Not far to the east of the settlement, close to High Moon* on that night.

Gal stumbled onto the land from the sea with the help of a hatchling. The Old Lizardman Chieftain had lived eighty-two winters as the head of the Swamp Gas Tribe. The swamp they lived in produced an array of poisonous gases that most of his tribe were immune to. The poison that was running through his system from the blade that Sars used when the explosion knock both of them into the serpent filled water, it must have been one of the few that his body and a cure poison potions could not cure.

He set into motion a plan when Sars, came to him the other day. The warriors killed in the raid from his tribe were the old and sick. They all volunteered to get revenge upon the death of his wife, and the theft of several hundred eggs from the Clutch. It took several years of finding out the truth and the loss of many spies to learn that Sars was behind it all. Soon Sars would learn what revenge was all about.

Sars pull himself out the water to the east of the settlement of the soft ones, with anger boiling in his gut at not destroying them the first time out. They had over sixty warriors and a holy one. And now we are less than half! Another third was too injured to fight.

Upon seeing Gal moving weakly in his poisoned state, he had the urge to blame the old one for the troops he sent for being older and weaker than his, the fact that he was the one that took Gal's tribe future from them. All that remained were the old and a few young warriors. Rumors had drifted through the swamp of the Clutch of losing their women to monsters. Over the years the theft of their eggs and the missing people had taken their toll on the tribe.

Sars turn to one of his bodyguards. “Get all of our warriors from the Clutch. I want them here one claw mark from sunrise!” Sars snapped at one of his bodyguards.

Looking at the others, “The old fool is going to back out of the raid. Kill any of the bodyguards you see.” Seeing that the poison was working its way through the body of the old fool, he almost smiled. Soon he can walk into Gal's Clutch and tell them that the soft ones killed their Chieftain, saying he was named his successor. “Surprised the old one was still standing.” His guards nodded.

The old chieftain stops and whispering into the ear of the young hatchling. The hatchling ran back and dived into the water. Turning around, the old chieftain moved up to where Sars was waiting. The difference between the two tribes was that the Swamp Gas Tribe were smaller, while his tribe had black spots and immunity to most poisons. The Black Claw Tribe hands were black up to the elbow, and they were beefier than all the other tribes. Stealing the eggs from other Clutches allowed them to become slave labor. By placing the eggs in their Clutch, it would enable them to gain the defenses and ability of the tribe that stole them. Looking over the bodyguards around Sars, he saw two with spots, knowing Sars no longer worried about hiding them from him. The whole point of attacking the soft one was to build up some reputation with the other tribes, with the hopes of stealing magical items. Now that was about to be destroyed by Sars’ own ego. He could not leave halfway through the battle. So he would be forced to send all his warriors in to secure his reputation. Even if he won, he would still lose in the end.

“Chieftain Sars,” Bowing his head respectfully, and looking at the ten warriors behind Sars, he coughed up some blood.“I will soon be with my mate you had killed a few years ago.”

He chucked as he saw Sars eyes narrow. “Did you not know that we all knew you were behind the death of my mate and the theft of our eggs?”

Sars feigned surprise and dismay. “You think I would have anything to do with that? It must be the battle and age making you delusional.”

“Oh, I know you did it. One of your sons told me, don't remember his name but it took him two days to die. He was weak like his father giving up the information after only an hour. I have to say that was a bold plan to weaken my people so you can in a few years walk in and take it over. Don't worry, none of my people will kill you while the raid is going. If you had noticed, I loaned out my people to you before you announced the raid. I had ordered all my people back to my Clutch. The raid is now all yours because our tribe never declared a raid.”

Tossing an arrow at Sars' feet. “Oh, I found this on one of your dead warriors. The same arrow that was used to start this feud with the soft ones. I sent one to each of the other Chieftains, where we found it and what tribe is carrying it.”

“You won't live to enjoy this, Old one. After I deal with the soft ones, I will slaughter your people and take your eggs. They will be raised to fight the other Clutches. I will then rule over all the swamp, you and your tribe will become nothing more than sea serpent bait.” Sars bragged, slamming his trident into Gal's chest. The old one smiled as the light from his eyes faded away.

Sars turned to one of the bodyguards, “Kill the Hatchling!”

Pointing at one of the others, he continued. “When we assault the soft ones, destroy as many building as you can. Avoid the warriors first, when all the weak ones are killed, then kill the warriors. When they find all their hatchling dead, they will leave. Most of all the Hearthtree must be cut down and destroyed so they can not rebuild. Destroy it, and we destroy their Clutch!” Sars said.

The Grassland of Fólkvangr.

A tinkling of laughter floated through the flowery summer air. Sitting up, I recognized Fólkvangr, land of the dead. Frigga ruled over this place. A waiting place for nonwarriors like me to wait out their timer to respawn.

“So how you die this time, a lizardman's trident, a magic bolt, or a claw to the neck?” Eir said, plopping down next to me in the grassy meadow, the sound of birds singing all around them.

I took a deep breath and let it out. “None.” I felt embarrassed. “I missed your company and decided I needed more time to get to know you.” I smiled meekly at the giant of a woman next to me.

She broke out laughing, and after a few moments, she brushed a tear from her eyes. “Hey give a fella a bone here, I was trying to be sincere.” I said, pretending to be hurt from her laughter. “Am I on a long time or the short time waiting to return ?” I inquired about my respawn timer. Last time I was here, it took longer to get processed. Mostly they were worried about my mental health.

“Short stay this time, since you were here the other day. You got a hundred and sixty-one minutes before it will be time for you to go back. And I cannot tell you what is going on at the settlement. I figured you would entertain me with the tale of how you died.” She patted me on the shoulder.

“As you know, we are under a raid by the lizardman tribe led by Sars. Ann was able to get his name through an Inspect of his stats. I woke up a few hours before the end of the raid by a water bolt slamming into the tower I was sleeping in, knocking me out of bed.” I said.

“So you died from the tower collapsing on you?” She was interrupting my story.

Holding up my hand laughing. “Hold on, who’s telling the story?”

“Go on, Oh great bard of the north.” She laughed at him.

Three hours earlier in the first tower of Safehaven.

“What the hell!” I pulled myself off the floor and bolted to the door that led out onto the lowered drawbridge of the tower. Another large bolt of water slammed into the building. It almost knocked me off the drawbridge from the spell slamming into the building. I spotted the lizardman raising his staff to point again at the tower. I summoned a fireball, flinging it his way as he fired another bolt. The two spells slammed into each other, creating a burst of steam that covered everything between us. I leaped off the steps as another bolt of water slammed into it, throwing me several feet through the air. I brushed the screen aside that was letting me know I took ten percent damage from hitting the ground. Readying a Flare, I spotted him moving my way as an arrow slammed into his side. The creature turned, readying another bolt of water to cast at his attacker. My spell fell short, only to slam into the ground next to him, knocking him to one side. It did minor damage and allowed an arrow to miss him. Getting to my feet, I let loose another Flare only for it to be negated by a water bolt. Changing tactics, I cast Fling Stone. A small stone rose from out of the ground, and I flung its way at the caster, slamming into its chest as another arrow pierced its back.

Congratulation! Dag, a Lizardman Shaman Fifth Circle, has died!

Looking around, I spotted two more lizardmen running through the settlement. I glanced at the morning sunlight as it was hinting itself on the horizon. Being slightly distracted, I nearly got skewer again by a trident. Casting light into the lizardman's eyes blinding it, I rolled to the right and pulled out my mace, slamming it into the creature’s backside doing double damage. I knocked him three feet away from me as the secondary effect kicked in and stunned him for a few seconds, which allow me to run up and slam the mace down on his head. This time, the stun did not go off. He twisted around and batted at me with his armor spike tail, flinging me back a few feet and knocking my health below half.

About that time my elemental slammed into him and started pounding on the warrior. Groaning from the pain and seeing that I had a bleeding status, I pull out a healing potion, drank it and tossed the empty away. I felt the wound in my side stop bleeding and start to heal. With my health back above half, I chugged down a mana potion and look for the other lizardmen I had seen earlier. After a moment, I found him being set upon by both Hans and Frida. They were holding their own against the warrior. I turned just as

my elemental died, and casting a Flare, I finished it off, again swiping the prompt aside.

I was taking a few moments to cast another Elemental and siccing it on Hans' lizardman to help them, not trusting the accuracy of my Flare. I was afraid I might hit one or the other. Heading toward the east gate, the smell of burning flesh reached me. Seeing several dead lizardmen all around on the ground, I climbed the stairs. The men-at-arms were dumping a large cauldron of burning fat on a large group of warriors that was scaling the wall. Those not burned by the oil were sliding off the wall.

I spotted Harold Stonethrower loading his crossbow. “Harold! Where Ann or Kari?”

The dwarf pointed south toward the sea, along the wall. I could see more people fighting that way. I decided to help out at this spot to push back the enemy and guard the gate. I began casting one fireball after another into the oil covered lizardmen below, until about thirty yards along the wall on the creek side was nothing but an inferno. Grabbing another mana potion, I drank it down, feeling the dizziness from the rush of power filling up my reserves. I checked my status only to see I was at thirty-one percent of my health. I was already getting a headache from using too many mana potions. I staggered down the wall while checking my pouches and bags, and realized I was out of potions. The sun was peaking over the horizon as I started to panic, knowing it was going to make it harder to see the enemy as they come at us with the blinding of the sun.

I was nearly knocked down as a zombie lizardman ran up the stair from the settlement. It leaped off the wall on to three of the enemy, knocking them into the waters of the creek below. Glancing back, I saw Damon waving at me and turn to cast a black energy bolt into another lizardman. The twins Hyi and Byi were throwing bottles of the stuff at the thing doing some significant damage to it. The lizardman staggered and fell over the edge of the wall into the creek. They high fived each other and waved at Damon before throwing more vials over the wall.

The battle on the wall waged for another hour, and at one point I saw several of Kari's people die for every ten we were killing. At one point, the gate was breeched. It became a nightmare of spells, axes, and screams as we fought. If not for Hans and Frida, we would have lost more people. Several of the enemies got through. But it became more about stemming the tide than worrying about a few that had gotten through. Somehow in the lull, the sound of battle stopped around the broken gate. We saw the lizardmen running away or diving into the creek off the bridge. Numbness from the battle was about to fill me, I felt panic starting to fill my heart when the sound of a horn blew from deep in the settlement. My first thought was Hearthtree.

“Hurry Jack! There is a lizardman running toward me with an ax!” I heard Mesa-la in my head.

Glancing toward the Hearthtree, I spotted the lizardman darting around one of the Hovel, cursing myself for taking a dwarven race. I ran across the settlement only to get about thirty yards away from the lizardman. It was about to bring an ax up to chop at the tree. I skidded to a stop while casting Fling Stone on the fly, only to miss him, but by luck, it slams into the ax he was about to swing, knocking him off balance.

Kari stepped out of the Hearthtree, casting a spell. From behind me, I felt a piercing pain in my backside which caused me to fall forward on to the ground. I twisted around to see a look of horror on Ann's face as everything went white.

The Grasslands of Fólkvangr

“So you got shot in the back by Ann, so it was friendly fire, shit happens,” Eir said. I paused as I shook my head no.

“Not my back,” a tint of embarrassment flare on my cheeks, “my butt.”

Eir didn't stop laughing for several minutes. “Oh, what a 'tail' that will be! No 'butt' about it! I guess you got the point!” She was laughing some more while wiping tears from her eyes.

“Through?” I pretended to glare at her.

“Oh yes, not wanting to make it a sore point.” She grinned at me as she got up, “I have to go. Your time will be up in over an hour from now. A Viking ship is floundering to the northeast, and I need to head that way.” She faded away while waving at him.

I frowned, “Wonder how the raid ended?” I mumbled to myself.

*High Moon is considered Midnight by some creatures.