As time moves on in the Lands of Wurm, so too do its people. Some build, some roam, some decide to change the direction of their lives and some simply disappear leaving half derelict buildings or maybe just a solitary oven as the only evidence they were here at all. Yet others venture forth to taste new adventures or, perhaps, discover new places where they may build and once again call home. This is the tale of Emoo, sometimes called The Mighty, and his friends Dilzi and Alkanda, as they ventured forth from the homelands of Jenn Kellon to make a new life across the waters. This tale is published here as, perhaps, a message back to old friends.

I gazed sadly along the empty streets of Validus, leaves blowing along the gutters on the crisp autumn wind and my foot steps echoing as a walked. I missed the clanging of anvils as the blacksmiths worked, I missed the friendly chatter of people in the village square, I missed the thud-thud of the woodsmen's axes, I missed the mooing of the cows but most of all I missed all the peoples smiling faces. A sudden yell from behind me awoke me from my mournful thoughts. I swung around to see Dilzi striding towards me; his thick traveller's cloak worn high around his neck.

"Emoo we've finished loading the boats, we're ready to leave when you are," he said in his usual booming voice. I gave him a forced smile and told him that I would be there in a couple of minutes. Knowing that time was short I strode to the hill just outside of Validus which overlooked its massive stone walls that enclosed the dozens of houses and farms inside. As I stared over what I had once called home a pang of regret ran through me, but it was soon quelled by the fresh thought of new adventure, a fresh start!

I walked back down towards the dock and saw Killgod standing by the fountain "Good luck mate!" I shouted to him he turned around and grinned at me. "Thanks," I added. I could not have meant that more, I had just sold to him the last few years of my life. The future of Validus was now in his hands, I only hoped that like so many other towns that had their mayors move on that Validus would not fade into the realms of obscurity and ruin.

As I approached "The Emu's Wrath," gently moving in the water, I saw my two companions for this journey sitting laughing merrily just outside the dock house. Dilzi was a giant of a man and his body rippled with muscle. He wielded two vicious looking mauls. Alkanda was short and wiry, but was surprising strong for his size and had a scar on his cheek that went from the side of his mouth right up to his left eye. He carried a short sword, small shield and also a bow on his back along with a quiver of deadly arrows. They both looked up as I approached and they knew that it was time.

Dilzi and I clambered into "The Emu's Wrath" and Alkanda captained "The Dagger" both the boats holds were crammed full of our belongings and supplies of precious food and water. As we cast away the three of us shouted at the tops of our voices, "Away, to a new adventure!" And then collapsed back into our seats laughing. Little did we realize what an adventure would be about to unfold. A new chapter had begun.


As we cruised along I let my hand hang in the cool dark water, a refreshing change to the midday sun cruelly beating down on us. The only sounds were the occasional snore from Dilzi and the lapping of the water at the bow of the boat. I peered over to "The Dagger" which was about 20metres in front of us. It was a magnificent vessel and was certainly the better of the two boats and Alkanda frequently showed us this by streaking ahead to "Scout". Suddenly Alkanda turned around and yelled something pointing ahead of us, I grabbed my spyglass out of my backpack and peered ahead of us; a huge land bridge lay in our path. I swore to myself and signalled to Alkanda to head for the shore.

Once we had awoken Dilzi from his seemingly endless slumber we decided that it would be much faster to continue over the land bridge than change course. Of course it proved much harder than any of us anticipated as dragging a boat over several metres of land is not an easy task especially with 100s of kgs of cargo. That night we stayed near the ruins of Steel Bay and marvelled at how they had carved their name into the landscape overlooking the lake.

Several days later we had almost reached the south coast where we would meet my good friend Safiria who was staying near Aferns. It had been a long time since I had seen him and I looked forward to catching up with him. Then as I rubbed ointment on my heavily sun burnt skin I saw a monumental structure along the coast. It was a huge plateau rising over 50metres over the sea below and it seemed to have a huge building on top. I quickly shook Dilzi awake (who was asleep as usual) and we both gazed at it in awe. Then Alkanda drew along side us with a huge grin on his face "I'm pretty sure that that's Pirate Outpost, pretty great aye?" We both just nodded; completely stunned as we glided past.

"Ahoy!" Safiria shouted his face beaming with joy "G'day mate, how are you?!" I called back. "Not to bad" replied Safiria pushing his jet black hair out of his eyes. He wielded two impressive looking axes which he held in his stocky Blacksmithing arms. Before we had reached Safiria spirits had begun to run low. We were all horribly sun burnt and almost all of our food supplies were infested with weevils, though most were fortunately still edible. But now we had our old friend back we were once again hopeful and comforted in the knowledge we had almost left the land known as Jenn-Kellon.

The next day we saw the land mass known as "The Wild." For Dilzi, Alkanda and Safiria it was their first time in the region so I took over as navigator and we headed along the south coast. It wasn't long before we began to see the dreaded mycelium. We all shuddered as we heard shrieks and howls in distance. "Hmm, feels like home" remarked Safiria sarcastically. He little knew the irony of his remark.

A couple of days later we arrived at the mighty Woodscove. Dilzi Alkanda and Safiria all were dumbstruck before the extensive defences and the pure size of the place. None of my stories even had come close to expressing how impressive it was. I was slightly nervous as to how we would be received after the sudden manner of my departure last time I was here. As we pulled up to the Docks Dadd greeted us "How you doing ya silly piece of shark bait?" he asked with a friendly smile on his face. It seemed my fears were completely unfounded as I was welcomed back with open arms and even given back my old house! My faithful companions were also greeted with a warm welcome and a hot meal. We were all relived to sleep in a bed and have some real food after many days travel. We all had to put up with unforgiving, though occasionally witty comments about our now peeling skin but we were all very happy to be there. That night I discussed with Dadd over the fire his plans for the future of Woodscove. It turned out that he had heard the rumours of a huge mysterious land mass to the far west of Wild and that he was preparing to move the whole village out there. Of course this all sounded amazing to me, an untouched land! A place only glimpsed by a few eyes let alone stood upon! Whilst I dreamed of far away places and things to come, that night I knew where I called my home for now.

The docks were alive with the sounds of action. People were putting on their armour and laughing merrily. Myself, Demondan, Candee and Tommyt were all busy loading our boats with the implements of war. We had been planning for the last couple of days for a trip down to Blacklighter territory and while we were all very optimistic, I noticed little changes in their behaviours which suggested to me that like myself they knew that there was a chance that some of us may not be returning in the boats. It was indeed a harsh reality that all of us were trying to avoid thinking about. I had tried to convince Alkanda and Dilzi to come along but to no avail. Dilzi had some much needed sleeping to catch up on and Alkanda was busy with his carpentry. Safiria was trying his hand at farming and seemed to be enjoying it thoroughly so I decided not to ask.

Once we had finished loading the boats we cast off and set course for the southern regions of Wild. As I watched the other 3 boats sailing along in front of me I could not help but think what a majestic sight; and it truly was. Few times in my life in the lands of Wurm have I ever seen a setting of such serene calmness. As we neared our destination we began to see patches of mycelium spreading like a cancerous tumour across the landscape. Soon we saw a large fortress rising out from the now choppy waves; its many guard towers preventing us doing much else then scout the outside walls for any slightly damaged area we could use to sneak in. Once we continued on our way Tommyt announced that we were nearing Barter Town and that we should be prepared to fight should we have to. When he said this it sent a tingle down my spine a pulse of adrenaline surged through my blood.

We left the boats not far from the shore near Barter Town and stealthily made our way up the embankment. Despite our meticulous attempts to remain hidden we were almost immediately set upon by a group of tower guards. As adrenaline once again pumped through my veins I managed to dispatch two guards without much trouble. Soon, despite the surprise of the ambush, we had easily overwhelmed the tower guards and their corpses lay slain on the rotting ground.

As we explored Barter Town and the area around it we ran into more groups of guards which were dispatched as easily as their compatriots. After a couple of hours of running around seemingly without a purpose thick fog began to set in. Its condensed droplets gleamed off our armour as we decided to head back to the boats. Once there, Tommyt decided to head back to Woodscove but Dan, Candee and myself decided to press on towards the Blacklight. After several more hours of sailing we finally reached the land which would hopefully take us to our destination. We found a dirt path that seemed to lead towards the Blacklight and began to follow it. We were all jumpy and at the slightest sound would draw our swords. The thick fog continued to get worse until we finally could not see more than a couple of metres in front of us it was then that we found the crypt.

As we walked along in silence, our ears straining for any sound, Candee let out a sudden yelp. Dan and I rushed over to him and realized how close we had all come to our deaths. Just a couple of paces in front of us was a mine Shaft carved into the landscape, had any of us fallen in it probably would have spelled death. After some skillful terrain negotiation we clambered through the entrance. As we went deeper and deeper into the cave the moisture grew until it felt heavy on our skin and our lanterns became dull and almost useless.

Finally the cave opened up into a room with dozens of coffins. We all shuddered as we looked around at the cobwebbed bones laying on the ground. As we continued forward we began to make out a figure in front of us at the end of the room. "Draw your sword!" hissed Dan at me; I turned around to see that he and Candee already had theirs at the ready. Slowly as we edged closer we began to see the figure for what it truly was. The creature blinked up at me with its huge luminescent yellow eyes it had clearly not see the light of day for many years. Its skin was pale and stood in stark contrast to it's jet black robes. It hissed at me and dropped something that it was holding in its hands. Dan razed his sword menacingly and the creature retreated back to the wall drawing something long and slender from it's pocket and hissed "Get back, convert or die!!!"

"What is it?" I whispered to Dan, he replied with deep disgust in his voice "Blacklighter scum, I'll put it out of its misery now". He advanced toward the creature which cowered against the wall, Dan then took a mighty swing and...nothing the creature was gone in a puff of black foul smelling smoke.

"BAH! Twigged out!" shouted Dan in frustration as he spat at the place the Blacklighter once was. As we were about to leave something caught my eye, the object that had been dropped earlier. I picked it up and examined it, the small spindle seemed to have a strange aura and had a small, incomplete signature of its maker "D.ck." After I yelled out to Candee and Dan to take a look our nervous laughter echoed through the caves. "Guess JK beat us here" joked Candee.

We crawled back to the surface to find that the fog had thinned slightly so we decided to continue on our way towards the Blacklight. As we trekked through the dead trees and bushes we heard a howl and what sounded laughter; we all looked at each other nervously but pressed on. Suddenly a huge rabid hyena leapt at me, its mouth drooling salver and its tongue lolling. I spun around swing my sword making contact with its right foreleg. It yelped and made another lung at me. I dodged and drove my sword deep into its back instantly killing it.

Pulling my sword free from the mangled body I turned around to see Candee and Dan fighting off their own hyenas. After the fight I decided to head home. Dilzi and Alkanda would be wondering where I had got to and I was also unnerved by the sudden appearance of the Hyenas.

On the trip home I couldn't help thinking about the rugged decaying landscape around the Blacklight. It was almost as if it was imprinted on my memory and scaring my soul. The more I thought about it the more I seem to be able to sense a sort of beauty in the chaos something that I could almost taste. I was interrupted in my dark thoughts by the sight of Woodscove's dirt walls and the many guard towers that protected the occupants.

That night I filled in Dilzi and Alkanda with tales of my journey slightly exaggerating how many hyena's I fought against, but what is a good story without a white lie ... or two? Curling up in my warm bed I thought of what Candee and Demondan were up to and prayed to Magranon that they were safe.

The next morning I awoke to knocking on my door. I wearily put on my boats and answered it, Dadd beamed at me and said " Gee ya silly dog's breath! Still in bed were we? Well I have great news. My scouts have confirmed that there is a huge land mass to the west of Wild and that it has been claimed in the name of Mol Rehan!" Despite my heavy eyes and sluggish mind I let out a loud "WOOOT!!!"  The door to a whole new adventure had just opened and I was sure that I was to be one of the first through it!

The next few days were spent packing and scheming, the village was bustling as half a dozen boats were loaded up and made sea worthy. Candee and Demondan had made it back safely and had apparently had made it all the way to the Blacklight they were also busy preparing to leave for the new lands. Sadly Safiria had informed me that he would not be joining me Alkanda and Dilzi in the new world but instead would remain to live in Wild. Dilzi had been trying his hand at archery and had borrowed Demondan's massive longbow to practice. He certainly seemed to be enjoying firing arrows even if they rarely hit the target. Alkanda on the other hand was becoming an impressive carpenter and had made me a comfortable armchair which bore the inscription "Sitting, the great leveller" a reference to the famous saying "From the highest king to the lowest peasant who doesn't enjoy a good sit?" Or something along those lines. As the date of our leaving drew closer I could think of nothing else but an untouched land and the mysteries I would discover.

Finally the time had come, the next day we would leave first thing. That night I could barely sleep with excitement but I finally drifted off into restless dreams of undiscovered places.

When I awoke the sun was already high in the sky, cursing myself I quickly woke everyone else up. Dilzi grumbled "Where is everyone? I was still sleeping" They left and by the looks of it quite awhile ago," I replied as we made our way down to the docks. As we cast off I looked back at one of the biggest villages I had ever seen in the lands of Wurm which would now be left to the harsh mistress of time. As we headed south I couldn't help but wonder what awaited us. Vast plains? Majestic mountains? Thick impenetrable forest?
After many hours I gazed ahead and saw a tiny spec on the horizon, excitedly I pulled out my spyglass. Yes! Land! "I see land!" I yelled, rocking the boat wildly.

Dilzi woke with a start and grinned a sleepy smile. Alkanda cheered as we headed straight for the tiny spec of land that held our future in its grasp. Once we had gotten a lot closer I could not help but repeatedly gasp in awe. Never had I seen such a landscape; sheer cliffs, colossal mountains, rugged forests. This was the true frontier lands, a place were you could walk for hours and not see another soul, a place were the creatures roamed free, a place where you discovered dreams and unearthed mysteries. As we ventured further and further around the great lands that revealed themselves to us I felt more and more at home. We sailed along wide eyed and completely stunned; each mountain was more unyielding and amazing than the last. Finally as the sun began to retreat over the mountains to the west we pulled into a small peaceful bay with a tiny island in the mouth.

That night we sat around the camp fire talking excitedly about all that we had seen. Soon conversation turned to where we should settle down, each of us had purchased the rights to a small plot of land and we were eager to have somewhere to call home in this truly uncompromising land. The next day I began scouting around from our tiny bay and soon found an iron deposit, a huge steppe that stretched as far as the eye could see and clay. All of this combined convinced us that we had already found our home. That night we claimed our land, 3 homesteads clustered around the bay we named "Halcyon bay" which means peaceful or tranquil.

Time has passed since that early adventure. We now call ourselves the Southern alliance and whilst many things have changed the land is still as great as the day we came here and as long as there is not a better adventure to be had I will stay here in my quite piece of Wurm heaven and believe me there is not better adventure to be had in all of Wurm!

Written by Emoo the Mighty from Mol Rehan