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Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

Well, that worked easily enough.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, as usual. After a bit of initial caution, Lissa joined the azure-furred deer in decimating the local Kyr Reed population, settling into an almost companionable silence with them as she crouched down to gather up the herbs after waving for her Mothraki companion to join her. Pulling out her trusty knife, careful to not startle the protected deer, she cut the reeds at their bases, taking care to bundle them neatly with spare twine as she placed them in sets in her bag for safe carriage back to the village.

Lissa had collected just about all there was to collect when her attention was brought back to the deer. Although she was focused on the harvesting, she had taken care to pay attention to the fauna in the corner of her eye in case they reacted poorly.

And react poorly they finally did, although she was fairly sure it wasn’t to herself or Nylah, judging by where they looked and where they ran off too. Lissa glanced back at her companion with a curious look.

“Hmm… predator? What’re the types you folks have around these parts?”

She asked her question with idle curiosity, one that became more focused when she heard the distinct cry of a deer in trouble. “Say, Nylah… Does this elder beast –the Kyrinth, was it?—take offense or react when the other wildlife harms those deer? That is, should we intervene?”

If the answer was a no, and the predator was a wolf or a pack of them, then Lissa would be reluctant to step in. On the other hand, if it was a bear, perhaps it could be manageable and give the village –and herself—a nice gift in the in form of some bear meat.

Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

With Calra’s directions and Nylah’s help, they found their wanted Kyr Reed quickly enough. Unfortunately, they were being hogged by troublesome, if cute, blue-haired deer. Under normal circumstances, Lissa would have just run them off with some loud noises—no harm done. In fact, despite their unusual color, they could have made for a very tasty supper with the right seasonings and spices, and a hearty meal for some clearly ailing villagers.

Unfortunately –or fortunately—Nylah’s timely warning put a quick stop to Lissa’s culinary thoughts of a roasted venison dinner, even if she was sorely tempted.

“Kuh…” She couldn’t help but to stagger, as if wounded, by her words. “There goes dinner. Really, though! A second Elder Beast? You folks must live in some dangerous parts of the woods,” Lissa replied, shaking her head.

“Well… I don’t see why we can’t just scare them away? Or will that also anger this Kyrinth? At this rate, it looks like they’ll eat it all,” she muttered, giving a questioning look at the moth girl as she muttered her own words.

“Why don’t we just go up to them and start picking? They’ll just have to learn to share, and we just won’t touch them.”

If Nylah had no objections, she would do just that.

Qualia: Mission Sub Rosa

Nazca Whitehall

Clockwork Autumn

Nazca sighed. She had gone through most of the day in a pain-addled daze, still processing the events of what had –apparently—happened to her the previous evening. Although she appreciated the visit of a choice few people, the adopted Abayalan had grown increasing irritated as the day wore on.

Although her frustration about her hospitalization and inability to put words to action had a hand in it, much of it had to do with her supposed visitors. Aside from the initial batch, Ryuuko, who had brought her to the hospital, and the rest of the scratch investigation team, none of the following visitors had done anything to improve her mood. Not a single one of those ‘visitors’ had even seen fit to even mention even the murmuring of an offer of sympathy. Being visited for an ulterior purpose was one thing—the treatment she had received was another. She was incredulous at the audacity of some people—supposedly civilized people that lacked even basic decency and propriety.

One of them even had the gall to try and pry trade information about her own craft from her, right in her own hospital room, if Bang hadn’t stopped her. And like everybody else, she hadn’t even offered a single word of condolence. Not even a single flower or pastry to try to soften her up.

The audacity of that bitch!

She still had words for the Vietnamese student as well over their differences of opinion, but at least he was gentlemanly.

So naturally, once everybody had left to do their things for the rest of the day, Nazca sat stewing in her hospital bed, with only pain and some books borrowed from the hospital waiting room for company.

When she was informed that she had yet another visitor –Where was the phone call?—Nazca couldn’t help but to scowl, but she schooled her face into a neutral one before the door swung open.

The visitor was not somebody that she had expected to see, and the bedridden girl couldn’t help but to raise her eyebrows at Maximillien Robespierre and his ever so slightly more casual sartorial dress. Her eyes roamed over to the woven basket in his hand, decorated with a bouquet and accompanied by the pleasant puff of freshly prepared food.

Another person here with an ulterior motive, then. At least this one knew what he was doing. Perhaps, then, she would not kick him out like the others.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Robespierre,” she greeted, sitting up slightly in her bed. “The gesture is appreciated, thank you. You would be surprised to know how many others that have been here today lack even basic social etiquette." Shifting positions slightly, wincing slightly as she did so, she then looked him in the eye. “I assume, however, that this is not a social visit?”

Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

Despite the tragedy that had happened here, this village seemed to have a rather unique dynamic. Not in a bad way by any means, but certainly unusual, going by the carefree way some of the villagers acted in the face of disaster. She liked their conviction. Yet still, there were some other strange things that she had yet to form an opinion on. The lewd demoness that was being treated as a village nuisance rather than a threat was one of them.

She really would have to ask about that when there was a better time for it…

“Likewise, Nylah.” Lissa returned the Mothraki’s greeting. She had only nodded at Vammy, though, as she wasn’t entirely sure how to approach her yet. Not without getting molested, it seemed. “Ahahah… It’s not a problem. I’ve seen weirder. Though, I’d like to ask about what her story is when we’ve got some time.” She was just dying to know that story.

The secret Raam matched Nylah’s brisk pace, nodding along at her words. “Ah, the apprentice healer, then! Or was it alchemist? I’m neither, but I know my way around first aid,” she offered up. Since human lives were still in the balance, she needed to be forthcoming about what she could help with.

Their brisk walk took the two of them to the chiralta in question. Well, she certainly was a chiralta, but she didn’t dress like any she’d seen before. It was cute, though Lissa still had some difficulty reconciling the fact some races had more than two legs, even after all this time on the road. “Hello! I’m Lissa, and I’m here to help. I know my way around treating basic injuries if you need the extra help, but I hear you also need more herbs,” she replied, with a small wave of her own. Her own face hardened as Calra cut right to the chase on the state of her medicine. That turned into a small frown when she realized that she didn’t recognize most of the required herbs and reagents. They were probably local. At least she recognized Coral Moss and slug mucus, but as the alchemist had said, that would be troublesome to get at the moment.

“Geh… Half those names mean nothing to me. I’m sure I can find them with a quick description, though!” She rallied, pumping her fists.

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

Aureia, of gold, commerce, wealth,

and the far less important, trivial aspects of travel and luck

Aureia continued rotating the meat over the spit, carefully husbanding the food so that it wouldn’t burn from the open-air flame. Conveniently, the length of her golden spit meant that she didn’t even have to get her hands all that dirty with soot. The spike did get hot, though—it was gold, after all. But the goddess of gold didn’t care about the temperature of her gold.

She did shoot a questioning look at the way Mori haphazardly roasted her own skewers, though.

Sadly, when the meat was done, she didn’t have any plates to serve it on. Frankly, that was simply barbaric and uncivilized, but she really didn’t feel like remolding her golden spoke into a plate just for the occasion.

Speaking of the occasion, something else besides them was speaking.

Very strange.

Well, if the others were hearing it was well, then she wasn’t going crazy from the smoke fumes, but she really didn’t know who this wild spirit was. She was the god of civilized things and concepts, after all, not of nature and barbarism. She shook her head at the water god’s question.

“Well,” she decided to muse aloud in response, “We need to pass through the forest, and there are mortals in our party that need food to stay alive,” she replied in a matter-of-fact manner. “It’s not hard to put two-and-two together…”

Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

It didn’t take long after the speech for small groups to form to tackle some of the tasks that village chief Enli and the other villagers had needed to be done. Indeed, Lissa wasn’t alone in wanting to help some of the patients either. Though, she was greeted by the strange, but somewhat heartwarming scene of some of Dawn’s girls interacting… through a combination of hugging, mauling with a hammer, and more hugging… but mostly hugging. It was rather cute display of humanity in the aftermath of a disaster, even if there was still a demon amidst them. It was for things like this –demon aside— that she traveled and interacted so.

Lissa inclined her head towards the village priestess as she addressed her. She thought Akala looked a bit young for her role, but considering the village’s immediate history, she supposed it was lucky there was somebody to fill the position. “Not a problem at all. Again, thank you for having me, and I’m glad to help. I’m Lissa,” she responded, reintroducing herself, mostly for the benefit of the other three girls. So her guess had been right—the Mothraki was a villager, and a fellow helper, it seemed.

“A Chiralta, huh,” Lissa echoed, nodding as she memorized the name. “You’ve got a very diverse village here,” she noted, her eyes flicking off to glance at the lewd demon girl that remained off to the side, but not before giving a goodbye wave to the departing Lazhira. As far as questions went, she had a lot, and many of them in regards to Vamessa… but again, there were things that needed doing, so she turned to Nyla with another nod.

“I’m in your care, then. Let’s get Calra those herbs and anything else she might need for her patients, yeah?”

Then she paused. “Will the de—ah, Vamessa… be joining us?”

Dead Gods Dream: A post-apocalyptic divine action-adventure RP

Oops. Gimme a day or so and I'll post.

Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Lissa

When she had come to this region, she had been merely passing by.

It was a sparsely populated region compared to the north. Nonetheless, she had to pay a visit to the largest city in the region, though it was more like a medium-sized town than anything. While such towns were not as lively or adventurous as some of the larger settlements that she visited, there was almost aways a certain sort of charm and hospitality to them that many other places of a larger size didn’t. This time around, she didn’t have anything with her to sell, but she certainly had enough coin to see if there was anything interesting for her to bring on the road or send back home.

What she hadn’t expected, though, was arriving to a village decimated by blizzard and an especially untimely elder beast attack.

Although she didn’t often stay in each place for too long, how could she not stop and assist a village in such a dire, precarious state? Lissa still did not know what to make of the visit of the Moon Goddess in her ‘dreams’ the other night, although the boon granted of her was interesting, to say the least. What she did know, though, was that she didn’t need Delpithi or any other divine being to tell her to go help save a village.

She would have done so anyway.

That was how she found herself at the town church, listening to the speech by the town’s elder, Enli. The gathering of the villagers only served to show just how unfortunate some had been. Many of those present were the healthiest survivors. While some remained strong, it was clear that the ordeals had taken a toll on many, and despite Enli’s determined words, the village of Dawn would remain vulnerable for a time to come, without outside intervention.

That was the key, though. Without intervention. Considering the context of her earlier encounter, as mysterious and fleeting as the memory had been, there had been no doubt that others would be involved. And others were involved. It was not difficult to see how some in the crowd stood out. Perhaps some were villagers themselves, yes, even if they seemed not to belong at first glance, but it was obvious there were others like her. Those arrived at the village only recently, and origins that were certainly unique. An elf, and a demon, for one—though the latter seemed almost familiar with the people around her. It was only because of that Lissa had refrained from directly confronting her as a threat.

It also hadn’t taken her long to notice that one of her people had also arrived at Dawn. With the Raam numbering in only the low hundreds, the odds of finding another here was outstanding. She would have to talk to him and find out who he was—though considering who she knew had left the temple before her time, she had a reasonable guess at who he was. She did wonder if she had been recognized herself, though. It was hard to distinguish her from human, after all.

Those thoughts were not that important, though. She would catch up with him later—immediate action was still needed. The white-haired girl stepped forward, once the elf had spoken.

“I’ve only just arrived, but please allow me to help! If you need more hands to aid the injured, I can assist. Herbs, preparation, or tending to the patients, or simply anything else please direct me where I’m needed.”

Qualia: Mission Sub Rosa

Nazca Whitehall

Clockwork Autumn

For Nazca, her last conscious waking thought was savoring the beef bourguignon at Jeanne’s delicious dinner party.

As far as she was concerned, the next moment, she was in an infirmary bed, surrounded by the typical overly sterile atmosphere that hospitals were wont to present.

Her immediate following thought was confusion, and then pain.. Although she wasn’t aware of it yet, much of her body had been scorched and burned, although by how she felt and how she had been bandaged, it was clear what the damage was from. Her hair, as beloved as it was, was a lost cause.

But how? What the hell had happened to her? Wasn’t she simply eating dinner with… Jeanne?

The injured girl groaned, wincing in pain as she shifted positions to look around. She was far too injured to immediately jolt up. Nonetheless, her surprise, her room was quite crowded; the participants in last night’s –to her just a few minutes ago—dinner party were essentially all there. Jeanne included.

“Wh—” She broke out into a cough, her throat overly dry from whatever ordeal she had gone through, as her eyes locked on to the nearest visitor. “What… happened?”

Epic of Beginnings - Dawns Cradle

Raam-chan

Lissa

Female
Raam*

Appearance

A young woman with unbridled curiosity, enthusiasm and friendly charm, her striking white hair make her stand out in a crowd. Yet for her personality, there is something about her quartz-gray eyes that belies deeper experience. She is often found with her smart looking heavy armored coat, which holds a surprising number of knickknacks within its inner pockets. Its color matches the large royal blue ribbon that she prominently wears on the back of her head. She outwardly identifies as and is effectively indistinguishable from being human, unless directly asked.

Bio

Lissa had been born for a specific purpose. A specific purpose that she was paradoxically very good at, and rather terrible at, all in the same breath. For her purpose was to live among the humans, emulate them, gain their trust, and bring as many advantages and resources back to her people as possible, even if she had to ultimately cross those that she lived among.

To that end, she was created differently from most of the other Raam by her god. At the expense of durability, she had been granted a lighter, more agile frame compared to her peers, one that wouldn’t sink like a stone in water, and could move and fight like any other human. Taking up the trade of a merchant, she would spend a good several years with her peers in and around Allohold, playing at a double life as she lived amongst the humans in the outer parts of the city and in their outer lying settlements before her true purpose called, to live among the humans, starting with the Apostles, to integrate with them, gain experience from them, discretely secure resources, and most importantly of all, discover and relay any threats that arose from the enemies of Gram and the Raam.

With her human demeanor, seemingly natural ability, and affable personality, Lissa was easily welcomed by the otherwise hostile Apostles in one of their cities as one of their own. There, she would work to subvert their goals against her people if she found any, and act as an alarm for any coming threats she detected.

But for as long as she could remember, she had always been fascinated by the societies around her, their cities, the way they interacted, but perhaps the most, the people that simply lived within it all and their plight. It could be said she blended in far too well for her own good, because in the end, she had fallen in love with the humans and races that she observed, as flawed as they were. She simply empathized far too much to work against them. Perhaps, then, she had been created defective, deviating from the role assigned to her in life. Or, perhaps not; for she had been given a broad directive to do what she saw as best fit for her people and those around her.

Rocked by the aftermath of a destructive series of skirmishes between her human hosts and her own people, she decided to move on. Torn between the loyalty to her own kind and the desire to help others, she set out to journey the land, experiencing what she could, and helping out where she could.

On the road she remained for several years, often making a point to travel to not only major cities, but smaller, more isolated settlements. Occasionally, she would detour to certain landmarks, thoughtfully collecting objects and materials of interest, often to send back home to her fellow Raam.

Taking up trade as a part-time traveling merchant and using her gifted skills to fill out the rest to sustain her own travels, her path eventually took her to the north.

It was only natural, then, that when she came across a small hamlet in peril there that she would stay and render upon it as much aid as she could.

Goals

To help out others in their times of need; to experience their culture and food, and, never forgetting her origins, seeking out and recovering resources and information to send back to her fellow Raam, and making a little for herself as well. Perhaps, in the process, discovering a little about the truth of the world and herself in doing so.


Skills

Body of Reforged Steel - The unique physiology of the Raam. In Lissa’s case, she trades a little bit of her race’s more durable traits for a human-like agility and general endurance to the elements, primarily when it comes to their allergy to water.

Resource-minded – Years of experience through many cities and regions have given her a good eye for the disposition of markets, their resources, and their prices, movements, and the people that follow them.

Swordscraft – Like many of her fellow Raam, she has an uncanny proficiency in combat. Unlike them, however, is her preference and skill in using a blade, her particular two-handed style picked up under the tutelage of a small knightly order that she had stayed with and assisted for some time.

Inventory

• A well maintained longsword and its leather sheath. Nothing special, but it remains a treasured gift from a family that she had once given succor to several years ago.
• A knife. Used for second line of defense, or far more commonly, as a tool. Weathered, but as sharp as the day she bought it.
• An armored coat. It looks new, but in reality, it has been carefullu repaired and retailored over the years. It has a nice matching cloak. Although her body is already strong, it is lined with lightweight chainmail as further protection. Has many inner pockets with lots of room for activities. The meticulously polished segmentata plates affixed to its shoulders are the only original part, having been part of her gear when she had first left Allohold.
• A nice coinpurse. Contains a not insubstantial stack of gold and silver, the sum of her savings of her travels over the years. It is somewhat unusual for her to have this much at once, but she recently divested herself of some more cumbersome belongings.
• Holy Symbol of Grams. Something more to remind herself of her true home and origins.
• A collection of small miscellaneous tools. Some things that she has found useful in various enough situations to keep on her person on a permanent basis. Most of it is for the repair and maintenance of equipment.