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LadyElvenarcher · #1 [ ] 02-10-2008, 02:33 PM

OoC: So, here’s my attempt to get a little more involved with the BA again. This is a completely open battle/quest to anyone wishing to join it. However, there are a few ground rules you should all be aware of.

1.) If you are interested in joining, please send me a PM with the character(s) you want to use. Yes, you may use multiple characters in this, but try to keep it to a reasonable number.

2.) There is to be little to no power-playing in this. Yes, I know it’s typical to have vast amounts of power-playing sometimes, but in this, I want everyone to keep it to a strict minimum or eliminate it completely. Only write the actions and thoughts of the character(s) you are using. This will also help with the third ground rule.

3.) I do not want mini-novels for posts. Please try to keep your posts to a reasonable maximum. This will, hopefully, help things to run faster and smoother and also keep things more interesting. Also, this should allow for far more accurate character interaction.

Those are really the only basic rules I have for this thread. Anything else goes. Once I’ve gotten a sufficient number of PMs, I’ll establish a posting order that we can follow for the rest of the thread to avoid confusion and conflict.

And one last thing. I want this to be a thread where you can have fun and kick back. Yes, what we’re going to be dealing with is going to end up serious and possibly epic and such, but I don’t want you guys to feel pressured to produce publish-worthy posts all the time. Just relax and let things flow the way they want to. <3

IC:

Silence reigned on the remote edges of the forest just outside the walls of Penion—a small city with only one inn and one tavern. Sileya had thought it would be quiet enough to stop for the night, just for one night, before she would continue on her journey back to Valina. How wrong she had been. She hadn’t counted on being awoken in the dead of night by an insistent rapping upon her door. She had thrown on a robe as quickly as possible only to open the door to find nobody there—only a thin roll of parchment wrapped in a black ribbon. The wind tugged at the piece of unrolled paper Sileya now held firmly in her hand, illuminated by the soft glow of light emanating from her other index finger. Ink blots dominated the message, a sure sign that whoever had scribbled it down had been in a hurry. She wondered at the circumstances which had produced the note.

if you would seek eternal glory and boundless power, find the artifact known as Azazel’s Stone which the Ancients hid before the breaking and rebirthing of humanity

find the Eye of the Serpent

kill anyone who gets in your way

you must not let the Sun Rod f

Here, the message abruptly ended. Sileya leaned back against a nearby tree and fingered the ribbon in deep contemplation. She must not let the Sun Rod…what? There were a lot of words that started with the letter “f,” and she wasn’t even sure what form of word it could be. It was a verb, most likely, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility of it being an adverb or even an adjective. If the person frantically writing the message had clearly ignored normal rules of grammar, surely he or she could have left out some vital clue as to what the rest of the complete thought was.

And what in the world is this “Eye of the Serpent”?

She had half a mind to crumple the note and forget about it. What need had she of eternal glory and boundless power, anyway? All she wanted right now was to return home after so long and see her family again. What was left of them, anyway. But the riddle and the implication of a quest intrigued her. Ignoring her inward child’s protests, Sileya pushed herself off the tree trunk, extinguished the light upon her finger, and headed back into town. Perhaps the tavern would offer a clue.

* * * * *

I hate men.

Len’s eyes roved over the sickeningly drunk group of men who were still downing alcohol at 2 a.m. They probably thought they looked fun and attractive to women, but they were dead wrong. What woman would want a man slobbering all over himself with a foaming glass of ale in his hand? Len certainly didn’t want one. In fact, she didn’t particularly want a man, period. She had no use for one unless it was to kill him in order to make money.

Pulling her disgusted gaze away from the pigs, she looked down at the mysterious message she had received courtesy of a half-crazed, blood-smeared woman who had shown up at her room in the inn a mere hour ago. The woman had probably meant to knock a few times and then leave the note on the floor, but Len had moved much faster than anticipated. Upon opening the door, Len had snatched the note from the woman’s trembling, bony fingers. When she had tried to question the woman, however, all she got in return was a broken whimper before her bloodied, almost ghostly, visitor darted away and vanished down the stairs.

So, now, Len sat in Penion’s only tavern, watching an obnoxious bunch of mongrel men pour booze down their throats while trying to mull over the cryptic message she had received.

if you would seek eternal glory and boundless power, find the artifact known as Azazel’s Stone which the Ancients hid before the breaking and rebirthing of humanity

find the Eye of the Serpent

kill anyone who gets in your way

you must not let the Sun Rod f

She wasn’t much of a glory-inclined person, but the idea of boundless power certainly held its advantages, especially in her line of work. She had no idea, though, what the Eye of the Serpent was or what the Sun Rod was or what she wasn’t supposed to let it do. And that mildly frustrated her. The only other bright spot was that she was specifically instructed to kill anyone who attempted interference. She would certainly enjoy that part.

Having had all she could take of the drunken group of men, Len was just about to push back her chair and return to her room in the inn when the door to the tavern swung open and a silver-haired Elf stepped through. Len’s eyes widened only slightly at the sight of the Elf’s rather large broadsword strapped to her back. With her lithe way of walking and her nearly impeccable appearance, the Elf was strikingly out of place among the usual tavern occupants. Len’s mental defenses immediately heightened.

The Elf paid no heed to the men. Instead, her emerald eyes settled upon Len’s corner, and she moved over to the assassin’s table. “Hello,” she said politely, with a smile and an accent Len automatically identified as having royal traces. “My name is Sileya.” The newcomer sat across from Len as though she belonged there. “Do you know anything about the Eye of the Serpent?”