Hell and Back

[Marcus]

As Marcus would quickly discover, returning from beyond the veil of death was a bizarre experience. When he had stumbled out of whatever void death had trapped him, every experience that had once been familiar and automatic was once again new and mysterious. But that had subsided rather quickly. What had followed was much stranger. With no concept of how long he had been dead, and no familiar faces to help him discern the time, he felt displaced and foreign despite being in his own world again. From what he had learned, Etruria still stood, but who ruled it or what their beliefs were remained a mystery. Whispers of an invasion were on everyone’s tongue, but it mattered little to Marcus. He had no desire to remain there, regardless of how long he had been gone. He fled south as soon as he could, posing as a traveling dancer as he had so many times before. It wasn’t until he had arrived in a Lycian border town that he had time to collect himself. He gathered that he hadn’t been dead for too long, given many of the major countries that had been around in his lifetime still existed. There were all sorts of strange stories circulating in the streets and taverns, news of demons in Sacae and rebellions in Bern. None of it had much context for him. Not that he cared very much. Once he had finally free of his murderers’ country, he had been overcome by a singular, burning purpose. It was a desire that Marcus was intimately familiar with. One he had felt long ago as a prisoner of Etruria. His dragonstone was out there, somewhere. And he needed it back.

For the time being, he wasn’t quite sure how to go about getting it back. He had a general, dull feeling of where it was, but it would take a long journey and a lot of searching to find it. At present, he had barely remembered his body’s need for food and had stopped in a small Lycian town. He had just finished another fast, acrobatic dance at the local tavern and he stopped to collect the coins that had been thrown at his feet. It wasn’t much, but it would be enough to get him some spiced wine and a hot bowl of soup. He found himself a seat at the bar and purchased his meal, drinking deep of his wine when it arrived. While it quenched his physical thirst, it did little for his soul’s thirst for his stone. He would need to get on the move again soon.

[Aeos]

Aeos made a pit stop at a small Lycian town. A man had finished his dance performance and Aeos found himself throwing some spare coins for his efforts. The young dragon in disguise managed to come across some money after his brief visit back home. He traded what was considered "hard" farm labor and cargo work for coin. The work felt easy due to the fact he lightly tapped into the power of his stone. Aeos took a seat by the bar waiting for his order of roasted meat and soup. The dragon had had a long journey from Nabata over to Lycia and needed to refuel. He wasn't sure why but he felt a bit of a kindred spirit from the dancer. His food had been served and Aeos dug into his hot meal. The meat was well seasoned. Which was rare for most pub joints he had encountered. The insides were a tad bit raw but he didn't mind it as much. It made the meat taste better in his opinion.

As he ate he took note of the people around him. The pub was full of people of all shapes and shades. Some were looking for trouble, others just wanted to eat in peace. Aeos had been hearing whisperers among the folks of an invasion. It would make travel difficult. The dragon had no real destination. But he knew he wanted to avoid Eturia. Perhaps he would make his way through Lycia back into Bern. He wanted to continue making good on Euphemios promise to taste the apple pies of all of the Bernese Pubs. He admitted to himself that it was a bit of a childish goal, but it was a goal nonetheless.

[Mel]

It was easy to cut her way through the throngs of people filling the merry little pub, small stature of use to going unnoticed. As much as it wasn't something she would actually mention, appearing as a child did have it's advantages in her line of work, far less likely to be noticed in most cases. Far more likely to be released if ever caught after a few sets of crocodile tears.

With so many people packed in to such a place it was easy picking, so much so that she didn't even mind pulling out a few coins from her boot to pay for a slice of pie and a warm bowl of soup. After traveling about through bandit camp to bandit camp having some warm food in her belly was more than welcome, a thief but not a penny pincher, and a lazy one at that. So she slipped up to the bar and sank back onto a stool, legs swinging lazily while she awaited her food and spied about the room with her peripherals. The meat the older tanned man beside her did look rather inviting, though she had merely gotten the soup. And the question arose, why not both? With a hum she scooted to the edge of her stool and used the simplest strategy that came to mind. Mel leaned back, reached around, and hurriedly tapped his far shoulder, ready to grab a slice and stuff it in her mouth for the moment that he turned the other way to peer about in confusion.

[Isaac Errek]

Isaac had decided to make a small pit stop in small village on his way return trip to pherae from Laus. He was currently sitting at a bar, picking at a plate of Quail with a side of mashed potatoes. He put down his fork and picked up the mug of mead at the side of his plate and, raising the mug to his lips, he took a long, deep gulp, some of the mead slowly running down his chin. He lowered the mug back to its place beside his plate and preceded to wipe the run off mead on his chin off with a napkin. He glanced around him, taking in both the site ghost Tsurugi and sounds of the Tavern. There  was  a variety of people in this bar, everyone doing different things. He noticed a few interesting people, like the blond haired one eyed man, and the child who he had seen weaving in and out of the crowd earlier. He continued to pick at his quail for a while, before paying for his meal and moved to a table in one of the quieterr corners of the bar. He'd just sit back and see if anything worthwhile happened, at least for now.

  

[Jule]

Though some might say Jule was currently lost, she would disagree. Her sense of direction was as keen as ever. She always knew where she was going: forwards! Unfortunately, the blisters on her soles cared to disagree. Defeated and sore, she resigned herself to her fate(feet?). Sacae would just have to wait for another day.

Nothing particularly unusual stuck out about the town as Jule passed through the open gate It was kind of like Harold's; rustic, homely, small. Not really the kind of place to look for foot medication in. But that wasn't the only thing the thief had been searching high and low for. After her caravan of friends fled from the destroyed town in Santaruz a few days ago, the thief had all of no clue where they had vanished to. And she was tired of walking in territory that was basically off uncharted no matter what cardinal direction you looked. But maybe, just maybe, they'd come through here? Might as well ask while she was passing by. Chances were, if anyone knew it would be the local bard, or barkeep.

Into the busy tavern she strode, and both the barkeep and the dancer were hard at work. "Aw." Jule sighed and slumped down into a seat. It was going to be a while, and if she had to wait, she would entertain herself with a bit of dancing.

Five minutes was too long a wait to wait, if you asked for her opinion. But after watching the curly blond's sweet moves for minutes on end, something struck her as familiar about them. It could've just been a common dance in Lycia, but she could distinctly recall it being a favorite of her traveling performers' group. Was this a sign? "H-Hey! Wait up! Where are you goin'?" Her cry, though shrill, was lost in the dull roar of the crowds.

"Hi, you're the dancer from a few minutes ago, right?" she plopped down in a stool next to the drinking man. The maze of people was kind of tough to navigate, and she could've sworn some kind of gray-haired monster pinched a few coins off her person, but the girl managed to get to the cyclops right as lunch was served. Perfect! He wasn't going nowhere if she could help it. "Couldn't help but notice, but your dance kinda reminds me of some friends I've been looking for. I think they know the very same one! You haven't run into any... other traveling performers around these parts of Lycia, have you?"

[Aeos]

Aeos felt a tap over his shoulder. No doubt from the young lady with bright hair sitting around him. Aeos didn't move away or turn his head. He just kept eating. There was something, primal emerged out of him whenever he ate meat. The pupils of his eyes even became slightly reptilian. If he wasn't in a such a crowded place he might have growled as a warning. There wasn't a force on earth that was going to separate him from his meaty meal. He finished his plate of food and moved on to the soup. With the soup he took his time as the meal was still quite hot. He blew on it with each spoonful. The creamy broth was full of vegetables and potatoes. The soup calmed him down somewhat. He did not have the primal urge to consume food at an alarming rate like he did with meat.

The food was delectable. The dragon would have ordered seconds if he had the funds to do so. Well, no it wasn't as if he didn't had the funds to order more food. He did recently get paid for his hard work. But more like he needed to save those funds for his travels. The trip back to Bern through Lycia was going to cost him. So even though he wanted to splurge some more gold on food he decided not too. He popped another warm spoonful of stew into his mouth. As he ate he was thinking. Where to go from here I wonder. He could try his luck and head back to Badon and maybe find ship passage to Bern. Maybe not. The southern end of Bern is covered in Mountains.. the closest port from there.. would be in the City of Heroes. He recalled from his mental map of the world. I need to make my way to Kathalete. That's.. towards the east.

He finished his meal and wiped his mouth clean. He grabbed the empty plates and returned them back to the bar table.

"Uhm Excuse me bartender. Perhaps you can assist me. I am trying to seek passage to Kathalete. Or at the very least head East. Doth.. er.. Do thou.. you know any place I can go to possibly get some sort of transportation? A merchant's guild? Mercenary guild?" Something legal. His voice still had traces of his Nabatan accent.

[Marcus]

Moving from the refreshing warmth of the spiced wine, Marcus slurped greedily at the brown, brothy soup. It’s heat was a welcome comfort and the hearty flavor did much to fill his quite vocal stomach. He gulped it down in a fervor, barely stopping to chew the bits of meat and chunks of potato that accompanied the broth. It certainly wasn’t the best meal he had ever had, but as hungry as he was, it might as well have been fare fit for a king. He licked the last drops of the soup out of the bowl, scooping up the last scraps of meat with his tongue. He dropped the wooden bowl back onto the counter and moved back to his wine. He finished it with as much ardor, letting a smell belch loose as he placed his cup next to the bowl. Of the sensations he was quickly remembering, eating was probably his favorite. It was up there with the warmth of a fire on his skin and the dizziness which alcohol bestowed.

A voice at his side pulled him back to reality. He looked up from his bowl and noticed that the bar had become a lot more crowded since he had sat down. To his immediate right sat a young girl with a perky expression, who apparently was addressing him. He grunted in affirmation to her question about his identity and she moved right on to her reason for coming over. “Mmm,” Marcus affirmed again. He had crossed the border with one troupe and had joined up with another for a time who had helped him travel through Lycia. He couldn’t say if they were the girls friends, however. He would need to know a little more first. “I traveled here with a troupe. Crossed over from Etruria with another. What are you’re friends like? Might help me figure out if either of them was who you’re looking for.”

[Jule]

Gaea, that smelled good. She had been saving up money for a non-busted sword, but as soon as the young woman tried to keep anything, it seemed to slip out of her grasp just as fast. With a muted growl, her stomach agreed. Jule sighed. Looks like that next step would have to wait for another day.

"Really? I came here from Etruria too! Well, only me. They got turned back at the borders 'cause they were selling weapons on board and they let me hitch a ride with them as long as I didn't... "cause any trouble", I think they said. Things were pretty good, but we got separated a while back when my friend's town burned down and. Here I am now! You know the rest from there."

Jule placed a finger on her chin, thinking hard on the details of her friends. "Details, details... There was about twenty of us, guards 'n all. Don't need many sellswords when half of your crew can fight just as well. An' there was one of them that was kinda hard to miss: she had uh, kinda short-ish hair, and a really really super scarred face. I think she's missing an eye. So, kinda like you, dancer. And the chief, you musta seen him if you saw her. He's kinda short, kinda dark, like my pa but... he's not the same guy, y'know."

Jule beamed at the bard, like he held all the secrets in the universe and gave them out for one coin a pop. He actually stopped to listen to her, and that was worth a lot in her book. Not to mention that sweet eyepatch.

"Hey, how'd you lose that eye anyway?" Jule teased. "You don't much look like a war and weapons kinda guy. Some kind 'a accident? Or are scars and headscarves a bold new fashion statement?" The girl put a finger to the marred, stretched path running from her cheek to the bottom of her eye socket. "I've got a pretty cool scar m'self."

[Aeos]

Aeos sighed. While he waited for the bartender to answer him the Nabatan man took a seat. He overheard the small conversation between the young blue haired lass and the dancer. It seemed that the two of them were travelers. Aeos wondered if the two would be heading in his direction. If that were the case he would probably travel with them. The pair seemed nice.

His heightened senses were picking up something from the dancer. He wasn't quite sure what, but it felt a lot like the vibe he picked up from "the mountain". Aeos mind began questioning the logic and the chances of running into another dragon. Our perhaps he was simply reading to much into it. Perhaps the dancer was one of those who had a slightly charged aura that humans sometimes do. The same kind of charge or charm which draws people in. Which in hindsight is probably a good thing for a dancer. More eyes on him could mean more money.

A small frown popped up on his face when he heard and saw the young lass had a scar on her face. Aeos did not have any scars to speak of but he was upset at the fact that one so young bares a mark of violence. And from what it sounded like it seemed that the other members of her troupe were also marked.

"Pardon me, for interrupting and intruding. But how did you young one manage to get thy scar? A child such as thee should not have war scars. Did thou get it in Eturia? I hath heard nothing but bad news fromth that place." He asked trying his best not to sound noisy. Well since he had already interrupted their chat he directed his attention to the blonde. man with the scarf.

"And you راقص" The word dancer came out in the dragon language.

"Er sorry, dancer. Thy performance was nice. Reminded me oft the festival dances back home. Enough oft a reminder to accidentally let loose the home word for dancer. Please take no offense." Aeos lingered around enough to satisfy his curiosity. He dismissed himself politely from the group and went off to tend to his own business.

{exit thread}