((You guys got a lot of 5's and 6's on the dice this update....))
You take a few minutes to study the wanted poster, marveling at the level of detail some unknown artist managed off of eye witness statements.
Aside from your body shape, proportions and beautiful looks, the Artist also got your long, wavy silver-white hair and your blue eyes. When you look closer you can even see the artist has even included the silver speckles that you have in your eyes as well. Looking at the height, you see they have you down as 5 foot 10". You scowl as you notice they included 'Short for a High Elf' on the poster. '
I'm not short, just vertically challenged!' you think to yourself indignantly.
They also give a description of what you are wearing as well. With a little smile, you wonder if they've missed anything. Indulging your curiosity, you see they have you wearing your now discarded blood stained cloak, as well as your armour consisting of a mixture of scale, splint and plate armour attached to a padded leather backing. They also included your sword and daggers, although only a description of their hilts. And they also got the mundane, such as your gloves, knee high boots and heavy belt, with its pouches and water skin.
You briefly wonder just how the guards and the eye witnesses managed to get so much information about your equipment and looks with only a short look.
'
No matter' you think to yourself as you grab the poster and tear it from the wall, tearing it up and shoving it in the nearest barrel.
~~~
Looking both ways along the road, you see that not many people are out and about, even if it is only early evening. You check your provisions, and find that you have very little in the way of food on you, but you do have several water skins which feel full.
You set off towards what you think to be the City market to your left. You decide that if you are to leave, you'll need food first. As you walk, you realise that you are in fact missing something, something rather dear to you. Your fathers bow. Even the twin quivers you usually wear on your back are missing. You also seem to have misplaced your small buckler.
"Damn!" You say, angry. You have no idea where they could have gone. Knowing your luck, they are probably somewhere back in Vellenberg, which, if your geography is right, is about 500 miles, or 8 days travel at the average High Elven walking speed, to the North West, in the mountainous regions of central Feritul Continent.
Your anger makes you increase your pace, and your mind starts drifting to other things. You begin to think of when you last spent your birthday with your family. "The last time...." You mumble to yourself. "...Was my 645th, about thirteen years ago. I really have to go visit sometime....."
Now you start to feel lonely as well as angry. You realise you have been without a companion or lover for so very long, decades at least, drifting through the continents with little guidance. You make yourself a promise that as son as you can, you will return to visit your family in your home town of Dewlinnia.
~~~
Shaking yourself out of your reverie, and calming yourself with the meditation techniques taught to every young High elf that helps them maintain the Faradunian's famed stoicism, you begin to think of the reason you are here, kidnapped from your comfy tavern room.
You are nothing really special. Skilled in armed combat and magic, yes, but there are plenty of others who are your equals or even superiors. Knowledge? You are no spellweaver, intellectual nor a famed engineer and you are privy to no sensitive information as far as you know.
Could it be some gullible mages believing you to be part of some ridiculous prophecy? If so, then why murder the Guard captain, and frame you? Murder is punished with torture and ultimately execution in the Southern Clanlands.
"So someone must want me dead.....But why? I have no dangerous enemies. Unless it is a case of mistaken identity......"
You are so lost in thought you almost walk right into a guard patrol. Fortunately for you, the young male and female members of the guard that make up the guard patrol near you are too busy mating, whilst seemingly trying to suck each others faces off, just inside an alleyway to pay you much attention. They, at the very least, seem to be enjoying themselves in this shit hole of a city.
You hurry past, trying to make as little noise as possible, which you pull off with great success. You power walk away as fast as possible, until the sounds of early evening coitus disappears from your very sensitive hearing.
~~~
After almost getting lost several times in the labyrinth like road system of the city, you eventually find yourself at a large, rather attractive, open air market and plaza. Unfortunately, it is far, far busier than the roads. Fortunately for you, though, it seems there is a large angry crowd gathered in front of a very large and imposing mansion like building on one side of the plaza, and the dozens of guards present in the square are too busy trying to control the crowd to pay any attention to someone wearing a hood cloak.
You make your way around the still surprisingly well stocked market stalls, first buying a nice large satchel to hold your provisions in, followed by dried meats and fruits, and then preserved vegetables. Lastly, you buy several blocks of travel-cheese wrapped in thick waxed paper. On an impulse, you buy a dwarven brandy flask full of Stoneguard Brew Brandy, in case you want to get drunk or possibly bribe someone.
Smiling that everything seems to be going well and you'll be able to set out on the road soon towards Vellenberg, everything goes wrong.
Just as you close and secure your padded satchel closed, the angry crowd, now several times larger than it was before your little shopping spree, starts getting violent. They charge in a rather cohesive formation towards the line of prepared guardsmen, trying to break through and get to the still open gates of what you assume to be the governors building.
The guards fight back, massacring the people. It doesnt take long for the flagstones of the square to be running red with blood, growing piles of civilian bodies dotting the area. To make matters worse, more civilians appear from the side roads and alleyways that lead onto the square intermingled with what appear to be armed warriors, the warriors not wearing or carrying the colours of this city, storm into the square, clashing with the blood-drunk guards.
The square erupts into a brutal battle, the skilled guards fighting the equally skilled newcomers.
You see all civilians not involved run for their homes as the sound of battle grows louder. You then spot something that horrifies you.
Two little girls, clinging to each other for dear life surrounded by bloody, fighting men and women. One of the unmarked warriors is fighting two guards desperately, as if to protect the little girls. Your suspicions are confirmed when one of the guards, either driven insane or into a battlefield bloodlust, tries to cleave his halberd blade down on top of one of the girls, only to be stopped by the warrior.
At this same moment, you notice that the full time soldiers, no doubt this cities military garrison, have just arrived on the scene.
'This is turning into one giant disaster......' Damn, your mind is good at stating the obvious sometimes.
~~~
What do you do?
Save the girls and aide the warrior? Run away and leave the city? Something else?
Author
Topic: (SG) The World of Ricovero - Ghost in the Rain (Read 16146 times)