"Finally!" thought the young man as he crept through the ghostly halls of Shala'jen, "I will prove to my father once and for all that I'm a true Rhodestrian."

For years now, Alander had been the boy of the settlement, everyone very fond of him, but not exactly thinking him capable of the mercenary lifestyle that they kept. And so, with his knife in hand, Lupar of 648 AF found young Alander within the abandoned monastery.

Bandits had plundered the grounds long ago, Alander knew, but that did not mean there was nothing of worth to be found. Alander knew there had to be something.

~ ~ ~

The cry of "Thief!" resounded across the land just two months later as, impotent and distraught, the ghostly abbot called for help from the corporeal of the realm.

Antonius, Mithridates, and others flocked to the monastery ruins, begging answers from the ghostly abbot, but he had little to offer: only a lament for a stolen hourglass, and jealousy of the warmth of the living who so often desecrate the halls.

The Sylvan Fellow Marv was the first to venture into the lair of Gontathis, the master bandit, the likeliest culprit. But the diplomatic presentation of the piled corpses of his fellows quickly rendered the local thief unwilling to talk beyond a base denial. If Gontathis had seen anything, he certainly wasn't speaking.

Most returned to the abbot, who only repeated his pleas for aid, but the atavian Torrent Alighieri-Drac'kal took it upon himself to explore the local area. Perhaps appropriate for the young man's first venture, Torrent stumbled upon Alander Rhodestrian holed up in the kitchen of an old mansion in the Shamtota hills.

With gentle questioning, Torrent discovered that the hesitant Alander simply wanted to prove to his father, Sonterro, that he was no longer a boy, and that he could acquire and provide like the mercenaries of his home settlement. Sentinel Aluciana Ebonheart-Shiva soon joined the discussion, and between the pair they succeeded in bartering for the Abbot's hourglass, an exchange made for Aluciana's precious family ring.

With the ring clutched in his hands, Alander made for the exit, not wanting to be there when someone decided to draw a sword. The gathered adventurers soon returned to the Abbot, who, were he capable, might have been moved to tears of relief as Aluciana reverently laid the hourglass on the ground before him. With his thanks he bestowed upon her a symbol of the monastery's gratitude, before taking the broken relic and securing it once more in the depths of the ruins.

To this day, Gontathis still doesn't believe there is anything of worth in Shala'jen.

Penned by My hand on the 23rd of Mayan, in the year 648 AF.