I sat there around my fire in the cold air of the night. My sword lay beside me and I was intent on keeping my eyes peeled on the fire. It took me quite a while to warm up after walking all day in the woods near the local town of Never-winter that I had been staying at. 
          As I sat there, it was quite noticeable that the air around me grew colder and thicker with an opaque fog. The wind howled and whipped through the trees with such ferocity that I grew fearful for my safety out in what felt was an on coming storm. The fog grew so thick that I had to leave my camp so I wasn't caught off guard by raiders or beasts looking for a meal. 
          My feet began to move, and as I walked, they grew ever tiresome. I knew that I must keep walking, but that fog was dragging me down. It took all of the power inside of me to keep moving, when the fog began to lighten around me. I began to see trees and other plant life when out cried a voice that sounded to be in distress. 
          " Hello?!" cried the voice, " I-Is any o-one there!?". As I grew closer to the voice, it began to sound unnatural. Being a wood-elf myself, I was used to the harsh and yet melodic voices of my kin. This voice was more...reptilian. It sound gruff and scratchy, like if a snake had a cold. And yet, he ( I thought the voice belonged to a he) sounded scared. I felt the need to help whoever this was, and t make sure that they were okay. 
          " Hello? Do you need some help?" I called out to the voice, who for the time being, belonged to no one.
          " Yes! H-Hello! P-Please can you h-help me?" The voice called back. I moved to the voice and when i saw who was speaking, I was both shocked and awed to find that I was correct in thinking that the voice was reptilian, for before me stood a tall white dragon born. 
          " Well hello there! What brings you to this neck of the woods? My name is Varis Siannodel." I extended a warm hand to the man. His armor was muddied and it was obvious he had recently been in a fight. He took my hand and shook it hard with a smile on it.
          " H-Hello! Finally someone in this god forsaken wood! Odin praise you my dear sir. My name is Freddie Mercury!". Freddie shook my hand a little too long, and I think he realized this a little too late, when he pulled his hand back quickly with a nervous grin. " I got trapped in that damned fog and and couldn't find my way out! Thank you so much." 
         I expressed a warmed welcome and offered too help him out of the fog and woods, which he gladly accepted. We began to travel together to the west of our position at the time when we heard what sounded like voices coming from a nearby clearing. We approached a couple of trees near the clearing a stealthily made our way withing hearing distance.
          "...telling you! I heard footsteps! You gotta believe me!" One of the voices spoke. Freddie and I looked out at the clearing and found three men bickering around a campfire. " They foot steps sounded loud and large! We need to find whatever this creature is!"
          I looked over at Freddie and noticed his obvious nervousness. I took me all of two seconds to realize that the foot steps that the one man heard belonged to Freddie, and that these men planned to kill him. I felt the absolute urge to protect my new friend. I wouldn't let him become a victim, not like I had become. I walked out in the clearing, ready for a fight.

          Now, don't take me for some common criminal. I went out to talk to these men and to convince them to return to their homes and abandon the thought of hunting down my new friend. It's not my fault that i probably stumbled upon probably the three most single handily racist men in all of the land. As soon as these men saw my ears, they rushed me. So of course I had to defend myself. I pulled my long sword my its sheath and my shield marked with that of my order from my back and got ready to keep my head still attached to my body. 
          Freddie rushed to join me, though I wasn't to sure how well he would hold up in a fight. He brandished a mace and shield with a watchful blue eye on the front, the mark of Odin. We locked our shields together ready to hold when our over my shoulder flew a wooden arrow, almost nipping my pointed ear. The closest man to us fell to the ground as the arrow sprouted from his chest. 
          Shocked and surprised, me and Freddie didn't really know what to do, so to make quick work of the other too men, Freddie let out a blast of icy breath that froze the men. I felt both proud and a tiny bit fearful of this newly revealed power from my Draconic friend. From the direction in which the arrow came from walked a human with a long bow etched with beautiful design. 
          I walked to the man and for the second time that day offered my hand in friendship. " Many thanks, friend. My name is Varis Siannodel, and that's Freddie. What be your name stranger?" 
          The stranger shouldered his bow and shook my hand. " Greetings fellow travelers, my name is Hugh." We greeted Hugh and we all shared stories of our many adventures. The men happened to have some rations on them, so we helped ourselves to the food that was available to us. 
          As we ate, drank and laughed with each other, we decided that the best course of action would be to find the nearest town to find out what land we were in. We found a road not far from the camp sight and began to head west along it, the fog not far behind us. As we walked along the road we came upon a gate that blocked off the road. We looked up at the gate and found a marksmen trained on us.
          " Who goes there?" He called down on us. He was obviously human, and looked rather similar to the men that attacked us earlier. We quickly conversed with each other before talking to the man to get our story straight. It was decided that I would speak.
          " We are travelers trying to get to a town. Could you direct us in the correct path?" I called back at the man. He lowered is bow and took a better look at us. 
         " Hmm, alright I can show you the way." He proclaimed. Then his face became distorted as he looked at Freddie. " What is wrong with your friend?!"
          " He's sick!" I told the man. Luckily he believed us that Freddie was just sick and would turn back to normal soon enough. He instructed us to keep moving along this road and we would eventually come upon a town by the name of Barovia. We kept walking on the path when out of the corner of my eye i saw a flash of movement. I had just enough time to turn around when an arrow flew from the bow of the watchmen and slew the wolf that just about ate my face off. I waved at the man for my thanks and we kept moving forward. 
          We stayed along the road and for a time being had a relatively calm adventure. My companions and I shared our back stories, which brought out a few tears among us. We kept walking when we heard a muffled scream off to the side. We began to  investigate the area when we saw a freshly dug grave, and from the grave came another scream like the one we had heard earlier. We looked at each other then began to dig up the grave. 
          After a while, we finished the last of the digging and came upon a coffin wrapped in chains and shaking. Common sense had obviously not gotten the better of us as we broke the lock on the chains and freed the coffin of its lid. There before us lay a man that was sickly looking a pale with a mangled beard about his face. We tried to check if he was alright when he kept saying the same word over and over. 
          " Blood. Blood. Blood." He kept on saying. A sinking suspicion rose in my gut as I checked his mouth, and I was right. He had fangs unlike any canine teeth a normal human would have. I informed the rest of the group of the condition of the man and we all took a couple steps away. As soon as we were clear a discussion began.
          " We can help him!"
          " He's a vampire! How are we supposed to help him! He'll kill us"
          " Why are we having this discussion and not getting the hell out of here?"
          All of these were good arguments, and it was eventually decided that we would help the man in the coffin. Freddie took out a bit of rabbits meat from our previous meal that we hadn't cooked and i took out a stake and hammer out of by bag in case we needed to defend ourselves.
          Freddie placed the raw meat in the vampires mouth and we prepared ourselves for a fight. The creature sucked on the blood of the meat and regained a little color in his face, or as much color as something that is undead can get. He began to rise a started to float above the ground, looking upon us all. 
          " Thank you adventurers for freeing me from my shackles. How can i show my appreciation?" He was a little taller than a human, but still of average height. Based on the state of his clothing, he had either been in the coffin for many years or had been a very lowly vampire.
          We didn't have any clue what a vampire could give us as a reward. In fact we were very cautious to speak words for fear that the vampire would twist them and use them against us. 
          " Reluctant to speak huh? Ah well, I'll just give you what i can then." He turned first to me and handed me an amulet. " To you, my dear elf, I give my amulet of protection. This will protect you from evil spirits of all kinds." He turned to Freddie and handed him a ring with a white gem stone. " For you young Dragon born, I give you my ring of concealment. If you so choose, you will look human when you wear this ring." He finally turned to Hugh and smiled. " And for you sir, i offer the gift of immortality in the form of a little bite!" He flashed bis fangs and we all took a couple steps away.
          " I will not be taking any type of gift like that creature!" Hugh exclaimed at vampire. The vampires grin turned into a small smile but those fangs were still there.

          " Fine. If you will not accept my bite, then I shall give you another gift." He took out a small blade and jar and cut open his palm and squeezed his blood into the vial. He topped it off and handed it to Hugh. " Should you change your mind and choose to join me in my afterlife, just drink this." With this he flew off and left us standing in shock and awe.  

          We started off on the road again. I dawned my new amulet to protect me, as Freddie dawned his new ring. Instantly he looked human enough to pass as one. He was about the same height, but he no longer had the scales, snout, and tail. He still had a muscly build and his armor fit well, though he was completely bald save a small beard on his almost smooth face. I felt happy for him knowing he wanted to be human to avoid the persecution of being a Dragonborn. Hugh seemed a little miffed that he really didn't get a good gift, so we promised him full access to the next bout of loot that we came upon.
          The road narrowed and it became nothing but a dirt trail. We could see the town up ahead when from the side of the road we saw a man. We decided to ask him if this was the town that we had so long been adventuring to find. As we approached the man, we noticed a detail about the man that you wouldn't have noticed at first glance. He had a knife sticking out of his neck. Being a medic, I rushed to his aid, only to find my hand going right through him.
          " Oh, that wont work, this knife doesn't come out. Don't worry, it doesn't hurt anymore." The man said. I noticed he had pointed hears like mine, except that his were slightly smaller than mine. The amount of blood on his shirt and the fact that there was a knife sticking out of his neck made it pretty clear, this man was dead. 
          " You're dead! How are you here?" Freddie screamed at the ghost.
          " Yes, I am dead. Though it looks like you all are not!" The ghost said with a grin. He flew high into the air, then sailed down into the body of Freddie. He thrashed around uncontrollably, convulsing as if he had the falling sickness. I ran to Freddie's side just as the convulsions stopped. When he opened his eyes, they were no longer his. Freddie's eyes were a harsh blue. These eyes were a deep brown. " Oh, I'm really gonna like this new body." he said in a voice that was a combination of Freddie's and the mans. 

           I jumped into action immediately, pressing my new amulet against the chest of my Dragonborn friend. He began convulsing again and the spirit took flight out of his body. He flew around a bit and then decided to settle inside Hugh, who began convulsing the same as Freddie. 
           I repeated the process with Hugh the same as I did with Freddie. and the spirit took flight once more. He began circling us, looking for an opening to posses one us. I jumped in front of my two compatriots, not allowing the ghost to get to them. 
          " Stop!" I screamed at the ghost. The faintest trickle of an idea began forming in my elvish brain, one that i could already tell i was not going to like. 

          " And why should I?" replied the ghost, " I can do this for eternity. You adventurers can not. Once you all tire out I will be able to take whom I want, and then will be free of the life of a spirit!". At this my ears perked up. 
          " I'll make you an offer! Allow us to help you find your body and free you of your earthly ties!". I didn't know if the spirit could be reasoned with, but I was just dumb enough to try.
          His teeth shone with the ghastly white glow of a ghost, and he nodded at me. " Alright Mr. Elf. You have yourself a deal, but here are my conditions. I get to stay inside of you until you find my body, and if you don't find it in forty-eight hours, your body is mine." 
          I didn't exactly have much choice, so I agreed to the ghost's terms. If you, dear reader of this guild's logs, haven't realized this yet, I am not one much for common sense. The spirit took the invitation given to him and flew into my body. 
          Having a ghost in your body the same time as you are is probably the most interesting experience I have ever had in my 200 years of life, and with the way my luck was going, I was sure that I would have much more interesting experiences traveling with this motley crew. We headed out immediately as the ghost entered so we could track down the body. It just so happened that it didn't take more than a day to find it. 
          We collaborated on where we believed the body was, and came up with that his body must be near the town since he was most likely a resident. We traveled back in the direction of the town and decided to check the woods right outside of town. What luck did we have that we found a semi-freshly dug grave in the area we searched.
          Now, we aren't grave robbers, so we had to pull out all the stops to make sure this is the grave of our ghost. Freddie prayed, Hugh checked the land and I tried to talk to our resident spirit, who was not even in the least bit helpful in determining if this was his grave. After much deliberation and bickering, we decided to just up and dig up the grave.

          We started to dig the grave when we heard the rustle of bushes behind us. We all turned around and there stood four men with different type of gardening tools and a murderous look in their eyes. I would say digging up the grave had pissed them off. The ghost shivered inside of me with anger anger and fear, though I wasn't quite sure how I could feel his emotions. 
          " It's them!" He screamed in my head. " Those are the men that killed me!" He was so angry that he flew out of my body and flew straight at the four men who fell back in fear. 
          " You!" One fumbled, " We killed you! You should be dead!". This was all the opportunity we needed. The three of us entered the fray and began our assault on the men. Freddie and I took up the front line because we were the most equipped to take a hit from these assailants, while Hugh stood not far behind us and knocked an arrow to fire. 
          Chaos broke lose from the start. The four men ran straight for us and managed to plow straight into me with their full force, knocking me back and scratching my arm with one of their rakes. Freddie to that chance to bash the one who hit me with his mace, caving in his skull. Hugh let loose his arrow, which just flew over the shoulder of one of the men and embedded itself into a nearby tree. One of the men attacked Freddie, but their tool merely bounced off his shield. I took my chance to attack the closest man I could, bashing him with my shield and cutting him open with my long-sword. Hugh let loose another arrow, which hit its mark right between the eye of the man who attacked Freddie. The last one ran away from us so fast that I was positive he had sprinting boots on, but that didn't matter. Hugh pulled out a dagger and threw it at the man, hitting him directly in the spine.

          With the battle coming to an end, we picked up where we had left off and finished digging the grave. When the work was over, we found not one rotted corpse, but two. One of a man, and one of a child. This sickened Freddie so much that he had to step away so he didn't throw up the rabbit we had earlier. The ghost came over to me and flashed a calm shade of blue.

          " Yep, that's me. And the other body would be my son. I remember, we were killed for being part elf." At this we all choked up. Killing a man was one thing, but killing an innocent child was different. He had done nothing to those men except be different. I took a look at the town, and realized I had my work cut out for me. I saw a tear run down Freddie's face. 
          " Well," I started " There's your body. I hope this gives you some kind of closure." He stared down at the grave with a morbid glow. He opened his mouth speak, when something stole the moment. The sound of horse hooves rang out in the woods near us. With this sound, the ghost flew back into my body and radiated fear.

          " Please sir, don't let them take me" He whispered to me. As he said this, three black riders came over the hill, flames falling from the mouths of their horses and the very shadows of the trees stretching to touch them. The reached our position we all took a few steps back from these monsters.

          " Give us the boy!" They all said in unison, their voices cold, harsh and raspy. The darkness flowing from them became suffocating, and they repeated their sentence over and over. " Give us the boy! Give us the boy!"

          " Please Mr. Elf. Don't let them take me!" The ghost said in my head. I looked over at my allies and we had a quick conversation with our eyes, and came to the conclusion that we would not be giving the ghost to the riders. Nobody deserved the fate that the riders gave to the souls they collected. 
          I presented my amulet forth and yelled at the black riders. " Be gone from whence you came, evil beings!". A pulse emanated from the amulet that sent the horses of the riders into a frenzy that sent them running for the hills. Our group cheered and embraced each other, and then shifted our gaze to our spirit friend.
          " Thank you, my friends. If not for you, I would be on my way to the worst possible afterlife. In order to show my appreciation to you all, please help yourself to anything on my body." He then turned his side and shielded his eyes. " I see it boys. The light. It's so beautiful." He walked in the direction he was looking and disappeared from our vision.

          As promised, Hugh got first grabs from the loot. He took all he wanted, and then Freddie was up next. He reached down and pulled put a red cloak. He tried it on to see if it was his size when it fitted itself to his body which began to shimmer. All of a sudden he looked like a Dragonborn again. He tried to pull it off, but the cloak was stuck to him. 
          He began to freak out, so Hugh and I calmed him. We convinced him we could find a priest in the town that could break the curse, which calmed him at least a little. After the other took their fill, I had little left to loot save a few gold coins, so I pocketed those. 
          We turned our attention to the town and started off towards it. With the amount of chaos we had already experienced, we were skeptical how it would go. Though, with little other options, we traveled into the town of Barovia. 

          We entered the town we had so long been trying to enter. It looked run down and positively a ghost town. A few people walked among the buildings, but they all drooped and dragged their feet like the weight of the world rested upon their shoulders. A town probably couldn't get ore depressing. With our luck, of course the excitement didn't start until we got there. 
          " Help! Please help us!" Someone called out next to us. We turned to find a little girl. She was about 10 years old and had short black hair around her shoulders. Behind her stood a little boy wrapped in warm clothing holding a little teddy bear. " Please help us misters! There is a monster in our house!"
          We walked over to the girl and knelt next to her. " What are you talking about little one?" Hugh said to the little girl. She had tears in her eyes, which were filled with fear. 
          " There is a monster in our house! You've got to stop it!" She was pulling on Hugh's sleeve and jumping up and down. Her brother behind her was sniffling and trying to contain his tears. Brave boy.
          I took a look at the near mansion behind them and then back at the children. I just couldn't let them be in such fear as to be afraid to go into their own home, so I decided to go in and check it out. I got up from squatting and walked towards the house, rusting the boy's hair as i walked past. Freddie and Hugh followed my lead not far behind. 
          " So, we're really doing this?" Hugh commented after looking upon my serious face.
          " It does seem like a pretty haunted house, Varis."  Freddie commented.
          " I can't let them cower in fear out here. We've got to check it out." 
          At this they looked at each other and shrugged. We walked up to the doorway and prepared ourselves for a fight. We burst into the house and found...nothing. It seemed like a normal house. We decided to start looking around. 
          The house seemed like the average mansion you'd find in any land. It was rather regal in the decorum, and it had fancy paintings of the children we met out front and what we guessed was their parents. I looked out the window in the living room to check on the kids, but they weren't there anymore. Odd, but I'm not sure if I was surprised or not. 

          " You guys find anything?" I asked the group.
          " We haven't found anything yet." replied Freddie. Hugh nodded in agreement, then walked off to search down the next hallway. We followed short after, and searched a few rooms. Most of the rooms on this floor were for storage, but we didn't want to take anything. We went back into the main hall and up a flight of stairs. On our way up we heard the click-clack of tiny feet. We turned a corner and found several skeleton mice charging down at us. 
          Freddie and I charged into battle while Hugh fired an arrow at one of them, which shattered a mouse on impact. We used our maces to bash apart the the rest of mice on the stairs. We made short work of them. Once we were finished, we continued our search. 
          We started searching rooms on the second floor, but they all turned up empty as well. We came upon one room that looked like a small study. The walls had book shelves and there was a singular desk in the center of the room with a wooden chair. A forest green rug covered the center of the wooden floor. On the desk was a silver sword with with inscriptions on it in a language I didn't understand. My lack of common sense got the better of me and I picked up the sword.
          " Hi there! Come to die have you?" The sword said, and proceeded to fly into the air with my hand attached to it and trying to kill all of us. 
          " Varis! What are you doing?" Freddie yelled at me, deflecting on of the sword blows off of his shield. The sword was going insane, muttering a battle hymn and chopping at my friends. I tried my best too look around to see if there was anything to stop the sword from losing its mind, when I saw a sheath over by desk.
          " Guys!" I yelled at the others," Grab that sheath quickly!" I used all of my strength to pull the sword down and hold it in one position. They rushed over to the desk and grabbed the sheath. I was straining, but held strong as they slid the sheath upon the sword. Like dead weight the sword dropped to the ground. I took the sword, now sheathed, and strapped it upon my back. The others gave me disapproving looks.
          " What? After that I deserve to keep this sword." And with that I walked out of the room. The others didn't put up much of a fight, but they also didn't look to happy about it. We walked on and searched more of the second floor. Most of it had no significance, until we reached a room near the end of the hall we were walking in.   
          The room seemed normal, but nothing could fool Hugh's eyes. He walked over to a wall next a book shelf and began examining the books. Freddie and i just sat back in amazement of the pure dexterity and speed with which he found a book that wasn't really a book. He pulled on the book once and with a loud click a door opened in the wall. We proceeded to give a slow clap for the archer as we looked into the the newly opened staircase. We started to descend the stairs, and behind us the door slammed shut.
          " Well," Freddie said, " nowhere to go but down, eh?". We kept moving down the stairs and eventually made it to the bottom, after about 5 minutes of descending stairs. We didn't know where we were, but we knew we were far down. The light was dim, far and few between, so we basically had to feel our way around. Lucky us.

          We felt our way through the labyrinth that was in front of us and came to a small corridor with three other halls other than the one we just came from. We walked in the the center of the small room when we heard several moans and scratches coming from one of the halls. We turned in that direction and found three ghouls charging at us.  
          " Shields!" I managed to yell in time as Freddie and I formed a small shield wall shoulder to shoulder against the sides of the wall, stopping the ghouls in their tracks. Two of the three hit our shields with full force, but we managed to keep them back. The third was stuck behind the others, and almost looked disappointed that he didn't get to fight any adventurers. Hugh fired an arrow into the one pressing against Freddie's shield. It screamed at him but it was still very much alive. I took my shield and bashed the one in the face and stabbed my sword into its gut. It tried to scratch at me, but its claws hit my shield. The one on Freddie's shield managed to reach across and scratch up his arm. He screeched out in pain but he managed to held strong. 

          It was Hugh that finished off the ghoul stuck on my sword. He fired an arrow which embedded itself the head of the beast. It screamed and shouted and then fell to the ground dead. With it's spot open, the third ghoul took it's place and began attacking me. Freddie took the opportunity of the first ghouls death to finish off the one attached to his shield. He reeled back with his mace and bashed the head of the ghoul in with his mace. It didn't have time to scream as he ended its miserable life. Now, with two of them dead, we focused all of our power on the last one. I decided to end it there and now. 
           I looked into what i believed were the ghouls eyes and smiled. It looked worried of what I would do next. I proceeded to take my fist and slam it into the stomach of the final ghoul, and cast inflict wounds. We watched the necrotic magic flow up the top of the ghouls head, it screaming in pain the entire time, which was rather hard to watch. Just as the final tendrils of dark energy reached its face, an arrow flew past my head an ended the ghoul. The battle was finally over, so I proceeded to treat the wounds of the group. 
          Once I was finished tending to our injuries with a little bit of healing magic, we moved on from the corridor. We decided that the path the ghouls came from wasn't safe so went off the opposite direction. We came upon a small room with two stone boxes. We decided to open the boxes and we found what we couldn't believe. In each of them was one of the children we met out front. As we starred at their bodies, their spirits appeared next to us.
          The girl came over to us and said, " Thank you sirs. By finding us, you have freed us from the eternal torment that this house has put us through. Thank you so much." Her brother gave a speedy nod and gave us a thumbs up. They both turned around and walked off, disappearing as they went. We all looked at each other and continued on in our travels. With this hallway cleared, we decided to go down the final hall. 
          The final hall led us to a set of stairs that descended into a huge room. At the end of the room was a doorway to a room with a large Dias and it was surrounded by water. We entered the room and stood upon the Dias. Immediately, the door to the room closed and about 20 people appeared out of thin air surrounding us. One stepped forward among the others.
          He looked Freddie directly in the eye and said, " One must die!". The other people joined in on the chant and began screaming at us. " One must die! One must die! ONE MUST DIE!". They all just yelled and yelled at us.
          Then as if he understood something we didn't, Freddie got down on his knees and started praying to his god. Hugh and I stood watch. The apparent cultists didn't seem to be getting any closer, but they wouldn't shut up. After a couple minutes of this, Freddie stood and with much vigor he yelled at the cultists.
          " Be gone, evil beings!" He yelled. Then all at once, the chanting stopped,the cultists disappeared, and a door to spiral staircase opened up at the back side of the room. We cheered and gave each other friendly hugs. We waked as a newly formed team up the stairs and out into the open, where a chest now lay before us. 

          We opened it up and it contained money, a staff which oozed a red liquid, and a helmet which was inscribed Draconian symbols. We took this as our reward for the cleansing of the house, which when we turned around back around, was no longer there.
          With this we began to walk again through the city, when from off to our left, walked towards us two young men. One a sleek haired scruff looking shooter by the look of his flintlock, and the other being a semi-short half-drow in long dark robes and carrying a rather ragged looking book. The half-drow came up to our group and introduced them.
          " Hello there fellows. My name is Erdan Amastacia, and this is my companion, Drey." By the looks of these men, I could tell they were adventurers the same as us. I didn't know it at the time, but life was about to get a lot more interesting.