Drache

[Ebonfort] So Much White Hair

With a long sigh, Rilana lay back in her bedroll, her gaze aimed up at the thick leather roof of her tent, the sides rippling under the onslaught of frigid winds. Her hands folded across her flat stomach, but in between lacing her fingers together she used her hands to gesture along with her words as she told Alya the story of how she went out onto the frozen ice under the aurora-lit sky and Svarak had found her dancing by herself. She relived her surprise at finding herself with a partner, especially one she'd been terrified of. "Kona thinks I'm being foolish but it was really...nice. I enjoyed it."

Until he ruined it. But Rilana didn't mind that so much, not when she remembered how deftly the charr had held her in his arms...

"But then he told me about the Death of Magic." She didn't tell Alya that Svarak had used his sword to show her a vision, but told the story of what had underneath Frigmount three hundred years ago, and how now Svarak had to complete a mission to kill someone he cared about in order to keep the evil from returning.

"And I will help him if I can." Because it was the right thing to do. "When you told me about the crimson shadow in your vision, it reminded me of the man who wanted to become the God of Magic." Rilana's eyes were wet, but she didn't weep, her heart aching on Svarak's behalf like it had done last night. Showing amazing empathy for a two-headed armoured monster, Ortha slunk over and coiled up like a cat next to Rilana's hip, one chin resting on her leg.

"How can I long to return home and dread it at the same time? I feel as though I'm being torn apart." Mentally exhausted, the Moon Fey yawned, rolling onto her side to face Alya, grinning at how her long straight hair had already started t fall from the intricate braid. "Did you bring your flute? I want to hear you play."

[Ebonfort] Give a Leg Up

After Genrit'khaath's abrupt introduction to a certain half-breed, he had to suspect that eventually he would have a run-in with the dragons who lived in this supposed City of Wyrms. The proud white drake's tenuous territory was far outside the official borders of the Wyrmoot's lands, but not so far that Aerial Wing scouts hadn't picked up the haze of smoke rising from the ruined forest around Verilidiar's Lake.

Somewhere in between one of the many trips back and forth to his cave with the beginning's of his rock garden, something changed. The land around the entrance was rocky but not protected by much in the way of forest, so as he approached he would see that he suddenly had company. Two adult dragons loitering about the entrance. One was perched up on the highest outcrop of rock she could find, her royal blue scales gleaming like polished lapis in the bright sun. Unlike most females, her neck and tail were rather stout and the tall fin down her spine was a bit tattered, giving her a rough-and-tumble sort of appearance. The slightly misaligned lines of scales on her flanks and neck showed old wounds. And splashed neatly across the whitish membranes and bony phallanges of both wings were matching chevrons of blue paint only a few shades lighter than her hide. Underneath these were thinner vertical lines, two black on one side and one red on the other. Blue as she was, her face was nothing like the dragon who had frozen Genrit in his multi-century cell.

Lurking on the ground, closer to the entrance of Genrit's cave, a slightly smaller copper drake was inspecting the putrifying skull of the green dragoness Genrit had slain, the tentacles on his chin twitching as he sniffed at it, his tail swishing back and forth. His scales were far less damaged than the female's, and most of them were the colour of freshly-minted copper coins, though some of the larger ones had a greenish patina. He was quite fit, if a little small.

"Well it's no one I know," the copper sniffed thoughtfully, speaking Draconic, glancing up at the female and then eyeing the entrance to Genrit's cave.

"So what if it was?" the female retorted, twisting her blunt snout back and forth, keeping watch with a veteran fighter's vigilance. Even at a glance, it would be easy to tell that these two rarely skipped a meal and hadn't lacked in good metal any time recently. "If he's not in there we'll just wait. And try not to annoy me or I'll leave him a gift of your head and save myself some trouble."

The copper dragon flicked the tip of his tail, betraying the fact that the female's comment only amused him, though he dipped his head in an over-exaggerated bow. "Yes, honoured Sky Talon."

[Ebonfort] So Much White Hair

For the most part, Rilana was doing her best to create a distraction, both for herself and for Alya. Something as simple and ultimately boring as having tea and playing with the half-elf's hair was one step away from letting the fog of emotions overwhelm her.

While Alya wrote, the pen scratching fluidly against the paper, Rilana let her long fingers work through the silky locks of the Songweaver's hair, sliding them along Alya's scalp as she seperated the silvery curtain into many equal-sized strands. There was gentle tugging at different parts of Alya's head as the Moon Fey began weaving back and forth with her hair, the pattern indiscernable at first.

And in between, when she could hold the hair securely without losing her place, she glanced over Alya's shoulder to see what she was writing. She occasionally commented or asked for clarification, her voice soft and friendly in her friend's ear. If she wasn't too upset by her own inner turmoil, Alya might have noticed that Rilana was just as troubled.

"I don't understand how you get this Purpose. Who gives it to you? It has to be another elf? Are...are both of your parents White Elves?" Rilana didnt know that Alya was a half-breed, but her small stature seemed at odds with what little she did know about White Elves. "Is it just magic that defines your Purpose?" The entire concept felt a little like telling the future, which, frankly, hurt Rilana's head to think about.

When Alya began to describe her vision, Rilana felt the way her shoulders tensed and watched how her hand flew across the page, and she paused in her braiding to rub her hands up and down Alya's arms, trying to comfort her. "It sounds beautiful, but terrible. Don't cry Alya. I can't stand to see you sad." She hugged the smaller woman, making nonsense shooshing noises into her hair. "I know it's scary." And she did know, having just received a similarly distressing insight into the world.

"Unfortunately I think it is some kind of rule that people who are gentle and nice end up having to fight things that are the most dark and horrid. But you're braver than you know I think. You're here when most people are safe in their homes with their fires and furs. I think you can do it. And if I can, I'll help you!" She pulled away for a few minutes, retrieving the honey jar from her shirt and mixing them both a cup of tea. She offered one to Alya first and then sipped her own.

"Wow. Every time I have a little bit of honey it's like the first taste all over again. It's so wonderful! We don't have bees this far north."

Setting her rough cup aside, she resumed working on Alya's hair until all of it was bound up in a fancy braid that coiled prettily around the half-elf's head like a delicate crown of her own hair. Rummaging around, she found a small mirror for Alya to use to look at it.

"See? Very pretty, if I do say so myself. It looks way better than what I can do to my own hair." Currently, Rilana's hair was pulled back into a long fishtail braid that draped over her shoulder when she moved the right way. Her eyes fell on Ortha, who was trying to grab the end of Echo's wagging tail with her clawed paw without getting up from her spot.

"Yesterday was my birthday," Rilana brought up suddenly. "I had a long talk with Lord Svarak. It turns out that he is a much different man than I had originally thought." For a brief moment, her composure faltered and her lips twitched into a rueful sort of smile. "I found out a lot of things I didn't know either, including how the Death of Magic happened. Looks like we're both going to be a lot different when this journey is done, right?"

I think she should be happier now that the drunk isn't with her.

"Oh, and I'm sorry about Lyle. I hope...I hope he turns up." It was quite clear she didn't expect that to happen, but she was trying to be nice in spite of Kona's ascerbic commentary.

[Ebonfort] Heat

The red dragoness had never heard of Leiji style before. For the most part, the commitment of time and dedication to an art like mastering a martial skill was too much responsibility, too boring, too "not fun". Distantly, she respected those that found value in it and recognized it as a worthy pursuit, just not for her. She'd much rather pursue Boafeng himself. Him and his rippling pectorals and his long tail and the tough spikes arranged fetchingly down his back.

Drache was about to say something along those lines when the large hybrid male swept in and pressed his fang-filled mouth to hers, earning a purring chirp of eager surprise from the smaller half-breed. Her arm was already resting high on his shoulder and she quickly lifted the other to match it, pressing her generous bust and her flat belly tight against Baofeng's muscled frame. Drache's wings lifted and trembled slightly, the leathery membranes fluttering as she moaned into Boafeng's mouth, trying to tease his tongue with hers. Being in his arms, even for just a moment, felt so right. Shifting her weight to one foot, she even lifted a long leg, her inner thigh sliding up the outside of his hip...

And then he was pulling back and babbling rapidly, leaving Drache feeling bereft, her growl of disappointment matching a pout on her scaled face. She was almost angry, suspecting him of deliberately teasing her, but when he abruptly changed the subject to something mundane, the seductive female realized that Baofeng was simply inexperienced and nervous. It would have been horribly disappointing to someone as debaucherous as Drache, if it wasn't so deliciously adorable.

Trying her best to suppress the fierce flame of desire in her belly, Drache tucked her wings back against her spine and leaned back against the piller, her whole body sinuous and her eyes searching Baofeng eaerly. "Is that how you invite everyone to your school, or am I just special?" She asked, her voice smooth and teasing. Her flared nostriles let out a faint wisp of smokey breath as Drache attempted to collect herself, and when she spoke again she was less salacious and more polite.

"I would love to see it, truly. I'm afraid I would be a terrible student, and I'm not much of a fighter to begin with, but it's nice to be near someone who is a hybrid like me. I haven't met many other half-dragons, and certainly none as handsome as you." She winked at him then, her serpentine tail coiling loosely around his ankle.

[Ebonfort] Four Little Orclings, Mean and Green

"They'll kill all of you!" Slade gurgled, bloody foam painting his lips and scruffy cheeks as he rolled limply in the muddy loam, his eyes rolling to stare wildly at the approaching Ettercaps. "I can tell you how to beat them but you have to save her! Watch out for their..." But in the next moment Bula promptly murdered the only person present who had experience battling the spiderlike creatures. Slade died noisily, twitching and thrashing around until he was finally still, his lifeblood dark where it soaked into the equally dark ground.

By now, two more Ettercaps had joined the first, moving with insectlike precision out of the dilapidated ruins of the old lodge. They had cruel talons on the ends of their limbs and sticky-wet mandibles that looked sharp and hard enough to damage armour. They walked in a hunched sort of way, almost seeming weighted down by layers of spiderwebs on their backs. As they got even closer, the orc sisters would be able to see thousands of spiders, everything from tiny pinhead-sized things to furry tarantulas as big as Bula's face, crawling around on the chitinous skins of their massive keepers.

The little girl scrambled back into the brush, disappearing from view. And inside the house the womanly scream of terror became an anguished wail of unspeakable agony before it was cut short.

As they drew closer, moving slowly but steadily, they began to make a wheezing, hissing noise that was as otherwordly and inhuman as it was threatening. The nearest one kept its eyes on Bula as it stabbed its talons with a sickening Schlick-schlack into Slade's body, and reversed direction, dragging his corpse backwards.

The second one lifted its arms and lurched towards Bula, and the monster hunter would be able to feel the wind off the rapidly-moving claw.

Ebonfort

The RP The Longest Night between Rilana Aurorime' an GM is complete and needs to be reviewed.

The RP Give a Leg Up has been started with Genrit'Khaath and GM. Dragons and volcanoes abound!

[Ebonfort] The Longest Night

The silent dance of skyfire had begun to fade, fleeing away to the north to leave the stars and the moon to gleam pale and distant and cold, as though the far-reachingness of Rilana's conversation with Svarak had banished the beautiful glow just as it had chilled the naive joy of her birthday celebration. The Moon Fey inhaled sharply at Svarak's words, her head shaking briefly to deny his sentiment. The reflections in her eyes had gone, leaving them a dark, fathomless blue. There was nothing for her to say on the subject of love, and she shied away from that topic lest it turn out to be something sharp and full of pain. But she did not want to hear him say that he wanted to die. Even so, her protest remained unspoken. It was his life, his choice, and if Rilana knew anything after tonight it would be that there was yet so much more that she didn't know. Thinking that he might complete this terrible duty and then perish...

She felt a tightening in her chest and Kona's presence seemed to growl and curl, as though protected her heart from the outside world. The Druid needed the help.

"Whatever the strength of your arm," Rilana said, "I do not think it will be easy. I can't even imagine how much courage it will take to do what you have to do."

When Svarak pressed her palm to his broad chest, Rilana didn't look down, though her fingers stretched to slide through his fur, laying flat against him to feel his pulse. She imagined that her own was fluttering weakly. His next words left her stunned. He talked about her eyes and to Rilana's immense surprise, she was able to resist the urge to look away, though her pale cheekbones flushed hot. There was a flicker of doubt on her face as Kona warned her to not let her thoughts run too wild until she gave herself time to process all this.

"It does hurt," she murmured thoughtfully, partly distracted for a moment. "It makes me feel better to know that you trust me, Svarak. And knowing that, I'll be glad to return the favour. I had been hoping that my Elders would resent my title of Envoy and strip it from me when we arrive, freeing me of..." she gestured with her free hand to indicate the expedition as a whole, "all of this. But if..." If all he'd said was true, "...it seems that may be unlikely. But perhaps it won't be so bad. I can think of at least one reason to keep returning to Ebonfort, if that's where you end up when all of this is done." She risked a faint smile, though it didn't reach all the way to her eyes.

She was glad enough to get out of the unnatural wind, looping her arm through Svarak's and walking through the snow at his side. Now and then she glanced up thoughtfully but other than when she paused to grab her boots, their trip back to the silent camp was equally wordless.

His parting invitation to find him in his tent earned a hurried nod from the Moon Fey and she ducked inside, watching him move away until he was out of sight. That night her dreams were worse than ever, but instead of being suffocated by a silver noose, she was climbing a silver rope up out of a crimson pit.

A Heart Frozen (Ebonfort)

Relieved that the big charr didn't seem about to make a comment or even a face in reference to her brief toplessness, Rilana pulled her cloak back on and sighed as the warmth returned to her pale flesh. She even chuckled at Chatrose's observation of Kona's arrogance.

"He's a gryphon. He isn't pleased to see anyone unless they are fawning over him properly." But when Chartrose asked about Kona being Marked and un-Marked the moon fey paused thoughtfully. Kona argued with her all the time. They bickered and snarked at each other constantly. But underneath it all, they were one. Their hearts beat together and she knew that when all else failed there would be Kona there to support her, loyally, faithfully, forever. But how did she put all that into words?"I suppose ultimately no, I would have the final say in that. He is my Familiar, not the other way around, and it was my...soul...or power...or magic...whatever you want to call it, that Bound us together in the first place."

The truth was, being Master over Kona had troubled her thoughts before, and she wondered what life would be like for Familiars who had cruel Masters. Was such a thing possible? "I think that if Kona were ever miserable being Marked, my heart would break until I let him out. You will feel everything that Tricia feels. You will know when being un-Marked is something she needs rather than when it's just her being a stubborn brat. It's not completely one-sided. She will live as long as you will, which is far longer than most animals."

She wanted to talk more, to discuss the differences between a Familiar like Kona who was sentient and intelligent versus an animal like Tricia who wasn't quite at that same level of awareness. But baring her secrets (and more) to someone who was essentially a stranger had left Rilana feeling drained. Perhaps a conversation for another time.

"The Ebon Knights have no say in the matter," Rilana snapped firmly, an icy bite to her words and a frosty gleam in her eye. "I am getting very weary of worrying about what they think!" They meaning Svarak, mostly. "As it turns out, being Envoy means I'm in charge of them until the moment we are back in Ebonfort Territory. So what if they notice? They are, all of them, traveling to a place where magic is celebrated and normal and if they have a problem with that then they can hike back to that dismal black mausoleum all by themselves. The would be fools to take issue with your talent here at the top of the world. Breathe easier, Chartrose, and worry about Tricia instead."

Rilana patted Chartrose on the shoulder and eventually showed him back out of her tent.

--

But whatever fire had existed in Rilana seemed to fizzle out after her birthday-night chat with Svarak under the stars and the moon, replaced by a grim determination. The Aurora Polaris was especially wondrous that night, a last hurrah before the devastating storms swept down in all their icy, deadly fury. It wasn't right, and it wasn't normal, none of it. The cold was unnatural and not only did it make Rilana miserable, it terrified her. It could only be magic. At first her thoughts were only on the crimson-eyed horror from Svarak's memory, but later she remembered the tale she'd heard in Stone Crest about some kind of ice wizard? No longer seeing any wisdom in keeping her suspicion to herself, she asked the others if they knew anything helpful, even going as far as to admit that avoiding some unknown terror in the mountains had been the reason she chose the forest road out of Stone Crest.

Whatever the rest of her party knew or didn't know ended up being irrelevant. The vicious blizzard swelled up like a living thing, cutting them off and dictating their course along ground that Rilana wasn't intimately familiar with. The best she could do for her charges was to help them survive. She showed them how to make barriers of snow around their tents to block out the wind, how to keep their beasts alive, how to avoid snowflake lichen and avalanches. Many times she was tempted to send Kona up above the storm, but one look at the wall of white stormclouds changed her mind for her. Ortha remained huddled uselessly on Bruin's rump. Rilana was thankful that the extradimensional two-headed monster seemed to be weathering the deadly cold a bit better than Tricia, though she complained quite a bit.

The Moon Fey felt no small sense of forboding at the sight of the strange tower, but they couldn't afford to not investigate it and take shelter. At the very least it would be a place to wait for the blizzard to pass so that they could then travel in the direction they liked.

Ebonfort

Co-GM update!

Lore:
Information on the Pyresian Dragon Army "Wing Host" can be found here.

Information about the price of gemstones and using gemstones for currency (important for fairies!) has been added to the Price List.

RPs:

The rp Heat has been started between Drachiathorix and Baofeng Lingzhu.

The rp So Much White Hair has been started between Alya Eloen & Rilana Aurorime'

Ebonfort

Name: Finnras Duskarynn
Race: Drow
Gender: Male
Age: 211
Birthday: Mauven 61st 90 DM
Birthplace: Underdark near Stone Crest
Resides in: Underdark near Stone Crest
Occupation: Adventurer/Mercenary 5gp/day

Appearance:

Pic Almost NSFW

Stands 5'6". Lean and athletic. Black skin, blue eyes, long white hair. A very charming and personable psychopath.

Personality:
Will reveal through RP.

History:
Will reveal through RP.

Skills:
Necromancy: 30
Stealth: 30
Weapon (scimitar): 30
Wilderness Survival (Underdark): 10
Interrogation: 5
Subterfuge: 10
Music (Violin/Fiddle): 5

Total 90 + 30 (racial)

Special Abilities:
Heat Infravision

Knowledge

n/a

Possessions:

Item | Acquired | Value
Explorer's Outfit x2 | Starting | 20GP
Courtier's Outfit | Starting | 30GP
Entertainer's Outfit (silk) | Starting | 75GP
Traveler's Cloak (spider silk) | Starting | 25GP
Studded Leather Armour | Starting | 25GP
Scimitar | Starting | 45GP
Dagger, Ivory | Starting | 8GP
Poison | Starting | 45GP
Antitoxin Vial | Starting | 50GP
Chain (10ft) | Starting | 30GP
Rope (10ft) | Starting | 1GP
Rucksack | Starting | 1GP
Manacles, Master | Starting | 50GP
Bone Fiddle | Starting | 160 GP (40GP x 4)
Sapphire Jewelry | Starting | ??

Ledger:
Cost | Item | Subtotal

+200 | Starting | 200
+1000 | No house | 1200
-565 | Starting Purchases | 635

Other:
N/A

Story List:
Date - URL - Characters involved
n/a