Tales of Faerun

[tokyobiohazard]

"Oh, hello Shalena!" the shirtless elf called across the tavern, his hands cupped around his mouth so as to project his voice. "Yes, that's us! It's very strange that we'd all meet again!"

 

Suddenly, a tan, dark-haired elf child rushed over and pointed up at Aera, looking at her with large, bright green eyes, exclaiming that she must be a "Catotaur". She took it with humor and smiled back at him, leaning down and smiling at him. "Want to know a secret?" she asked, then added without being answered, "I'm a weretiger."

 

The three then politely slipped away into their respective rooms; Arva and Ianthe in one room and Aera in her own.

Arva entertained joining the group again, as he had kept his katana for protection and Ianthe refused to part with her scimitars, so they had weapons with them for all of their travels. It would be quite easy to travel with the group again, as they did not have many possessions and had been traveling on their own. Ianthe, of course, was ecstatic of the proposition Rhaine had given them.

Aera, on the other hand, was wary of traveling with the group. She didn't quite understand what that would entail or what she would have to do in return for their protection and company. Of course, she could handle herself in a fight, but they didn't know that and didn't need to.

-------------------------

The following morning, all three rose and went into the tavern, Aera choosing to sit with Ianthe and Arva, as she considered them more interesting to talk to than the barkeep.

Ianthe sat at a bowl of oatmeal with fruit in it, chatting about anything and everything. Aera sat in her 'costume', explaining to Arva the things she did in her performances. He seemed to be behaving around Ianthe.

"So, why did you attempt to attract me last night?" Aera quietly asked him when Ianthe decided to talk about oatmeal to an old man.

Arva looked around, then whispered in her ear, "Look, she's my wife and I love her, I swear, but I can't be tied up to one woman... And she's so... Innocent. To be honest, I just can't bed her. I can't bring myself to do it, and I'm rather sure she doesn't even know what that means herself."

Aera was shocked at the word wife, and smacked Arva over the head with her empty plate. "My gods, you're stupid!"

Edited January 29, 2014 by tokyobleach

[GrueMaster]

Since no one objected to his staying the night, Tak'we sat in a chair by the corner of the kitchen, painstakingly etching ritual marking in the bone of his scythes well into the morning. "Good morning," he chattered to the Greys as they awoke one by one. He sat his scythe aside and walked over, took two handfuls of bacon and an apple, and immediately went back to his chair, feasting on the food quickly.

 

When Arland started speaking strangely, the thri-kreen simply shook his head. "Softsskinss and their big wordss. Why can you not sspeak simple, like thri-kreen do?"

 

 

Dri awoke to the smell of bacon and porridge, rising up from bed and mindlessly wandering to the kitchen. With no regards to the state her hair was in or the fact that once again, all she was wearing was her underclothes, the girl grabbed a plate and piled food on it. She paused between pouring herself some water when Arland spoke unusually intelligent, and turned to squint at him weary-eyed. "Are you drunk?" she sent, the message slightly garbled as her mind failed to completely make sense of what was going on.

 

"You should stop drinking so much..." Without another word, she grabbed some silverware, and went back upstairs, closing the door with a slight clang.

[Flipout6]

"Mornin', Tak'We." Weyland greeted his friend as he came downstairs.

 

"I know, right?" Arland responded to Tak'we casually as he complained about complicated speech. "We're not all geniuses." Weyland and Sybille once again glanced at Arland like he was completely crazy.

 

After a minute, things seemed to return to normal. Arland didn't burst into the sudden use of several-syllable words and breakfast was just about ready. Both Weyland and Sybille wondered if they'd hallucinated Arland's sudden change in vocabulary, but then figured that if the other heard it, then clearly it actually happened. They began to relax, figuring it wouldn't get much more unusual than Arland speaking intelligently. It didn't, but things weren't quite back to normal yet.

 

After all, when a groggy changeling walks downstairs in her underclothes, lectures Arland about drinking, piles a plate high with food, and then goes back to her room, it's a rather unexpected event.

 

All three Greys looked at her like she was suddenly more insane than Arland was, looked at one-another to confirm that they were all seeing the same thing and Dri'd forgotten to dress herself, and then repeated the process two or three more times.

 

"Uh....Audri?" Sybille asked. "You need me to buy you a nightgown next time I'm in the market?"

 

"Well you two can complain all you like." Arland spoke up casually, before Weyland kicked him in the face and he flew backwards out of his chair.

 

Then he turned to Sybille and explained, "She only seems to do that when there's bacon on. Can't resist the lure and damn the consequences, I guess."

 

"Neither can the rest of us." Sybille countered with a grin.

 

"Tak'We can't either." Weyland jerked a thumb towards the Thri'kreen.

 

"Ow." Was Arland's thankfully non-intelligent response.

 

When breakfast finished, gave himself a bowl of porridge and a generous serving of bacon (much to Arland's chagrin, though it was hard to take him seriously when a foot-shaped red mark covered his entire face.) and sat himself down beside Tak'We.

 

Sybille elbowed Weyland. "I'm gonna have a little talk with you later." She smiled.

 

"They were dead when I got there, I swear." Weyland said wittily.

 

"Oh, it's nothing funny. Well, maybe it is. We'll find out."

 

"Something tells me I'm not going to like this discussion..." Weyland sighed.

 

Suddenly, Dunsam appeared at the bottom of the staircase, beard and hair messy. "So, what'd I miss?"

 

"Nothing." All three Grey children said simultaneously.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Flipout6

[AurianaValoria1]

Conall glanced sideways at Xundus before clasping the drow's hand firmly, "Conall Whitefang. Ranger and paladin of Selune."

 

Dagny, who had watched Aera come back into the common room, had an odd expression on her face, which seemed to be a mixture of disbelief and horror.

 

"She's still got fur. And I'm not drunk. That means she really does have fur...or I'm off me rocker, one."

 

Conall followed her gaze to see the person about whom the dwarf was speaking. His eyebrows rose, and he spoke in a low voice, "She's a weretiger. Surprised to see one of her kind in the city. Generally isolationists, from what I've heard."

 

"A weretiger?" Dagny hissed, her eyes wide, "What in the Nine Hells...she could..."

 

The paladin gripped the dwarf's shoulder firmly, an odd sternness in his tone, "Don't judge her before you know her. Not all lycanthropes are evil...that I know for a fact."

 

"But how is she here? You'd think the citizenry would have rushed her with pitchforks already."

 

"Westgate is more diverse than other cities," Conall replied, "and more tolerant of strange races. I think you'd be surprised at how many of those with beast blood there are, even in more urban environments like this. Unfortunately - or fortunately, depending on how you look at it - this weretiger does not have the luxury of a purely human form. Her nature can never be completely hidden. It is something that she likely has to wrestle with every day of her life...a battle other lycans are lucky not to have to fight."

 

"You sure know a lot about these things."

 

"I should," Conall sighed. It appeared that now was as good a time as any to let it slip to the rest of the party, "I'm a werewolf, myself."

 

Dagny coughed and spat as her wine goblet landed with a plunk on the bar, "What in the Nine Hells-?!"

 

"Calm yourself," the paladin said, patting her back as she coughed, "Rhaine knows, and she's fine with it. Her approval should be good enough."

 

After a few breaths, the startled dwarf answered, "Well considering we already have a thri-kreen and an Ulitharid with us, I suppose it is. But why haven't we seen any action out of you, yet?" She stared at him with wide hazel eyes, a mixture of shock and anticipation in them.

 

He sighed. This was going to be an interesting few days...

 

========================================

 

Rhaine made her way down the inn stairs and into the common room. Spotting Shalena, the Doomguide grinned and moved over to the half-elf pirate, "There you are. I've been meaning to speak with you, Captain. Specifically, concerning the next leg of our journey by sea." She spread her map out on the table and pointed, "It appears we'll need to make our next port in Chondath by way of the Vilhon Reach. Do your men have the necessary supplies to sail that far?"

 

========================================

 

The lamia growled as she licked the fresh blood from her paws.

 

After hearing that the Greys and their friends had boarded a ship for Westgate, she had followed, stowing away in the cargo hold of a merchant vessel called the Leah Anne. It had been a horrid journey for the crew. Anytime one of the men made the mistake of wandering down to the hold, they disappeared - ultimately devoured by the lamia, all the way down to the bones. Her illusionary magics had kept her from being spotted; all the crew ever saw was a bloodstain on the floor where their companions had vanished. Naturally, they had come to the conclusion that the Leah Anne was cursed. Many jumped overboard, but several others stayed to press the vessel to Westgate as fast as they could make her go.

 

At last, they made landfall, and in the dead of night, the lamia slipped away, slinking through the alleyways and into the wilderness around the city.

 

Here she would wait...wait until they Greys visited the place she knew they would.

 

And then she would strike, at last.

 

Sana swore that this would end here.

[Quintatas]

"I follow Selune as well," said Xundus, gesturing at the small disc hanging on a thread around his neck.

 

Like Dagny, when the drow first saw the weretiger, he was unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him. Sure, he'd seen strange things, especially during his time in Ched Nasad, but a weretiger?

 

He turned his attention back to Conall, who the drow learned was a werewolf. Xundus wasn't too startled at the statement; he was drow, after all.

 

"A werewolf? Were you born a natural lycanthrope or... afflicted? I understand if you don't want to talk about it. It can be a blessing, or a curse, being different. Depends how you look at it. I would know; I am a dark elf, after all."

[tokyobiohazard]

Aera lowered her plate after hitting Arva on the head several times whilst Ianthe giggled to herself with no idea of the cause of this scene. Something caught her attention.

The words 'weretiger' and 'werewolf' were floating around in a conversation across the room. Aera turned her head and noticed Dagny looking rather perturbed. She decided against waving, as she had met a few who did not like her kind in the past months.

However, she was intrigued at the word 'werewolf', but the person who'd first uttered it seemed to be a handsome male. There was no way she could voice her interest to him unless she had help.

Of course, the help came to her in the form of Ianthe yelling out, "Hey Conall! Our new friend, Aera is staring at you like she wants half your breakfast!"

Aera waved meekly and supposed that was enough to at least get his attention. She blushed at him invisibly beneath her fur as she traversed the length of the tavern to talk to him. She took a seat across from the group and said, while looking in the general direction of the wall in a miserably quiet and cracking voice, "So, a drow, a werewolf, and a weretiger all walk into a tavern...

"Sorry, that was terrible. I'm Aera... And if I heard right, you're a, erm... Werewolf?" At this point, Aera's face was so hot that she felt as if her nose would start bleeding at any second. Her blush may even have been showing through her fur at the rate her skin was burning.

[Deleted6317247User]

Shalena was eating her breakfast when Rhaine uproached her. She pushed her plate to the side and looked at the map. "Chondath... Chondath, oh right! I was arrested in one of the port towns there. My men had to blew a hole in the prison... nevermind."

 

For a few moments she said nothing, only looked at the map and mumbled something inaudible under her breath. "Sure, no problem. If we'll run out of supplies, there are plenty of places along the way to get some more. I do hope that we'll stumble upon more treasure. This journey is becoming quite pricey and I'm sure you know that we pirates are not too fond of spending a lot of coin."

Edited January 29, 2014 by Guest

[josh900]

"I suppose that's true." Tannin said to Nawen before he began to tap his foot and look over at Rhegar. "Tell you what." He said looking back over to her. "Catch me while I'm working on this," He said as he held up the parchment with her measurements written down on it. "And I'll tell you about my very first adventure. Would tell you now but from the sound of things the others have already retired to their rooms, and knowing how excited I get there's a chance that I might wake them up or something if I get too loud. Would rather avoid angering certain members more than I already have lately." He said with a smile as he headed for the door. "Hope you're not too disappointed with me." He said apologetically as he opened the door.

--------------

------------------

 

That morning Hexol made a mad dash over to Aera and began to assault her with a barrage of questions about her affliction. "So what's it like being a werecat? Can you clean yourself with your tongue? If you do do you get hairballs? I bet that would be gross, I would hate to spit up giant wads of hair. Say, do you purr when you're happy? Can you meow? Can you talk to other cats? I bet you and Gizzy would get along great! Though he doesn't like new people, though it's kinda hard to tell as he's always asking for help... or someone called Todd.... Do you know a Todd? I don't."

 

After his stream of questions at Aera he looked up at Xundus and laughed. "You're not that different, Nawen's the same as you and Tannin is too apparently, but he doesn't really look it though so he might just be lying, he does that a lot, but then he says it was his mom that was a dark elf so that might have something to do with it. People though that I was different too back home! Said I was too quiet to be a Kender when I was younger but that's just because I didn't ever know what to say, I grew out of that though I think, some people here seem to think I'm different too even though they've never met another Kender before."

[GrueMaster]

Tak'we waved a greeting to Dunsam when the softskin came down, then went back to eating. Quickly finishing off a double portion, the thri-kreen rose, picking up his double scythe and cloak. "Tak'we will be going back to the others now." *TCK!* "Thank you for letting thisss one join your clutch for the night." He gave a bow, grabbed the remainder of the bacon, and left.

 

The warrior was enjoying the last of the bacon as he entered the inn, only to come across a very curious sight: something that looked like a cross between a really tall softskin and a great cat was present, and was currently being chattered to by Hexol. That was not the only thing that surprised him, as he soon recognized two old clutchmates of his next to the furry female.

 

"Ianthe! Arva! Thisss one iss sso glad to ssseee you!" *WEEE'TCK!* Rushing over, he grappled both of the pointy-ears from their seats with one of his great hugs and spun them around joyfully before setting them back down. "Tak'we iss very happy to sseee you again! But," he gave them a confused look. "Where iss the resst of your clutch?" Pulling another chair over, he sat down behind the trio and prepared to question them deeply, before remembering the stranger beside them and proceeding to introduce himself.

 

"Thiss one iss called Tak'we," he said, before giving the strange female a tilted look. "Iss furry-one a new clutchmate of Arva and Ianthe? I have never sseen the likess of you before."

 

===========

 

Dri ate her food, slowly gaining back her cognitive abilities after having something to wake her up. Stretching, the girl yawned, then got all of her gear together and got dressed, heading downstairs when finished. "So," she looked at the Grey siblings questioningly, "Are we heading back to the inn yet, or do we have plans today?"

Edited January 30, 2014 by GrueMaster

[Flipout6]

The Greys were just finishing up their own breakfast when Dri came downstairs, actually clothed this time. When she asked what they were doing, Arland was the first one to answer.

 

"I gotta grab Sybille's new armor and hammer from the Inn. It was Hexol's bag, I think. Oh, you two are coming with me, by the way." He gestured to his siblings. "After than, I dunno."

 

"I'll probably swing by the Ordains' place." Sybille answered casually. "Gotta talk with Marie."

 

"What, alone? In Westgate?" Weyland asked her, concerned.

 

"Brother, you're underestimating me." She grinned.

 

"Oh right, I've got to introduce you and the Ordain sisters to the rest of them." Weyland recalled.

 

"We can do that." Arland shrugged.

 

"Wasn't talkin' to you. But yes, we can and will."

 

"Guess your mother and I'll hold down the fort here." Dunsam added, more to himself than anything. Given the possible inclinations of pursuing such a conversation, no Grey bothered to respond.

 

"Then after that..." Arland thought to himself for a second. "Say, Weyland, y'know down by the old well? Yes, that well." Weyland gave him a LOOK. "Yeah, we made you a bit of a memorial. I could show it to you."

 

"If you...like, sure. I don't like the idea too much." Weyland looked uneasy.

 

"Not going without me." Sybille interrupted. "Ethel's got a similar thing right beside yours. I'm going to pay my respects. Haven't had the chance to in a while."

 

"I wonder if- Nah, she has enough on her mind." Weyland considered.

 

"What?"

 

"Nevermind. Let's head over to the Inn. I ought to grab my own armor and shield before someone stabs me in the back out in the streets. Let's go, then! Dri, you can stay here if you like or come along, your choice." Weyland declared, before barging out the front door without an answer. Arland and Sybille looked at each other and followed him.

 

Westgate wasn't much better during the day than it was after nightfall. There were still shifty-looking characters, many of them obviously armed and trying to hide it. The city guards traveled in packs of two or three at least, and never strayed far from one-another. Some of them stared hard at Arland, faintly recognizing him from wanted posters, and he glared right back. They thankfully ran into no trouble with the Law, however, mostly due to it being years since Arland had faded from the minds of the people of Westgate. Weyland suggested they pick the Ordains up first, but Sybille shrugged and said that traveling with Arland and Marie at the same time was simply asking for trouble and that she'd bring them along later.

 

"That reminds me, I gotta pay my bounty off." Arland muttered. "Sybille, when we're done here, we need to drop by the nearest city office."

 

"Yup."

 

When they reached it, Weyland shouldered the door open and Arland declared to nobody in particular that he was going to take the armor and maul he'd taken from Ivythariatryx's horde. Weyland, meanwhile, spoke aloud to the group.

 

"Everyone, we've got someone new coming along with us. Meet my younger sister, Sybille Grey."

 

"I can introduce myself, headcase." She punched him 'lightly' on the shoulder and almost sent him out a window. "Lad- uh, Rhaine gave me the offer to come along last night. And I must say,this looks and sounds like a lively bunch. I like it!"