Slizz
You are up with the break of dawn, anxiously thinking about what the upcoming meeting might signify for you and your tribe. Eating a nice breakfast, considering of the usual mix of rodents and other snacks, you put out the “CLOSUED: MAKEING WARTS” sign and heads out for the Whistling Gale. When you get there you are met with an almost empty common room, and a smiling Oseric. “You are early dear. The meeting is still a couple of bells off. Please, let me take you to a more comfortable place, this room will soon be filled with all kinds of rabble.” He leads you to a big room upstairs and you find a chair, sit down and wait for the meeting to begin. After a bell or so, another man enters and takes a seat. He looks kind of scary, with full plate armor, a big shiny shield and a generally scruffy look about him. He takes a seat in the centre of the room, and seems to be thinking a great deal, so you decide against talking with him – yet. Yet another bell goes by, and all of a sudden people start to come in rapid succession.
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Torsak
Finding the Gale as soon as you think suitable, you are met by the same hooded man just outside the gale. “You are early, good. Come with me, I need to talk to you before the meeting.” He heads into the Gale and then into a small cubicle at the far corner, away from the door. “As you know, the balance is in danger. I will be blunt with you now; it is in more danger than most are aware of. A new player in the games of the gods has entered the fray, and is not afraid to cheat to win. The Shadow, as it is known by, is probably an ancient deity awakened anew. For what purpose we do not know, this is where we need you. As a firm believer of the Balance, you are the one most capable of recognizing signs of things that are not as they should be. We fear that the acolytes of the Shadow might have infiltrated both the Light and the Darkness. This is only speculation, but recent events have made us believe it to be so. In the task you will be told about later, you might encounter things not of this world, brought here by the Shadow, with the help of priests both from the Light and Darkness clergies. Please, when you encounter what I am talking about, please do not tell the others of the part that Light and Darkness might have in this. We fear that if word of this gets out, the city will rise up against it self, and chaos is almost a certainty.” The man breathes and takes a long pause before continuing. “Now, I do not expect you to follow my words blindly, in fact I hope you will not. I need to go now, but you will get more answers after the meeting.” With that he takes you to the meeting room upstairs. You are the second one there, as there is only an elderly woman sitting at the far wall. Soon people start to appear though.
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Siam
The Whistling Gale is not hard to find, most of the citizens know of it, and can point you in the right direction. You enter the tavern early, and sit down for a breakfast. A bowl of dried fruits and berries, a few eggs and a couple of sausages are devoured in silence as you patiently wait. The tavern slowly fills up during the morning, and the place is soon crowded. You can’t say you recognize anyone, but there are a few patrons you take note of; a male pixie with an ugly-looking bow, a wealthy-looking human, and a scrawny looking dog in the corner by the door. Somehow you get the feeling the dog is more than it appears to be.
When the hour is close to the appointed time Kilana enters the Gale. She heads right for you and smiles warmly as she approach. “Good morning Siam, nice to see you came! The meeting will begin shortly, if you’d follow me…” She walks towards the stairs, eyeing you with a smile as she ascends. On the second floor she enters the second door on the right hand, and you are in a big room, one of the private meeting rooms of the tavern. The floor is mostly occupied with chairs and benches spread around, most facing the wall-spanning fire-place on the back wall. You are not alone, you also see an elderly woman sitting along one of the walls, eyeing you warily. A truth-seer, perhaps? One of the centre chairs is occupied by a scruffy looking, plate-clad man, wearing lenses. An impressive shield is propped against his chair. In front of the fireplace a tall robed figure is talking with a hairy fellow. He reminds you of a badger, or a wolverine perhaps. “Take a seat, we’ll begin soon, I think.” Kilana tells you and heads for the two standing figures.
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Anderos and Bendith
Deciding to trust in the friendly little grig, you are both at the Gale when you are told. As you enter the already crowded tavern you are met by a jolly tune played on a fiddle. It’s Kallenvor again. As soon as he sees you he stops playing and flutters over. “Ah, so you came. Good, good. Come with me now, the meeting is about to begin, we’re already late as it is!” He flies up the stairs, almost bumping into a feline couple in the hallway. Waiting for you to catch up, he then enters a door on the right. You both look quizzically at the other, and then enter after the little man. The room is big, probably almost as big as the downstairs common-room. Spread around is chairs, some occupied, but most vacant. You take seat at the back of the room, facing the fireplace and the group of people standing and talking together there. The feline woman, a tall, robed man and a furry fellow all turn to Kallenvor as he approaches them and soon he is talking with them in quiet voices.
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Grymsnarl
You lie lazily in your usual corner, having an excellent view of the whole Gale. Enjoying a nice breakfast, you eye the patrons of the morning, everything from small grigs to big elephant women… Tilla is slow to notice you, but when she does she nods vigorously at you and head for the stairs. Thinking of your talk with Windwhistle yesterday, you decide to follow his advice and follow Tilla upstairs. As you enter the room Tilla just entered, you see several of the patrons of the morning already there; the old woman smelling like a swamp, the shield-bearing scruffy man, the small, funny pixie, a serious looking man talking with the pixie, and the cat-man, all sitting on chairs spread around the room. You lie down just inside the door and waits for the meeting to start.
_*_*_*_*_*_*_
The five figures standing in front of the fireplace talking suddenly falls silent, and they all face the door at the back of the room. The door opens a few moments later, and two men enter. Both wear long, flowing robes, one crimson with black frills, the other golden and without any decorations at all. They both wear masks portraying dragons, somehow attached permanently to their faces. The crimson clad man bears a mask the color of the night, the eyes hard and ever roaming the room, eyeing everything and everyone. The other mask seems to be made of pure silver, the eyes a golden hue, shining with warmth and friendliness as it looks all of you over.
The masks mark them as the heads of the Circle. The Circle is the ruling faction in the city, where people not of the temples are chosen for their skills in politics rather than their standing in the clergies. The Circle is a gathering of ten powerful individuals, all taking on the role as one of the mighty dragonflights, The Red, Black, Blue, Green, White, Bronze, Brass, Copper, Silver and Gold. The Black and the Gold is currently the heads of the Circle, but you never expected them to be the ones contacting you.
The Gold speaks, and what you previously thought to be a man is revealed to be a woman. “So this is all you could find. A pity, but it will have to do.” They walk to the fireplace, Oseric mutters a word of prayer and a roaring fire is conjured to life. “We welcome you, brave souls of K’ruli’ana. This will not take long, I assure you. The temples of Light and Darkness have closed its doors to the city, so we turn to you, the common folk of the land. As you are aware of, a Shadow is among us, and we need to fight it. Since the temples have chosen to back out of the conflict the Circle sees it as its duty to start the battle. We are not completely sure what exactly the Shadows are, but we believe it might be an ancient deity awakened. We do not want you to fight the Shadow directly, but any help we can get is appreciated. Some of you have met our Hand.” She indicates the five figures now standing at the back of the room. Now things are clearer, the Hand is the Circles group of elite, working for the good of the city. The Hand is a secret, in that way that nobody is supposed to know of them. Everybody does of course, but nobody talks about them.
“Kilana, our master of shadows, Oseric our arch-priest of both Light and Shadow, Kallenvor is a warlock of considerable powers, Cotilla our friendly but oh, so dangerous barbarian from the tundra to the south. And lastly Trusk, our only link to the dragons themselves.” At that, the tall figure removes its hood, and you all look in wonderment at the draconic man smiling shyly at you. A man of nine feet, with a scaled yellow face, a pair of small horns on the back of his head, and a jaw so full of teeth it is kind of scary when he smiles. He speaks: “Some of you might have heard of us, half man, half dragon. We exist, though few of us remain. I am here in K’ruli’ana as a direct link between the Circle and the leader of the dragonflights. I have met, and indeed spoken with some of you, but I am happy to meet you all.”
“As I said, some of you have met them, but here they are. They will soon depart, but we wanted you to know of them before you decided to work with us or not. What we need of you is not to stand up against the Shadow, but rather to investigate one of the ancient, abandoned temples right outside the city. We have heard rumours of renewed activities, but have yet been unable to confirm this. We have reason to believe that the Hand is under close watch by the Shadow, and has therefore decided to recruit more in our fight. I know some of you have questions that need answering, some of you need our help…” With that she looks at Anderos “and some of you are here because we need your skills in the upcoming conflict.” With that she seems to finish, and looks expectantly at you.
The hitherto silent man now speaks up. “All of you are known to us. Unlike the temples, the Circle is aware of most of what is happening in Mokmael, and we sees it as our duty to know its inhabitants, both permanent and temporarily. As of now you are our only hope of finding out what is happening in that temple, so we will be happy to answer any questions you might have, and help you with your problems, if we are able. Now, the Gold will have to leave with the Hand, but I will stay here with you yet.” With that Kilana, Oseric, Kallenvor, Cotilla, Trusk and The Gold steps through a portal that suddenly appeared by the call of Oseric.