Shadows of an Untold Land [IC]

[Crestfallen]

Spoiler: Image

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A sea of red falls dark in the east, the warm sun glistens over the dimming waters, as the sun falls, its rays pass over it.

The new world... A whole Island... Over night it rose from the depths of the sea itself. Rumors have spread that this new world is inhabited by beings unlike any we've imagined, Humanoids even that live amongst the trees.

Ancestors of the elves we know today? They know not, but they know so little on these creatures....

The people gather in the city of Ouerdome, men, women, elf, gnome, orc, from all sides of the kingdom to hear word on the world ahead.

You heroes find yourselves in the grandest hall in the land, The Orchard of Gods, A beautiful building, walls made of a fine pearl marble, gold weaves its way across the corners of the walls, and plants of all kinds flow freely down the walls sides, Pillars stand, not for a roof to hold, as there is none and the sun shines freely inside, but to reach to the heavens themselves in praise of the gods wondrous work on the land itself.

The hall is filled with humanoids of all types you could imagine, sweaty orcs stand amongst one another, elves keep to themselves or perch themselves with the Ivy's on the walls of the grand hall. Halflings climb shoulders to see, the nicer of the men lift them up for the grand revealing. A lone gnome pushes his way between legs of others to work his way to the front.

Soon the entire hall crouches to their knee, the king emerges at the end of the hall, while he is distant, his voice is powerful, and quivers through the walls, With magic of course, so all may hear his voice. His voice echoes through the city streets as well.

"People of this world, As you know, The world has changed, and a new land has appeared, Our divination is strong, but there is a mystery to the island, as none of our diviners could pierce a force that surrounds the land, but from the distance we did see, There are indeed inhabitants, we know not if they are friendly, hostile, intelligent or stale, but we do know they exist, and it appears they know we exist as well.

We have arranged for a large group of individuals, specifically picked from some of the strongest in the land to travel there, and these brave souls will be the first to greet these new lives and welcome them to our world, we are not their foes, and we shall show them only compassion!

Those of you who are selected, you will be informed of your departure, you have a night to pack your belongings, and you will report here tomorrow to be taken to Enderdream to set sail for the new world.

We fear our magic would fail just as our divination has, so mundane travel it will take!"

Each Player: You feel a voice penetrate your mind, it echoes through the walls of your skull as it speaks.

"Oh Greetings Traveler, You have been watched for many a years now, and It's time to take your skills to the next level!"

"You have been selected as one of Twenty lucky individuals to embark on this journey! If you're not up to the task, That'd be quite disappointing, but I do have a feeling you'll say yes!"

"Pack your things, Grab a drink, and enjoy your last night in Tylia, You wont return for some time I'd reckon"

"If you need any more details, feel free to meet me in the central tower of the mages guild. I'll be waiting!"

"Hehehee!...."

As the voice fades, it leaves as roughly as it came. Either a not-so-talented mage, or someone just stopped caring years ago.

Spoiler: OOC

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You're now in Ouerdome, You'll spend the night here. Ouerdome is a Metropolis, Its VAST, you can find just about anything here, and it has absolutely the greatest feeling to it.

Very wealthy,
Much beauty
So kindness,
Much Paradise.
Wow.

[TerrickTerran]

Dahlla Whiteash

Of course she was one of the lucky individuals. Dahlla's life revolved around luck. Her life had been quiet for a while. She was ready for some adventure. Sipping on her drink, Dahlla wondered what was going to happen. She didn't mind mundane travel, but what she was sure of was that she needed to find some interesting people to travel with. With that in mind, she looked around at the other people and what they were doing.

[Adunatar]

Any place where he was comfortable, was like home for an outcast like him, and Ouerdome filled that spot just nicely for about three years now. He felt so at home there, among the vast metropolis, with its busy streets and bustling markets, so much that he even thought for a moment that he might not want to leave. The thought haven't persisted for any longer than just an instant, and he angrily brushed it away. Honor above all, as the Bushido codex teaches - and he has been given the greatest honor, and by none less than the Shogun of this land. He shall go to the new lands, and he shall leave the luxuries of the bustling city behind him, without any regret whatsoever. But first, the formalities.

- Domo arigato, unknown messenger-san, - he tried to address the voice in his head, not even sure he's being heard on the other end, - A great honor has been bestowed upon me. Please tell the Shogun, he need not worry - I shall go where the duty calls me, and will defend my comrades to the best of my ability.

Leeroy straightened, and looked around, trying to discern his future comrades by the look on their faces. Failing that (he wasn't hoping for any success anyway), he was planning to head straight to the entertainment district. If he's leaving this welcoming city, he should at least spend the last day enjoying what this place had to offer. And local geisha sounded tempting. Yes, and this cloudy sake that they call "beer", the one with the taste of an orange... "Hoe-garden", or how do the locals call it? Maybe he should take a barrel of it for the trip with him...

[Archmage1]

As she finally reached the great city, Liriel paused for one precious moment to observe the city, to just take in the scenery, the way it almost melded with the forest around it, noting the location of the different sections of the city, including the great gardens. Shrugging, she descended from her tree, nimbly jumping from branch to branch as she headed down, a tiny petal following her around, shaking her head at Liriel's antics.

Once she reaches the city, she heads in, and pauses for a moment, trying to decide where to go.
Lilly, of course, decides to intervene, settling on Liriel's shoulder.
"We should go to the gardens! Come on, it'll be fun! You can see the flowers, and I can say hi!"
Liriel sighs, and tries to fight the inevitable.
"Lilly, don't you want to see the king? I'm sure he will be quite splendid. He might even have flowers of his own. Surely, you don't want to miss your chance, do you?"
Lilly jumps off of Liriel's shoulder, and hovers in front of her.
"Come on! You can see silly kings any day, but flowers are important!"
Liriel sighs once more, shaking her head, but she does start heading towards the gardens, much to the delight of the excited petal.
As they walk, Lilly cheerfully describes the many sorts of flowers she had seen, while Liriel wishes for peace and quiet.
I almost wish I had never met her. Sure, she can be great fun, but she does always want to guide me to do the things she wants to do.

After a short time, the pair, with the petal still cheerily talking, reach the garden, and Liriel starts slowly walking through it, pausing often as Lilly darts off to excitedly examine the flowers.
After they are around half way through(after turning around three times, and going another way a couple of times), the speech starts, prompting another sigh from Liriel.
I suppose we won't be seeing the king after all. I suppose that makes this journey rather pointless, although I suppose meeting Lilly might be considered a good thing. Having a spirit of the forest as a friend never hurts, although... I do wish she were a little more serious.
She would think about more, but Lilly comes back, and excitedly leads her to another flower. True, a lovely flower, but... it is the scene, not the individual items in it, that is truly interesting.

As Lilly cheerily describes how wonderful the flower is, Liriel hears the voice, and starts considering how she might convince Lilly to leave the garden, and see the rest of the city. After a couple of hours(and having walked all over the garden several times), she has an idea.
"Lilly, you know... Maybe they have some other flowers, hidden in other parts of the city. Do you want to look for them? They might be amazing, after all."
She feels a bit guilty for misleading the spirit, but there were other things to see in the city. Luckily, Lilly approves of the plan, and Liriel slowly wanders around the city(with Lilly eagerly looking for more flowers), eventually reaching the mage's guild(which impresses Lilly quite a bit, with its fine stonework, and elegant lighting), where she looks around for the one that contacted her, while Lilly was distracted by a trimmed hedge, shaped like a dragon.

[Vedhin]

Kyanus, after recieving the message, sets on on a meandering an aimless path. "I think I'll go to the mage guild. It would be the height of foolishness to explore new territory without accessing all the available information." He starts putting some direction into his path, slowly working his way towards his destination. "But as we were selected secretly, I should keep a low profile. This will also give me a chance to meet the others chosen; at least the ones who care about learning." As he draws near the guild, he continues his thoughts "That voice acted somewhat suspiciously though. I don't much like the sound of 'watched for many years', and 'take your skills to the next level' makes it sound like it knows what's there."

[Neely]

Standing in the crowd, Amelia Falmer smiles at the goings-on of the people around her. She is not in any wild shaped form, which is rare for her, but when she goes into a city, she finds she enjoys herself more in her own skin. She listens intently with the rest of the people and perks up at the knowledge of new creatures.
Unknown animals? Amazing! Perhaps one of them is a long-lost species I could have a relation to!
She begins to look around to see if there was some sort of draw to see who would go, when she heard the voice in her head. While Amelia is often suspicious of ominous ideas like what the voice was spouting, she was far too excited at the prospect of exploring this new world to care much. She decided immediately to head off to the main tower to find out more, and with that ran down the street. As soon as she could, she ducked into a back alley, and when she emerged from it, she was a Pixie. Still looking generally like herself, but using her new fast flying speed to get to the guild as soon as she could.

[TekHed]

Only in Ouerdome would such a sight be taken in stride. The two were certainly an odd couple. The nymph attracted the lion's share of attention of course, slight, willowy, effervescent, and perfect in every way. Her companion could not have been more different. Tall, muscular, and with a hard edge to her gaze, her beauty savage and raw, and oh so human. Both of them radiated an aura of unapproachability, albeit for opposite reasons. That the couple rode in on the backs of massive grizzly bears only added to the tableau.

At the touch of telepathic contact, Brigid snarled. Just as soon as it had invaded her privacy, however, the presence vanished. The weretouched immediately lost her s***.

"What is this?" she roared. "Who are you?!" she continued to rage into the air, circling around and creating quite a scene. She turned to her mate, eyes wide as saucers. "Did you hear?"

"No my love. What's wrong?" Thelanis replied.

"Sorcery. Mind-invader. Says watched. For years. Him?"

Thelanis paused, looking thoughtful. "Would it not be foolish for your quarry to lead you right to him?"

"Unless trap."

"True..."

"Must go."

"Um..."

"If not him, make pay for Mind-speak." she sniffed the air.

*Sigh*

There would be no talking her out of this one. The shifter's scars, her hatred and mistrust of the arcane ran too deep.

"Guntr!" Without hesitation Brigid's mount tore off down the street.

Thelanis frowned. So much for their spa-day. At least she could try and keep the brash weretouched out of trouble.

"Well Brynhldr. We'd better keep up."

The grizzly roared it's assent and bounded off.

[Neely]

After finding her way through the foreign city, using her ability to turn invisible and fly high into the air to her advantage, Amelia finds herself at the front of the mage's guild. She looks up at it's large towers, excited for her next adventure as she takes in the place that holds the potential newest secrets and clues towards her heritage. Now that she is on the ground, she is visible, but still shaped into a Pixie, causing her to be a smaller size and have fairy wings. As she stands in the city streets outside of the guild, she stands out quite a bit. She looks down at herself, realizing she looks somewhat silly. So to fix it, she changes her adventurer's outfit into a tunic and shorts that appear to be made out of leaves. Much more thematically appropriate.

[Archmage1]

When Lilly sees the pixie, she smiles broadly, and flies over to her, happy to see another fey here.
"Hi! I'm Lilly! Who are you?"
Lilly is a petal, and is orangish in color, wearing a finely made orange and cream dress, with intricate embroidery decorating it. She is also smiling, and looking more than a bit silly.

Liriel, who, moments ago, was glad that Lilly was distracted, sees her pestering the pixie, and sighs, starting to make her way across the open courtyard to Lilly, hoping to get her to not bother other people.

Liriel, on the other hand, is an elf, and she wears clothing practical for walking in the woods, the colors mottled, and vaguely shaped like leaves. She bears a small pack on her back, and has a pair of curved swords in her belt. She moves with a rare grace, but she isn't particularly pretty. Instead, her features could only be described as plain, that is, if you even remembered them enough to describe them.

[Neely]

Amelia spins around, startled by someone suddenly addressing her. She is wearing the aforementioned tunic, as well as a white belt, a cloak, bracers and a necklace. A silver circlet sits atop her vibrant crimson hair, tied up in a bun. Her most striking feature is her brilliantly green eyes, and she has somewhat fair-looking skin.
"Oh! Uh, hey, uh, hi. I'm- I- Hey, I'm Falmer! Er- Amelia! The other way around though. Hi!"
She pauses for a moment, to stop tumbling over her words, it's abvious she doesn't talk to people much.
"Uh, I'm not a Pixie."

[Archmage1]

Lilly smiles, happy that the pixie was talking to her. And nicely, too!
"Hi, Falmer! Why are you here? Are you here to see the gardens?"
When Falmer starts speaking again, claiming that she isn't a pixie, Lilly looks confused.
"Of course you're a pixie! You're big, and you have wings, and ears! Why don't you think you're a pixie?"

Liriel keeps heading towards the pair, thinking to herself.
Oh dear.

[Neely]

"No, I- I don't think I was aware there were any gardens here! I'll have to look for those, they sound nice, er, pleasant. They sound good. No, no, I'm not a Pixie- this is just a shape. Er- it's- um... okay I guess I can just, uh, here."

And with that, Amelia transforms, she grows taller, her wings are replaced by a backpack and a small bag appears on her side, hanging off her belt. Her features suddenly become less fey-like, and more of a blend between fey, elf, and many other races, so it would be fairly hard to pin down just what race she was if you tried.

"Um, yeah, so it was a- uh- um- a shape."

[Archmage1]

Lilly's confusion grows as Falmer tries to explain what's going on, and then her eyes grow in horror as some fell force makes the nice pixie into an elf, and she flies away, hiding behind Liriel(And peeking over her shoulder), who is just arriving.
"Liriel! Some evil thing made the pixie become an elf! It's horrible!"
Inwardly, Liriel sighs. This is going to be interesting. Why is it never simple...
She smiles at Amelia.
"I'm sorry, Miss. Lilly can be a bit... excitable, and a bit prone to making assumptions, and then never thinking about them. I'm Liriel."
She extends her hand to Amelia, while she continues talking, trying to reassure the frightened petal.
"Now, Lilly, it's ok, she isn't evil, she's a shapechanger, like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly, or a grub into a moth. She might have looked like a pixie, but she was always an elf. There wasn't any evil magic, and it isn't going to get you too."
Lilly pauses as she considers this, before she nods, evidently agreeing with Liriel(Or, at least, not wanting to appear less brave than Liriel), and she clambers up to Liriel's shoulder, and sits there.

[Neely]

Amelia smiles back, feeling somewhat guilty. She lets the Petal's friend explain far better than she could as she shakes Liriel's hand back. Amelia's hand is strangely quite coarse and calloused for someone who looks so small and fair.
"Uh, hi. Amelia Falmer- in that order."
She nods back to Lilly, adding to Liriel's explanation.
"I'm a Druid, I use nature-type magics to become other creatures. I can even became- um, a little Petal, like you! Though, sorry- uh, I'm also not an elf."

[Archmage1]

Liriel nods at the taller woman(Although, most of them are taller than she is).
"Nice to meet you, Amelia. What did you think of the announcement?"

When Amelia addresses Lilly, Lilly still looks a bit wide eyed, but she is calming down.
"You're not a elf either! What are you? You look elfish!"
Lilly draws in another breath, clearly intending on speaking more, when Liriel sighs, and turns her head, so she is clearly addressing Lilly.
"Lilly, maybe if you let her talk, she will answer. Give her a chance to answer."
Lilly considers this for a moment, before she nods.

[Vedhin]

Kyanus rounds a corner near the mage guild, finding an elf, a Petal, and a not-quite-elf talking to each other. "Well met! I am Kyanus Garenil, and I was recently called here. Have you also been summoned?"

Kyanus is a tall human. He wears an assortment of clothing that narrowly manages to be interesting rather than mismatched, including a wide-brimmed hat with a feather from some black bird of prodigious size. He has a confident stride and smile, but his physical features are only slightly above average. He speaks with a compelling voice, though he tends to use more words, and longer ones, than is needed.

[Neely]

"Oh, a whole new island world? Where there are new creatures to discover? It's all quite exciting! I'm planning on going as soon as I can."
As Liriel gets Lilly to slow down, Amelia smiles wider and tried to explain.
"Well, I'm uh- Well... I don't really know! I know I'm a Shifter, or a Weretouched, depending on who you talk to, but, uh, I don't really know what I'm touched by. Long story, not very interesting."

[Archmage1]

When the large human comes up, and speaks, Lilly jumps, before she looks, and sees the giant feather, and she flies over to it, landing on his hat, and pulling at the feather, Amelia gone, temporarily, from her mind.
"Look, Liriel! It's a giant feather! Isn't it amazing! I wonder what it came from!"

Liriel gives Amelia a pained look, before she turns, smiling, to Kyanus.
"Nice to meet you as well, Kyanus. I'm Liriel, the petal trying to steal your feather is Lilly, and this is Amelia."
As she introduces Amelia. she gestures, making it clear that she meant Amelia.
"I did receive a message, and I was hoping to learn a bit more about it here."

[Neely]

As the tall man appears, Amelia turns, startled in the same way as when Lilly showed up.
"Oh! Hi! Yeah, like she said, uh, I'm Amelia Falmer, in order. Er- in that order- nevermind. Um, nice to meet you. Yeah, I was called here by someone. You were too?"
She spins to look at Liriel and Lilly as Liriel also brings up being brought here.
"Oh, uh, you two were too?"

[Vedhin]

Kyanus reaches up to secure his hat, lest the weight of the Petal knock it off. "Nice to meet you as well. The feather is from a roc, to answer Lilly's question."

[Archmage1]

Lilly looks amazed at this news.
"It's from a roc? They must be really, really big! Even bigger than owls! And pretty, too!"
She seems content to stay on the hat for the moment, admiring the feather(Which involves walking around the brim of the hat).

Glad that Kyanus wasn't taking Lilly's visit too amiss, Liriel tries to explain a bit more, hoping that Lilly wouldn't damage the hat.
"The voice did say that there were 20, so it isn't too surprising that we would come here, although I don't think Lilly got the announcement. Are you looking forwards to the trip? It should be quite interesting."

[TerrickTerran]

Dallah Whiteash

Dallah sighed quietly to herself. These people were really chatty. Still, at least she finally had some company. Anytime someone looked at her, she gave a sweet smile, but she remained quiet for the moment. Her mind was on other things, other places, memories she'd rather not have yet seemed to be refusing to fade.

[Vedhin]

"I'm quite looking forward to it. The prospect of exploring an unknown land is very exciting for me."

[Archmage1]

Liriel smiles softly.
"It should certainly be interesting. I've worked as a guide for years, but it is always the chance to see something new that keeps me going, even to places I've gone to before."

Lilly, not wanting to be entirely left out of the conversation, her feet on the rop of the hat as she leans out, holding on to the feather, smiling cheerily, chirps up.
"And there'll be new flowers!"

Liriel smiles up at her.
"And there'll be new flowers, and all sorts of interesting things to see."

[Crestfallen]

@OOC: You are all welcome to read every spoiler, even if it did not apply to you, however, You must not metagame it, that is all.

Spoiler: For those of you that went to the Mage's Guild

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A bit of time passes as you carry on your conversation, a couple individuals pass by, knock on the door, and walk inside, a few people walk out of the building, mostly apparant wizards.

Two individuals approach the group, however, A pair of dwarves.

"O'tch, I'm tell ye, I heard 'em, They're goin' to th' new place too! Ask!"

"No, No, They're not, They're just a bun'cha lost tourists, Excuse me folks, Me brother here's thinkin' ye folks are some of th' twenty or so headed to th' new land, Tell 'im he's wrong."

The two dwarves are both clad in some sort of scale mail, very finely made, both of them have a large hammer hooked to their back, both heavily bearded.

Spoiler: Adunatar

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@OOC: If you're going to the tavern, this if for you, If not, Just ignore this.
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As you enter the tavern, a bit of happiness rushes over you, the place is Enchanting, Quite literally as well, The tavern is flooded with people, at least four tables filled with dwarves, two tables with elves, a couple tables of adventurers of all mixed races, There's a half-orc behind the counter of the bar, a few open chairs there, also a small booth in the back corner open as well.

[Archmage1]

Spoiler: at the mage guild

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Liriel looks down at the dwarves, so like, and so unlike the ones she had guided in the past.
"Your brother is not wrong. I'm Liriel, and these are Ameila, Kyanus, and, on Kyanus's hat, Lilly. Have you done a lot of traveling?"
As she mentions each name, she uses gestures to indicate who is who.
Lilly waves cheerily at them when her name is mentioned.

[Neely]

Amelia looks over at the two odd Dwarves, looking a little flustered at all the new people.
"Uh, no, I'm definitely one of the people picked to go to the island, I think. I mean, why? We don't look like people who like islands?"

[TerrickTerran]

Dahlla Whiteash

Dahlla looked over at the dwarves. "Yes, I was one of those who was invited. Why do you ask?" She was wondering what was going on but she trusted that luck would come her way.

[Adunatar]

The waves of anxiety and excitement about the upcoming adventure were rolling high inside Leeroy, so much that he chose to skip the geishas, and headed straight to the tavern instead. "Just a few beers, and then I should go meet my mysterious employer... just a few beers, first" - thought he, as he opened the heavy oaken door. Glancing over the big hall and the tavern crowd, he finally decided against joining any of the crowded tables, and headed straight for the bar. There, perching himself on a tall bar-stool, he began to give its due to the big mug-o-ale, complete with rye garlic croutons, his favorite snack.

[TekHed]

Suddenly, a couple of great grizzly's bounded on to the scene, bearing a fierce-looking mostly naked human woman, and a completely naked forest nymph. They skidded to a halt in front of the mage's tower, and the tall blond fearsome one dismounted, stalking up to the entrance and proceeding inside. She seemed very irate, although apparently unarmed.

The nymph daintily dropped down from the other bear, patting it on it's side.

"Terribly sorry about that. She's in a bit of a mood is all..." the nymph smiled graciously.

"I really should go make sure she doesn't kill anyone. If you'll please excuse me..."

Thelanis hurried after her lover.