Our enraged Lysette begged to differ, and quickly bested an unwary trainer three times her size with the aid of magic, holding a knife at his throat. The horrified templars threw her out.

* For the menfolk, let us interrupt the story here to let it be known that Lysette was considered especially attractive, with wicked grey eyes, and that if anything her slightly curious spine and gait made for unnatural allure!

Instantly, her disgraceful behaviour was the talk of Midgaard. Her parents were half-driven out, half choosing to go to escape from their own daughter. Lysette was no weak spirit - for these events would certainly have crushed a weak spirit already - but she was an impulsive 15-year old, and homeless, and yearning for adventure. She sought to deal with all of these problems in one stroke by falling in with mercenaries.

Mostly older, and mostly men, these skeptical bandits who hid in Haon-Dor forest were nevertheless quick to see that Lysette's talents were far beyond the scope of her age, and that they could profit by them. She joined in robbing, trapping, bounty hunting and ultimately - murder. Secretly, Lysette was somewhat bored with the company of these people. Her older thirst, for knowledge, was hardly satiated out here in the woods.

On the Day of Deception in the Month of the Battle in Lysette's 17th year, a most fateful confrontation took place. The mercenaries were returning to their hideout at sunset, when they were ambushed by a huge force of Midgaard's guardians. Lysette fought furiously, slaying many by sword and by magic as her companions fell all about her. It's said she walked waist-deep thru the dead. Until!.. one berserking guardian rushed and cleaved entirely thru her left knee with an axe, sending the limb soaring.

In a fountain of blood, Lysette bore herself away by magical flight, tried to stem her amputation wound and waited in a grove, expecting to die. She screamed for a day and a night at the guardians, who had first rejected her and her dreams because of her body, and who had now returned to destroy her dreams and her body, and put her thru this agony of agonies.

Now, nobody will ever know why, but Lysette survived her wound. Perhaps it was the strength of the curse she rang out upon the guardians on her deathbed. She woke with one useable leg, crawled snake-like to drink from the forest muck, and vowed to reject the world of flesh which continually shunned her in life. She would embrace magic entirely, and perhaps those people who were, like herself, 'crooked'.

* Future readers note: In ages to come, the variations in the shape of the spine exhibited by Lysette would come to be known as a medical condition with the name of Scoliosis.

Lysette remained hidden in the forest for some months, regathering her strength. Then she set off into the outlands. She honed her combat abilities on all manner of beast, accumulating much of the magickal metal known as 'mithril'. In her amazing way, it is said she even slew a Mountain Giant single-handedly, without her left leg! Her magic Truly was to be Feared.

It was the outland dwarvish community who first set eyes upon her anew. She had a bizarre request they'd never known before - that they forge her a replacement leg of mithril. And yet they could find no fault with this strange young woman, who exuded real power, and the task was a challenge for them. And so they did it. And Lysette could walk again as she had before. Better than before!

'Truly the flesh is the prison of the weak' - Lysette D'Eblis

The girl's cunning was a hundred-fold what it had been when she had first been outcast from Midgaard. So now to slip back into the city unnoticed was a simple task. Such fools! The libraries and arcane forbidden centres of knowledge became her new homes. She drank up information about the most esoteric magick like an unquenchable vampire.

Many are the naive pages who now recall that in their youth they supplied endless candles to the chambers of Lysette D'Eblis, She who would read for days and nights without moving. One of these pages plucked up the courage to ask her why she read ceaselessly. To which she famously replied, with a sigh...

'Because life is an inherently disappointing experience'

This strange remark has perplexed, entertained, and outraged many scholars and priests in the decades since. It has meant almost nothing to the average citizen however, who would never know what this word 'inherently' means, and who can enjoy Lysette's line just because it sounds funny!

But it was at this time in Lysette's life, with her mastery of the arcane arts complete, that she began her most serious battles. With the guardians of Midgaard, with wayward demons she bound to her will, and with anyone else who crossed her! It's said she unlocked the secrets of immortality for herself, and thus that she ultimately succeeded in her war against the flesh. Bounty hunters claim to have slain her, only to see her walking about again within weeks. How much of this is true cannot be known. But Lysette continues to inspire fear in authority, whilst drawing the secret admiration of the citizenry.

-Finis-

STORY AND INSTRUCTIONS

_Wishbringer_

A great drama is now unfolding, which will soon involve you personally and see you risking life and limb. It all began when an envelope was delivered to the High Tower of Sorcery, and the Grand Mistress read the letter inside:

'Deliver the Magick Stone to me before the moon sets or you will never see your cat again! ~ signed The Evil One'

Without even knowing who her foe was, the bewildered Grand Mistress surrendered the stone (against her better judgement) to an invisible envoy. Chaos, her favoured cat and a most mystically powerful animal, was returned to her. But at what price?

The 'Magick Stone' is one of the stones of dreams, better known as Wishbringer. They are kept safely locked away by some of the higher magical figures in this land and others. Superficially, their powers always seemed strange and banal. The stones were able to grant various minor wishes. For luck, for darkness, for rain, for freedom etc... peasant magic, relatively speaking. But it was also thought: 'better safe than sorry'. Any instrument of wishing must be powerful indeed, so the stones were locked away.

The Mistress, immediately suspecting that the above-signed 'Evil One' (surely his name is a jest?) has a specific purpose for the stolen stone, dispatched her own aerial servants to hunt for any information about Him, or the missing stone, or any other strangeness. What came back were strange and disparate reports, of shadowy figures asking about things called 'ley-lines', and of a league of powerful creatures that seemed to be plotting something!?

LEY LINES n. 1. 'Alignments and patterns of powerful, invisible earth energy said to connect various sacred sites, such as churches, temples, stone circles, megaliths, holy wells, burial sites, and other locations of spiritual or magical importance.'

The Grand Mistress sat down with her pet Chaos, a pair of reading-glasses, a map and a calendar, and then, from the garbled mass of information she had received from her servants, came up with this:

The Evil One, whoever he is, has stolen the Wishbringer and is using its power to reveal the locations of ley lines. The Mistress notes that a very rare and powerful alignment of the solar system occurs in 10 days time, and will then last for a few more. By occupying sacred sites connected by the ley lines during this time, the Evil One can temporarily harness extreme astral energies. For what purpose?.. Well, with a name like The Evil One, it can't be good.

The Evil One has an alliance with nine powerful beings (both natural and supernatural) who will occupy the sacred sites connected by the ley lines.

PLAYERS GOAL: Search out and destroy all nine beings, preferably before the astral alignment begins in 10 Meat days.

To help you, the Mistress will grant you the use of her other Wishbringer. Provided you have the correct material components, will be able to invoke its minor wishes.

Just before we discuss the wonders of the Wishbringer stone...

In answer to something TheJediMaster asked me.. no, you're not supposed to be a hero and go solo some monster. You will get your arse kicked and take %1000 as much time. That's disastrous in the face of a time limit.

This quest is %100 cooperative in nature. Group, groups, delegation, all that wacky stuff, that's what you'll need to succeed =)

__Wishbringer__ is a powerful and magical stone. At the start of the quest, one of you will be handed the Grand Mistress's remaining Wishbringer. You may and should freely pass Wishbringer amongst yourselves throughout the quest as necessary. With Wishbringer in your possession, you can make 5 wishes come true. You can wish for ADVICE, FLIGHT, FORESIGHT, FREEDOM, or RAIN. However you need more than the stone alone to make the wishes come true:

To wish for ADVICE, you need to have found a conch shell. This is a lasting wish.. you will continue to receive advice periodically so long as you have the shell in your posession.

To wish for FLIGHT, one needs a broomstick. Who can say where you'll land?

To wish for FORESIGHT, one must be wearing a pair of 3D glasses. Foresight lifts the veils of time and shows what may be in the future.

To wish for FREEDOM, one must first eat a toffee apple. You can nominate to free yourself from Imprisonment, or any one of your friends.

To wish for RAIN, one needs an umbrella. You will get a short-lived but raging storm, which could potentially cause someone a lot of hurt. You may not wish for rain indoors.

* Each wish may be made once. When you make a particular wish, that wish is spent and gone for good.

* Only the player carrying Wishbringer at any particular time may invoke a wish. To make a wish, you must TELL or GOSSIP your intention to Bloomer, and if you have the stone and the required additional item your wish will come true.

* You won't be able to find any of the additional items - EG. 3D glasses - until the quest begins.

* Don't be afraid to use your wishes - Wishbringer is on your side. On the other hand, don't ask for further information about any particular wish, as there is none

THE VILLAINS

A sparkling blue-green woman with a fish's tail drifts eerily in the water here, still as an unknown lake.

You behold Jenny Hanniver - in common parlance she is a mermaid. But there are mermaids and Mermaids.. This one is at least 10 feet in length, majestic and terrifying. Her strange long breasts are thrown back over her shoulders.

An enormous preternaturally gorgeous rosebush of red and the purest white fills this clearing.

Beauty in this world is quite often a cover for something dreadful, and the vampire rosebush is no exception. This ancient evil entity drains the blood of its victims to colour its white petals a full red.

A pale figure shuffles awkwardly here. His body is torn with ghastly wounds that no human could sustain and live.

The creature appears to you as a normal zombie, but you know better.. it is actually a Revenant. You've heard in ancient tales that its strength and agility are at least a hundred-fold that of any of the lower ranks of the undead.

Felicia the catwoman is crouched in the shadows here...

You behold Felicia the catwoman. She is short but sprightly, and disturbingly attractive with a lush half-animal body of tan and white. She licks the back of her hand and cleans her face with it as she eyes you.

You are dwarfed in the shadow of a colossal steel dragon. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Steel dragons are incredibly rare, which is fortunate, as they are a particularly appalling breed. Rahab is true to type; cunning, merciless, and bleakly evil. His metallic hide bears the scars of centuries of battles past.

A titanic man in night-black armor nods to you, as if your death were inevitable.

You have heard of this man - it is Jaakroth the bounty hunter, who has been known to lie motionelssly in wait for weeks at a time in order to apprehend a single victim. He is a superlative and unrelenting swordsman of no pretense.

A small bloodied girl clutching a doll is crying piteously here.

Something is very wrong. The girl seems to be an illusion of sorts, but the malevolent force projecting her image is quite real. You can feel the poltergeist brooding... Perhaps a murder once took place here.

The sight of a gargantuan black clam brings you to a halt.

It probably has a diameter of some 20 feet. You sense that this clam is no natural wonder, however. It has been enlarged by sorcery and given some instincts as a guard.. in which case it will not be on your conscience to destroy it.

Lysette D'Eblis, the Immortal Mortal, smiles tiredly and plays with lightning in her hands.

An imperious sorceress wearing elaborate ceremonial makeup and a fluid red gown. A spiderweb is tattooed about her shapely neck. Her left leg below the knee has been replaced with a miraculous dwarvish construction of mithril.

Mermaids are gentle, right? WRONG!!! This one wants to tear you apart.

She's as erotic as all the legends ever suggested. However, it is suggested that right now, you try to prevent her from killing you.

An eerily non-descript minion watches you.

It's hard to know whether the minion is even human or not. He (she?) just seems to be a vague humanoid presence.

---- A raging storm broods and broils ----

It's one hell of a storm!

THE QUOTES

Autolycus tells the group, 'i've been dead before, it's very liberating'.

[ 0 0 41 51] Datower black clam

TheJediMaster tells the group, 'I've said it before and I'll say it again. I sense a disturbance in the Force.'.

Aragorn tells the group, 'did everyone go to -666 that got killed or was that just a freak ?'.

Trickyone tells the group, 'i was blinded by a blind guy'.
Trickyone gossips 'WE CAN"T FIND YOUR STUPID SHELL'.
Trickyone gossips 'all our Foresight will tell us is "Youre all screwed"'.
Trickyone gossips 'IM VERY DEAD'.
Trickyone gossips 'Felicia alone killed 3 people in one round!'.
Trickyone gossips 'I'm outta cherry coke, and this may not end any time soon'.
Trickyone gossips 'She stared at me and my heart burst!'.

Stilth tells you, 'then why did we have to kill the beholder?'.
You tell Stilth, 'nobody said you had to'.

Dedsune tells the group, 'ow, he teleported me to the enchanter'.
Horatio tells the group, 'you big pussy, you cant handle enchanter?'.
Dedsune tells the group, 'no, I mean it's a long walk back'.

Dedsune tells the group, 'F**K you kitty, you're gonna spend the night OUTSIDE!'.

Iad gossips 'i wish for immortality'.
Iad tells the group, 'damnit horatio you ass what the hell'.
Iad tells the group, 'ok everyone meet at cat woman shes on her 9th life'.

WildChild gossips 'advice says a broomstick is on a witch .. duh'.
WildChild tells you, 'I wish I had the items need to make wishes!!!!'.

You tell Ronan, 'did anyone see the gossip about the shell on the beach?'.
Ronan tells you, 'I did...I've been trying to get people there for the last ten minutes'.

Ronan tells the group, 'hell is clean'.
Horatio tells the group, 'hell is clean? isnt that an oxymoron?'.
Horatio tells the group, 'did you tell satan hi'.

Ronan tells the group, 'I need the broomstick'.
Rza tells the group, 'sounds like a personal problem there ronan'.

Ronan tells the group, 'who has the broomstick?'.
Ronan tells the group, 'who has the broomstick?'.
Ronan tells the group, 'didn't someone get the broomstick?'.

Raziel tells the group, 'like a monkey eating cow poo'.
Raziel tells the group, 'these are the strongest mother fuckers i have ever seen'.
Raziel tells the group, 'shut up i am fighting'.

Javir gossips 'im dead!!'.
Javir gossips 'im dead! '.
Javir gossips 'im dead again!!'.
Javir gossips 'where is my body ??'.

Rza tells the group, 'we need to use that damn wish thing so we can get a lead here'.
Rza tells the group, '-554 damn u got knocked the fuck out'.
Rza tells the group, 'let's see what this rain shit is'.
Rza tells the group, 'poke her in the eye'.
Rza tells the group, 'good god 3 people in one round'.
Rza tells the group, 'my eyeballs gonna exploded'.

Horatio tells the group, 'this bitch doesnt track does she'.
Horatio tells the group, 'felicia took off 400 hp IIN ONE HIT'.
Horatio tells the group, 'lysette's blind was cured...goddammit bloomer'.
Horatio gossips 'Any Imm online knowwhat Genius did to get stomached'.
Horatio gossips 'bloomer at least put a fountain in the stomach'.
Horatio gossips 'i'll take a swipe at bloomer if he shows up'.
Horatio gossips 'The black clam goes to sleep.'.
Horatio gossips 'basically jupiter and felicia tag-teamed my ass'.
Horatio gossips 'i didnt even *see* the storm'.
Horatio gossips 'BRING ON TIAMAT'.

TheGenius tells the group, 'dear god that was hard'.
TheGenius tells the group, 'I am sooo glad here aren't death traps in here'.
TheGenius gossips 'rain his metallic arse'.

Vill tells you, 'This advice is too friggin blunt =P'.
Vill tells the group, 'blind, I'm shit'.
Vill tells the group, 'Did we stop readying ourselves before fights?'.
Vill tells the group, 'Well, Lysette's from midgaard...'.
Vill tells the group, 'let's take out jupiter for the hell of it'.
Vill tells the group, 'Felicia is a Super-Duper badass'.
Vill tells the group, 'everyone berserk'.
Vill tells the group, 'Wait... I mean, i order us to wait... I have the umbrella =P'.

Ashbury gossips 'hey Eldred is bringing tiamat'.

Khrono tells the group, 'curse this Ive searched the whole forest!'.
Khrono tells the group, 'Will anyone acknowledge my existance?'.
TheGenius tells the group, 'no'.

Khrono gossips 'Lysette is immortal kinda Don't think you kilt her so easily'.
Lysette D'Eblis gossips 'You think I'm dead?'.
Khrono gossips 'Toldja!'.

Khrono gossips 'They turned me into a CORPSE!..... I got better.'.
Khrono gossips 'hey dedsune is that silly voice telling you if its in the forest or if its in arachnos or what not?'.