Edward (lvl8)

Later that Night:

Edward fell asleep. He had a long ackward dream but a dream nonetheless.

First he saw the blue Gnomes. The were falling and waving goodbye to them. Edward waved goodbye. Then he saw that girl that always tried to propose. She was also falling and waving goodbye. Edward waved goodbye to her also. Edward walked down a lane he was familiar with and unfamilair with at the same time. He saw a road sign saying "memory lane." He kept walking down the lane peeping into houses. The first house he saw was a baby being born. That was a little vivid for Edward so he kept walking. The next house he peeped into he saw a little boy that looked a lot like what Edward looked like when he was younger playing outside in the mud and his mother coming to yell at him for getting dirty right before church.

Edward realized. This is my life. That was me being born. He ran and kept on running down the lane to see where it would end. He felt like he was running forever. He peeped into the next house. This house looked like "Dangerous Toys," his weapon shoppe. He wanted to know how he was going to die. He kept running and running until suddenly there were no more houses only trees and he ran smack dab into Rebekah. He must have woken up. But no he didn't he looked down and he was still on the road that led back to his memories. Rebekah called out to him to quit is foolish hunt for fame and money and that they needed help and it was high time he started helping his team. For some reason this made complete since to Edward.

Edward woke up all sweaty.

Rebekah (lvl 7)

“Bekah.” her father said in a voice stern, yet soft.

“Yes Daddy?”

“Remember what I taught you. It is not enough to be strong, but you must also be quick of mind and body. Out think your enemy, outlast them, out maneuver them. Those who rely on force alone are easily slow of wit and arm.”

“Yes Daddy.” she smiled.

“And Becka, always remember I love you.”

These words had run through her head countless times, but never before had they seemed more real. Standing face to face with the bastard Half-Orc who had slain her Father, claiming to be her half brother, it was time to end his charade and his life.

“I’m going to break you.” Zurik growled.

She only smiled as the half-orc charged forward with his giant great axe. A clumsy strike easily avoided, or so she thought. As Zurik pulled passed her instead of swinging the bladed end he swung a back swing with the butt of the axe catching her in the back of the head.

A flash of light and then spots began to cloud her vision. Feeling the axe swinging behind her she tumbled out of the way of a swing and raised back to her feet at a ready position. Zurik made the first move again hoping to end this quickly.

Attacking with hearts full of love and hate the two began a dance of flashing steel and cold iron. Sparks flew as the weapons connected again and again unable to find their marks. Zurik pulled back and for a moment before making a lunge at Rebekah, and in this moment the die was cast and fate decided.

“. . .always remember I love you.”

In a deafening crack of thunder the ground itself shook as Rebekah’s sword made contact with the soft underbelly of the half-orc cleaving him in two. The clumsy lunge had opened just enough of his defense for Rebekah to take the full advantage.

Dropping to her knees next to the two halves of the half-orc, she cradled her fathers sword and began to weep.

Session Summary 5 & 6

Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale (Part 1)

After seeing an ad requesting mercenaries to come help clear the wilds of the Bloodsworn Vale, the adventuring group consisting of Seren, an elf druid, Edward, the Human Ranger, Rebekkah, the Shaonti Barbarian, and Shepherd the human cleric, makes their way towards Fort Thorn.

Upon arrival, the group meets Sir Tolgrith, the likable lord of the fort. He thanks the group for coming and tells them of an ambush that has occured, killing several of his workers. The bodies were found intact, with the exception that they were each missing ears. The group agrees to check it out and see if they can discover the culprits. They make their way to the ambush site and discover tracks that lead them back to a grove of rose bushes, and a stairway leading down under the ground.

In a small underground complex, they find a group of Roseblood Sprites. After dealing with the creatures and clearing the complex, they discover that the sprites were forced to cut their ears off by their king, whose motives are unclear, and they were cutting off the ears of the workers for use in a ritual to regrow their own ears. The group kills the king and returns to the fort to inform Sir Tolgrith.

Tolgrith is pleased that this has been taken care of and tells the group about scouts having seen owlbears nearby. So far, the owlbears have not attacked, but Tolgrith is afraid they will soon. The group decides to attempt to track down these owlbears.

They go out exploring in the wilderness. They find an interesting, though empty, mountain named Pointer's Rock. They then spot a pair of owlbears roaming the woods, and ambush the two creatures. After killing them, they follow the owlbears tracks back to a cave. Inside, they kill two more owlbears, before discovering a nest in the back containing three owlbear cubs.

After a heated conversation about how to handle these cubs, the group decides, somewhat reluctantly, to take them back to the fort and take care of them, until they may release them into the wild again. However, this plan changes, when Rebekkah reveals to Sir Tolgrith that they have brought these owlbears into the camp. Tolgrith orders the group to remove the owlbears from the camp, and the group agrees.

They take the owlbears into the wilderness and search for more owlbear tracks. After following a set of tracks to another cave, the group decides they will leave the cubs for these other owlbears to look after.

Back at Fort Thorn, Sir Tolgrith tells the group about a problem the camp has been having with water pollution. The water that the fort uses comes from the river flowing north from the lake nearby. Once every month, the water becomes polluted for one day. The camp has become used to this, and keeps a stockpile of water to use on this day, but Tolgrith asks the group if they wouldn't mind checking it out for him, as the day this happens will be two days from now. The group agrees and heads towards the Mist Lake.

Seren (lvl 6)

By elf standards, Seren is relatively young at 96 years of age, but she often feels much older than her years. Witnessing the slaughter of her people and the land has aged her far beyond her years. She hopes that her people can someday rebuild their towns and return to their former glory, and she sends every spare coin she can muster to help with the cause. Although Seren prefers to remain away from people and instead lives out in the wild with the company of her wolf familiar, Kiros, she can only gain miniscule amounts of money via hunting and trapping, and she must instead turn to the town and adventuring to earn what money she can.

Seren has had Kiros since he was a pup and she is fiercely devoted to him. She is fluent in the language of animals, and her and Kiros often have long conversations on their adventures. She considers him to be her best friend, and when she is in wolf form, they often hunt together side by side.

Unnecessary bloodshed makes Seren sick, and she will never attack without being provoked in some way. Although she understands that violence is sometimes a necessary evil, it reminds her of the destruction of the war and she tries to avoid it if at all possible. She usually tries to attack only to wound or slow the target, and leaves the killing to others with a larger appetite for blood.

Rebekah (lvl 6)

Rebekah stands tall, even for a woman of her tribe. The only child of a Shaonti warrior, her mother died in child birth and with that death a new life was brought into the world. Her life was a hard one in her youth and training. Her father loved her dearly but feared she may suffer from the same frailty as her mother and vowed to make her stronger than that.

She discovered early on that it was to her advantage to rely more on her speed and agility to survive over her general endurance. Her combat almost mimicking dance, she learned the weapons of Shaonti war. Preferring the freedom of unencumbered movement she was drawn to a more barbaric way of war. Armoring herself in a more freeing chain shirt and smooth leather leggings, her heavy boots seem almost out of place. Trimmed in animal fur and feathers of the wild she seems almost the personification of the Shriikirri-Quah from whom she hails.

Rebekah wears her hair short in custom with her people, but her travels have made her a little vain as she has added some style to it. Her body is decorated in a handful of tribalistic animal tattoos. Her favorite is the hawk that decorates her back, nearly covering all of it with wings up stretched to her shoulders.

Rebekah prefers a minimalist approach when arming herself for combat, preferring to rely on sling and her fathers magically enchanted Zweilhander. Still she carried a War Razor for those moments when small arms combat seems best and a traditionally decorated tribal dagger which sees more use as a skinning tool.

Rebekah has made a living as a trapper, dealing in furs. Operating with traps made of her own design she prefers to capture without killing and only taking the lives and skins of those animals she can make a personal peace with.

A traditional Daddy’s Girl, Rebekah does not suffer nicknames. He was the only one who ever called her anything but Rebekah and the only allowed to.

-------

Smoke billowed from the open slit in the roof of the tent filling the air around it with the scent of shaonti incense and charred herbs. Marked with little more than a few primitive scratches along the front flat there was still little doubt of the one who occupied it. A crone with a deep understanding of the bones she cast and the cards which spoke as she laid them out, she held company with the world around her and here found her solace. With no claim to any existing tribe still many flocked to her when the tent erected in sight of the nomadic peoples. It was here he came looking for the one who marked him.

She smiled as he pulled back the flap and crouched low to make his way inside. It had been long since had last come to her and she knew he still had not found what he had asked for then. Dropping more dried roots into the ceremonial flame an eye was cast to this half-orc who had come to her.

His features were hard and gruff as he took in the tent. Scars marred most his body and little effort was made to cover them. It was not his way. The most prominent of these scars had taken his right eye and left unique scarring of fire and steel down to his jaw. In the open socket he his eye had been replaced by a smooth sphere of onyx on which orcish symbols of war had been crudely engraved.

With as much grace as he could command from his massive frame he sat before the old woman and slowly began to speak in guttural tones, “No games this time Jana, you know why I’m here.”

A smirk pulled at the mask of leather her face had become and the lines that crossed it raised. Reaching into a bag laying against the canvas wall she dropped a few pungent green leaves into the fire. The air crackled and the flames pulled back their ascent and clung close to the coals now.

“Of course I know why you’re here Zurik.” her voice filled the air and laid heavy on the smoke. “These past few years have not been kind to your search but have weighed heavy on your wisdom and tempered your resolve. I can see that in your face now and it pleases these old bones. Still I do not know if you are ready.”

Zurik pulled at the fire pelt tail that hung from his thigh as he looked the old woman over, making effort to choose his words more carefully than before.

“I have hunted this world of your own people these past years and left no chance to find her and still she escapes me. I do not come here to ask for your insight now, but to demand it.” his voice booming with these last words of threat and promise.

“Demand it?” she snickered, “and what would you demand of me you bastard child of shaonti and orc?”

“You know what I want Jana. I told you no games this time.”

Zurik began to toy with the butt of his axe handle and grinned through the smoke.

“And you should know by now that I do not play games, but simply act as a messenger of the spirits and Gods.”

“Then cast the bones and be done with it!”

This made Jana smile as she pulled a handful of carved and burnt bones from a pouch on her side and held them out to the half-orc. Taking them from her hands into his own he held them to his lips and blew across them. Then with one fluid movement they were cast before her and through the smoke seemed to take on a life of their own as the sailed across the tent.

Jana took a hard stare at how the bones had fallen and then a hard stare at Zurik, “Your sister sat where you sit not three moons ago.”

“Do not call her that!” he growled.

“I will call her what she is half-breed. What horrors your Father and his people laid upon your Mother and her people are of none of my concern, nor is any matter of war. She is your sister as you her brother.”

A hard silence fell heavy on the tent as Zurik ground his teeth in a cold star at Jana. Pulling together what composure he had left he closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them once more with a smile, “What was she here for?”

“Nothing different for what you yourself seek.” Jana replied as she gathered the bones back into the pouch before continuing, “All this time you’ve hunted her when in fact she too has been hunting you Zurik. Seems to run in the family.” she grinned, grinding deeper into his patience.

“Hunting me?” he snorted, “What makes the little rabbit so bold as to follow the wolf?”

“Bold words Zurik when she gave you that.” she said pointing to the scar that had taken the half-orc’s eye.

“This?” he laughed bringing a hand faintly to his face, “Luck and nothing more. She would have been crushed under my boot as he was and the sword taken rightfully as mine if it hadn’t been for shaonti arrows.”

Jana grinned.

“Where did she leave for?” he questioned.

“Oh?” Jana paused, “I never said she left.”

The breath in Zurik’s lungs turned cold as the air outside the tent began to surge with static and a great thundering boom.

“You’ve betrayed me hag!” he bellowed pulling the hand axe from his belt.

“Betrayed you!?!.” she laughed, “I’ve given you both what you wanted and now death awaits!” she cackled.

Her laughter echoing inside his head until silenced with the crack of his axe deep inside her skull. Then turning to the back of the tent, Zurik tore a hole through the canvas wall and erupted forth with rage and hatred seething.

“I’m taking more than an eye this time.” the shaonti woman spat at the half-orc.

He grinned at this as he looked over the figure that stood before him. Dwarfed by the sword she wielded, dwarfed by his own intimidating presence. Great axe firm in hand he growled,

“Rebekah.”

Mailee (lvl3)

When Mailee and Bandy were young their parents used to send them off to stay with their uncle a lot. Some times they would just send Bandy and sometimes they would just send Mailee. On this particular week they decided to just send Mailee. Mailee was young but much older than she had been the last time she went to see her Dad's brother. She was laying in bed one night and thought she heard an animal. She bolted upright in her bed, she heard it again. And again. She looked out the window at the barn that she was not allowed to go into. There was a light coming thru the top of the barn. Her uncle must be in there she thought. Mailee decided that since she was older that she should be allowed to see whats in the Barn. It couldn't be that bad could it, because her uncle was a good man. Mailee crept up to the barn and heard more animals more distinctly. She was thinking why would her uncle not let her go in a barn full of animals knowing that she loved animals. Were they dangerous? Was he trying to protect her? There was only one way to find out. She pried open the side door on the barn and saw her uncle on the other side facing away from her. It didn't look like he heard the door open. She took a step inside and heard the animals and looked up. There were many different types of animals hanging in the air in cages and the the smell hit her. Her uncle was cutting up a deer. When the animals saw her they started bleeting louder and that made her uncle look up. As he turned around Mailee could see the wall behind him There were animal insides nailed to the wall and their heads were in a bucket on the floor. Mailee screamed as her uncle hollared at her to get out of there. She composed her self and started yelling at her uncle and looking around for a ladder. Her uncle started to chase after her. She found the ladder and climbed up it. Her uncle tried to follow but once she got up it she kicked it over. She ran to a pulley and flipped it which dropped all of the cages. Most of them busted open and the animals started heading for an open door. Mailee noticed that the ladder was starting to go back up and she kicked it over again. She quickly snuck over to the other side of the loft and jumped down on some bales of hay while her uncle not noticing she jumped down had put the ladder back up and started climbing. When he got up there Mailee knocked the ladder down again so that he was stuck up top. She ran to the cages and opened them all and ran out the barn and ran back to town.

Thaelyn (lvl3)

He sat alone that night taking a table away from the from the loud drunks and tales spun by the adventurers who had come to Falcon’s Hallow in hopes of fame and fortune. It was the kind of night at the Sitting Duck that mimic’s every other night. A handful of patrons had just started a fresh game of knivesies and mig-a-mug-tug was in full swing on the other side. Had it been the kind of night that mimicked most of his own he would have been hustling some poor kid fresh off the boat in a game of cards, but this wasn’t one of those nights for him.

Thaelyn called for fifth tankard of dark wood leaf and opened the letter for the fourth time since he had came in. It was a late night call for him, but he had picked up Bailey from Andrea’s and tucked her in for the night. Making sure she was sound asleep he made his way to the Duck drown his sorrows and with any luck one more memory.

See, it wasn’t for lack of love for his daughter that Thaelyn found ways to spend so much time away as it was a love for the woman he buried beneath an old willow tree. When a man loses the one thing in this world that had completed him, the one thing that ever truly made him feel as if he was worth a damn he finds it impossible to let go. Bailey was so much like her mother that the child that filled his heart with joy also broke it every time he saw that smiling face. He couldn’t let go of what he had lost to appreciate what he had gained.

Turning the letter over once more silent tears began to roll down his cheeks and he lowered his head down to the table and closed his eyes.

“Sing Thaelyn.” he could hear in his head. Not his own inner workings, but her voice asking the same way she always had. That tender voice so filled with love.

It started as mumbles fighting through the silent sobs and slowly building until it could no longer be held in his chest. Thaelyn sat up and leaned back in his chair filling his lungs with the smoky air of the tavern he let out a haunting melody that slowly overtook it until all eyes and all ears were on him. As he continued a Bard who had been sitting at the bar contemplating his own ideals of love picked up his mandolin and began to play a haunting tune for this haunting song. It wasn’t long until “The Twins” a pair of local bards had joined in on their shawm and lyre. By now almost the entire bar had joined in, but Thaelyn continued oblivious to it all. His eyes closed, he was only thinking of the woman who wanted to hear him sing.

When he finished he laid his head back down on the table and slowly the tavern returned to their nightly revelry. Still Thaelyn only sat there and mumbled to himself until the bard who had played the mandolin walked over and placed his hand on Thaelyn’s shoulder. Raising his head halfway all he could see through the tears and the beer was the symbol of Sarenrae tattooed on his inner arm. Leaning down he slowly whispered something into his ear and with a smile returned to his stool at the bar.

Drying his eyes and wiping his face off Thaelyn dropped a couple silver coins on the table and staggered his way home. Quietly opening the door and moving his way through the house he went to his daughters room and looked in on her from the doorway. After a while had passed she rolled over in her bed and lazily opened her eyes to the figure at the door.

“Daddy?” she yawned.

“Yeah baby?” he smiled.

“What’s wrong?”

Thaelyn walked into the room and pulled the covers back up over her and then sat on the side of her bed. He closed his eyes and lifted his head towards the sky with a chuckle he thought of what seemed like Sarenrae had whispered in his ear.

“Nothings wrong, but how would you like it if your old man sang you a lullaby?”

Bailey inched closer to her Dad and curled her body under the covers around him and smiled, “I think I’d like that a lot.”