The Game Begins

It is May 23rd, and the caravan has come to a temporary halt. Hehtarusco, an elven warrior of noble blood through the Nailo line is being transported in a small iron cell on top of a carriage drawn by many horses. Along with her is Thatcher, a skilled but shifty-looking one-eyed half-elven thief, and the captain of her small squad, an enchanting young half-elven maiden named Ladiel. They have recently been "captured" by the Human Refugee Retrieval squad, and have been riding south and west as prisoners for two days. On the third day, around noon, the Humans stop to set up traps. Three hours later, the large iron doors open, and a half-elf (Shojaux) is thrown in, unconscious. He quickly regains consciousness, and the carriage starts rolling. Thatcher is asleep in the corner, leaving Hehtarusco and Ladiel with the new arrival.

Role-play begins.

(Sits up, looks around, and turns to look at the half-elf)
Where are we, and what is going on here?

The half-elf woman turns to look over at Shojaux. She is exceptionally pretty, and looks to be about 17 years old. She is dressed in brightly colored traveler's clothing, and wears her long red hair down, braided and adorned with small flowers and intricate ribbons that seem to be made of blades of grass. After examining you for a few moments, she smiles. "Well now," she says, turning to Hehtarusco, "here's a strong warrior for our cause." Finally addressing Shojaux, she says "you've been taken captive by some of Sir Golead's men. You're now a member of the strike team." Laughing, she adds "you might call it persuasive conscription." Despite the news, she seems remarkably cheerful, and her smile has an oddly soothing effect.

Shojaux looks between the Half-elf and the Elf quizzically. He is tall for a Half-elf, with emerald eyes and long, raven-black hair that almost covers them. There is a rather noticeable scar running from high on his forehead, across his left eye, and coming to a stop under his left ear. He rubs the end of his scar and asks the Half-elf, "Sir Golead? Strike team? What are you talking about? You seem to be in charge here. Who are you?"

Hehtarusco glances briefly at the recent prisoner, only to look away again, obviously lost in thought. She has light brown hair cut below her chin, not exactly neat-looking; more like she cut it simply so it would not be in the way. Her deep green eyes stare into an empty corner, her long elven face expressionless.

Shojaux looks at the Elf. Having never spoken with one at length before, he feels rather nervous and uncomfortable. "Were..."(clears throat)"Were you also tricked and captured by that man?"

"That human works for Sir Golead." Offers the half-elf. "The man in charge is a close personal friend of Lord Tyroff, and has been appointed to the position of ..." she frowns "what was it, 'Cheif of Retrieval'? Basically, they pay him to bring Lord Tyroff's condemned to justice." She notes the scar on your face. "Well, Hehta, looks like we found a fighter, all right."

Shojaux mutters, "This scar was not from any fight of mine." More clearly, he asks, "Who are these men of whom you speak, and what do you mean "condemned"? What have I done that would upset them?" He glances nervously at the Elf again, conscious of the fact that she had completely ignored him. "Who are you two, anyway?" he asks the Half-elf (though it's obvious that he is hoping that the Elf will respond).

Ladiel turns suddenly to Hehtarusco, then turns back to Shojaux. "I ... I am Arwen Marien, and this is my half-sister, Hehtarusco. We were both captured by these men while hunting in the woods together."

(raises right eyebrow) "Well then, one who calls herself Arwen Marien (to himself: isn't that name from a famous legend somewhere?), you still have not told me WHY we have been taken. I have done nothing wrong that I know of, and I assume that you haven't either. Although, if your half-sister gave them the same treatment that she is giving to me, I understand why they would have been displeased."

Hehtarusco looks up at Shojaux once more. "Sorry," she says, sounding somewhat embarrassed. "I was distracted by... well, what is your name,... Sir?"

"My name? Shojaux. What were you thinking about that would cause you to ignore me? And why, I ask again, have we been captured? Tell me what is going on!"

Suddenly, Ladiel stands up incredibly straight, and a tiny snake appears on her shoulder. After whispering to it for a moment, she turns to look Shojaux straight in the eye, and, after a few moments of intense concentration, both of you hear this telepathic message in her voice. "Silence. The Humans can hear us. Hehta, prepare for battle. Shojaux, I don't know how you can bwe so oblivious, but if you fight now, we can explain everything later. Right now, any Human is a threat unless proven otherwise. When I open the door, we attack. We reach our destination soon. Blink twice if you are prepared for a fight, and nod if you will fight with us." Then, as an added note, "and then blink again if you have any magical training." With that, the car shudders to a halt.

*blink* *blink* *nod* *blink* *rolls eyes*

She raises an eyebrow, and then nods and smiles mischievously. She motions towards the man in the corner, who has just awoken, and makes a gesture with her hands. The man walks over to the lock and begins to pick it. After a few minutes, he shakes his head back at Ladiel. Ladiel sighs, cracks her knuckles, and, concentrating hard, hands outstretched, utters the word "Ánoigma". The lock shatters, and the heavy door of the car creaks open. Ladiel uses her telepathy once more to say "They didn't take your weapons, Shojaux, but our things are in the coach. Can you lend Hehta your bow for the moment?" As she asks this, the viper, which had slithered out of the car, returns and rests on her shoulder. Ladiel motions towards the door, holding up three fingers, and the Rouge readies himself to pull the door open.

Shojaux hands the bow and quiver to the Elf and draws his sword. He softly whispers in Draconic as if in prayer, "May the first blood tasted by the blade known as "Dragon Life" grant me the strength of the black dragon."

Once all with weapons are prepared, the man opens the door as quietly as possible, making sure to conceal himself behind it. He attempts to open it quietly, but stumbles backwards while doing so, and the door slams open on top of him, causing quite a racket. Outside of the door, two guards turn in alarm at the sound, and see an armed duskblade and a fighter with a boy in the doorway, as well as a half-elf women standing behind, looking frustrated at the Rouge.

Initiative order: sword guard, Shojaux, hammer guard, Hehtarusco

Ladiel whispers "Na eínai ischyrí̱", and touches Shojaux. You feel a power tingle through your body, and a strength courses through you that you did not previously posses. You hear the sound of a crossbow being loaded behind you.

On of the guards rushes forward and attempts to knock Shojaux's weapon out of his hand. Shojaux, automatically going into combat mode, instinctively manuevers his Bastard Sword around the enemies weapon, flinging it out of his hand. The guard stumbles backwards a few feet, surprised and unarmed.

Shojaux and Hehtarusco are both in the entrance to the car. Ten feet in front of you is the unarmed guard, and fifteen feet to his left is the other guard. It is Shojaux's turn.

(Because this is our first combat, I'll explain the rules. Describe what you're going to try to do, complete with specific movement and all involved actions taken. I will roll for you, and tell you whether you succeed. Also, for the rest of the game, any check you want me to roll should be placed inside parentheses at the bottom of your post, and also explained in the post. For example; "Thatcher looks around to see if there are any hidden compartments or levers (Search check)").

"Dráko̱n zo̱í̱!!!!!!", Shojaux yells as he rushes forward. He slashes at the unarmed warrior with his sword.

You find that, with a strength you are unfamiliar with, your blade carries forward a little more strongly than you intended. You slash through the man's right shoulder, his hide armor tearing to pieces under your crushing blow. The arm is completely severed, but your blade continues down through the mans chest to his crotch, taking off his leg as well. The man falls over, dead before he hits the ground.

The second guard, shocked, charges at you in a rage. Pulling out a warhammer, the man brings it down upon Shojaux as hard as he can. Though you attempt to deflect, he skillfully brings the weapon down hard on your left arm. Though your chain shirt takes much of the blow, you feel a sharp pain as your arm is jammed out of it's socket, and pain shoots through the whole arm (10 points of damage. Critical hit. Also, fun tidbit, you almost died from the sheer force of the blow. Good thing you have good fortitude.)

Hehtarusco's turn.

Hehta quickly knocks an arrow on her borrowed longbow and shoots towards the remaining gaurd.

(This is ridiculous. I might have loaded dice xP)The arrow flies forth from Shojaux's well-crafted bow. It strikes the guard in the throat, and after a few fruitless gasps, he falls over, bloodied and unconscious. The fight has made relatively little noise.

Ladiel motions towards the front of the car. Upon finding that the driver is not present, she relaxes a little. "All right, here's the plan. We need to open a few more of these boxes and stay quiet until reinforcements arrive. If we crack the car over there," She gestures to the north roughly 20 yards, a dangerous but coverable distance with decent cover "we might get lucky and come across a Professional or a Druid or Ranger or the like. If not, we'll have to take what we get."

Ladiel starts searching the cab for your armor and weapons, then, as an afterthought, briefly turns back and asks "any questions?" She continues to search.

Shojaux looks at his dislocated arm and curses in Draconic. "Can either of you heal? I was never much good at it."

Lost in the darkness, silence surrounds you.
Once there was morning, now endless night.
Hmm, hmm hmm hmmm hmm...

Aedl sings.

She can hardly do anything else. For the first while she'd thought of killing herself - she'd rather do that than have Toka whimpering in her head, full of fear and anger and sadness and more fear - but the only weapon she had was her poisons, and those would hardly do, would they? And on further reflection she found that she could hardly abandon Toka to the whims of her evil captors. For the next while she thought of what the enemy would do to her once they reached their destination, and she'd been afraid for a long time, but it was then that she realized the double-edged sword that was an empathic link: her fear was in turn frightening Toka, whose fear was in turn frightening her. A feedback loop, a downward spiral. So in the third while she decided not to be afraid, but to be valiant and brave for Toka's sake. So she sings. She sings until the light comes again, and she can beneath the sky one last time before her untimely end. She sings until the executioner's axe closes down upon her young neck, or a cruel soldier's sword bites into her stomach, leaving her to bleed slowly to death.

She sings until she can be with her parents again.

Ladiel turns towards Shojaux, frowns, and says "Den ypárchei kamía anánki̱ na vlásfi̱mo, Shojaux. Tha sas therapéf̱sei sýntoma" Ladiel walks up to Shojaux and grabs his shoulder with one hand, and his shoulder with another. You (Shojaux) notice, as she approaches you, that she smells strongly of a wildflower that you recall coming across many times, and her beautiful red hair, despite being braided down for efficiency, flows across her shoulders as smoothly as a rushing stream. You find yourself abnormally enchanted by her, and you are only faintly aware of anything she is saying, or the way that she's moving your shoulder around, or even the slight discomfort in your arm. Suddenly, you feel a sharp twinge as your arm is forced back into it's socket, and Ladiel steps away. She laughs quietly after a moment, and says "well, I warned you."

(Shojaux heals five damage, and can now use his left arm efficiently)

"I've dislocated my shoulder before, Half-elf. There was no need for the spell. I don't like being enchanted if I can help it!"