Editing The Sparkling Bridge

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{{TErow| 1 |loc={{red}}{{blue}}|day 1 - for computer|freq=21|Computer Stuff - DO NOT TRANSLATE|effect=+20 {{w}} [[Wood]], +15 {{m}} [[Mercury]], +20 {{o}} [[Ore]], +15 {{s}} [[Sulfur]], +15 {{c}} [[Crystal]]s, +15 {{gem}} [[Gems]], +2000 {{g}} [[Gold]]}}

{{TErow| 1 |day 1|The air is thin here, and the frozen wind cuts through the skin like a blade.  This must be the top of the world.  No one  in their right mind would live up here on these inhospitable peaks, but I soon learned I was wrong.  Elementals - creatures of pure fire, or water, or whatever - have lived here since the dawn of time guarding the Sparkling Bridge, and now I must fight through their armies if I'm going to reach the Fiery Moon.}}

{{TErow| 5 |Day 5|Skizzik has become my guide.  He's not very good at it though.  Either he was delirious when he passed through this region, or he's got a bad memory.  Sometimes he catches sight of a landmark and leads us to it before he realizes he's never seen it before.  All this wandering is beginning to annoy the troops, so I keep Skizzik at my side at all times.  If he were to run across Grumba right now, I'm sure the little Familiar would not survive.}}

{{TErow| 10 |loc={{tan}}|day 10|We marched by a grove of trees this morning, and even though my scouts checked them for signs of an ambush, I was suddenly pelted with snowballs.  When I turned toward the trees, I saw several Sprites fly up into the sky laughing and pointing at me.<p>"To the front, Orcs!" I shouted.  "Ready your axes!"<p>But the Sprites held out their hands in a sign of surrender.<p>"We're sorry!" they said in unison.<p>I wiped some snow from my hair and grumbled, "What do you want?"<p>"You're looking for the Sparkling Bridge, right?  Well, we know a secret," they sang.<p>I sighed.<p>"What do you want?"<p>"Gold, and some pretty Gems if you have them!"<p>"Very well," I said.  My men brought forward their reward, but I held on to it until I learned if their secret was worth it.<p>"You can't just go walking through the Sparkling Bridge.  You could end up anywhere.  It's a magical portal to every world in the universe - that's why the Elementals guard it," said the Sprites.<p>"So, how do I travel to the place I want to go?" I asked.<p>"You need the Ring of the Wayfarer.  Find that, and you can go anywhere you want!"<p>The Spites flitted down, picked up their payment, and flew off to the north.|effect=-12 {{gem}} [[Gems]], -3500 {{g}} [[Gold]]}}

{{TErow| 14 |Day 14|I nearly died in battle this morning.  If not for Skizzik, I would have.<p>We were blinded by a blast of wind-swept snow, then the Air Elementals descended upon us.  Normally, I would've been able to deal with the creatures but a pain shot through my belly as if I had stabbed with a cold blade.  I toppled from my horse, weak from the pain and oblivious to the Elemental who sought to kill me.<p>I didn't see what happened, but later one of the Goblins said Skizzik jumped onto the Elemental's back.  The Familiar sunk its teeth into the creature's neck as it whirled around attempting to throw him off.  Grumba reached me by the time the Air Elemental sent Skizzik flying into a snowdrift.  After that, the ambush ended quickly and I was dragged to the healer's wagon.}}

{{TErow| 14 |Day 14 b|Of course, the healer found no injuries on my body and couldn't tell me where such a debilitating agony came from.  But I already knew.<p>It was the pain of a deep, and fatal, stab wound - the same wound that ended my life long ago and brought me before the Ancestors to be judged.  So much time had passed, I had forgotten how much it hurt.  But why did the memory return now?  Was this like my earlier illness?  Was this somehow connected to the disappearance of the Ancestors?}}

{{TErow| 16 |day 16|Skizzik shuffled into my tent last night looking as if he had done something wrong.<p>"Don't worry," I said.  "I wanted to thank you for saving my life."<p>"Didn't want you to be a bucket-kicker too.  You the one who keep that big ugly guy away from Skizzik."<p>"Well, it was brave of you.  I know you're not used to the way Barbarians do things, but if you follow our rules, Skizzik, I swear that you will always have a place among us."<p>"A Familiar and Barbarian friends?  That not possible!" Skizzik said.  He picked something from his sharp teeth, and then smiled at me.  "Good thing me dead, huh?  Maybe now me be a Barbarian too."}}

{{TErow| 23 |Day 23|Skizzik, who must be used to the hot furnace temperatures of the Inferno town, shivers all the time these days.  I've tried to get him to dress warmly, but he insists on wearing only a wool loincloth and a helmet adorned with ridiculously large ram's horns.  The Familiar thinks he's a Barbarian now, and even carries around a small hatchet - in his hands, it's a battle axe.  When I point out that even I wear thick clothes in the snow, Skizzik just laughs.<p>"That 'cause me tougher that you!" he tells me, teeth chattering.<p>So, I don't even try anymore.  Let him freeze to death if he's too stupid to put on clothes!}}

{{TErow| 25 |Day 25|I sent my scouts to search for the Sparkling Bridge, but all have returned empty-handed.  One of them thinks there is a remote valley in the far northeast.  The problem is, you can't get there from here.  The peaks around the valley are simply too high to cross.<p>We might have come across a bit of luck though.  Another scout spent some time spying in the scorched land to the north and spotted a Subterranean Gate.  There seemed to be a lot of activity around it - too much to be a simple cave.<p>Could there be an underground passage to the Sparkling Bridge?}}

{{TErow| 28 |Day 28|I found Skizzik sniffing the ground this morning.  He pinched some dirt between his fingers, licked it with his long, black tongue.<p>"What is it?" I asked.  We couldn't get started until he mounted his pony.<p>"Me thinks me remember somethin'.  Yep, me remember gates blocking the way - big gates but me small and me dead.  They don't notice a tiny bucket-kicker like I used to be, so I just sneak through," Skizzik said.<p>"Gates?"<p>"Yep!  Me too big now - big Barbarian be noticed now, so we must find the Keymasters first!"}}

{{TErow| 37 |Day 37|Last night, Skizzik got a chance to test his hatchet in battle instead of on every tree and bush along the trail.  We caught some Fire Elementals trying to burn our supply wagons.  The Familiar ran straight at them, screaming and swinging his weapon.  Unfortunately, his eyes were closed.  He hit an Orc, one of my own troops, in the knee before he met the enemy.<p>Unfortunately, the Fire Elementals weren't impressed.  One burned the weapon from Skizzik's hands and would've turned the Familiar into a blackened spot on the ground if I hadn't arrived in time.<p>Afterward, I immediately summoned the armorer and ordered him to forge an axe that wouldn't break so easily.  If Skizzik was going to be a Barbarian, he should at least have a decent weapon.}}