A Debt to be Repaied (Open)

[Sergeo]

"*Huff...Huff* Why here!? Why are they still here!?"

Its no surprise that the old bandit family had made some enemies back when it was in its prime, but it had been over 7 years since the group left Illa. You'd think that time would dull the grudges and the lust for revenge in some of the family's old rivals, but if the arrows wizzing by Sergeo's head were any indication, that was just a fool's dream.

"Go for the legs you idiots! We need him alive!" the leader yelled at his men. They had been chasing Sergeo for what seemed like well over an hour now with no sign of them stopping their pursuit. If Sergeo was going to get these guys off his back he would need to do something a little more drastic than throwing a few fireballs back at them. That's why he lead them down a trail between a mountain crevasse. The plan was risky even for him, but with all the ice and snow packed into these walls, a avalanche would at least force them to retreat and fine another way around if not stop them completely. With the other end of the crevasse in Sergeo's sight, now was the time to strike.

With a flick of his wrist and swing of his arm, he open his tomb and pointed his hand towards the top of the crevasse. The magic sigil glowed a warm orange red color before three fireballs exploded out of the sigil towards the top of the icy valley, followed with the deafening boom if the burning spheres exploding against crevasse wall. The bandits stopped in there tracks to notice the explosion and the newly form rain of ice and snow coming down on top of them. "PULL BACK!" the bandit leader yelled ordering his men out the way of harm. Meanwhile, the run away mage made a break for crevasse exit and with the exception a few bruises from the newly form heavy snow fall, Sergeo escapes the crevasse unharmed as the path become blocked off by the ensuing avalanche.

"*gasp....hah...hah* Glad something worked out at least." Sergeo said as he picked himself up and looked at his handy work. "That should get them to leave me alone. Now...where do I go from here?" Sergeo stood on what looks to be the end of the crevasse's trail, overlooking a beautiful snowy vista filled with trees, small patches of herbs and shrubbery and an icy but unfrozen lake. At the bottom, lies what looks to be a village the is home to primarily loggers as the towns most prominently features about three lumber mills, several small houses, and a tavern. To anyone else who doesn't live in this community, its just a town for travelers to spend the night at before continuing onto one of Illa's other major citys. "This must have been established recently. Maybe the royals in Edessa wanted more wood to burn." With a grunt, Sergeo headed down the mountain path to the awaiting town below.

[Galahad]

"It is cold", spoke Galahad as he sat outside of the tavern. The officer of Tania had come to the land of snow and ice due to a report that Eturia had been invading Ilia. Even thought the report had come from respectable sources they still wanted somebody to confirm it. If Eturia was on the war march then Lycia itself may be attacked again. The last time they attacked they had burned down the capital Ostia. Who knows what would be lost the next time they made an assault. Maybe poor little Tania might be next. There was no way Galahad was going to allow that to happen. Still that did not mean that he was happy about the assignment. Galahad could not stand the cold, nor did he want to leave his precious homeland. With the monster threat ravaging the land all light magic was needed to fight it. However Galahad was stuck here in Ilia. He just wanted to confirm the report and go back home. Back to his warm desk and beautiful capital city.

"Was that a avalanche", spoke Galahad as he stared at the shifting snow in the distance. Alright Galahad did not like the snow, but this just makes things worse. Now the snow was falling down off the side of mountains. "I really want to go home", wined the Acolyte as he plotted back down onto his chair. He would be inside of the tavern, but the smell of the place bothered his stomach. Whatever it was they were drinking in there it was most defiantly not ale. As Galahad stared out into the streets he noticed a person coming from the direction of the moving snows, or at least he thought it was a person. From his distance it looked more like a ever moving closer line. It had to be somebody standing up or maybe it could be a yetti. Did Ilia have yettis, Galahad asked himself?

[Sergeo]

It took about three minutes for Sergeo to descend down the mountain path and into the lumber town proper. The sounds of grunting men, sawing wood, and falling trees seemed to fill the towns atmosphere as if to correct travelers that had any doubts about where they were. Some of the workers looked towards Sergeo's way as he came into town, but otherwise the workers seemed to ignore the mage and kept to there work. After a quick scan of the town of its inhabitants, he saw a sign on the pub that called itself Timber Town Pub. A quaint name he thought to himself as he dusted of the rest of the white power that was on him and fasten the tomb to his waist strap once again before head into the door of the camp pup house.

A few brief moments passed inside the camp pub before Sergeo walked out with a stein of some of the best mead the camp could offer, with an unfortunate feeling of his gold pouch being lighter. Considering the madness he just went through he needed a stiff drink, but still. He then sat down at the only other free table outside on the pub front porch, splaying his bag filled with miscellaneous gear on the table and resting his mead stein gently on the table as to not disturb the mead's light layer of foam. "Alright...now where is Timber Town in relation to the map?" he mumbled, refiling through his things until he pulled out his outdated map. The parchment detailing Ilia's geography was scribbled with circles and words. Some of them had the names of towns that weren't listed on the map proper, while other notes seem to have brief notes scribbled on remote places on the icy continent with the word "Stash?" appearing next to small circles next to them.

[Galahad]

Oh so it was a person, thought Galahad to himself as he watched the mage enter into the town. He was a bit happy about that. At first he thought he was going to have to fight a mythical creature. He was not sure how light magic would handle against a Yetti. However after seeing it was a mage he scolded himself for thinking up such childish ideas. The snow was different than what he was use to, but that was no excuse for him to throw away his common sense. Still Galahad had wondered what had caused that pile of falling snow earlier. He understood that avalanches were not so uncommon that they could happen at random, but he also understood that they don't just happen at random. There is usually a cause and the way the man strolled into town like nothing happen it made Galahad wonder.

"Alright I guess it is time for round two", spoke the acolyte as he got off the chair and prepared himself to go back into the Inn. Already he could feel his stomach turn into knots. He did not like that smell. However he was going to have to deal with it. It was to cold outside for him to stay out there all day and he wold have to come back inside eventually to go to sleep. Also the mage had walked in. He wanted to ask a few questions. He was suppose to be finding out if Eturia was on the move after all.

As Galahad walked into the pug he looked around. The smell was still the same, but there were a few extra people. If Galahad had to guess he figured they probably came out of there rooms while he was outside taking a breather. Looking around he noticed the mage sitting down and looking at a map.

"Hark" spoke Galahad as he began to walk up to the mage. "Excuse me, sir, but may I have a moment of your time?"

[Sergeo]

"Excuse me, sir, but may I have a moment of your time?" Sergeo's map reading was distracted by a sentence that caused Sergeo a great deal of personal headaches back when he studied magic back in Delfia. The traditional welcome of the St. Elimine shepards. Regardless, he looked towards the stranger as it was at least the polite thing to do with anyone who asked for Sergeo's attention. The man in question was a dark skinned fellow adorn in golds and deep blues, and by the way he carried himself, a high opinion of himself as well. The mage clasped his cup of mead in his hand, and took a large swig of the honey-based alcohol before setting it back down on his table. "Yes? What can I help you with? Although if you are going to open my heart to religion, I'm going to ask you save your breath." The mage put it bluntly. "I already spent the better of seven years listening to the priests and priestess go on about their saint between my classes in Delfia."

Meanwhile, on the other side of the frozen glacier, the bandit group that had been chasing Sergeo had been reduced to a platoon of fifteen axe wielding neanderthals, trying to dig a path through the blocked crevasse with no success. The leader of the mountain men grew impatient with the lack of progress to the point of boiling rage "Grrrrr...Enough of this. We're going around this rock! Get your gear and get ready to move double time! If you find anyone that even looks like that son of a fraud, shoot on that scum on sight!"

(8 posts until the bandits appear)