Vivian watched him with a small smile on her face as he slowly carved his mark into the bow. "You could fetch 300 for that one Glor." She offered with a grin.

"Only if yer tha one sellin it Arwen."

He winked at her with a grin as he handed her the bow to add to the inventory she already held for him, brushed a few wood curls from his lap and opened the door to his shop.

Suddenly, from above he distinctly heard the sound of a door slam. It startled him greatly for he always kept the door to his storeroom locked. Not to mention he had been sitting at his own front door carving for several hours. He looked over his shoulder at Vivian who was standing there with wide eyes and a look of confusion.

"Didja hear that Viv?", Glor asked her.

She simply nodded in reply.

Glor tossed his carving knife onto the bench and turned to enter the shop. He moved slowly and as silently as he could. From his pouch he removed a few choice reagents in preparation for a spell. Reaching the bottom of the steps that lead to the second story and the storage area of his shop, he heard no other sound. Slowly he began to ascend the stairs.

"Who's up there?", he called out. There was no reply.

He moved slow at first up the steps. Upon reaching about halfway he heard a tremendous crash, followed by a second and then a third, all seeming to come from his storeroom. He bolted the rest of the way up the steps and sped toward the door. Trying the knob he found that the door was still locked, exactly as he had left it.

Taking his key from his pouch, he quickly unlocked the door. The sounds and crashing had ceased. With a deep breath he threw open the door.

Chests and boxes were strewn all over. Many lay open with there contents spilled onto the floor. Glor proceeded inside cautiously, closing the door and bolting it behind him. He could tell that all the windows were still closed and latched. If something was inside the room it wasn't leaving without him knowing, but of an intruder, there was no sign

He kicked his way through the debris, his brow furrowing. There was no sign of anyone or anything and no room to hide. If it were a man he would have seen him, and any creature large enough to have overturned chests and boxes wouldn't be able to hide here either.

Quickly he spoke the words of power that would reveal to him anyone hiding from his sight by magical means. The flow of the weave gathered about him then expanded in a flash of light about the room. Nothing. He stood a moment longer, looking about and scratched absently at his beard. Finally, he shook his head to himself and headed back downstairs. He would search the shop from top to bottom, and for the first time since he opened he would consider barring the door after dark...

"Aye Sir, anchor dropped."

Glor turned from his tiller man to look over at the Bowyery. There was a customer there, bartering with Vivian over the price of arrows. Glor smiled knowing Vivian wouldn't budge on the price. The customer bought several bundles anyway and recalled away.

It had been a glorious spring day. He had spent the entire morning fishing as was his custom when he had little else to attend to. His pole still set lazily over the side of his boat with the line in the water. He hadn't caught much, but that didn't matter to him. He did it mostly to relax and meditate out on the ocean anyway.

As he made ready to lower the plank and head inside when he heard a small splash from behind him. He looked over his shoulder and saw that his pole was about to fall into the water. Something had found the unbaited hook on the other end and pulled at it..

He rushed and grabbed at his pole before it could topple over into the water and be lost. Whatever was on the other end yanked back hard suddenly and he found himself on his knees and leaning over the rail, struggling to hang on. There were no serpents to be found in the bay and he wondered what it was that could have such force as to nearly pull him overboard.

He could see his strained reflection in the water as he pulled and tugged hopelessly against a force much stronger than he. The ripples on the water made the reflection waver and eventually become lost as the pole's line was jerked around violently. Then suddenly the fight was over. The line went limp and the pole no longer tried to pull itself from his grasp.

Then he saw it...

He pulled the line in slowly. From the depth it looked at first as if he had simply caught a snake of some kind. As the object on the end of his line came closer to the surface he could see that it was, in fact, a bow. It was water stained and covered in strands of vegetation.. He pulled it to the surface and freed it from the hook, laying it next to him on the deck. His eyes still focused on the water. He could somehow feel that more was coming to the surface....and then it did.

At first it simply seemed to be a grayish shape. As it slowly rose from the depths it began to take form, humanoid form. Slowly it came into focus before him. Long hair flowed out from it's head. Features he could not quite see with the exception of pointed ears poked out from its hair. He gasped as what appeared to be the corpse of an elf hovered just below the surface of the water looking up at him through dead and bloated eyes.

He reached an arm into the water quickly, making a grasp at the form that was just below the surface. His arm found nothing. He watched with wide eyes as his hand passed through the image floating there. He bit his lip to keep from crying out and took a step back from the rail.

He stood there for a moment only. Already the dead elf seemed to have sunk back into the water and was only a humanoid shaped shadow again. Reaching down he picked up the recovered bow from the deck. Not thinking, and daring not to glance into the water again, he slung the bow over his shoulder and turned to leave his boat.

Vivian gave him a curious look as he made his way to the door of his shop. "Glor? Are you alright?", She asked as he walked up the steps.

He only nodded to her in response.

"You look as if you've seen a ghost." She said with a small grin.

He looked back at her. His skin felt clammy and cold and his mind seemed to be at a loss. All he could do was nod at her again. He turned and entered his shop.

He stepped inside his shop with only a grave nod to Vivian as he passed. Sitting on the counter was the old warped bow he had fished up from the bay just outside the shop. Glor had locked it away in a chest he was sure, yet there it was. He felt certain that that bow was not the source, or the focus of the spirit that haunted the bowyery. He resolved now to be rid of the thing.

As he reached for the old bow he suddenly heard a flapping sound behind him. Turning on his heel he saw that the guest book he had set out was open and pages were rapidly turning themselves as if caught in a stiff wind. They flew back and forth, some pages tearing away to float to the ground. Glor was suddenly aware that the room had grown very cold around him. His breath was visible as he watched the book finally slam shut. He took a few tentative steps towards the book. After it showed no signs of any more activity he picked it up and opened the cover.

Scrawled on the first page of the book, where comments from visitors had been were the words... "HeLP Me..." Below them was a shaky symbol that looked like a V.

The air in the room began to warm now. He set the book back on the table and turned to the counter. He was intent about taking that bow out to sea and plunging it into the depths, but when he looked, the bow was no longer there.

Glor took a deep breath to steady himself. 'What now?', he thought.

He had no talent himself for communicating with the dead, but he knew a couple who did. This has gone on long enough he decided, it was time to seek help.

Glor had been sharing the tales of the haunting with friends over at the Silver Arrow. A few had ventured over to the Bowyery to investigate. Kirel and Melyanna were among them. Glor had remained behind, he had had his fill of encountering ghosts for a while.

From what Glor had been told when the party returned from the Bowyery, Melyanna had called upon Luna to speak to the ghost. They learned much. The spirit was that of an elf who had died in the pit of Hythloth some ten years ago. There it had been the prisoner of the Lord of the Dead until just recently. Now it seemed the spirit was seeking a way to Arvanaith. Having been the victim of an unnatural death it was unable to go itself. Luna had even been able to learn the name of the spirit, and when Glor had heard it his own blood ran cold. Vara En'seer....Glor's half-brother.

Vara had been kidnapped and sent to Hythloth by Tel'Halda all those years ago as part of a plot to gain revenge on Glorfindle. There Vara had died, his spirit becoming a plaything of the Daemons that lived there. How Vara had gotten away, and how his bow had ended up in the Bay just outside the Bowyery would be mysteries remaining unanswered Glor was sure. None of that mattered now.

Glorfindle was determined. For Vara to find Arvanaith, his remains would have to be found...and returned to his place of birth on Toril. Somewhere in the depths of Hythloth, Vara's bones would be lying among the remains of countless others. Finding them would be a near impossible task, unless they could be guided there somehow.

Glor had thought long on this and had talked with Joylah well into the morning. Glor knew that Vara's spirit was tied to the bow he had found somehow. As long as the bow remained in the Bowyery, Vara's spirit would be unable to wander far. If they could take the bow with them into the Pit, Vara could most likely follow, and perhaps lead them to his remains.

But the bow was now missing. Vara's spirit had moved it somewhere, and Glor, being unable to see or communicate with Vara had thus far been unable to find it. No doubt it was still in the Bowyery somewhere, and as Glor overturned the contents of another crate his mind became even more set. He would find a way to get his half-brother finally to rest.

Growing increasingly frustrated in his search for Vara's recovered bow, Glor slammed the lid down on the chest and ran to the bottom of the steps, calling loudly upstairs. "Dammit Vara! Where tha hell didja put tha blasted thing?!"

He paused and listened as the sound of footsteps suddenly ceased. He wasn't surprised in the least as the air around him took on a now familiar chill. The unseen spirit was now with him in the main room of the shop. From behind Glorfindle now came the sharp clack of wood hitting sandstone. He turned sharply and watched as the warped and rotted bow was hung neatly by invisible hands on the mounts that had a moment before held on of Glor's prize bows.

Glor ran quickly behind the counter, nearly tripping on the bow that had fallen from the wall, and grabbed his brothers bow. The air around him was nearly freezing now as he looked in awe at the twisted wood in his hands. He spoke quietly now to the spirit of his toror. "No more games Vara...If were gonna see ya ta Avarnaith were gonna need yer help in that pit. Yer gonna havta lead us."

Glor wasn't looking forward to the trip. Hythloth is a dangerous place and folks would likely get hurt on the trip. He knew that wouldn't deter his friends in the least. They would find Vara's remains and Glor would return them to the place of Vara's birth. His brother would finally have peace.

A light caught Glor's eye. He turned to look and gasped audibly. Vara stood before before him, clear as day, surrounded by a soft glow. Glor could see the sadness in his toror's eyes despite the soft smile that Vara offered. Glor could only stammer a bit and offer Vara a slight nod.

Vara nodded once in return and the light slowly faded as he vanished before Glor's astonished eyes.