The Quest for the Crystal

[Fiere]

The sight of a six foot winged man was more than enough to make even a rogue as arrogant as Fiere dive for cover. The spew of obscenities was nothing new to her but it was a surprise to hear it from a stone cavern roof far above her head.

As she read the note she twirled the knife in her other hand.

\"Right\" she thought \"Now I\'ve got to get a good look around before those buffoons behind me come shouting down the corridors again while being followed.\" She sighed heavily and then cursed herself again for being so loud.

She placed the knife in her boot and continued scanning the caverns. Her familiar smile brightened her features once again.

\"Well, it wil certainly make it more interesting...\"

[Pheonix]

*Yawning loudly and visibly* Pheonix paced about a bit before leaning against the nearest cavern wall.

Well he for one would not use the time as idly as the others had while they figured out how to read the map he began checking the tightness of his bow string, taking the inventory of his weapons, but most of all resting, after all the earlier fire spell had taken a lot out of him.

[Fiere]

Fiere walked lightly across the tunnel floor, careful not to create the slightest noise. Her breathing seemed as loud as the slamming of the bronze doors as she picked her way through the dark. Something caught her attention from the corner of her eye and she changed her path to get a closer look.

There on the cavern ground lay a singed peice of parchement. She sniffed the air as she leaned towards it but the foul stench of foreign magick made it impossible for her to detect anything further out of the ordinary.

\"She who hesitates..\" she mused as she reached out and picked up the tattered paper. \"Hmm nothing painful, must not be some purported holy relic\" she thought as she turned it over. The writing was utterly alien to her and no matter how she turned it she could not make sense of the script. \"Looks like this one is out  of my realm of expertise\" she thought as she looked about for the Klyros. \"Time to get back to the party\"

With this, she stood and made straight back to where the others were waiting.

[FyreBlade]

Fyre saw the diaboli move gracefully and silently ahead, and bend down to pick up a piece of parchment. it was too far away to see, but there was writing on it and it looked like it was written in ancient runes. as she began heading back down the tunnel after a final look around, Fyre began thinking. he hadn\'t seen writing like that since...he shook his head. no. no delving into the past. that always brought such bad memories. back in the time where Fyre had trusted....long ago. khaless nau uss mzild taga dosstan  he thought, then shook his head and moved forward stealthily, unseen and without a sound. as he moved forward, he came to a point in the tunnel where it widened into a cavern. Fyre stopped short and cursed silently in his mind. in the cavern, was a large party of raiders sitting around a campfire apparently resting, examining treasure, sharpening weapons, and eating. ...10..11..12.......15 raiders. not good. very not good.  luckily, the raiders had not yet spotted Fyre. he turned around and began to glide stealthily back down the tunnel, his mind racing to find a way to warn the party without revealing himself. suddenly, he heard footsteps and sounds of the party\'s conversation drifting down the tunnel toward him. oooooooo no. why can\'t the fools be quiet? well, here comes a fight. Fyre drew both katanas, and held them low so that they would not shine and reflect light, drawing attention. he was still hoping not to reveal himself, but he was prepared in the extreme for a fight.

[Pheonix]

Pheonix was still resting against a cool and rough cavern wall.
He had sharpened his blades, taken inventory of his arrows twice, tightend and retightened his bracers and the parties scout was still not back. His boredom grew to the point that he even considered casting a light spell despite its foolishness just to get a reaction out of the others.

The others spoke loudly looking over a map that one of the dwarves held, he wondered if they even knew how to read a map, and betting himself that one or both of the dwarves would somehow end up digging for treasure in this place, this place that was so full of strange energy that it caused his hair to stand on end.

As he began wondering  what the source of the energy could be his ears twitched as he heard faint footsteps getting closer and closer. The others were talking amongst themselves so loudly he doubted any of them would notice Fiere coming until she was a few feet away. She walked gracefully with a purpose. Her body moving enticingly with her every step her clothes seemed to conform to her body perfectly. With a jerk as he realized he was staring again Pheonix turned his eyes away from the diabolis tempting form and forced himself to begin counting his arrows again.
1,2,3,4......................

[Keldorn]

Keldorn looked in the dark, he saw something moving. It was moving towards them. Keldorn considered reaching for his sword but then he noticed the elagance with which this person was moving and the shape of the body. He lowered his hand, this was definetly Fiere.

Keldorn started approaching Fiere, as he moved closer Fiere came clearer and clearer into view. Until he could see her face. It was smiling at him in that sinister way. She had probably seen him all the time as he moved towards her.

\"So then, what news do you bring?\" Keldorn tried to be as friendly as he could be. Fiere waved her tail, noticing that Keldorn was struggling to keep his face in a friendly smile.

[Wormtail_]

Rantal watched as Fiere came back. Rantal stood up and asked while motioning towards the scrap of paper, \"Yes, what news do you bring? And what\'s that piece of paper for?\" Rantal looked at the singed piece of paper curiously. Rantal then said, \"Well, lets get moving after we examing the paper. I for one don\'t wish to stand around here all day.\"

[Wormtail_]

GM note: Moving for Xolon, who hasn\'t appeared in a long time. AHHHHH! NOOOO! Xolon didn\'t fight during the battle! I\'ll start off after the battle.

IC: Xolon watched the mimic get literally melted by some sord of acid. He also saw a new elf, seemingly one who had fired the unknown arrows. Xolon greeted him unenthusiastically, and watched the others complain about the light. Including Tegdaen. Xolon snorted, and muttered something about dwarves being able to see underground, as they\'re good miners.

He then joined the others around the map to see what was on it. The Diaboli, who\'s name was apparantly Fiere, went off to scout ahead. She soon came back. Xolon decided to examine the map more closely, and eavesdrop on the news.

[Silverblade]

Hearing Xolon snort, when he said that he could not see well in the dark, Tegdaen felt the need to explain.

\"I come from a long line of Warriors. My family has never needed to mine to get by. I am proud of my heritage, as I am sure you are proud of yours. I will not hear another word of it, else I may be forced to show you why my great, great grandfather was named Telmaren, Wielder of the Silverblade.

[Aruneko]

Deep beneath the group of adventurers, laying in a pile of rubble amidst a wide cavern, someone stirred.  A groan emanated from the debris in the middle of the room, and several rocks clattered on the ground as a figure rose from the dust.  The figure toppled and caught itself on the ground, then crawled a few feet from the pile before flopping itself down to rest.

Aruneko groaned again.  His body was weak, from the fall and the stones which fell after him.  He reached up and felt his forehead, passing over a couple bruises and a scratch.

Suddenly a shuffling noise from ahead startled him, and he staggered up, grabbing for his weapons on the ground.  Many of his arrows had been crushed, and his bow was bent out of shape.  Silently he drew his knife from its sheath and checked his surroundings.

He was in a cavern: almost round, about 10 feet in diameter.  Behind him a tunnel went downward, before him a tunnel went straight a bit and wound away somewhere else. Ahead of him he heard more shuffling, of many creatures.  He took a few steps backward, and began fishing for his pack amongst the rocks.  It was a crushed mess when he found it; little food had survived, but he still had a bit of dry hard wafers, mostly crumbs.  He ate them, but all the while he listened for more signs of creatures.  After safely consuming the wafers, he stowed everything back into his pack and placed it in a corner, unseen.  Aruneko once again prepared his blade, to see what was ahead.

[Wormtail_]

IC: Rantal asked Fiere, \"Well? May I see that paper? It might contain useful information.\" Rantal, by now, had just about recovered his magical power and was willing to go on into the tunnels.  He tried to control his impatience, and so far, he was succeeding.

-----------------------------------------------------

GM note: Moving for Xolon

IC: Xolon listened as Tegdaen began talking about his family being a line of warriors, not miners and smithers. Xolon frowned inwardly, inside his mind. He, it seemed, was the only good smith in this party of weaklings who couldn\'t handle an anvil, much less work with metal, but he wanted to keep things friendly, So, he said, \"Ah, I see. In that case, be sure to stop by my smithy after this quest is over. You\'ll be sure to have some high quality weapons there, both magical and non-magical. It\'s just the blasted iron shortage that makes me unhappy.\"
Then, turning to the others, he asked, \"Exactly when will we move on? We\'re just sitting ducks here, and that\'s no good for anyone, especially for Ylikulum(OOC: I can\'t spell that right...).\"

[Fiere]

Fiere passed the bit of paper to the lemur without protest . Something about the light in his eyes told her she had best not push it with this one.

\"I hope you can decipher it, it is not written in a language I have ever seen.\"

[Wormtail_]

Rantal took the paper, gave his thanks, and eagerly set to examining the paper. The parchment was scorched and blackened, but otherwise, there was no other signs of damage. The parchment was written in a language that only high-level mages knew of, but Rantal had studied the language for no apparent reason, other than he was insane. Most creatures didn\'t bother with studying the language, for two reasons. One: Rantal stumbled across the translation thingy by luck, and Two: It was unlikely that one would be able to use it anyways. When Rantal just glanced at it, he suppressed an excited gasp, as this would have to conceal good information.

Rantal looked at each symbol on the parchment carefully, and when he finished, he was faintly smiling. These were instructions on how to use a magical portal that seemed to be planted in the tunnels, and Rantal now knew how to use the portal and where it was located, although he was not about to tell everybody, in case there were traitors in the party. He would tell with time. In the meantime, he pocketed the parchment and said cheerfully, \"Lets get going, then. Fiere, please lead the way, as you know these tunnels best. Warriors, please follow in the front and back, and archers and mages are advised to go in the middle. Lets go.\"

[Pheonix]

* pheonix yawned visibly as he waited for the \"fighters\" to take the lead.*

He was glad that the mage wanted him to stay toward the middle of the group that way he would not have to fight the urge he knew that would exist to watch the dioboli\'s sultry stride. Instead he could watch the back of one of these \"fighters\" heads, Laanx forbid the mage wanted the dwarves  in front, that would not exactly be much protection from the view of her stride....... * pheonix shook his head as he pondered exactly what he was feeling*

[FyreBlade]

deleted in accordance with GM, just continue without this...