Ambrosia Software Web Board: The Alraeican Tavern - part VI - Ambrosia Software Web Board

[ooc] It's cool Nixus... for all you perturbed posters out there, Nixus and I sorted this one out over ICQ. I know it's rather unorthodox to make this a "closed" adventure... if people feel they want to, they may join us.[bic]

Nixus bounded down the stairs and flashed a smile at Dusks small audience, pausing at the door while Dusk bid farewell. Rogan patted him warmly on the back "I hope Linuds has good news, Dusk." he smiled.
Dusk and Nixus stood moments later outside, the air clean and refreshing. The world was thrown into twilight now, stars studded uncertainly- the heavens above not sure whether it was night or day. There were no clouds, and on Cythera, Dusk had learnt, that meant a cold night.
"Best we find some more food for you, Nixus. The Two Tailed Rat is open at this hour. The Tavern may serve the finest ales about, but it does not provide food that keeps."
Nixus nodded, vaguely remembering the name from her exploration earlier that day.
The corridors to the Inn wound and slithered through out the city. Dusk led the way calmly and confidently. He strode with ease down the narrow passages between stale walls and sleeping beggers.
Dusk was confused. In truth he didn't know where he was going, he walked going only on a rough sense of direction and from helpful hints he had gleamed from locals.
I've got us lost. I havn't a clue where this Inn is, I've never even been there.
Dusk felt a surge inside him, he knew he was lost within the bowls of the city, yet he didn't want to admit it. What if Nixus thought he was an idiot because of it? What if she didn't really want to come along after all?
Dusk shook his head and stopped abrubtly, causing Nixus to run into his back. She looked at Dusk under his arm which was held out to support himself. "What's wrong?"
"I don't know where the Inn is... I'm sorry Nixus." Dusk gulped, what would she say? He knew, somewhere, that all this was stupid. He shouldn'tve pretended.
"Oh." Nixus frowned, thinking "I might be able to get us there, from the outskirts of the city. I found it before."
Dusk nodded acceptance and paced briskly to the edge of Cademia, this he did know how to get to.
Nixus smiled at Dusk and bit her lip, thinking harder. She hadn't been paying much attention to the lay out of Cademia as she wandered. Nixus recognised one of the houses now, the way the walls sagged neglectedly from the roof. She smiled again and pointed, taking over as leader.

After at least another twenty minutes following the maze from one dead end to another, they finally found the Two Tailed Rat. Dusk smiled at Nixus for the first time since they had left Roughs Point, and pulled the door open, a blast of warm air forcing the pair to realise how cold it had gotten. A lady who looked to be in her mid thirties to fourties approached the pair, a tea towel and plate in hand.
"Welcome to the Two Tailed Rat, can I interest you in anything, a drink? Some accomodation for you and the lady perhaps?" Dusk shook his head and explained their need.
"Ahh, well, I can offer you some salted meats, or some breads, if you prefer."
Nixus selected several breads and a leg off a large creature of some sort, probnably a titan, which she stowed in her pack.
Now, for the Pynx, they set off. Nightfall soon overcame the pair, and travelling was wearisome. Setting up camp beside the road, both Dusk and Nixus fell promtply asleep.
Dusk still did not sleep well, tossing and turning fitfully. He was to leave a good impression on this newcomer, this much he had convinced himself of.

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Yesterday we bent our necks to emperors and kings. Today, we kneel only to truth. -Kahil Gibran

Nixus lay completely still in a deep sleep with her cloak wrapped around herself and her head resting on the rough, hard ground. She was used to this and it didn’t disturb her sleep all too much.
Very early in the morning, long before the sun was even close to rising, a dark shadow slinked into the tiny camp of Dusk and Nixus. It knelt silently down beside Nixus and reached out placing one clammy hand over her mouth. Nixus’ eyes shot open, showing only tiny signs of sleep, and she sat up, reaching for a dagger at her ankle. She looked into the figure’s rough face and realised that it was Francis.
Francis held his other hand to his own mouth, signalling for Nixus to be silent, and nodded toward a spot only a little way from the camp. Nixus nodded and Francis removed his hand from her, helping her to stand and walking quickly to the other side of the road.
Nixus looked angrily at the mage. ‘What are you doing here?’ she hissed.
‘I had to see you,’ Francis whispered back. ‘There’s something-’ he looked toward Dusk, and lifted his hands.
‘He sleeps, he’s not going to do you any harm,’ Nixus whispered, the anger not fading at all. ‘You needn’t do anything.’
‘Even still, Nixus…’ Francis slowly lowered his hands; he didn’t trust Dusk, if he was a friend of Nixus’ he was bound to bring trouble. Looking at what Nixus was wearing, and rubbing his own arms, Francis asked, ‘Aren’t you cold, Nixus?’
‘You’ll mind yourself, Francis! Now what did you come here for?’
‘Lor essen’el ni Bainmel?’ he said, glancing at Dusk again.
‘Uraphis is not my lord!’ Nixus hissed, the hate in her voice showing through. ‘And stop that, there is no need to-’
‘I do not place trust in people as quickly as you, Nixus. Now let me speak!’ Francis urged. Nixus was about to speak back at Francis, but he cut her words short. ‘Gor’ien goth! Alrimel rithem’an, qwen kellem!’
‘That is what you came here to tell me!?’ Nixus whispered, sarcasm joining her tone. ‘Listen, Francis, I am not coming back! I don’t care how bad the War is; there is nothing you can say or do that will make me return! Besides, wasn’t it only last night that you were telling me I’d meet my end with you? What ever happened to that, hm?’

The bickering continued on for some time, half of the conversation in common, and half the odd language Francis spoke. Although the sun hadn’t begun to rise, it would soon. Dusk seemed to stir and began to sit up. Nixus waved Francis away, and walked casually back to the camp. Dusk rubbed his eyes and looked oddly at Nixus. ‘Were you talking to someone?’ he asked groggily, rubbing his eyes.
Nixus smiled and ran her fingers through Dusk’s hair. ‘You were just dreaming,’ she said softly. ‘Go back to sleep; we still have some time before the sun will show.’
Not sure of what was happening, but trusting that everything was okay, Dusk lay back down and fell asleep once again.
Nixus looked around, but Francis did not return. The young woman knew that he wouldn’t bother her for at least a few days now, but she stayed alert out of habbit. She lay down a little way from Dusk and closed her eyes, eventually falling asleep again.

When Nixus blinked her eyes open, the bright sun burned them making her flinch. It must have been fairly late in the morning by now. She sat up and rubbed her eyes furiously, and looked around to find Dusk sitting patiently nearby.
‘Why didn’t you wake me?’ Nixus asked, her tone slightly irritable but none the less friendly. ‘We’ve lost so much time.’
Dusk smiled. ‘You just looked too peaceful to wake. Besides, you were up a lot last night, and I figured that you could do with the sleep.’
‘I wasn’t up much-’ Nixus began to say, but from the look Dusk gave her, she stopped and rethought her words. ‘Yes Dusk,’ she said simply.
Dusk stood and walked over to Nixus. ‘You must be hungry.’
‘I have some bread with me, thankyou,’ the young woman said, taking a small portion from her cloak and gnawing at it.

The two sat and talked lightly for a short time before deciding to continue on to Phynx.

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Uuma quena en'mani lle ume, ri'mani lle umaya. Uma ta ar'lava ta quena ten'irste'.
Do not talk about what you have done, or what you are going to do. Do it and let it speak for itself.

Pyrus was just headed downstairs when he bumped into Rogan.
"Good morning to you" Pyrus said, "had a good night's rest I hope?"
Rogan didn't answer his question, but instead turned around for a second. He was standing in the bottom of the staircase and thus had a good wiev of the entire tavern. He turned his head again and motioned for Pyrus to walk back upstairs. Pyrus followed his request, though a little confused.
He looked at Rogan. He seemed very vigilant at this time of the day, and he was also clad in his armor and carrying a sack.
"You leaving?" Pyrus asked.
Rogan grabbed his shoulder and led him a bit further away from the staircase before he started to explain his peculiar behaviour;
"I was hoping to find you awake, Pyrus. I have to depart now."
Pyrus tried to answer. "Why..." but was interrupted;
"I can't tell you any more right now," he looked back at the staircase, "but I think someone followed us here last night. I think it's best for me to get out of here now."
Pyrus raised an eyebrow. "Followed us?"
"Listen, I'll try to find out more. It might be just my paranoia or a weird coinsidence, but I think I know what they were after. But relax, I'm not bailing on you... I just need to vanish for a few hours or so."
Rogan rummaged through the pockets of his cloak and found a small, silver key which he handed to Pyrus.
"If you need shelter, there's the key to my house. It's not far from here, 57 Mulligan Bone alley, remember that address?"
Pyrus nodded and took the key.
"To the north, okay? Just follow the road up to the editorial office, then walk to the east and you'll see the sign. Also, if you need to contact me, go back to the part of town we came from, the shanty town, and look for a place called 'Ratlizard's pub&eatery'... there you'll find a half-ogre named Gôrg Mead Mug, talk to him."
Pyrus seemed a little overwhelmed. "Gee, Rogan, maybe I should begin taking notes?" he smiled and stuffed the key in a pocket.
His joke was lost on Rogan at the moment. "Good luck, the guys should be downstairs" he said and began walking in a fast pace down the stairs. He suddenly turned around again. "Almost forgot... if you meet an overly curious elf, don't answer any of his questions. Don't ask me why, just don't do it."
Rogan left in a hurry, dodging into an alley.
Pyrus proceeded down the stairs to see if he could find the men his trainer had been talking about.

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Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity.

Cliff walls loomed over, shadowing the narrow pass through the mountains of Cythera. Air was cold, yet it bit with little tenacity. Dusks breath came almost without noise or movement, Nixus's came forth in a frothing cloud of condensed vapour. Under foot patchy grass crunched and shattered, the puddles from the previous nights drizzle- now solid.

The woman traveled slightly behind the larger man, who led. The man gave off a corona of leadership and strength, the lady followed without question; perhaps they were friends. Yet lack of conversation indicated focus.
The tall man in odd clothing bore no weapons to the eye, and he gave off no magick. The younger one, however- she was different. A sword hung from her belt, and she walked as one accustomed to long journeys.
The mage knew his business, but choosing was difficult. He could only strike one, the rest would be left to his brutish friends. He glanced over at the two ruffians who breathed heavily and batted their swords on the ground, sniffing. He despised them; them and their ungainly ways. He hated how they wielded swords like a spade, hacking and bashing until the victim stopped moving. It was barbaric, cruel, and (what infuriated him the most) unprofessional. Killing was not something to be taken lightly, but these men would make a bigger fuss over their rooms for the night. The mage sighed and scryed again, searching their corona's for traces of magick.
The one who led had none, that he could tell. The one who followed, she was different. He coulnd't place her magick, and this made him uneasy. What you knew might kill you, and what you didn't know certainly would. A cold blade and an even colder snarl awoke the mage "You'd better hurry up, or they'll have left the pass soon.".
The mage got the idea, and scryed one last time. The girl would go first, he coulnd't take the risk.

Dusk trudged onwards, accustomed to the cold day. It was always cold in the mountains, just lucky there isn't a blizzard thought Dusk. Nixus smiled wryly when he glanced back, taking her eyes off the scrubby ground. Dusk saw an odd tear whenever she looked up, as if pulled from her thoughts into the world of living. He dropped back, levelling with the aubunre haired girl. They walked together is silence. The sun was near to midway in it's graceful arc, taking in time to ponder the ground beneath it's feet. Up here, in the pass, the birds did not twitter though. The world was empty, divorce from time.
Dusk placed his hands on Nixus's shoulders now, turning to face her. She stopped walking and looked into Dusks eyes.
"Nixus, something troubles you."
Nixus shrugged Dusks hands off and walked on, focusing more on the frozen grass.
She heard a thud as Dusks inhert form crumpled.

"You're a fool, the girl will kill you, you'll see!" The mage swore and hid behind a rock, cursing at his companions choice of target. The older ruffian swaggered towards him and took hold of the mages regal beard "Remember who we've got back home, and shut up!" The mage gulped, ceasing his barrage of complaints.

[ooc] ok, I've left the scene open for you Nixus, Dusk is only asleep at the moment. [bic]


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Yesterday we bent our necks to emperors and kings. Today, we kneel only to truth. -Kahil Gibran

[OOC] Okay, I'm a little confused. Where exactly on the island are Dusk and Nixus? I'm a very visual person, so you're going to have to point it out on [url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/gCythera.htm"]the map[/url]. I'm sorry to interrupt, I'm just confused. Good story you've got going, though. Keep it up, I want to see where this is going. [/OOC]

Joe remained silent in the Tavern. He had never been much of a talker, and he enjoyed listening to the tales of the travelers and adventurers who frequented this place. Sure, some of them were exaggerated, but that didn't mean that they weren't good tales. And most, Joe felt, must have a significant part based in truth. Joe's thoughts continued to turn to his titans. But in the company of the good people of the Tavern, he had hope for the future of his good beasts, and could clearly sort out his options. However, the solution came to him from an outside source.
"You know what is the really monotonous thing about all these adventures?" a slightly intoxicated Lukyan asked the group. "It's walking all over this big old island to get to anywhere. It takes half a day just to get from Odemia to Catamarca, and that's the closest. You can't walk from the north end of the island to the Southern Swamp in anything shorter than a week. And that's without stoping in towns for food or anything." There were murmers of agreement throughout the Tavern. Joe, however, was confused.
"Why doesn't anyone ride an animal, like a unicorn or titan?" he asked.
"Well some use them on farms, but most of the wild animals don't like having riders. And they're all so big, if they get mad, there isn't much that can restrain them. Also, on an adventure, a simple plow-pulling beast would get himself killed rather quickly," Lukyan replied.
"My father and I raised titans for years on our ranch. Do you mean to tell me that we were the only ranch on the island that domesticated titans? I have seven of them tied up at the bridge east of town. Man, we could have charged those farmers a lot more for them."
"What? How did you get them? Where is your ranch?"
Joe proceded to tell him all about his ranch and raising titans, the one subject he loved to talk about. He explained all about how they knew where the wild titans nested, and how they took the eggs of mother titans who had more than one that year. "In the wild, the mothers really don't look after the young themselves, allowing older siblings to care for them instead. So if you take the eggs before they hatch, the mother doesn't care afterwards and the siblings don't know as long as there is at least one young titan to care for. We raise them from hatching, and they never know that they're not with their original herd, and they treat me as they would the chief male of the pack." He continued to explain how they trained the titans, that most were trained for pulling plows or wagons.
"So, do you train any to be ridden?"
"Yes, we did train some, but most titans, like you said, don't like to be ridden. The ones that we broke for riding, though, were always the most loyal and refused to stay with anyone we sold them to; while the pulling ones just saw it as a change in pack leadership, the riding ones always came wandering back to us. Which is probably why I still have mine -- when the herd was stolen and the ranch destroyed, the riding ones came back to find me. All of the titans I have at the bridge right now are trained for riding."
"You keep talking about these things like they are in the past. Did something happen to your ranch?" Lukyan asked, not knowing Joe's personal history. Joe told him [url="http://"http://www.ambrosiasw.com/webboard/Forum5/HTML/000506-3.html#BigJoe04-24-200303:03PM"]his story[/url], and they then continued to talk about raising titans. The friendly discussion lasted for quite some time before Joe realized that he had not visited the titans today. Excusing himself, he left the tavern to go check on his beasts.
As he got to the bridge, he noticed that a bunch of city guards were gathered around the titans and trying to restrain them. They were not having very much success, as the titans didn't feel like going with them. "Hey! What are you doing to my titans?!" Joe shouted as he was running to the aid of his animals.
The captain of the gaurds intercepted Joe. "These beasts belong to you? It's a violation of city code to have unregistered wild animals within the city limits. You will need to take them out of town."
"But they're not wild animals. I've raised them from hatching. Isn't there anyplace in town where I can keep them?"
"Well, if they are tame as you say, you will need to go to the judge to obtain registration for the animals. While you're there, you could ask him if they could stay here. He probably won't mind, as only a handful of people even use this bridge. But they'll need to be under constant surveillance until they're registered."
"Okay. If you call your men off, I can make them calm down." The captain gave the order, and the city gaurds backed off from the angry titans, relief the primary expression on their faces. Joe walked over to the tree he had tied them to originally (most had broken their ropes while trying to get away from the guards) , pulled a traveller's sack out of the branches, and pulled out a lyre. He sat down at the base of the tree and began playing. He played a slow, soft melody that immediately calmed the titans. They plodded over to him and lay down in the grass under the tree. The guards were very impressed.
"I've heard that music calms the savage beast, but I've never seen anything like that. You've got a gift, boy, and it's obvious that you can control these titans. You stay here with them, and when I make my report to the judge, I'll ask him myself to allow you to keep them here. Those strings practically glowed when you played, and I was tempted to go lay down in the grass myself," the captain said.
"Thank you for your help and compliments, sir," Joe responded.
As the guards made to leave, the captain turned back. "Oh, yeah. I'll need your name and how long you plan on being in town for the animal registration papers."
"My name is Josephus, but most call me Joe. I'm not really sure how long I'll be in town, but I can't imagine more than a few weeks." The captain thanked him and left.
After all the guards were gone, Joe started chuckling to himself and talking to the titans. "Didn't think that was going to work as well as it did! Some people's attitudes are changed more easily than others, I guess. Isn't that right, Greenie." The titan didn't respond. "You look tired. Has it been an exciting day, boy?" The titan again didn't respond, instead laying his head down and closing his eyes. Joe patted the big reptilian head. "Well, I'm going to head back to the Tavern. Greenie," one of the big titan's eyes opened, "You make sure the others behave themselves." Joe went around, tied the ropes to the tree again, and headed back to the Tavern.

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"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."
-- Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
Inventor of the "Analytical Engine", the first computer.

[This message has been edited by Big Joe (edited 05-13-2003).]

Nixus spun around, at the same time drawing her sword, which glowed in the dull light, but her eyes were met only by the crumpled figure of Dusk. She looked cautiously around at her surroundings and could sense something foul hanging in the air, but nothing visible to her at that moment. Still holding her sword in front of herself, the woman walked slowly toward Dusk, looking everywhere but at him. She stood over his motionless body for a moment before kneeling down to make sure that he was alright. He was still breathing, and there weren’t any marks over him that Nixus could see. She sighed in relief to see that he was only asleep.

The cold words that she’d heard behind her rang through her mind. “You're a fool, the girl will kill you, you'll see!”. There was only one person she knew who could make that assumption, but he’d not have disappeared had it been him, or had it been anyone else who knew Nixus. She shuddered. Who else could possibly think that of her?

Slipping the sword into its sheath, Nixus struggled to pick up Dusks lank body and take him to the side of the road. It was all that she could do, she new there was no hope in trying to wake him. She looked around to see if anyone was looking, but still there was no sign of any other life. Taking a deep breath, she cupped her hands and closed her eyes tightly. Praying for it to work, she whispered “Emuma’ir”. Suddenly, a great warmth began to course through her hands, and when she opened her eyes, to her amazement, a great yellow light met them. Not wasting any time, she held her hands over Dusks sleeping image and the light slowly began to flow from her hands, a little like honey, and whipped around Dusk. When Nixus pulled her hands away, the light around them disappeared (although Dusks lingered), and they were red and sore.

Although she didn’t hear it, whispers began to spring up from where the mage and his companions hid behind the rocks. I knew that I could sense something strange coming from that girl! the mage thought to himself. The other two sat in awe, mumbling to each other. ‘Well, what about the girl?’ one asked the mystified mage. ‘What are you going to do about her?’
The mage looked out at Nixus. ‘I guess the same as I did with the other one. Wait here; if it doesn’t work then she’ll feel less threatened if there is only one of us.’
‘Who do you think you are barking orders to us?’ one of the ruffians asked rudely. ‘If things get even slightly out of hand, we’re coming out.’

With that, the mage waved his hands and chanted softly under his breath, and it was not long before Nixus began to sway on her knees, falling forward with her head landing heavily on Dusk’s stomach. The thugs waiting hidden on the side of the road laughed and trudged toward the two laying helplessly on the other side of the road. They must have done this sort of thing many times before, because no time was wasted in admiring their work; they straight away set to foraging through the few possessions Dusk and Nixus had carried with them.

As they were drawing close to leaving, one of the thugs knocked Nixus hard on her side. She groaned, but lay now on her back in the dirt still asleep. As the three began to walk away, Nixus slowly began to open her eyes until she lay squinting at the three tiny figures in the distance. She raised herself painfully (her side now hurt and her hands were still raw) to her feet and without thinking began to stumble toward the three. Her staggering soon became a slow jog, which in turn turned into a run. The girl called out as she drew nearer to the thieves. ‘Hey! Need a little help back here!’
The three all turned around to look at Nixus. ‘We were just walking along back there, and all of a sudden-’ but she was cut off in mid sentence when the three turned back around and began to run.

Suddenly realising how light her cloak was, Nixus leered at the fugitives realising what had happened. She began to give chase, but as they went on Nixus lost them in the dulling light. Shuddering, Nixus looked around and realised that she was completely lost, and Dusk was nowhere even close to where she was.
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Uuma quena en'mani lle ume, ri'mani lle umaya. Uma ta ar'lava ta quena ten'irste'.
Do not talk about what you have done, or what you are going to do. Do it and let it speak for itself.

[This message has been edited by Nixus (edited 05-16-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Nixus (edited 05-16-2003).]

[This message has been edited by Nixus (edited 05-22-2003).]

Ferazel walks into the bar carrying a new 17" widescreen Powerbook. He lifts the lid and connects to the local AirPort Extreme network, the Tavern's. Using Apple Remote Desktop and Password_Breaker 2.0, he cracks into the eMac that Talos used to automatically keep track of orders. After selecting "control", be types in a new order:

One glass Zirdium wine
Ferazel, table 26
PAID

Within two seconds, he disconnected ARD and started up Internet Explorer. Within another two minutes, an automated barmaid gave him his beer. "I don't remember you ordering..." she said, her mechanical eyes puzzled. "I did, Talos." replied Ferazel. She shrugged and walked back behind the counter. Ferazel snickered from behind the giant lid of the Powerbook. "Anyone up for a round of NetHearts?" Ferazel inquired, searching for his copy.

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Key Part in the making of Xichra's Revenge.
---
Welcome to the lighthouse at the bottom of the hill / we don't get many guests 'round here; some say we never will / the world is crumbling before your eyes, before your vacant stare / listen to the sound of trees falling when nobody's there.
I applaud you with my one hand / noone has come this far / welcome to the e-ey-eh-dge / welcome to the e-ey-eh-dge / welcome to the e-ey-eh-dge / land of the bizzare!

[edit] fixed stuff.[/edit]

[This message has been edited by ferazel_09 (edited 05-31-2003).]

As the sun sank slowly toward the horizon and dipped below the mountains beyond, a lone man walked through the still busy streets of Cademia, his long green-grey cloak trailing along just above the ground, and the hood covering his scruffy black hair and his rough, worn face. The man stopped outside a tavern, a sign hung just next to the door, and a warm light glowed from inside. He pushed the old wooden door open and stepped inside, removing his hood. He was around 19, but looked slightly older, he wore brown leather boots that reached half way up his shanks; his shirt and pants were made of an odd tough, grey fabric; a bracelet hung at his wrist, it was silver and had three tiny charms hanging upon it: a paw, a claw, and a crystal.

He looked around the room at the people talking quietly amongst themselves. A few here and there had turned their heads for a moment, sizing up the newcomer, but quickly turned back to their ale and conversation. The man walked over to the bar and sat upon one of the old stools. Not many people seemed overly interested in the newcomer. The man behind the counter greeted the young man at the bar. ‘Hullo! I haven’t seen you in these parts before. Can I get you anything?’
The young man nodded. ‘Just what ever ale you normally serve will be fine thankyou.’
When the bartender returned, he introduced himself as he handed the goblet of ale to the young man. ‘I’m Avatara. Are you new in Cademia?’
The young man nodded again and held his hand toward Avatara. ‘Greetings Avatara. I am Raven, and no, I haven’t ever visited Cademia; I live in a small village on the outskirts of Cythera. You may have heard of it; Tenthar?’
Avatara shook his head. ‘Can’t say I have. That’s an interesting name, Raven.’
Raven looked into his warm, and suddenly very interesting ale. ‘It was given to me as a code name, along with my sister and best friend, Bumble-Bee and Grasshopper.’
‘Do you have another name? The one your parents gave to you?’
Raven became more and more interested in his ale. ‘We...don’t exactly have parents...’

(ooc)Howdy! I am One Winged Angel, call me what ever you want. And I can't wait to post with all of ya's! (bic)

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Who said that I wasn't right?
I've lived for years without a life
Don't have a soul on my side
Still ridiculed despite how hard that I have tried

[This message has been edited by OneWingedAngel (edited 06-08-2003).]

Welcome to our web board. We're always glad to have new people.

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Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]

Sunlight glimpsed over Dusks elbow, probing his closed eyes. The day was dawning with a touch of frost. Dusk awoke slowly. Tall mountains soared to his left, the grass around his body frozen to his coat with dew. A black bird darted and pecked at the grass, but took flight when it noticed the ex-soldier. Dusk ran his hand through mud caked hair and with clammy fingers, felt for his sword. He found it several meters away, trodden into the mud. He cleaned and replaced it; his money was gone. He had already checked, but nothing remained, save a single golden coin that had clearly fallen from the bag.
Where was Nixus?
Dusk cursed and pulled himself together, squatting on the earth he replaced fragments of memory from the day before. He remembered walking up the mountain, the strange rock, the young girl and- yes, there it was, a great drowsyness. Mavris had told Dusk of spells that would do this, but he had never been the victim of one, becuse of his coat the mage had said. It had weak magickal blocking properties, or so they told him.
Dusk collected his scattered items and began walking; calling Nixus's name to the land about.

Noon had came and passed before Dusk found the young girl, sprawled at the road side. Dusk leapt towards her, boudning the last few feet and felt for her pulse.
What if she was dead?
He had lost her, oh god please don't be dead, he thought. But sure enough a weak beat assured him.
He built a small fire and shifted Nixus's body tenderly into the warmth, sitting her head on his lap to keep warm. He sighed relief and found she had no injuries, save some bruising. Her hair fell lavishingly around Dusks hands as he prodded and poked at the cackling fire. Dusk smiled to himself.

[ooc] Since this is the 200th post, do we start a new Tavern? I had a feeling something like that happened... and would I be able to do the starting? [bic]

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Yesterday we bent our necks to emperors and kings. Today, we kneel only to truth. -Kahil Gibran

[This message has been edited by dusk (edited 06-07-2003).]

A gust of wind blew through the tavern. All the lights, but one small candle were extinguished. An eerie glow surrounded the tavern doors as the suddenly were burst open, revealing a cloaked figure. The figure slowly walked forward, the doors mysteriously closing at the command of his will. A shiver creeped up everyone's spine as the stranger drew closer to the bar.
"Do not be frightened, for I intend to harm no one, I am here only but for a drink and to talk," spoke the stranger. As though the people within the chamber did not fully trust the newcomer's words they still listened, but with great caution. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Nathaniel Stephant. Brother to Alpha-Alaric, and an archmage as well," spoke Nathaniel. Still somewhat frightened no one moved. "I hope my entrance did not frighten or disturb you, it seems my powers are quite too tremendous, and I fear I do lose control of them sometimes. Now that I am done introducing myself, I hope I have not left you all terrified." Stephant walked up to the terrified bartender. "If you dont mind I'll have an ale. This should more than be sufficient for the price, keep the tip," suggested Stephant as he drew a large handful of oboli from his pouch. After withdrawing the oboli, he silently drew the drawstrings of the pouch back closing it so none of the oboli could escape from its chamber.

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~"Never look back at your
past, but at the future that
awaits you."~
Captain Nathaniel Stephant

Since the tavern has exceeded 200 posts, this topic is now locked. Please continue on to the 7th installation in the series.

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Slayer's guide to Cythera:
[url="http://"http://www.macclassics.com/cythera/cythera.htm"]http://www.macclassi...era/cythera.htm[/url]