities were slightly different. The Tennant buff had allowed Bob to start with twenty in his strength, so he had been putting his points in wisdom and dexterity. I was really pleased to hear he had actually put 14 points in wisdom, rather than the 10 most of them did. I wasn't sure if it mattered, but it showed a mindset that would hold him in good stead. There's fifteen points to allocate by level ten, so he had put 9 in wisdom, and 5 in dexterity to this point. His paladin buff gained him 3 points of dexterity, something that got a chuckle out of me as I realized Telina must be involved in choosing things to match the paladins needs. With his magic items buffs, he was at 28 and 21 for strength/dexterity, something that seemed to give a real bonus over 18 in each.

"I'm immune to the AOE magics like sleep and entangle that Sienna uses, and can't be cursed or debuffed" Bob said "40% reduction in fire and ice damage, and can do the same healing spell Ariel has. The healing is the only spell I took. There was a choice when I first became a paladin. I can do blessings that improve hit damage, healing, and magic resistance in other people. It gets stronger as I level up, but I get fewer spell choices. Doesn't work on me, but right now I can cast it twice a day, and it lasts an hour. 45% increase on all of them right now, but it gains 5% per level, so the healing and magic resistance will be really strong by the time I reach level 20. Oh, and it grants double damage to the undead, which stays the same from the start"

Damned if I wasn't proud of the guy, not that I would say something so condescending, but I was. His whole skill set was protective, not aggressive, as opposed to Susan's, who was all about laying down smack. With Bob leading a team, they would be an undead killing machine, something that would be extremely useful if the that undead horde thing popped up again.

I laughed that evening to see a couple dozen people pull out pans and start working on their cooking skill while I joined my group to discuss our organization for the rest of the trip. We stood in a loose circle at the edge of the large group as Maria said "One of us with one of the teams each shift. It's overkill I know, but they need to get used to working together" her eyes shifted to me as she asked "You're pretty close to your next level right?" At my nod, she said "Well, we'll see if we can let you kill something to level up. Otherwise, just try to keep my girls alive. They're nervous as hell about finding themselves back in the capital, so do what you can to keep that from happening"

"Can do" I said with a salute, getting a chuckle from Dalmar.

"Good enough for me" Maria said, flashing me a grin before saying to the group "Ok then, Me, Bob, Dalmar, then Jake"

The large group kept anything from attacking us, so the nights and days seemed more like a weird vacation than anything else, other than me doing my potions. The orcs eyed us closely, but again, they didn't feel up to attacking such a large group of eternals. Bob and I stayed away from the women, though they didn't seem to have much of a problem with Dalmar. It was kind of fun to watch the mages practice their magic, fourteen of them tossing missiles or other spells around as they rode during the day, or stood around in the evening. When we got to the vague border with the Forbidden lands, Maria called a full group discussion.

"Ok, things get busy from here and we need to try to get all the experience we can out of it. Dalmar and Bob are our tanks right now, and with Jake here, they can take a beating without going down. If you haven't already formed your groups via invite, you need to do it now, so your experience gets shared if one of you kills something. Things will get chaotic, but I want Bob and Dalmar to do what they can to block the creatures so one of the squads gets the kill. I don't want to group you guys with us higher level people right now since it cuts down on your experience earning" she raised a hand to make sure everyone was looking, then said seriously "Some one will probably get killed at some point, but don't worry! We have your back, and Susan and Ariel are still in Marisian and we'll send a message to let them know to collect you. You guys are my family now, so I...will...take...care...of...you"

I hated to leave the horses, but agreed it would just cause problems to try and control them while being attacked by ogres or a manticore. Maria set up a rotation for the squads that would be attacking, but they didn't get an opportunity until the next night when Maria called out "Big one coming from the front!"

Maria stayed in the center, I moved toward the front, while Bob and Dalmar pulled their big weapons and went ahead of the group. The first women's squad was a four person one, with both warriors doing the sword and shield thing. We were in an area of broken forest and grassy fields, so we had stopped in a field, and watched as the creature lumbered out of the tree line toward us. It was one of the odder things I had seen so far, standing about eight feet tall with a hugely muscled, manlike form, but covered in thick fur and having huge eyes and a sharp beak instead of a nose. Dalmar shouted "Owlbear!" which got a laugh out of me as he and Bob moved forward to engage

Owlbear

Level 17

Health 230

I really had to wonder who made up this weird stuff.

The thing had a long wooden club, and began pounding on Bob and Dalmar as they blocked with their weapons and kept it from moving forward. Dalmar began yelling instructions to the first team, getting them to move forward slowly so the warriors could begin thrusting hesitantly at the owlbear. I kept a close eye on health levels, but both warriors were smart enough to have put a couple into stamina, so they had 120 each. The thing did about 60 points with the club, so the girls weren't in any danger unless it lasted longer than my mana. When they realized I could heal them as fast as they took damage, they began attacking seriously as Bob and Dalmar kind of stepped back. The two mages started sending their single missiles, four each as the warriors did about 10 or 15 per hit. It took a while, but gave everyone an opportunity to see how things would work. When it finally died, the four women leveled up, and I later found that they got a double level out of it.

A loud group discussion followed as everyone discussed the level up options, and I walked over to join Maria to watch as Bob and Dalmar got trapped in the middle and ended up being the question resource. Maria leaned in and hugged my arm before letting out a soft giggle at Dalmar's put upon look, then said "This was good for them. Zara's team did pretty good, and they'll feel more confident now, and the rest got a chance to see you won't get anywhere without friends"

She gave me a sideways look, then said "Seems like a long time since we went up against that bone dragon" I nodded, watching as Bob seemed to be explaining something to the group, then said "The eternals stuff is a pain in the ass, but I'm looking forward to having Maria's Marauders doing a fun excursion. I don't know what Dalmar has in mind, but I think it will be more fun if we keep his quest group small. Having a dozen mages blasting everything with missiles will take a lot of the fun out of it"

That got another giggle from her, drawing my own grin, as she said "Dalmar said the exact same thing. I know Bob was talking to him about going along, so we'll plan to do that" she got a big grin and added "It'll be fun"

We stood there comfortably, enjoying each other's company until I said "You still interested in being a queen?" She gave me a blank look that turned to a wary one as she waited for the punch line. I shrugged and said "Serious. Maria's Marauders gave me an idea, and I wanted to make sure you would be on board with it"

Maria wasn't slow, so her eyes went to the mass of women around the camp fires, then back to me to say "What idea?"

"A neutral force made up of eternals. Someone other than Telina and I enforcing civilized behavior on the eternals, and maybe being a force for good here"

She shook her head, turning to face me and giving me a serious look as she said "No, why are you doing this?" she stressed the you.

I sighed, but said "Because I don't want to do it. If those damn Blood Boys hadn't shown up I would have been happy to stay in my town and do dungeon crawls with you and Dalmar, but they came to the Inn" I gave her a hard look when I said Inn "If it wasn't for you and Dalmar I probably would have tried to get the empire to get rid of all the eternals, but you two wouldn't have gone for that, and I like you guys. Things are better now that I have the empire involved in controlling the eternals, but it doesn't do anything about the goddamn morons who wonder the countryside raping and killing. This group I'm looking at making doesn't have to be full time policeman or anything, just willing to help when needed. The whole knight of the round table kind of thing. Explore the world and put a stop to evil, but have fun doing it"

She crossed her arms and turned back to look at the women, her lips pursed as she considered what I had said. We didn't say anything for a while until she said "I could see it. If I hadn't had Dalmar I probably would have gotten a little crazy, and a lot of my girls could go that route without someone looking out for them. I'm not sure if all of them would go for it, and a few of them got sent here for doing some ugly stuff, but they all have good reasons to want to have friends now" she was quiet again as she sort of nodded to herself, then she asked "How would you work it?"

"I'm trying to get some of the other goddesses on board" I said "Telina thinks it might work, though she wasn't exactly thrilled by the whole thing"

That got a chuckle from her as she said "Well of course not, her man is talking about other women" she leaned in again to take my arm, but kept studying the crowd and said "Paladins. You're offering them the opportunity to get their own paladins, just like we said in Riverbend. That might work, but I'm not anyone's puppet, so I do this, I do it my way"

I laughed, getting her to look up at me with a grin, before I said "I have absolutely no doubt about that, and it's the only way I would support this. You have to be completely neutral because we're talking three or four different goddesses, and that won't work if you start showing favoritism"

"You want me to be their ruler, but a paladin answers to her goddess" she said doubtfully. I had to nod agreement, and said "I don't know. I'm hoping to work out the details with Telina. This would be a huge benefit to the other goddesses, and having you as the leader would mean they didn't have to worry about the paladins working against each other"

"I'll need something the binds us together" Maria said slowly, her eyes nearly closed in concentration "something from all the goddesses that I give and I can take away"

Oops, someone was moving ahead of me already. That made a lot of sense, but I wasn't sure the system would even allow that, though it had been fairly flexible to this point. I shrugged, deciding this one I would leave in my goddesses hands.

Three huge wolves attacked that night, and caused a bit of confusion until Maria did that aggro thing and got the wolves to chase her until we got organized. She was laughing like a loon as she ran in circles around the pack of women, three huge dogs on her heels, until Bob and Dalmar killed one as it went by, then broke into two groups to work on the other two with their teams. It was close once, when a wolf got by the tanks and took a bite out of one of the mages, but I got a heal in while the wolf was still biting, which kept the girl from dying, though she was screaming like a banshee while it was biting her. Near thing though since none of the mages had more than 60 health. The wolves were all level 13, so no double step, but it pushed both groups really close. Only one day and already had three teams leveling up.

Mid-morning we ran into Dalmar's buddies, the two orgres again, so he and Bob each took one and got beaten on pretty good as the girls hacked and slashed away. I realized while I was healing people that Bob and I hadn't done any group blessings, but decided to not worry about it until we had the groups farther along. No point in them getting used to the boost, then have to fight without it. The ogres were slow, but they did a lot of damage, which kept me busy as the new girls didn't have the dexterity yet to avoid the swings. Both ogres were level 19 this time and had close to 300 health, so it took a while, even with Bob and Dalmar hitting them a couple of times to move things along. We had another double level, so it resulted in another long discussion about choosing spells and assigning points. At one point I got asked for my input.

"I guess I would say that for mages, anything you can put in stamina you should, because being a one hit kill will cost you. I would say a minimum of 100 health, which should allow time for a heal or potion in most battles. After that, remember that the choices change depending on various things, and that the damage spells at the beginning seem to be there to entice you into following a weaker path. The fireball spell is the biggest mana waster of any spell I've seen, since its useless in tight spaces, and the damage is to widespread. Spell for spell, the defender mage is probably the most dangerous class in this world, though the ice or lightning mage would be useful in a lot of places" I paused, then said "Warriors, you have a huge number of choices, and all of them have their strengths and weaknesses. Putting points in wisdom gives you the possibility of going paladin. Even if you don't get Paladin I think its still smart since I believe it affects other things, but you'll have to risk it to see. Beyond that, do you follow in Maria's steps and go ranger? The goddess Tessa's paladin would need to be a Ranger, and you'll be in high demand, but you'll have trouble if you go it alone. Be a tank? I think there are a lot of choices in this that we never see because everyone doubles down on strength and dexterity. Personally, I wouldn't put more than 18 points in either, counting on items to buff that up. Instead, I would up my intelligence and wisdom to see what options I might get"

I liked that everyone was spending time discussing their choices, especially considering they would affect them for a long, long time. You could probably kill yourself enough to get back to level one to resort your points, but the level eight choices didn't change when you did that. So a paladin stayed a paladin, or a ranger a ranger, with the basic point requirements being pre-filled. A lot of the eternals supposedly had tried that at first and been disappointed. The only time it might be useful is in a situation like Bob's, where you get an offer to go paladin the second time around. Not something most people would risk going to level one for.

We lost our first girl to a manticore attack when it leaped over the warriors and mauled the girl faster than I could heal her. Maria ended up killing the thing with her arrows, the extra damage from her beast thing kicking in. The groups were quiet that night, but Maria stood up and did a pep talk

"Alright, it was bound to happen, and I've already got a message from Susan that she would be at Cat's spawn point tomorrow. She'll work with Susan's group until we can get her down here, so she won't lose any time leveling up" she stopped when one of the women yelled "Why not let us use those portals?"

The question pushed Maria into one of her rare angry moods, and she said "What makes you think you've earned the right to use them? Those portals don't lead here you know, they lead to Jake's home, and not a damn one of you has proven they were worthy of being welcomed into his home. You know, just because things have been hard and we're trying to make things better for you, it doesn't mean anyone owes you a god damned thing" her eyes were damned near blazing as she looked the group over and yelled "Getting bit or hit still hurts right?" at the various vague nods, she said "Damn right it does. So when Bob and Dalmar stand there and let monsters beat on them, it hurts like hell, so you better fucking remember that they're doing it because they're nice people, not because you're some damned princess worthy of anything. Instead of expecting Jake to carry your precious little asses across the country, maybe you should be volunteering to take a group up and escort Cat back here" She stomped away, getting me and Dalmar to exchange grins, Maria's passionate nature no surprise to either of us. It silenced the group very effectively though, and Maria ended up having to deal with all of them stopping by to apologize at some point. Bob and Dalmar even got some thank yous from some of the girls.

"They should be thanking you" Maria told me sullenly as we drank coffee together later. I shrugged and leaned over to nudge her shoulder with mine before saying "I'm standoffish. Back in reality people said I seemed grumpy or angry, though I wasn't really, just impatient with talking a lot. Your women are probably leery of me, and I don't blame them for it. I've always been good with one or two good friends, and honestly, I'm fine staying in the background here"

She mumbled a couple things, then grinned and said "Well, once I'm queen of the Forbidden Lands, I'll make you one of my knights. Mary will like that"

We both laughed and relaxed, with me pulling out my sketch pad to work on a drawing of when Maria went running past, laughing as three wolves were chasing her. I had done one of Telina that showed her standing in front of the courtyard arch, and a couple of Mary in various scenes, but I liked doing the ones with Maria because they kind of showed the history of our adventures. I would probably do one eventually of the bone dragon and the Lich, and maybe the gnoll king encounter, though that would be a while. The next one would probably be when Ariel went all badass on that huge werewolf, just because it was so cool. The look on the wolf's face when she slapped him into the wall was priceless. I was grinning as I sketched, realizing I was having a lot of fun in my second life.

I met with Telina in a dream that night, relieved to find myself in the Burning Mage inn, sitting at my table, and worked hard to not think about that Telina - Maria getting together thing. The goddess laughed outright as she took a seat across from me and Mary gave her an ale before blowing me a kiss and fading away.

"My sisters surprised me" Telina said "Your presence as my priest has disturbed them more than I had thought, and the ones I spoke with all stated their willingness to work together to make the Guardians of Tarinath a viable entity" I could hear the capital letters in the guardians name, making me realize my throw away description had become an actual title. Well, could have been worse.

She studied me for a second, then said "They are requiring me to abstain from any involvement in this endeavor"

That got me to lean back and consider things. I didn't want to be part of it myself, but I had kind of pictured Telina having a paladin as part of the group. So the question would be, is this a negative? Maria would be in charge, and even if we go our separate ways some day, I couldn't envision her ever being a threat to my family. Telina and I held a lot of power here, and other than the eternals, I couldn't see anyone going out of their way to make us their enemy. No, the Guardians needed me for the potions and portals, so this was a low risk decision. I looked up to see Telina watching me with a grin, making me realize she had already reached the same conclusion. That got a laugh out of me as I shrugged and said "So how do you want to make this work?"

"There are many constraints placed on my sisters and I, but the eternals are from outside, and they affect the world in ways that stretch the boundaries of what can and cannot be done" she said "when you created the potion for curing disease, you did something not allowed by the laws laid down when the world was created. But eternals are...chaotic in nature. Your will reaches into the very source of creation, and periodically you are able to...change the world laws. When I damned the assassin, I was able to do so because it was my paladin, and as an eternal she believed I could. It was dangerous, and perhaps foolish as my sisters have told me, but the act has benefitted them also" she paused to consider her words, then said "When eternals are sent here, they transition from their world into ours, with the doorway being what you call the courtyard. The courtyard lies in a place outside the world, but within the boundary of the world laws. A courtyard is created upon the death of an eternal, and it creates a hole in our laws that allows you to be reborn. This hole is how I was able to visit you when you died at the dragon's feet, but it required your acceptance, your belief that I could be there"

At her questioning look I nodded my understanding, so she said "My sisters could meet with Maria in her courtyard if Maria wished it. They would gift her with a symbol of their power that she would command. What this will be is not known to me, but I expect it will give Maria means to mark her subjects in some way. My sisters hope to increase their influence on events, and to do that they need paladins" she paused, frowning for a second, then wrinkling her nose in frustration before finally saying "I am unable to say much more about this, other than to say that it is unlikely these women could become paladins for my sisters, so they will be hoping to use this opportunity to bypass the limitations placed on us"

She sighed and leaned back as I considered what she had and hadn't said, and eventually asked "Is this something that I need worry about?"

"No" she said "there is no threat to you or our ranger in this action, but the fact that my sisters are learning to use your presence to bypass our limitations could be dangerous in time"

That got a chuckle out of me as I gave her a pointed look and said "I wonder who gave them the idea in the first place?"

We shared a laugh as she stood up and moved to the doorway, where she did her normal pause to get in the last word. Looking back at me she said "Aid Maria in her endeavors as you feel best, and tell your dwarven friend that Tarra says to speak with Forge Master Grevlor about what a weaponsmith is capable of"

Of course she left after that. I sighed when I woke up, putting my hands behind my head and looking up at the possibly fake stars as I considered how aggravating it was to be the guy who got to pass notes between people in class.