@Ozzy Cross@Searat

As the wagon, horse and the motley group finally got moving, Margaret kept walking alongside at a brisk pace. Keeping up was nothing to her, but sitting down on the cart might lead to the cart getting an axle broken. Or all of them. Her illusion spell could only hide so many things, and her mass was not one of them, her human form leaving rather deep footprints anywhere that was not paved.

She kept her talk with Thaddeus: "You need not release the blade form your hand. If you were truly close to those dragons, I wonder... did they reveal to you their true names?" She asked. True names were reserved for family and only a few very close, very trusted friends. Heck, in her family, she only trusted her father with it. Her brothers were opportunistic blacks and the witch of a female that called herself their mother would one day die by her hand, if it was the last thing Taraah ever did. "If the dragon since perished, I could hardly use it against them, and knowing it I could perform a resonance spell to gauge if you are truthful." she explained.

"If you are, you have my undying friendship. If you are lying... Well, frankly, dealing with that is beneath me." she snotred amusedly. "I can not lose the feeling though that for some reason fates decided I should meet you. One does not simply wander into a friend of dragonkin, as the rest of this town clearly shows."

She was briefly amused by the return of the apologetic wizard. "Better an apologetic bigot and coward than one not reformed at all," she shot an ugly look towards TOM, "I will fight by your side, wizard."

@eemmtt

"Not at all...just jostled a little..."
"I have done nothing to the bookworm. He was not watching were he was going."

Roa pulled the half-elf to his feet, only to watch him turn back and look at the town with a growing expression of worry, despite legitimately nothing appearing wrong. "Oh dear..." Roa looked again, trying to see what Rudolph was. More than a little confused, she turned back to him with a quizzical look, on the cusp of questioning his bizarre behaivior before noticing his attention was fully elsewhere. She followed his eyes and spotted a horse-drawn wagon passing behind the houses along the street in the distance.

"I would love to talk some more, but my prior commitment to our resident blacksmith requires me to follow-through with what I said I would do. I do promise answers if you still need them when we return."

In a flash, the wizard had grown to grotesque proportions and taken off in an explosion of wind, leaving her no time to so much as call out. "Wait, Shina? what do you mean- wait!!" She called after the half-elf, but he was already gone from her sight. Her confusion only grew as she tried to grasp exactly what has just happened.

"What in the seven hells were that all about?"
"I haven't the faintest clue. That man has clearly lost his mind to whatever magic he has been toying with. He looked as though the town not being on fire was cause for alarm." She couldn't help but shake her head as she took a calming breath.

@Kumbaris @Forsythe @Ozzy Cross @Searat @ArmorPlated

Shina listened intently to the princess as she told of her past adventures. Shina could see her dressed in the finest armour and going out on military missions. She still couldn't quite believe she was joining them on this adventure.

'Oh forgive me princess, well we should be coming up to the Inn fairly soon. I remember that large oak tree covered in ivy, so not too much father to go. I hope someone at the Inn has seen Guan recently and we don't......' Shina was about to finish when she felt the wind suddenly die down, just as a 'whoosh' passed her. An arrow flew quick as lighting and caught the tip of her ear. She could feel warm liquid drip onto her neck....Lapoo squeaked loudly and flew high above attack range. Renn reared with fright, almost knocking Shina off!

'BANDITS!!!!! EVERYONE TAKE COVER AND ARM YOURSELVES!! From behind several trees, Shina could see faces appear, they had dark paint covering their eyes. She didn't recognise their clothing but there was no time to think about that. She quickly knocked an arrow of her own on her bow and shot in the direction of one of the bandits, she missed, but it was enough to startle them. They obviously thought they had caught some travellers that would be unarmed...pity for them.

Shina knocked another arrow, it flew true and hit one of them in the shoulder, making him yell out and the rest piled out, forming a semi-circle around their group.

"I said nothing about destroying you being simple. I said it's beneath me. I have no need to harm those who would lie to me. Why spend such an effort for any scum of the sort? Simply ignoring their existence is far less tiresome." the dragon-turned-witch grinned. She wanted to continue the conversation, but the group was rudely interrupted by a bunch of different kind of scum looking for easy coin (And no, she definitely never raided a caravan herself, nooooo!).

"Come, bandits! Face the fire and darkness themselves, if you dare!" She roared in her draconic voice loudly enough to rattle everyone present, less of a sound and more of a shockwave. Several arrows buried themselves in her fur coat that occupied the spot she just vacated in one long jump, landing just behind the smoke barrier Thadeus created. "Suffer my rage!" She growled as the silver blade was drawn and pointed at one of their attackers. Everyone so far seemed to incapacitate the bandits. Taraah had no such plans. In a second the length of her blade was engulfed in fire, which promplty shot forward as a jet, searing half of the flesh off of the poor sap in front of it.

Then, she stabbed the tip of her blade into the ground, and a vile, black aura seemed to coil like tendrils around her.

"Rise!"

The still smoldering skeleton twitched, got up, and proceeded to claw at the eyes of the man standing next to it.

@Forsythe@Ozzy Cross@searat@RedPandaGamer@armorplated

Yoshina's combat reflexes activated when she heard the whistling of arrows heading straight to the group. Quickly bringing her trusty steed into a nearby tree. A slight smile crept up from her face. The Princess dressed in a maid outfit knew that this would be her time to shine, a chance for battle in this new land, she knows that she is an ambassador of peace, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't like combat completely.

She wouldn't be a commander if she disliked combat in the first place.

Unfurling the cloth covering her Naginata. She crouched a bit, intent on examing her weapon first, the bladed edge of the weapon has not gone dull at all, fully reflective of her face, good, that's very much necessary considering the current situation. But then, she thought for a moment, would it be apt to use that enchantment here? Perhaps not, the Bandits doesn't seem to be particularly threatening or that well armed.

She noticed the bandit creeping up to her from the bushes, pretending to not notice. She let the bandit crept up until the last second, where she twirled her Polearm, stabbing the man in the neck straight through. A simple trick of the hands and wrists she learned while training, always gets an unsuspecting aggressor quickly whenever she doesn't want to fight protractedly.

Standing up from her crouch, she walked calmly towards the site of combat, looking really out of place with her maid outfit, unsurprisingly drawing the attention of practically every bandit not preoccupied with Thaddeus, Shina, or the dragon. Swarms of men came to her at once. With the Sangakuan princess seemingly not caring despite the severity of the situation.

"Move 1, Great Sweeping Broom."

Her legs tightened, putting her into an immediate combat position. She then swung her Naginata around her, the timing of her strikes hit the first person closest to striking her, decapitating him, and then dismembering the one next to him, and then the other, and then the other.

It all happened in a flash, the Sangakuan Princess's moves was fast, almost like a lightning strike for anyone seeing her moves. She stood alone in a pile of dismembered and decapitated bandits, in one second, she looked like she was in danger, and quickly after that, she stood triumphant.

That didn't stop the remaining bandits from congregating onto her however. A veritable horde of them appeared in front of her. She counted 5, add 2 archers with crossbows already firing their bolts, combat reflexes made her dodge the crossbow bolts easily, and, seemingly distracted. One bandit moves in with a sweeping strike from her sword. Her sword carrying arm was cut off in a quick motion from Yoshina, quickly followed with a stab in the bandits' neck afterwards.

Leaving the female bandit to choke on her own blood, she walked at a leisurely pace, countering the moves from the bandits like water flowing down a river. Her strikes was fast and powerful, but never preemptive. A veritable ballerina on a battlefield so to speak. Graceful and Calm, yet ferocious whenever someone tries his/her luck with the fire of Sangaku herself.

Soon, the bandits quickly figured out what she's doing, and tried picking her off by signalling the crossbowmen to shoot her from the top of the trees. That proved to be their undoing since the Sangakuan Princess replied by leaping into their positions and slashing them one by one.

She dropped down, the bodies of the dead crossbowmen falling off of trees like a rainfall of blood. Somehow never hitting her dress. "Listen, you can try your luck and die here, or you can screw off and don't bother us ever again." She told the remaining bandits trying to attack her. The group, seemingly reticent of her advice, with the fallen comrades behind her being more than enough motivation, quickly ran away.

She smiled, that was a good end to that group, and she quickly surveiled the rest. "Anyone here need help or something?" The Princess asked, her normal demeanor quickly returning quickly despite the actions that she has taken.

@Goldeagle1221@Eviledd1984@ArmorPlated

Gunner watched the retreating form of the wizard and came to a realization. First he was far too sober to handle what just happened. And second he was going to fix the first problem. The skald turns on his heels towards The other mind and sets off to the tavern.

"I’m gonna go get drunk and forget about this." He informed Roa as he walked away.

Gunner easily navigated the streets of the town to TOM. As he has done many times before. The skald paused as he reached the establishment taking note of the broken window. He quickly figured there must have been a bar fight when he was gone. At least Minnow can’t blame him for it this time. Entering into the tavern he took a look around to see if he could spot any of the regulars.

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Tags: @RedPandaGamer@Ozzy Cross@Kumbaris@Forsythe

---

He was rather glad that the dragoness and the others were still rather amicable with him after his little panicked fiasco earlier in Lorenstad. But, honestly speaking? Taarah still scared the wizard deeply...well that's something he could say the same for any dragon he'd encountered. Except for silver dragons. The scholarly books and scrolls about them were completely accurate. Friendly, helpful, and social. He'd hope that Aban was still doing well after all these years. Rudolph smiled at the memory...which was promptly wiped from his face when an arrow nicked Shina's ear and narrowly missed the abnormally swole wizard.

"Makers above!" Rudolph valiantly took cover behind the wagon as the more combat oriented of the group dispatched a number of the the bandits in quick succession. "Why do we even pay taxes if the roads are still dangerous!?" The wizard yelled to nobody in particular as he did his best to put enough 'oomph' to the fireball manifesting in his palm without causing a forest fire. He really wished he had brought his wand; it would have been infinitely easier to channel and focus his magic with it. But by the time he peeked out of his cover with his fireball, ready to be thrown upon the brigands, the battle had finished.

He was a little embarrassed that he was unable to contribute to the battle, but his shame turned into disgust and revulsion as he observed the smoldering skeleton animated by necromantic magics. "Kannon's crooked horns. The dragoness is a necromancer..." Closing his eyes and grimacing, he thought of returning back to Lorenstad and deal with an angry Minnow. Taking a deep breath and exhaling away his doubts and second thoughts, he decided that dealing with a dragon necromancer would be far easier than dealing with the Night Elf innkeeper right now. "I understood that they were scum, but necromancy? Really? That's...that's just distasteful." Rudolph understood that all magic is a tool to be used and not something that is inherently good or evil...but the school of necromancy was an exception in Rudolph's perspective. Especially the spells that create undead.

@Forsythe @Kumbaris @Ozzy Cross @Searat

Shina had NEVER seen such carnage then what befalled the bandits that had tried to overrun their group, she half wanted to laugh out loud, half wanted to run a mile. This team might have been a bit heavy handed but they were sure as hell going to get through this unscathed, well, mostly.

She was very impressed with the princess' moves, she knew she was a warrior but she was very talented indeed.

What she didn't expect though, was the dragon to bring the undead back to life to fight! She had only ever seen that once, from a wizard she and Guan had encountered, and it left very bad memories. Nevertheless, the results couldn't be criticised!

She saw from the corner of her eye, Rudolph looking at the scene with horror, he must have the same thoughts about the dragon. Shina galloped to the side of the sorcerer's side...

'Good to see you hear friend, as you can see, I think we are going to be OK... she finished her sentence as the last of the men ran for the hills. 'Hopefully that'll be all we encounter on our journey!'

She looked around at the rest of the party, well, apart from her torn ear, everyone else looked unhurt.

'What power you all have, how fortunate I am to have such a group on this journey with me! The inn is just around this corner, let us make haste before we run into anything else!

They rounded a corner to see the Inn she remembered so fondly. She and Guan stopped by often on the way back from their missions. She just hoped someone had seen him.


'OK, we must leave our wagon around the back of the Inn, horses can be tethered at the front. We must be vigilant, the walls have ears here. Let me do the talking Ok... She gave a glance to the dragon lady, she hoped everyone would behave so she could get the information she needed.

Shina pushed open the door to be met with a hearty smell of beer and pies! Thankfully the inn was fairly quiet, there was a small group of men sat in a corner playing cards. Shina recognised the inn keeper at the main bar area and went over.



'Hallo Bethamir, my friend!' The inn keeper lent over with a big grin and gave Shina a hearty handshake, it felt good to see a familiar face again...

'SHINA! HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN SINCE I'VE SEEN THAT BEAUTIFUL FACE?! Bethamir put down the glasses he had been holding and came round from the bar, revealing his missing leg from a battle long ago. A tale he would regularly tell his patrons.

'Too long my friend. I am hoping to speak with you, about Guan.' Shina trailed off as she remembered why she was there. She also realised Bethamir had started to move towards the group, his face looking wary and confused.

'BY THUNDER, WHO DO WE HAVE HERE, SHINA, THIS LOT WITH YOU??! He eyes up the princess and gave her a long stare.

Oh dear, Shina thought.... 'Bethamir, these are my new comrades. They are with me to help search for Guan...which is what i wanted to speak to you about, have you seen him recently?...

Taraah laughed out loud as the wizard rated her performance, snapping her fingers and letting the reanimated bodies drop and rest forever. "Words of ignorance form a student of only half the books that were ever written!" She reached for one of the fallen bandits that was not dead, only writhing on the ground. "The use of magic can be distasteful, but not the magic itself. Necromancy can be used to raise an army of undead soldiers, or to heal injuries beyond the ken of healers." It turned out the subject of the demonstration was the bandit that Shina shot to the shoulder. Taraah ripped the arrow out, the arm hanging limply as the nerves were severed. Then, she cast a reanimation spell that replaced the severed nerves with magic. The bandit gazed on his arm that worked once more, flexing his fingers in front of his eyes.

Before Taraah swiftly snapped his neck.

"And even the undead soldiers can fight for good." She cleaned her blade on a piece of bandit clothing, noticing with displeasure that indeed, as she mentioned at Shina's forge, the silver plating was wearing off too much for her eyes' liking. Sheating the sword, she returned to the wagon, wondering if anyone would mind if she took a bite out of a bandit's liver. It was good for vitamins! She decided against it though, silently praying this inn was better than the last. The innkeep seemed more bubbly and awake at least. She looked back to Thaddeus, continuing their earlier conversation as if nothing happened: "So... would you agree to cast the spell yourself if I show you how? I need only to observe the results." she suggested.

@eemmtt

Location: Lorenstad: The Dancing Donkey

D’Artagnan waited patiently for Thaddus, he already had a couple of glasses of water because he wanted to venture as soon as possible. After what seemed like a couple of hours he had a feeling he was not going to come. “How disappointing.” He shook his head but did not hold it against the other man, he thought a better venture came up that Thaddus could not decline. Ordering a shot of their strongest liquor, paying for the drink before downing it in a matter of seconds. Order another glass of water he looked around the tavern for any strong person that could accompany him on his journey.

His eyes noticed a large human that had just entered the tavern, D’Artagnan assumed this man was some sort of warrior. Or perhaps someone that has a lot of experience in combat. He looked like someone that could be helpful with whoever is protecting the relic. However, he was not sure if he could convince the man to join him. But he had to try to see if this man would join him. Waving the man over and calling him, “Excuse me, sir, could you please join me I wish to speak to you for a moment.”

Dusting branches and leaves out of her hair, Minnow let out an angry sigh. She was completely cluttered in the shrubs that lingered along the shady side of The Other Mine's welcoming exterior, a glassy breach above. Today was definitely not Minnow's day, that's what scratched across her mind in between bouts of exhausted anger.

After taking a few minutes to fester in her frustration, Minnow rolled to her feet and with defeat everpresent in her face, she limped back into her establishment. The interior was quiet, with the culprits responsible for her rough day long gone and the lingering patrons quiet -- like children after witnessing an argument between parents.

Behind the elf, the invisible servant quickly picked up vestigial leaves and twigs that were crumbling from the shambling Minnow. With a mighty yawn, Minnow took a step behind the bar, her next step turning into a crouch, finally a kneel, until she was laying flat on her face -- the cold wooden floor her new bed.

She stayed like that for a while, before weakly squiggling forward to find the futon roll she was sleeping on before this terrible day began for her, still stuffed behind the bar. Her hired help had already left her, but Minnow was at her limit -- her eyes fell closed and a deep breath hissed from her chest.

In moments, whistling snores could be heard -- the defeated finding her rest.

@Ozzy Cross

A small smile graced Taraah's face as she finally got somewhere with what she wanted. "I assume you know draconic pronounciation. It is a bit of dark magic that is as low level as it gets, but it serves some useful purposes." she said, producing a piece of parchment and a quill from her satchel. Then she wrote an incantation in draconic runes. When said out loud, the draconic language sounded like growls, jaw snaps, and stones rumbling down the side of the hill, but the words could be formed by a humanoid mouth, if barely.

"The ritual calls for a piece of a body to recall the soul it inhabited it. The older the body, the more of an imprint the soul would leave on it, but if cast early enough, even a young bone would do. Now, as you would know, knowing a dragon's true name is to have power over them. If you modify a detection spell to use a somatic input and think of the true name of the dragon, it should resonate with the soul recall and detect it as the dragon him or herself. I won't even need to know the name of the dragon, as you would not know the name if you weren't close." she said, sliding over the copper coin the detection spell required as a material component.

She hoped the man spoke truth. She could use someone she could trust. Most of all, it would be less strange why he felt familiar despite the two of them never meeting before.

@RedPandaGamer

Yoshina was surprised that the battle ended quickly after that. There wasn't any protracted combat, no-one was seriously injured, and the bandits rapidly dispersed after their collective show of force, perhaps a win-win if there ever was one. "That ended... rather fast for my tastes." Yoshina commented on the battle. "I usually expected a more protracted combat, but I guess the bandits wanted to keep their heads on their bodies this time around."

The group then quickly approached the inn Shina mentioned about, and Yoshina was immediately drawn to it's bizzare architectural style, the buildings back in her native land of Sangaku looked so... typical compared to the ones showcased here. "It almost feels like it is a building designed by a child." She commented almost instinctively, then proceeded to correct her sentence. "I don't mean to insult, that is suppose to be a compliment, it just looks so different to the buildings I'm used to during my journeys."

She tied her horse to a nearby stand and walked towards the building, grabbing some dried fish and chewing on it on the way towards the receptionist, she could only observe the interactions between the firetail and the innkeeper, and bowed when this Bethamir person looked at her. "Hajimemashite, I am Princess Yoshina Shizue of Sangaku. I am here in accompany of this firetail woman, and we are searching for a missing person named Guan. I must reiterate the Blacksmith's question and ask if you've seen him anywhere here?"

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Tags: @RedPandaGamer@Ozzy Cross@Kumbaris@Forsythe

---

Rudolph's focus shifted to Shina, who welcomed him back to the group with open arms. He too hoped that the roving gang of bandits was just a rare occurrence. He was an honest and devoted tax-paying citizen of the Archduchy's land. Dangerous roads was simply unbecoming of the relatively clean record of her highness' rule. Though, sadly, he couldn't say the same for the rest of the nobles and their lands. Baron Otrar for example. No prior history of rule nor tutelage in governance and was left to handle a lakeside hamlet. No surprise that he bungled things up so badly that he led the hamlet and himself into ruination.

But his thoughts digressed from the topic at hand, the dragoness had insulted his biggest pride as a wizard of the capital's Royal Academy. To hells with his fear of dragons! "Ignorance? Ignorance?! I've dedicated over a hundred seventy years of my life to the mastery of the Arcane Arts and that's excluding the forgotten knowledge I've recovered and preserved from the Ancients! I did not graduate as the Arch-Wizard's First Seat, with knowledge I EARNED to be called ignorant by a lizard that's had their magic since birth! I of all people understand that all magic is a tool to be used. But even a dragon like you, so separated and 'above' the understanding of mortal decency and morality, ought to have a fundamental understanding why a corpse puppet is distasteful at the very least." Rudolph fumed so hard that he lost concentration to his body enhancing spell and reverted back to his more reasonable sized self. The wizard scowled at the dragoness as she paid more attention to the injured bandit but held himself back from speaking any further. Opting to storm off to follow Shina. He had said his piece and there was no need to say any more words he would possibly regret later on.

For the rest of the trip until they reached the Ivy Inn, the wizard said no words.

He left Shina to do the talking, plus it seemed that she already had some history here. Which was rather strange as he only knew her as Lorenstad's blacksmith, but perhaps there was more to this Firetail woman than she lets on? It was only when the old human turned his attention to them he spoke. "Pleasure to meet you. I am Rudolph Admoss. A wizard and acquaintance of Ms. Shina. And as Ms. Shina and our fighter mentioned, we are looking for a Mr. Guan."

@Eviledd1984

Gunner turned to face the voice that called his attention. And was met face to face with a Katorian. One who said they needed a word with him. The skald was intrigued by what they could want. Although years of experience was telling him that this conversation would be best held away from prying ears.

”I will hear ya out. However let's do where it's more private”

The Skald motioned to a booth in the far back of the tavern. Making himself comfortable before he spoke to the Katorian.

”So what do you want to speak to me about?” He asked Katorian.

@eemmtt

D’Artagnan

Location: Lorenstad: The Dancing Donkey

D’Artagnan watched as the human came over towards his table, from a much closer look he could tell the human looked quite capable. Waiting for him to sit down in front of him before giving him the details of the job. “You look like you are capable of holding your own, How would you like to make a lot of coins?” The Katorian then explaining the details of the venture, mentioning he was going to an Azathothian ruin to collect a book. The book itself was rumored to summon beings from another dimension. “The museum that assigned me to this venture is willing to pay handsomely to retrieve the book.” The Katorian wrote a quite high number of what both of their payment would be.

He assumed that the human would not be stupid enough to turn down this offer. D’Artagnan sipping his water watching him like a predator to prey. Waiting for him to respond to his job offer.

@Forsythe @Kumbaris @Ozzy Cross @Searat

Shina saw the Innkeeper's eyes shift from one member of the group to the other, his expression changing from curiosity, to fear, to intrigue. 'God, please don't let them frighten him off helping me' Shina thought. He looked worried but turned back to Shina and smiled.

'WELL LOOKS LIKE AN...INTERESTING GROUP YOU HAVE THERE. KNOW I DON'T WANT ANY TROUBLE OUT OF YOU LOT, I KNOW HOW YOU CAN BE SHINA!' The Innkeeper chuckled, then his face turned sour... 'Aye, I did see im... he drew closer to Shina, his voice almost a whisper... 'I did see ol' Guan, about eight days past. I thought it were odd that he wasn't with you, but I didn't think much of it. He came in and seemed his same ol' self. But.... He seemed to pause, like he was remembering something that made him think twice about saying more.

'Go on Bethamir, what happened?! Shina felt a shiver down her spine, Bethamir seemed oddly afraid of something. 'Please, tell me what happened'

'Well...he seemed imself, like I say, and he sat in the back corner on 'is own...until...until a very odd looking man came in, asking for him. Now I keeps to myself and I wasn't going to have any trouble in my inn, but he seemed polite enough, so I pointed in Guan's direction. Ol' Guan and this chap seemed to have a intense talk and then, they both left. Shina could sense there was more to this but the Innkeeper looked rattled, which was disconcerting.

'Bethamir, do you know where they were heading? Or anything else you could tell me? Please, it's important that I find him and know he is safe.' Shina was trying to keep calm, but her tail was starting to twitch and she could feel her patience wearing thin.

'I'm sorry Shina, neither of them spoke to me when they left. But I do remember one thing. The man who came in...he had a staff, like a walking stick it was...but it had a huge green skull on top. I wouldn't forget something like that!

Shina suddenly felt her soul on fire! A staff with a green gem! She remembered years back that Guan had mentioned a man who had once been a very strong sorcerer. This man was not someone to take lightly....and his name.....his name was...

'Oh no...not Kaladous. No. Why would Guan...? Shina realised the Innkeeper was looking at her concerned. They had to make haste to the only place she knew Kaladous had been seen....further South and through the Thousand Year Old Woods.

'Thank you Bethamir, for everything. I will not forget you. And here, for your trouble. Shina pulled out a bag of coins from her satchel and placed them in front of him. 'Until we meet again

'Until then my friend. And...be careful Bethamir gave Shina a squeeze and she turned to leave.

She came out of the Inn and addressed the group, who had been very patient [color=green] 'OK everyone, we have a new setting...further South and towards the Thousand Year Old woods. It is not going to be an easy trip, so I suggest if you want to get a drink or some food, do so now.

This was not going to be a smooth ride.