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The Travellers
Zhaira Darel was relieved when she saw Daxten's face. At least this one looked normal. She wasn't sure what to make of him. Tarvellin had the 'do-gooder' stereotype written all over his face, and the demon... was a demon, but Daxten was as of yet unreadable. Well, she'd learn more about him eventually.

Without checking to see whether the demon had finished signing the list, she snatched it away and handed it to Daxten. "Here, please sign your name under the others and you're officially a member of our group. I already have an idea for our first expedition: How does cave delving for rumours of a powerful, valuable artifact sound?" She asked, placing emphasis on the word 'valuable.'

***

Tarvellin nodded towards Daxten. "Tarvellin Verinos, pleased to meet you." He was starting to grow somewhat annoyed of Zhaira's behaviour; the woman's treatment of their thusfar unnamed demon companion was quite uncalled for. For all she knew, he could be a very nice fellow. Or he could be a complete and total fool, but that was beside the point. So long as his true nature was unknown, Zhaira's treatment of him should be of better quality.

He listened to Zhaira's explanation. "Well I suppose that's an idea. Who would want to buy this artifact?"
"Oh, it's a magical staff, so I would guess that magic users would show interest," Zhaira replied.

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Aradi sighed, he'd only signed the words Demon-spawn, in his elaborate, careful handwriting, he was very careful about handing out his name, though he was only partly demon he didn't know if he still had to abide by the usual 'names are power' rule, he turned to the man talking to him, the one who had first offered his hand had turned away from him, he rolled his shoulders slowly, "I don't give out my name to anyone, just a precaution I take, but you can call me Demon-spawn or anything else you come up with, I'm used to the insults, so use those as well if you wish," he shook his head slowly, "Sorry about the smell, I had a run in with some drinks and had to defend myself, turns out they didn't want to let me live," he shrugged, it hadn't been his fault, really, he hadn't chosen to be born with the traits he had, he couldn't have stopped them, well, not without an incredible amount of pain, the horns and the tail could be fixed, the red tinge to his skin would have always been there.

He turned back to the man who had first offered his hand and grabbed hold, giving it a good shake, "Erm.. I know my kind are renowned for their thievery, but I'm different, never taken anything that wasn't mine and if I do during this trip you've the right to hunt me down and carry out the regular threats, you know, like killing me slowly to hear my devil's screams, sawing off my horns to sell them off, that sort of thing, won't resist, you can have my name as well if I do happen to take something," he announced, a somewhat honest smile on his face as he let go of the man's hand, he turned back to the table, smiling, "So, this magical staff, what does it do?" he asked curiously, "Sounds like a lot of work if it's only a minor magical thing like, say, with a stone atop it that generates light or such, it would be a shame if that was all it did," he shrugged, pondering what could possibly make this particular enchanted staff so special.

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Defender and scarer of new people
My latest RP;
You'll have to wait a bit.

--Murderers--

Another figure isnt long behind the arrival of the lich-mage, sweeping inside like a breeze as the others settle in for a meal.

He isnt as flashy as the mage, nor as...pungent as the tipsy assassin. His clothes were street clothes, more or less, if on the dark side of gray. A hooded long shirt beneath a black leather workman's vest and commoner's trousers patched at the knees.

Short and slim, the only visible weapons on him were a crossbow at his back and a longknife at his side. In fact; one could easily mistake him for a simple woodsman.

His face dismissed that. Gaunt and pale, knicked with scars and hard lines that concealed true age beneath its world-weary countenance. An expression that was part scowl and part glower seemed a permanent feature, and only highlighted the cold sharpness of the faded green eyes that watched and calculated behind dark, unkempt bangs.

He stayed where he was at the door, a menacing clump of shadows, watching the others with the sort of cautious mistrust that a street cur might regard another dog. There is no fear, however, and for all his small stature and misleading appearance; there is a predatory grace and confidence that is unmistakable.

He nods once, slightly, to Darel; recognizing the man who'd contracted him. His voice is rough; quiet but strong enough to carry without mistake, "These are the others?"

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The Travellers

Tarvellin was taken aback by the demon's attitude. Of course, judging by the reactions everybody seemed to give the poor man, it was to be expected. Tarvellin made a special note to befriend him.

"Your race does not define your life's task, my nameless friend. It is your words and actions, not your appearances and sounds. I do not take you for a thief."

***

No, but I take you for a fool, Tarvellin, Zhaira thought. Such a disgusting creature; if not for Tarvellin's presence she would have barred him from joining the group. But she could not afford to lose Tarvellin as well.

She decided that she should inform the group about the staff's nature. They did not need to know her intentions; she would escape them once they had fulfilled their purpose. Besides, why would she trust them with information that could save or damn the world? Tarvellin seemed noble, but she would not betray Voro by confiding in a mysterious demon!But there was no use in pretending about the artifact she searched for. It was more than likely that they wouldn't believe her anyway.

"I'll hold off the er... briefing until all of the applicants arrive... I wish to keep the group rather small; after two more show up I won't allow any more. For now, let us just say... it does something much more powerful than light up a room."

The Murderers

Faralon nodded towards Baralough, smiling faintly. "So good of you to join us, my late friend." He paused for a moment before realising that while in the presence of assassins; 'late' had multiple meanings. "I am of course speaking in terms of time, not life. Hehehe..." I must watch my tongue... That Direlios, so unpredictable. If I'm not careful he'll cut it out...

***

Astrolanoid walked up to Baralough, examining him closely. "Yep. You'll do. Scars; that shows some experience in this line o' work. Astrolanoid Direlios, pleasure to meet you. Just three ground rules fer workin' with me. One, betray me and die. Two, turn up drunk on the job and die," he proclaimed the second rule in a louder tone, glancing at Arvanus. "An' three? You die, I get yer loot. If all three o' you are 'appy with that then we're pretty much set."

He grinned, then turned back to Faralon. "Now we just wait for this Dem-"

"Ir. Demir Vol, reporting for duty, Mister Darel."

Astrolanoid turned back to the doorway to see the final member of his group. Demir Vol seemed extremely stereotypical; he had a very pronounced commoner's accent, a face with more scars than a blind knife-thrower's assistant and a smug smirk on his face that actors in a theatre often used when playing a villain.

Astrolanoid sighed as he slowly glided towards the man. "So you want to kill people for me, mate?"
"Uh, if you so wish it, sir."
"Indeed? You sound hesitant, sure you're an experienced killer?"
"Certainly sir, I'm as deadly as they come!"
"An' yet, if you're that deadly, why call me sir? Someone as dangerous as you shouldn't be callin' anyone 'sir.' You sound like one of the King's Guard!" Astrolanoid joked, laughing a terribly fake laugh.
"K-K-King's Guard? I've killed at least twenny o' those bastards! A day wivout death is a day wasted!"
"Really? Who was your first kill?"
"F-f-first? Well ah, ah, I didn't get 'is name! Why would I want that?"
"I didn't say name 'im, I said who was he? Why'd ye kill 'im?!"
"Oh... well-well he was a... he was a..." Demir was trailing off, mumbling inaudible words.
"Too slow!" Astrolanoid cried, laughing with amusement at the foolish man.

He took a step back and raised his left arm to Demir's face, raising his middle finger. The gesture activated a mechanism in his sleeve which instantly activated a poison dart; shooting it into Demir's neck. The man collapsed, dead before he hit the ground.

"Astrolanoid? What was that for?!" Faralon demanded, quite confused by the events. Astrolanoid was still chuckling, amazed at Vol's ineptitude.
"King's Guardsman. In disguise. Someone's on to ye, someone much more dangerous than bloody Shorn!" He bent down and pulled at Demir's face, removing a fleshy mask to reveal the unblemished face of a young man who had probably never even drawn blood.

The bewildered Faralon shook his head, hurrying over to the body.
"I'll dispose of this immediately. I'll be back to debrief you all on the mission shortly. You're even better than I thought Direlios, what made you think to question him?"

Astrolanoid sighed; he was still laughing. "I once killed a man named Vol; he was a captain in the King's Guard. This idiot didn't even bother with a false name!"

Faralon exited the office with Demir's body in his arms, and Astrolanoid turned to the remainder of the group. "Right. That was fun. Quick tip. If any more o' you are here under false pretenses, I suggest ye stay very quiet and the instant ye can, run the hell away. I don't give too many warnin's."

(I need the remainder of The Travellers to make intro posts before I can begin the first mission for both groups. I want to run all of the missions in parallel, you see.)

Aradi shrugged, "Well, I suppose meat-bag or Demon will do, but if you really want to call me something else, you can call me... Actually, I've never been asked that, not many people really ask that sort of thing, so I suppose you can just call me 'Shield' or something like that, I'm a mage specializing in healing and abjuration, erm... fancy words... sorry... Defensive magic," he sighed, rolling his shoulders. He'd never had to make up another name for himself, probably because nobody had ever extended the kindness of asking him his name for a very, very long time and even then they had settled for 'Useless' or 'Meat-shield', he wondered why this human was being so insistent, after all, usually they would spot the horns or the tail and simply glare at him hatefully, it was strange to actually find kind people, especially among humans.

"And as for why you should suspect I would steal something, well, because I've got horns, red skin and a tail, because I've got demon blood in me, I don't see why you should be any different from anyone else, you know, be normal, fit in, hate me," he mumbled, well, wasn't that the regular human desire? To fit in? He knew that the human part of himself wanted to fit in desperately, but he couldn't, that much had been beaten into him by none other than priests, he could still hear their deep, disapproving voices, 'You're not going to be liked when you leave here,' and 'We're not going to protect you forever, demon, you're nothing but an experiment, successful, but an experiment.'

He shuddered at the thought of their voices telling him those things, they'd brought him up telling that sort of thing, it hadn't really been a truly happy childhood, then again, they'd taken him from the lower planes, he knew he'd had a human parent, one of them had had demon blood though, which had passed into him and decided to actually show up, he wasn't half demon, he was sure of that, if he was the priests wouldn't have dared take him from anywhere. He shook his head, digging through memories and speculating on such things, "So, Daxtan, was it?" he began, smiling, "What is it you do?" he asked, listening intently.

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Defender and scarer of new people
My latest RP;
You'll have to wait a bit.

Lucius Arvanus sat back and watched the events unfold before him with a calm amusement that came from seeing too much, too young. He let his hand slip from the hilt of one of his short swords and rubbed the stubble on his chin. It made him look like he was trying to look like he was thinking. Yes, he thought, that makes perfect sense.

"King's Guardsman. In disguise. Someone's on to ye, someone much more dangerous than bloody Shorn!"

Arvanus considered this for a second, examining the face of a young man who hadn't seen combat lying in a pool of his own blood.

"If that really is the case then why send this inexperienced whelp? Your reputation is quite a large one, Astrolanoid, and mine isn't to be scoffed at either. Anyone with any sense wouldn't send a boy to do a mans job. He couldn't even lie properly. Now look at him."

A quiet concern rested on the edge of his voice, but he kept the rest of his thoughts to himself. Sighing, he once again sat back into the chair and resigned himself to thinking of simpler things for the time being. Like food.

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"Why don't your friends fetch us some breakfast? I think I'll join you in rediscovering the digestive system."

Jarvax looked at the one who said and sneered at him when he smelled the odor of alcohol. "My pets only answer to my commands... I won't let anyone else order them around." Jarvax's eyes had again changed to his natural glowing orbs, burning with rage, but suddenly they changed back to normal humanoid eyes and a smile touched his lips. "Besides you wouldn't want them to fetch breakfest... unless you like human flesh."

Then Jarvax turned to that man from who he sensed something... dark... "Borrowed digestive system? Then you're a man of many talents. Perhaps you can 'borrow' the skins of any companions our various targets might know... Oh yeah, you're gonna be great. Astrolanoid Direlios, a pleasure."

Jarvax managed to control his facial features as he stared at Astrolanoid. "That might be possible... just give me the body of the person you want me to impersonate... and then I will gladly borrow that person's flesh and skin." Jarvax was grinning but in his mind he was already scheming, he had heard rumors of this Astrolanoid Direlios. Interesting rumors... oh how Jarvax would love to get his hands on that body and experiment... maybe after the mission...

Another man entered and Jarvax studied him for a moment, a true fighting veteran. Jarvax knew the type he sometimes hired guys like that to round up some of his experiment subjects. He heard Astrolanoid setting some rules and Jarvax couldn't help but smirk after hearing the third one. "An' three? You die, I get yer loot. If all three o' you are 'appy with that then we're pretty much set." He didn't reply but chukled anyway.

Shortly after that another figure entered and Jarvax raised his eyebrows, how many people were going to show up for this mission? Jarvax just shaked his head and turned to the servantgirl smilling. "Ah... you've got a lovely body my dear... too bad you are in the employ of this man I would have loved to... show you some of my magic... anyway I would like to have some wine and... let's see... chicken! Yes some chicken will do nicely..." Jarvax leaned backwards in the chair he was sitting, a happy look on his face.

He turned his head to watch Astrolanoid questioning the newcomer, Jarvax didn't flinch when Astrolanoid killed the newcomer but stared intently at the body. He saw that Faralon guy picking up the body and exiting the office. "Oy! Wait! That's waste of a good body! And my pets are hungry!" Shaking his head Jarvax turned to his pets and gestured after Farlon. "Cane... Sivrael... follow the nice man who's carrying away your food..."

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Baralough returned Astrolanoid's appraising look with one of his own. Younger, but more solidly built. Balance on the balls of his feet, he smiled and chatted cheerfuly but there was a coldness to his eyes and an edge to his words. Yes, Astrolanoid certainly belonged in the company of murderers, and the older assassin made a note to keep his guard up. Especialy when he offers his name. Who -didnt- know that name?

Not that his guard ever went down. Baralough slid away from the door as the final man entered. He recognized what was happening as soon as the other began fumbling with his words. As the body drops, Baralough taps the hilt of his visible dagger in a slight, habitual motion. The frown deepend slightly.

"They sent a rookie to see if we would bite." He observes softly to answer Arvanus, "If he got in, all the better. If we killed him, what loss? Now that we are aware, they hope to spook the less stalwart. What fool would stick around for an operation already compromised by the Guard?"

But Baralough does not make for the exit. He settles in to lean against the wall, instead, observing Faralon heft the corpse and Jarvax exclaim in dismay about the waste. That one might be dangerous...Sorcerers always were. Opportunistic, sadistic, and power-hungry. Probably insane. Best to remain just what he was; the quiet nobody in the corner.

That's just how he would remain, too; observing everyone with eyes that did not blink, staring like a hawk and taking in every twitch and detail.

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