After breakfast we gather outside the North gate where Justin shows me how to join their raid group as a separate party. As I do I see icons appear for each of the others in the upper left of my vision. I mentally group them by tanks, archers, clerics, and mages with Nora’s mage icon made slightly bigger to make it easier to focus on. The others exclaim as they see the size of my mana pool.

Justin grins and says “We may just make it after all.” Everyone’s mood improves, but I feel a chill run down my spine as I realize how much they are counting on me. We go into the rabbit area to practice targeting. Justin will select a target, which then appears as an icon and can have different color outlines. He says typically only three different targets should be selected at a time, otherwise it is too distracting. Multiple creatures can be grouped into one target. We practice quickly changing focus between targets. Target icons and colors are assigned to groups in our party to focus on, which is basically me in one group and the Silver Thorns in another. Justin is very skilled. When I ask he says they were all taught a lot about this before entering the Starter Area, but there are many more advanced techniques to learn.

We quickly work through all the rabbits before moving on to the goblin area, which I never went to. The goblins spawn in groups of eight to twelve, which makes it a little more challenging. Still, with our levels there is never any real danger. I typically cast fire dart and then shadow step behind the group, which allows me to enter stealth again to get the bonus for attacking from stealth. As I shadow step around the goblins they charge at me effectively running in circles, while the rest of the Silver Thorns pepper them with arrows and spells. We typically kill them so fast the tanks aren’t getting much combat time. After an hour of that, we switch to a more standard configuration with the tanks in front to pull the goblins to them, while the healers keep their health up and the rest of us use ranged weapons and spells on them. I even take a turn as a tank, with my higher level and skill with a sword I can hold my own. However, I lack the area affect skills like battle cry the tanks have, which pull the goblins to them. We continue practicing until noon and then all of us hit the bath house before getting some lunch.

We find all the shopkeepers in the Tavern and we have an impromptu party. I give Cal a hug. I will miss our talks on his porch. I look at the Captain and he frowns as he sticks out a hand making it clear a hug is unacceptable, which of course makes me want to really give him one. But I control myself and stick with a handshake. After we stuff ourselves with food and drink we all relax and chat for an hour. No one is in a hurry to leave and Justin doesn’t seem concerned with delaying our timetable some. Finally, he does motion for us to leave and the shopkeepers walk with us to the North Gate of the village and wave as we walk to the Starter Area boundary.

Justin hits the boundary and we all prepare ourselves with weapons in hand. Justin accepts leaving the area and the world shimmers around us. The air is suddenly hot and humid and the summer heat hits us. The forest around us thins out and the terrain changes to rocky ridges and ravines. I think this is a great area for an ambush just as a horrible pain strikes me. My health plummets to 24% as all the Silver Thorns beside me collapse to the ground. A quick glance at the party icons shows everyone at 24%, which means they all crossed the 25% health limit and passed out, since their endurance isn’t close to 50% like mine. I start to see people emerging from the shadows around me. I quickly pick up Nora from where she collapsed. Justin had ordered the group’s layout, which happened to put Nora by me. I summon a fireball and cast it at the movement to my right and shadow step to my left with Nora in a fireman carry. The Temporal Shadow Step really comes in handy now. I get two seconds at the Beginner level to consider my next shadow step as I chain them together, but to everyone else it seems instantaneous. This gives me time to quickly pick another shadow before anyone can react. Justin thought most people seeing it would think I had Shadow Teleport instead of Shadow Step, which will likely cause them to overestimate how far I got away.

I move from shadow to shadow, after ten jumps I enter stealth, and continue jogging as I pull a mana potion out and drink it. I wish the starter area had something better than mana potions that restore fifty mana, but I will take what I can get. I continue to use a shadow step to cross ravines, streams, and other obstacles while heading almost directly north. The outpost is to the north west, but the direct route may have scouts and ambushes setup. After the ten-minute cool down on the potion expires I take a stamina potion. Twenty minutes later both my mana and stamina bottom out. I set Nora down and rest. When my mana regains half, I cast heal on Nora until she is at 100%. Her eyes flutter and open shortly after that. I place a finger on her lips as she starts to ask a question. Next, she starts using the raid chat.

Nora: What happened?

George: We were all hit with a blight spell that lowered our health to 24% and you all passed out.

Nora: You didn’t? Your endurance is over 50%?

George: Yes, that was part of my training.

Nora: We can talk about that later. Where are we?

George: We are a little over two miles north of the attack. I was going to head north ten miles until we are north of the outpost and then turn west two miles and then south to the outpost, which will be about a mile. That will take us into the outpost from a different direction that hopefully is not being watched.

Nora: Very well. First, we must both leave the raid group and then rejoin our own party, so that no one can use our current raid group to track us.

We both leave the raid group and then I send an invite for Nora to rejoin my new party.

Nora: Let me know when you are ready.

George: It will take six minutes to reach full mana and then another minute to heal. I would feel better if we were further north. So, let’s go and we can rest in another mile.

I lead the way and grab her hand occasionally to Shadow Step quickly past a terrain feature. We go another twenty minutes and have a break. I rest a full ten minutes and heal up before we go. This allows us to make much better time as I use Shadow Step more frequently.

We stop around dinner time to eat under a large rock overhang that both offers some protection and shade from the evening sun. We have covered about half the distance to the outpost. Moving with care and constantly stopping to listen for pursuit is slowing our progress. While we are eating Nora and I discuss what we are going to do in more detail.

Nora: We will not know who in the outpost is compromised. We can’t even use the Gate without help from a member of the Mage guild.

George: From talking to Cal before there should be a temple to Vera at the outpost, right?

Nora: There will be, but they won’t get involved in something they see as purely secular.

George: I think I can convince them to help. I have a Mark of Vera.

Nora just stares at me blinking slowly before continuing our conversation.

Nora: You are just full of surprises. Well with a mark you should be able to convince them to help. They should have a teleport circle setup in the temple which should allow us to get to another city easily. I must admit I didn’t see how we were going to make it.

George: We will make it. Then we will see if we can’t find a way to help the rest of the Silver Thorn’s.

Nora seems pensive when I remind her of them, but then perks up.

Nora: You are right, we have already accomplished more than I thought possible, so I won’t give up hope yet.

George: Great, well let’s get going. I was hoping if we get there at twilight I can easily shadow step us into the outpost.

We both dust ourselves off and continue to make our way north until we are past the outpost. Then we head west until we run into a ravine about 100 feet deep and sixty feet across, which is further than my shadow step can cross. Standing on the edge, looking to the right and left, the ravine stretches a good distance north and south. I check my map and see a wide stream, but it does not indicate the ravine it rests in. I rub my chin in thought and poke my head over the edge to look before pulling back.

George: I think we can make it. I can shadow step down the side of the ravine and then up the other side. Even though it’s vertical it should be fine if I jump to the next shadow before the two seconds are up.

Nora: Ok, let’s do it.

Nora holds out her hand and I quickly grasp it and lean over the edge to jump down to the first shadow. It takes eight shadow steps to make it up to the top of the other side. After that we must go another mile west and south to reach the edge of the forest. We crouch down in the bushes while we look over the outpost. I see a patch of tall grass here, a bush there, an old log, which all leave spots of shadow I can use to Shadow Step up to the wall and then into the gate. I am just not sure what’s on the other side of the gate. We talk it over and decide we don’t have any other choice. I should have enough mana for four more steps once we are inside. I take her hand and we flash across from shadow to shadow. Inside the gate there is a wagon, a lamp post, a doorway, and finally an alley. We then head to the church as we discussed, thinking this is the safest place to find out what’s going on.