Gartha
Legacy Name: Gartha

Story:The captain went ashore, his fury at me was plain in every tense muscle of his body.I stood at the base of the mast, scowling as one by one the crew followed the captain down the ladder to the row boats.The fools, they would not heed the natives warnings, and they ignored the countless souls that had been lost while trying to settle that accursed land.Thunder rumbled, the sound reverberated in my chest and I yelled my frustration to the blackened sky.

I had joined this expedition as a guide and protector, I am a master of defensive magic and enchanted pistols, I had seemed like a profitable opportunity at first.Many colonists have tried to settle in these dark woods, but few returned and those who did always seemed to have gone mad.
But on occasion they also brought back priceless artifacts, and it was this that first attracted me to the expedition.My intentions were far from honorable, I was a thief, I made my living through deception and theft. I had planned on helping the captain and crew reap a profit then cast a spell to drive them mad as we returned home, then take all the treasure for myself.

But that was all before I met the Tehb people.

Our expedition was not for colonization, that endeavor had proved to be futile, we believed that if we merely raided the dark forest we would not be there long enough to be killed off by the horrors within.We first sailed to the Tehb people to learn what we could about the forest and its contents.They at first seemed bizarre and strange, but we quickly found them to be kindly and generous.I inadvertently became friends with the village shaman, he found my skills impressive and was eager to show me some of the spells he knew.The night before we were to set sail for the dark forest the shaman asked to show me something in the light of the harvest moon.He said my captain refused to come and all of the crew as well, but he knew that I at least would be able to comprehend the event.

I didn't know what he meant by "comprehend" but I agreed, and he lead me to a vast graveyard that I knew the entire village maintained with painstaking care.I was skeptical, and though I liked this pleasant middle-aged shaman I still secretly cast a spell of disillusionment around me to fend off any trick of the eye or mind.I was afraid he was going to try to outshine my skills with some spectacular show, since showing off had been an enjoyable part of our young friendship.

However, the things I saw that night were no illusion.Ghostly forms of the dead rose from the sacred earth and told of how they foolishly went into the dark forest despite the Tehb's warnings.I saw so many faces and heard so many stories that I thought I would surely go mad from the massive amounts of information.At one point I sat wearily upon a tree root to gather my wits, but I must have dozed off, because when I next opened my eyes I was in my hammock back on the ship.I was at first infuriated that a grown man had been carried to his bed like a sick whelp, but then the lookout shouted that we had arrived at the dark forest.I snatched my cloak and pistols then pelted up the stairs to the deck.

Black clouds filled the sky, the crew hurried to drop the anchor and lower the row boats.The captain roared orders and the crew rushed to do his bidding, I ran up to him immediately, he had to be warned, treasure be damned.

I told the captain everything, But his refusal was so sudden and so violent that in the space of a moment I found myself looking up at him through a blackening eye as I lay on the deck."I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT PAGAN SUPERSTITIOUS TRICKERY, I WILL NOT BE CHEATED OUT OF A FORTUNE!"

The rest of the crew sided with the captain and I found myself watching helplessly from besides the mast as they all rowed ashore.

But I knew that I had to do something, they would all die, it had been my job to fend off the deadly poisoning magic, colony's without such protection barely lasted a single day.

My old nature writhed within me, I was a thief, a deceiver, a sorcerer! I should leave them to their own fate.But I remembered the Tehb graveyard, and the regret of all those lost souls who died because they disregarded the Tehb's warning.

I made up my mind then and there, the crew had already long since reached shore, but I did not need a boat to travel such a short distance to shore.I quickly climbed to the crows nest, then looking across the two hundred yards of choppy sea, I leapt into empty space.My enchanted cloak spread like wings and I glided at such a shallow angle that I was at the forest edge far from the shoreline before my boots hit the ground.As I recovered from the fatigue of the spell I heard course shrieks from within the forest.Without hesitation I dove into the gloomy trees, hurriedly casting protective spells around myself as I followed the obvious signs of the crews passing.

Suddenly a crowd of wild-eyed bleeding crew members came barreling back through the trees, they were so terrified they pushed right past me and fled toward the beach.Something was happening, I ran full-out through the trees passing more bloodied crew members as they tried to escape whatever was attacking them.The shouts and screams were close, suddenly I tumbled into a dark clearing and was greeted by a horrific sight.

Massive black creatures were ravaging the crew members who had been unable to escape, I heard a hoarse shout and saw the captain and a small group of crew members firing on the creatures from a shelter among fallen rocks.I pulled out my pistols and joined the fray.
The creatures were difficult to bring down, but my pistols never ran out of ammo though they tended to over-heat, I managed to reach the captain however and helped bring down a beast who was chasing a fleeing man.The captain believed that they wouldn't have gotten into this mess if I had been with them doing my job as their protector.I told him that I wouldn't have been any more good then than I was right now, I had heard of these beasts from some of the spirits from the graveyard, they roamed the forest in one massive pack, we must have stumbled upon it as it was passing trough.
The captain looked grim, we both realized that this meant that there would be more of these creatures coming, we had to get to shore before the rest of the pack arrived.

The problem wasn't that I didn't know how this could be accomplished, the problem was that I knew exactly what to do.Bile rose in my throat at the plan that unfolded in my mind, Damn heroics, they were going to get me killed.I pulled the captain back during a lull in the fighting and explained my plan.He just looked at me, face set like stone, then clamped a massive hand on my shoulder and said he was sorry he didn't listen to me before, and said I was the bravest man he had ever known.

He didn't apologize for giving me a black eye but I didn't mind, he had already gone over his quota for sentimentality for the next month just by apologizing.I nodded and he called his men back and gave them a quick briefing of the plan.I in the meantime, rushed out of our shelter and cast a very exerting spell to make a massive illusion, The creatures turned to see a virtual army of myself running past.
My plan was to lure them into the forest, giving the others a chance to escape.

I need not tell you my plan worked, however, the spell sapped all my energy and I collapsed unconscious, just as the beasts caught up to me.My friend the shaman came and retrieved my body, and buried it in the sacred soil, the very next harvest moon the captain and the surviving ships crew came to my grave.They continued to come every year to thank me for saving their lives, even their children and grandchildren came to thank me and to hear this story.

My name?No living soul knows it, and I personally would like to keep it that way, I hope you understand.
Thank you for coming, but the moon is fading so I must return to my rest, Happy Morostide.

Judge comments
Our Grand Prize Winner, which is also the Avatar's Tale.

"All the thought put into this and the story itself? This guy is GOOD!"
"This (category) was the hardest to judge for me. The stories were compelling; the avatars super. On all but one I could envision ways the avatar could have been tweaked to go better with the story. This one to me stood above all since the HA flowed into the story and the story made the HA. The captain one. Perfect."
"OMG, that pirate one blows me away!"