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Editing notes. I'll go back and do the actual editing later or on the iLands version. This is just to put it somewhere for later. Basic idea for fixing the main issues that have been pointed out. People named and then not talked about. This is going to be a rather long story, and it connects to a larger world. The people named are potentially going to show up later in the story. Not sure what I can do about the mentioned then dropped effect around where they are first named. Expanding the scene to talk about them more feels like it would make it worse.  The time spent in Umbraheim should be expanded. Stay longer search more. Have the Hunger for brains become more of a thing while he's there. He's not going to start looking at his friends as lunch unless the Hunger was getting really bad. But if he hasn't eaten in over a week and someone who doesn't like Mindflayers tries attacking him... Not sure if I want him to actually eat a person's brain here and find the fungus bland afterwards or have him stop himself from doing it. But only just barely. Maybe try being a Bard while there. Either openly looking as he does. People there might not care too much about what he looks like if his performance is good enough. Then again, maybe some people would have a problem with a Mindflayer just walking around.  Need to think about that some more. Drop the Shankara Stone. They go to Istanople for the Archives there and learn about the Stone after they've been there for awhile. I need some way to tell the reader what a Dracknalitch is without being tedious or info dumping. Might just name it in the story and describe it in an appendix/notes section. Might do that with everyone Named in the story as well as a quick fix for the named and dropped problem when he meets up with his friends. Dracknalitch is the undead phase of a Shadow Dracknid's life cycle. Many creatures that have the Shadow type become fully Undead with enough time has passed. Forming a Phylactery as an innate ability. A Dracknid is typically a created creature used as a guard/watchdog or in some similar role. They are able to reproduce biologically and there are wild/free individuals in some places. Spider like main body with six legs, then where the head would be on a giant spider you have the neck and head of a Dragon with a pair of arms/forelegs about halfway between the main body and the head. The hands are three fingered and clawed. Usable as weapons each being roughly equal to a dagger. The head can deliver a bite attack as well as having a Breath Weapon attack. The exact nature of which depends on the Dragon type the Draknid is based on. Blue is the preferred version as this gives the Draknid Shockweb as it's Breath Weapon allowing them to Shock intruders unconscious while sticking them to a wall to be dealt with later. And I should probably put the stuff about Draknids in its own post somewhere. And, yes. At some point I will do a post of all the People Named in the story. Should probably include other people of interest that appear in the Shard Scape in general. Definitely a separate post for all that. People of Intrest in the Shard Scape and elsewhere.    

About halfway down we find some decorative Obilisks still standing on each side of the road. Yeriko walks over to one takes a closer look then activates a Rune on her Staff and strikes the Obilisk, hard. It crumbles and gives off a foul odor. "Grayrot" Yeriko says grimly. "So, a Dracknalitch. Shadow Dracknid gone full undead ?" I ask. But it's not really a question. "Maybe that's to our advantage." Hawk says thoughtfully. "How so?" Kain ask  "If it's gone full undead, then it has a Phylactery. If we can find that..." "While that is a vulnerability. Finding it isn't going to be easy." Yeriko says dryly  "Easier than taking it head on." Hawk says. "Not really. It will have its Phalactry hidden and protected by traps. Lots of unknown dangers that way. With Charms to shield us from its Breath Weapon, just attacking it directly is safer and simpler." Targon declares after giving the matter a few seconds thought. Hawk looks at Yeriko and Kain "You can make protective Charms that will be able to deal with something that's going to be Breathing clouds of concentrated Greyrot at us ?" Yeriko and Kain look at each other, then nod "Yes. It will take some time to make enough for everyone. But it can be done." She says  "We should probably go back to last night's campsite to work and plan. Now that we know what we're going to be facing." Kain says. Everyone agrees, and we head back to prepare.

Yeriko used a Heat Stone spell she'd been working on to provide the equivalent of a campfire for cooking without the dangers light from an actual fire. The smell of food cooking was still a risk. But, a rather minor one given the general lack of anything living in the ruins or surrounding area. We ate. I decided to indulge in one of the meals I was carrying. I had a feeling that I was going to want to be at full strength when we ventured into the ruins tomorrow. I ate alone. The others didn't need to see. And I didn't need an audience for my first experience with consuming a brain fungus. It was  everything that I had feared it would be. The part of me that was Thulien relishing the whole experience While the part of me that was me was revolted. I did my best to ignore my new body's reaction and my own as well. Thankfully slurping down a brain fungus doesn't take long and afterwards I felt full. A faint hunger I'd been mostly ignoring was now satisfied. Kain shifted to his full panther form and joined me on watch. The others took their turns. Time passed. Nothing of interest continued to happen. We didn't bother with breakfast. It's better to go into battle with an empty stomach that is only a little hungry. We broke camp gathering up the few items we'd unpacked and headed down the path that lead to the Ruins.

If silence were to speak, it would talk the way a house talks with the door left open all night. Not loud. Not to anyone.   It would say it kept the light on past the hour light is any use. It would say the chair by the window has been sat in by weather for years,   and weather never said thank you. Then it would ask, barely moving its mouth, whether being kept counts the same as being wanted.   A house does not ask that out loud. A house holds the question in the shape of a coat on a hook long after the coat is gone.   So ask the house what it kept. Ask what the keeping cost it. Whatever the house remembers, it keeps. ---------‐----------------------------- Next Line: Whatever the House Remembers, it Keeps.   - Katrena, in iLands Reposted here by request 

A marketplace filled with ghosts It's silent cacophony echoes through the emptiness As shadows bustle about Nothing more than a memory Of a vibrant long ago Dust settles As if in search of that past Frantically seeping between every crack Reaching each nook and crany Weeping in its' solitude The ghosts pay it no mind They go on Oblivious to their own absence   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NEXT LINE: If silence were to speak