I remember when I first came to the world of Dereth. I always was a simple man, never needful of what I could not provide for myself if I could help it, and always preferring my own company. I was a small farmer in far-off Ispar. A simple life, sometimes hard, but every day rewarding.

I remember standing in my small barn looking up at a hole in the roof as big as my head.

'How on earth am I going to get up to that now that my best ladder is broken?" I spoke out loud. It was only two days ago that I had looked inside my toolshed to see one half of the ladder still attached to the hooks on the wall, the other half lying on the floor.

It was then I noticed a strange glow from one corner of the barn. It looked purple, but the colour seemed to shift and change before I could give it a name. I know I should have been afraid, but all I felt was curiosity.

I walked over to it and saw it was a glowing disk, swirling and puslating with some strange energy. To this day I dont know why I chose to touch it. I was instantly sucked into a swirling tunnel of vibrant energy, plummeting through at collosal speed. I remember vomiting, and passing out.

When I woke, I was lying on the ground next to a tall building, with a small road heading east. I headed along the road and came to a town called Holtburg, as I discovered a northern logging town on the island of Dereth, on a world far away from my home of Ispar. It was in Holtburg I discovered what had happened to me when I entered that purple glow, the same thing that had happened to thousands of others, pulled from their hometowns and dumped on this world. I also discovered that the safety of Holtburg depended on the work of others. I decided to help fight the encroaching drudges and other creatures of the world.

Many days I spent driving back the bands of raiding drudges that camped near the town, but eventually the same desire that drove me to enter the portal meant that I had to leave town and see what else there was to see in the rest of Dereth. I chose to take the west road out of Holtburg and see where I came too.

Heh, I remember that run along the road to Glenden Wood, the Hunter Shreth were huge! I moved through the night for what seemed like hours, avoiding the Banderling patrols and keeping my eyes open for Reedsharks.

It was in Glenden Wood that I had the first important encounter of my time in Dereth. While putting down the local undead population around the town, I found myself fighting shoulder to shoulder with another swordsman, a man of the Sho people of Ispar called Sho Kusuki.

We fought our way through the Glenden Wood dungeon, clearing out the foul undead and banderlings that had taken up residence, and as we parted ways I thought no more of it.

Two days later I receive a hastily-prepared message from him requesting I come to a southern town called Qalaba'r, mentioning something about Lugian gold. Well, I didnt know what a Lugian was at the time, but I knew what gold was! So I collected my things and set off for Cragstone, where I had been told a portal to Qalaba'r could be found.

I arrived at Qalaba'r one sunny afternoon. The town was of Gharun'dim design, with light pastered buildings, tiled covered markets and bright terracotta tiled roofs. As I walked along the road towards town I was assailed by street sellers and people hawking their wares, all seemed to be of dubious quality and overpriced, so I stayed silent.

I saw my new friend standing by the well in the centre of town.

'Telukin!' he cried, 'Look at all this! Isn't it wonderful? A man could make his fortune here!' he enthused.

I was less impressed than he. I raised my voice above the shouting of the crowd and said 'All I see is a lot of noise and bustle. Come, I haven't come all this way to be deafened!'.

'Ah, right' he replied, 'Come, we will talk out of town a way. I will show you to the lifestone and then we can get started!'.

I followed him out of town a way into a broad low valley, and down to the nearby lifestone.

'Better make use of this', he said, 'you will be needing it'.

I still hadn't got used to the idea of reincarnation in this world, the feeling was... uncomfortable, yet the benefits were unimaginably fantastic, the only thing that could kill you was old age.

I used the lifestone as recommended, and when recovered we headed out along the valley to a hilltop where many others were standing around casting protective spells and sharpening weapons. In the middle of the group was a green portal.

'This is a Lugian Citadel, where treasure litters the floor!' he beamed. 'It is hard inside, but trust me, the rewards are worth it!'.

'What are these Lugians?' I asked.

'Ah, you will find out soon enough!' he replied, and leapt into the portal. All I could do was shut my eyes and follow.

For what seemed like an age I battled the gigantic Lugians in their own stronghold. The rewards were greater than anything I had seen before, from healing kits of great potency to heavy keys used to unlock chests containing valuable treasure. I grew strong testing my skills against these mighty warriors.

My friend Sho Kusuki, with who I fought side-by-side, was a valiant and strong warrior, seemed to be lacking something. He had sworn allegiance to several people, only to become disenchanted and leave their service. I wasn't sure what he was looking for, and wasn't about to ask, as although the reasons given were acceptable, there seemed to be another more deep-seated need that I feel he wasn't ready to share.

I was haggling with the jeweller in Qalaba'r. I had salvaged a large number of gems and necklaces from the dark halls of the Lugian Citadel and was on my way to getting a good price when Sho Kusuki seemed to appear out of thin air next to me. I completed the transaction quickly for slightly less than I would have hoped for, and followed my friend over to the local drinking establisment for refreshment.

I ordered 2 ales, and as we sat down he produced a parchment.

'Read this, I think that you will find it interesting.' He said.

I read through the document, which talked about a rare element called Chorizite, and of it's ability to resist magic.

'Very interesting,' I said, 'but I am sure that you didn't sit down to discuss alchemy with me.'

'Indeed,' He replied, 'but some investigation has shown me that it can be forged into weapons. Specifically, a powerful sword that cannot be enchanted!'

'What use would I have for one of these swords?' I asked, as I had never fought something that had attempted to cast enchantments on my sword before.

'Think of the prestige!' he replied, 'It would show people that you are a powerful warrior. Besides, I know how to get one, and intend to. Are you with me?' he asked.

'If you are going anyway, I had better come along and see you dont get hurt!' I replied.

'Fantastic!' he enthused, 'We leave in three hours.'

Ale exited my nasal passages at quite a velocity and sprayed the table. 'Three hours? You really don't mess around, do you?' I said We finished our drinks, and I went to prepare for the journey. I had to travel back to Uziz to collect some supplies for the trip.

We arrived at the destination of the portal that Sho had organised, for an undisclosed fee. It was a windswept hillside, high in the Linvak mountains. There was a portal glowing nearby.

'What is this place then? Some kind of mine?' I asked.

'It is called the Lugian Excavation. We must be cautious in here. Inside is a caste of Lugians called the Extas. They maintain these mines of valuable ore, and are even more powerful than the Gigas we have clashed with in the Citadel' he replied.

I could feel a flutter in the pit of my stomach. Gigas Lugians were feroucious warriors, I doubted whether my abilities would stand up to an even more powerful foe.

'I have a bad feeling about this. Alright then, let's get this over with,' I muttered, 'but if things get bad in there, we leave'. If there was one place I didn't want to leave a corpse, it was at the bottom of any Lugian mine.

We headed into to the portal. Once my eyes had adjusted to the low light inside, I could see that the walls and ceiling were of a similar construction to the Citadel, large blocks chamfered and fitted closely together with some skill. The air felt dry and cold, with a slight metallic tinge that I could taste at the back of my mouth.

We headed in slowly, and soon met moderate resistance. These were Gigas caste Lugians, but their weapons were transparent, and almost seemed to only exist in this world by chance, as if at any moment they would disappear completly. And they hurt.

Luckily, the stock of potions that I had remembered to collect from my dwelling saved me a couple of times during the battle through the top reaches of the mine. We met more adventurers along the way, ones with more experience than us that helped us when we most needed it.

We learned from them that the weapons that were hurting so bad were known as "Hollow", forged from pure Chorizite into a weapon for which magic didn't exist, and so it ignored the enchantments on my armour that had protected me up until now.

As we worked our way down through the mine, we encounted fierce resistance, along with magic traps to dispell any enchantments cast upon us, although these were ineffective against us, as we were no spellcasters.

We reached the bottom, and proceeded slowly and quietly through the rough-hewn caves. I had started to relax, for I had now got used to the strange weapons that the Lugians were carrying, and we hadn't seen any of the Extas Lugians that I feared would be waiting for us.

We rounded a corner and saw a large boulder that was slightly purple in colour. 'That is what we are looking for!' whispered Sho, and we crept over to the deposit.

There was a massive pickaxe on the ground next to the vein, far too heavy to use effectively, but I managed to hew two lumps of the material from the deposit. I picked it up and nearly pulled my shoulder! It was extremely heavy stuff. There was no way I was going to get two pieces for myself. We took one piece each and turned to leave.

As we crept back down the passage, we saw three large shapes sprinting towards us. These were Lugians unlike I had ever seen before, standing a head and a half taller than the largest Gigas, shining blue-veined armour and, of course, Hollow axes.

We drew our weapons and prepared for the fight. The first blow came from nowhere, the creature was so fast! It bit straight through my armour and into my side, crushing ribs as it did. I shouted in pain, but could bare it and thrust a counter-stroke with my crackling electrical longsword, which struck home with decent effect. The creature stumbled backward, allowing me to throw all of my weight behind a chop to the creatures leg, which came away. It cried in it's deep guttural language, fell to the ground, and stilled, blood pooling from the stump.

Sho was valiantly fending off the other two Lugians and had managed to injure one badly, but had taken grevious injury in the process.

His shield arm was hanging useless, had numerous wounds leaking blood on to the ground. I could see that we had greatly underestimated the strength of these brutes. This was a battle that we could not win alone.

'Run!' I cried, and we headed away, pulling our wands out at the same time, to attempt to recall away from this deadly arena. They moved with a speed that belied their size, and closed the distance in seconds, and I felt a sickening cold bite into my abdomen. All started to go quiet, and everything seemed so far away. All felt peaceful, when suddenly I felt something wrench me back to another place. 'Nooooo!'

I thought, the peace, the wonderful peace! But it was receeding. I awoke on the ground next to my lifestone, just down the valley from the town of Qalaba'r. My friend was next to me.

We each had many valuable items left on our corpses down in that despicable dungeon, I had left some pieces of my armour and a sword, items that had taken a long time to aquire, and that I wasn't ready to surrender yet.

With grim determination we headed back to the excavation. It was around midnight and with much trepidation that we entered the halls of the Lugians. We made it to the bottom with little incident, as more adventurers were down there with us, except they were hunting for Lugian gold rather than cadavers.

With help we fought past the Extas that were down there and made it back to our corpses. We recovered our equipment, but looting my own dead body is something that I can never get used to.

'Right' I said, 'lets get back to the surface'. We took out our wands just as more Extas came around the corner. I took one hit to my leg, but shouted 'Shurov Thiguz!' and dissapeared in a cloud of purple bubbles. I arrived at the lifestone, Sho appeared seconds later, lying on the ground.

He awoke a minute later. 'Dammit' he cursed, 'they got me again!'.

'Oh no! I have lost even more this time! The only armour I have left to me is my girth and sollerets!'.

There was no way he could head back down there unprotected, so we headed for town for some cheap armour that would make do until he recovered his own.

We were walking back to the lifestone when the world suddenly went black. I opened my eyes and I was lying on the floor.

'Are you alright?' Sho asked me, a concerned look on his face.

'What happened?' I asked.

'You passed out. You are in no fit state to carry on tonight my friend, you must go rest.' he said.

'No way, you have a corpse at the bottom of that cursed dungeon!' I replied, and unsuccessfully strugged to stand.

'Help? You call that help?' he said with a gleam in his eye, 'I will find a way, I still have friends I can call in you know.'

'I am sorry my friend' I replied, 'stay safe, please'.

'Don't worry about me' he said, 'and go lie down!' he laughed.

I had no strength left to argue.

I awoke in my house in Uziz a full two days later to a knocking on my door. Bleary eyed, I opened it to see Sho Kusuki standing there, in his full armour!

'You made it then!' I said, smiling.

'I am glad you are well too my friend!' he laughed. 'I made it with a little help from some friends, some you should meet'.

'A friend of yours is a certainly friend of mine, especially if they helped you down to collect your belongings.' I replied, smiling.

'They were certainly willing to help after I swore allegiance to my new patron Warszawa, you should have seen him take out those Extas! It was amazing! I should have been an archer!' he enthused.

'You wanted to be a mage last week!' I said, remembering his attempts at using the magic of the heart to take on three Gigas. It didn't last long.

I agreed to meet his patron, hoping for his sake that he would settle at last. That morning we travelled to Hebian To, the meeting point for what I learned was the Guardians of Honour. I certainly approved of the name anyway.

We passed the mage tower in Hebian and made our way down the hill to the beach. At the bottom of the hill was a large group of people, laughing and joking.

Sho said 'Hello all, I would like you to meet my friend Telukin, the one I was talking about.'

A chorus of welcomes jumped out at me. Many bows and handshakes later a man with a strange hat and a bow made of what looked like pieces of lugian and mattekar stepped forward and introduced himself as Warszawa. I had a good feeling about him, and life has taught me to trust my feelings, so I did something I never thought I would do, I swore allegiance to him.

One sentance he spoke will stay with me to this day, "Welcome to the family. We will protect you and teach you in the art of war."