Tales of Faerun

[Flipout6]

"What? What's going on?" Weyland asked as he approached Rhaine. He took a good long look at Theron.

 

"What in the hells happened to him? Did he get mauled by a cat?"

 

"Actually...." Amendale began. He'd heard most of the conversation, having elven ears and whatnot.

 

"So whose cat was it?" Arland asked.

 

"It wasn't a cat, you imbecile." Amendale snapped, tired of Arland's cluelessness. "It was a Lamia. Sana, to be exact."

 

Weyland paled. Arland paused and simply went "Oh."

 

"Well where is she? Let's skin her alive already!" Weyland barked, drawing his blade and looking around for her. As if to emphasize his point, the blade flashed with electricity from its enchantment. It was impressively dramatic.

 

"She's hiding in the forest somewhere. As was said, she's waiting for the chance to ambush you, preferably alone."

 

"Buddy system it is." Arland noted, looking uneasily into the trees fringing the grounds. "Or maybe two-buddy system. Weyland, me, and you." He said to Amendale.

 

"I'm loathe to agree with you, but it is a wise suggestion. I'd recommend nobody stray from the festival grounds, and always be sure to stay near a friend."

 

"She's only after Weyland, though." Arland frowned.

 

"Yeah, and knowing her, she'd take out anybody she could get her hands on if it meant it got to me." Weyland corrected firmly.

 

"She's doing this to scare us. Staying together might seem like an act of fear, but it's that or we stand a chance of getting picked off, one by one." He paused. "And don't follow any kind of lures into the forest, magical or otherwise."

 

Arland scoffed. "Listen to yourself, brother. She's got you scared as a kicked puppy. I honestly think we should just go hunting and kill her." He got a solid crack in the jaw.

 

"Feel free. I'm sure you'll do fine when she's stronger than I am, has magical abilities, and two much, much bigger blades than anything you've ever carried around. Oh, and she's smart. Has that on you as well."

 

"I meant all of us, dimwit."

 

"If she wanted to take on all of us she'd have done so already." Amendale commented. "But let's not let her get our spirits down, as is her intent. Simply stay in groups and continue to enjoy the fair. Not even she would dare attack us in the midst of hundreds of people, especially when most of them can fight, shoot, or cast spells. It would be downright foolhardy. No. Rhaine is correct: she's going to attack us divided, though Weyland is her highest priority."

 

"Keep Tak'We with him, then." Arland suggested, in what was perhaps his first intelligent sentence of the day. "Something tells me he won't take kindly to a slave-catching cat trying to re-capture one of her slaves. Or maybe kill him, I dunno."

Edited November 6, 2013 by Flipout6

[GrueMaster]

Tak'we gave a keening sound again as Rhaine and Azuris knocked each other to the ground and laid motionless, and was about to rush over to help when they finally started to move. Foolish softskins... he thought as he gave a sigh of relief, and paid idle attention to the Greys as they took their turn at practice, focusing more on the conversation over Sana, whom he gave a hiss at the mention of; he remembered how Weyland once was her slave.

 

"Thiss one iss not pleassed," the thri'kreen spoke as they brought up how Sana had sneaked by. He had been awake all night, but had not noticed a thing, and that bothered him deeply, for he prided himself on his hunting skills. This foul creature is cunning...

 

He could only agree when Weyland, Arland, and Amendale came over and began to speak about what to do about Sana. "She will die if she goess near clutchmatess!" Tak'we spat out with a hiss and a small glob of poison, his anger plain to see. Wait until I get my claws on her! He thought angrily, but trying to keep calm. If only she came out and fought...

 

At this last thought, an idea came to the thri'kreen's mind. He was reluctant to do it, as it would risk his clutchmates getting hurt, but if it meant getting Sana and ultimately protecting Weyland, then he would do it. Going to Amendale's side, he spoke in a quiet tone so that only the pointy-ear would hear. "Thiss one hass an idea to trap Sana, but it would involve using... bait." At this, Tak'we gave a quick glance at Weyland, then looked back at Amendale, hoping his intentions were shown correctly.

[Flipout6]

Amendale thought about Tak'We's idea, and was rather surprised that he'd thought of such a suggestion in the first place. Still, once it went through some refining it was likely to be a sound enough plan, especially if it got one more threat off the group's collective back. He considered letting Weyland in on the plan, but then wondered if that would make him act different than he usually would. He had absolutely no idea how intelligent Sana was, but if he acted differently than normal, then maybe she wouldn't go with the plan. It would be unwise to send Weyland alone, however. Too obvious, and Sana was likely quite capable of overwhelming him on his own. They also had to consider that she was unlikely to attack if it was obviously a trap, meaning that sending somebody who would clearly overpower her wasn't going to work. Slowly, he nodded.

 

"I think it could work." He said quietly. "Just make sure it's not too obvious it's a trap." An option for the trap suddenly occurred to him. "We can't leave him alone, though. I'd suggest he take one or two people. I think Nawen would be perhaps our best choice. Unassuming but dangerous, and the wilderness is her field. And a bow would be useful here."

 

Neither Grey brother heard any of the exchange between the two. Weyland himself was lost in thought, wondering how he should tackle this problem. He considered asking Arland, but figured that Arland would suggest they just walk into the woods and smack her, and so decided against it.

[Deleted6317247User]

"I don't get it," Shalena said as she heard the plan, "we have her outnumbered. We could easily defeat her."

 

"She's been in this area for as long as we have, if not longer," Nawen replied, "she could have made the whole forest into one huge deathtrap for all we know."

 

"You've been scouting for years. I'm sure you'd find her traps easily." The pirate replied.

 

"And if I failed?"

 

"Some of us would die."

 

"Great. No pressure." Nawen said and looked at the treeline of the forest that bordered the fair. There's always danger to be found in the places untouched, or mostly untouched by civilization but never like this. Not only that Sana managed to sneak in and out to their camp unnoticed but what if she did this more than once?

[AurianaValoria1]

Rhaine did not hear the exchange between Tak'we and Amendale. Rather, she was far more concerned with the masked stranger who was suddenly watching them. She kept Azrael's reins in her hand as she walked towards the masked man, leading the warhorse beside her.

 

She gestured at the jousting field as she addressed him, "I trust you've been thoroughly entertained? Is there anything I can do for you, or are you simply spectating?"

 

Back at the other end of the fence, Conall shifted as he watched Rhaine go towards the newcomer, "Something off about that man."

 

Dagny nodded in agreement, "Aye. 'Tis a bit strange," she jumped down from the fence and began walking away, "But nevermind me. I'll be off to me tent, for now. Good day."

 

Argyros stepped away as well, "I will depart as well. It was a pleasure to meet you all."

 

Conall was the last to leave, slowly moving in the direction of the edge of the grounds, Fenrir at his heels. He planned on giving Theron a little burial before returning to his own tent. He made up his mind to reload his crossbow and keep it handy, just in case this Lamia became bold enough to attack them here.

Edited November 10, 2013 by AurianaValoria1

[Quintatas]

Xundus was thoroughly entertained by the spectacle of two of the participating riders practice jousting, especially when one of them was hit in the unmentionables. His grin dissipated, however, when he considered how much it must hurt.

 

A little while later, the red-haired woman approached him. He pulled the hood of his tattered cloak down a bit lower; a habit he'd developed a while back. After she spoke to him, he replied "Yes, I do find it entertaining. Looks painful, though. Well, down to business, I suppose. Yes, there is a reason I am here. I'm looking for work. You seem to surround yourself with the adventuring type- perhaps you are looking for more fighters to join you?"

[josh900]

Azuris had moved off to the side to give the Grey brother room for their joust as well as to catch his breath away from the others. He didn't particularly care who won or lost but was highly sympathetic to Arland's pain, letting out an audible "Ouch." as Arland curled into a ball.

----------

 

"Attracting all sorts of attention aren't we?" Tannin said as he approached Rhaine and the masked man. The mask had caught his interest, but the accent got his attention. "Well now, you're an inconspicuous one aren't you? Only a few kinds of people wear mask like those as part of their daily wear, burn victims, wanted criminals, or as your accent gave away, a member of a particularly unliked group of people. Either way I start wanting to get a little stabby when confronted with masked men, She's a little more used to it than I am of course," He said, nodding to Rhaine. "But then her experiences with them have been more pleasant, far less judgmental. Oh well, all a part of the territory I guess, anyways I hope you're a touch nicer than the last Drow we - ooooooh.." He stopped his train of words with his fist pressed up against his mouth. "You probably wanted that to stay a secret didn't you?" He pointed at the new comer. "You'll have to forgive me, I'm terrible at keeping secrets I don't want to keep." He said with a smirk, knowing that he was acting rather rude but wanted to gauge the Drow's reaction to an insolent surfacer.

[AurianaValoria1]

Rhaine raised an eyebrow at Tannin's words, glancing back and forth between him and the masked drow.

 

Addressing the stranger, she replied, "My answer to your question depends on who you are, exactly, and what kind of work you are looking for. Unfortunately, we aren't a group of casual adventurers, per se. This is but a respite from a very important mission...one that could affect the fate of the Realms themselves.

 

"And," the Doomguide added, "I feel I must say that if you are running from something and seeking protection, I'd like to know now."

[Quintatas]

Xundus turned to face the approaching man. After listening to him talk, he sighed and said, "Yes, I did in fact want to keep it a secret. That's the point of wearing this mask- why else would I? Well, I suppose there's no point in keeping it a secret now. I hope you won't judge me by the color of my skin... my experiences with people who do have been - well, unpleasant, to say the least."

 

Turning back to the red-haired woman, he replied, "I'm simply looking for adventure... be it a simple journey through the wilderness, or a dangerous mission to assassinate a rogue lich. All's I ask for is good work and good companionship - preferably the kind that doesn't want to impale me on a stake and burn me alive."

 

Addressing her second question, he answered, "The only thing I'm running from is my past - more specifically, my race. Other than that, no."

[mythicdawnmaster]

Xallistine, after begrudgingly shedding his true form and squeezing back into his arcane disguise, slowly emerged from the tent. Rhaine's words still passed through the workings of his mind, filtering, funnelling and finally fluctuating in their meaning as he performed his mental vivisection, taking each sentence of Rhaine's retort apart as one would the contents of a mysterious body. There was no denying that he still could not fully appreciate her words, but he attempted to place himself in her devoted state of mind, to comprehend what it was to exist solely as a projection of her faith- she had said that without it she was nothing. How was he meant to interpret a phrase so multi-facetious? Did she literally mean that without her faith she ceased to exist? That she truly was nothing, not a spec? Or did she mean that spiritually she was devoid? He had not the time to mull over such things, not when he could focus upon the threat that they had taken respite from.

 

Gliding sagely toward his winged leader, he noticed the masked figure locked in interrogation by their very own Mr. Virson. Catching the Drow's words, Xallistine raised an awkwardly human brow as he came to a halt beside Rhaine, leaning forward heavily upon his jet cane. Having not shrunk with the Ulitharid, the smooth, colourless cane looked odd, too large for the human clutching to it, all the while bearing the subtle influences of Illithid style.

 

"Ours is not the kind of work that yields renown and adoration, and neither is this an adventure. We face a powerful foe." Xallistine remarked, turning to Rhaine "He has been honest, which more than can be said for a number of our companions, and we all have aspects of our past we wish to run from." He said in a fair tone.

 

"And another pawn upon the board increases our survival." He remarked mentally, protecting his thought to Rhaine and Rhaine alone.

 

-------

 

Ravenna chuckled, a devilish grin spread across her face, fanged canines pearlescent in the dim light. "You have reminded me of my station Quarylene- Devil Queen indeed. Let us show the dear goddesses what the Consort of the Hells may do with her power. I long to make a few more enemies, and, to watch them squirm."