Caius' forehead was cradled in the palm of his hand as Edmund nodded. "No, I'm serious," the sorcerer said. Caius place the other hand to his face as well. "It's not my fault you all accidentally unleashed an elder demon, and I am going to take all the help I can get. Despite my father's profession, I'm not a demon hunter."

Many of the people that Edmund and Caius have worked with previously had showed up as they needed help with exploration. Once again, Edmund would not attend them, him too busy still trying to get information out of Miranda. However, there was another person who was going to lead them to where they needed to go.

"The swimming frog doesn't leap without a lilly!" A man wearing rags jumped around the entire group, until he hung upside down from the back of Dio's vanship. "Poor Tom is a good slayer. Great slayer of good demons, he will throw his head at them and shake his fleas! But first he wants his sword."

"I don't even know what he's saying." Caius looked at Edmund. It was obvious the Sorcerer didn't care. They were going to have to do what the madman said.

Gustav approaches the small group in standard fashion, with loud clanking noises and a friendly wave. "Hallo Kameraden!" Where he had been during the last encounter is a bit of a mystery, though for some reason the knight smells heavily of several deoderants.

Dio blinked. "Hey, get off of that. You might break something." He folds his arms and frowns at Tom.

Zendra once again found herself among a group of familiar faces, and like always she didn't say anything. She simply stood, watching and listening with her arms folded with nothing to contribute to the conversation.

Besides Caius and Dio, nobody seemed to object to the plan of following around a crazy hobo. It didn't take too long of a walk to get to a cave Tom wanted them to explore, near the edge of the Veldt's borders. THere wasn't any sign of life coming from it, save for possibly a few birds. He looked up at the group expectantly. "Through the stones, find the sword. Haha! Then I'll be king."

"I don't know if it's a good idea for a hobo to become a king just like that." Dio looks at the cave. "And this doesn't seem like it's too dangerous..."

Zendra looked at the entrence of the cave and frowned a little. She had not thought to bring a light source of some sort. With any luck, one of the others did.

Gustav eyes the cave as well. "Ahm, jemand eine Licht?" The still-slightly blackened plate helmet turns to look expectantly at the rest of the people in the area, waiting for a response he really hoped was coming.

"Hey Stil! Let's split up while we go hunting!.. I said, It'll be fun! I said.... Oh who am I kidding if she were here she probably would've found a way to fall on me." Silas laments quite loudly to himself from the bottom of a pit near the cave entrance. He perks up at the sound of noise and shouts fairly loudly. "That talking I'm hearing wouldn't happen to be people would it? Specifacally the real kind? and not the 'figments of my imagination' kind... Because that'd be pretty great."

Dio stares blankly at the knight. "What?" He looks at the darkened cave, then at everyone else. "None of you brought a light, did you? Great, I'm pretty sure I have some flares in the emergency kit on the-" He stops and looks over at the hole in the ground. "Yes, we might be people. Real, I can't promise."

"A voice. Poor Tom hears another voice! Oh woe is Poor Tom!" The ragged man got on his knees, covered his ears and looked at the sky in dispaire. Caius meanwhile raised an eyebrow at Zendra. "You happen to still have your staff with you? Would be helpful to pull the guy up."

Zendra raises her eyebrow back at Caius. Considering the staff in her hands reached about the hight of her shoulders it wasn't exactly something she could conceal all that well. "Very well." She said, walking over to the pit and looking down at the fool who was trapped in it. "Grab hold."

The man takes hold without really putting much thought into it.. Hey! At the very least getting stabbed to death by a group of crazy people was quicker than starving to death in the bottom of a hole. "All ready to go Cap'n, Thanks for the save"

"Warum waren Sie am unteren Rand einer Grube?" Gustav seems confused, but given the lack of conversation the knight is having, that is understandible. He stands closer to the edge of the hole and offers a hand out to the man for when he gets high enough to reach it.

Caius nods at the man. "Well if you want to follow us, we're going into the cave to... umm..." "FIND THE SWORD TO SMITE THE DEMONS!" "I really have no clue if that's a metaphor or if we're seriously looking for a sword." Tom crawled into the cave on all fours, Caius shook his head and followed suit.

the cave was dark and damp. In lack of an actual torch, Caius held up one of his drinking gourds with lit whick in it. It wasn't long until they came across a wall with what looked like a story drawn on it in storyboard.

The picture showed a man with a shield and a sword facing a large beast. However, the beast disappeared, and the background suddenly changed to a completely new location. The man with sword and shield clutched his head as the beast seemed to follow him, until it showed the man dead, and the creature laughing.

Caius shook his head, while Tom shuddered at the sight of it. "We're in the right cave," the ragged man said. "That is his story, and I want his sword. My sword..."

Zendra helped to pull the surprisingly light wheight man out of the hole then wordlessly proceeded to follow Caius and the babbling man into the cave. When she came upon the drawings she stopped and examined them.

As Zendra pulls up the not at all trapped (he totally could've gotten out on his own) Mage he grabs Gustav's hand to finalize the whole getting out of the pit thing. "Thank you big guy" he says to Gustav as he balances himself... I didn't think there'd be s-." Silas stops for a second, considering.. "I do kind of owe you guys.... So sure why not!... It can't be that Dangerous right?" Silas gives an uncomfortable laugh.

"So, is that... thing going to be here too?" Dio squints at the wall as he pulls out his suicide pistol and checks it. "I guess we'll have to kill it if it is. Unless we can reason with it or something."

Gustav responds with "Es war nichts." to the man before he continues on, pausing to look at the story with interest. "Eine interessante Geschichte. Es erinnert mich an die Geschichten aus meiner Heimat."

"So then... Is it really safe for you to even have the sword? Wouldn't it just bring the beast back?" Dio continued to watch the wall while he walked.

Gustav silently examines the story. From the outward apperance of 'slightly burned armor', it is hard to tell what the knight is thinking, but if anything he seems to be moving a bit slower than normal.

So then this was a common story belonging to many people according to the babbling man. It was not one Zendra had heard before though. Then again, she didn't tend to listen too often to the tales of this world.

Poor Tom stopped, and ran back to walk alongside Dio, one hand on the ground as he hobbled. "Smart man! Poor Tom used to be smart, yes. Then he died. To the demon Tom is dead! Monsters do not hunt dead men, only eat them. And Tom has not been eaten yet." Tom looked at Silas. "Swords are used to hunt monsters. Monsters are used to hunt people. People are used to use swords. If demons hunted swords, would demons be used to make people?"

Gustav stares at Silas for a few moments. "Konnen Sie mich verstehen?"

"...So, you're dead?" Dio frowns. "You look pretty alive to me."

Silas looks between Gustav and Tom... "I uh.... what?"

Tom nodded. "I'm dead. I have to be. Otherwise the voice comes again." Eventually, they approached a hole. Tom waved back, and jumped into it, into the darkness. Within a few minutes an explosion was heard, and the cave floor they believed to be solid was broken. The dirt shook, and it was apparently packed on wooden planks that fell out from under them. It was a short fall, only a couple of feet, but enough to catch them by surprise. Torches were on the walls of this lower level, which Tom was hopping around lighting, and a chest was locked in the center of the room. He looked at everyone expectently, "May I borrow a knife?" he asks.

Dio coughs as he rolls over. "Are you trying to kill us!?" He gets to his feet and tries to dust his robes off. "Whatever. Here, take this and shoot the lock off." He holds out his pistol.

Zendra yelped as the floor broke away from under her feet, crashing to the floor with everyone else. She lookd at Tom with a bit of irritation as she pulled herself back up to her feet. Still, could she really expect the man to have given them some sort of warning to prepare for such things? Her hand went to her waist where she withdrew a hunting knife.

Silas lands just as gracefully as he did the first time.. Which is to say not at all. "On second thought I think I'm done with pits for today." he says with a groan... As the walking slab of metal starts to angrily berate(?) Tom Silas lets out a pained "What he said".

Caius crossed his arms as he glared at Tom, taking the wick out of his drinking gourd and consuming what liquid was possibly left in there. It tasted like charcoal. Tom ignored everyones comments as he took Zendra's knife. Surprisingly, he went to one of the scarrs on his thigh, and cut along the wound where he began to bleed. He pulled a key out of the wound and handed the knife back to Zendra.

Caius blinked. "I can't tell whether to be disgusted or impressed." Tom went to the chest and opened the lock with the bloody key. As he flipped it open, it seemed to contain a few things. Chainmail armor, a muddy tabard that was once white, a white kiteshield, and a silvery longsword, shining brighter than the rest of the equipment. Tom stood as straight as he could with his wound, and smiled.

Dio blinks. "Um... ok. Yep, he's insane."

Silas frowns at the scene taking place in front of him.. "I uh....Wow,... Impressive is definetly a word for that... Not the word i'd use but it it is indeed there."

Zendra replaced the knife, seeing now that it was not needed.

Tom seemed to be entirely different person. As he doned the chainmail armor and the tabard, and wrapped belt and the sheath around his waist he turned around. "I'm terribly sorry for the deception, but, in a way, I was hoping to keep it up. But demons aren't something that I'd prefer to leave around." He picked up the shield, displaying a golden four sided diamond. "My name is Sir Edgar, of the Legio Aurea."

Dio nods. "I see. So you're a crazy knight."

Zendra did not seem pleased, then again when did she ever look pleased? It was hard to tell is there was any change at all in the look on her face as Edgar revealed himself to be a little less of a babbling man than they were lead to believe.

Gustav has absolutely -no- idea what is going on here, who this person is, why he's dressing up like a Knight, or what he's supposed to do about it. To this end, Gustav turns his attention elsewhere. "Wie werden wir aus diesem Loch zu bekommen?"

Silas considers staying quiet since he has no idea what is going on.. Or who this person was even pretending to be apart from his brief experience with "Poor Tom"... But alas, quiet is not in his nature. "Legio what"

Caius glared angrily at Edgar as he said these words. "And how by Carsanquay are we supposed to trust you?" he asked. Edgar smiled as he walked past everyone, limping slightly, and nodding towards Silas.

"Legio Aurea. The Legion of Gold. Where I came from, we were a legion of knights and warriors pledged to destroy demons in order to keep the world safe. I was thrown out of that world in a battle with an archdevil named Dolor, the Lord of Regret. Perhaps he was so powerful because, in the end noone can escape it." He kicked one of the walls with his good leg, and a ladder folded out.

Dio shrugged. "So, like a bunch of paladins, then?" He walked over and looked up the ladder. "Nothing that's really new here, right?"

Gustav eyes the ladder warily, not certian if it would hold the weight of his armor, before deciding to let the rest of the group head on up first.

Zendra approached the ladder, then upon noticing no one else was going to climb it, started to ascend.

"Cool Paladins... Like the uh, ones from the history books.. back before the Guilds.." Silas bows his head to Edgar before following Zendra up the ladder.

Dio started up the ladder as well.

Caius sighed at how nobody else seemed to care. "At least that means they can accept things. Makes witch hunting easier. As Caius and Edgar followed everyone else out, Edgar seemed oddly silent. Caius glared at the knight, who was passive. As they reached the mouth of the cave, he spoke once more. "Edmund is my brother," he said. "If you all wouldn't mind, I'm going to go elsewhere. Tell him I'm alive. I'm not ready to look at him with my true face."

Gustav is still struggling with the ladder by the time the rest of the people are at the mouth of the cave, letting out a long and unhappy sigh as he trudges through the dark depths of earth after the rest of his 'comrades'

"Uh, ok? Why not." Dio shrugged.

Silas falls back a little bit, actually missing Edgar's revalation request. Trying to walk next to Gustav in the wave.. "Hey! You!... I uh... Look we got off on the wrong foot... figuratively, not literally.. I enjoyed the whole being helped out of the pit thing... ANYWAY I'm sorry I just kind of went quiet after you started... Uh, talking? at me.. that was Incredibly rude... Let's start over," He extends his hand to the Walking slab of metal. "My name is Silas.... Do you uh? have a name as well? I mean I can call you Big Metal guy but with the launguage barrier I don't think that'll help much."..... He pauses for a second.. realising that saying his name during a stream of words wouldn't be very helpful.... he moves his hand slightly repeating the word "Silas"

Gustav regards Silas for several moments, before the man repeats what Gustav assumed to be his name. "Mein name ist Sir Gustav von Langsdorfer. Ich bin ein Ritter von Cirrah."

Zendra stays close to the group, listening in on the conversation around her. As Caius and Edgar reach the mouth of the cave she looks at them both, "What is going on? Why do you play a babbling fool and why do you hide yourself? Why bring us all down here?"

Edgar nodded as he straightend his back slightly from his limp. Caius nodded in agreement with Zendra, not used to her being so curious. "Demons from my world seem to be popping up here. Two big ones, Goneril and Setebos, are alive right now and Edmund and I might be the only ones with any experiences or knowledge of who or what we're up against, so, I couldn't stay as an observer.

"As for hiding myself, that comes with a different tale. Since when Dolor banished me here, I could hear his voice as my own reflection would taunt me. I decided, that if I concealed my identity entirely and fake my death, the demon would learn of my passing and leave me alone, which I have done.

"The reason that I was fighting the demon in the first place however... my brother Edmund tricked me into it, so that he would be the one to inherit my father's order, the Legio Aurea. I'm worried that Edmund still has ties with the demon however. I'm somewhat concerned that if he sees me with his own eyes, he'll kill me outright."

Caius raised a brow. "So, Edmund is evil? I knew spellcasters were dangerous but he seems much more concerned about getting rid of them than helping them."

Edgar shook his head. "I wish I was sure, friend. I still have hope for my brother, but, I'd wish to survive long enough to slay Setebos alongside you all, first."

"I see." Dio put his hands in his pockets. "I haven't heard anything about these demons popping up here other than those hags and stuff from a while back, and I never see anything when I fly over places; where do you hear about these things?"

Silas grins as Gustav says his name. "I uh, Don't know how much of that is name and how much of that is title... So I'm just gonna go ahead and call you Gustav... It's nice to meet yah... I hope you manage to survive whatever it is your group does long enough for us to learn the same language.".. he laughs at his own joke... Him and Gustav arrive at the mouth of the cave with the others just in time to hear Edgar's explanation. "Spellcaster's aren't THAT dangerous..." Silas says kind of meekly, clearly saying something he doesn't actually believe.

Gustav stops at the mouth of the cave as everyone begins talking. A lot. At this point, Gustav doesn't even bother with saying 'I can't understand any of you.', instead looking to Caius and waiting for him to make some kind of sign that they were going somewhere.

Zendra quietly listens to Edgar as he provides an answer to her questions. "So we can see more of these to come? Goneril and Setebos were not the only ones, then? Do you know how many more to expect?"

Edgar adresses Dio first. "I was there when you all fought Goneril and Regan, remember? Or, if not, I suppose it's for the best. Poor Tom wasn't truely me." He shook his head. "My information comes from hearing you all discuss it with Caius and Edmund."

Caius nodded. "I HAVE noticed a lot more people falling into the Cleft than normal. Many cities keep a population record because of it. It's information you want to keep track of in my line of work. Many of them have adapted surprisingly well, as if they were expecting it."

"Much like Edmund, I presume," the knight responded. He turns to Zendra. "I believe you noticed how much damage one powerful witch can do. Sycorax, right? That was an island from my world. We hadn't been able to track her down, and your slaying of her was a great help. If she alone could do that, there's no telling how many more we could be dealing with."

"So... We need to kill more demons to save the world?" Dio shrugs. "I guess that shouldn't be too hard."

Silas listens intently.... The little $'s could probably seen flashing in his eyes if this was a cartoon. "Hey uh, I don't know all that much about demons and even monster slaying is a pretty new sthick for me... BUT hypothetically. Is Demon slaying a profitable venture.... like something I could do that would... give a solid 3 meals a day. Stil and I aren't really cut out for hunting... if you didn't notice from my adventure into the bottom of a pit. We don't really have many non-combat related skills so solid work is kind of our hope at the moment." Silas was begging.. just not on his knees or using the actual word. "Also.. saving the world.. noble intentions... stuff like that!"

Caius nods. "Good to see you're willing to help them out, Zendra." He nods to Edgar, who bows, thanks them for their help, and begins walking off to the northwest. Caius crosses his arms. "As for profit, if Witch Hunting taught me anything, slaying big things noone else can kill is something people will pay for. As long as you aren't called by jealous exes, or get killed, things work out fine."

the group traveled back to Truce, discussing the current situation as they went along. As they got to the gates, Caius stopped. "You all did a good job, but, I'll handle Edmund. I'm worried slightly of his reaction and what Edgar spoke of. I will see that you all get payed." He nodded to everyone. "With those two brothers around, I suppose we're knights now. I suggest you all practice your swimming. When next we meet, we're fighting Setebos."

Zendra stared at Silas, then slowly something very rare happened and the corner of her lip crept upward. She roughly patted his shoulder "I can teach the puny man combat."