(Casual D&D II) The Fellowship of the White Dove

[Guilt Puppy]

(Okay, strictly OOC update -- posted here rather than the OOC thread, to increase visibility -- as one is much needed. First, apologies again about the lack of posts, but I'm working with limited time in the library, and that time has been better spent on other things like looking for a job, and looking for cheap airfare to get out of the city in case I don't find a job...

In any case, I'll be back up, running, and posting on a normal basis come September, for certain. At that point I'll start up a Casual III thread, rerecruit as needed -- it looks like Tonguez is gone -- and we'll be back in business. Although I haven't been able to post up, rest assured that the game's been on my mind as much as ever, so things should get pretty interesting.

BTW, thanks DrZ for the life story & impetus to keep the thread running, and to all of you for keeping up the posts regardless of lack of DM presence.)

 

[Festy_Dog]

[ooc: It'll take some effort to get rid of us, Guilt Puppy, we're a stubborn bunch. ]

After that, he stops talking, lost in tought, and gives a sign for the next to continue the tales.

After a short while Nurthk decides to take a turn and tell a part of his story.

"Bear with me, I don't know if you'll find this interesting but I feel I'd better keep the momentum up," Nurthk starts.

"I'm the eldest son of a politically arranged marriage. Just so happened the orc tribes and what some would consider slightly less civilised humans who lived in our mountainous home region felt the need for a formal alliance. Partly because of the harsh environment, but mostly because of giants who would prey upon them both. I'm one of five children, one older sister, one younger sister and two younger brothers. The orcs whose blood I carry had to learn to be more homogeneous than those you'll find outside of the mountains, they were forced to over time you see as the predators found it easier when we weren't united. Relations with the humans had been tense, they made an entrance well after my people had established themselves in the mountains, and were intent on carving themselves a niche seeing that another species managed to make the place hospitable. Even though the two encroached upon each other's territory, neither were crazy about the idea of losing valuable lives by fighting over resources, and so any fighting that broke out was on the scale of a heated skirmish at worst. Things were normally settled with duels and even then rarely to the death. A few generations of degrees of cooperation and the orcs and humans were comfortable with each others' presence, though the inborn division between man and greenskin kept each side to themselves. My grandparents though tried to change that by arranging the marriage of my father and mother. It helped a fair bit in regards to forging a more formal pact between the two, and my siblings and I were seen as the culmination of the best qualities of the two species. In fact, life was pretty good while I was growing up. Things change though and now you find me on the road. Stories for other times."

Nurthk takes another swig and sits back.

 

[dpdx]

Fendric remains uncharacteristically silent during and after the relation of each life story. Eventually, the silence grows even more awkward as it approaches a minute in length. When finally the bartender looks over to the table, hopeful that they might at last retire, Fendric looks up and speaks.

"If you wondered, you would be unlikely to ever hear of a time before I was with the Temple of Pelor, because to my knowledge, I've never been apart from the Temple since shortly after I was born.

All I know of my beginning is what the Temple Elders have told me, Pelor's Light Be Unto Them. According to them, I was delivered under cover of darkness at the doorstep of the Hedrogura Temple in a basket before I could even take my first steps. It was only when High Priest Snowmeadow pulled back the shroud that they found out I was not entirely human.

Since then, my life has been simple and unchanging: perform Temple duties, and work to gain the Favor of the Radiant Light. I was a healer and attendant at the Fighting Pits, where I first encountered Oliver as one of the combatants. Later, I 'graduated' to recruitment duties, where I encountered Sir Exantrius and the rest of you. The rest of my life and times, most of you know.

Sometimes I wonder what I've missed beyond the rote abilities and tools of a half-elf; what of my elven culture, what of my elven lineage, what of the possibilities of my life were it not for the Temple. I hope someday to know the truth about the circumstances of my existence, May the Light Reveal It. I am, and have always been, Brother Fendric of the Hedrogura Temple, without even a surname. The dwarven culture calls it nil-thain, the status of belonging to no clan, no family. That, and the Temple, is my life."

Fendric settles back in his chair, reluctant to see the reaction that his own life story would have elicited. But at least the bartender went back to cleaning mugs and pitchers...

 

[DrZombie]

Raven laughs, a hoarse laugh, without much amusement in it. "We're a regular bunch of misfits, aren't we. Well, fendric, evryone should have a chance to find out who their parents are. The trail will be very cold, but if you want to we can go looking whenever this mess is sorted. It's not as if I've got any plans." He looks around, amused. "Anybody else who wants to contribute? Or shall we leave it for another nights celebration? Cm'on bartender, one last drink before we go to bed."
With a sigh, the bartender takes a few freshly-washed mugs and fills 'em. The look in his eyes clearly shows his disbelief at this being the last round, having heard Raven announce the last round quite a few times before.

 

[Uriel]

Pausing in is attempts to win the hearts of the two Gnomish maids,Niccolo moves over, sharing a bit of himself with the others. 'Well lads, since we are all showing our insides as-it-were... I was born on the Road, moving from here[/] to there as my father put it. The whole family are musicians, in point-of-fact. I, however, was not content to travel as part of the Family Act. It was at an early age that I ran away from that band of rascals. I do see them from time to time, in this City or that one.
Me though, I have travelled as far as I might in the last 6 years, taking in everything that my eyes can, as well as my ears, always listening for a new fable, a new Sonnet. Some might say that I haven't a home, but I think that the Road is my home. After all, I was born there.'


Niccolo sips his drink again and smiles, moving back over to where the gnomettes wait, hoping for an interesting end to the evening...

 

[Sparky]

Oliver picks his lute quietly, listenting to the tales of the others, intent eyes looking back and forth between the companions as the stories unfold. As Niccolo finishes the old man leans over with a grunt and pulls his lute case nearer. Carefully he replaces the lute into its dark shelter and closes the lid, nodding as he snaps the lid shut. He leans back into his chair with a sigh, reaching for a nearby mug, considering its contents for a while before speaking.

"What's the worst thing you would do for money?" He looks around, bushy eyebrows raised in query, reading the faces of those gathered around, smiling crookedly at Fendric's affront, Raven's close, narrow-eyed look, Nurthk's blank expression and Niccolo's quick tabulation on his small nimble fingers.

He nods, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, mug held in both hands. His smile falls and he looks down at the floor, and snorts ruefully. "I was worse than mercenary." He looks up beyond the walls of the Inn toward distant Hedrogura, his voice is flat, "Much worse." He pauses blinking and looks around again stopping on Fendric. "I was taken under the wing of one of the luminaries of Hedrogura darker underbelly. My own mother spit in my face when she found out who I'd fallen in with." He scowls raking a hand through his wispy hair. "I was unrepentantly proud of my 'work.' Eventually my mentor, ever-paranoid - and rightly so, the bastard - set me up. I was arrested and sent to the Arena. It was a death sentence. Or, rather, it was supposed to be. I proved more resourceful than anyone, especially me, could have guessed."

He sits back again, "I became something of a celebrity, inside and outside the Arena. One of the guards used to call me S'Ollie. It wasn't long before Sebrin Oliver Manderock became 'The Salamander.'" He grimaces, but looks an odd sort of proud.

"Bookmakers loved me, especially when decadent foreign dignitaries came to take in a fight. They never bet on the scrawny, little guy." He grins, "By the time I met Fendric I had amassed a small fortune. Under the table, of course." He looks appraisingly at Fendric, "Yep... Fendric. You patched me up the day I was to meet one of those decadent foreign dignitaries, the Lady Erandalin of Sesphar." His eyes soften, "It wasn't quite love at first sight... but my life changed that day. I became an honest man. Well, a somewhat honest man."

"Erandalin had the leverage to get me out of the Arena, to the chagrin of many. She took me under her wing - scandalous, yes - and she liked that. At one party, glancing around I made a stray, and I thought at the time - damning - comment that our host's home would be an easy target for the most bumbling of theives."

He shakes his head, visions of the night playing out in his head... Erandalin in an exquisite gown smiling under her hand as Oliver bungled his way through the social briar of the upper echelons... He blinks and continues, "Word got back and a few days later I was discreetly approached to 'proof' the man's home." He shrugs, "You know how nobles are... a year wasn't out before everyone who was anyone had had me 'break in' to their homes and help them shore up their defenses."

"Hedrogura became an uncomfortable place. Knowing as much as I did about the assets and... hmmm... liabilities of Hedrogura's upper crust wasn't a boon. Nor was making the work of my former mentor and his ilk more difficult ingratiating me with those in the shadows. When Erandalin became pregnant we decided it was time to move somewhere safe. My life changed then, again. And more still after that. But I see I've put Hirtius to sleep, so I'd say that's enough for now." He arches a brow, "More than enough." He downs the dregs of his mug and puts it aside steepling his hands in front of his face.

 

[dpdx]

Fendric smiled back at Oliver, amused and delighted.

"Then I am glad for the good I did for you, Oliver, Praised Be the Radiant Light," he said softly.

Looking around, he scanned his tablemates, until his eyes set upon Hiritus. Smiling still, he asked the knight, "And what of you, my good man? Surely your life did not start when I met you at the Temple in Bethel."

"And you, Sister Shavah of Heironeous. You must have a tale to tell."

Fendric settled back again, relaxed, looking at the others from time to time.

 

[Guilt Puppy]

Hiritus:

"My family line is actually long in Pelor -- a rare thing, strangely enough. By tradition, second sons are raised among the cloth, although only second sons of second sons are raised to be clergy proper," he says, nodding to indicate Fendric. "The rest of us have been scholars, preachers, missionaries -- and most often in my branch of the family, warriors. Normally in complement to another, secular career later in life."

He smiles, a bit sheepishly.

"To be honest, I doubt my parents would be a bit happy to hear I've taken up this quest." He looks over his shoulder, suspiciously. "On my eighteenth birthday I am to, or was to leave residence with the temple, and begin a second apprenticeship. I'm beginning to wonder if we'll even be back by then..."

Shavah:

"We'll be lucky," the half-elf interrupts, although it seems Hiritus has said all he needs to say, anyway, "if there'll be a place to go back to. By then. Bethel, I mean." She stares seething into her drink. "City of the White..."

"Got kicked out of the orphanage for turning fourteen. Graduated, I mean. Needed a job. Who would hire me?" She glances at Fendric, her hand rolling an explain through the air. "Even full-bloods aren't really grown up at fourteen, I mean."

"But Heironeous hired me. The temple gave me time, back when they had time. Now they're all out."

She shakes her head.

"And where am I? Where am I with all their curse'n time?" She waves her hand at the bar, demonstratively. "Here. Here, City of the... Who knows." She haruffs. "City of no-damn-color at all."

 

[Guilt Puppy]

(First, XP: 3000 for each of you. And then we move forward...)

At the conclusion of Shavah's story, punctuated by a flash of something feathery out from the balcony, the water-sipping knight finally seems to become aware of your attention.

"If you'll excuse me," he announces, to no one in particular but clearly to all of you, "I'd like a moment of your time. There's someone you ought to speak with.

His voice is a little charming, and his grin irrefutably compelling, at least this late into the intoxication. (In short, free will disappears as a segue between chapters. Sorry folks, but you'll understand why momentarily.)

"Come along," he says, waving his hand toward the stairs. "It will only take a moment."

(The game continues in Casual D&D III)