By Nysa

"The Gulf of Gunthak," Cen said to me as we sat opposite each other trying to warm our hands over the small fire in the Coldain camp, and our gullets with Cen's never-ending supply of Ol'tujim's Fierce Brew.

The day previous we'd spent hunting whooly rhinos and tundra mammoths in the frozen lands known as the Eastern Wastes. It had been freezing cold, but the hunting was good. Using my Snare and Panic Animal spells we were able to take on a large number of the massive beasts one after another, as "fear-kiting", as it was known, allowed us to attack without being attacked back. Around mid-day we'd grouped with a friendly human Necromancer and his skeleton pet. He introduced us to "aggro-kiting" and we were able to kill ulthorks and frost giants en masse. We'd garnered a lot of experience and decent loot.

We'd made our camp here in the Coldain camp, amongst the pale-faced and quiet dwarves. They didn't mind us sharing their fire or shelter, as long as we kept to ourselves.

"What about Gunthak?" I asked him, wondering if he'd put back one too many brews. It was doubtful - Cen's alcohol tolerance was renowned.

"We've always talked about going there," he said. "We should do it."

Though the hunting and loot was good and plentiful here, the thought of leaving this numbing cold was a pleasant one. I was used to the humid warmth of the Qeynos Hills and the Karanas, as was Cen. I opened up one of my large backpacks and fished out my huge leather-bound atlas. We'd spent some time in the Plane of Knowledge library copying down the Broken Skull Rock maps in the belief that we'd travel there soon. We had yet to do so, however.

"It's quite a journey to get there in and of itself," I explained to him as I flipped through the pages. "We've never done much exploring on the continent of Odus, but this would certainly afford us an opportunity to do so."

"So shall we?" he asked, already packing up his things.

I glanced up at him and grinned. "I'd like to stop by and check out the Kejekan people in Stonebrunt Mountains. I've heard much of their spiritual ways and have always wanted to visit their mountaintop village."

"Sounds fun," he said as he stood and belted his sword to his side. He was already ready to go. I got the hint. I packed up my things, pulled my Acrylia Studded Cloak tightly around my shoulders and cast Spirit of Wolf on us both. Running swiftly through the snow, which had just kicked up outside, was going to numb us both to the core. I was glad to be leaving the frozen wastelands.

We made a quick run to the Plane of Knowledge and went our separate ways, as was our custom, to prepare for an adventure. This usually entailed going to a merchant and selling any loot we had on us, stopping by the bank to change out heavy coin or pick up any necessary equipment. I always went and visited my good friend, the merchant Jaren Cloudchaser, to buy supplies to make a quiver full of arrows. I had learned early on it was not a good thing to be deep off in an adventure and realize you were out of arrows. It was one of the main reasons I'd taken up the skill of Fletching, of which I was now a Master. As a last stop, before I met back up with Cen in front of whichever portal we needed to take, I always picked up two stacks of some type of liquor to surprise Cen with. He never knew which spirit I'd bring along, and it gave us something to do during down time.

After purchasing two more stacks of Ol'tujim's Fierce Brew, I met with Cen at the portal stone that led to the Erudite city of Erudin. We would later learn it would have been quicker to take the portal stone for the evil city of Panieel, on the dark side of the Plane of Knowledge; for now we zoned into Toxxulia Forest and made our way to Paineel and through it. None of the evil creatures there bothered us much beyond snarls and hatred-filled glances. Following the map, Cen led us to the twisted and Kobold-filled caverns known as The Warrens and we emerged into the inky blackness of the forest that sat at the foot of the Stonebrunt Mountains. It felt good to be out in the damp and warm night air; only the slightest breeze could be felt here, coming off of the ocean. As we wound our way up the steep mountain, though, it got colder. Though nowhere close to the frost-biting cold of the Eastern Wastes, it was still cold enough for snow to cover the sleepy mountaintop village of the Kejekans - a Kerran-type cat people who lived a quiet and sedate life way high above everything on Odus. We spent our time conversing with the learned cats and playing with some Kejekan children under a tree.

On our way to the docks, we hunted a few pandas and granitebacks that were still tough enough to give us experience. There was no wait for the ship and we soon found ourselves standing on the rough wood that made up the Gulf of Gunthak.

We had decided, from information overheard in the Plane of Knowledge, that we would hunt pirates on Dulak's Harbor. The experience and loot was said to be above par. Still, as always, we were nervous about being in a new place and we spent a few moments roaming around the Lighthouse area before venturing over to the dangerous beach and caves that would lead us to Dulak. The harbor was an interesting place - a myriad of races resided here living the rough and tumble life of brigands and seafarers. It was shocking to us both to behold an Erudite female clad in skimpy cloths, a golden belly chain around her shapely hips, and a hoop through her lip. Her eyes were dark and her coffee-colored skin was inked with large and malicious tattoos. I harbored no doubts that this rogue Erudite had been scorned by her own proud people who usually spent their lives spell-casting and seeking knowledge while clothed in brilliant, austere robes.

We made our way stealthily to the beach and, other than being attacked by a skeleton, without incident. My Camoflauge spell kept us from being seen by the large troll lookouts, and the strange plant life in the caves.

After coming to Dulak, we spent our time near the zone line, pulling mercenaries and brigands to us and cutting them down. They were tough foes, and we had to sit and heal up between them but the loot was nice and the experience even better. Feeling braver, I Camoflauged us once more and we out into the shipyard. Cen found a small, unused dock behind the ship known as Stormwave that held only three creatures - an ogre and troll boat scrubber, and a gnome boat engineer. We snuck up on each and had the dock cleared quickly and without major incident. It was amusing to note that the little gnome engineer was a much tougher fight than either the ogre or troll. We decided this was our spot. When one spawned, we killed it and sitting here for over an hour we both gained much experience. Cen looted a sapphire off of one body and I came away with a shining fire emerald.

During a small downtime period, I pulled out my spellbook, perusing the notes I always made on the blank back pages.

"Cen," I said, pointing to a note scrawled in my small hand, "I should've gotten a new damage over time spell last level - hits for 30 points per tick over Stinging Swarm, which only hits for 13."

"We need to get it," he said to me over his brew.

"You'll never believe where we need to go to get it," I told him.

He arched an eyebrow and took another swig.

"The Gulf of Gunthak."

He laughed so hard he choked on his brew. What were the chances? Our first trip out to Broken Skull Rock and it just so happened I had a spell I needed out here. I had jotted down the name of the individual who should have it - a Guadric Stormwynd.

We made our way back to the Gulf, and found Guadric near the Lighthouse. He was looking for nifilik's, for scientific reasons, and offered a reward if we brought these to him. I was only able to track two nifiliks on the beach area, and no more. One had dropped one of the items we sought, but we were still short. We sat for awhile and I, exhausted with killing pirates all day, began to doze off. I was awakened by a shake from Cen telling me that the two nifiliks had popped again. I hoped one of them had what we needed, because I was ready to make camp and too tired to do much more killng.

Luckily, one of them did. A burst of excitement gave me more energy and we ran to Gaudric and gave him the items. After learning the new spell, Swarm of Fire, we went back to the beach and killed a poor skeleton to try it out. That was the last of my energy. I went back to the Lighthouse, giving Cen a hug, and decided to camp there overnight. Cen, ever the energy bug, left to return to Natimbi and do some more fishing before he ended his night.

All in all, it was quite an eventful day of adventuring.