To: Delia Blacke, Headmistress of the Academy of Arts,I was not sure how to reach you. I assume you will receive this letter, informing you of my interest in your Academy. Perhaps we could meet sometime and discuss this further? I am stationed in Narr…
Having no clue where he was or how he got there…. Tzurei decides to return to where he awoke. Perhaps he could find some hint about his attacker. At any rate, he felt better getting out of that town for a little while… but the Sewer wasn’t much of a step up.
“Even if I knew how to get home… It would likely get me killed. I just don’t know. Maybe I can find something down here..”
And so he worked his way through corridors and archways, trying not to breath the acrid rotten air. Here and there he found a large rat scurrying into the shadows, and even some rather large toads.
After walking for what felt like hours, Tzurei happened upon several alligators, that were feeding on a dead toad. “Not good..” He said as all of the gators turned to face him, hissing dangerously. “Easy fellas…” As he pulled his harp from his pack and began playing a gentle tune, some of the reptiles calmed, and even stopped. But others kept coming, probably the ones that got little or no toad.
Backing up quickly, he suddenly finds himself cornered. With a clumsy hand, he recites an incantation, and a small swirling ball of fire forms in his palm. Tzurei’s meager understanding of magic would certainly not be enough to stop these pursuers. The fireball lands against the scaled body of one of the alligators, slowing it for a moment, but ultimately making it more angry.
Seeing the lack of effectiveness, Tzurei quickly dives to the nearest corridor. Turning back toward the gators he recites another incantation, this time summoning a field of fire which blocks the pursuit by the carnivorous reptiles. “Alright… I’m getting out of here. Time to find some friends to give me a hand.” He smiles a bit as he moves quickly through the tunnels, but who would he get to assist him…
The answer came to him a few hours later, as he wandered a forested area outside of Varstaad.
Just ahead of him in the clearing, a pack of timber wolves were gathered, playing or relaxing perhaps. Either way, he knew this was a good opportunity.
As he walks into the clearing, he is already playing his harp, the wolves look up to the source of the sound. In a soothing voice he begins .. “Hello, friends… no need to be alarmed.” They just stare at him seeming confused about the situation. “Excellent, just remain calm. You know if we joined forces we could be mutually beneficial to one another.” As he says this, he pulls a large cut of meat from his pack and throws it to them. “You see? I can provide plenty of meat for you…”
To this, the wolves respond graciously. Suddenly it is as if he is one of the pack. The creatures playfully wag their tails and greet their new friend. Tzurei seems to bond easily with the animals. “Come, my new friends… We have some things to handle…”
With a smirk, Tzurei walks along with his new pack, toward their next adventure.
Business was good at the Brass Tankard, and its proprietor Rowan Drake couldn’t be happier. Yes business was good, but not in the way many might think. Despite all of the attention and praise Rowan had been getting for his food and stitchwork, Rowan was most happy about the new addition to his humble, cozy tavern. Beneath the floorboards laborers worked tirelessly to complete Rowan greatest achievement. It only took them days to complete what would become one of the greatest criminal inventions the Lone Islands had ever seen.
The cellar itself was unassuming, cobblestones pocked the dank and dirty floor, but it was what lie below that caused the most intrigue. Rowan looked at the off colored stone in the corner, darker and larger than the rest, smirking as he pushed it away and looked down into the darkness. turning to the forman, he pulled out a large bag of coins and wordlessly tossed them to the man, immediatly returning his gaze to the darkness.
“Is eet all er?” said the forman
“see for yourself” said Rowan without looking back
The hiss of escaping gas immediatly followed as Rowan covered his nose, “it would not do for people to know of this tunnel and its secrets” thought Rowan. He had already sent Cedric to dispose of the other workers, but Rowan took sick pleasure in dispatching this man himself. “If you want things right you must do them yourself” he thought. The gas was subsiding then as rowan replaced the stone and turned to inspect the now still man. Cael had done well with the poison trap, and now all that was left was to dispose of the body, and Rowan knew just the man to help…
Quote:Rowan,I have a special order that I need taken care of discreetly. *Below is a list of items*Once the order has been filled please send me word quietly.Signed: Mauzen Zhau’nil
The terrified, exhausted man scrambled through the trees and scrub as he saw the portal opening, and the visitors that came from it. He wasn’t a brave man. Matter-of-fact he spent most of his time on the floors scrubbing, and the majority of that bein…
Crystals and mushrooms and glowing bits of plant life cover the rock walls and ground. The sounds of chaotic ‘negotiations’ and ‘debates’ can be heard echoing from the nearby civilization.
But here, is nature. Here, is peace.
And here… is a man…
Sitting alone by the light of a campfire, in the ‘wilderness’ of a place known to the surface world as; “The Underdark”. Tzurei had never been one for the ways of the ‘Drow’ (As he later learned his people were called). A fussy bunch, with a social structure that didn’t fit his plans for life. His life. The life given to him by -Nature- herself.
So he spent much of his time with the creatures that also inhabit the Underdark. Playing his music and practicing minor incantations. A true friend of nature and balance.
This was Tzurei’s way.
His people shunned him. Even attempted to kill him at times. Tzurei pressed on, stuck in his ways, never giving up his ideals for the old ways of his people. Tzurei dreamed of a new way, a way that the others did not believe in. One day while he enjoyed a freshly cooked cut of steak, Tzurei heard a sound…..
“It couldn’t be ogres, could it? They never come down this far into the caves…” Tzurei stood and began to glance around the area. Then all went black. An Ogre Lord stood over Tzurei’s motionless body, his blood splattered on the Ogre Lords large hand. A shadow stood some distance behind the Ogre Lord, presumably the driving force behind the Ogre’s relocation.
But all of this was lost to Tzurei… On the verge of death, he was taken from his home land, and to a new realm.
It took several days for him to awaken… and where he found himself was quite a surprise.
The Drow man had been deposited into an unfamiliar sewer system. If they had wanted him out of the way… why not kill him? He didn’t understand what was going on, and he didn’t know this new place he was in, so he began to explore. “I don’t understand how I got here… Where am I?” He thought to himself as he walked past countless sewer rats and slimes. He paid them little mind, and lulled any aggressive critters with his lute.
Soon he found a stairway. The stairway led directly out of the sewer system and into a large home.
“Who are you… and what are you doing in this house?” A voice said. Tzurei looked over to the doorway of the room that he had entered when he left the sewer. There stood a man by the name of Mauzen. “I… Am Tzurei. But I don’t know how I came to be here… I am not even sure where HERE is…” Perhaps feeling sorry for the recently relocated Drow, or perhaps feeling some kinship… Mauzen chose to help Tzurei.
He showed him the main locations in the town, and explained that Tzurei was now in a place called Narrowhaven, before leaving him to his thoughts.
“I need to find out how to get back home… and I need to find out what happened to me… How I got here… and who was responsible.” Resting on a bench near the Narrowhaven bank, Tzurei thought for a long time about what to do next. He knew that a new chapter of his life had begun…. but what he didn’t know is where this chapter would lead him.
And so Tzurei’s story begins.