Eventful Quest Where The Protagonists Win!

[Izvilvin]

((Open to those fools who I said could come along.))

Deep in the desert, far to the west of Jya's Keep, lay a city of incredible wealth. The streets were paved with the rare Pillan metal, which resisted the heat of the sun and was always cool. The houses were enchanted with magics that blew cool breezes through the rooms, and each building was custom made to their owner's whim. The king spared no expense for his people, and for this they loved him.

The castle, while not as large as Radasanth or ever Scara Brae's main complexes, was a vision of exquisite taste, painted gold and reflecting brightly in the afternoon sun. Jewels and gems of every sort lined each door, ledge and window that could be seen. The structure truly represented all that the city of Gillette Sensor Excel stood for.

His people happy, his wife and children happy, Lord Rappa stood on a golden balcony that overlooked his city. "Der spices from Ruuya really done us good," he reflected in his thick Fallien accent. "Ain't nothin' else in dis desert that looks near as pretty as Gillette Sensor Excel. Gotsa be proud, mang, but der still be on ting dat gots me down..."

The Lord, dressed in splendorous robes of red, carrying his platinum goblet and wearing his diamond-encrusted crown, rubbed the stubble on his tanned chin as he contemplated his life. "Mah rim. Damn if I don't miss dat shit."

The 12-inch wide spinning rim of Gillete Sensor Excel had gone missing. The trophy was the city's most prized possession, and in a city with roads paved with Pillan and a golden castle, that was saving something. The heirloom had gone missing 3 days earlier while Lord Rappa was on a good will mission to Jya's Keep, and since then his heart had been less than full of excitement.

Still, there wasn't much he could do. Gillette Sensor Excel wasn't a city that bred good warriors, let alone detectives, which was sorely what it needed right now. "Why dey gotta take mah rim, mang?" he reflected, before letting out a deep sigh.

[Soveliss]

The city entrance was huge, enormous gates made of a substance that resembled closely to that of Gold. In the distance was a castle, big, splendorous. The sun was shining off of the floor, but for some reason it didn't radiate any extra heat that could be sensed through Soveliss' black boots. His boots clicked as he walked, as they would when walking on marble, but there was a more resonant sound. Like that of someone walking on metal. Soveliss had never experienced this material before and could only look around him in awe at the tall, splendorous buildings that surrounded him.

Shileding his eyes, he looked around, the buildings casted little shadow over the streets and Soveliss found it almost blinding, he was weaker in the day than the night time anyway and thought it a fun challenge to try and strengthen himself up by walking through the desert. He had trekked for nigh on one week, without feeding and without stopping when he had come upon the great city, inspired by awe and seeing the shine and glint from what he could only assume was the gates and entrance to the city he had been compelled to walk towards it.

Soveliss took off his cloak and walked on, exposing his arms to the heat but also being able to feel the slight breeze which had begun to swirl around the city. There wasn't much activity at the city entrance and to this he was thankful, he couldn't be bothered with the looks he would get. Well, the looks that he assumed he would get.

This Sunlight is agonizing... He thought.

He carried on walking, this time looking for somewhere he could rest and think about what to do next. He had no real idea what he was going to do , nor why he was actually there. He began to move and had not taken three steps from the gate where he felt something that he wished he hadn't.

Soveliss stopped. With a mind filled with bad thoughts he slowly raised his left hand and stroked the top of his right shoulder, near where his sword sheath lay. He grimaced as his fears were confirmed...

Damn birds... he thought as he looked at the white mess now on not only his shoulder but his fingers too. Great... no prizes for guessing what sort of a day this is going to be....

Soveliss walked on through the cities many streets, heading towards what he assumed would be the center, and hopefully a place to rest... and to clean up.

[INDK]

Damon was sitting in a small inn in Lornius when a stranger appeared at his door. It was a pretty woman, covered in a brown burlap that seemed geared to protecting her from the sun more than it sought to protect her modesty. The boy had never seen her before, but that didn’t stop the lady from speaking to him, offering up a small wrapped parcel for the boy.

“I come from a land far away, called Gillete Sensor Excel,” she said, speaking as if she was reciting something that she had heard before. “Normally we keep things smooth and free of stubble- I mean trouble. However, ever since we lost the Rim, nothing has been going right. My family has gotten more milk from our scorpions than our cows. The letter will explain everything.”

While Damon was not without sympathy for a plundered land of plenty, he was rather confused as to why this lady felt compelled to share her story with him. After all, to the best of his knowledge, they had never met before. The parcel also made little sense, as did the idea of milking scorpions. By themselves, none of those things were so particularly confusing that Damon wouldn’t have taken them in stride. However, as an amalgamation, they lead to a particularly confusing scenario. “Uhh… why are you giving me this?” the boy asked. “I just moved into this room yesterday and I’m competing in the LCC.”

The lady sighed. “You’re not D. Protagonist?”

“No,” Damon replied. “I’m Damon Kaosi.”

“I know that name,” the lady replied contemplatively. She rubbed her chin for a few seconds before making a decision. “Well D. Protagonist always wins but it seems that you’ll have to do. Read what the letter there says, and then come to Fallien and find the Rim. Do not be late.”

“Uhh… okay,” Damon answered. He more agreed because he didn’t want to have to talk with the lady much more. Damon closed his door and she soon left. The boy inspected the parcel curiously, if for no other reason than it was very rare than he got mail at all. Part of him wondered if it wasn’t the battle that the Ai’bron monks had promised to deliver him.

However, there was nothing in the parcel nearly as interesting as a battle. All it contained was a few days worth of rations and a skin of water. There was a letter along with it, and outside of a few quick instructions about how to get to Fallien, it was poignantly penned. The author, clearly someone in incredible despair, needed D. Protagonist to come and save the day.

“A great calamity has fallen upon my land,” the letter read. “Only you can find the holy Rim of Gillete Sensor Excel. If you fail, then what will become of Fallien? We will find ourselves falling behind in productivity, and increasingly less efficient. Our children will find that all the jobs have been outsourced to Raiaera where elves are willing to work for nothing more than song magic! Only you can save us!”

Damon shrugged. He didn’t know what outsourcing was, but he figured he should help after all. Whatever the Gillete Sensor Excel was, it seemed important enough to warrant his time. With that, the boy studied the map he had been given and then quickened himself into the wealthy city just beyond Jya’s Keep.

[Izvilvin]

The city of Gilette Sensor Excel glimmered eternally in the sunlight as the three strangers entered. Whether the three were aware of it or not, each person they passed was looking up at them in curiosity. The golden city got few visitors, hence why no guards were ever posted at the gate, so newcomers were either interesting or intimidating to these people.

Of course, the three adventurers could not know that Gilette Sensor Excel was in a time of peril thanks to the loss of the great Rim, the city's most precious treasure. To an outsider, the Rim would be a trinket, an expensive, shining trinket. But to the people of Gilette Sensor Excel, the Rim represented something much more important, as the item had the power to hold back the hordes of Desert Scorpions beneath the desert surface.

For now though, even without the Rim, Gilette Sensor Excel was safe and had not yet been attacked. Each and every person in the city knew the danger, but they clung to the hope that the Rim could be found. Unfortunately, even if someone within the city had taken the treasure, it would not actively repel the scorpions unless it was place onto it's altar within the castle, which magically enhanced the Rim's magical properties.

Soveliss and Damon had entered at different times, so were somewhat seperated. As Soveliss entered the town square, a populated area where people danced and played about a series of bazaar-like stalls, a fight began to brew between two of the city's inhabitants.

They had both been on edge for some time, as each man had a family they wanted to protect, and noone knew when and if the scorpions would attack the city. "I say we need to hire guards!" Babbled a tanned, dark haired man.

The other looked almost identical, but his position couldn't have been more different. "We need to get out of the city, you idiot! You think a few guards can defend us against a legion of those monsters? By the time we even find some guards, we'll be overrun!"

With that, the second man shoved the first into a stand of tomato-like fruits, bringing a shocked cry from the crowd around them. He caught himself before falling into the stand, and charged back at the man who'd pushed him, swinging his fists.

At that moment, a pair of women were walking side-by-side toward the East gate of the city, quite far from the South. They carried bushels of green vegetables from the garden in the center of town, and were bringing them to their homes, which were both right next to the city's East entrance.

One was more edgy, looking around nervously every few seconds, as if a scorpion would burrow out of the ground right under her. "I'm not comfortable here anymore," she said at length.

The second was a calm woman with dark skin and black hair, almost nonchelant in the way she carrier her bucket of veggies. "Just calm down, they'll find the Rim soon enough and we can all go back to our lives. Or in your case, go back to our lives without being a mess."

At that moment, the air before the two women suddenly felt strange, and Damon came into existence from his quickening. The two women were directly before him, perhaps 4 feet away, and upon seeing the strange little man, both of them screamed and dropped their buckets, fleeing back toward the town square.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss entered the town square, viewing many people. This was not what he was hoping for, as just as he had entered and wiped the white bird excrement from his clothed shoulder, a fight had broke out.

Two tall men, one with dark hair, one with blonde were going at it. Ratehr clumsily, but none the less obviously with fierce intentions. Soveliss stood in a shaded part of the town square, a large open space, covered with market stalls. This particular fight was happening in the direct middle of all the stalls, the crowd seemed amazed by the fight.

Soveliss yawned as he watched the brawl, wondering whether or not he should bother stopping this fight - noone else seemed inclined to. Though there was one man watching, very tall, bald and with a scar going down from his left eye to his mouth beginning. this man was holding a large club of sorts, and edging craftily towards the dark haired man.

Soveliss looked around, he saw that noone else was going to stop this guy from hammering the dark haired man. Soveliss sighed. I can't let it become two on one.

More than anything, Soveliss hated it when someone got involved in a fight that wasn't their business, he couldn't stand it, and he knew that this was none of his, but it certainly had nothing to do with the club wielding man.

Soveliss dropped his cloak to the floor, kicked it well into the shade and walked towards the back of the tall man. There were a few gasps from teh crowd that had gathered as they saw Soveliss enter the fray, he was expecting that but he still was not going to allow a man die in what should be a quick scuffle.

Soveliss waited behind the man witht he club who was roughly 2 inches bigger than him, just as he saw the man go to raise his club, aming at the dark haired man lying on the floor currently getting his head pummeled. Soveliss tapped the man on the shoulder.

There was a sharp and startled grunt from the scarred, club wielding man as he spun round to see and pummel whoever had just interfered with his master plan. Soveliss stood there and smiled. Staring into his eyes.

"Um, i don't think that would be a good..." before he ahd finished his sentence his appearance had had the desired effect on the individual and he threw his club into the air and began screaming. He ran out of sight, faster than he had ever seen a man that size move before.

Soveliss sighed... idea... he thought, and looked down at the two fighters had abruptly stopped skirmishing. Soveliss noddeed politely and before he knew it they too scarpered down the northern road. Soveliss turned around and as he did he saw the crows running too.

Within ten seconds or so, he had cleared a square by saying simply no more than ten words. must be a record Soveliss thought to himself.

In the distance Soveliss heard the screaming of two women and decided to ignore them - they were probably hearing about his entrance.

I wonder what they were fighting about

Soveliss strolled over to his now cool cloak which had been lying in shade, and then looked around. He decided to take a piece of fruit from the nearest stand, it resembled a tomato, but looked tasty enough. He took a bite and began to cross the square, in no particular direction.

[INDK]

Damon looked on as the two women screamed in peril and quickly drew his machete. The boy didn’t know what had scared them, but he felt obligated to protect the people around them. However, a quick look around revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Just a bazaar full of shops, selling many of the same goods Damon suspected were sold throughout the rest of Althanas. True, the Bazaar here smelled more of exotic spices, but the weapons shops seemed to have essentially the same scimitars and longswords, and the hawkers used the same nasally yells to try and get people to buy them. Unless the two women were frightened by the crazy savings of Suraname’s house of weapons, Damon couldn’t find anything about the marketplace that was particularly terrifying.

“What’s wrong?” Damon called out to the women running away. They said nothing, even as he reminded them that they had dropped their buckets in their hurry to run away from some kind of invisible threat. Shrugging, Damon made his way over towards the nearest bazaar stall to get more information on the Rim of Gillete Sensor Excel. If he couldn’t help the frightened women, he would get back to the job he’d come to Fallien for.

“Excuse me,” he said to the female proprietor of Blessed Survani’s House of Scimitars and Ribs. “My name is Damon Kaosi, and I am here to search for the Rim and learn more about Gillete Sensor Excel, perhaps you can help me.”

The merchant was in a foul mood. She had dealt with customers all day from foreign lands, many of them unaware of the proper customs of Fallien. The fact that she was one of the few who spoke Tradespeak made her a natural target. Each man had acted with the kind of haughty air that made outworlders so unbecoming, and by now the merchant felt like she was at her wit’s end. Swearing that if this new black eyed stranger acted any way like the rest of them did, she would just as soon close down her shop for the week as answer any more questions.

“I’m only helping you because we need the Rim back,” she said. “Though I don’t see why Jya would even consider men being worthy of the job… What do you want to know?”

“Just how to get to the palace?” Damon replied innocently, wondering if it was too much to ask. “I just need to find out more about this item, about who has seen it last and all those kinds of things.”

“Like Lord Rappa would talk to you,” the merchant replied. “I would think that he’d find better things to do with his time than to talk to a man. Then again, the lord is a foolish man himself, a mere figurehead to facilitate our dealings with the outside world. It is Survani that brings us our bounty.”

Damon was confused. “If Survani brings you your bounty, why do you need the Rim?”

The merchant licked her lips as if preparing for a fight. “You know…” she said. “I warned you about any misbehaving.” She then grabbed a large falchion from off the counter and moved towards Damon. “I’m sick and tired of you people coming in here and bothering me, so by blessed Survani I’m going to do something about it!”

[Izvilvin]

Soveliss' appearance had cleared the square Izvilvin was hiding near, so the Drow was thankful for the fight. He'd been trying to figure out a way to pass through the town without being seen, since his appearance would set off alarms among the humans, but Soveliss had taken care of it for him. The Drow came out of his spot among the bushes at the edge of town and pulled his hood low over his face, so that the people nearby who were still looking on could not see him clearly. It was hot under his cowl, but Izvilvin could stand the heat. It was the disgusting sweat down his back that bothered him, but even that, he could ignore.

Through some extensive information gathering, Step had learned quite a bit about Gilette Sensor Excel City and it's famed Rim. The city was rich for its successful spice trade, unbelievably so, but it was strange that despite all of the city's success, no ill willed fiends had come upon the city to pilfer it of its riches. The reasoning for this, Step believed, is that the Rim itself had the miraculous ability to drive away those with bad intentions for the owner's home.

Thus Izvilvin was sent to investigate the disappearance of the relic. Surely anyone with the motivation to steal it would have been driven away by the Rim's enchantment, for the item affected all those without the absolute strongest of wills. So how could it have been stolen?

Izvilvin, having no ill will toward Gilette Sensor Excel, was not repelled in any bit. He wondered if the effect was still in place, seeing as the Rim was lost. But if it was in the city still, perhaps the relic was continuing to protect. It would surely explain why the scorpions of the desert had not ravaged the city or castle.

Enough thought. Izvilvin walked hastily across the square, following the same path Soveliss took but keeping far, far back.

Ahead of them both, at a crossing between two golden roads that merged into one and headed toward the castle, a merchant was dealing with a young lady. They were both joyful in tone, but they were not speaking common tongue. Soveliss was not far from them, but they had not noticed him just yet.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss was walking slowly towards a corssing - the heat was beginning to annoy him now. Right... next time you decide to prove something to yourself... BRING WATER... idiot....

Soveliss groaned, he needed food and his red fruit had been thrown away a while ago - it wasn't normal food he desired, but he decided to ignore that for now. He looked around. The sun had moved in such a way now that there practically no shade anywhere.

He raised his head and saw a crossing over two golden roads, there were two women there - both had golden hair, one looked roughly around twenty years of age, while the other looked slightly older.

Hm, i wonder i they know anywhere that i can get some rest, and at the very least some meat... though i doubt they do raw...

Soveliss carried on walking towards the girls, they were speaking, his ears could sense, but did not recognise the language. As he approached they drew silent and simply looked at the stranger approaching them in wonder - though they didn't run, which was good in Soveliss' eyes.

"Um, excuse me... but do you kow where i could get some water and food" Soveliss half shouted as he was still a little while away.

"Daga?" Was the reply from the older girl on the right as she looked at him puzzled

"Pardon!?" Soveliss said

"brecky'vijk" Replied the other girl looking just as pupzzlied.

Oh god... Soveliss thought - he walked right up to them and said slowly "Do... you....speak....the....common...tongue

The two girls continued to looked at him, but this time amused instead of puzzled. Soveliss plased his arms over his head. Just my luck He thought The only people that don't run away from me can't even speak the same language as me...

At that Soveliss heard something from behind him, his ears were extremely sesitive and he turned quickly and looked back down the road he had just walked, hoping that someone was there who could help him.

There was nothing, at least nothing that he could make out.

He turned back to his new friends "Look" He said. "Where am i?! Could you at least answer me that, Where am i?!?!" Soveliss must have looked frantic and his hand gestures, that were really just waving around frnatically provoked a response from the older girl.

"Ah..." She said "You... tourist - market there" And she pointed to the way he had just come.

Soveliss groaned and spoke again "No, me not tourist. Me lost" His arms were once again waving.

This time the younger woman smiled a sweet smile as she looked at him and finally Soveliss thought he had a breakthrough.

"Hello" she said in perfect common tongue.

Yes!!! Finally!! Soveliss though to himself

"you understand! Great! where am i?" He said

The girl smiled again, it looked as though she had understood him - then she simply stood there. Saying nothing. The older one also smiled.

"Breckhya?" The girl said. As she said that Soveliss stood there stunned and felt like crying.

Again he heard something, the sound of someone walking, far behind him but definately there - he turned and looked towards where he had come once more, and this time he would have sworn that he saw someone moving. He took a few steps towards where he heard the sound coming from, then he heard moving behind him and turned back towards the girls, who he saw running off towards a huge palace.

"No, wait, come back!!" He got not reply.

he was annoyed now, and he turned back towards the way he had just come looking for whatever it was that was there.

[INDK]

When the broad blade sliced through the air, Damon had only realized that the merchant was going to attack him. Using his quick reflexes, the boy had managed to step back and avoid the brunt of the blow, the sword still slicing into his shirt and tearing it. The boy frowned. “Hey,” he demanded. “You’re not supposed to do that to me!”

“And you’re not supposed to ask me stupid questions,” the merchant replied, taking time from her panicked slashes towards Damon only to scream out a few more obscenities towards him.

Most of the bazaar was just confused. Since most of Fallien was so secluded, there were few that actually spoke the common tongue. The interplay between Damon and the merchant was quite confusing, and given the odd way by which the boy had first arrived in Fallien, the crowd was clearly behind the merchant. They didn’t know that Damon hadn’t said anything all that mean, or that he had come in to their town to return the Rim to Gillete Sensor Excel.

Most importantly, they didn’t know how crazy the lady with the sword was.

Damon did, and it took all his agility to slide underneath the weapon and apply a sleeper hold on the merchant. Soon the lady crumbled to the ground, where she would wait for a while until she woke up with an embarrassed hangover. In the meantime, Damon would be long gone.

“Anyone know how to get the Rims around here?” he asked.

There was complete silence.

“The Rims…” Damon replied, expectantly. He was unaware of the language barrier between himself and the people that had congregated around him. “You know… the ones you need to stay competitive in this increasingly globalized society. That’s what your letter told me.”

After a long pause, the boy began to be a bit suspicious. People were mumbling all around him, at heightened voices at well. Particularly loquacious people were gesturing with their hands and a few more militaristic people were even waving their swords. Damon gulped, though he didn’t understand anything, the people around him talking in such frenetic high pitches that the panic in their voices seemed eminent. As if to remove any more doubt, well equipped women warriors were surrounding him now. They made it abundantly clear that the boy had made some kind of a mistake.

“I- I didn’t mean it…” Damon said before giving in and letting the town guards shackle his hands and legs. There were far too many guards, and the boy didn’t know what else he could do. “I mean… she attacked me first!”

The guards then began to lead him towards the palace, where he was to be dealt with. Even in a time like this, when the city was without its rims, there was still a need for the rule of law.

“I’m glad the bitch is dead,” one of the guards mentioned to another. “I wish this foreigner had come here much earlier. This young man deserves the best reward Lord Rappa can provide.”

Of course, in tragic times like these, there was even more need for celebration.

[Izvilvin]

A row of buildings was on either side of Izvilvin's walking road, tall buildings with gold trimmings and lovely decorations, some even with gems lining their doors and windows. After all, the city didn't need to defend itself those with ill will, so why worry about thieves? As much as the Drow wanted to keep his attention ahead, upon the man who he didn't want to call to his attention, he found it hard to drag his attention from the homes. For a man who'd spent a lot of his life living in a cave wall, the idea that humans could live a life of such luxury made him somewhat jealous.

It was good for them, so he dwelled on that fact and tried not to feel anger about it. He had centuries of life left, and could make the most of those without allowing his past to consume him. Vordutin and his mother were the aspects of his past life he kept in mind. Revenge on Vordutin for killing his father, however indirectly it was, and the desire to see his mother, perhaps take her from Alerar to show her this enchanting world that he had only begun to explore.

For now, though, there was the plight of the city and his need to learn more about Rim and who'd taken it. Step, though a Coronian institute, valued trade in other lands. To see Gilette Sensor Excel city fall was not something they wanted, nor did Izvilvin.

The man behind him seemed to slow, a telltale sign of some suspicion. With great agility Izvilvin leapt toward the closest building. The house jutted out into the road a little further than the one next to it, so the wall provided the Drow with a good hiding spot as Soveliss checked behind himself. Izvilvin watched carefully as the strange man attempted to converse with the two women. Izvilvin couldn't understand either language, or course, but the man's tones said all he needed to hear.

He went closer, revealing himself to walk in the road again. His feet were near silent against the golden road, but he made no attempt to hide himself again when Soveliss turned to look at him. The Drow's eyes were level and calm, his arms kept to his side in an unthreatening manner. He didn't expect to be able to communicate with the man with words, but skulking around behind him was going to lead to trouble eventually.

"Dos xun naut telanth ussta xanalress," he said plainly in those liquid tones. For all the rigid words in the Drow language, they always seemed to sound smooth and clean coming from the mouth of a Drow elf. Of course, he was stating that the man did not speak his language, which was likely.

So he pointed to himself and spoke his name, "Izvilvin." He pointed to himself again, to make sure the point had gotten across. Allying himself with another foreigner wasn't something Izvilvin would often do, but the man before him had already shown himself to be of good intent twice, once interfering in a fight to protect someone (Izvilvin believed).

With that, he indicated the massive castle-palace behind the vampire, the glorious building constructed of gold and platinum. It probably cost more than what all of Corone was worth. Generations of spice trading had made this construct gleam in the sunlight. A boy was being brought into the castle at the moment Izvilvin pointed at it, but the Drow gave the event little attention.

Hopefully, someone inside would speak his language.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss walked slowly towards the shorter man that was now standing directly in his path. He stared blankly at him as he attempted to speak to him, as the man threw the words at him Soveliss began to try and mouth them, speaking so fluently it was hard for Soveliss to even keep up. Let alone understand.

"Dose ksun... what? Slow down!!" He stated while talking to the stranger. I'm sure the common tongue is called common as a joke he thought. Soveliss scratched his head and continued to look blankly at the character.

As he watched the, as he now knew, Drow Elf, point at himself and say the word "Izvilvin" Soveliss knew that was his name. Izvilvin then pointed to the palace behind him Thank god, someone to walk with, not much conversation though.

"So, i take it you don't speak the common tongue Izvilvin" Soveliss rather sarcastically said. He closed his eyes, scratched his head and looked around. The rows of houses were offering no cover against the heat, and the Sun was directly over head.

Soveliss sighed and pointed to himself. "Soveliss" He said slowly.

He suddenly thought. It's a long shot, and I haven't used this language in years...but maybe he understand Vampiric

Soveliss cleared his throat and allowed a much deeper, slightly scratchy voice to pronounce his words as the language called for.

"Shkeak. Prio rozim forata untaga vampyrik?" This was a breif hello and a question as to whether he spoke Vampiric or not. Soveliss figured that if he did not, he would simply go to the palace with him. Besides, his curiosity was getting the btter of him about the man he had seen being dragged towards it.

While waiting for an answer, Soveliss looked around. He noticed one bird in the sky, flying between the two rows of tall houses without a sound... Soveliss thought about finding something to throw at it.

At that moment, Soveliss began to feel something. He was not quite sure what, and the more he thought about he realised that it was something that was in the atmospehere all along. Something missing. Like a sword without a sheath, or a crossbow without an arrow. For now though, he let it slip.

[INDK]

As Damon struggled, the guards couldn’t help but to wonder why. “He really is a strange outsider?” one of them remarked. “You would think that he’d want to be rewarded by Lord Rappa…”

“Perhaps he’s just modest,” another replied.

A third piped up. “Though maybe, if he isn’t going to want to be rewarded, it isn’t going to be all that much of a reward.”

“So maybe the real reward would be letting him go…” the first guard mused.

There was a hum of agreement from the guards. Damon was released from his shackles and left as the guards headed back for the marketplace.

“Whaaa…. who, whaat why?” the boy stammered, genuinely confused over everything that had transpired. However, he supposed that he shouldn’t complain too much. He had his freedom and Lord Rappa’s manor was visible in the distance. The boy picked himself up and began to head towards the palace, just as a giant explosion shook the desert. It was a tremendous explosion, particles of sand spouted up into the air, blotting out the sun for moments on end as the very ground shook with the impact of the unknown explosive.

Having already used all his best exclamations of shock, the boy stood wide eyed and began running. Completely unaware of the source of the explosions, the boy moved without a target in mind, but somehow hoping that the longer he kept moving the sooner he’d be safe.

With sand everywhere blocking his vision, Damon had no bearings on his movement until he’d run straight into another man. The boy fell to the ground, hard, narrowly missing another random explosion that popped up inches from his head.

“Fear not,” the stranger said, as he stepped forward through the dust. The stranger was a powerful man, approximately six foot tall, blue eyed and blonde. He carried with him a large longsword and a machine gun as well. “You are with D. Protagonist now, and he promises to protect you.”

“D. Protagonist?” Damon said. His eyes opened wide. If this was the hero of legend that Fallien needed, then the boy would have been able to leave exploding deserts and confused guards behind. “Are you here to find the Rim?”

“Of course,” D. Protagonist replied. “That is the plot, now isn’t it!”

“Do you know why there are explosions?” Damon asked.

“Why I need a challenge, now don’t I?” D. Protagonist retorted, as if the answer should have been evident. “No one wants to see me just find the Rims. That’d be too easy. I already knew where they were, so I planted a bit of dynamite in the sand to create some explosions for me to dodge. Everyone likes a good explosion, now don’t they?”

While the boy’s memory wasn’t particularly long, he was certain that there could have never been anything as stupid as what he just heard. Damon blinked in disbelief, saying nothing for a few moments. “So…” he finally managed. “You do this for fun?”

“Don’t worry!” D. Protagonist replied. “I have the plot on my side, and this!” The handsome blonde haired man revealed a Fallien sword that glowed with a bright light. “This is my Deux ex Machina! With it, no matter what happens, I end up alright!”

“Really?” Damon asked. “How does it work!”

“No matter how bad the situation, how much trouble I’m in, it will get me out of it! Just check. An explosion is going to hit this area soon, and it would blow me up if I didn’t have the sword on me,” D. Protagonist explained. “Would you like to try it.”

“Yes please,” Damon replied firmly. He had never been so certain of anything else in his life. If the sand around them was about to explode, the boy certainly wanted protection.

D. Protagonist handed the weapon over, just as an explosion erupted below them. D. Protagonist exploded into a thousand tiny pieces, most of which splattered on Damon. However, save for the uncomfortable feeling of having another person’s spleen hanging over his face, Damon had been left unharmed by the explosion.

The sand began to dissipate and everything seemed to return to normal. Normal at least in terms of how the events in Gilette Sensor Excel had been going that day. For the moment all the dust had settled, Damon could hear a particularly shrill voice screaming “Oh by Survani, look what happened to D. Protagonist!”

[Izvilvin]

Izvilvin watched in amusement as Soveliss struggled to understand him, and produce words that the Drow would understand. Of course the warrior knew none of them, but stood expectantly all the same. The strange pale man spoke a different language then, Izvilvin noted, a deeper and less smooth one. The Drow shrugged all the same, as this new tongue seemed even more confusing than common was.

"Soveliss," Izvilvin repeated. The name was hardly difficult to pronounce, though he wanted to make a hard z sound instead of a smooth s. Khalxaen's name was much more difficult, but Izvilvin took some pride in saying the man's name.

He was prepared to enter the castle then, where he hoped the lord of the land would speak Drow, or one of the two languages Soveliss had shown himself to be fluent in. Before he could take a step further toward the golden structure, an explosion rocked the city and set his alarms off. Something was wrong. Was the city under siege in the absence of the Rim? Certainly a smart region desiring Gilette Sensor Excel's vast wealth would grab the opportunity to attack now.

A moment passed with no further activity, making a truly confused Izvilvin think carefully. Was it an earthquake that had occured? Were they common in Fallien? He had no real idea, but had no assume it was the truth.

So he made his way across a long wooden bridge that led to the castle, where a small boy was soaked with what looked like blood, organs and tissue. The remains of a man were next to him. Izvilvin wasn't sure what to make of the sight, or the strange sword the boy carried, but surely the child hadn't been the cause of the man's death. That just wouldn't make sense.

Izvilvin heard the woman cry, but though the tone was hostile, he assumed it to be another person in negotiations with a trader, and didn't turn to examine. Instead he knelt down to the boy's level and tried to look him in the eye with his calm lavendar orbs. He didn't say anything, since the chances of the boy understanding him were unbelievably low.

Nearby, beyond the bridge but before the castle, was an artificial lake the city had built. Izvilvin didn't realize it was built for recreational purposes, of course, but knew it had been manmade somehow. It truly spoke for the city's richness.

The Drow pointed in that direction, indicating the boy should perhaps clean himself off. Izvilvin smiled, but of course his mouth was covered so it was likely not noticed.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss stood watching Izvilvin repeat his name to him, and noted that he pronounced it well, if with a slight accent of some sort. Well, thats that sorted HE then watched as Izvilvin started to walk away, towards the palace.

As Soveliss began to walk there was a terrible explosion and the ground shuddered underneath Soveliss' feet. Then as soon as it had come it had gone, and there was silence. But not a normal silence, there was no sound at all - no birds, no strange natives bantering... not even water from the enarby lake was moving anymore.

I have a real bad feeling about this...

Soveliss watched Izvilvin who was too looking around in wonder. Without a word izvilvin then headed off towards a bridge. Soveliss could make out two figured, one lying on bridge and another standing beside him.

Soveliss followd Izvilvin and watched as he knelt down to the boy... who was covered in blood and flesh. This sight made Soveliss remember his hunger... No, leave it, you don't need this.... Soveliss tried to forget he was hungry, after all this was why he had ventured out in the desert to survive without blood, to train himself. But he was staraving and he saw so many easy targets... He threw th thought of his ehad and knelt down next to the body on the floor while Izvilvin dealt with the boy who looked as scared as Soveliss was hungry.

As he knelt the bridge creaked.

There was a holler, possuibly from a woman Soveliss though but he chose to ignore it and examine the man. He was perfectly intact... apart from the lack of a torso... or anything inbetween the head and legs at all. That is, apart from two arms lying on the birdge devoid of anything holding them together.

There was a bad smell, like burning flesh and as Soveliss looked he could see smoke coming from it - was it possible that this man had caused the explosion. He had seen dynamite do this to people before, but usually it would have blown apart the bridge too.

Soveliss looked over at Izvilvin who was now pointing towards the nearby lake.

Then he looked over towards the palace... and he noticed something which he did not want to see.

He counted. ...6...oh man....

There, standing straight at Izvilvin and Soveliss were 6 guards, none of them small and 4 of them with swords, 2 with crossbows. Sovelis stood up and took of his cloak. He hated the thought of getting a hole in it, he folded it in half and tucked it into his belt, making it look like he had a sash coming from the side of his belt.

He gently kicked Izvilvins knee, who was just to Soveliss left. Then as he did, with his right hand he reached up and drew his sword from his back. i knew this was going to be a bad day. He said again to himself, watching the four guards with swords advance.

[INDK]

It was fair to say Damon was rather confused. His ears rung a bit from the sound of the explosion, and it wasn’t often that he found himself coated with the blood of a noted hero. However, as a group of women began to scream for his arrest, Damon found himself realizing that he had no choice now but to find Lord Rappa’s Rim. With D. Protagonist having exploded, victory remained in the hands of fate. As the inheritor of the Deux Ex Machina, the duty for ensuring a happy ending no belonged to Damon.

The boy didn’t particularly want the responsibility, but he was going to have to accept it none the less. He tried to shrug off the people screaming around him, accusing him of killing D. Protagonist. If he wasn’t mistaken, the Deus Ex Machina would protect him from any further accusations. Since he couldn’t speak the local language anyways, it seemed that the boy wasn’t going to be able to explain himself.

However, Damon was quite frustrated now. He had been in Fallien to help these people, and they couldn’t understand him. Already, he had been arrested and then summarily disposed of. The only person he’d found who spoke a language he did had exploded. “This place is so weird that if I had a choice, I would leave right about now,” the boy thought sulkingly. [i] “But if it wasn’t for finding Lord Rappa’s damned Rim.”

With that, the boy just decided to scream in every language he knew, hoping that someone, anyone else in Fallien would speak one of the languages he had learned.

“Hello! Help, someone?” the boy demanded in tradespeak.

“Vedui’ il’er! Amin n'rangwa edanea!*” Damon shouted. Hoping there may be someone from Raiaera within earshot.

If that wasn’t enough, the boy called out in Salvic for aid, as well.

Hearing no response in any of the languages, Damon cried out one last time, this time in drow. It was the language he spoke the worst, and the boy couldn’t remember where it was that he’d learned it.

“Usstan ssrig'luin xxizz^,” Damon said. He figured Drow would be in vain. There were very few that spoke the language.

Today had the makings of a very bad day. Expecting no help, Damon figured that he would have no choice but to find the palace, the Rim and seek audience with Lord Rappa without understanding a word.

However, there was some good news. Had Damon understood the Fallien language, he would have known that people had seen his new sword and had mistaken him for D. Protagonist. Covered in blood and slime, there was little doubt among the people that he could be anyone else.

* Greetings everyone! I can’t understand these humans
^I need help

[Izvilvin]

The boy seemed uninterested in him. Izvilvin wasn't used to being ignored, considering Drow were not common in any land except Alerar. He was going to get the boy's attention with words, random sounds to make the kid look up, but Soveliss gently kicked him before he could. Following the man's indication, Izvilvin laid his lavendar eyes upon a sextet of guards approaching from the palace.

Though the Drow made no move for his weapons, seeing as he'd come on good will and in secrecy, Soveliss' way of dealing with things seemed more direct, as he drew his sword after removing his cloak. Izvilvin looked at him incredulously, with wide, shocked eyes, and he slapped him on the arm. The Drow pointed at the sword and indicated the man should sheath it immediately.

As the guards came within a few feet of them, the boy began to yell in several different languages. At first Izvilvin was confused, considering how the guards reacted to his first message. All six looked from the boy to Izvilvin and his ally. The elf stayed very still and calm, not making a move for his weapons.

Finally, the boy spoke Drow, and Izvilvin understood it. The words were not as rigid or sharp as they should have been, but the boy was also clearly not Drow. It also explained why the guards were looking the way they did. A boy screaming I need help while covered in the blood of a known hero, with a Drow and a half-vampire next to him seemed to explain the whole situation all on its own.

Izvilvin could likely take down the guards with Soveliss' help, but then his quest to get the Rim and return it to the city would be lost. Trying to help a land when you've murdered their castle guards wasn't an easy feat.

He put his hand on Soveliss' shoulder, looking straight at him. He did not want a fight, even though he realized one might be inevitable under the circumstances. He wished he spoke the man's language then, so he could tell him not to instigate the fight, but again he was crippled in his limited way of communicating.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss staring at the men walking towards him and thought to himself. He new he could easily take down the men that were coming towards him, and with the aid of a Drow it would be even easier - he had seen Drow in battle before, and even fought against a couple - something he did not wish to do again. they could match the Vampire for speed with ease and then some... he knew this.

He felt a sharp slap on his arm and glanced at Izvilivin, motioning for him to put down his sword... Soveliss didn't like that. He had a quartet of armed guards coming towards him, and two more with corssbows aiming towards him. He trusted in his sword and his fighting skills. True enough, he had come to this place in peace, but at the same time he had no allegiance to these people. He glanced around. Sweat was now dripping from his brow, and his arms glistened.

He looked again at Izvilivn who seemed to be staring intently at Soveliss.

... fine...

Soveliss lay down his weapon on the floor and looked forward, as he did the guards came closer and stopped dead infront of the two strangers. The biggest of the four stood and demanded soemthing in a language Soveliss did not understand, focusing on Soveliss as he was closer to him than Izvilvin.

"Auntay ick var miligien, jess nacvkambria?" The man demanded. Soveliss stared at him blankly and shrugged his shoulders. The man, with long black hair who stood the same height as Soveliss, had a long sword in his right hand, and two daggers attached to his belt. He also had a bandage showing from underneath his armour, just over his ribs. If it came to it, that would be where Soveliss would strike him.

The man repeated the demand, but now in Vampiric to Soveliss' astonishment.

"Rashar est guantagh Jayilmagrix? Jalmargib ex achetay y Izim?" - This was roughly translated into "what is going on here, and who are you and him". Soveliss replied in the Vampiric toungue explaining what had happened. The guard didn't believe him, which Soveliss expected, the story was a bit random and ludicrous.

The man then stated that he would have to arrest both Soveliss and Izvilvin and raised his sword to Soveliss' throat and produced some irons with his left hand. Soveliss looked over at Izvilvin, then at his sword on the floor.

[INDK]

As Damon wiped a bit of D. Protagonist’s blood from his face, he noticed that there were two strangers who looked as appropriate in Fallien as he did. One of them was a dark elf, the other, Damon was unsure about. However, the boy was certain that no one with that kind of pale skin was a desert native. They were being cornered by guards, and while Damon would have normally assumed that they were nothing more than a pair of vagabonds getting their just deserts, the boy’s own experiences had suggested that the Fallien guards were particularly capricious.

“Hey there,” the boy shouted. “Don’t attack these men just because they don’t speak the language.”

It was to no avail. The guards just looked at him.

“I said don’t!” Damon insisted, holding up the Deus Ex Machina as if it would solve all his problems in the most non-sequitorial fashion.

It worked. The guards immediately dropped their weapons and dropped down onto their knees. Damon didn’t know what they were saying because he couldn’t speak the language, but he was certain that they recognized the authority that the weapon posessed.

“Now let my friends go!” Damon said.

One of the guards replied to Damon, though the boy didn’t understand what was said.

“You’ll have to tell me again,” the boy insisted. “I don’t speak your language.” He used hand gestures to reiterate his point, clapping his thumb against the rest of his palm to denote talking, and then shaking his head.

“OOOOHHHH!” the guards all exclaimed at once, nodding at this new revelation. They looked among each other, to gather what tradespeak they knew among them.

“You go castle…” one of them said. “Rappa Rim!”

“Yes,” Damon agreed. “I’m going to find Rappa’s Rim, but I’m taking these two people with me.”

“They bad,” the guard replied.

“That’s okay,” Damon said. “They are with me.” He turned to the drow. “Zexen'uma xuil uns'aa xor Usstan orn elgg dos^,” he demanded.

After all, Damon didn’t know these strangers at all either. It was just a case where he figured they might have known more about Fallien than he did, and that he just wanted to have someone who spoke at least one of the languages he did. With that matter settled, Damon headed towards Lord Rappa’s mannor. It was a grand procession. Damon held his sword aloft, replete with a stable of guards walking ahead of him, and hopefully the two other outworlders behind him as well.

“Doer nin ka dos ssinssrin ulu xxizz Gillete Sensor Excel*,” he instructed.

(^Stay with me or I’ll kill you/ *Come with me if you want to help Gillete Sensor Excel)

[Izvilvin]

Things were looking grim for the Drow and his new companion, as the guards seemed to be getting more and more impatient. The boy next to them was speaking words Izvilvin didn't understand, but his gestures and tones suggested he was on their side. The guards fell to their knees, much to Izvilvin's surprise, but he looked to Soveliss and shrugged, counting it as good fortune.

The boy, defying all Izvilvin's notions about him, spoke Drow then. He too seemed hostile, but the Drow preferred to come along with him into the palace than to stay out with the guards.

So Izvilvin followed at a distance as they entered the palace, through a grand archway adorned with yet more gems of purple and gold. The inside of the palace was even more excuisite than the outside, as tapestries longer than some of the cities houses ran along the golden stone. They told a story of the city's past, of poverty and hard work. Gradually the tapestries gave way to new scenes, where golden buildings rose from the ground and the people celebrated. Izvilvin wasn't sure what to think about it.

The group was lead to a grand staircase of gold. The rails were warm to Izvilvin's touch as he ascended, feet sinking a quarter inch into the plush carpet. On the second floor was a door bigger than any other the Drow had ever seen, that took the full effort of four men to open. Beyond that was the throne room.

This area was cavernous and airy. Instead of a far wall, the back of the room gave way to a balcony that overlooked the northern part of Gilette Sensor Excel. On the walls were more massive tapestries, less long than the ones in the downstairs hall, but there were more of them in the throne room.

To the left was a doorway with a plaque above it. Izvilvin couldn't read it, but it read 'RIM ROOM', obviously the place where the Rim was usually kept.

Lord Rappa came from the balcony then, donned in his token jeweled robe and sporting a great crown of gold. "Yo, welcome dogs. The city ain't been the same since our mothafuckin' Rim went gone, but I hope ya'z are all enjoyin' yer stay."

Of course Izvilvin could not understand the language in which he spoke, tradespeak. But even if he did speak common, it was unlikely he could follow the strange man's tongue anyway.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss continued to stare at the dark haired man. Sizing him up in every single way, judging him - wondering what his strengths and weaknesses were. Soveliss' arms flexed. The thought of an impending fight was both riveting and not, he didn't like the look of these men who were so quick to draw assumptions, yet he knew he was doing the same about them.

Someone spoke.

The common tongue! Finally someone spoke it who didn't have a sword up at Soveliss' throat. Soveliss looked eagerly towards where the speech had come from. His hopes faded, it was a young boy. The boy was ordering the men, by the looks of it anyway and held up a sword, as he did Soveliss watched in amazement as the guards fell to their knees.

The conversation between the guards and the boy continued. Then as the guards rose, the boy spoke something in Drow, something he did not like the sound of. It sounded... harsh, demanding, and Soveliss was not one for being bossed around, least of all by someone he assumed he could so easily decapitate in one swing.

As the guards turned their backs and headed towards the huge palace, Soveliss daudled behind them, three or four steps behind the boy and Izvilvin even. He picked up his sword, and sheathed it slowly.

What the fuck is going on here...

With that Soveliss paced towards the huge, glistening palace - with its spires of gold and wallks of what loooked like marble to Soveliss, though he could have been mistaken.

---

Once having walked up the palace steps into an archway, again looking like marble Soveliss noted the gems that lay incrested into the walls, no doubt what glistened from so far away. He had spent the way in silence - his adrenaline faded and his hunger becoming greater - right now he would have settled for anything to eat and drink. He was becoming weaker. Whether it was meat from an edible animal that wasn't human and a glass of it's still warm blood that would have sufficed - he would prefer human, but at the moment he had nothing and simply needed anything. Sweat dripped from his brow before he could wipe at it.

He followed the party through an archway into the building, huge - he looked around in silent awe.

Once they had gone into the main chamber there were huge pieces of art and decor, they continued through this room to a Golden staircase, the rails seemed slightly warm, but that could have easily been Soveliss' own sweat on the rail. the carpet - a deep red reminded him of his hunger.

Once on the second floor they came to a short stop, dead infront of them was another arch and door way. Noting the fact that it took four guards - not one of the being particularly small, to move the massive doors made of wood and iron. Soveliss passed through, still at the back of the party. As he passed through, Soveliss saw that there was a white gold encrestment on both of them. Most likely the Royal crest Soveliss figured.

By now Soveliss had had quite enough of the scenery and everything seemed both amazing... but the same, and he didn't really care to take in the rest of his surroundings.

Then he heard a voice talking in the common tongue.

"Yo, welcome dogs. The city ain't been the same since our mothafuckin' Rim went gone, but I hope ya'z are all enjoyin' yer stay" The dialect in which he spoke was strange but his words were clear enough. Soveliss understood every one of them.

Soveliss watched as the large man, donned in robes and jewellery emphacized his welcome with outstretched arms. The guards infront of the trio bowed and then preceeded to kneel.

"Me name, if thats what yer thinkin' would be Lord Rappa, I be the guy who tells these wankers what and what not to do!" He looked at the bowing guards. "What yer still doin' here?!" He asked quite agetatedly, as though he didn't like their presence. One began to murmur a reply, no doubt about to tell him the situation, but he was cut short. "SCRAM YA GOOD FER NUTHIN' THICKOS YA!". With that the guards shot up and ran from the room, pulling the door shut on their way out.

Soveliss grinned at the one who had earlier placed his sword on his throat, showing his over-enlarged, razor like canine teeth.

Soveliss then looked at Izvilvin with a puzzled glance, then back at the boy, not sure what to make of all this and expecting some explanation. His hunger once again reminded him that he was getting weak, and he wiped the sweat from his brow, probably not looking too good. it had been at least 2 weeks since his last proper meal.

[INDK]

When Damon first heard Lord Rappa speak, it was like music to the ears of the beleaguered boy. After everyone who had spoken only in the native tongue, Damon was glad to have someone with him that spoke in common, even if it was rather badly. “I suppose none of us are dogs,” the boy thought. However, he decided to reply in a similar vernacular to the one offered by Lord Rappa, so as to show that he was at least putting forth as best an effort as he could to absorb the local culture.

“We uhh… dogs are glad to be here,” Damon extended cautiously. “I be the guy who comes from abroad to help you find the Rims. I would-”

“Yo man!” Rappa shouted. “You best not be posin’ an’ getting’ all up in my grill yo. I tell ya now dawg, I be bustin caps in posers from here to South Central Irrakam. Jus’ look what I did to that foo’ who be startin’ shit last week. That Fred Durst tool…”

Damon blinked. He wasn’t sure who ‘posin’ or Fred Dust were, but the boy didn’t get the impression that being either of them was a good thing. While he had no idea what ‘bustin caps’ were, the boy believed that would be particularly unpleasant. “Posin?” he asked. “I’m Damon Kaosi. Not Posin…”

“You be posin!” Lord Rappa declared. “Don’t be tellin’ me what’s posin! I come from da streets! Guards, take this dawg and get him locked up!”

One of the guards cleared his throat and said something to Lord Rappa in Fallien, after which the facial expressions of the ruler changed. While Damon could not be sure as to what they were saying, it was fairly obvious what the discussion was about. There was the obligatory mention of the name ‘D. Protagonist’ and a gesturing towards the shining sword the boy now possessed. Damon shuddered.

“Why, you be D. Protagonist! Find me mah Rims, yo!” Lord Rappa finally declared. “You ken pose all ye wan’ if ye juss’ give me mah Rims!”

Damon sighed. “I don’t know where they are,” he said.

“Then you will have to die for posin” Lord Rappa declared.

[Izvilvin]

Though they were only a few men in the room, and only discussion was taking place, it felt to Izvilvin that a lot was going on. The Lord of the city, for that's what he obviously was (who else would dare dress so flamboyantly?) seemed hostile. Of course, his city's greatest treasure had disappeared, so it was understandable that he was anxious.

Izvilvin spent his time exploring the room with his eyes while the others talked, since he couldn't understand a word anyway. Aside from those long tapestries, the carpeting, and the gem encrusted walls, the only remarkable characteristic of the room was its size. Izvilvin imagined he could fit an entire division of Alerar's army in here, however tight the squeeze might be.

The only ways out of the chamber was the way they entered, the doorway with the large writing above it, and perhaps the balcony, though Izvilvin had no way of knowing just how high up they were. He felt it important to note the ways out of the place, considering Rappa's aggressive tone and the way the guards stayed so close.

Surely enough, upon Rappa's final sentence, Izvilvin heard the approach of the guards behind them. They spoke some words in some commanding tones, and Izvilvin knew they were in some sort of trouble. He tried to get the attention of his allies, the boy and the fanged one, before bolting forward, right toward Lord Rappa.

But the Drow made no move for his weapons as he ran toward the wealthy leader, who shrunk back in fear of the intense dark elf. He had no intention of attacking, however, changing direction to run left just as he got within a few feet of Rappa.

He was bolting quickly across the floor of the massive chamber, taking about ten seconds of intense sprinting to get to the wall. Looking back towards the main door, Izvilvin observed many guards flowing into the chamber from the other room. They did not unviel their weapons, but Izvilvin didn't think it would be long before they did, especially if he could elude them long enough for their patience to run out.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss had no idea what man meant by "posin" as he watched the angry glare in the mans eyes. Something more interesting was happening. While the conversation was going on Soveliss had noticed Izvilvin walking around the room and watched as his eyes had suddenly grown more intense.

Suddenly Izvilvin erupted into a huge sprint - Soveliss stayed still watching as the Drow glided past him, sending an air pocket. Soveliss watched his own hair wave with the awesome speed, he smiled. Yup, hes a Drow alright. Soveliss then turned his attention to the doors that flew open behind them.

Soveliss slowly turned around, aware at what had been happening. He watched as a huge amount of guards flooded into the chamber. He took two paces back, and caught sight of the one guard whom he had earlier glared at. Now it was the guard who was grinning. Strangely, they made no move for their weapons, and neither did Soveliss; Noting that izvilvin had also kept his weapons sheathed.

"Lord Rappa" Soveliss stated "I have no quarrel with you, or your guards. But you must note that you are hugely outclassed here. We have come here in peace, but will respond to force with force." Soveliss had decided to use his mind here, instead of his brawn... for once anyway.

"What yer talkin' bout?!" Was the gruff reply "Me royal guards be the best fitted and skilled guards in all of th' region! You'll die before ye even reach for ya steels"

Soveliss grinned, he knew that they were outnumbered, but he was also hugely confident that this Lord Rappa didn't have the keenest of intellect and could be outsmarted. If it came to it, he also figured that he and Izvilvin woul be able to finish the guards and escape - the boy though, he was not sure about.

"Lord Rappa! you are not listening to me. Us three have been fighting together for many many years and have coem across much harder opponents, and much tougher. Now call your men off or we will unsheath our weapons - which is never got thing for our foes. Decide!"

Soveliss reached for his sword and made eye contact with Izvilvin to do the same thing, wether or not Izvilvin understood was a different manner. As Soveliss stood there in a typical offensive stance, (with no means at all of attacking), he had his right hand resting on te hilt of his powerful sword.

He glanced at the boy too, not knowing quite what to make of him.

"Lord Rappa" Soveliss repeated, now looking straight at the guards who were also beginning to reach for their weapons. "DECIDE!" He roared!

[INDK]

Lord Rappa’s face completely changed with the roar of the half vampire. Instead of his normal visage, hardened by years of livin’ on the streets and growin’ up poor, Lord Rappa’s eyes and mouth began to droop. It was as his steely face had begun to melt, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

“Don- don’t you yell at me!” Lord Rappa whined. “I decide when I want yo, you shouldn’t tell me!” he exclaimed between sobs. “This be my crib!”

Damon didn’t know what to make of this. A few seconds ago, he had been sentenced to death for a crime he was unaware as to whether he had actually committed or not, and now the man who had sentenced him was crying over a scolding from a complete stranger. “What a nitwit…” Damon thought. “I haven’t seen anyone who’s wanted to hide behind their position more than this man. Rims or not, he should have some sense of composure…”

“Uh… just stop crying…” Damon said, even though speaking up was against his better judgment. “We can’t find the rims that way.”

“FIND THE RIMS!” Lord Rappa shouted. “WHO CAN FIND THE RIMS AT A TIME LIKE THIS, PROTAGONIST! MY HONOR HAS BEEN INSULTED!”

Damon sighed.

Lord Rappa finally calmed down. “Yo…. I’ll be tellin’ you what’s up homeboy. If you want mah rims, and then I’ll take your boy here in a street rap… If you win, dawg, I’ll give you mah rims, but if you loose, then I’ll bust a cap in both you an’ your homie, dig?”

Damon blinked. While there were words in there that certainly resembled common tongue, the boy was almost certain that there had really been nothing but gibberish spoken. Hoping to end the situation with as little violence as possible, Damon leaned over towards the brave stranger who had spoken on his behalf and offered up a little advice.

“If I were you… I’d leave now, before you get street rapped or cap busted,” Damon whispered.

Rappa frowned. One of his advisors was warning him that it would be foolish to challenge an ally of D. Protagonist. In these situations, it was very rare that D. Protagonist ever lost. Since the Rims were the pride and joy of Gillete Sensor Excel, they could not be risked so callously in a game of chance.

“But I be a rappin’ fool… and look at that dawg… he’s jus’ a fool,” Rappa protested.

“Still,” his chief minister of economics protested. “We can’t have our jobs outsourced to Raiaera.”

“Fine,” Rappa said. “Protagonist… you tell me where mah rims be an’ we’ll consider this settled. Peace?”

“Yes,’ Damon replied, latching on to the one word he was certain of. “Yes... peace!”

“Then tell me where mah rims be at!” Rappa responded.

Damon was flush for a good idea at this point. However, he was tired and frustrated with everything he had to deal with. It had seemed to him like a good deal of strangers had somehow been dragged into the stupidity of a community that seemed dead set on doing nothing more than having the most confusing system of law enforcement ever present on Althanas.

“Just check the last place you remember seeing them,” Damon shouted back. “Anywhere… just use your brain…”

Lord Rappa paused for a moment. “You speak in riddles dawg, but I understand you my homie.” The lord walked straight through a large door which contained some elaborate writing in Fallien. “Come wit’ me Protagonist,” Rappa demanded. “You gotta stick wit’ me for dis one, yo. Win or lose, we now ride togetha’”

Damon didn’t know what that meant, but he followed the lord none the less. At the very least, he seemed to be the only Fallien native whose language even vaguely resembled tradespeak.

[Izvilvin]

Izvilvin observed the tension from the side of the room. The guards were rigid and ready to strike at their Lord's command, but the Drow saw tentativeness there. He didn't know it, but the name of D. Protagonist had a lot of pull in this land, and to fight against the great warrior meant almost certain loss. Slowly the Drow moved along the wall, toward the door with the plaque above it.

The tension seemed to die down as the boy and Lord Rappa conversed, but Izvilvin saw several guards still on edge, and Soveliss seemed that way as well. The pale man seemed to be willing to fight on more than one occassion, and truth be told, his apparent preference for battle was making Izvilvin want to do the same.

When all seemed calm again, Izvilvin opened the doorway into the Rim room and immediately observed two pedestals of pure gold. The room itself was just large enough to hold these two platforms. The walls were purely golden and bright, and massive red rubies were in the center of each. Izvilvin's lavendar eyes washed over the room somewhat lustfully, for though he was not a man who saw great value in money, the thought of having enough of it to make such a room was alluring.

His eyes climbed the pedastals straight to their tops, where soft velvet pillows lay.

And upon each pedastal was a silver item.

Izvilvin felt confused. Were these round, shining items the Rims that Gilette Sensor Excel had supposedly lost? The Drow had understood no words spoken to him since arriving in the city, except for the few Drow phrases the boy had thrown his way. Had Step misled him for some reason? Was this a setup?

Maybe it was just a mistake. Yes, that's what he had to hope. Izvilvin took a Rim into each hand, grabbing each from the top of their wheel-like shape, and reentered the throne room, holding them up and commanding attention, "Lor ghil!"

The guards and Lord Rappa turned to him, and dialogue broke out as they exclaimed. The Rims had been in the Rim Room all along, Izvilvin concluded, baffled at the remarkable stupidity of Rappa.

"Da Rims!" Rappa exclaimed. "They... They been here all dis time? Shit, why'd I go 'n think I lost 'em? Damn... Damn!"

Of course, Izvilvin couldn't understand him, but the Drow moved to the grand city's Lord and placed the Rims in his waiting hands.

"Rewards! Mah bitches, you guys take whateva shizzle you want from my cazzle. Jewels, gold, bling, whateva you want. If I dun' have yo' shit, you tell me whateva you want n' it'll get brought to ya, got it?"

Again, Izvilvin was confused, though he could hear the appreciation in Rappa's newly soft tone.

[Soveliss]

With all the tension in the room, Soveliss had hardly noticed the whispering from the boy and the continuous babble coming out of the idiotic lord Rappa's mouth. Instead he was staring straight ahead of him with his had now clenched around the hilt of his sword. It would seem that he had succeeded in buying some necesary time.

With a creak a door opened, Soveliss quickly averted his gaze from the guards and to the apparent "rim room". Izvilvin was no longer in his sight. Soveliss stood up, erect and confused looking towards the door. Where has he gone... As Soveliss thought that Izvilvin entered the main chamber once again - this time carrying to large discs, one in each hand.

Soveliss continued to look... baffled as the idiotic Lord confirmed that the discs he had lost, were where they were meant to be. His mouth gaped.

"Are you kidding me?" Soveliss mouthed as he saw the excitement in Lord Rappa's eyes. His hand fell from his sword and straight down. ...I've nearly got into a fight twice today... all for the goddamn stupidity of this idiot. I ought to cut him down now.

As atmosphere became a lot lighter in the room and the Lord expressed his gratitude to everyone Soveliss picked up on one phrase.

"Rewards! Mah bitches, you guys take whateva shizzle you want from my cazzle. Jewels, gold, bling, whateva you want. If I dun' have yo' shit, you tell me whateva you want n' it'll get brought to ya, got it?"

... Soveliss couldn't understand this. they had come to his throne room, after being arrested, after being caught almost in a fight, viewing a person seemingly to have exploded, and now this man wanted them to take whatever they wanted. It didn't make sense. He repeated to himself the first thing that had come into his mind This is going to be a bad day. he was half right he figured, but then he thought that it hadn't really been a bad day, more of a strange day.

The atmosphere in the room had quickly lightened and now Soveliss faced the annoying Lord Rappa, seeing the glee in his face and the worry lift off of his head.

"Riight, well i'm now guna go 'n' stick these shizzles in mah shizzle room! Ya gets me!?" Rappa stated as he began to walk towards the so called "rim room". Soveliss watched as he gleefully made his way through the throne room and into the room that Izvilvin had just come out of.

Then, just as everything seemed to be going back to what only could be described as peaceful and normal, the unthinkable happened. Rappa tripped. He stumbled over the tiny little door frame that had been opened earlier. He fell forward and time seemed to slow down as he did, the discs in his hands left his hands.

Before anyone could react Rappa had taken full forward roll and ended up on his back - he caught the only sight that could have made this day any stupider. The discs. They were in mid air and as Rappa watched, they came out of mid air, right next to him. Rappa attempted to reach for them but was too fat and slow - the discs hit the floor with a glass like sound. For a minute, nothing happened.

As Soveliss, Rappa and seemingly everyone else in the room for a few seconds, still nothing happened - the discs were fine. Everyone breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Then there was a flash - the room filled with light and to the astonishment of the onlookers, the discs... shattered. The room filled with light, and glass dust.

You damn ape... Soveliss thought to himself.

...Then there was a noise, a few seconds after the initial shattering. Soveliss turned and faced, what was seemingly a simple crowd of angry onlookers nothing more. ...Great... like it was our fault... Soveliss thought to himself.

[INDK]

Damon had just about settled on taking a ring as his rewards when the Rims had shattered. Immediately, all the relief that had emerged from Lord Rappa’s promises of rewards had completely evaporated. A yellow mist began to evaporate up from the ground up into the air and it seemed to effect every person in Lord Rappa’s treasury as well. Large pillars of yellow smoke emerged from the guards.

“What the heck?” one of them said to the other.

“Yeah, what has gone on here?” the other replied.

“It seems like we have been under a spell by those rims, one that makes us forget tradespeak and practice patriarchy,” the first guard observed. “Somehow it has been lifted.”

“There is going to be a riot tonight then!” the second guard mused. “I doubt the people will be very happy when they find how Rappa had enchanted the entire population with his magical Rims.”

“And to think we named our city Gilette Sensor Excel,” they both muttered together. “I would have thought Survani would turn her back on a city so stupidly named.”

Damon looked at Lord Rappa disgustedly. He had heard of despots before, but none that were so incredibly abusive as this man. “And to think I actually went through all the trouble just to find these Rims,” the boy thought sourly. “Not only does the idiot break them, now I find out that he was using them to control this city. And to think I thought the economy was at stake…”

Rappa naturally looked concerned. “Well, uhh… dawgs. I be sorry for enchantin all y’all like that yo, but you know, that’s how I roll, straight G style man, poppin’ Cristal? This be mine hizzowze, howzza boy-ee?”

Everyone else shook their head. It seemed that now the magical power of the Rims had been eradicated from Gillete Sensor Excel no one in the town could understand their former leader. Rappa, realizing his impact on his guards had greatly diminished, turned to Damon instead.

“Yo G’ you can’t be takin’ mah bling!” he said.

Damon frowned. Now that Lord Rappa had been rendered powerless, the boy saw no reason to give back any bling of Rappa’s that he had taken. “You can have this stupid sword,” Damon said, tossing the Deus Ex Machina to the ground. The weapon no longer glowed, and it didn’t seem to have any impact on the people anymore.

Lord Rappa bit his lip. “Guards straight up seize him!” the noble shouted.

The guards did not comply.

“That’s cold!” Lord Rappa hissed.

Damon looked on smugly.

However, another guard soon arrived, only with panic wrought on her face. “Lord Rappa,” she said hurredly. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this, because I hate you now, but it looks like there are people out there looking to tear down this building. They’re mad and it looks like the whole town is going to riot unless you change the name to something other than Gilette Sensor Excel!”

[Izvilvin]

The events that passed in the next few moments, though spoken in a language Izvilvin had no understanding of, were all too clear to him. The Drow had watched in embarassment as Rappa dropped the two Rims, and as strange yellow substance secreted from the guards in the room. Their demeanor changed instantly, from hostility to confusion.

Izvilvin didn't understand it all, but he did know that a major change had occured because of what happened to the Rims. Outside, he heard some commotion. Jogging toward the balcony, Izvilvin was prepared for the worst. Upon reaching the massive overlook of the city, the Drow's purple eyes observed the city in chaos. A collasal group of people, he estimated around 500, were at the gates of the palace, and they were very mad.

In the distance, Izvilvin could see the beginnings of fires being set. And closer, he could almost make out some people who were scraping at their own houses, as if trying to gather gold for themselves before leaving the city forever.

In truth, the Rims were indeed items that made people submissive to Rappa, but they also held back the angry tendencies of people, as Izvilvin had been told. But with the Rims gone, all of the rage people had, previously supressed by the Rims, was brought to the surface.

Izvilvin went back to the throne room a split second before a massive crash sounded, the indication that the palace's front door had been pushed off it's hinges by the conbined efforts of the townspeople.

He didn't need to contemplate his next action for very long. He was getting out of there, and noone was going to stand in his way.

"Child, we must flee this city before the angry people below hang us, like they will their idiot leader," he said, for even his need to escape alive could not blind him from this boy, who might just need his help.

His eyes drifted to Soveliss, who Izvilvin couldn't communicate with at all. The Drow's eyes drifted to the vampire's sword, as he tried to indicate that the fight he so craved just might be coming.

The Drow drew his own slender weapons into his hands and bolted toward the door, which thankfully was still open. He descended the stairs in a few agile jumps, finding himself in the massive first hallway, with those long tapestries which told the story of the city's foundation. The townspeople were in here, marching slowly toward the staircase which led up to Rappa's throne room. Izvilvin was standing by the side of twenty or so armed soldiers, who were prepared to stand here and defend the palace. Despite their mutual dislike of Rappa, this was still their city's palace, the representation of what Gilette Sensor Excel, or whatever it's new name would be, was.

One of the guards said something to the Drow, though of course he couldn't understand it. But the tone was pleading, and Izvilvin knew help was being asked of him.

With nowhere else to go but forward, through the waves of humans, Izvilvin could not deny the men his aid.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss had been standing and watching the current events take place. He had watched as Izvilvin had ran down the corridor leading from the open door and most likely down the stairs too, he had also stood and watched as the people in the throne room had suddenly changed.

Soveliss, now with his sword in han saw this as the oppurtune moment in which to top up his strength, he glnced around the room. The dorw had just ran and the boy was beginning to move. Soveliss looked at the guards. The one who had always been grinning at Soveliss was now advancing forwards towards him, with his long black hair flowing behind him.

...Id have preferred something fresher, but beggars can't be choosers he joked to himself.

As the guard pushed his way through the others, Soveliss sheathed his sword seeing no reason to kill the victim before-hand. Thats right, a bit closer... The guard came running in swinging his sword in a very clumsy fashion. As he did so Sovelis simply stepped back and the soldier who had put all of his force into that swing fell forwards more than he intended to with the momentum.

As he did Soveliss took the chance. He stepped forward, slamming his left arm into the underside of the guards shoulder, he heard the crack as the arm dislocated. Soveliss had done this too many times to count, he knew how to render a person useless, but still keep them conscious while he ate them. After the guards arm had fallen out of it's socket, Soveliss raised the left arm, sot hat he could place his left hand behind the neck of the tall man, he pulled the mans head to the aside as he did this. He then, using his right arm, gave a huge punch to the mans right kidney, and felt the extra weight as the guard lost use of his legs from the force of the blow.

Now was the time. Soveliss reached forward with his own neck and saw the guards huge jugular vein. Soveliss growled slightly and clamped his mighty jaw around, his two fangs piercing the artery. Blood began flowing from the mans body and into Soveliss' mouth, the human got weaker as the seconds went on, and Soveliss became stronger.

[INDK]

Damon agreed with the drow. They were going to have to leave. The boy pocketed the ring he’d obtained and began to run. He moved quickly, knowing that he was about to be in the middle of a war if he didn’t move quickly. Once out of the treasury, Damon looked down out of a window to look on the enraged throng that was gathering below. “Perhaps I should just teleport my way out of this,” Damon thought, but he realized that he couldn’t afford to do that. It would take more than ten minutes for him to fully release himself into the soil, and at the moment, the boy doubted if he would have that kind of time. Lord Rappa wanted him dead, and if the now beleaguered lord wads able to find anyone still loyal, Damon didn’t doubt that he might be targeted.

The boy looked down below at the angry citizens, and then looked around him. The only gates lead right into the mess of angry people, and if their chants were any indication, they were prepared to tear every last person in the palace to shreds should the name of the city not be changed to something more rational. Not that Damon could blame them, but killing him would have had limited to no impact upon the way that their city was named.

“I suppose they don’t even care about D. Protagonist anymore,” Damon figured, thinking that it was probably in the city’s best interest. Anyone dumb enough to blow himself up was not the kind of hero that Fallien needed.

A quick scan of the area revealed that there were some shops to the near west of the palace. While Damon wasn’t sure how he could get there from the moment, one of them sold mattresses and had laid a bunch of them out as a show of wares. Damon grinned. If he could climb up to the roof somehow, he would be able to get freed.

“Hey people… anyone but Lord Rappa, follow me out here!” Damon shouted. “I think we can find safety…”

“Dats cold yo!” Lord Rappa shouted at Damon.

Damon unsheathed his sword. “Do not follow me Rappa…”

The boy repeated his message in drow so that he made sure that the dark elf understood him. Then Damon leapt onto the ledge and pulled himself up onto the castle’s pirhouette. As he waited for more people to join him, he pointed over towards the mattress. “It’s a tough jump,” Damon warned. “But it’s a better chance than anything else.”

With that, Damon leapt.

[Izvilvin]

Izvilvin was already out of the area when the boy shouted something in Drow. Unfortunately for the warrior, he was just out of earshot. The crowd before him was simply too loud and enraged for him to focus on anything else, and the time was closely coming for him to spring into some sort of action. Yet he felt he could not. Izvilvin had no desire to kill any of these humans, regardless of how volitile they were toward himself and any of the other inhabitants of the castle.

So he turned and ran back up the stairs, abandoning his previous decision to help the guards. If the townfolk were so furious, there was probably a reason that the Drow did not understand. What he did know, however, was that he had done nothing to deserve their ire. And he didn't expect to endure it.

He was back in the throne room in a moment, hardly noticing Soveliss' strange act of feast. The Drow moved quickly to a nearby room, which was filled with all kinds of trinkets of sorts, but no possible way to the outside. He was about to leave, when something caught his eye. Snatching the small item and pocketing it, Izvilvin left the treasury.

At the balcony, Izvilvin once again observed the legion of people below, though there were less than earlier since many had broken their way into the palace. Out of the corner of his eye, Izvilvin spotted a small pair of feet as they disappeared upward. He followed, balancing easily on the railing and looking to the upper area, where he saw the boy.

"Doer!" He screamed to the throne room, beckoning Soveliss, wherever he was, to come along. Izvilvin then pulled himself up to the balcony's roof, listening carefully to what the child had to say... And understanding none of it. But the small one's faithful leap suggested all Izvilvin needed to know, as he watched the boy plummet.

A great leap of faith from the Drow followed. He landed on his back and bounced back up to his feet in a single movement, through his neck had snapped awkwardly with the impact. Still, he shook it off and looked to the boy, ready to follow and protect him until they were safely out of the city.

[Soveliss]

Soveliss, now fully charged and with his primal instincts running through him was at full battle power. he knew that he oculd take the rest of the guards on, but was worrying him was the amunt of people coming up the staricase. If it had made Izvilvin, a Drow run then Soveliss figured he had better follow him.

As Izvilvin ran past Soveliss his eyes followed and he dropped the now drained and dead mrotal at his feet. He sheathed his sword and followed closer than Izvilvin knew. Soveliss stopped just before the window, looked out and knew the plan - there were some shops just west which looked as though they were pretty much empty. There.... Soveliss dived out of the window just as he heard some arrow bolts zip past him and bury themselves into the framework. Some mroe followed as Soveliss began to fall outside, one made its way deep into the left shoulder of Soveliss, though he hardly noticed. he was more concerned on the ground flying towards him.

Soveliss landed with a crack on the cobbled stones. His back heavily bruised from the fall, but he got up and began chasing down Izvilvin and the boy. Although not as fast as the Drow, Soveliss found himself being able to keep up - they were all running at a much higher speed than humans do. As theyw ere runnign Soveliss reached up and bolt the bolt from his shoulder - there was a wince of pain.

God... i didn't do anything wrong... - - What the hell is that?!?!

Soveliss carried sprinting straight past a group of soldiers that were headed towards the castle.

[INDK]

“Lets just run,” Damon said. His landing hadn’t been particularly comfortable, but he had survived most of the danger this way. The crowd was too fixated on the castle. Lest Lord Rappa attempt the same jump that Damon and the rest had tried, it would be little more than the stray arrow that went their way.

Figuring that he wanted nothing more than to leave Fallien, Damon went along with the rest of the group. This adventure had seemed to be completely meaningless. He had learned nothing that would serve him throughout the rest of his years, nor had he particularly felt tested to any of his limits, save to the limits of his sanity. Years from now, the boy imagined citing in a tavern and devowing any involvement in the internal affairs of Gillette Sensor Excel, even if he was accosted by a fellow member of the group.

The one redeeming thing for Damon was the ring he’d taken from the palace. Though the boy had not yet grasped the ring’s power, everything within Rappa’s vault was considerably noteworthy. Not only did it contain Rims that provided him with Gramscian hegemony, but the ring was capable of absorbing weapons and then releasing them to the ring bearer with nothing more than a kiss.

Still, that was a small reward for such a troublesome task. Damon felt like he would never come to Fallien again, unless he were to find that there were rational people outside of the confines of Gillette Sensor Excel.

Eventually, they moved into relative safety. “I can teleport you guys somewhere safe…” Damon volunteered. “It would be good just to be out of here, right?”

[Izvilvin]

The trio fled down the streets of Gillette Sensor Excel. It would remain with that ludicrous name until a proper leader was set, and then the city could resume its spice trade without Rappa's stranglehold over them. It was amazing that two enchanted items could bring a city to its knees so easily, especially when the one orchestrating the charade was such a fool.

The noise of the melee back at the palace grew quiet as they made distance. He held his neck with one hand, trying to rub the sudden soreness from it as they reached the very outskirts of town. Buildings were sparse here, as city ended and sea of desert began.

His purple eyes looked over his two companions, the vampire and the boy. So much had happened in so little time, Izvilvin didn't think he'd ever forget this particular part of his home region of Fallien, and the golden city that presented so many silly problems. He'd learned that even the desert continent was not without its baffling experiences. Though he was still learning about life outside of Alerar, Izvilvin was sure he would not find a more unusual city.

Thankfully for him, the boy repeated his question in drow. Once again, Izvilvin marveled at how effortless the boy's speech was. It was near-perfect. The Drow was ready to go home, but not before he got one important thing out of the way.

Kneeling, he went down to the boy's level of height and pointed to himself, with a dry little smile on his face. "Izvilvin," he said, stating his own name in slow syllables. The perceptive eyes looked up to Soveliss and he nodded, making sure the vampire had heard his name as well.

He then got up and pointed to the Southeast, where Jya's Keep lay. This boy claimed to have the ability to teleport, and in truth, Izvilvin didn't believe it for a second, hence the smile. But there was a point in humoring him, he supposed. "Jya Keep," he said, for the words in common were the same in drow.

[Soveliss]

After running along with the group the boy had just told them that he had the ability to teleport, like what Soveliss asumme the Drow thought - he didn't wholly believe it, but hey - at this current moment - anythign was worth a shot.

Soveliss turned to the boy. "First - what is your name"

While Soveliss waited for the answer he looked at the Drow... A possible confidant and friend. He met with the Drow's eyes and gave him a knowing stare - hoping that Izvilvin knew that a friendship had been made.

"I agree with you though, we will be safe in Jya Keep. Speak your name boy and lets leave."

[INDK]

Damon didn’t want to talk about names. He acted quickly. There were too many angry Fallien people for him to care about people’s names. “Lets just move quickly,” Damon said briskly. He grabbed the wrists of both of his newly found comrades and began to teleport. He supposed that either of them might have complained, but he had already explained what he was doing. Now that he was transforming himself so that he could move seamlessly through the earth with these newfound allies, he was unable to move at all. However, his group had managed to attract no notice from the infuriated denizens of Gillete Sensor Excel.

It was fortunate that Damon had overheard the mention of Jya’s Keep, because it allowed him to move the group to a safe place that would be neutral to all of them. Very weary, Damon didn’t care to argue with any of these people now, but he didn’t know if he would care for them later. Now that he got a fairly good look at the pale faced man, Damon wondered if there wasn’t some kind of vampire blood.

Damon sighed. He was tired. He was sweaty, frustrated and generally confused. Jya’s Keep was quite nice, a far cry from Gillete Sensor Excel. This city was quite pleasant. Despite the desert temperatures, marble walls and pillars kept the place manageably cool. People moved around on their natural business day as if they had better things to worry about than a few strangers who had teleported into the city.

It was a very welcome change. “Well, I’m done…” Damon said. Still, the adventure hadn’t been a complete loss. Granted, Damon didn’t really get an opportunity to enhance any of his combat abilities (unless running away from a mob could be considered an ability in combat). He had obtained a ring from Lord Rappa’s vault, and that was more than enough. He didn’t know what kind of power it would have, but it was probably useful somehow.

Perhaps it was suited that the only gain Damon got was a ring he had no idea how to use. It hadn’t been a very useful adventure.

(spoils, a ring that’s abilities will be revealed at my next update. The abilities will be contingent to an RoG mod’s approval)

[Izvilvin]

Before Izvilvin knew it, he was moving as he stayed still. Aware of this strange feeling, it took all of his power to keep from vomiting. All the same, when the motion--or lack thereof-- ceased, he was in Jya's Keep, in a courtyard he couldn't place in his mind right away.

He wanted to offer them a place to rest, or perhaps his thanks, and yet Izvilvin didn't feel it would help. There was no real desire in him to leave these two on a good note, so with a quick nod he turned to walk down a nearby hallway and get his bearings. After only a moment, recollection came and he knew which passage he was in, and which he needed to take to get back to his room near Jya's.

One of the Drow's hands dipped under his belt, pulling the bauble forth. He'd simply been unable to resist the pull of the item, which was a small golden ring with no special quality about its appearance. And yet he had felt the need to grab it.

It was unusual, he supposed, but Izvilvin didn't think about it too much as he slipped the ring over one of his fingers. It fit nicely, and didn't look too bad either. It even felt natural as he reached out and grabbed the doorknob of his room, turning it to enter and prepare for a nice, long rest.

((Spoils: Same as Damon, really. Haha.))

[Soveliss]

The overwhelming desire to throw up had engulfed Soveliss, he had never teleported before in his long existence. When the surroundings around him began to stop spinning, he took a few steps backwards and imagined he looked worse for wear.

...Well that was useless

He sighed to himself, knowing that he had just wasted god knows how much of his time, and on top of everything come away with not even a trinket. The only thing he had managed to get was a taste of a cocky guard when he ripped open his jugular vein.

Soveliss looked around and watched as Izvilvin nodded and left. He turned to the boy and watched in silence while he played with this new ring in his hands. He looked around briefly. he had heard of Jya's Keep before, but had never been there. He figured there would be somewhere that he could take refuge.

He made eye contact with the boy. "Thankyou". That single comment seemed fitting enough for what had just happened. Soveliss turned and looked at the high walls of the courtyard he was in. To the Northern end there was a metal grid, not knowing where this lead or either of the alleys leading out of the courtyard he went where noone could follow him.

He walked to the grate, and without slowing proceeded to turn into a mist and simply pass through the gate, when he re-materialised he was three steps from the grate and did not slow down walking.

((spoils: - sweet fuck all! Oh wait, a bird shit stain on his cloak!))

[Storm Veritas]

JUDGMENT

Simply put, this was a reasonably well written, wildly entertaining thread. To be totally honest, I thought you guys were on cocaine when I started reading this, but it unfolded rather nicely. It isn't a masterpiece, but it is a very solid effort, and the errors that I came upon were minor, sparse, and correctable. Good work!

Introduction - 7 - The writing was very good in the intro, but the intro by itself didn't give me the best idea of what was going on. I could have used a little bit of an explanation as to how this all got going, since the anachronistic names - later explained - stood out and confused me.
Setting - 6 - Good, tangible descriptions, and effective communication. This could have been improved with a little more (and not a LOT more) description. When you're creating this new city, I really need a better feel for the folks there, and what the place looks like. Comments on people's appearance, architecture, basic material construction of the town would have helped. This is all minor and subjective, of course; your setting was certainly sufficient.
Character - 5 - I liked it, but since this was such a straightforward quest (albeit creatively crafted), your characters were all doing clear-cut-good-doer stuff. Didn't really get a great feel for morality or emotion here, although I loved the interactions between Soveliss and Ivsizlvislvisin.
Dialogue - 10 - Fantastic. Wonderful work by all of you here. Damon's boyish doubt and skepticism and innocence was terrific. Soveliss' british twang and haughty air was great. Cyrus' dialogue was also servicable, but obviously Rappa stole the show. Effective and hilarious. Bravo.
Strategy - 9 - I really liked what you guys all did here collaboratively. The whole thing MUST have been pre-planned, because it came together very cleverly, very creatively, and made for a fun, funny read. Great work!
Rising Action - 5 - There were spots where this was good, in the palace and around the rims. The disjointed start left a lot of "breaks" where I really wasn't dragged in yet. You did make up for it near the end, but if I'm going to take points from anything, it would be here.
Climax - 6 - Good, but the breakdown of everything was simple. I liked that Rappa simply lost his power, people came back to their senses, the super uber-sword became nothing, and things wrapped up tightly, but perhaps a battle-rap would have been entertaining. You all got my hopes up!
Conclusion - 6 - After such a fun, yet bizarre quest, the conclusion is bound to be a bit confusing. "Well, I guess... that... we... I dunno, saved the day or something." Funny, and sufficiently satisfying, although not precisely groundbreaking.
Writing Style - 8 - A bit of laziness here and there is the only thing that really keeps this out of the top class. Soveliss, you could have been more meticulous with editing, but I love reading your stuff. Shyam was wonderful, and I only found 1 typo in the whole thing. Cyrus, every time I read you it gets better. This is the best writing I've seen from you; it's genuinely outstanding.
Wild Card - 9 - Blatant attempt to push the numbers up a bit, since the odd format hurt the score of a very creative, very entertaining thread that I enjoyed immensely.

Total Score - 71!

Way to go!

INDK gets 3900 EXP and thus far useless ring and 150 gold.
Soveliss gets 725 EXP and 300 gold.
Izvilvin gets 1700 EXP and thus far useless ring and 150 gold.

EXP and GP added! INDK levels up!