<font color=white>3 Guards:

They jumped down the flights of stairs as fast as possible. They had left the elf up a few flights moments ago and had not given any further thought to why he would be lagging behind. They only knew that they wanted to save thier own hides.

They were leaping down the stairs as fast as possible, and nearly ran blindly into the drow where he stood near the base of the first level.

"Ai! The Drow has escaped!"

And they all stood there, frozen for a moment in trying to decide what to do. They did not have their weapons, nor even the ability to fight right now. They were all too winded from the decent of the stairs.</font>

OOC: and here is part 5 of 5. An afternoon busily spent…

<font color=red>Plaxica 85/85

<font color=lightgrey>The vision did not stop. Forms shifted and melted and the scenery changed to a forest at night. Fast paced movement and snapping branches. A branch hit the owl’s wing hard. A look over the shoulder confirmed the attacker still followed. The owl again tried to fly up through the thick undergrowth, yet the branches and leaves did not give way. Furiously flapping its wings the creature tried distancing the pursuer, yet it could not. The wolf was much faster and it had nearly cornered its prey. A howl pierced the night. The female’s reply came from a few hundred meters back. Plaxica could feel the owl’s fear and felt a heartbeat getting faster. Then he saw the clearing at the end of the undergrowth. The owl put on a burst of speed and reached the clearing a bare two meters ahead of the wolf. A breath of relief as the direction of flight was changed to vertical and then the shock of the collision. The wolf hit the owl with its right paw and sent it flying and crashing to the ground. The owl tried to escape but a paw was put on its body.

Struggling against the wolf’s overwhelming force the owl noticed that the wolf’s eyes, were not the eyes of wolves it had seen before. Never had the owl seen such a redness burning the eyes of a living creature. The frightful sight stopped the owls struggling as it awaited the inevitable end. The wolf lowered its fanged mouth and bit deep into the owl’s back, then suddenly withdrew its fangs as it heard the call of its mate. As the owl faded into unconsciousness it caught glimpses of the two wolves running towards the other side of the clearing where a deer could be seen fleeing the predators.

Consciousness was regained during daylight. The owl could not feel any wound on its back. It tried standing on its legs, which it expected to be weak, but the legs held it without any problems. Wings which had been broken by the assault of the wolf worked without problems. Actually the owl could not feel any injuries. It flew off into the daylight and with that the vision faded, and reality intruded on Plaxica again.</font>

Reality intruded and Plaxica could feel that he was getting closer and closer to the place where the dragon had fallen. The spirit while showing him these visions had brought him a long way towards his destination. Plaxica was just about to address the spirit when without another warning he was plunged into another vision.

<font color=lightgrey>He saw through the eyes, through which he had seen the destruction of his best friend, his mentor and his father again. And he saw himself. He was in the finery of one of Lord Nargalad’s mercenaries. Him and other mercenaries were celebrating the lord’s marriage anniversary at a table under some trees. Plaxica recognized the setting. That feast had happened two weeks before the owl bit him.

The scene shifted to the night of the patrol, when the fateful bite had happened. Plaxica saw himself and his seven companions moving among the forest. They had been alerted to the presence of poachers in the forest and were hot on the trail. Then the owl’s vision became blurred and an incredibly strong feeling of anger could be felt in the vision. It was as if the owl had lost its mind. Recognizing the one it had seen so many times earlier it flew in as if it had been attracted by some invisible force and with it’s beak it cut a shallow wound in the shoulder of Plaxica. Yet as soon as the beak had touched the shoulder the vision stopped and Plaxica saw the rest of what happened with his own eyes.

He turned his head and saw the owl moving away fast. One of his companions let go an arrow, but it missed the owl. Then they all shrugged off the event as some freak occurrence. Two days later Plaxica found out that he had been infected by the owl. And it was not long before one of his companions also found out. The others started fearing him and one night tried to kill him. Yet he had been expecting the attack and fled joining a ship which left on an adventure.</font>

The vision ended and a strange silence in Plaxica’s mind let him know that the visions for now had ended. Emotions overcame him and he landed and shifted to human form. A tear left his right eye and was then followed by many more from both of his eyes. The spirit then contacted him.

<font color=orchid>”We shall talk about it later. Right now I can feel that we are very near the place where the dragon fell. Human form is not the right thing to use here.”</font>

Plaxica shifted of his own will back to owl form and took once again to the air scanning for any sign of the fallen dragon.</font>

[ 02-17-2005, 03:08 PM: Message edited by: dplax ]

<font color=pink>Ramella Tarina

Plaxica had left her in such a hurry. She had never had the time to tell him that she was pregnant. She had been sure of it, yet when he broke the news to her she did not want to tell him. When after three weeks Plaxica still did not come back Ramella sent a message to his village. Plaxica's uncle who was swore in as the new mayor after Padrag Battan's death came himself and brought the reply.

Jonathan Battan was a man who himself had been well off, yet he accepted the mayor's job, even though it was just in a small village. In the village he was considered a local hero for having killed the mage. He arrived one mid-autumn morning in Algan Falls, and went to see Ramella the same day. He gave her the news about Plaxica's father dying. He then told her that they did not know where Plaxica had gone, neither did they know whether he was still alive. Jonathan also told her about the suicide of Plaxica's mother. She could not live with the shame of having poisoned her own husband even though she had been acting under a mind control spell. Jonathan stayed with Ramella and comforted her during a whole week, but then he had to go back to run the village, he was now the mayor of.

Five months later Ramella gave birth to Daniel Tarina. She did not give him the name Battan, since she did not know that Plaxica was still alive.

Then when little Daniel was fourteen months old she received the message that Plaxica had been seen the night when he had to flee in a small village fifteen miles from Algan Falls. Some friends of Ramella agreed to take a message to the owner of the tavern there. The reply filled her heart with joy. Plaxica had escaped the mage!

But then the trail went cold. Nowhere in the neighbouring towns had he been seen and no news of him had reached any of these places.

And then finally a month before Daniel's forth birthday Ramella took him and most of her possessions and took a tearful goodbye of her parents, setting out to find her lost love. She was barely 24 years old and did not know much of the outside world, but she was determined to find Plaxica, if he was still alive.</font>

<font color=slategray>Kynnen 57/85

Kynnen took a battle stance, with the halberd pointed at the guards "Yes, the Drow is free! And he is about to cut through you.. Unless.." The drow somewhat relaxed his stance, but kept the weapon ready. "I get the things which were taken from me back. Tell me where they are, or rest in pieces!"</font>

<font color=white>Guards at the mercy of a drow

One of them starts to mutter out...

"Your things? You mean like your sword and armor? Yeah! They...they are down that hall, and to the left, three doors down, left-hand side! Please! You can take them back! Just don't kill me. I have no weapon to even defend myself properly!"</font>

<font color=pink>Ramella Tarina

Her journey took her at first to the tavern where Plaxica had been seen the night of his disappearance. Yet she did not find much information there and she set out northwards during the next day. A month she journeyed towards the north and having no news of Plaxica she was about to turn back when in a small town an old man seemed to remember something about Plaxica having passed through the town.

From a distance of more than four years however the man could not remember much, so Ramella just journeyed on, filled with hope again. Two weeks later she picked up the first sure trace of Plaxica. A mercenary, who had lost an arm and had retired to his home village told Ramella in a tavern that he had served with Plaxica as a mercenary for Lord Nargalad.

With the directions the man had given her Ramella moved towards the lands of Lord Nargalad. She met with the leader of the Lord's mercenaries after a series of meetings with some of the mercenaries, who were somewhat reluctant to speak about Plaxica.

<font color=yellow>"So you are looking for a person called Plaxica?"</font> - said the leader of the mercenaries with his hand on a small book.

<font color=yellow>"I do not need my little book to remember about him. He left us only three months ago, yet the circumstances surrounding this are not all happy."</font>

Ramella looked at the man with questioning eyes, who then told her the story of the fateful patrol and then that Plaxica left the mercenaries of his own will. The man even offered Plaxica's last pay to Ramella, as Plaxica had not taken it. Ramella gratefully accepted it, as she had been running out of money lately and had relied on the hospitality of people like herself, yet her journey was to take her into more civilized areas.</font>

OOC: to be continued, I've got to go to class now.

[ 02-18-2005, 01:50 AM: Message edited by: dplax ]

<font color=seagreen>Yevaud

Looking at Anarrima, Yevaud raised an eyebrow and spoke quietly, "Our master? I was not aware Lordship Gilfalthasis had any influence, or interest this far from Evermeet, most curious indeed."

Then looking back to the man the cloaked and concealed elf male called out "What troubles you suffer were not caused by us, We've newly arrived from far away. I've heard the terrible rumors of human hospitality, but I'd assumed they were grossly exagerated. We come possibly with skills to help you and your men, and you want nothing more than to turn us to the door with a harsh word." Looking at Ana still angered at the foolish human "Despite the fool's words, his men don't deserve to be denied any aid we might render them."</font>

{edited for font tag closure}

[ 02-18-2005, 11:43 AM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

<font color=peru>Anarrima

The last thing she needed to be doing now was putting out temper flares. She quickly scolded Yevaud.

"Mind yourself, Yevaud. I am sure that your dicipline requires you bite your tongue in such instances. This human is only confused, as you probably look like somebody he has recently met...and has mistaken your identity. He means no ill toward us."

She turned back the the human.

"We apologize for your suffering, sir. My friend speaks true, that we have only just arrived. We have been sent to help here. Tell me, is there something that a cleric of Ahurani Fairhand can do for your people?"</font>

[ 02-18-2005, 01:20 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

<font color=pink>Ramella Tarina

She learnt from the leader of the mercenaries that Plaxica had ran off and had been seen in a portal town of the island. The journey there took Ramella and little Daniel close to two weeks, and then in the town they lost all trace of Plaxica.

One old sailor on the docks remembered that Plaxica had boarded a ship which was sailing under the funding of a certain Lord Mormegil. No members of the crew, neither the ship had never been seen since in the port. Ramella stayed several weeks, trying to find traces of Plaxica or members of the crew but she did not. A month after having arrived in the town she decided that she would continue her search on the mainland, and with a great part of the sum the mercenary captain had given her she chartered a boat and set off to the mainland.

Asking all around the taverns and the different shops in town she could not find any rumours of Plaxica. She was just about to finally give up, when a young boy, of about 10 years of age knocked on the door of her tavern room the night before she was to leave.

<font color=violet>"You are looking for someone, yes?"</font> - he asked and then continued on talking. <font color=violet>"The man called Plaxica had passed through the town two weeks ago, following the trail of one called Lyulfe and another called Rong."</font>

Ramella recognized the names as two of those who had boarded the ship with Plaxica. After the child told her that Plaxica had left towards the north Ramella prepared and in the morning left the portal town. Three weeks later she was but a day's journey from the Tavern of the One Eyed Wolf. She had been told that this was where Plaxica had been heading.</font>

OOC: that's where she actually is as game time stands now.

<font color=seagreen>Yevaud

Dropping his eyes to the ground, Yevauds face turned crimson with shame, it was one thing to be chastised for speaking out of turn, but to have it done by the lady, and publicly, that was an even greater shame. He pulled his hood close over his face so that the sentries would not see how he had been put into his place. "Yes m-m-m-m'lady," he managed to stutter finally.</font>

[ 02-18-2005, 02:45 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]