Magefire: The beginning

[Duraenos]

The cold autumn wind blew lazily across the forest floor, stirring leaves, causing them to glide across the worn path Duraenos travelled. Steadily he made his way up the trail that followed the mountainside at an angle yet seemed carved from the mountain leaving an even path to tread upon. "Why the arcanum would bother with such an insignificant girl is beyond me." he muttered as he walked briskly up the trail, the spell component pouches and ornaments jangled and slowly bounced against eachother as he made his way up the mountainside.

"I mean, seriously, why send an accomplished wizard such as ME to track down this strange girl in some far off town claiming to have found some relic?"he continued to ramble on about his current charge, unaware that the forest wildlife had grown eerily quiet. Duraenos trodded on up the mountain trail, his shadow stretching far behind him cast by the morning sun. His senses immediately buzzing as he finaly noticed the odd stillness of the forest, he abruptly stopped to survey his surroundings. Cautiously peering out ahead of him and around, he slowly tightened his grasp on his staff.

Barely grazing his left ear, an gnarled arrow sped by his head, he instinctively began casting a shield spell to lessen the chances of his being turned into a Qwian pincushion. A Ukar scout stepped more clearly into view up ahead and to the right of the mountain path as Duraenos finished casting the spell. Seeing the scout readying another arrow to fire at him, Duraenos spots two more Ukar warriors making a slow run down towards him from the left side of the trail.
Quickly summoning a wall of fire, Duraenos bends the elements to his will, encircling the scout effectively before he was able to loose another arrow.

The two warriors vlosing the distance quickly, but not quickly enough as Duraenos managed to cast a freeze spell upon one of the Ukar. The spell stops him in his tracks but the momentum of his run causes him to fall forward in midair, his frozen body shattering into pieces as it slams into the hard earth. The last of the warriors reaches Duraenos before he can finish casting another spell and is forced to evade and duck as much as he can as the Ukar swung wildly with his large axe, seeking to cleave the small Qwi in two.

Duraenos doesnt dodge swiflty in time as the axe cuts deeply into his right arm, severing bone, causing him to lose focus for a moment from the intense pain. The Ukar sensed his moment of opportunity, raising his axe high over his head for the final strike. His vision blurred as the pain of the injury set in, noticing that the wall of fire he had cast upon the scout was fading quickly. Suddenly remembering the teleportation charm he had created before leaving his study, he grasped it firmly where it dangled by a leather strap from his staff. Chanting the single phrase with conviction, a flash and swirl of blue-white light flared and vanished where he once had stood as the large axe came crashing down embedding the blade into the ground.

The teleportation he had created was designed to take him directly to the town of his destination, and he could of gone there easily in the first place, but he had opted to reserve his energies and walk the distance. Reserve energies indeed, he thought to himself grimly as the spell ended and he appeared at the gates of the town. Blood flowing freely down his left arm, he felt consciousness leaving him finaly, he dimly sees a guard approaching his small form as the world spins out of control, sending his view to ground level, his head hitting the cold ground. He barely recalls the muffled voices of the guard calling for a healer as his loud boots approach Duraenos' pain wracked body. Just before drifting off into the darkness he feels the light caress of the cold autumn wind as it scatters dry leaves across his still form.

 

[Darrt]

Not much later, another figure made his path up the winding trail. It was a Burian, yet unlike other Burians. For even though his body was covered in plate mail, atop his head sat a red wizard hat, tarnished from what appeared to be many years of use. His armor was also tarnished from wear and tear, but his cloak was worst by far. Made from the hide of some unfortunate animal, it was filled with holes from arrows, cuts and stabs from some blade or another, and a few scorches from fire here and there. Another strange thing about this Burian is that he held no weapons. He only carried two foaming mugs of ale brimming to the top. Even stranger, the Burian kept drinking from them, yet they were always full!

"Bah! Send me on the mission will the durned Gear??" Darrt grumbled loudly, "'We're fer thinkin' the arcanum's on a mission' they said. 'Maybe ye should go' they said. 'Yer the Wizard' they said. 'We dun quite know what they're doing'! BAH!" Though the dwarf's grumbling continued on for much longer, it was rather repetitive (Though oft paused to drink ale) and so I shall not bore you with the details. So Darrt's journey continued uneventful. That is, until he reached the site of Duraenos' battle.

It was an odd sight for the grumpy Burian. He actually stopped whining and stared at it for a moment. There were two Ukar archers staring at some frozen pieces of a third Ukar while a fourth Ukar was staring blankly at a pool of blood on the ground. They were all rather confused and it was quite a comical sight. Yet, at that moment, the Ukar caught Darrt's scent, and well... All hell broke loose. The Ukar that had severed Duraenos' arm came charging towards the apparently unarmed Burian, which probably wasn't the wisest move on his part. As soon as the Ukar closed the range, he hefted his axe and let it fly in a horizontal swing aimed for the Burian's head. However, Darrt merely lifted his arm up and let the axe clang off of his sturdy mithril plate, yet before the poor Ukar had recovered from the block, Darrt slammed his ale mug into its side, turning it to intercept the twin arrows heading Darrt's way. Though, due to height variation, the arrows slammed into the Ukar's rear end. With one down, and two to go, Darrt began his finger-waggling. Uttering arcane cantrips, a block of stone slammed up from beneath one of the scouts, sending him flying of the mountain. However, Darrt could only waggle his fingers so fast, and last Ukar had time to let loose another arrow before Darrt could dispose of him. Yet, the battle was not lost, as another stone slab veer up from the ground and intercepted the arrow mid-flight.

After that moment, the Ukar simply gave way to fear, and fled as fast as he can. Darrt laughed loudly, took a swig of ale, and then roared in defiance.

The Ukar made good distance in that time and stopped to catch his breath. After a few moments, he turned around just in time to meet a flying Burian in the face. The Ukar tumbled to the ground, with the derranged, screaming Burian on top, continuously bashing the Ukar's face in.

With the Ukar dead, Darrt then started a fire. He had decided it was time for a meal, and his food was already caught.

He'd be eating well tonight, the strange Burian thought quietly.

 

[Duraenos]

Sunlight streamed in myriad colors through the window at first. Duraenos was coming slowly out of his dark sleep as the sun poked through the clouds over the small town, sending streams of bright light amidst the greyed autumn setting. His eyes weakly closed then opened, trying to gain focus in them as a soft voice spoke from behind him, next to the lumpy bed he lay on. "You're lucky to be alive just now, you know." she said as Duraenos slowly tried to roll over but it seemed something was weighing down his left side so he settled for laying flat on his back.

"Luck, my dear lady is a matter of superstition.."he whispered hoarsely, feeling as if he had been yelling in pain for hours. "...I deal in arcane matters, not luck." he smiled wryly up at the gearmage healer, noticing for the first time the large amount of bloodstains on his mattress and the apron the lady before him was wearing. Expecting the worst, he glanced slowly over to his left where his arm had been the day before, now replaced by a gear-prosthetic limb. Sighing heavily, he looked back up at the lady.

"My name is Kaeran. The healer who normally lives hear normally wouldn't of had the components or material necessary to fashion such a limb for you. Fortunatly for you, I recently was assigned here by the magistrate. Unfortunatly though, some of the materials I used in fashioning your limb, were from the excavation site where I found the relic. I only say unfortunatly because I hadn't had time to examine the parts fully to see if any Wyr are infused in them. There's no telling what effects those will have on your existing Wyr or what they themselves posess as abilities if any." shrugging her shoulders as she spoke the last words, making her way to the end table, filling a glass of water and handing it to Duraenos. He used his one normal arm to help himself sit up, the other, feeling like complete dead weight so far, since the enchantments havent awakened yet.

That's the side-effect it seems for most gear-prosthetic limb replacements. There is always a delay of the limb moving accordingly after the patient comes out of sleep. The side-effect always wears off, but the first few weeks is difficult to adjust to. Duraenos shakes his head in disbelief as he recalled what he had read about such operations, never pondering that he himself would become a recipient. Taking the cool glass with his normal hand after situating himself and placing his new limb across his lap, he eagerly empties the glass, realizing how thirsty he actually was. After emptying the glass, he handed it back to Kaeran. "Thanks to you that you were here then to perform this operation. I assume the previous healer had been reassigned elsewhere?" he said, casually looking about the room as he spoke, looking for traces of the previous healer who had worked at this house for so many years.

"He was brutally slaughtered by Ukar at the excavation site." Kaeran said gravely, refilling the glass of water and handing it back to Duraenos. "He was one of the first of the locals to come across the entrance to the site." she said, having handed the glass to him, she folding her hands in front of her patiently as he drank. Duraenos somewhat more slowly finished that glass also and sat there for a moment, his gaze wandering outside the window to the grey clouds filling most of the sky over the valley the town resided in. "That would explain the Ukar patrol I came across..." he said, looking down at his new metallic arm that he would have to find a way to adapt to somehow now thanks to that same patrol.

"I'm sure once you have a chance to recover you'll be heading to that excavation site aren't you?" she said with a look of worry on her face. Duraenos chuckled, "Yes, considering that your find of this relic has caught the attention of the arcanum and there's no telling who else knows about it either by now." shaking his head at the ironicy of being healed by the person he was sent to seek out. "Speaking of the relic, I dont suppose you could show it to me?" Duraenos asked, handing the empty glass back to Kaeren. "Like I said, I had to use some of the material from the excavation site to fashion your new limb. The relic I found seemed only like small metallic rods with odd runes upon them. They seemed to fit perfectly into the joints for the braces between the elbow gear and your metallic wrist joints, so..." she said as she glanced down at his arm, motioning for him to look himself.

"Ah, so I see..." Duraenos said as he looked down at his arm, instinct taking over, the runes on the arm piece flared to life and his arm reacted accordingly, turning over and stretching it out before him, he examined it's range of motion. The glow of the runes subsided and became dimly lit, apparently working well as Duraenos continued to try to percieve the strange runes engraved upon the metallic surface of the arm pieces. "I am by no means an expert in languages, I was only able to discern one word from it all, and the curious thing is that the language seems to be a dialect of Burian." she said as she reached for cross-reference scrolls she had dug up from her research about the language, handing to him to look over. "The word was Magefire." Kaeran said as the room went quiet between them two. The only sound being the autumn breeze whistling quietly through the cracks in the window by Duraenos' bed as he looked up from the scrolls she had handed him. "Then I better make a speedy recovery if I am to be able to control this new Wyr..."

 

[Darrt]

"Ah! Now that tha' spot," Darrt commented after finishing his meal. He took a swig of ale and stood up again, leaving the mangled Ukar corpse to rot. The battlemage lurched in disgust, as he had been to consumed by eating to notice the growing stench. Acting quickly so as not to be overcome by it, a magically conjured ball of water appeared over the fire, dousing the flames, though the fire had died down during Darrt's meal. As the Burian turned to head back to the battlesite, snowflakes began to fall.

"Tae 'ell with it! This'll make the felgercarb Qwi harder tae follow! Better get started, wasted 'nuff time eatin' already..." Darrt sighed. By the time the gearsmith had gotten back to the other two Ukar, the snow had begun to pick up. Darrt had earlier deduced that the arcanum puppet he was following had teleported from the battle after having recieved a serious blow. What Darrt could not tell was where the cursed Qwi had teleported too. He could've gone fifty feet up the trail, or he could be all the way in Stal-hagen. Though with the loss of blood, it was likely he hadn't gotten too far. But the snow was blowing even harder and Darrt had to decide his course of action quickly. Knowing he would get lost easily in the snow, he decided to head to the nearest town. Darrt had studied the geography of the land before he had left on his wild-goose chase and knew roughly where it was.

However, teleportation relies on exact coordinates. Without them, you're likely to end up inside a wall. But right now Darrt simply wished for another warm fireside to drink his ale. So, he crossed his mithril-encased fingers and began muttering more arcane words. For despite his practice in both wizardry and widgetry, he still believed in luck.

A flash of light later, Darrt appeared outside the town. He immediately noticed the red stain on the ground and laughed loudly. The Qwi had either come here for aid or this had been his destination all along. Shrugging out of reflex, he started towards the gates. Of course, he didn't make it half a foot before he was pulled backwards and fell flat on his rear. The guards, already intrigued by the Burian's appearance, burst out into laughter. Frowning, the dabbler of the arcane turned around to see the part of his cloak inside a small sapling. Darrt simply roared in defiance, and teared the cloak free with brute force, abruptly ending the guards' laughter.

Walking towards the twin guards, Darrt looked up, revealing his face. A deep scar ran from his left eyebrow to a little below where his eye should've been. The empty socket was concealed by a black eyepatch with a glowing blue rune on top. The stout warrior glared at the two guards, ending their smirks once and for all. "Either o' ye seen a wee lit 'il Qwi with a severed limb?" He asked firmly.

Not suspecting anything, the guards confirmed Darrt's suspicion and told him the Qwi had been rushed to a healer. Thanking the guards, Darrt went into town and inquired to where exactly the Qwi was. After discerning his location, the Burian headed quickly to the wizard's location, pondering how the encounter would play out. Should he just kill him and ask questions later? Might be faster, but there's no garuntee of learning his purpose. Still thinking about what to do, the battlemage slammed open the doors.

 

[Duraenos]

Kaeran had pulled a chair closer to bedside as they both examined the scrolls scattered across Duraenos' bed and her lap. "I am having a hard time making heads or tails out of these scrolls." she said, a look of total confusion and concern on her face as the evening sun cast long shadows inside the recovery room where most of her patients had rested at one time or another. At this time though, Duraenos had been her only patient considering that the Ukar had outright slain and/or eaten most of their victims.

"I think I am beginning to make some headway here, it seems to me that whoever the Burian was who became this Wyr after his death, was a battlemage of some sort. The reason or effectiveness of this magefire though, I dont quite comprehend." Duraenos said as he took another drink from the glass of water she had set on the end table beside a full pitcher earlier. "I am beginning to think though that.." he was caught off as Kaeren abruptly stood and began heading towards the door to the room hurriedly. "Someone is here, I have enchantments on my door should someone barge in rather than knocking they alert me." She says with a look of worry as she quickly exited the room, closing the door behind her.

Sensing that perhaps his recovery time was about to be over and whoever else had learned of the relic might be here to claim it, he roughly swipes the scattered scrolls from his lap and begins to drag himself from bed. He sensed no immediate pain by now, only dizziness from having loss so much blood and used so much energy from the battle and just getting there. Sitting on the edge of the bed and thinking it might not be wise to stand so soon on his own feet without aid, he muttered a simple word, summoning his staff from its resting place against the far wall to his hand.

Placing his full weight upon the worn wooden staff, it's collection of feathers and beads on leather thongs along with small rune totems shake as he slides off the edge of the bed. He manages to keep himself from falling flat on his face, but it takes a considerable effort to remain upright even with his staff. He decides to stay put for a moment, silently meditating to try to clear his mind and focus on what little energy reserves he has left for casting spells should the need arise.

Kaeren quickly composed her mindframe to brace herself for whoever it was that came so quickly and violently into the house. She could hear footsteps around the vorner of the hall that led to the front door as she approached. Remembering just as the figure came into view and their eyes met, she realised she had not grabbed a staff, wand or any item that might assist her if there was a conflict. She would have to rely on any small spells she had memorized, but even most of those were mainly for healing, not injuring.

For a moment they both simply stood there, merely five paces from eachother. She noticed immediately he didn't seem to be carrying any weapons and that oddly enough that the coincidence was, here was a burian standing here before her, just moments after her and Duraenos had been reading those burian scrolls. Before she could find her voice and ask him what business he had there, the burian grinned, then spoke...

 

[Darrt]

"Where's tha' blasted Qwi?" Darrt asked the girl that stood before him. Darrt looked at her for a second and realised that she was suspicious of his... manner of entrance. Not surprising, but Darrt had to think quickly to come up with some excuse or another. Pretend to be a healer? No, the girl looked capable enough. Capture and interrogate? Fun, but he didn't know how proficient the Qwi was at combat. "Well, where is he? The durned arcanum send me out here tae help this fool of a Qwi and they dun even tell me where he is! Tis' mere luck that I found him at all!" the battlemage exclaimed as he took down a gulp of ale. As the girl seemed to accept his bluff, Darrt nearly let a sigh of relief aloud, but masked it with another chug of ale...

 

[Duraenos]

Mentally relaxing her stance as it seemed this stranger wasn't looking for a fight after all and only in a rush to see the Qwi, she let out a sigh of relief. "Duraenos will be glad I'm sure of any assistance before the others come that he believes will arrive in search of the relic." Kaeren said hurriedly, taking a deep breath to calm herself and turned to motion to the burian to follow her down the hall.

"He was in bad shape when he arrived. If I hadn't been here, there would of been no one available to not only stop the bleeding, but perform the operation attaching his new gear-arm." She said quickly as they made the short journey down the hall. She stopped to open the door to the room, then stepped inside to the left, leaving the door open for him to enter as well.

 

[Darrt]

Darrt entered the room which contained Duraenos and gave it a quick scan. Nothing too out of the ordinary. He glanced at the Qwi in front of him and noticed the suspicious look in his eye.

"About time I found ye! I join the durned arcanum and they send me on a durned mission to find some Qwi! And look, ye even lost yer arm! Bah! The arcanum just told me that ye were after some relic or another! Thank Ta- Urwir I found ye," Darrt exclaimed, paused to take a swig of ale, then continued, "Well? Did ye find it? Are ye ready tae get out o' this infirm?" Darrt, finally finished, took yet another swig of ale.

 

[Symbiode]

Heavy footsteps are heard stomping through the entrance and into the hallway. A scruffled looking Burian, with a beard and hair full of twigs and leaves, appears in the door way to the room.

"DARRRRT! Six hours! For Six hours I wandered through those woods! 'I 'ave to relieve meself' I says! 'Oh, sure, go over there' you says. 'In fact, take a nap too. I'll be right behind this tree' you says. And where were ye when I woke up? Gone! Six hours it took me to find the path, which I took in the WRONG DIRECTION for another twelve hours! If it weren't fer yer stopping to take that meal, I might never have caught up. And oh the guards! They thought I was an Ukar! Attacked me on sight they did! If ye weren't my brother I'd skin yer alive!"

The Burian then surveys the room, noticing the Qwi.

"Nice arm."

 

[Duraenos]

Duraenos tried to hide the surprise, opening his eyes as Kaeren entered the room followed by the strange burian. His immediate relfexes caused him to grasp the staff more firmly then became slightly confused, the burian claiming he had been sent by the arcanum to find him. Pondering a moment that it might of been possible, considering he was already a day late in reporting his status to the council, he attempted to stand more upright and not so apparent that he used the staff for support.

"Erm, yes...I found the relic but it wasn't exactly what I had expected." Duraenos said carefully choosing his words as he tried to read the body language of the burian being that he was in heavy armor, his face not clearly visible with that mug apparently attached to his mouth. Deciding that the burian could prove useful in deciphering more about the scrolls and his strength would be needed at the excavation site, he chose to take a gamble. "I'm ready to leave, yes. Though we wont be heading back quite yet. There is more to be discovered at the excavation site where this relic was found and possibly more like it."he said, shifting his weight to bring the glowing runes in view on the gear-arm, emphasizing that it was the relic in question.

Just then, the loud heavy footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. Duraenos began to wonder to himself what now could this be at this hour? He looked past the burian and Kaeren to the doorway as ANOTHER burian entered the room more uglier than the first and apparently a relation to this Darrt character. After listening to the babble from the new guest, Duraenos arched an eyebrow at the comment about his new arm being "nice". Mentally shaking his head at the bizarre turn of events this evening so far, he could only wonder what lay ahead.

"Darrt? The arcanum sent you BOTH to look for me? Duraenos asked looking to Kaeren then to each of the other burian in turn, feeling a headache of confusion coming on. Kaeren stood silently in the corner of the room by the door, looking completely lost as to what exactly or where exactly this might lead, be they friend or foe? She thought to herself, wondering if they were enemies, would she have the chance to sprint for the door and to the nest room for one of her wands to use in possible defense...

 

[Darrt]

When his brother had entered the room, Darrt felt the impending feeling that all his bluffing was about to go to waste. Though his brother had indeed complicated things, perhaps they were not beyond saving. At least Elec didn't yell out anything about finding a Qwi for the Gearsmiths. THAT would have made things REALLY complicated. And even though the Qwi looked to be in a weakened state, Darrt didn't want to risk an altercation... yet.

"Well no, tha' didn't send both of us... Fortunately. For me brother is much the fool and would have no doubt nearly gotten me killed... agin. However, he does tend to follow me around, so I attempted to lose 'im so as not to reveal me mission tae anyone who might jepordize it. As me brother is a... mercenary, fer lack o' a better term. However, me brother does tend to... catch up with me," Darrt responded, attempting to quick talk his way out, while hoping Elec didn't ruin things further. Trying to change the subject, yet not bring to Duraenos' attention that he was avoiding anymore questions, he continued, "Anyways, 'ave ye translated tha' runes on tha' thing? Look tae be a bit o' Burian from where I be standin."

 

[Symbiode]

Elec stutters a bit. "Well, ah, excuse the rude entrance. Elec Rockstomper at yer service." Elec dips into a low bow, scruffling his brow as he notices the leaves and twigs stuck in his beard. "I'm not knowin' of any mission, I'm just 'ere to keep me brother out of anything he can't drink his way out of." The burly Burian reaches over and pats his brother roughly on the back, causing Darrt to slosh some of the ale he was drinking onto his beard. Whatever Darrt was talking about, he decided to play along until he knew more about the situation.

Upon Darrt's mention of the runes, Elec's mechanical eye swiveled in it's socket, focusing in on artifact in question. He seemed to mouth a few Burian words, let out a chuckle and then looked to Darrt. "Yer the wizard. What's it mean?"

 

[Duraenos]

Duraenos nodded his head in understanding as Darrt explained his brother's presence there and began to relax a little physically. He was well aware it wouldnt beyond any of the other factions to try to send spies or someone to subterfuge this mission but he didnt feel Elec to be bright enough to be a spy so he seemed to be exactly what Darrt claimed him to be, a brother following his kin hoping for adventure no doubt. Now Darrt on the other hand seemed to be hiding something but decided he would play along with it in hopes of discovering who sent him and to what end.

The sun being well beyond the trees now, Kaeren, still lost by the events, shook her head and went about lighting lamps in the room then excused herself leaving the room to light a lamp in the hall on the way to the kitchen. "I'll be in the kitchen when you boys are done talking. I'll heat up some broth if you're hungry." she said as she left the room leaving the door open. Duraenos nodded to her then looked to Darrt. "So far the only word Kaeren and I were able to make out is the word Magefire on one of the bands on the arm." Duraenos said as he sat wearily down in the chair by his bed that Kaeren had been sitting in. "I suspect more information about this wyr can be found at the excavation site where it was found." he said, looking to both brothers, wondering why they thought the arcanum would of sent two brutes like themselves to assist in arcane matters.

If you were sent to aid me, I suggest we go to the excavation site in the morning and have a look around. If not, you can return and tell them of what I have found out so far and will report to them as soon as I learn more. Personaly, the only thing Im thinking about right now is something to eat so let's go see about that broth." Duraenos said as he got up slowly to make his way past the two brothers towards the doorway.

 

[Darrt]

Darrt was rather relieved to hear that Duraenos believed him, though perhaps not completely. Of course, if Darrt was in his shoes, no doubt he wouldn't believe himself fully either. But, the battlemage had bigger things to think about. Like ale. And how Kaeren would be pretty if only she had a nice beard.

"Aye! Let's go eat! That Ukar didn' quite fill me up," Darrt commented, "But anywho, I was sent tae make sure ye hadn't gotten yerself killed or anything. But, I suppose I'll go with ye tommorrow, tae keep you from losin' yer other arm." Darrt let out a large laugh at that and took yet another swig of ale.

 

[Symbiode]

Elec raised his eyebrow at Darrt's mention of a meal. "Ye always were a strange one when it comes to eatin', Darrt."

He chuckled as he followed the Qwi's small form into the hallway, already knowing what the runes said, and more importantly, the deeper meaning behind them. The aged Burian had seen this sort of thing before, and knew the consequences involved in searching for more answers. Elec would let his brother run the show for now, but he was prepared for the ordeal surely to occur at the excavation site tomorrow.

He nodded as he thought to himself, Playin' the fool is always good fun.

 

[Duraenos]

Duraenos chuckled at Darrt's words but thought grimly to himself of the pain losing his arm had caused, and didn't enjoy the thought of losing his other. Duraenos made his way into the hallway, barely giving a thought to Elec's observation of the glowing runes on his new arm. He shrugged mentally and imagined that the goon probably was fascinated by the pretty lights. The two brothers follwed Duraenos into the kitchen where Kaeren had already set the large table by then which seemed to have been made to seat a full house of patients at one time. A large kettle was simmering to the left of the room over a smoldering bed of coals as the small amounts of smoke wafted up through the fireplace's chimney out into the cold autumn night.

Noticing the three enter the room, Kaeren had just finished ladeling broth into the small wooden bowls and began filling mugs with water from a clay pitcher. At this sight, Duraenos thought to himself how he enjoyed water, its simplicity yet having the ability to replenish the body. Laughing to himself mentally, he doubted the two burians shared his taste in water and most likely would be drinking something with more spirit. The two brothers sat at chairs on one side of the table near the fireplace. Duraenos took a seat across from them after propping his staff against the wall behind his chair while Kaeren finally sat herself down at the head of the table opposite the doorway in which they came in.

"From the sounds of things, there is alot of Ukar activity in the excavation area. they probably have setup camp inside the cave somewhere that used to be a fort of some sort I've heard." Duraenos said as he tested the broth's warmth in his spoon, slowly blowing on it before taking another sip. "We'll have to be cautious entering that area if there is indeed a whole camp living there, wouldnt want the lot of them charging at us. Any suggestions?" Duraenos said, setting his spoon down to take a long drink of the water from his mug.

 

[Darrt]

Upon noticing that they were being served water (of all things, water!), he pitied his liege. Not wanting to gloat his magical mugs over his most likely sober brother, he slid one over to the smithy. "I'll need it back," he commented, and then turned towards Duraenos to continue, "Have ye ever fought with Burians before? There's only one tried and true strategy: Charge! Just don't get yerself killed an' me an' Elec will take care o' 'em. Me magic can keep a good deal out o' tha' fight. How many 'ave we taken at once before, brother? Twenty? Thirty? Fifty? Ten? Never was good with numbers..."

 

[Symbiode]

Elec nodded in appreciation at his brother, draining the cup and roughly setting it down on the table (although the glass was full again as it left his lips, sloshing some ale as it impacted). "Hah! A small army it was, near a hunndred of 'em." He turned to Duraenos, "Look here, little Qwi man. Ye just stand behind us and wiggle yer fingers, and try not to hit me too many times in the back!" The Burian let out a laugh that seemed to shake the building itself, but noticed the Qwi's discomfort and switched to a more somber approach. "All righ'. Is there a forge in this town? I can fashion up some explosives, and if me brother don't mind being bait again, we should be able te take a few out o' the fight before it starts."

 

[Darrt]

Darrt's eyes widened as Elec mentioned that he'd be bait again, and he spurted out ale over the table and got some on the unfortunate Qwi to sit across the table. Darrt then exclaimed"Bait? Nay! That one time twas enuff! Nearly blew me legs off! Yer timin' be horrible! I'll just divide tha' Ukar intae nice small groups with ah box o' stone, if ye will. Let 'em out when we're ready tae kill 'em. Or I could just crush 'em all while they're in tha' boxes and we won't 'ave tae do any fightin'. Though, that be tha' least fun way." As he finished, the not-so-sober battlemage sloshed some more ale into his mouth.

 

[JonDDA]

(this starts a day before your guys posting and ends on the same day)

Roran had been tracking the small group of Ukar for over a week now, and he always seemed to be at least four days behind. They were obviously headed somewhere important, the Ukar he previously tracked didn't travel nearly as fast. Where an enemy rushes to must surely be adventure!

It's not that he hated Ukar, but after the stories of sensless murder he heard at some of the taverns he played at, he had a few grudges.

Finally they seem to have slowed he thought to himself. Deciding to wait for Smoke to return from scouting, he settled down, and took out a fancy little trinket he had picked up, a smooth flat stone enhanced with a fire Wyr. He set it down on the ground, gatherd some kindling and small sticks and twigs, muttered a little incantation, and a flame sputtered to life underneath the wood. Soon enough he had a good enough size fire to start cooking the hare from the morning hunt. But first he took out a little clasped box with red leatherworking around the side filled with spices and opened it up. Every time he opened it the aroma took him back home to the night he left his village, and an elder came up to him and gave him the very same box, and told him what forest dwelling plants made up the enticing spices. He thouroughly covered the hares in the spices and set them on the spit, rotating them every so often.

"Bah, It be getting Late and Dark, Where be smoke!" Roran muttered under his breath, with two thoughts going through his head, either He found something and that is the reason he is late, or a larger bird picked him off.

"Oho now, listen to me, I tell ye' Im gettin paranoid in my old age!" said Roran with a laugh. Not long after the Hares were done did Smoke coming gliding back down to earth, eagerly awaiting the feast. As he glided overhead he dropped a few small pieces from a customary Ukar totem.

"Ahh, so they have finally rested, no doubt next to some adventure." Roran chittered with glee.
Hoping he was only a days journey behind Roran layed the smaller hare in front of smoke, Roran stroked him than settled in to his own meal. After they were both finished, Roran cleaned off what remained of the bones and pocketed them in a small leather pouch at his waist. The fire was just dimming as he said another muttering of incantations, and the fire went out. He brushed off the charred remains of the various twigs and picked up the cool stone slab. Once he had everything packed, he picked up his pack and started into a slow trot, with Smoke flying close overhead.

Roran planned to march through the night, he always enjoyed the noises of a forest at night. He was hoping there would be somewhat of a moon out, not only to light his way, but also because it was such an amazing thing to look at.

As the sun finally dipped away from the tops off the trees, and into darkness, Roran had set his pace at a slow sprint. He was very skilled at running great distances. Dodging from tree to tree he continued until just before the sun was rising, he smelled smoke. It was the putrid smelling smoke from the Ukar picking up anything they find to burn, which usually just puts of an acrid smelling smoke. He slowed his pace into a cautious walk. The trees began to thin and the terrain got more and more rocky. He could see the clearing and the point where the foliage turned to craggy rock strewn earth. As he left the forest behind he began to see large chunks of rock taken out of the ground. By now the sun was just peaking over the horizon.

He was soon sneaking upon the camp of Ukar set up near the dig site. Just to have a bit of fun he decided to let Smoke fly through the camp and distract the Ukar while he picked them off one by one with his short and powerful bow.

"By the time the realise whats happening, they'll realise they're dead!" Roran thought to himself with a smirk.

He sent Smoke in to fly amongst the Ukar, picking at their exposed skin, and agitating them a great deal. He would fly up, than dive and pick, and repeat the process. As soon as he could see a thought formulating in the Ukars slowly churning brain, he strung an arrow to his bow, aimed for the exposure at the neck, and let loose.
*THUD*
The Ukar's lifeless body hit the rocks beneath him, but the others did not seem to notice they were to busy dealing with the flying pest. Roran kept this up until he had downed about 5 or so of them, than they finally realised what was happening, they then ignored the bird and started searching for the killer.

Roran was jumping up and down and waving at the Ukar, obviously insulting them. In a furious rage they stampeded towards the seamingly weaponless Burian. When they were within a small saplings reach of him he wipped his hatchet into the skull of one, the others just pushed aside the body and kept charging. Having a look of mock fear, Roran prepared to reveal the weapons concealed up his sleaves.

Just before they were in arms reach, in one swift move, Roran whipped out the knives from his sleaves, and jumped with great speed towards the charging Ukar. Quickly making large gashes in two Ukars necks he swiftly doged a swing from a maul and stabbed his attacker twice in the side, once near the abdomen, and the other near the heart.

Knowing he still had 3 more to go he ducked out of the way and quickly ran towards the small encampent. He than turned around and caught one of the eager Ukar by surprise, which fell to the ground with two stab marks to the head.

The two remaining Ukar slowed to face Roran, Obviously trying to decide whether to run or not. During the lull Smoke had taken the enchanted slab of stone and released it so that it collided with the Ukar.

As Roran said the incantaion, he threw a bottle of oil on the ground in between the two Ukar, which shattered, sendings its contents all over them.

They burst into flame with in an eye blink and went running off into the forest in confusion and pain.

Before they reached the forest, however, Roran had his bow out and deftly disposed of the flaming baddies.

He than burst into hearty laughter at the ease of the kill. He was curious as to what was so important that they marched so fast for, he went to search the Dig site.