Around noon some of the other adventurers who were out and about find their way over to where we have set up camp. They seem to feel there is safty in numbers and it does seem to keep away some of the riff raff who had been trying to target either the smaller groups or the younger sets. Problem with armies like the one here are all the hangers on. Some of those are low lifes and crooks who think to try and mess with the rest of us. Though after I turned the slavers in to tiny persons, a great many left my group alone. Guess they did not want to chance learning to ride rats or the like.

One of the groups, all women I note, tells us when that shrinking spell wears off we will be in trouble.

I happily tell them it does not wear off. It's a Transformation type curse that is resistant to most dispels unless they know the trick to it. I also only use it on people who have proven to be a threat to me. So I am highly unlikely to reverse the spell.

Presently that is one group who were contemplating suicide by Skworg and a group of slavers using the Dukes army as a way to 'recruit' new persons.

Dale is happy to tell how a small group of Artimal's holy theives took offense at my learning the Skworgs one weakness. They were intent on killing me before bothering to learn that secret to. So like all the fools before them, they would likely have died. All the other adventuers agree with that. Amoung Adventurers it is common knowledge that the so called Paladins of Artimal are not true paladins, as they lack the Gods Blessings, but are also thieves who believe that all the magic weapons in the world should belong to them. So they try to take them, by theft or force. None are upset that group now resides in Tiny Town (Dale and Lenora have latched on to that phrase and use it to speak of all those under my shrinking curse.)

Me I happily tell them the weakness, fire spell, down the monsters throat, spells have to get Inside the creature to harm them.

I pull forth parts of one from my bag, giving these people an idea of the size of them. What I got looks like an arm attached to the side of a bolbous humaniod head, all grey and black and still smoking. Still that arm is larger than the average sized person. Somehow they are smaller in my memories of the event. Don't know why that is. Am getting the idea that the bag works just like the Garage bag, time stops everything that goes in to it.

Everyone marvels over the hideous thing and I let them think I teleported it from their burning Palace to here. That is better than letting them all know about the magic bag at any rate.

With all the new people around I end up sitting in the back of the wagon, 'resting'. Actually I am working out stuff on the magic bag, it's quirks and abilities, limits and so forth. I work out a duplication 'glitch' that allows me to basically make items, albet slowly, by saving them then removing them from the package. Anything that was inside a package when I saved it, regenerates or replicates in to the package. It list it as 'repairing' the item I note. Takes 5 minutes, no matter how large or small said item is. Also has to be inside a package or box to work. I end up making several packs of crackers, piles of charcoal, and lots of hotdogs, large group of heavy and light poncho's and a few other odds and ends, including everything in my coin purse (pile of lemon powder packets and coins from home) before I get to tired to keep it up. I did work out how to make boxes of stuff, by taking an empty box, putting stuff in it. Save it, take the stuff out, then every 3rd or 4th time, save it when its got several copies in it. In that way I filled a box with poncho's, of both the thin clear emergency type and my heavy duty ones. Also made a bunch of thermal bags that way to. Which I think is what wiped me out more than anything else.

End up taking a nap, though I did not mean to. Which teaches me it's using My energy to do all this. Still I got a large supply of items now that I would have run out of otherwise. Some I can sell if I need to.

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Outside, the adventurers have gone so far as to put up a palisade around their camp. Simply because they all know how some armies try and force Them in to their ranks, because they are highly skilled persons.

A discussion is made and an assistant Guild Master is chosen (read scape goat if things go south) - Against the Parties wishes the others chose Rob. Whom was asleep by that time and of course knew nothing of what is going on.

Army side.

With over a 3rd of the guards and all the high command suddenly vacant the city fell very quickly as the rank and file did not want to fight the Duke's forces to begin with. The Duke took the castle with ease, only to find it's full of now permanently dead 'undead' troops and piles of dust, that were once some kind of vampires. Of the Baron, they find him and his family in the dungeons. Kept there by a powerful Necromancer and his vampire Lts for the past several years. The blessing, that came from the adventurers camp, looks to have disrupted the Necromancers plans.

They find him pinned inside a trio of Archons, who are keeping him from fleeing or using his fell magics. The Archons will Not release the Necromancer to anyone but the Holy Man who summoned them. The 3 Archons - very high Angels - are known locally as the Lords of Light and are a bane to undead and Necromancers the world over.

The Lords have been watching the foriegn holy mage since he did the strange prayer to them "Lords of Light, Anyone there ?" Not many pray to them specifically save as envoys to other gods. So having someone Just call on them has them curious about this strange man. They want to meet him but the only way to do that was for such a blessing as he called from them. They love that he called on them to Purify the Evil from the land. It's one of their favorite things to do. This gave them the excuse they needed to actually meet him and talk to him.

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I had a wonderful dream that gave me a great idea on how to explain my 'elemental powers'. Big Trouble in Little China, the storms - they were the inspiration. I will claim that my powers come from special training, Chi powers effectively. Power of the Storms, Wind, Lightning, Thunder, Fire, Ice, and so on. I worked out in the dream how to pull that all off to. Though I wake wondering if, in this world, I could actually teach people to use these gifts the way it worked in my dream.

I stretch as I look about, slept sitting up, so not good on my back or neck. I hear the sounds of an armed camp. Lots of activity, so I suspect even more adventurers showed up, possibly others who saught the camp as a safer haven than the armies camps to.

Outside 'my' wagon I find a group of newbie warriors being trained by a couple of older veterans in sword technique. Mostly the downward swing, which I know is done to build up arm and shoulder strength.

In the distance I see another group building privies and digging a long ditch. Mages are setting up wards and scrying the region. While others are pooling their resources and working out supplies and food.

On a personal note, I get to see several races I have never seen before. People who look like elves but with those extra long ears, others who look more like the vulcan kind of elf (human sized but pointed ears), something I think maybe a goblin or similar creature, he is orange with brown hair and a pug kind of face, small sharp teeth, carrying a large bag for this fellow in a medium blue robe.

Dutch told me about robe colors during our tutoring session. Each one marks a person for being from a specific school of thought on magic. Black, like she wears, are the Night school. They venerate Nyx and the moon in the ritual side of their magic. Her people are pretty close to how I work magic really, but more ritual and less chant and blast as she put it. She understands my way and uses some of that to as an adventurer it's needed in combat, but her other magics are all ritual based. I used that to teach her a nice protection from evil charm useful against spirit types. She was tickled by it.

Blue mages usually forgo asking for help from gods. Some will of course, but by and large they are more the scientist kind of mentality. Logic and tried and true methods more often than not. Which she thought I was cause of the color of my coat. I told her that was not so. I just liked the color blue is all. I went on to tell her mages where I am from have to hide as there is a very evil religion that outlawed magic and tortured to death any mage they found. Their God was the Demon Lord I and my friends managed to banish. He Ate magic and mages using magic, he seemed to feel, interrupted his diet. So she understands color does not work in to my way of thinking.

White Robes in mages are the Celestial branch. They are mostly elementalist types and tend to be a bit arrogant toward the other branches. They seem to think they are closer to the gods than the other branches.

Gold robes, this gets complicated as some maybe mages, while others are monks or holy persons. Some holy types wear white or light blue to, but an old agreement states mages use a medium or darker blue in thier robes to keep the confusion down.

Other kinds of magic users or specialist may not wear a particular color to. Alchemist tend to dress for safty and comfort, they wear clothing that protects them from the chemicals they use. (Explains Annassa's goggles to me.)

Grey are normally naturalist mages. They use herbs and animals and the forces of nature. Not to be confused with the elementalist who are more summoner types she clarifies for me. Annassa gets confused for that type all the time cause of the way she dresses and she uses a lot of herbal remedies and such.

I am thinking on that as I watch the crowd and working out what all is going on. I get out of the wagon and wander about, watching and listening to what everyone is doing. A few people nod to me but no one stops my exploration of this impromptu fortified camp. Eventually I find my way over to Annassa, who is part of the cook squad.

"Holla Annassa, need any help ?" I ask.

She looks up and nods, "Evening Rob, have a nice nap ?"

I nod, "Did not mean to take one really. It's just been so long since I have been so active it caught up with me."

She nods in understanding, "Well what we really need is more food. Got over 200 mouths to feed and not everyone had much food to contribute to it all."

I consider, "I can let you have some of my hotdogs, um, those are the beef sausages I got. No dog in them." she grins and nods, so I pull them from my bag, making it look like I am enlarging them from 'tiny storage size' while actually pulling them from my magical bag. I give her about a hundred of them. She gives me a wide eyed look and I shrug and mention I was on my way to a friends house for a party and my job was to bring the hotdogs. The crackers I just kept for emergencies. She understands that. The fact that I also have charcoal is not lost on her either. That helps a lot to as it being winter, and wet to begin with having enough wood is hard. The way My charcoal lights up though surprises them all. I explain they have been soaked in a formula that makes them light easier. I don't know much but it's a form of special Ethynal alchol so as to not harm food cooked over them. Annassa nods, explaining to some of the others that Ethynal is made from wood pulp. Not good for drinking but good for other things, medicinal uses normally but she can understand how someone could come up with this other use. I end up helping out with the cooking. My 'fire control' powers come in very handy here. Mostly I dry the wood so we have more fuel to cook over. I also help with other 'prep type' things which are of course needed.

Dinner is kind of a buffet type deal, in which I help serve to. We cooks though 'taste tested' everything so were not hungry by the time dinner came around. Most of them liked the addition of my sausages to the evening feast. Cut up and mixed in with several dishes it gave a good flavor and everyone who wanted a bit of meat in their meal got some.

I liked that I got to talk with a whole bunch of new people and from them learn more about this world and it's people.

Learned to that little orange fellow is a Man-Kin, a kind of magical construct, mix of elemental spirit and plant being who works as a helper to the mage who made him. One of the mages told me most mankin's are made using mandrakes, but the orange one is new to them. He is from far away and actually eats nuts and berries. (and meat, I caught him with a pile of hotdog pieces his master told him to get rid of. So he was eating them.) I talked to him and he confided in me he had been something else originally but was badly injured. His master healed him but he came out bright orange. So the Man-kin thing is a story to keep others from treating him worse than otherwise. Goblin-kin are treated rather poorly by most other races. He thinks he was once on of those kinds, but can't really recall. I can understand that and I promise to keep his secret.

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After dinner I wandered around the camp a bit, met and chatted with some of the others and in general had a nice time. Commented other than the circumstances, this felt more like a scout trip from my childhood. Dale explained my people used Scouts for the group name rather than Junior Rangers but the basic idea's were much the same. Several people, especially the younger set, all agreed with my assessment.

I also comment that I am seriously out of shape, that it had been 20 years since my last adventure and being here was chaos deciding I had been seditary to long. That got some general laughter and nods from the older set. Sometimes you go find adventurer, sometimes it comes and finds you. In my case it grabbed me from in front of my house and teleported me right in to the middle of danger in the form of a class C threat, a necro-dryad, and then the Skworg and I really think if not for the blessings of the Lady of Luck I would not have made it out to here.

Several chuckle, more than a few agree and in general most state luck, fickle as it is, is what seperates the survivors from those who are lost in the end.

To soon for my taste, things break up, watches are set and most everyone else tries to get some sleep. So I return to the wagon and read and think and try to plan what I should do from here.

I plan on traveling with the group for a little while, since I am tutoring Dutch in my style of magic. But beyond that I don't know, it's rather nerve wracking as I don't know what the future holds or how I am going to live or support myself. May have to go the adventurer route just to make a living. Which means I got to get off my fat ass and start to focus myself and get back in shape. Not that I was ever in much shape to start with. Ok so I need to get in to better shape at the very least. Use some of the 'new' martial arts memories I got and try and teach myself the combat styles in my head.

To that end, I get up, clear a space and start running through the 'basic kata' that my memories have. Letting the body memory guide me, while I also work on my energy control and focus. I don't know how long I was doing that before someone interrupted me. But my sholders and legs hurt from the repetive movements.

I don't know the fellow, other than he is one of the 'watch' guards. He wants to know what I am doing and being a bit beligerent about it. I just tell him I was excercising as I could not sleep. He gets in my face and tries to tell me to get back in my bunk. I zap him with a quick static level shock to get his nasty self out of my space, "Leave me alone boy, I don't know who you are and I really don't care to. Bother me again and I will hurt you."

He growled and swung his spear at me, I unleashed the lightning blasting him over the sleeping forms and into one of the low burning campfires. His screams woke several people and brought the other guards. They learn he attacked me after trying to bully me in to 'getting in my bunk'.

This girl, in a black 'witches hat' who had been quitely watching my strange slow dance, confirms that and that he has been going around and threatening people who were up for any reason. He seems to think he has the right to tell others what to do.

The other guards inform us that they had to send him from wall duty because of that to. Thinks he is smarter than everyone and should be in charge.

The bossy one states I hit him with a spell. The girl tells them she does not know what I did, but it was no spell as there was no incantation or anything.

I grin at them, "I am a retired Holy Warrior, not some punk. The style I am trained in is called Storm Forms, I hit him with something from the Lightning Storm form as it's easier to control than some of the other forms.

Several chuckle and tell him that is what he gets for pissing off a monk.

By morning most of the camp has heard I am an ex-monk with storm fighting style and I demonstrated it on Glibert Gobson the village boor. I asked if that was like a village idiot and someone said 'sort of but the idiots are usually smarter'.