Tales of Faerun

[Deleted6317247User]

"... and have you ever seen those log traps? I haven't but I've heard that some have sharp spikes. Imagine what would happen if-"

 

"Alright, alright I get it!" Nawen exclaimed interrupting the pirate captain's words, "If I'll ever fail to spot a trap bad things are going to happen."

 

"Worse than bad: injuries maybe even death," Shalena chuckled and looked around to see if any of her crewmen were in sight but she couldn't see anyone aside from everyone who were already here when she came, "alright, I'll go and search for my crew. Gotta warn them about that panther-woman." She said and walked off.

 

"I hope she'll eat all of them. Annoying pirates." Nawen thought as she walked over to where the others went, little Rhegar followed her happily. As she approached them, the drow noticed that they were talking with a masked man.

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When Xallas entered his master's quarters he was first greeted by the albino raven cawing the word corn endlessly while perching on the table with a handful of grain in front of it.

 

"Ah, you've returned," Orion greeted his skeletal servant as he arose from the large chair by the fireplace, "not empty handed I hope."

 

Without saying a word, Xallas approached the sorcerer and handed the large sack to him. Orion grinned and eagerly opened it. "Excellent." He said and walked to another room. The Death Knight followed. He saw the room for the very first time but it was far from impressive. The size of it reminded him larger than usual closet and there was nothing inside but a few shelves with glass globes.

 

"Sixteen," Orion said as he was done placing the newly obtained soul housings filled with souls, "I have sixteen but I need eighty five." He said no longer pleased.

 

"You've wanted me-"

 

"Yes, yes. I know what I said." The human sorcerer interrupted and left the small room. "I need eighty five exceptionally strong souls."

 

"They're hard to come by." The Death Knight said. His voice showed no emotions.

 

"And if I collected weak souls, I'd need 175 souls." Orion replied as he went back to sit at the fireplace.

 

"Do whatever you want, I have no work for you for the rest of the evening," The sorcerer said after a short pause, his attention focused on the fire, "leave tomorrow morning and get me more souls."

[AurianaValoria1]

"Very well," Rhaine replied to the stranger drow, "I have no objections. But you may wish to speak with my companions...and obtain an idea of what you're getting yourself into."

 

Turning to Xallistine, she added, "Be sure to remember to sign up for that magic competition, if you haven't already. I hear it begins at dawn on the morrow. As for myself, I'm returning to my tent for the day."

 

With that, she led Azrael back to the tree and tethered him once more, untacking him and feeding him before entering her own tent and fastening the flaps closed behind her.

 

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After a few more hours, the faint lights of violet and blue faerie fire lit the distant corridors in an eerie glow. They were approaching a city - Quarylene did not know the name - and would more than likely encounter a few patrols before too much longer.

[Quintatas]

"Thank you," Xundus said to the red-haired woman as she left.

 

He'd been on many dangerous missions, be it destroying a rival house for House Melarn, or assassinating a renegade drow. But the tones of these people when they told him of the mission - he felt this was something much larger than anything he'd ever faced before. But it didn't matter to him: work was work, dangerous or important as it was.

 

The drow re-adjusted his rapier on his belt, tightened the strap holding his vials of poison, and began to walk.

[GrueMaster]

Tak'we nodded softly, still keeping his voice low. "Of courssse. I will be closse by, but having Nawen would be great." He shifted where he stood, feeling a little guilty about planning such a thing. "Thiss one doess not like clutchmatess being in danger, but in the wildss this creature could become more deadly. Looking over towards the stranger the others were speaking to, Tak'we finished speaking with Amendale. "Clutch should sspeak more on thiss later, when we can better plan it in ssecret."

 

The thri'kreen gave another nod to his clutchmate and shuffled over to Nawen's side, wanting to speak with her and curious about the stranger among his clutch. "Nawen," he whispered as the others spoke, "when you have time, thiss one and Amendale would like to sspeak of ssomething with you." At Tannin's mention of drow and the stranger's words, Tak'we turned his attention towards the newcomer, his curiosity piqued. "You are a good dark pointy-ear?" he spoke in his raspy old softskin voice and bowed slightly. "This old one iss named Tak'we. Nice to meet you."

 

 

 

Dri winced as the woman and man jousting knocked each other from their respective saddles. I'll never understand the point behind such things, she thought, then gave an ironic smile as she recognized the next two men jousting as the ones who'd chased her a few nights ago. Now this should be interesting. She laughed as the apparently elder of the two easily beat the other, although the hit in the end made her wince inside.

 

Shaking her head and hoping the young man would be alright, Dri left the practice areas. She had work to do tonight...

 

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Dri dived into an alley near the tavern in town and gave a sigh of relief as the man she'd pick-pocketed earlier ran past. It was now dark out, and the streets were nearly abandoned at this time of night.

 

Confident no one else was around, she changed from her male guise back into her normal female form and began to walk away when a pair of strong hands suddenly seized her from behind, one hand clamped over her mouth. Kicking and trying to scratch at her assailant, she bit down on the hand over her mouth, eliciting a curse from a man's voice and loosening that grip. Just as she wiggled out of his arms and began to run, a fist from another man came in hard on her midriff, knocking the breath from her and sending her to her knees before another blow hit her in the back of her head and sent her sprawling to the ground, dazed and trying to draw air into her lungs.

 

"Hells, she bit my hand!" she heard one voice in her dazed state. "Well, you shouldn't have kept your hand there, then," said another, rolled her over to where she could now dimly perceive two figures in her sight, one burly man and another smaller, skinnier one who was knelt right next to her. "Can we just slit her throat and leave?" the burly man asked. "In a minute, I'm curious," said the skinny figure. "Well, hurry up before anyone notices!"

 

Ignoring his partner, the skinnier one leaned in closer. "Now, I know we're supposed to simply kill you, since you've been a pain in our business , but we've been watching you for a while and that's a terribly neat trick you have there," he said, a tone in his voice that put a chill down Dri's spine. "and I want to see if everything changes. "

 

"Besides, it's not like you'll cry out or anything. We both know you can't speak, "Ghost." But as he began to reach for her, Dri flung a handful of dirt she had hidden in his eyes and jumped up to her feet and darted away as he staggered backwards. When the burly man lunged for her, she dodged out of the way and emptied a bag of marbles at his feet, causing that one to slip and fall.

 

She began to run, but she was still trying to recover from the punch to her stomach, and she hadn't made it far before the skinny man began chasing after her, having cleared the dirt from his eyes sooner than she hoped and began closing the distance on her. Feeling panic rising, Dri began looking desperately for anyone nearby who might help, but everything was quiet, and no one was around...

Edited November 17, 2013 by GrueMaster

[Flipout6]

Amendale nodded at Tak'We. "I guess we'll discuss this in further detail on a later occasion." With that, he stopped talking. The newcomer amongst them, however, attracted his curiosity, primarily because of the mask. Amendale wondered who would want to wear a mask, but then Tannin went and not-so-subtly blew his cover, and he shrugged. He didn't mistrust Drow, because despite all the stories about them, the first Drow he'd ever met in person had happened to be Nawen, and she quickly erased any prejudice he may have had. He walked up to the newcomer.

"You're going to be traveling with us, then?" He asked, and extended his hand. "Well, welcome. I'm Amendale, one of our healers. And you are...?"

 

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Later on that night, Weyland and Arland decided that it was time to go out drinking. Weyland had some anxiety to suppress while Arland, for once, was feeling depressed. Not because Sana was around, but because he actually felt homesick. He was just as surprised as Weyland was at this news.

 

They hadn't even made it into the tavern before they ran into trouble, rather unsurprisingly. Arland, being more aware of his surroundings at the time, caught rapid movement out of the corner of his eye and snapped his head towards it. Turns out, there was a shifty-looking figure chasing down a young woman, and judging from his disheveled appearance, it looked like he'd tried some funny business and she'd fought back. He tapped Weyland on the shoulder and pointed, before he whipped his twin longswords out of their sheathes and leaped into action. Their enchantments made themselves obvious: one sword ignited with flames, while green acid coursed and writhed on the other blade. Weyland drew his own sword, which sparked blue, and shrugged his shield off of his back.

 

The thug chasing the woman looked at Arland and his eyes widened. He barely managed to duck beneath Arland's first attack, which would have planted both blades firmly in his chest. He drew a dagger from his belt and lunged, trying to stab Arland through his chain-mail, but Arland easily batted the daggers aside and swiped both blades across his foe's chest, with one cut glowing red-hot for seconds after it was created. The other wound, much more painful, was splashed with flesh-eating acid, and his skin steamed as it melted and disappeared. His scream turned to a gurgle and he collapsed, where Arland stuck the acidic blade through his chest just to be sure.

 

Thunk. Arland looked to his right, where a second shifty-looking character had come running around the corner. Weyland intercepted him mid-dash, clocked him in the skull with his (Very heavy) shield and caved in the side of his head, before bringing his blade up and beheading him with a dazzling flash of lightning that inconveniently ruined Arland's night-vision.

 

"Idiot." Weyland taunted Arland. "Didn't you know that the bad guys never go it alone?"

 

"Didn't you know that he'd be dead sooner if you could react faster than a weary statue?" Arland countered as he put his swords away.

 

"So..." Weyland turned his attention to the young woman they'd been chasing. "...Uh, what were they chasing you for? Probably don't have to ask that, obviously they wanted a piece of you, but did you piss off their mothers or something?"

[GrueMaster]

Before Dri could entirely register what was happening, both of the thugs had been killed. When she finally realized who had saved her, she burst into tears and gave both men a tight hug, first the younger and then the elder, mouthing "thank you" over and over again. It was then she noticed that she'd lost her scarf during the trouble and immediately tried to hide the thick scar across her throat, but she was so terrified and relieved she gave up the attempt, and could only give a choked sob when the one with the shield asked her what had happened and clutched him tighter still, trembling badly and tears running down her face.

 

She looked up and tried to form more words, but couldn't without breaking down into silent crying again and so simply stood there clutching at the older man's arm. She glancing fearfully at the darkened streets and then glanced at the lit tavern and at the two men, still too hysterical to mouth or sign words but trying to convey she wanted to be somewhere safe, well-lit, and warm.

Edited November 17, 2013 by GrueMaster

[Quintatas]

Xundus hadn't noticed some of the others approaching him, but when they reached him, his attention was fully on them. Better to acquaint myself now, he thought. The first man introduced himself. His name was Tak'we. "Xundus. A pleasure to meet you. And yes, I'm a good dark-pointy ear," he said with a grin.

 

The drow realised he hadn't taken his mask off, and was indeed contemplating it as he looked around. Better not reveal my identity to those who do not take so kindly to my skin, he thought.

 

Another man approached, and introduced himself as Amendale. Still unaccustomed to surface culture even after so many years on the surface, he awkwardly grasped the mans hand and shook it. "Xundus. Xundus Me- just Xundus. I will indeed be travelling with you. Hmm- sorry, I haven't quite got the details of the mission yet. Perhaps you could inform me of them?"

[Deleted6317247User]

Nawen was watching the other Drow curiously when Tak'we approached them and whispered to her about him and Amendale wanting to talk about something with her. "Why all the secrecy?" She thought but said, "Of course," and then looked back at the newcomer. She was always happy to meet other surface dwelling dark elves, especially when the first drow she talked to, Maydiira was so nice.

 

"And I'm Nawen, pleased to meet you." She said to the drow just as he started to walk somewhere.

[Flipout6]

Amendale took a second to form a response in his head. Rhaine probably wouldn't appreciate her status as the Chosen being mentioned flippantly in conversation, so he decided to give Xundus just the general idea.

"Not to sound dramatic, but in a nutshell, we're working to destroy a very powerful dracolich which, under the right circumstances, could threaten the Realms as a whole. We've made some enemies along the way, and aim to destroy them as well with any luck. One of them includes an arch-devil." He explained. "Rhaine's our leader, you've spoken to her already. She's a Favoured Soul of Kelemvor. So don't go raising the dead." He smiled a little bit. "It's turned out to be quite the journey. Most of us haven't even been here since it began, we joined along the way. But you'll have to excuse me, I have to go discuss things with one of my friends, it's a rather serious matter. I'm sure someone else wouldn't mind filling you in on some more details, though."

 

Amendale broke off from conversation and followed Tak'We over to his tent, where he walked in and sat down. "With regards to this plan involving Sana, the plan requires more thought. I'd imagine you'd like a piece of her, so to speak. So I think you and I ought to work together to keep an eye on Weyland and Nawen. You and Weyland engage her up close while Nawen and I provide ranged support, and I can heal injuries. Does that sound alright to you?"

 

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Weyland frowned a little bit at Dri's body language, but he got the hint. "Alright, let's go inside then." He gestured towards the tavern, his original destination in the first place. "Just let me put my sword away. Mind the blade, it'll give you a nasty jolt." He carefully slid his sword back in its sheath and placed his shield back on his back before he pulled the nigh-incoherent Dri into the tavern and sat the two of them down at a table.

 

"Arland, go get us all a round." Weyland slid a silver across the table. Arland decided to be cheeky and grab the strong stuff for himself and Dri, but the equivalent of flavored water for Weyland, who drank it anyway. He also bought himself bacon.

 

Weyland took a look at Dri. She looked scared, but he also identified why it was she hadn't screamed or said a word to them. He didn't point it out, though, lest Arland make a stupid comment. He didn't feel like pounding on his younger brother right now.

Arland surprised him by asking a semi-intelligent question, however. "There aren't any more of those fellows outside that were after you, are there? Because I don't think Rhaine would be pleased, even if I haven't had a decent fight in a while."

 

Before she could even ask, Weyland began to explain. "Rhaine's our leader. We're part of an...adventuring group, I guess you could call it. Arland here doesn't want to admit it, but he's terrified of her." He grinned cheekily. "I'm Weyland, by the way. Of clan Grey, out of Westgate. Arland's my younger brother."

Edited November 17, 2013 by Flipout6

[Quintatas]

Xundus shuddered at Weyland's mention of the Arch-Devil. Being a drow from Ched Nasad, he had seen his fair share of demons, devils, and other monsters from the Lower Planes, but the way he so callously said it made him think that kind of thing would be normal for the group. Great, he thought. Still, these people seemed friendly enough, and he was glad for that.

 

The drow's mood was brightened when another drow approached him. He hadn't yet met another non-evil drow, and it would be good to have members of his own kind to talk to. She introduced herself as Nawen.

"Good to meet you too," he said with a smile (which of course was still hidden by his mask). "Oh, and my name's Xundus, in case you didn't catch it. So what brings another dark elf here?"