The Xodar, (insert my name here.) stood outside of the gate.


He was really, really bored. And he had a blemish on his armour. He wanted to polish it.

Zalbag, the lizard mage, and a mixed group of mercenaries were mostly traveling by horse back through the woods the next day. As promised, they had been traveling since sunrise in hopes of getting to the location by sunset. He looked back at the mixed group of creatures from the Order and the mercenaries Sssalara ahd found, and shook his head. Guardsmen weren't set in stone guards, they were adepts at the fire order, who generally couldn't recieve all the training of a proper pyromancer, but were still skilled in some of the lower level spells, and were usually strong physical warriors.

"So thisss amulet... What doesss it do again?" Sssalara asked.

"For the fifth time, it amplifies the internal energies of the mage that wears it when casting spells of the fire dicipline. It makes it so even a simple, untrained rock man could cast fireballs with ease, and it greatly magnifies the innate abilities of a true pyromancer. It is also said that some lost spells are in the vault as well, and I want access to those as well." Zalbag replied.

Ssslara seemed to be in thought for a moment, then asked, "Ssso how much further isss it?"

Zalbag cursed the lizard man and his short attention span, but took a look at the sun and said, "We should be there in another hour or two, so were making good time. We won't have to wait long after arriving before the vault opens up, and then we can really beigin to investigate what is in there, instead of what should be in there."

Ssslara nodded again, and time passed. As Zalbag contemplated ways to shorten the chanting time of some of his spells, suddenly he was interupted by, "Ssso... Do you think there is any treasure there?"

<One fireball, just one, and his incessent ranting would end...> Zalbag thought, but said, "I. Don't. Know. Stop Asking. We'll know when we get there, and not a moment sooner. Shouldn't you be reviewing and practicing spell or something?"

Ssslara nodded and pulled out some scrolls and began studying them. Finally some peace and quiet...

"When do we stop for a break? I'm gettin' hungry!" One half-giant said loudly.

"Quit your whining, skyboy! We'll get to the location soon enough. We just stopped for food and rest an hour ago!" The dwarf mercenary leader said.

"I'm hungry again!" The half-giant complained.

<This is why I spend all my time studying alone...> Zalbag thought, knowing he would only have to suffer them until they reached the vault.

Aidelyn was swimming under the water, trying to forget where she was, what had happened, when suddenly, she noticed the rest of the Neried slaves swimming up to shore. She followed, out of curiousity but stayed right under the surface. She could see distorted images of a few of the other Nerieds point back into the water, probably informing the male slave of the less-than-willing-to-cooperate new slave.

Aidelyn surfaced far enough so that she could glare at the man giving them the orders to go to the ball room. "Leave me alone." She spoke, her first words since she had been captured, "I don't want anything to do with anything here..."
But before long the other Nerieds had "convinced" her to go, some of them getting back in the water in an effort to get her out by any means possible, so Aidelyn quickly found herself following the others to the ball room, angrily walking along at the back of the group, trying to keep a decent amount of distance between her and any others.

OOC: I'm assuming you stopped at the storage area first to get some clothes, since I doubt you want to be naked (I'm assuming you wouldn't be wearing clothes while swimming around).

IC:

Vlad watched the nerieds all enter the room, and one reluctant one following the others. Stretching out in his chair, Vlad signaled them all to come closer. Once they were near, Vlad told them all to stop and line up.

“Ok… Who are the two new slaves?” Two of the nerieds stepped forward. “And who out of the rest of you have I used for dancing?” A couple more stepped forward. “Ok, those who can teach the ones who can’t. It’s even, so each of you get a partner.” Vlad sat back and began to watch.

OOC: By dancing, I mean the ones you see in Arabian things… Where they wear a small amount of clothes and dance around provocatively.

(OOC: Good assumption (about the cloths thing))

Aidelyn watched as her new 'teacher' began dancing slowly, expecting Aidelyn would start to mimic her moves. She said a few things to Aidelyn, explaining something about how she should dance, but Aidelyn wasn't really paying attention. She was too busy glaring, <I may be a slave, but I still have my pride.> But she knew the master of the castle was watching, so she pretended to look interested, but made a point to never start dancing herself, instead she would distract her instructor by asking her to demonstrate a move again, which the instructor did happily, seemily happy to dance for any reason. <Why are we learning to dance anyway?> She growled to herself.

Vlad was watching the nerieds, but not closely enough to notice if any of them were slacking off. That is until Atha entered the room, having finished what she was doing to the chambermaid. She ran over to the chair Vlad was on, jumping on top of it and sitting in his lap. “How could you just ditch me like that…” She said in a whiney voice, trying to annoy Vlad.

“You had fun anyway, so stop bitching.” Vlad responded, keeping his eyes on the nerieds.

Atha noticed that, and turned to watch the nerieds. Noticing the one that had run away from her before. Leaning into Vlad, she whispered into his ear, pointing out the neried. Vlad recognized her as the one neried that was following the group reluctantly. Standing up, Vlad caused Atha to fall over. Stepping over her, he made his way to Aidelyn. “You, the new slave. Let’s see what you’ve learned so far.” Vlad signaled the neried teaching Aidelyn to stop.

OOC: I sleep now.

"You must deliver the message to the empire, Jormungand." The leader of the Stalkers said.

"But Sir..." He started but he held his forked tongue. "As You will Sir." He said as befitting a Stalker.

"The fastest road would take you near N'evat."

"I do not like that place. My scales feel ill at ease near that place." Jormungand said as he took the letter from the lord.

"You'd be in far to much danger along the imperial high way."

"I know, I'll take a straight path through the wilderness. For me it will be just as quick if I took a road and far less dangerous." Jormungand made sure his weapons were secured.

"God speed soldier."

Jormungand saluted and started into the dark woods He traveled until midnight before stopping to rest.

Four hours. That's how much time Jared told him he had before another tournament was up, how much longer until once again he would make others scream in pain. He hated the screams, but at least they were not his own.

Knowing that despite not getting some sleep earlier he should take this time to train, he stood up and began stretching. Lack of sleep will be worth winning the tournament and the prize is usually good. Besides, I can nap afterwards.

I wonder what the prize will be? More importantly, who will I have to fight?

The three largest ogre tribes had combined their might already, along with two large orc tribes. They had an army of pure flesh numbering in the six to seven hundreds. Of course, if you asked any member of that army they'd most likely tell you that they had 30 ogres and 20 orcs thanks to their general inability to count past seven. They weren't done gathering members yet, however, but they WERE on the move.

To anyone who, somehow, managed to watch from the air above as the barbaric army began it's movement, the tribes would seem like a black wave moving across the country side toward the imperial capital. There were very few spots of light amongst the mass, as that the ogres could see well in the dark, and the moon was full so there was enough light for the orcs to see easily as well, but, despite the lack of light, the sheer mass of the movement, given the large size of the creatures involved, would be enough to make it quite visible from the sky.

As the night wore on, smaller threads of black, barely visible, would move into the growing mass. Other orc and ogre tribes bolstering the numbers of the vicious beasts, that humans normally refused to fight one on one. Luckily, they were still a few days travel from any villages or cities within their path, however. But, they also moved through the woods where only the stalkers would be likely to notice them before it was too late...

Cursing to herself, Aidelyn turned to face the one who had purchased her. Quelling her anger for him for the moment, she put on a innocent expression.

"But sir, I have just started to learn." She said as innocently as she could, ignoring the want to punch him, the flee out of the castle and back home, "It would be unfit for me to dance for you now."