Sword of Sacrifice

"Well,....Hector was it?, I'm sure the dwarves have something you might like.", Tinie replied. "And,....Look, Lock?, I am a gnome. A proud gnome, like most."

"That is very easy to tell.", Lock said, glancing at the half finished statue of Tinie in the courtyard.

"They did that on their own. I swear.", Tinie said. "I don't now if the orc wants to come, but I'll help you out."

"We would be delighted to have you with us," said Hector, "We shall head toward the elven lands when the sun rises; but for now we shall drink ourselves silly and have a good sleep."

Hector walked out and fallowed a gnome to one of the dwarven living areas (is that what it would be called?) and found a nice (but small) pub. After entering the pub he nodded to all the other people there and sat down on the floor as the chairs seemed they would not hold such weight.

"I would like 10 bottles of your strongest!" said Hector planning to take some with him on the journey.

Hector paid for the bottles of ale (25 bolsa) and went to find a bed. After finding the beds too small Hector walked outside to find a tree to lean against and drank himself to sleep.

Ryan retreived his equipment, glad to have his blade back, and buying iron armour as well as getting an iron shield forged for himself.

(Unsure about cost of that, but whatever)

After that he was returning to his room when he walked past a group of women who were talking to one another in hushed tones, one of them looked up, then said something and the others looked up.
"You are.. Ryan aren't you?"
Ryan turned, slightly suprised, "Yes.. I am and it seems that you have me at a disadvantage milady, you are?"
"Oh.. nobody. A woman calling herself Zay told us that you were to meet her at the River Nines"
Ryan nodded and set off at a brisk pace, realizing it was nearly dark and that Zay was probably not a very patient person. He walked out of the encampment at dusk, heading towards his meeting with Zay, he heard growls, somebody gasping, then another person shouting. A sharp crack then another growl and somebody shouting in pain, he drew his blade and rushed towards the sound, skidding to a halt as he saw Zay stand up and hold her side. Two men, highwaymen by the looks of them, lying dead on the ground, one with his throat torn out, the other with his mail armor mostly shredded and his side ripped up badly.
"...Well then...", Ryan said as he sheathed his blade, "my apologies for being late... are you alright?"

- -Braavos- -

Braavos awoke from his slumber, feeling oddly refreshed despite the dull pain that still lingered around his lacerated shoulder. Sliding into a sitting position, he worked the muscles in his upper arm until the pain began to lessen.

He was almost concerned by how cheerful he felt ; Bahntalos' death now seemed like such a long time ago, despite the funeral having only been yesterday. Although his new-found disposition was a considerably positive one, the reality of his situation gradually began to pull down his spirits.

Not wanting to begin what promised to be the quest of a lifetime in a dreary state of mind, he quickly set to work getting dressed, thinking about perverted things all the while.

Snapping his sword belt on and grabbing his rucksack, he declared himself ready for anything.

with a swagger in his step and confidence in his chest, he promptly opened his chamber door and stepped outside, only to realize that he had been relocated to a room in the middle of a spiral staircase.

With a girly scream, Braavos noisily tumbled down several dozen steps, landing with a thud at the bottom.

"Ouch..." He thought to himself as he rubbed his ass (Which had sustained critical damage in the fall)

"Totally not the way I like to begin any sort of quest..."

Dathdr awoke early, after a relatively peaceful night. He supped on a loaf of bread, and as he went to put on his elven made tunic, and saw it was in a poor condition. With all the recent battles and adventures, it had been torn to pieces. With sadness in his heart, he went to put on the clothes the humans had supplied him with, finding them a little to small for his elven build. Suddenly, he hears a high pitched scream, and grabbing his dagger, he races towards the stairs, jumping down and landing with a flip, only to see Braavos rubbing his ass. This was turning out to be a good day...

Zak stired from his medditaion after hearing a scream. after making his way to the place where it had come from.

getting there he saw Dathdr laughing at Braavos who was rubing his ass

"well how was your trip, and also when do we set out"

"Trip? What trip?" Braavos asked, as the pain in his rump receded.

He hopped to his feet and dusted himself off.

"Bisty(*) said we leave at first light, so... I guess we should head for the courtyard. That's where everyone meets up before going off on campaigns, I think."

At that, Braavos began walking down the hall at a brisk pace, hoping the courtyard was in that direction.





(*) Bisiteros' nickname

Zak followed Braavos down to the courtyard ready to help Braavos avenge his brother.

Dathdr ran up to retrieve his personal effects and armor, then ran after Braavos as he went towards the courtyard. On the way, Dathdr bought 5 wheels of cheese and 5 loaves of bread for 25 bolsa, along with a couple bottles of wine.

- -Braavos- -

Braavos continued strolling through the fort with his companions at his side. Along the way, he grabbed a pear from one of the many random fruit bowls and began munching on it. Realizing that he had barely eaten anything thing in the past two days, the pear was gone within a minute.

Tossing the core out of a window, Braavos noted how quiet his companions were, and was about to strike up a conversation when suddenly they reached a set of double doors made out of mahogany and birch.

Pushing the doors open, the courtyard was revealed to them. There were about two hundred men bustling around fixing wagons to horses, sharpening weapons, and securing provisions for the trip.

"Excellent timing." said a familiar voice, coming from the left. Turning around, Braavos found Bisiteros walking towards him with two men following close behind. One looked middle aged with heavily tanned skin and long braided hair. His body was covered in scars, and he carried a giant axe across his back. The other man looked to be in his late twenties ; he had white hair and a huge bow.

"The men are just now finishing preparations for our campaign." Bisiteros said, stopping in front of Braavos and clapping him on the arm. "Oh yes, and allow me to introduce General Eremy Thag," he said motioning to the older man, "And General Loose" he continued, gesturing to the younger one with the bow. Eremy nodded in greeting, and Loose flashed a goofy smile. "They just arrived this morning from Fort Centurion." Bisiteros stated, putting his hands in his pockets in grinning wickedly.

"But I thought Fort Centurion was under siege..." Braavos said, confused as to why the generals had abandoned their posts. Eremy laughed. "Not anymore." Loose answered, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "According to the reports, one of our arrow volleys took out their commander whilst he was brushing some burs off of his horse. And it was brilliantly lucky too, The enemy just sort of gave up after that." Loose explained, still smiling.

Braavos was in disbeleif. "Wow, that's raher lucky indeed." he commented.

"Incredibly lucky for us." Bisiteros agreed. "Now we are able to focus our full attention on Fort McAlesworth."

Suddenly, Bisiteros seemed to notice Braavos' companions. "Oh I'm sorry, please forgive me for not addressing the two of you ; Will you be joining us on our little campaign?"

Dathdr nods, saying "I have nowhere else to go. I might as well travel with allies. Allow me to introduce my self." he says, doing the customary bow of the elven people. "I am Dathdr Truearrow, of Fioldafralis, former commander of the Queens Guard. May the stars watch over all of you."

Before Zay could even start walking, Ryan appeared from the darkness, talking as he sheathed his blade, "...Well then...My apologies for being late...Are you alright?"

Zay growled and nodded, "Slightly injured, but nothing too bad."

Zay looked into the sky, eyeing the position of the moon overhead.

"We should get going; it's never smart to stay in one place while the night is still..." Zay paused, trying to sound clever and smart, but unable to think of anything, simply adds quickly, "Well, while it's still night. Let's go," and walking away briskly, surprised to only barely being able to hear Ryan moving behind her, thinking he would be louder.


Zay and Ryan walked all through the night silently. They could start to hear a very faint bustling from the distance towards where they came, but that faded after an hour's time.

Eventually they could see the forking of the river, as well as many small boats acting as ferries across the forks to a small, merchant town made up of wagons and tents. Ryan and
Zay crossed over at the price of 6 bolsa each, and walked into the caravan. Ryan seemed to be interested in some of the odd miniature statues and models as Zay bought some wine, bread, and cheese for 12 bolsa.

Zay gave half of the bread and cheese to Ryan, but before she could even take a bit, heard shouting from outside of the 'town'. She glanced up, seeing Ryan do the same, seeing what looked like a group of 20 or so bandits advancing fast on the town.


She quickly stowed her items away, seeing Ryan do the same, baring her teeth and fangs and snarling. She saw that she was to be accompanied by some of the trader's mercenary guards... a dwarf with a large axe, a human ranger with a steel knife and a bow, but only 6 arrows, an elf with two thin, shining blades, a magic dwarf looking a lot like the one she had met before, but with a longer, more pointed moustache, and something she did not expect to see; a half-giant, and a Sylvari*.

The half-giant carried a massive, blue tinted shield, as well as a steel mace, but wore no armour. The Sylvari was very agile, on her toes, bouncing around, carrying a red dagger, and wearing a very light, iron chain mail, and had green tinted bracelets that went from her wrist to halfway up her forearm. She had a crooked smile on her face as she twirled the dagger in her fingers.

There was also a small rabble of 5 or 6 traders that had picked up iron swords and put on iron helmets, desperate to save their supplies.

Zay quickly glanced back at the emerging bandits, and joined the other charging mercenaries, leaping at the closest attacker.

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

* The Sylvari (picture) are a young race of nature spirits, agile and magically adept, with a connection to plants. The one in this story has a deeper, indigo/purple coloured hair, and has tattoos on her arms and legs similar to the ones on this picture's stomach. The one in the story is obviously one of the more agile Sylvari, not one of the mages.

The green bracelet are made of iron but imbued with nature magic, causing them to glow green, and to never break. She uses them as shields.

upon hearing from a passing gaurd that braavos was due to depart soon nick immediately rushed down to the courtyard. upon seeing everyone he asked "whats the situation?"

"Slightly injured, but nothing too bad", Zay said. Ryan nodded at this and heard her say, "We should get going; it's never smart to stay in one place while the night is still...", after a slight pause, "well, while it's still night. Let's go" Ryan smiled slightly and followed, pacing Zay and moving almost as quietly as she was. They arrived at a river, and Zay paid for their crossing, not giving him time to argue. She also bought supplies and handed some to him while he stood and contemplated getting her a small statue of a woman who looked similar when he heard the shouts, turning and catching Zay's eye before turning towards the noise, spotting the bandits as well as the mercenarys and the traders grabbing weapons, he drew out his own blade, tried to heft his shield up, but it hurt his arm, so he slung it back across his back, instead grabbing a nearby torch and shouting, "For the forgotten!" and charging alongside Zay, ahead of the others.

zak nodded at Bisiteros

"i will follow you, i want to help destroy this evil from the world"

- -Bisiteros- -

"Very well then." Bisiteros said with a nod at Dathdr and Zak. "Welcome aboard."

Suddenly, one of Bahntalos' old retainers, a mage named Nick came striding in. He asked for a situation report without even giving a salute to his commanding officers. Bisiteros ignored the lack of formalities, and informed the mage of the situation.

Meanwhile, Eremy clapped Loose on the shoulder and said something inaudible. Loose nodded and turned around.

"Alright guys, load up and line up!" Loose shouted, addressing the men in the courtyard. Immediately, they did as they were instructed and eight lines of twenty five armed soldiers were quickly formed with the wagons in tow.

"Ah, it looks to be that time indeed." Bisiteros said, gazing at the sun's position in the morning sky. It was already two fingers over the horizon.

Twenty minutes later, they were on the open road in a large caravan destined for Qualtree. The trip was estimated to take about three days.

A day had passed since they had set out. still zak kept on his feet. then at around noon he heard a noise comming from the brush. he walked up to us group.

"any of you want to check it out"

- -Braavos- -

Braavos had been walking the whole day, and he was beginning to feel cranky. He had chatted with several of the people in their traveling party, but the increasing pain in his feet began to slowly make him more and more antisocial. Suddenly, a noise emanated from some bushes nearby.

Zak immediately spoke up, "Any of you want to check it out?" he said, in reference to the noise.

"Probably just a bird." Braavos commented, wishing badly for a bucket of hot water to soak his feet in.

But... he was wrong.

Actually it was two birds sexing each other up.

After having a good and hearty laugh, the convoy continues on its march, with Dathdr flitting between walking with his companions and running through the occasonal forest. Finaly, during the second days travel, he says, "To bring up conversation, may I ask if you all have any young maidens you fancy?"

- -Braavos- -

Braavos chuckled and responded, "I'm afraid the women I fancy generally aren't maidens."

Dathdr chuckled, then said, "My love life has been the opposite of yours then, my friend. At the age of 25, my parents arranged a marriage with the daughter of a high ranking officer of the army. Her name was Islandzi, and I will not go on to describe her further, save she was the most fair and graceful maiden I have ever set my eyes upon. At the age of 50, we were married, and lived a happy life. Alas, during the great war*, she was killed in front of my eyes in a surprise raid on our hometown, and afterward, it is said I made the rivers flow with the blood of the dark ones** that night, saving the town. To this day, there is not a single night that I think of her graceful curves, her laughter like the ringing of wind chimes... But I hav eranted enough. Come, tell me more of these women of ill consent, for it will kill time during the travel!"

*The Great War is what the elves call the first Dark Elf rebellion, in which Dathdr made his name famous.

**Dark Ones=Ill mannered term for Dark Elf

((OOC - Izlandzi? Islandzadi? *rings the "eragon references" bell* =O)))

- -Braavos- -

Braavos hiked up an eye brow in amusement upon hearing Dathdr's story. "Come, tell me more of these women of ill consent, for it will kill time during the travel!" the elf said, sounding surprisingly chipper after telling such a tale.

Braavos scratched at his chin for a moment. "Well..." he started, thinking hard.

My first was some girl that Belidos, my third brother, found for me when I was fourteen. He'd always been rather good with the fairer sex, but I never bothered to ask if he had to pay her or not. Her name was Kelly or Kella, and I think she was a serving-girl at one of the local bars, but I can't remember. I never saw her afterwards..."

"Anyway, I've never been the commitment type. A good word for me would be.... Scoundrel, yes definitely a scoundrel." he said, grinning devilishly.

"With the possible exception of that one time I just mentioned, I've never actually solicited a prostitute, I'm definitely not that sex crazed... But I certainly do get around from time to time..." Braavos began to trail off, slowly realizing that he was talking to an elf about screwing random women.

"Er..." he mumbled, feeling awkward.

"So there you have it." he finally said, "Are there any women of questionable intent within the elven race? You all seem rather pure of heart most of the time." He said, somewhat changing the subject.

Dathdr laughed, and said, "We elves have no need for prostitutes! We have what you would call, a "Friends with benefits" system. We do not have to stoop to pay for the temptation of the flesh."

- -Braavos- -

"Well that's... Unexpected." Braavos replied, fighting of a snort of laughter.

"So what were your parents like?" He asked, bringing up a totally random topic for the road.

Dathdr looks at the ground, and replied, "They were... constricting. They wanted to control my existance, to mold my life as tehy saw fit. Thats why I joined the army, as a common soldier no less, just to get away from them. After the war, I moved away, and refused to see them. Seeing as they were the ones that voted to banish me, I bear them no kind words. My Fathers Brother, though, he was a good man. He trained me in archery, showed me kindness, and supported my every choice, no matter how stupid or unwise. It was a sad day when he left Fioldafralis..."