The Game Begins

Aedl is apparently the only one not grinning, casting some doubt in the back of her mind about the sincerity of Shoujax's earlier distaste; she herself seems to be the only one who doesn't get an adrenalin rush from killing. Ignoring Ladiel's remark, she looks over at Hehta. "I need your weapons. Come." With the command spoken, she walks over to the door of the tent, barely able to restrain herself from flinging it open until Hehta joins her.

(If she hesitates, Aedl will proceed to urge her over, with ever growing anxiety. If she refuses, Aedl goes ahead and enters the tent without backup.)

Hehta is smiling slightly, but the party can tell that she is only trying to restrain herself from looking with horror at Aedl. She glances at the other two, then, attempting to seem friendly and easy-going, she shrugs and follows the ... well, she can only think of Aedl as a barbaric animal at the moment, and is horrible at hiding it. She follows her.

It's a good thing Aedl doesn't care particularly what Hehta thinks of her, just as long as she's useful. As soon as Hehta starts moving forward, Aedl's restraint breaks and she ducks into the tent.

Now that they're alone, Shojaux turns toward Ladiel and scowls at her. "And why, may I ask, did you not help us fight? It seems to me that you didn't care what happened to us as long as we killed the guards!"

(I shall assume that Carusco follows her in. Congratulations on meeting a new PC).

Upon entering the tent, you notice quite a few things all at once. The tent is not very decorated, and contains simply a short table, two chairs, a few boxes, and a tower shield lying against one wall. On the left of the room, you see a nervous-looking but handsome halfling, standing over an unarmored human (who shall describe himself) who is kneeling over a box. Having just opened the box, he stares down at Toka.

Sunathaer, you open the box to find a red fox, with white patches in its fur around the muzzle. It is a little larger than the average fox, with black feet, and completely ignores you, looking towards the door. Through the door suddenly come Aedl and Hehtarusco, Aedl looking determined and a little anxious, and Hehta ... not knowing how to react, actually.

Next to the fox is an item of far more interest to you (Sunathaer), about half as tall as the fox. It is perfectly elliptical and shines with a low but piercing silver sheen. Embedded into its surface are tiny crystals and sapphires filled with swirling mists. The whole object shows no sign of scratch or wear, and sits perfectly erect, though nothing is really holding it up.

Role-play!

(Meanwhile, outside)

Ladiel turns toward you, and her smile fades and becomes almost mockingly pouty. "You wandered off after the crazy girl into a battle. I hardly had time to realize that you were gone after I found Hehta's weapons. And besides," now smiling again "two guards fell by my magic. Four if you count the strength spell."

"TOKAAAAAAAAA!"

Sunathaer is blindsided by a mass of panicky druid, which then proceeds to hug and look over and nuzzle the erstwhile encaptured vulpine. Said vulpine proceeds to lick and nuzzle and sniff the same. Happiness abounds verily. The magical sparkly macguffin remains ignored by these.

Hearing the shout from the tent, Shojaux throws one last glare at Ladiel before running into the tent with his still bloody sword still drawn, demanding "Ti eínai af̱tó tó̱ra, tha steri̱theí dianoi̱tiká déntro - fteró ?" (What is it now, you mentally deprived tree-hugger?).

Trying not to look at the girl strangling the poor, helpless animal, Hehtarusco notices the bejeweled elliptical object, and simply stares at it, noting the existence of two new humanoids that do not appear hostile. (She does not mean to be rude; the object simply attracts her usually lost gaze.)

She sort-of deliberately ignores Shojaux, knowing of his temper and annoyance with Aedl's personality.

Having reunited with her heart, Aedl stands with Toka by her side and glowers at the timid-looking halfling, blood still smeared around her mouth. She adopts a dangerously formal tone that belies her wild-looking appearance. "I am lacking one sickle, one scimitar, some twenty darts, and a set of leather armor. Would you like to find them for me, or shall I be rid of you and do it myself?"

Having finally noticed the halfling and that he still has blood on his blade, Shojaux quickly lowes his sword into a non-threatening position. "Leave him be, Druid. And while you're at it, wipe that blood off your face. You look like a wild animal." He nods once at the fox, who he assumes from the earlier scream must be Toka, and turns to look at the human. "So then, who are you, and what do you know of this camp?"

Having decided that the strange elliptical object is probably less interesting than the conversation, and that any information given may be important, Hehtarusco turns to face the silent halfling. To Shojaux, she smiles and says, "Come now, let's not be rude." To the unknown halfling, she asks kindly, "Quel est votre nom, monsieur?" (which, for those of you whose characters speak Elven, means, "What is your name, sir?")

Sunthear after recovering from the shock of being tackled out of the way by some insane person and then surrounded by multiple people who are not guards.though if they are guards quality has fallen far since he last saw the military. he rises and walks back over to the box and picks up his egg. he glances around the room "ominakveth Sunthaer Sythar ενδέχεται tamara clax wux onureth πτέρυγα" after a moments pause realizing i must of spoke in draconic out of habit i hastily correct myself "my name is Sunthaer Sythar and who might all of you be your clearly not guards" Sunthear is a average sized man with dark green eyes and the whites are sky blue my hair is a bright silver.

Shojaux steps forward offering his hand. "My name is Shojaux Nightbreeze. I am a duskblade trained by the mighty and powerful Loc, kai eímai énas drákos foniás." (and i am a dragon slayer) Shojaux glares at the egg and says, "Pes mou óti af̱tó den eínai av̱gó drákou." (Tell me that that is not a dragon's egg.) You can see that he is tense and slightly angered. If you are good at reading concealed feelings, then you also know that he is a little afraid.

Hehta does not speak Draconic, so she turns to the surely insane, fox-strangling druid. "Did you catch that?" she asks her, confused.

"wux svent darastrix."(you kill dragons) Sunthear says shocked. after quickly regaining his composure "this is a gift from the great Tamara" he shakes your hand cautiously. "duskblade? I'm not familiar with the term."

The halfling, having a number of confusing and shocking developments, chooses one to focus on. His eyes widen with intrigue, and possibly skepticism, as he looks at the orb. "Draggy egg, y'say? Reckon ye could fetch a price for one of them."

Aedl has far more important things to do than listen to people speak in a language she doesn't understand, or speak of artifacts that don't interest her, so she does one of them: She starts looking around the tent for her weapons, making a mental note to kill the halfling later for failing to be properly cowed by her mighty threat.

(not to nit-pick, but this eventually will be important. That should have ended with (Search))

The box contains nothing else, and the room is mostly without ornament. Moving the leaning tower shield from the wall, you find underneath a bow and a scimitar of curious workmanship. The hilt is detailed in black and has ridges overlapped in a scaled pattern. Set into the heart of the pattern is a seven-pointed white star. The seventh leg, running to the bottom of the hilt at a slight angle, is longer than the others, and engraved in very small characters is written Κάτω από τις φτερούγες του αργύρου. Strapped to the shield is a set of full-plate armor, crafted in colors of black and silver, with the same symbol upon the chest, greaves, and gauntlets.

The Halfling looks over at these items and nods "Good thing yer friend Golead trusts me t'keep you here. I reckon he wagered against you being able to escape even if you got free. He puts high stock in his personal guard." Then, changing tone to a loud whisper towards Silacier, "Now that insignia, I'd recognize anywhere. You mentioned Tamara, I heard it. You worship a heathen god. No wonder they want you dead."

"I shall some day, if I intend to take after my master. I'm not surprised that you don't know of our kind, we aren't that common. Even the best known of us are assumed to simply be mages with a bit of skill with the blade. But we are so much more." He smiles a bit and adds, "If you want proof of our power, go outside and look at my lovely ice sculptures. But before that," his guard goes back up, "would you please answer the question straight up? Is that a dragon's egg?"

Hehta, who has a horrible habit of losing focus and staring off into space, has missed much of the conversation. (This is also partially because much was in Draconic.) Her ears perk up at Shojaux's last comment, though. "Wait, a dragon egg?" she asks, bewildered. "I've heard descriptions, but never seen one up close. Is that really a dragon egg?"

Aedl hums her frustration at this pointless, though probably plot-mandated, tangent. "More important than what the shiny thing is, magpies, is escaping this camp. For me, that means weapons. So you'll excuse me if I take back the focus." She steps up to the halfling, blocking his view of the others, Toka growling softly behind her, and issues an ultimatum: "You have five seconds to direct me to my missing items."

"You harm the midget for a lack of knowledge, and you'll find the guard blood on my sword mixing with yours." Shojaux then turns back to Sunthaer and asks with a more demanding and impatient tone that betrays a hint of fear, "Well? Is it?"

Toka's ears lay back in indignation and anger at Shoujax's comment, but otherwise Aedl chooses pointedly to ignore it, saving her fight for a more convenient time. "Well, shorty? What'll it be?"