On a small trail walks a lone minstrel, Zilo Realms the Master of Strings, a lowly bard from the plane of Shadows with nothing much besides his long sword, short bow and violin. He had just popped into the world out of a portal that exuded shadowy mist much like that of his homeland.
"Alright, That wizard said that his Plane Shift was good to go, so if he's right then this should be the material plane." He says as he twirls to look at the bright grass with the new morning dew shining off it.
His eyes go wide as he kneels down, rippling his black satin robe he was given when he joined the academy of the Umbral Bards. His eyes survey the landscape and he is overjoyed. This land with all it's lights and colors are a great change of pace from his home's effective grey scale of a palette.
He then looks up to find the source of the colors to see a giant glowing bright orb in the sky. then suddenly it hits him.
"Such wonder! A ballad about this fantastic flying circle would fit right into my pieces about the mysteries of the world. Now where did I leave my paper?"
Zilo looks down to his pack, but is suddenly in shock and leaps back.
"AH! What manner of beast!?"
He suddenly spins about and unsheathes his blade and swings it forth at the creature before him. The creature shifts right along with Zilo, but the skilled man keeps pace right along with it.
Zilo twirls about and the creature seems to be using some form of Shadow Blending like the creatures of his plane, but here? In a plane full of light? It is no sorcery that Zilo was familiar with. That said, if it was the same then Zilo had a solution.
"You may try to hide creature, but you cannot hide from this! Detect Magic!"
As the creature fades from view Zilo wipes across his eyes and a sheen of translucent grey magic turns his eyes from silver to a completely white pattern. Zilo smirks ready to track his hunter, but the telltale glints of magical auras are nowhere to be seen.
"What trickery!? Did you vanish into the air coward! Face me!"
Just as he spins so as to not be taken from behind by the missing creature a sudden spec of magic appears down the trail approaching him. In one elegant motion, Zilo spins and lets fly an arrow from his short bow at the aura, but then after he let it fly he inspects the force he shot at and realizes he made a grave error.
"UGK!?" Grunts the man who was gleefully walking down the path as an arrow plants itself squarely into his gut. The man doubles over to the ground dropping and his hat flies off his head from the impact.
Zilo runs to his unwilling pin cushion and kneels down beside him.
"Oh my Gods Sir are you alright!?"
The man's eyes flicker open and as Zilo aims his head softly to speak to him the man freezes and then his mouth gaps open.
"By Necros below boy! Your skin is as pale as slate!"
"Oh! Beg pardon milord. I'm what is called a Fetchling, from the Realm of Shadows we all have grey skin"
"*Cough* *cough* Well boy don't be callin me lord. I'm just a traveling bard, now if you wouldn't mind it to much would you explain just WHY YOU SHOT ME!"
Zilo jumps back as the man yells and lets the man's head drop to the ground, unsupported, then Zilo begins pacing and explains his encounter with the beast.
"hold a minute lad, you say that the beast appeared after you saw the sun?"
"Is that what you call it, my home doesn't have one of those."
"Wait, what did it look like?"
"It was some mesmerizing collection of spots that seemed almost spectral-like. It was wafting about as I turned to look at it, but luckily with my razor wit and keen blade..."
The man stops listening as Zilo recounts his fantastic encounter and looks up at the sun for a moment or two. Then as he looks back to the young man the man's face goes red in anger.
"YOU IDIOT! TWASN'T A BEAST IT WAS YOUR DAMNED EYES FROM LOOKING AT THE SUN!!!"
Zilo recoils in shock as the man begins yelling bloody murder and all sorts of horrible things at him. then Zilo takes out a small notebook and jots down a quick note:
"The orb of light in the sky is known as the sun. It seems to be rather adept at casting illusions on people who stare at it too long, much as a fabled basilisk would turn a man to stone, avoid direct eye contact in the near future."
As Zilo turns back to the man his foot suddenly feels rather cold. He looks down to suddenly see a pool of blood coming from the man he shot and his shirt is completely soaked in it. The man also doesn't seem to be moving.
"Oh dear." States Zilo as he moves to the man's head to check for a pulse. unfortunately Zilo was never the quickest study back at the Umbral Bard Academy when it cam to non-magical medical practices and was unable to figure out if the man was dead.
"Rather tuckered out are you my new friend, here allow me to assist with my mistake"
Zilo reaches over and rather than pushing the arrow all the way through his back, he rips the arrow out and takes a bit of his new friend with it.
"No worries fellow bard, I'll have you fixed in but a moment. Cure Light Wounds."
Zilo wipes his hand along the man's wound and knits the hole in his gut closed, but it helps nothing the man is already dead, as Zilo learns a few moments later when he does not wake back up again.
"Oh my this is bad, what am I to do?"
Zilo looks about and quickly finds a suitably sized looking bush, he then looks down to the bloody shirt and his own bloody boots then whips his hands down and the mess.
"Prestid-d-d. No not that Pertidgia.. Blast it come on, Why did they name this bloody spell such a complex word" *Breaths in* "Prestidigitation!"
The blood pool and the residue on the boot suddenly evaporate leaving not a trace behind and sealing up the hole in the shirt. Zilo then hoisted the man up and dragged him over to the bush. He also grabs the man's fallen hat with his off hand, nearly losing his grip as he did so.
Zilo rises from the bush and pats together his hand then stops a second.
"Right then, ten minutes into new plane and I've killed a man, fantastic!"
Zilo kneels down to the man.
"You will not be forgotten traveling bard and I'm sure that your name,... whatever your name is, will be remembered fondly by those who are bound to you by Socca."
After that short prayer for the dead man Zilo begins to walk away and catches his robe on a small branch on the bush and stumbles.
"Damndable robes! I swear if they weren't customary for Umbral Bards to don then I'd-"
Zilo holds his tongue as he looks back to the dead Bard from this new plane. Clothed in a silver and blue regal hat, flowing shirt, silver sash, black silk pants and some silvered boots. Much more appealing that Zilo's robe.
"It would be wrong to do so however. In fact I should try and help his next of kin make peace with his passing."
Zilo picks up the man's bag and after taking out a small torso mounted drum that seemed to be the man's bardic focus, Zilo comes across a document that, funnily enough, seems to be the man's last will and testament.
*clears throat* "I Bardy Mcbardson... Odd name."
In another Realm a man in a hat holding a parchment titled 'Zilo Realms: Character Sheet' shakes his head in disappointment at another Man with the title of GM, who goes only by the name... Jones.
Zilo reads the document aloud, "Having no spouse or children of my own, hereby leave all of my worldly possessions to my apprentices who I have taught how to make their way in the world."
Zilo suddenly smiles and throws the letter back in the man's bag.
"Excellent then, He gives his things to those he taught."
Zilo turns to face the sun, then immediately and quickly turns in the opposite direction and points behind himself, at the sun.
"And since he has turned me on to your trickster ways sir sun. That would then mean That I'm a new apprentice of the late Bardy Mcbardson."
It was a horrifying site days later when the next wanderer who found that the bush. In the bush was hidden away a naked old dead man.
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