When I went out to meet Kirk, he had me doing a warmup this time, then drilled me on combat rolls and taught me how to stand, then a few basics on how to grapple.

Enlisting one of his friends, they grappled and he demonstrated how to get out of choke holds, how to push opponents off you, how to get out of several different types of arm bars, leg bars and the like, then he drilled me endlessly, showing me how to practice on my own or with a partner. Several of the other new fishes also practiced with us and he began to correct us all and demonstrate to them.

He was actually a good teacher, better than most of the others that were giving instruction. There was a knack that some people have at explaining things in ways that make sense, and is easy to follow and he had that useful skill that was part of his laid-back personality. We took a break for lunch and I was dismayed at my swiftly dwindling credit supply.

After lunch we stopped off at the bank where he had me deposit everything, then pull out a single two credit token. Not really understanding what he wanted me to do, we walked over to the edge of the wall where a large group of new fishes were standing, packs over their shoulder. He led me to the side where there were piles of gear and the like, had me purchase a long line of rope and a sack for my two credits. He wound the rope over my shoulder and tied the sack to it. “Ok… this isn’t going to be easy, but try not to die fishie…” He grumbled and pointed at the long line of people forming up.

“If they tell you to run… run dammit! Don’t try to stick around and fight stuff!” He yelled over his shoulder as he walked back in the direction of the training yards.

As the line grew shorter, I saw people in armor forming small groups as they looked over gear, sending people to purchase rope or a sack if they didn’t already have the two items. “Get rope before you come along! We will be climbing and moving along cliffs! Hurry! We leave in five minutes, and if you’re not back from the bank before then your left behind!” He called and then I found myself in front of the man who had spoken out.

He was a short, compact fellow in boiled leather protective clothing, and reminded me of the grizzled veteran Fenwick players I had met. He carried only a short sword and small round shield with a wicked looking spike on it, and was decked out in bandoliers of gear and equipment. He was wearing a proper climbing harness, and a hard hat with a little lamp on it.

He stopped when he studied me and shook his head before digging in his pack and handing me a couple of carabiner clips. “Take these and keep them on the end of your rope and stay clipped onto the leads at all times! Always maintain three points of contact!” He instructed, raising his voice into a shout as he glared at others behind me.

As we left the tall white glass walls surrounding the hub, I let out a gasp. The hub was surrounded by rocky cliff walls of stone that thrust the hub high above the land far below. I could see forests, a mesa and set of badlands cutting through them far below us, thousands of feet with massive waterfalls feeding them streaming out from the cliffs of the Hub. The various types of walls formed into several distinctly different winding mazes around the hub, all with fog shrouding the tops, making it difficult for me to see them clearly.

We passed through some sort of shimmering barrier at the gate and the leader pushed us into a trot as he glanced warily around.

“We need to keep moving fast! The critters watch for us leaving and we are now on borrowed time until we are attacked! Move it!” He bellowed and we began to stream hastily along winding paths cut into the stone.

There were railings along the cliff to grab on to but at this point it was wide enough for us to travel two abreast as we hurried towards a set of ladders. “Pick it up fishies! You don’t want to be monster chow do you?” He screamed and pointed towards creatures crawling up the rock face towards us. My breathing began to come in gasps as I began to strain for breath.

“We need to make it to the outpost before they get to us! Move it!” He bellowed and my heart shuddered, and pounded as I saw horrible deformed, long limbed creatures with curved claws gripping the rock. They moved quickly with deliberate speed, snarling.

One of the men raised a hand crossbow and snapped off an expert shot, nailing one of the closest in the skull. It fell silently spinning into the void towards the far away ground below.

Our leader pointed towards a rough fortification built into the cliff face, I saw the glint of metal off an arrowhead before a volley lashed out at our pursuers, causing them to scramble for cover, hissing and howling at us.

We dived into the fortification, and a round white slab of broken glass was pushed into place along a deep track until it was secured with a metal bar. “Ok… now that was the easy part…” The leader said with a relieved chuckle.

We began to travel down a massive cave system. It was pockmarked with the ruins of some ancient city. Metal beams, and fallen pillars lay everywhere. Once we were deep in the ruins, he halted us at another manned barricade as he stopped to talk with a set of guards. They pointed us down a side passage and the group moved forward until we were looking down into a giant chasm, the broken remains of the city spread out below us revealed in shadowy definition by glowing light from massive crystals along the walls.

“Clip yourself onto the leads and use the lines to get to parts of the ruins. Fill your bags with whatever looks interesting, or particularly shiny. Those of you who know what to look for instruct the others! GO! We don’t have much time before we draw attention to ourselves and get swarmed.”

I clipped my coiled rope to a lead line and made myself a crude harness with it, wincing as my hands were chafed. The air was damp, and I could hear the rushing flow of water around me from nearby waterfalls. There were a dozen people in my group and we slid down the lead line we had chosen together, each of us stopping to pounce on parts of the ruins.

I kept going deeper. The closer I got to the nearby rushing water the stronger I felt, as if power was flooding into my veins. I didn’t realize it was drawing me in until someone yanked at my line and shook his head. It was the sandy haired girl with a scarred face, the same one I had seen on my first day who had laughed when I had argued with Kirk about my training. “Don’t even think of going deeper! You want to get us jumped early?” She pointed towards the depths and shuddered.

“Just look around here, and hurry!” She growled at me as I let some line out from my shoulders and climbed along the ruins, trying not to slip on wet rock or moss. There was quite a bit to sort through in massive scattered piles of wreckage, and I frowned as I gazed over the very strange looking ruins.

There were a lot of demolished machines of some sort, they looked slightly familiar, as if they didn’t belong here in Endaria, nothing like the nearly medieval, steampunk theme the game had going on. Looking around I thought about what could be valuable, and I began stuffing my sack full of anything interesting.

The spot I had landed on was a partially destroyed street, cobbled stone and wrecked machines lined it. The machines had wheels and I crouched down to examine one with interest. “Weird… they are rubber…” I mused as I pried open a hatch in the machine. I used a piece of metal I found, lying next to it as a makeshift crowbar. There was loud cracking bang, as rust broke away from the hatch and I stuck my head in. It was filled with shattered dials, and strange gauges. I could see a steering wheel or something in the front where a person could sit. The glass around the cockpit of the vehicle was aged and clouded over with grime and debris.

I looked for compartments, or lose objects and was rewarded when I found an old decayed metal box in the back of the machine. Prying it open with the same bar of metal I had used on the hatch, I found that it had a rubber seal on it. The hiss of air clued me in that the box had been watertight, or something. Inside was a few pristine devices, one that looked like a pocket watch with unfamiliar dials. I found a small belt with a strange, stiff leather case shaped to fit something, with an attached clasped catch cap on it. I popped the cap, and saw the handle of a shimmering metallic wand.

When I drew the wand, it glowed softly, the crystal at its tip shimmering in blue-gold foxfire. All along its small length lines of power glowed and shifted as if coming alive.

There was no way in hell I was going to give this thing up! Smiling, I pushed the wand back into its case where it clicked into place. I secured the clasp over the case’s protective cap, dousing the light. Shifting around in the tight confines of the vehicle, I struggled with the belt.

Putting on the belt took a while until I realized it was one of those double belts, I had seen used for swords and the like, and I wrapped it around twice, letting the wand case settle on one hip like a holster for a pistol. Rummaging around the rest of the interior did net me a few other things, but they didn’t look nearly as valuable as the belt and its wand. The robe also hid the belt nicely, and the belt seemed to shift around until I could barely tell it was there.

Sliding out the hatch, I looked around and found myself alone. That other player who had been with me earlier was gone. I looked up the rock face and saw the salvage group quickly ascending as if the hounds of hell were nipping at their heels. When I turned and looked down into the chasm I gasped and my blood froze as I saw that indeed, we did have a few things to worry about.

There was a roiling wave of creatures pouring up the wall. I let out a squeak of panic and ran for the line, not bothering to clip myself in, just ascending as fast as I could, using it to guide me along the outcroppings, my shoulders and arms burning with pain as they quickly began to tire.

I made it about halfway up before something snarled below me only a few feet away and I had to pull my foot out of the way of a gnashing claw. I screamed and channeled my power through my body and thrust it out, an arch of golden lightning curling off one arm and along my fist, catching the creature in the face. It did little damage mostly because I was far too deep into panic to focus it properly, but it startled the creature and it lost grip on the wall and fell screaming down into the chasm. This gave the rest of the creatures behind it a bit of a pause as they sized me up before they all shifted to focus on me.

My mind spun and my stomach burned with bile as I tried not to lose my lunch, I climbed with desperate abandon, my arms becoming weak, my hands so slippery with sweat they kept slipping and losing their grip. Life became nothing but me dodging creatures, jumping and climbing from ledge to ledge, now completely ignoring the lead ropes as I fled any direction that could keep me away from the creatures.

My luck ran out as I looked for another path to climb, and I was cornered along a ledge not far from the top. I could hear people calling out to me as I backed up, out of places to go. A few arrows were fired from above, downing some of my attackers, but I was trapped.

The ledge I was on disappeared into the darkness of a narrow crack in the rock. I ran for it, following the pull of rushing water, squeezing into the narrow crevice and gathering power around me. I gave a feral scream of rage and sent a lance of superheated water into one of the smaller ones that was able to fit inside the crack. It detonated in a spray of steam, sending chunks of carapace out like shrapnel into the pack clamming to climb inside. A whole pack of the monsters was sent howling into the depths, blown off the ledge.

The crack ended in a dead end I couldn’t continue down. I could hear the distant roar of water, but the space was far too narrow for me to squeeze into. I dizzily turned to fight, taking deep breaths to steady my pounding head and closing my eyes. In the darkness I found I could see somehow, and when I looked around for the source of the light I found the wand I had discovered earlier glowing with eerie blue glow.

The wand was gripped in my hands as if it had always been there. I tightened my fingers around it and somehow the wand felt like a natural extension of myself as I held it over my head. The creatures didn’t seem to like the light much so I decided to see if I could make the crystal glow brighter. It never even occurred to me to think of why it had gone from the pouch into my hand without me drawing it.

I pushed power into the little wand and it hummed and crackled with cascading sparks of power, some jumping into my body and leaving me numb, others grounding out into the creatures gathered around the entrance of the crack in the rock.

On instinct, I pointed the wand directly at the creatures and pushed some of my dwindling power into the thing. My arm and the wand lit up in blue and gold foxfire that turned into a deafening blast of energy that burst out, knocking me over and blasting everything standing in the entrance of my hidey hole into the abyss. I nearly fainted from the effort, and felt as if I had been completely tapped out. I couldn’t move to get up, my body had stopped responding to me. I jerked and twisted with painful shocks of power as energy leapt out of the crystal and into my body as I gripped the wand tightly in my fingers. Each heartbeat made my head pound and I could barely see straight as the world spun dizzily around me and my entire body tingled.

I was dimly aware of fighting outside, then a familiar barking voice of command called out to me. “Hey fishie! You alive in there?” I heard the leader call out, then I was awash in light as the man peered down at me with the lantern in his helmet.

“By the great ones… what is that thing…” He mused and I felt the wand tugged out of numb fingers. The crystal tip snuffed out as soon as it was out of my grip and I felt the draining cease. Taking a deep breath, I stood woozily to my feet, swaying and trying not to tumble over backwards as I glared back at him.

“Its mine!” I growled and he nodded handing it back to me. “Take the cursed thing, I want no part of it!” His eyes widened when it sparkled back to life, flaring with power when I gripped it and thrust the thing back into its case at my belt. The light winked out when I closed the top of the case over it, securing the clasps and he nodded to me as we returned to the ledge outside.

There were lowered ropes all around us, and I saw most of the fighters from the outpost we had passed earlier pushing back the remnants of the creatures that had been chasing me, most of the twisted things had fled, but a few of the bolder ones were still fighting on.

“Tie yourself off on the rope and we will pull you up!” I heard calls from above. I did as I was told and was slowly pulled up to the top of the chasm.

Once I was safely over the edge, I collapsed into the arms of the other players on the salvage team who were all staring at me in various expressions of shock. “Never seen anything like that…” I heard someone whisper.

“What is she… a magi?” Someone asked one of the veteran players, the one that had told me not to go deeper. She shrugged and gave me a grin.

“Well glad she’s on our side… yea… really glad!” She smiled broadly at me as I stood there shaking, tears of terror and panic still making my vision blurry as my headache began to fade.

“Form up, let’s get back topside!” I heard the leader call out and someone pushed a waterskin into my shaking hands. I nodded thanks and nearly choked when I realized it was some sort of local rotgut booze. It burned as it went down my throat, and I spat it out, coughing and hacking. My eyes were watering and my sinuses felt like they were on fire just from the fumes of the stuff.

“Ugh! What is this stuff!?” I snarled and thrust the offending beverage back towards its owner, who turned out to be the player with the scarred face.

“Looked like you needed some fortifying… sorry.” She didn’t look sorry, and I saw a few wry grins on the faces of players around me.

“Let’s get moving, before the team boss leaves us to your new friends.” She laughed and pointed at the creatures below us, they seemed to be rallying and coming back for a rematch.

We hurried to catch up and had to half scramble, half run to match pace with the retreating salvage party. They sealed off our passage with a metal barricade, but the guards didn’t stay behind to hold it, they just fell in behind us and urged us on faster. The stone outpost also evacuated when we trooped past it, running ahead to clear the way as we made our way back towards the hub.

The rest of the run went without incident and we all stumbled back into the hub, panting and covered with sweat from the exertion.

Some of the players collapsed, dragged down by their heavy packs to lay gasping on the ground. There were a few hysterical laughs from them and I got a pat on the back from the woman who had tossed me the rotgut.

“My name’s Gazzy… good to meet you.” She said and pushed me forward towards a line that was forming. I saw tables set up, and a dozen people with slates going over the junk that people had come back with as they poured it out.

When I arrived, a stern man with a pinched face looked over my meager haul with disgust until he got to the pocket watch. He stared at it for a while, turning it over in his hands before giving me a grin. “Well now, seems like beginners’ luck. I’ll put you down for ten credits, the rest of this stuff is worth six credits, mostly scrap metal. Try to focus on small, valuable looking objects like this thing in the future.” He carefully wrapped the pocket watch in padded cloth and put it in a case next to him. The rest of my haul was dumped unceremoniously into a bin that was swiftly filling to the brim from our efforts. I held in my complaints, knowing it would do no good. They would pay whatever they felt like, and I doubted I was in any place to argue with them.

Kirk was talking with my new acquaintance, Gazzy, and he was staring at me intently as they shared the rotgut between them, taking long pulls. They both grinned at me when they saw I was glaring at them.

He approached, pushing the booze back to Gazzy as he came forward and slapped me on the shoulder. “Well, sounds like you had fun.” He smirked and I heard a chuckle from Gazzy who stumbled off, back towards the chow hall. Most of the salvagers were heading off towards the bank or the chow hall, in clusters, talking animatedly.

“You could have warned me!” I snarled and he just laughed. “Honestly, did you think for even a moment that this would be easy?” I sighed and shook my head. This was Endaria, and I should have known something would try to rip my face off the moment I stepped out of the safe zone.