I think a DM helped us out since i was later told of a nice welcoming commitee on that location we TA's from/to... So thank you, sir/ma'am!The cat, black and sleek, pranced away from his meal as the hin and armored warrior approached from the south. Making their way towards Baldur's Gate, the last leg of the trek from Belegost to the Baldur Bridge and the city beyond, this was to be the first time they actually slowed down. It was the smell of carrion that first put the pair on edge...
The hin gasped loudly as she watched the cat run off, presumably frightened by the approaching smell of rust and rot off the tall person's moldy armor. The armored warrior watched the great cat depart with feigned interest before inspecting the kills that laid before them.
What they were before the cat had their way with the bodies was unknown. but the fact remained, had the cat not dinned well before the pair disturbed her, what awaited the pair at that section of forest might likely caused great harm to the hin and a possible threat to the armored man.
"That your friend?", Lord Daramir offered to the hin, vaguely remembering the discussion of Millia's sister and her fey Panther as he continued to look over the mess of death. She remained quiet, simply shaking her head twice as her vision finally lost sight of the cat in the far wood ridge beyond them. "Hobgoblins, I think, Millia…"
"Thank you...", a soft mustered offering was all she spoke of it as her eyes scanned in vain for the animal, already a ghost in the forests around them....
Huricane-hin Force winds! (12 Dec 04 9:59 AM local)When the party finally left the crypt for the 3rd and hopefully finally time that night, Millia was a mixed bag of emotion. Delighted to be ALIVE was one spectrum, having going her friends out alive and sound as well was another. It seems that in the crypt somewhere in The City of the Dead of Waterdeep, a spirit did not like interlopers in his private collection of books and make quite a ruckus to get them back. The warrior Walon pocketed one, the mage Raifith another pair of copies and surprising, even the bard Ashale'n had pilfered a copy for her own reading and interests.
Only when the possessed Walon and the determined Soppi return the books -not- of theirs did the party be allowed to depart further unmolested. and so they left the crypt, given 'gifts' that Millia found out later, but was too exhausted to inquire when they finally reached the safety of the Safe Haven's Inn. They reached the gates of the cemetery perimeter, and after a few quick minutes of work, Millia pushed open the lock to a Grounds keeper's gate, to a much startled and irate sentry, who gave the party quite a scolding in return for departing between the hours of dusk 'til dawn.
So now, as the hin rests in her bed, she ponders thoughts of song and learning and she reached in her bags and begins again, looking at the spell book, bequeathed from the long dearly departed Master Magnus, trying to finally decipher the arcane formula... And unlocking mysteries untold......
The offer (12 Dec 04 9:56 PM local)Entries in the Journal of Milliam Quicken Stoutfolk, of Baldur's Gate, inked her flowing version of Elvish...
What a day! So much change! So many stories to sort out! And I joined the Mage's Guild as well! *the hin pauses to squeal in delight* But where to start?
Ok, first I spent the day looking Elvish Meade for the Barkeep at the Inn of the Dripping Dagger in the Trades Ward. When I returned, he had another job tasking for me to do, one much more dangerous! "Go rescue a caravan from a vile bandit!" (or something like that). I also remembered about a tasking to find a Orc-kin who stole something. It was pretty easy deal, I just sweetie talked him into it. Orc-kin aren't so mean all the time (well sometimes) and when I talked to the lady barkeep at the Crawling Spider, she herself asked me to do a errand for her as well!
So I went back to the Safe Haven for the noon-afternoon meal and to figure out where the 'Hand of Applicable Houses' was (And where the north gate was, as well). Eventually Miss Soppi and a 'Puny Male!' (oh I miss Ananiki, now) named Vash came with me to find the 'gnomish thingy' and to deal with the bandit jerk! Miss Red Head lady and a 'Merc' I hired for 10 gold pieces also followed and helped!
Soon we where back safe at the Haven in the evening when Miss Soppi had a wild hair in her bum to go up looking for mischief at the Dripping Dagger. I agreed to go because I wanted to tell the barkeep that I was successful with negotiating with the jerk ranger. Bah! Cairshto or Timo Jard makes better rangers!
Soon we got there and the barkeep was holding a drinking contest! (It was in celebration for something that I don't recall now) *sighs* Miss Soppi won hands down (and flying from what everyone was telling me what she was doing afterwards *giggles*) and I just got a nice rest in comfy chair (Don't know who put me their or how I got a 100 coins in my coins bags, not that I'm gripping!)
Then the weirdness sets in (it seems to happen here allot. the worse thing to happen to Dragon Dale was that demon thing that everyone back 'home' told me about, and how the witch Rhoanna whopped! Tuff old hag! *giggles again for a moment*) A monster stole Miss Ash and her baby while she rested at the (so called) Safe Haven Inn! OH NO!
Everyone goes Ape crap and we head out the north gate to follow her! Undead! Vampires! Spooky chambers and myself occasionally peeing myself! Oh my! It was a long hard night (But Lord Daramir pretty much did his armored warrior role. I think Ginnia would like him, he reminds me of Sir Collins of Torm or maybe Sir Jach of Torm as well?) and eventually we prevailed (and I had lots of singing material to think of then!)
Though Sir Collins and Sir Jach never had cursed moldy armor, I don't believe…
Which gets us to here! I'm writing this in the Order Tower! In my room! I have to start reading Master Magnus's spell book and Miss Khekka promised to help me along in my studies. *pauses as she frowns at her window* Shoo, Crow! Shoo!
Me and my Shadows (PUNY HIN!) (14 Dec 04 6:09 am)Cuddled up with her favorite blanket, one of the few possessions she retained from her travels from the Earthspurs, the hin stirred in her bed, still mulling over the day's events. From meeting that ghastly mage in the resting area of the tower to listening to rhekka's offer to join her trading company, the little pink haired hin had a busy day.
She agreed to Miss Rhekka's offer perhaps a bit hastily but she was interested in the opportunity to study, just like the brief boughts of training she received back in Dragon Dale. She fumed momentarily as her thoughts flickered to the rude mage they meet upstairs. 'RIF RAF!' he called them, the group of Wizard students, Millia included. HA! Let me have 10 minutes with his lock and he'll have to blast the door open... *the hin giggles for a moment before sleep finally takes her*
Just another day in Waterdeep. mind the nutty kids and shambling flesh things... (17Dec04 10:30 am local)She woke with the need to vomit, or at least almost vomit. The battle the night before had left her weak and chilled, amazing and fearful what shadows could actually do to a man.... or a child. The hin remembered what happened to the little boy when the shadow grazed him with just a few seconds of touch. The desiccated shell that was a youthful 10 year old was a sight never she should have behold.
But it was over, wasn't it? The shadows beaten, the warriors who arrived to assist the hin and her friend Vash, managed to save them from such a horrible fate, and congratulations spread around like wild fires. Millia barely noticed when the coin bag was thrust in her palm, so shocked she was over the affair events...
but a little boy was slain, never to be a man at all and that alone was the more tragic event of all....
New haunts and new failures: Adventures in Daggerford (19Dec04 8:27Pm local)The hin shook her head as she walked away from the 'hin' Boril. She was so confuddled on what to do? Tell the guards? The nice priests at the good lucky church up the lane? Her superiors at the tower? And this ring... with two stylized inverted S's. a disturbing sight, indeed.
The Safe Haven was in shambles from the battle with undead and the fleshy monster, let alone that 'Tictacer' being that healed, HEALED Muggle butt's flesh! So she had seek her solace and plan her thoughts elsewhere....
'Oh Gia.... Me miss you, love...." The hin mutters in her racial talk, as she walks deeper into the city, forlorn in the shadows of Waterdeep....
Tempations of the hin (Or Millia! Bounty Head!) (23Dec04 8:05 am local)Millia was upset when she finally reached her room at the Daggerford Inn. Having failed the second test of the Militia, Millia was distraught. Even Miss Aal, who is also a mage, of superior skill, made it through, promoting her to the rank of Corporal. The hin settled down in the bed and began to weep hard over this turn of events.
It wasn't a difficult journey to Daggerford for Millia or Aal. They arrived just over a week ago to the famed town south of Waterdeep. Sierra was also supposed to follow soon after them. Aal was most worried about her lover *Giggles* but not that overtly worried. In fact, other than the horrible rain and thunder, it had been a pleasant trip for the pair of mages.
Still this defeat hurt the hin greatly, and as she cried herself to slumber, the hint of a plan already formed in her head. Miss Aal did say she should try again another day after some experience. And Millia had the means to defeat this problem, maybe, once she studied her spell book the next day...
A Mid Winter's day... (24Dec04 14:26 Local)A new day, sunny, glorious greeted the slow to awaken hin from her slumber from her previous day's adventures. between the capture of the criminal Fenton Mardy, wanted for many heinous murders to finding a scrap piece of paper, which turned out to be a discarded writ for passing the second test for the Militia test (and deciding that a 'second chance' is forthcoming, shamefully that is). She spent that night, pondering her decision to use that writ falsely or not. It was a opportunity on one hand, but one she didn't want to blatantly abuse. It became simply a moral stance then to her. Was it fate? (Maybe?) lawful? (Me pretty sures no!) Would she be betraying her ideals? (Me no sures)
In the end, it was her desire to prove others wrong that she herself wasn't a "Puny Hin" (like a certain barbarian friend would describe her) that swayed her decision. She wished she had Isendyl or Pera for council, to help her decide the right decision. She especially missed her sister, Ginnia, who could have not only helped sway her views but find a justification for it, even slim as it would likely be to Millia.
The end result was that she rolled the 'gift writ' in a tight roll and exited and locked her room, the failure writ burning ashes in the small fire pit that warmed her bathing water....
Faith rebounds: Fallen in the course of Duty, Raised in the dedication towards duty (25Dec04 1:13PM local)Snow. Millia didn't miss snow one bit as she did her umpteenth patrol since joining the Daggerford Militia on a wet chilly day. She got used to the thunder and lightening finally, modifying the spell Endure the Elements helped that immensely, but she always was nervous none the less in such environments. And this region of Faerun seemed to rain excessively.
Snow. Millia wondered what her sister was doing, if she was enjoining her new posting in Procampur or not? It seemed ironic to her as she ate another helping of mushroom soup that the inn keep gracious gave to her, sitting on the chair next to the bar. It smelted wonderful to her and it endlessly reminded her of home.... of the Vast.
Was everyone well? She wondered aloud about this, the Inn Keep asking her about the Earthspurs and adventures on the Vast plans and forests. Endless hours they talked, happy for the company and joyous feelings. She then turned in for the night, dreaming of friends long gone and departed, friends thriving and living back home or elsewhere in the realms and she thought of her family, dearly departed or right next door.
She bought a present, rapped it in sheets of colored paper, but a bow on and set it next to leave covered tree, for a certain elf to come across, a new friend she met during her first week in Daggerford. She hoped Ann! would like it (certainly she couldn't READ it but that fact did not dawn on the hin at the time...
all heart and little brains (or as a tired ranger said to her at the Safe Haven Inn, "Such a tiny body.....such a large mouth"), the perfect attitude for the season for gift giving? No matter, it's the heart and love behind the gift that is worth so much more
Help in the form of shinies (29Dec04 8:55 PM Local)It had been over a day since her 'return' and 'awakening' at the Morninglow temple in Northwest Daggerford. Death had thought she claimed a meager morsel in a little frightened waif of a girl when she appeared in the Grey of the Fugue Plane. It had been some time since last she visited this place, a remembrance she desired not to be aware of, even faintly in the slightest.
She spent her day, recouping her physical loses, purchasing what she could (from the loot recovered by the Dwarf Ruggy on that wayward forward patrol of heavy Orc controlled lands). She thought back to the brief meeting of her friend Anne, in the grey. She sobbed in her friends bosom even after the rites were evoked to bring life back into the lifeless were cast. Amazed that someone would risk death, achieve death, then cheat it again, just for a little hin...
The Halfling didn't really know what to do now. Clearly the life of a Militiaman wasn't her forte and she contemplated a request to leave the service, to her own view of her worth, for the good of the service. Should she be denied her request, desertion was always a option, if she dared to become a bounty head like the ones she ruthless 'arrested' not so long before.
In her room, she wondered if she was clearly cut out for Adventuring, period. The dangers she was used to, from her experiences in the Southern Earthspurs. The quickness of doom, she was not and that alone is what gave her pause above all else. She snuggled into her blanket tightly in her room in the Daggerford Inn, ignoring the call to arms rung from the distant Barracks....
Unsafe departures: Stealthy travel to Daggerford (5Jan05 10:34 am local)The hin settled in her rented room at the Safe Haven, exhausted from her journey from War Torn Daggerford. She made the journey safely and managed to pass word to folks about the town's needs. She was a little unhappy that some folks could not immediately follow to aid Daggerford's Militia but the 1000 coins given freely to the hin would go a long way towards helping the militia procure what it needs materially. Amazing generosity? Faith in my words?
Still the donation needed to be given to the Militia's coffers, first. The hard part of course was getting the money there in the first place...
'Long' distances for danger: On The Long Road to Triboar (8Jan05 8:41 am local)The hin rested at the 3rd Militia way station, 3 well worn deer skin tents on top of a bluff over looking the east side of the High Road to Daggerford and Waterdeep. Her departure from the militia was amicable, the Captain herself offering her thanks for the hin's efforts towards the rebuilding of the west side of the city, still badly damaged after the reprisal raid of the regional Orc tribes.
In fact, the 1000 gold in donations she turned over to the captain was well received, a much needed funding to aid procurement needs. And so the hin, saluted her commanding officer, spun on her heels and departed for Waterdeep.... and home.
It almost wasn't to be, as several miles from the town, she came across bandits, laying in wait on bluffs covering the road. Hiding in the distant grasses, she watched the movements in the moon light, frightened for her life and rapidly thinking how to pass them without detection. She had little faith in her ability to pass by them by skill alone, a bitter lesson learned by the orcs a few weeks prior. She reached into her belt loops and pulled out one of two invisibility drafts she would end up using that night...
From Juggles with love (13Jan05 10:17 am local)Select Journal entries in the log book owned by the hin adventurah! Milliam Quicken Stoutfolk
A orc-kin merchant, flanked by 2 mean looking goons (in Rassalantar) mentioned the purchase of frogs legs in the stump bog to the east. Soppi warned of trolls in the bogs, the primary reason for the bogs danger's....
Merom Baulnor, The Officer-in-Charge of the Rassalantar detachment of the Waterdeep Militia, asked me to help recover a fallen militiaman's body or effects in a Rassalantar burial ground crypt just south-Southwest of here. The crypt, after i opened the rusty lock with ease *pauses to giggle briefly* Soppi dealt with the icky skellies. Walk through walls!
Soppi mentioned to me of this town, Amphail , destroyed supposedly by demons or some form of Outsider. The falling timbers behest my quick travel away North and East...
The next 'town' is the walled Wayfarer Fort, home of the mercenary Wayfarers. The gates were closed and even thought it was growing dark, Miss Soppi pressed onwards...
A nutty, nutty merchant stands about his damaged cart, with a dead robber's corpse at his feet. he was argumentative to say the least...
In Red Larch
-Oskler Mhanyvver mentioned that he would purchase pelts from wolves that has been plaguing the western sections of town. He also hinted at a task dealing with Orcs that attack from their NE encampment..
- Jarth Oneshiled, the dwarf owner of the One Shield Quarries mentioned he had no work currently for me but was willing to sell a statue to me, reasonable cheap as well...
-Waedda Sorlic, a sassy gnome sells belts and locks, a few with minor magical effects. I wrote down on my purchasing list on what come seek should i get rained on with coins...
-The owner of Ogmoth Tarnlar's Leathers also buys traps! *pauses to streak in delight at this turn of events* and sells minor Sneak gear!!!
In Triboar
-At Sara's Curiosities, Meekle the shop clerk, sells a magical ring to make you even more quick of feet and more dexterous for 1800 coins and a fine flute worth 600....
-The Shrine to the Blessed One is a wonderful shrine.... and Miss Soppi's home, who is clearly a priestess and not a mere acolyte!!! it was small but sooo sooo wonderful. Ginnia and Merenay, let alone Wennie, would have loved this place of home...
The Power of fire (15Jan05 3:14 PM local)A entry in the Journal of Milliam Quicken Stoutfolk.
A lute. a small stringed instrument. It felt wonder in my hands when the Mayor Lady gave it to me. I ran upstairs so that they wouldn't see my hand tremble in joy when she gave it to me. I've tried playing, i need Lottas, Lottas, Lottas practice. Mayor lady was really pleased how quick i picked up on the juggling she instructed me on. I'm just happy i didn't drop anything. She wanted me to juggle a couple of my crossbow bolts but i declined. The memory of Ginnia dropping a bolt into Robin's familiar's paw is still fresh in my mind after all these years... I sorta lie about that, claiming i was the one that dropped it. I love Gia too much to have her rep anything but Perfect.
The little hin, placed her quill in her little Journal box, full of minor knickknacks for things and junk, slipped under the covers, and dreamt wonderful dreams...
Voices, worn heels and the book (17Jan05 8:46 PM Local)When the fire burst hit the Paladin and the hin, the paladin raised his shield to deflect some of the flame. The hin was not so fortunate, taking bad burns all over her armor and deer helm. and so she dropped like a fly, unmoving and slowly broiling in her suit...
Flashback
Millia was walking with her friends Julisette Morena of Chauntea and the Sorcerer Strongheart Perado Gwin along the Vesper River Road, leading from Vesper River Landing to the town of Dragon Dale, several miles to the north. It was a breezy afternoon, no danger apparently along the west bluffs that guard the Myrwood forest and woodlands beyond.
Then she came.
The woman, presenting a glee of evil delight from the bluffs, having apparently caught prey in her trap. She was young, the only ranking sorcerer left in the Weakened Myrwood Bandits and she was bold. too bold in fact, for before Miss Julisette or Millia could react, Pera launched the flaming orb at the woman on top of the bluffs. The hunted also hunt.
It was over before it began. A burnt corpse (and as many as half a dozen of her best men died in the blast) was all that was left of the woman. Julisette looked shocked at the hin and Millia merely blinked. twice. "Me thinks you teach me that, Pera?" Pera, merely shrugged, switch turned into a dark curse as the rains came suddenly upon them......
Revivial
She awoke suddenly, smelling burnt leather and singed flesh, coughing up blood and flem as the Paladin administered what aid he could to the gravely injured but alive hin...
Song of the world (18Jan05 6:05 AM Local)Nature calls
The hin woke up from her slumber and crawled out of bed, with the natural need to visit the Loo. Some time last, she came out and paused to look in the mirror. Naked, she held her arms out and turned to each side, looking the last scars and bruises on her bottom or any place for that matter. A nasty thump mark here, claw marks there. Battling undead is always a harrowing experience but undead and teleportation and caves under the towns of the north was almost too much to bear.
The battle under Triboar had been fierce for the hin and her friends but ultimately they had been successful. The Elves of the south had the head of the witch, a plague that bothered them for many a time, thus were content that that particular threat was destroyed and the Wayfarers themselves were richly profited for their part.
But as she looked in the mirror, green emerald eyes blazing, she could feel the hint of something.... with her.... faded, reaching but ultimately not taking hold. The voices that she had heard frightened her greatly as she laid in the grassy hill outside Sara's Curiosities, but even those were muted. It seems the priest in Triboar was able to ride her of what ever tried to invade the hin. She was correct in saying that the hin would remember very little of the whole affair and thus spared a cruel tormented fate.
for now, one could hope.....
A reflection on the need for speed, by Milliam Quicken Stoutfolk:
Three things that makes my heart beat fast and cause me to scamper fast (since #4 is merely rumor now):
One, Axe Throwing Bandits
Two, a butt sniffing Cougar!
Three, Wolves, Worgs and their Goblin Outriders, not nessy in that order.
Four, a certain Black Bear with a Bolt in it's Arse (Don't ask)
Five, very fowl weather! No likes Storms!
These Three (Four!)(Ok, Five!) things can and will Cause Millia to hit the afterburners... especially afterwards when she has to mend those said heels...
and if you see that bear? Someone please go get a druid to remove that bolt in his bum cheek. Millia felt really bad doing that....
A Journal Entry, by Milliam Quicken Stoutfolk, penned in her typical lush Elvish script...
Today, i went and bought a new spell book from the gnome merchant in Triboar's mercantile district. It was previously owned by a elfin mage, who sadly "no longer needed it" according to the gnome. It contained a few spells, a fair portion i learned already in my bardic studies.... but this was the art, a wholly different sort of power to evoke and i still remember my old spell book, long lost to the Orcs in southern Daggerford. Yet equally as bad the limited spells is that this book had, the previous owner had no written information on the summoning of one's familiar, let alone the spell to protect one's self from the elements...
If i am to have my life's companion, I suppose I'll have figure it out myself.... or ask... the same if i wish to keep my book safe from the elements. but I'm afraid to! I could go to Bargewrite Inn and ask the dwarven mage that lives there.... but should i bring ale?
I am uncertain what I should do.... and things are getting harder as i go along. I truly miss dear Ginnia now...
The egg: The birth of a confused fey (18Jan05 11:36 PM Local)A song that the hin Milliam Quicken Stoutfolk had the pleasure of listening to, as sung by Eledhwen, the masked minstrel of The Long Road...
"Upon the hearth, the fire is red. Beneath the roof, there lies a bed.
But not yet weary are our feet, still around the corner we may meet. A sudden tree, or standing stone. That none but we have seen alone...
Let them pass! Oooh let them pass! Hill and water, pass them by!
Still around the corner there may wait. A new road, or a secret gate, and though we pass them by today, tomorrow we may come this way again...
And maybe we take the hidden path, that runs towards the moon or the Sun! Apple, thorn, nut and sloe, Let them go! Let them go!
Sand and stone and pool and dell, Fare you well! Fare you well…."
The egg, Too: The birthing of a confused fey continues (21Jan05 10:30 PM Local)Yhera'draxilar was a content blue wyrm, flying high in the clouds towards his home. His paw held the juicy remains of dozens of bloody fey Dragons and their nests, gift takes by members of The Cult of the Dragon cell, attempting to seducing her to the ways of undeath.
The dragon smiled in the warm thermals at this, could still feel their bones slowly melt in her stomach, a delicious meal for a slight infraction upon the dragon's sensibilities, they had foolishly inflicted upon her. But it little mattered to her, thus so that she did not notice the single egg slip from the bloody clutch of dead fey, to begin it's fall to death, thousands of feet below...
And two eggs make three! Me think? (22Jan05 8:06 AM local)Hyrx'alsur was a disgusting hag of a harpy. a fat bloated mass of leathery flesh, this creature was a disturbing sight to be hold. She was flying along the tree tops when she noticed the EGG, falling rapidly to the earth. Hunger, therefore, forced her to speed up to hopefully recover the egg.
Possession of such a odd occurrence would possible improve her station, perhaps making a final deal with that mage.... perhaps to purchase more slaves to slaughter from the local Thayans. or a mere delicious meal. After all, eggs down fall from the sky every day, do they?
Anything to improve the Harpy's station in fact but alas, it was not to be. Yes, the creature saved the egg as her taloned hand and surprising speed reached the egg still several meters above the surface below her, cupping it safely..... but she could not save herself from another bought of Beshaba's Loving Grace, as the harpy would call it, as she collided with the tall oak tree. One of the things that cursed the harpy to a lonely life of killing slaves and desiring eggs falling from the sky was the fact she was terribly near sighted and in her zeal to catch this egg, never saw the tree in time.
Her brief impact sent the egg on a horizontal trajectory, away from the stunned creature and into a previously unknown nest. The harpy groaned, still stunned from her crash when a new shadow befell her. She opened one eye to look at what caused that shadow, only to lose it suddenly as the organ exploded from impact. A sudden scream of pain echoed in the valley before something else made it's own noise. The sounds of riled anger, the challenge of a goose call...
Jaw'erlal was a unhappy mother goose. She was grumbling about her lack of a honest reliable mate, to help her raise her two eggs. She was also bitter about having laid only two eggs. but the third essence of ire what the fact, NOW she wasn't sure she laid ONLY two, as the Dire Goose looked upon the cracking shells, soon to release her precious young, THREE eggs, 2 bluish in color, one green, yellow and grey and considerably larger laid in the next.
How this possibly occurred was lost to the proud dire beast, still flush from driving off the harpy that dared attack her nest clutch. Safe and sound now, her brood would soon be free of their eggs. Once all three (Three? I swear on the bosom of Mieliki I passed only TWO eggs) of those eggs break open, Jaw'erlal problems were JUST beginning…
The first egg broke across it's seem, the soft, weak honks heralding the new born goslings, pale white feathers on reddish skin. Jaw'eral's heart leapt of joy as she helped her child free of it's egg. And the same from the other bluish egg, her gosling's sibling, also free and loudly hungry. She almost turned to tend to that detail when the final egg (How Did I pass that?) cracked and the dire goose narrowed her eyes a little as the fragrance of the egg told her something was odd with this particular egg.
The egg cracked at one segment only, before shattering in several pieces and yoke. When the mother Dire Goose opened her eyes, beheld her was a sight indeed. Coiled in a ball, green pale jade scales, pale but clearly glossy wings and the diamond shaped head, rising up to look over the surprised face of 'His Mother'. The creature gave the mother dire goose wide expressive green eyes, before starting to blink, slowly at first, then slowly faster and faster from excitement.
Indignation raged in the goose then. "What is this? This is no child of mi*". Her anger, however misplaced, was shuffled to a dark place in her heart as the fey dragon spoke his first words to 'His Mother', forcibly displaced by love, in volumes...
"[Fey] You is Mother, me, yes? You feeds me, yes, Mother yes? You loves me, yes? Hmm?"
"[Fey] Yes…. Yes, My……. Max'ural, Love."
The mistake is easy to make. He walks around in a robe and carries a mageish staff all the time, but yeah, when Soppi asked him about it, Smoke admitted he wasn't a mage, but would like to be. Dunno about the elf thing, though.Seva wrote:Smoke is an elf mage?! WTF are you sure? is this the same smoke I know?
Facial scaring (23Jan05 10:15PM local)It was a clear day in the western end of the Castle ward of Waterdeep. Blue skies, and not a Fireball in sight. Still, along the cobbled and kept clean streets, a thunderstorm of sorts raged, and under it, the little hin Millia, storming off after being told a month ago that to join the Bardic College, it would cost 600 coins.
And earn that tuition fee She did, honestly, suffering near fatal fates, "undeadies, ogries, giants, etties, orcies, gobies, evil mage lady mages, saving Elf-girl-Harpy-Saggy-Boobs, rescuing ungrateful merchants, entering portals, puking her lunch to her near dead bones, getting robbed, dealing with both Boril and Frarry (two of the most horniest and demented hin she EVER cared about, besides), enduring a nutty election, Nevernutter City and Really Big Zombies…"
Not to mention the brown bear with a Bolt in his arse, somewhere off The Long Road?
she hauled her 633 coins all the way from Triboar to Waterdeep's Castle ward and the New Olamn Bardic College to find out, what college folk have know for eons: They up the prices for tuition and NEVER tell you...
*somewhere on the realms a hin screams out* BUT YOU TOLD ME 600 coins a month ago!!!!!!
Belonging (27Jan05 8:37 PM local)It was late in the evening at one of the rented rooms in the Safe Haven, and the hin Millia was busy washing her face. It was it's normally unblemished freckled face, but with 6 small white spots or scabs on her forehead. She winced a little as she foolishly picked at 'em, not thinking of the chances of scaring but to simply be rid of them. 'Ow! Owie *hisses* ow....'
The day in the sewer was still a mostly odd blank in her head, dark and smelly passages she could really only remember, from the stink of her armor after the warrior~bardic Arithel Cys'Varillo had saved her from.... something. She still couldn't remember what exactly. She wasn't even sure where these sections of map that she marked in her journal seemed to be, in reference to other maps she made or reviewed. Harried, not detailed, like she didn't have to same amount of time be more elaborate. Overall, a very odd detail, to a otherwise big drunken splurge, without the ale or hangover...
So she started to comb her hair, while thinking about Mister Arty Froggidy, Mereney's Brother, she mews, amused. He was a kind and polite hin, compared to amorous Boril or lecherous Frarry and she was delighted to take him under wing in showing the town to him. He asked her to write a letter to Merenay back in Dragon Dale in the Earthspurs and she looked foreword to doing it. She was grinning ear to ear in fact, thinking about the adventures she had with Arty, when in the glass mirror, she saw the many tenticled face, reflected in the glass behind her. The hin started a shrill scream, not to completely stop until long after the mirror was broken and the hin finally calmed by the Safe Haven staff and a traveling priest of Ilmatier, her voice raw and cracked from some unspoken terror...
The sun was setting in the western horizon when two hin finally reached the heavily fortified 'Encampment'. Their journal was long, slightly difficult but ultimately rewarding. Muggles had offered, or rather asked, to join his 'PB Guild', a request the little female hin was still mulling over when she was fumbling with a key to the lock for the side entrance. The other hin was shivering in fear when he heard the wolf calls in the distance.
A turn of the wrist, a soft click and the gate to the Wayfarer compound opened up for Milliam Quicken Stoutfolk and Art Froggidy, opening for them not just mere doors for the hin.... but great adventures, indeed...
Notations (28Jan05 8:28PM Local)shadowstar wrote:On the Road
The Tribune has walked the roads from Triboar to the wayfarers' fort, and survived...
by Selenia Starshine
As everyone knows....
The Tribune is looking for surprising details who will interest the people of the long road... stories who representative Starshine deems appropriate for publishing will be rewarded by a 10 gold coin fee.
A note, written in child like but feminine and very curvious common is sent to the paper's editors
Dear Mister and/or Misseseses Editor of the Tribune.
My Name is Milliam Fuon Lu Quicken Stoutfolk and i wish to add some information to your words, like you asked for, Sir and/or Ma'am. First off, the Wayfarers have done the following since i begin getting involved with them:
Beaten back 2 gobie invasions of their fort; saved 1 (one) elf-girl-turned-elf-girl-harpy-saggy-boobs from a evil elf witch; raided on spooky tower south of Rass.... Ras...that town just north of Waterdeep, the one with the outpost? anyway it was fool of undeadies and portals and we ended up fighting underneath Triboar somehow. Me no know, me just starting Wizzy so me no know portal stuff much yet, Sir and/or Ma'am.
Anyway they also escorted folks and grain to Loudwater and generally do all the good things I'd expect a good aligned activity to do (though they have really big dogs that growl when mad and lick you to death when you feed 'em *giggles*).
Anyway, they help lottsa ways.
And watch for a Brown Bear, 'bout way big high. You can see him easy 'cause he has a bolt in his butt cheek. I put one there after her tried to take a sniff swipe at Mayor Lady Merrisa, Sir and/or Ma'am.
Thank you. *Signed Milliam Fuon Lu Quicken Stoutfolk *
Sneak! Singer! Wizzy! Seeker! Daggerford Militiahin (retired)!
Cracks in the wall... (1Feb05 6:09 AM local, edited 22mar07 2:33am local)The little hin arrived at the Tower of the Order Late in the eve. She nodded respectfully to her Elders but remained silent mostly as she entered the portal and when straight to her disused room.
Upon closing the door and locking it, she undressed and bathed herself, a perpetual frown threatening to etch itself rather permeate like on her brow. Boril's words still echoed in her mind and she honestly didn't know what to make of this latest scheme of Boril's to form a 'Clique' of hin, Not a guild as Millia feared.
Amy Woodwalker and the annoying hin Blue was in the in the room at the Safe Haven when Boril put his ideas into the Pink Haired hin's mind and Millia could not make a decision. She shook her head as Boril presented his proposal...
Nay, she did make one decision. How ever she would be needed by Boril, she responcibilities to the Wayfarers came first. This assertion by Millia did nothing but annoy the Ranger and Amy soon left the room. Boril pleaded his case, saying that she should take kin first and foremost and to forget the tall persons seeming 'having her as a slave'. But If one thing Millia's mother Taught her (besides her love affair with the Elvish language) it was to remain Loyal. Loyal to family first, friends then all others, good in need if not deed.
And she (mis)placed her Loyal to her home, North of Waterdeep... or so she hoped.
Ring, Ring! Ring, Ring, Ring! Ring, WHAM! (4Feb05 6:10 AM local)I edited this story a little as I read it again & it made little sense the first time around. Again, other's POV might be different but this is a Millia story so check the sources or ask for a version in Elvish for facts…
The pair marched up and down the streets of the Adventurer's Quarter this dark eve. They followed the trail left for them, the remnants of broken doors, structures shattered. They continued the search for a distraught individual, full of anger and fury... and possibly murder.
The Waterdavion guards were also on the foot, looking and searching for 'vandals' that destroyed dozen of home front doors along a street, several blocks long. Thus the pair's pace was frantic. Her friends, The bardise Ashale'n Dervise and the knight Carion Tyllneren were following as far as a block behind her, also searching for that vandal.
"Doors....NO doors…" The hin known as Millia stooped once more, inspecting the door hinges, noting the acidic burns marring the rusty metal. The human maid stood over the Halfling, her gaze looking farther down the lane to her cohort as he moved to reach them at a fast pace. "Any luck, Millia?"
Millia rose to her feet, nodding in the negative as the knight named Carion approached them, sharing with the pair expressions of befuddlement. He, too, shook his head slowly, scowling in annoyance. "Miss Ashale'n, Miss Millia. I presume you found nothing to lead us in our search."
The woman shook their collective heads in unison to the Knight's shrug of frustration. They moved on, following the bread crumbs made from broken wood and rusty metal. The three were stopped no less than 3 times by the Watch, also intent on finding the source of the vandalism.
Lord Carrion spoke for the group, the Bard too cross to speak 'niceties' and the hin was oddly silent as well. Her eyes cast down to the debris, seeing a pattern, and one, then two steps, then more, she left the gathering unnoticed, to follow…. A hunch.
___________________________
The steps creaked softly as the hin climbed up The Jade Dancer's steps to the pub and theater's second floor. The trail of wraith led here, the one building not molested by vandals or vandal, as she began to suspect.
As she reached the rise, voices could be overheard to her left. Millia soft toed along the dusty corridor to the closed door. The voices. Louder now with the closing of distance, sounded familiar, masculine and filled with anger and frustration. The hint of Bourbon lingered even out here.
The hin wrinkled her brow, disgusted at her realizations and turned away from the door. Blue silken gloves cupped both her mouth and her left breast as she was dragged into the room, sucking in for a powerful scream…
Only to find herself in good, if wanted-by-the-law company. Kin. Boril Blum, villain, thief, robber of lives, passions and the occasional virtue sat on a old rickety chair backwards, his chin resting on the cracked outer frame as he looked up at his friend, with drunken, blood shot eyes. He looked pathetic, the classic beaten little puppy. The bottle of Bourdon at his feet, 3/4's consumed in a drunken binge of self-loathing.
"Oy."
She slipped from her 'capturer's grasp and turned to face him with brief fury. Blue Fripplefoot, clad in typical blue dyed leathers, simply waved his hand to Millia with a sheepish grin. " 'Tis jus Milla. oi oi Milla is 'here' muggs".
Her expression flat as she turned back to the hin known officially as 'Muggles'. "Muggle~Butt. Me seens mess. Me follows mess. Why you is drunk and mak~*"
The hin kicks the chair out from under him with speed infused from drink and aggression, picking up the bottle instantly as he smoothly interrupted Millia. ".... I don't 'ave time Millia. PB walked out on me…"
Millia's green eyes rose wide in surprise, silenced by this confession, as he began to pace about, Blue leaning against the wall to observe both. Millia noted both his beloved daggers were sheathed and he began to rant to himself. "...she gonna tell me ' what o fool I is and walk off .... da same with o PB .... me breakin 'er 'eart like…."
" 'dat worf sommink right so dont mess it up". Blue sighed once, then turned his head to Millia and suggested flippantly, " 'oi Milla ya needs a bath likes? nice place in 'ere."
The female hin gave the male a death-comeths gaze but Muggles ignored them both, continuing his drunken triad. "….I aints... gonna 'ave more o trouble." Boril leans back against the wall, a pause in his movements. " 'me 'ead urts. I been on a drinkin' feed so if ye please..?"
Blue's brows rose up, in a rare gesture of true concern for his friend then and there. "Drink some of dat water, muggs…" Grasping his head, Boril moaned and Millia found her voice at last…
"Me see work?! You make mess of door mile long! Guards looking for Vandals! they no know it ONE vandal! You is trouble 'cause Pea Beu leaves you?"
Boril looked up with drunken eyes and Millia gulped involuntary, only to literally jump from her skin as the hin known as Atlow came out from a unseen passage, bearing a bottle of clear liquid. "Not us, dey won't find us in eres likes" He casually tossed the bottle to Boril who almost did catch it fast enough. Millia regained her composure and gave Atlow a equally withering expression.
Blue began to pull carefully the contents of a small box out, as he began to work his pipe for use. "If dey come muggs can hide under da bed likes... go where?" He stuffed a large wad of pipe weed in the breach.
"Well 'theys come for me... fine... bloody aint worth me time 'ere... lost anotha' friend cus o me... what ye came ta tell me offs… .. Millia what o ye point... ye come ta 'ave o go at me 'o gain?"
"Me is here tells you me cares….. But me no ride run'way carriage over gorge, Muggle Butt! No you see?" Her tone sagged in exasperation in concert with her drooping shoulder blades.
Blue nodded his head absentmindedly, Atlow fancied the slow march of a black widow as it crept up a far wall, conceding the floor to both combatants.
She sharply inhaled and turned around and planted herself on the small, unsheathed bed. She intentionally ignored the stains on the cover, as well as the leaking stray from numerous tears in the material. "[h] Me care lots but you keep doing No law! it not fair! "
Boril slurred his words but it was clear to all, the underlying pain in his words. "CUS THINGS KEPE GOIN' WRONG FOR ME!" He winced and his hands held his head a moment before continuing tone much sharper now, "I don’t…. I is da ... one.. 'ere I tryin ta do good. ye dont know nuthin' o bout da pain I been through... I been ta Undermountain and back. from da lowest point... ye think ye could make dat? I did it for o WOMEN! o friggin women... I tryed ta 'elp PB I dont o LOT O THINGS…oooooo"
Blue sneered something fierce as he stuck a pinky into his left nostril and flung a offending bit of flotsam towards a far wall. " 'cos you is too angst mate likes… ya'll need ta chill…. Wanna smoke?" He held his pipe out in offering but Millia wrinkled her nose at the familiar and highly illegal substance the male hin consumed.
Millia leaned forward, pleading in her expression as she looked at her friend. "Muggle~Love… it cause you MAKE thing wrong…"
Atlow started to speak, "Milla, please trust…", but Boril cut him to the chase. "She don't ... she neva did trust o me…. Lookee, we askin ' ya ta join us and ye walk off... ye walk off twice ".
Millia then jumped up from the thatch bed and turned to Boril, furious as she blurted out, "NO! How me trust when you fight kin!?" Boril could only shake his head while Atlow got his 4 pieces in, counting off his fingers, one at a time. "we got mad at each other, calm down... we still friends...we still together now. we have are ups and down but comes down to it we protect each other to death"
"we dont fight KIN... we o BLOODY ... Friends". Boril looked deep into Millia's green eyes, and knew a small measure of fear then. "That me point! you have change if you want help! no change? NO HELP! Me no stupid hin, Muggle~Butt!"
And that, she headed towards and out the door quick in step back into the dimly lit corridor. Blue and Atlow watched, expressions unreadable in the Smokey ethereal haze but Boril started to follow Millia towards the door…
Only to stop as the equally Ethereal and Mercurial hin know as Serith Featherlight simply faded into view in front of him, a mixture of annoyance and sincere concern on her expression. Her pursed lips and crossed arms told him all that he needed to know…. " Ye keep comin' back... ooo... not more trouble…"
"Muggles….. -We- need to talk…."
____________________________________________________________________________________
It was well past the second and quarter bells after Shar's Hour, when Millia slipped back into the cold streets of Waterdeep. Some time between her arrival and departure of the Jade Dancer, it had rained. Her steps were forced and rather hard, splashing water in such ways that, elsewhere, would gain her nothing but admonishments from her friends.
That mattered little at the moment. She had no available council to her, no one to explain her emotions to, no one who wouldn't use those admittances as chess moves against her, that is.
She puffed out her breath, misty in the air and set out towards the North West. Perhaps explanations would present themselves to her in the form of study of Music or the Art. Wrapping her dark cloak around her as she slipped into shadows, she headed home to the Wizard's Guild, hoping and praying with each splash of dirty rain puddle of mud, for insite perhaps, into the muddy minds of some of her closest friends...
Interview with the hin (5Feb05 2:32 PM local) *Sorta new*Millia regrets buying a gnomish magical alarm 'Time Piece'
Somewhere at the wayfarer Fort's Barracks, upstairs...
The hin laid in the soft silky sheets, sleeping and dreaming a wonderful and very erotic dream of sauna bath waters, incredible back rubs and slave PUNY HIN MALES offering cherries to her, one berry at a time, when the 'Object' Began to ringalingaling on the counter top.
she groaned as she stirred in the bed, softly grumbling that the slave PUNY HIN MALES were leaving and a cherry berry dropped unto her bosom and smeared, the water disappeared and a sweaty hin awoke in her bed at the inn in the barracks of the Wayfarers.
She growled a little, glared even more at the gnomish time device she bought and crawled out of bed to reset it to Snooze and slowly get a little more sleep... that's when the clock flashed slowly, increasing in intensity, until the room filed with white...
Earlier....
Marcos the Gnome was a nutter. Pure and simply, a nutter gnome. He experimented with many devices in his time, grafting magical art with gnomish inventiveness and today he felt INSPIRED. He spent his fortune on grafting teleportation spells onto his Gnome Matter Sender Elser device, convinced that it would make his very rich and famous. He cackled with idiotic glee...
But alas, the gnome was many things in his life, foremost, being VERY near sighted. Thus when he casts his many spells to 'Make" this Gnome Matter Sender Elser device, he actually zapped his gnomish alarm clock instead, the very one he sold to that naive hin the other day....
Later, Somewhere NOT at the wayfarer Fort's Barracks, upstairs...
The hin awoke from her wonderfully lusty dream to find herself... wet. soaked even. And it wasn't from arousal. it was from the rain. She blinked, rubbed her eyes and gasped allowed. she recognized where she was at. She was in the middle of the road near the inn, just south of Triboar proper, wet, bedraggled in her sleeping nightly and that accursed clock.
Much Later, after securing lodging in the Mabel's Inn, the frighten hin finally fell asleep. She couldn't for the life of her figure out how she ended up in Triboar after falling asleep in the Wayfarer Barracks but she was far from home, clad in just her sleeping wear and that annoying clock. and she lay in the soft bed, finally the thoughts of her magical appearance behind her. Little did she know, the weirdness was not over...
The Next Morning...
The hin awoke, to the sniffing and licking of an animal right outside the Wayfarer Fort. The guard dog Fang, to be specific, under leash by the Wayfarer Warrior Bero. He gave her a odd look as she rubbed her eyes and realized it happened again...
*cries out in annoyance and fear* Me no like this BOP BOP!
The clock was next to her and continued to chime softly...
Scrolls n' Spookies (So who knock you up?) (7Feb05 6:12 AM local) *new*
It was a quiet eve at the Black Butter inn and the bartender on call, on call seeming at all hours, a Mister Dhelosk Quelbeard, was busy whipping smears off glasses under the countertop. The patrons where quiet, the town at rest and the Triboar 'newspaper reporter, Miss Selenia Starshine was sitting at one of the bigger tables talking in hushed tones to one of the oddest hin's he's met in all his days. from her glossy Pinkish hue hair to her down right retarded speaking patterns, that hin was simply.... peculiar.
He shook his head once more, mindful to not critique his paying customers. She after all, tipped well for a hin...
Selenia Starshine: Well then, Millia, tell me... what did you say in that letter?
Millia Quick Stout: *she looks up to the fiery red head and tries hard to suppress a giggle* Well me say in letter that since me join and come of 'Farers we have partis..... partisa.... Help 'em out with Two *hold two fingers up* Gobie attacks! It tuff fights!
Selenia: *writing down* goblin attacks... please continue.
Millia: We also saved a elf girl who was turned into a Harpy-Saggy-Boobs. Me no know if she wail 'cause she so ugly or cause she need support *lifts her bosom with both hands for dramatic effect* anyway we get her back to her Elf parents. They worship [Elvish] The Leaflord [com] By way... *blinks at Selenia's blank and confused stair* Me say they worship The Tree Branch Lord!
Selenia: what else?
Millia: Then we raid a spooky tower south of Rass.... Ras...that town just north of Waterdeep, the one with the outpost?
Selenia: spooky tower? *writes, seeming to remember something* what happened there?
Millia: *blinks and continues* anyway it was fool of undeadies and portals and we ended up fighting underneath Triboar somehow. Me no know, me just starting Wizzy so me no know portal stuff much yet
Selenia: hmm...
Millia: anyway we also escort folk and grain to Loudwater. Sometime we run into bandits but we thump 'em!
Selenia: *ends a paragraph* anything else?
Millia: And that it. they do good things, that why me join 'Farers as Seeker! *pauses a moment* and watch for a Brown Bear, 'bout way big high. You can see him easy 'cause he has a bolt in his butt cheek. I put one there after her tried to take a sniff swipe at Mayor Lady Merrisa
Selenia: *writes a bit more* very interesting. well then, what do you say about the Wayfarer's captain, Narimer?
Millia: He tuff! he very.... Lawful Minded! If he think it bad, then he tackle it in submission! like tie-up Piggy! *giggles*
Selenia: you didn't notice him liking... money very much?
Millia: *Looks down and thinks that one down a little* Me no sure. ME like money cause me see in travels lottas stuff me wanna buy! *she fumbles in her hip bag for her journal and opens it for the reporter, written in child like but very feminine Elvish script* This here, me see Fancy Wizzy robe in Baldur's Gate. Lottas Gold! Then me see really neat armor suit in merchant place in Skullport... 3850 coins... *sighs* Then me see magic rings at Miss Sara's store. She live in same hill as Miss Soppi, they neighbors! *giggles* Then... no, i already bought that.... oh.. anyway, me no sure is Boss like coins but it make sense. Doing Good expensive sometimes!
Selenia: I see. Well, thank you, Millia. Anything else you want me to add?
Millia: Uh me wanna say me Miss Miss Julesette, Miss Perado, Miss Tiruva, Miss Merenay... me meet her brother, Arty! He live in Waterdeep but he come up with me and join 'Farer's, too! and.... and...
*she grows a little solemn then and her speech seems to be less... idiotic* and Ginnia. She's my older sister. She lives in Procampier now... she took over our friend Melody Goodheart's post as a merc sometime after she pass 'way... She no like me, Fierce! Tuff! and uh.... mouthy *giggles* Me thanks for time and Crumple Cake, Miss Red head Paper lady!
and with that, the hin, bounced from her chair, grabbed her things and dropped a few coins as tip to the barkeep and strutted out the door, lord emperess of the road, albeit BRIEFLY
Edited for spelling and context. No, it rarely makes sence. Go drink your beer (Burt. Sheep.)Inside the Wayfarer laboratory and mage's study...
The hin just finished penning in the Mage's Armor scroll that the gnome Bado had given her and observed as she did her work in her Spell book when the apparition appeared amidst them...
'Millia dear, I've never seen a mage's book quilled in the Fey's glyphs before. Normally such works are done in Draconic. Do you know how to read the glyphs of the dragons?'
Giggling, the hin replied, 'Me know draco very well, me always casting Read Magicks when me loos at something me no kn....' Her voice trails and her face bleaches white in sudden fear, which the gnome turns, feeling a cold breeze suddenly and he too, takes a step back at the ghostly apprerision.
'Priiiiiiinnnnnnnccceeeee', the Ghostly image wails, in a clear distinct Elvish dialect.
It wails it's word once more and fades, leaving the hin and Gnome users of the art to figure out the meaning of this appearance from the grey....
Later, in Goldenfields
'What mean, No Go back Fort for time?' Wailed the hin, as she explained the odd event at the fort several hours prior.
The bard of Red larch shrugs and clutched her now slightly swollen belly, gently, a gesture that brought instant understanding to the gnome mage but a look of bafflement to the always, yet sometimes not quite, dense hin.
a few choice words, brought clarity to the hin, then who then stood totally amazed to Merissa's pregnancy. 'You mean you have Kittens?', quipped the hin, drawing chuckles from both the mother-to-be and the gnome. 'No, dear. i hope not, anyway'.
After some time pondering this whole joyous event in Merissa's life, the next logical question escaped the hin's mouth before reason to reign in her questions.
'So who knock you up? *pregnant pause* uh, Joe?'
Merissa opened up with a throaty belly laugh then and there...
Horrors be thy name (13Feb05 2:44 PM Local)The hin exhaled, sighing in contentment, as she soaked in the hot and oh-so-wonderful bath. The smells and grimy feeling washed away (with help from the inn cleaners, who took pity upon the sewer smelly hin when word got around of the 'three small children' who cleansed the Bargewrite town sewers of a vermin problem of epic proportions.), guardsmen were already hard at work burning the many slugs corpses that infested the septic system and the contract to repair the damaged section of wall in the western end of the sewers was still being inked and blotted when the hin named Millia stumbled into the inn, smelling of foulness and exhaustion.
She turned her head and frowned, thinking about Merissa's commentary when she met the fowl trio as they escaped finally from the sewers. The 'Mayor Lady' managed to keep her weak stomach at bay and took note their 'adventures' under the cattle town. But she was still vague, both to the 'threats' to herself and her unborn child and her intentions, as she seeming grieved in private over the loss of her child's father, Narimer. The hin gritted her teeth again, angered both at the loss for Merrisa and herself. She had hope to learn much more about her employer and grow from the experience. Sulking, the hin exhaled again, that trading of experience forever denied of her.
A sudden chill filled her and the raisin looking hin crawled from the bath water and begin to dry herself off. 'Me have work do now...', she thought. With the loss of Sir Narimer and threats of disestablishment for the Wayfarers, she had to decide what side of the inevitable power struggle that might occur. Did she even want to take a stand? She kept her allegiance to a man who is now dead and all that is left is an arrogant elf and the human priest of Tyr, self proclaimed to be a former and reformed Banite.
Clouds of trouble lingered in the horizon, indeed…
The hills round the grak goblin conclave was drapped in blood. Bodies litered the region and inclines for a 1/4 mile radius. Goblins, worgs... men. All fallen in battle, all morn by no one. no one save a small little form, walking carefully long the dead, looking and growing in despire with each fragile step.
There, to the elft lies the hin Arty Froggidy, his intestines rolling slurpily down the blood grass and dirt incline. Over there, lie the dwarf Telin Steelhammer and the human Joshew Drare, forever comarades in arms in death. in the distance, the leader of the group, Hamar Marrian, chopped to several small pieces. Over there, the news paper reporter, Selenia Starshine, hoisted on her own petard, that pierced her abdomin just below her belly button.
"It wasn't supposed to be this way", the respectful form thought. "Why did we all die here?" The answer did little to appease her or make her feel any better.... but everyone else was happy it was all a dream...
The Great DM Slaughter Master : WTF? did Joe drop again? he was supposed to be the meat tank for this group. Alright, i'm hitting the reset button.
*everyone cheers or growns as they all get up, shovel their internals back inside (or in the case of Hamar, pull himself together again) and have to level all over again*
Some gnome : i lost my dolly.
Justin's Arty : uh, wow. I was never slaughtered by AG this fast on The Vast
Kendrick : damn, i'm glad i logged for my family, this party sucks!
Joe the meanie : oh ^%#&, i'm sorry. my ISP blows chunks today.
Millia Loud Mouth : can i have my 4 CLWs back now?
*huggles Kerin Kinar even though he killed off the party, sorta. we had a Dallas-Bobby-in-the-shower moment today*
Back in the old days (20 Feb 05 1:02 PM Local)Several weeks have passed since The Hin Millia departed The Long Road, disgusted in the self destruction of her former adventurer home. The much feared power struggle did finally occur and though all parties involved left on good terms, what good did it really do? A vampire attack killed most of the servants and tradesmen employed there. Another goblin attack nearly wiped out any survivors of Seeker rank. Eventually, word came to her about a grand larceny occurring in the Tower Vault, allegedly perpetrated by no one else other than the Famous Muggles himself (Pokk being too good a thief to even be caught, Millia thought to herself while Muggles would paint smiley faces, "Oy, oy, oy Gov. Kiss my dung!" and other vulgar slogans just be sure folk knew who robbed them).
'Even my old Daggerford Militia Badge is still lose somewhere in Red Larch, stolen but some bold thief who exposed me to the effects of Miranda's Spray of Color.', The hin snorted under her breath. The metropolis of Waterdeep laid to her south. Perhaps her friend Fye could help trade incite in her present problems. A visit to the Tower of Order and the Safe Haven Inn would be priorities then for her. With renewed focus, she entered the north gate and the mingling of peoples at large.
_____________________________________________________________
With Hamar's decree that he'd be playing with 'That Cursed Hin's testes on a silk thread' echoing in her ears, the little hin left the City of Splendors for the south, to home. Waterdeep was weathering it's latest battle with lycanthropic vermin and undead, events that Millia kept to the sidelines. Other adventurers had it well in hand. The tower elders were also busy towards that end and when she caught wind of what all the apprentices were being told to do, she departed without comment. It was in the Safe Haven that she learned about the Wayfarer Tower robbery, from no other than Hamar and 'Joe'.
Both men were actively searching for Muggles, posting bounties and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Hamar was especially troubling, threatening her when he was informed that she knew of Muggles, perhaps having a relationship (True, eventually but many years in the future). Millia said nothing that could be used to find 'The Most wanted Halfling in the Sword Coast' and she left the inn with swiftness. It was the first time since her adventurous childhood that she had to lie (abstractly) and she did not like the feelings of guilt that plagued her. And with Hamar and 'Joe' 's presence in the city in general, she decided it was perhaps high time to visit Baldur's Gate, the city of her birth. 'Visit old friends, find trouble, save the Damsel in distress and twisted knickers and what not.' And why not? Home is always safe, is it not?
Besides, Millia liked sailing ships for some reason or another.
She didn't spend as much time as she wanted in the city port, however. The city's standing guard, The Flaming fists, had been especially ham-fisted to expansionism of the Shadow Thieves Guild in recent months. All thieves suspected were harassed with impunity. And Millia was no exception. She had to escape twice being incarcerated by over eager guards and soon felt the urgency to depart home once more. Not that it mattered much. Her childhood home was spartan soon to be demolished. No one knew what became of the surviving Goodheart family members after their property was seized around the time Akania sent her children away to The Vast.
Home it seemed was no longer welcome nor safe. The halfling sneaked out the east gate under the wheels of a wagon, as several passed out the gate before slipping free out into the open once she could dare. She eventually spent several hours on the Baldur Gate Bridge, watching fisherman spear their catches while her legs dangled above their heads before heading south to seek solace elsewhere.
Traveling the main roads, taking 'Soppi-Cuts!' when she thought prudent and running for her life when needed, she eventually spent the night in the Friendly Arms Inn, Belegost being under siege at the moment from unknown threats. On the next day of traveling, she wisely avoided the town to the southwest and learned from unusually friendly goblins and the hin of Gullykin what supposedly was going to the west. "Xvarts? Me no think Xvart threat, no?" With nowhere deemed 'really safe' in the Sword Coast Wilds, she headed south once more...
It was a few miles Northwest of Narskill and off the road a little that the hin stumbled across the hole. More like felt it as she first noted the shifting earth and mild tremors before the entrance formed, nearly falling into it herself. 10 feet deep, with the glint of metal from available light made her think it was bandits or worse that laid in wait for the hin at first. When she finally willed the daring to enter, she gingerly crawled down inside (expecting death, rape or death by huggles, which proved to be nothing of the sort) as her lantern lit the tomb for what it was.
A long skeletal body, prone on it's back, set upon a slab of stone marble, dressed in ornate and rusting armor was the lone occupant. A sword and a dagger lay in each curled bony palm, with only the slightest hint of decay evident. From quick observation, she deduced this was a elven burial chamber, one very much ancient. Dust was thick in air and the hin felt very... respectful then, knowing to disturb the tomb would likely bring ill to the hin (something she could ill afford at the moment, she thought). She had enough 'difficulties' in her past and without much thought, she reached into her coin purse and pulled out two shiny pieces of gold.
She placed the two coins into the sockets of the skeleton, murmuring prays of respect in Elvish. She paused for sometime, before turning to leave the tomb when another tremor pressed in the cave, dislodging the body's weapons from it's eternal grasp. Hearing the dropped metal against stone, she did not wish to disturb the marker any more than necessary. Wincing and feeling extraordinarily guilty, she placed the fallen longsword back in the warrior's hand.
She also picked up the odd dagger, marked with runes, both familiar and alien to her. The ground was unstable and she finally scampered back to safety as the ground itself sought to reclaim the tomb. Breathing hard in the soft grass once more, it was only then that she realized she kept the dagger in hand. Feeling awfully guilty then, she started praying that the dagger was a gift from beyond and not a stolen trophy, to that which her soul itself would be forfeit.
Later, night time in Belegost.
The 'siege' was overstated, as soon as Millia had crested the hill south of the town. Though signs were clear that some force had camped around the outer walls, the city was safe and sound. The army of Xvarts that had amassed around Belegost had been dispersed, it's leader having been slain by the sword of local adventurers. With the reason they even amassed (trade rights, she later learned) removed, the goblinoids left with little resistance. Regardless, she was grateful to enter the town unmolested and she headed quickly into the center of town to clean up. Perhaps a getting a good, warm meal for once as well…
Millia was finally resting at the 'Quiet Inn' as she called it, sitting on one of the soft velvet chairs, looking over the dagger with a inquisitive eye. It held along it's pommel runes carved in High Elvish, ancient to even the longest lived elves in Toril and certainly beyond Millia's grasp of the fey language she possessed. But she giggled softly, very delighted in this new mystery that she discovered. Her friend, Dash, was also investigating these 'Elven daggers' and other related signs of crypt theft that had been occurring in the sword coast wilds of late.
A brief worry over came her as she thought about this. Would someone accuse her of desecration? Teeth bit into her lower lip gently as she worked this out, eventually concluding that no danger could occur as long as she was honest about the tale. She hadn't meant to take it and very possibly because of her respectful posture while in the crypt, it was given and not stolen. Satisfied that all was well with her conscience, she gathered her things and headed to bed.
As she crawled in the warm bed, she reflected on her day's successes. Though she didn't get to go where she wanted really to go, she did have mischief in the Scamp's name. And mischief never seems to let go of Millia...
Millia was resting at Fendler's Inn, in Belegost on a quiet eve. Arithel was in reverie at Aszûne Whisperwind's home, and Varic, Asz's betroth was sleeping in his room so the hin departed the residence and made her way quietly to the 'Quiet Inn', as she liked to call it. She had a lot to think about, especially 'Tel's comment of "Something of the ancient elven realms" returning. Millia didn't understand the moon elf's cryptic meanings but she kept quiet, pocketing the returned ornate dagger to her hip bags. Mysteries for another day.
So she settled in the soft velvet chairs, looking at her spell book or in her journal, trying to compose another poem, something having nothing to do with a woman's bosoms, as per 'Tel's suggestions, when she over heard a tale, one she knew well and secretly giggled to the wrong parts of it and gritted her teeth on the parts told dead on....
"He was a powerful figure in the Church of the Vaunted, that Natham. Seeking to be a Black Guard, they say." The white haired nobleman spoke, with a air of regal.... flatulence.
The other older gentleman in red flowing robes and curly hair nodded. "Yes, yes, yes. I understood that part of the tale but I'm curious to how he died. I was told his death was... a spectacle of sorts, yes? hmm?"
The White haired noble sipped his wine. "Yes. You see, his realm of responsibility was eastward of Calaunt, as far as the Vesper River and 20 miles radia. That included Rivendell, Vesper River Landing and Dragon Dale in his Purdue to subjugate for the church." Sips his wine once more, before continuing. "It's good he failed in that regard."
The red robed man nodded in agreement. "And?"
Millia narrowed her eyes a Little, listening in as the white haired man sighed. "The authority in the region, The Temple of the Triad never could prove what Natham was doing, dealing with the Myrwood Mask Cult and lesser petty evils. He would waltz in to the town, say his pleasantries and laugh as the 'Law' was effectively gelded, below the knees in some cases. Natham was eventually dealt with, shall we say, divine winds?"
The red robed man, snorted then, softly. "Celestially dealt with, from what i recall the diviner had told me. One Celestial guard and his Elemental Minion took the law into their own hands to deal with Natham when he finally committed a reportable sin in the town's cemetery. 'Divine winds', you say?" The robed man chuckled for a moment. "Terrible pun, Jotstanaline. your hardly a bard at heart. Why the being marched right through the town to the cemetery, killed the Velsharoon Holy Warrior and marched back out, parading in a regal fashion, I'm told by respectable authority."
Both men were grinning then, save the hin Millia, who closed her book, slipped her things in her bags and left as she held her stomach. She couldn't bring herself to them to question their tale or how they knew of it. The whole memory welded into her guts and made her ill. The results of Natham's death had wide implications for Dragon Dale, not least which was the reason she fled what was her '2nd home', again...
Fox News's 'When Bears chase deer, BigBigBig Greys chase deer, hin gets a ringu and questions of jiggy!' (23Feb05 6:00 am Local)The hunter hide in the tree above the table, the tall red headed woman walking away from the table to collect the last placement, a bucket of steaming corn, freshly cooked in the family stove. His barbed tongue flickered in and out and his lavender glossy eyes narrowed to slits, yet continued to blink in his 'hundred-times-a-second' manner. the time was now to pounce at the apple pie tray, sliver gleaming in the warm sun, the trumpets blaring in the distance from the shadowy walls of Waterdeep.
The hunter hisses his intent, the woman coming back, her hands full of the metal pot that held the corn, the woman's children playing and yelling, the father smiling and smoking... and the hunter attacked.
The glossy wings of the fey burst through the leafy canopy from above the table, flying fast and leveling at the pie tray, all the while... honking. Loudly. The woman screamed, dropping the pot on her foot. the children stopped rough-housing to stand slack jawed at the beautiful Sylvan dragon with glossier wings grab the pie tray. The father stopped, paused, looked at his wife, holding her foot and screaming amnish obscenities... and burst into laughter as the hunter flew off with his prey...
'ell, a'll be damned. sounded likes a Goose... coughing outing little Ricky. You oks, hun?"
Runes of malice (26Feb05 10:14 PM local)Entries to come. a how heck of lot happened yesterday so it'll take me a bit to write this us...
In Baldur's Gate, east of the city and on the bridge...
The metal and horned helmed warrior marched across the span, confident in his skills of martial combat when he spoted the running speck at the other end of the bridge, approuching fast. He stoped, watching the dashing form, a small hin clad in leathers and a deer helm, as she skidded to a complete stop, panting heavy from her magical run.
"hello, little one. Is something wrong?"
Panting hard still, the hin lifted her face plate up, exposing a tanned freckled and dirty face, flush with excitement. "Bi-Bi-BI-bigbigbigbigbigbig!" Her hands were a flurry of hand gestures, indicating something large and immence. "BigBIGBIGBIGBIGBIGBIG! It BIG! It chase deer! West, up hill flood road! BIGBIGBIGBIGBIG! BIG!"
The horn helm tilted to the left a little. "something large on the loose? Fear not, i'll deal with it. i'm merely awaiting my friends across the bridge back there."
They nodded pleasantries, the man amused, the hin still frightened from her trip from to Belegost to Baldur's Gate. She would later explain to her friend Soppi having seen intially 3 bears in various degrees of injury chase after a single deer in a great rush. That alone put the hin on heightened alert as she continued on, both for those 3 bears and later, what ever killed 3 Xvarts, leaving the small beings as smeers on a hill.
But the worst was when she approuching down hill towards the road that was currently flooded from a overflowing dam east of the road. She was calmed and clearly delighted to see deer on the run, seemingly frollicing when she felt the tremors. Thuds in rapid fashion and the hin dashed out of the way of a fawn running for her life when the hin saw what gave chase: a Grey Render.
By luck or love of luck, the Beast didn't see the terrified hin in the tall grasses and as the Render stormed past, the hin made her own storming, evoking every speed enchantment she could muster in her charge to flee for safety....
In Waterdeep, at the Safehaven Inn...
As the guard began to drag the hin Boril and his brother away, the hin Millia stroke out, running to quickly huggle and peek on the cheek the hin commonly known as 'Muggles'. He had given her a ring, clear out of the blue as a gift foir no reason other than friendship. And as the two malcontent hin where lead to jail, Millia was still standing there, bedazzled by the gift 'Muggle Butt' gave her: a Performer's Ring.
In Triboar, at the Frosted Toad Inn...
The hin furisously scribbled in her journal copy, transcribing events she first had done while learning about her old home in Dragon Dale.
"Me sure this get me in Candlekeep now!" She giggled with clear cut delight. Tommorrow, she'd visit her friend Merrisa, concerned to her pregnancy but tonight, she worked.
It was late in the even when the hin Magling entered the Order's door, scuffing her boots on the rug and jumping up and down to shed herself od rain water. Mistress Mhair Szeltune was talking to one of the junior mages when the hin with curious pink hair approached the pair, blinking her sharp green eyes at them. The Elder mage thought a moment to who this hin's name was.
Ah, yes. "Millia, is it? how can i help you dear?" The other mage assumed his post at the door, keeping 'guard' to the elements outside.
"Me have this paper. it have sketch of runes me seen on Wererat hand", the hin offered, slipping her small palm into her hip bag and pulling out a folded piece of parchment.
Mhair looked over the drawing, frowning as reconition hit her. "These are dwarvish runes, My child. Do you know what they mean, yourself?"
Shaking her head, the hin replied, "Me no know dwarf. Me know it is dwarf but no sure meaning, Mistress."
The hin spent part of the evening explaining in detail the events of the day, the losses in battle and some of the supisision of the causes and possible cures to the wererat's attacks...
Down in the lower library levels of the Tormian Church in Westbridge, a hin labors in research, under supervision by one of the junior priests...
"So you say, the creatures you battled in the Azer tunnels looked like a 'Mouth with legs' you say?"
The hin nodded as she pulled yet another book off the shelf and speed reas it's pages. "Oh, Yes! It look like wide body looking like mud-rock! It had mouth with sharp teethy on top, 3 arms, 3 legs and eye balls that blobbloblob!"
The junior priest frowned, thinking as he rubbed the small patch of beard on his chin. "I certainly can't say that i've seen a creature", He pauses a moment, "but certainly i've met a few dwarfs who'd more likely know."
At that moment, Millia found her answers. "X-Xorn, Magical Outsider of Earth... This him! This him! This creature that was with Ebony Elf Spider!"
The junior priest paled then at the mention of Drow, growing concerned, and perhaps alarmed. "Please explain to me exactly what happened, child..."
In Southern Waterdeep, a capture for information to the where-abouts of the coisen of Boril goes wrong...
The three ruffians enter the unmarked buidling, glaring at the woman hin and male hin, the male hin tied up and the female, offering a pathetic excuse as to WHY the male hin was tied up, seeming frightened not at being tied up at all but at the apperance of the 3 men at the door.
That was when Boril struck from the shadows, incompasitating the three as Millia told the roped hin to "Run! Run as fast as you can to....to... Triboar!", at which the charmed Supisious hin ran, soon as Millia cut the lines that binned him.
Later on, Boril brated her actions, having lost the one opertunity to find Snickles, seeming in danger in the seemingly no longer so nice City of Splendurs
A week later, in Triboar...
To be continued...
