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Message: <blockquote data-quote="narayan" data-source="post: 6832613" data-attributes="member: 6677509">AletiaOnce again you find yourself kneeling by the side of your old mentor, Vallio Delimrin, as he struggles to breath with bloody spittle on his lips. Poison! ...the favored weapon of the Drow he so often said. Holding him in your arms then, clear tears streaking down your pale cheeks, you realized it wasn't chance at all that he found you wandering on that dusky road so many years ago casting 'Light' spells on rabits and birds, laughing with delight as they fled casting eerie shadows through the trees.His first words to you came back now, eerily clear, like a haunting memory. "Who goes there? An elf of the light, or the dark?!" Given your youth at the time, your response was appropriately bratty as you answered. "I am Aletia Moonborn, daughter of Athias-the-drow-slayer!" In response he bowed with charming respect, claiming to know more of the drow than you did. A claim he proved true a thousand times over, ...for all the good it did him in the end. Long ago, after several catastrophes befell elven settlements who didn't react with enough urgency when rumors of Drow activities arose, descendents of the victims formed a secret network called the 'Moonblooded' to ensure someone was always watching; ready to react and warn the people whenever the drow were up to something.Over the centuries, the Moonblooded earned themselves a clouded reputation. Many elves hail them as hero's and guardians, others chide them for fear-mongering and interfering in other's affairs. More often than not, their warnings have prevented (or at least prepared) many settlements against drow attacks. Yet still, many Moonblooded have found themselves imprisoned, exiled, or worse, trying to do that very thing.  Vallio explained all this to you, and more, on your journey through Vulkh several days ago before he also warned, in his usual half-joking way, how this might be his last journey by your side. After he admitted he was Moonblooded he also said that joining his network was a sure guarantee of loneliness and thankless sacrifice, but a necessary one. How he said it made it sound more like an apology than a warning. Perhaps he hated himself for not being there to save your father? Surely he never wanted you to adopt the path of the Moonblooded, but you can't ignore the possibility he might have expected you to follow in his footsteps.Now once again, you feel the urge to say something as you watch the poison burn the last of the life out of his eyes, as if words might bring comfort to his pain-wracked final moments, yet something inside always keeps your tongue still before you wake up in in a cold-sweat!________________________________________________________Now you realize, with a start, that you must have made it through the gates of Cabarda before nightfall after all. The itchy hay-mattress beneath your back proves it as you glance around a shadowy room in an inn called The Red Sands. Taking a deep breath, you curse yourself for falling asleep in the first place, but the aches all over your body are an evident reminder of how hard you pushed yourself to get here. Outside the shutters, the silvery-light of a nearly full moon, partially concealed behind thick clouds, prompts you to murmur a low prayer to Sehanine Moonbow. Your parents told you many times how you were born beneath a bright moon on a cloudless night. Vallio always said that was an omen you were meant to do the goddesses bidding. In a way it makes you sad thinking how well Vallio knew you, and how little you knew him. All those nights you spent by his side before a campfire, listening to his stories, you always felt you were meant to be up and awake. The night was when you and the moon rose together enjoying the sleeping world for yourselves. As such you were rather rest-deprived and mischievous in your youth, but Vallio taught you to put your inquisitive mind to work investigating the mysteries and rumors all around you. Your beauty, wit and charm helped you in and out of many places you shouldn't have been in the first place... but Vallio, unlike your parents, always listened and laughed at your stories of adventures, misadventures and antics. He coached you rather than scolded you for it, offering advice and insight about how to go about uncovering secrets. It helped that your family was often on the move to keep you out of too much trouble, traveling from place to place selling their wares of masterwork bows and fine jewelry. Your father taught you how to fletch arrows, shape a bow according to the wood it was made of, and hunt with cunning; always thinking ahead of your prey rather than merely chasing it. Whereas your mother was the best tutor you could have ever wanted on how to remain beautiful, charming and sharp-witted regardless of circumstance. The families future often depended on her salesmanship.Nevertheless, wherever you travelled, Vallio was somehow close by, like an estranged grandfather. In many ways he was your closest friend and confidant, but more than anything he was a tutor, teaching you the ways of sorcery and a variety of different languages so you didn't have to imagine yourself as a humble fletcher or jeweler, forever. Their deaths of course were very hard on you. To this day they remain unexplained. No one knew what form of creature could tear apart your father with such strength and cruelty. No one except Vallio... who refused to tell you.  Vallio more or less adopted you after that, completing your training on the road, traveling abroad away from the elven lands for a change... encouraging you to accept work and pursue adventures whenever it pleased you. Always though, there was a hole in your heart that no one person or place could ever fill. Always there were the nightmares and the belief that wherever you went, something was hunting you, waiting to rip you apart limb-from-limb. And so you moved on, and kept moving on. You a heartbreaker, he a cynic, eventually overstayed your welcome everywhere you went.           At least now you understand the meaning of Vallio's life. You may not know yet if his sacrifices mattered, or how he felt when you remained silent as he died. Perhaps the touch of your tears falling on his face was enough.  [Aletia: What do you do?]</blockquote>

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