Entry 1

Dereth. What a place. A land of opportunity. A land of death and destruction. This place is so different than back home in Ispar. I came here through a portal that showed up in the middle of our house. It ended up taking my entire family to Dereth. I can say I am not lonely here in this frozen place.

For a little family history, my brother Blade was the firstborn, and of course chose the path of nobility. He was a minor noble in Ispar; he was studying to become a Great Knight, under Felix Swordcutter. He has always been so kind to me, when anyone made fun of me Blade was always there to back me up and show them his sword and title. Now Ash and Amber I have no fondness for, which is weird. Being the closest in age to them, none of us got along. I guess it was sibling rivalry. All three of us were trying to show father who was the best at what they did. But father didn’t make it into the portal with us, I wish he was here to give all that advice and support. I fear with us gone, and mother in care of the Gods, he has nothing to live for. I wish I could go home to Ispar and say goodbye to him.

This place is not like Ispar in so many ways. Back home women were not that strong, we were under a set guideline and could not revolt and take a stand for ourselves. But here in this place, we could fight, we could hunt! That is what drives me to stay!

By profession I am an Archer, but I dabble a little in Item Magic. I consistently fiddle with my bow, making advancements and changing strings, let me tell you what happened on a trip to Qalaba’r one day.

I had planned a great family hunt so bring everyone closer, but before we went off into the North end of the Glenden Woods, I had to find some Broadhead arrows. I had heard that some of them are in a great city down south called Qalaba’r. A desert town, I had always enjoyed the warmer of climates, and this snow was driving me mad, so I packed for my journey. I put on my Silver Chainmail Shirt, my finely crafted bracers, and some Reedshark Leggings that were given to me by my brother Blade. I slung my quiver of arrows around my shoulder and donned my Yumi. Heading east out of Glenden Woods, I passed many Drudge camps, quickly and quietly putting arrows through their hearts, I attacked at a distance, many of them didn’t even know where the arrow came from that struck them through the abdomen or limb. I was halfway to Cragstone, when I came upon a middle-aged woman, chasing down a Veteran Reedshark. That’s right, chasing down a Veteran Reedshark! What a powerful women that must be! She donned a bow of a unique nature and let a strange arrow fly true. It struck the Reedshark in the belly, and it fell to the ground wincing like the 3-legged dog that it is! This woman, just paused to take out the beast’s teeth and continued walking. A ran up to her and announced to her that my name was Artemis Firestorm. She looked beautiful but a little shy. She introduced herself as Lilithia. My eyes popped out of my head! I exclamied to here that my sister Amber and I have been searching for her since he read the legend out of the Glenden Woods library. She laughed and smiled. I acknowledged her as the greatest hunter in Dereth. She was modest saying that she is only but one of the few mighty warriors in Dereth. I asked her to teach me some of her trade of making bows and arrows that shot so straight and flew so true. She showed me how to resin up the string, so as not to make a sound when it is snapped and, how to carve out a straight shaft of arrow from some strange stick she had in her pack. I asked her if she used Broadhead tips or Frog Catch. She laughed and pulled out some Reedshark teeth and some Auroch Horns and carves out some jagged arrowheads with her knife. She told me that the best arrowheads were off of animals and using metal was not the way of the Ranger. She then told me she had to leave and was off into the wind. I tried to follow her but she was so fast! I stopped and just watcher her run.

Just then a pack of Blood Shreths came upon me. I was not prepared and ran off into the woods. I saw them just standing there waiting for their next victim, and I put Lilithia’s teaching to good use. I enchanted my bow and my armor. Pulled back my string and let an arrow fly true. Upon impact it killed the shreth! I had put the arrow right through his neck. The other two were charging at me fast, I notched another arrow, and shot at the shreth coming at me, and hit him in the arm. He bit at the shaft, no doubt he was in pain. Then another one in the abdomen made him fall. The last shreth came running at me, I put an arrow into his leg before he got to me, I decided to take him head on instead of running. He came up and bit at my leg. Even the tough hide of a reedshark, cannot stop the biting power of a Blood Shreth. Blood rushed out of the wound, and I felt lightheaded. Just then an Arrow out of nowhere flew out and killed the shreth, piercing him in the heart. I looked in the direction of the shot. I saw a woman waving, then running off.

I pulled the arrow out of the fallen beast. It was a reedshark tooth arrowhead, in the shaft was the Letter L, carved into it. I put it in my pack, healed my wounds and continued on to Cragstone and eventually Qalaba’r.

The Family hunt was a huge success and all of us started getting along much better. The arrow, from Lilithia hangs of the wall of my room. It is a symbol to me now. Not knowing if I will ever see her again, I vowed to myself, to seek her out and thank her oneday for being an excellent teacher and showing me the path of being a Ranger.