There's a new elf in town...

[Ælfgafu]

Deep in the heart of Concordia a spry elf is perched atop a gnarled limb of an old oak tree. She is well over a hundred feet above the ground right where sunlight first begins to filter through a canopy of mixed coniferous-deciduous woodland of ash, oak, and pine. Birdsong peacefully echoes up to the ridgeline and melds beautifully with the serenity of the watershed. The elf sits in silence, her being motionless save for pointed ears which shift slowly following each and every sound. The acuity of her senses are well primed for anything that might seem out of place.

Aelfgafu’s brick red hair is the only thing about her appearance that might possibly give her away from down below, but she reassures herself that only an elf or perhaps a dwarf would be able to notice her from way down below. Besides, she thinks to herself, humans never look up... The rest of her features blend in imperceptibly with her surroundings, her element. The green tone of her skin blends in with the green of the woods, and the skin on her face is softened with lightly shaded tattoos of a raven on each cheek. Her seductive eyes of brown could give her away, but they only glow when she is either extremely elated or is attempting to capture someone with their allure.

There is faint smell drifting intermittently on a gentle northeast breeze, a mixture of human sweat, diesel. Until recently such a repulsive smell would have been cause for alarm, but since the lumbermen have intensified operations it is becoming more and more commonplace. Though the latest reports from the underground network of elven messengers are promising and have revealed that the humans are having a harder and harder time in their attempt to push deeper into the heart of Concordia. Their efforts have faltered, for now, perhaps as a result of reports of a number of them having been ‘disappeared.’

Having been ‘upstairs’ – as her kinfolk are oft to say – for almost a full quarter of a moon cycle with no one else to keep her company, she has begun to miss late night conversations, frolicking, and tasty mead kisses. As she laments about how awful it is to have nobody to talk with, her left ear instinctively cocks in response to a sudden caw, caaaaw breaking the solitude.

As she watches a stark black raven approaching, her eyes beam with happiness and a wide grin stretches across her face.

“Kaldera! It’s so good to see you – was wondering what happened to you. Staying out of trouble I pray?” Aelfgafu giggles.

The crow gives her a knowing look and begins to lift his right foot up and down with no small effort.

“Oh.” Noticing a tightly wound parchment carefully tied to her traveling companion’s foot, Aelfgafu reaches down to retrieves the message and read it.

“Thank goodness! It says I am to be relieved, that there will be another to take my post at dusk’s end.” She pauses for a second and furrows her brow as she continues to read the message. “Hmm, and apparently I am to go into Underwood and mingle with the humans, see if I can find out any information or rumors about the plans of the lumberjacks.”

The raven blinks.

“Will you accompany me my friend along the East Road into town? We have so much to catch up on.”

The raven blinks again.

The elf grabs her bundle from the crotch of two branches and slowly unravels her cloak wrapped around a Mulberry wood longbow and leather boots. She dons the cloak, reaches into her boots and pulls out a moon-necklace and earrings and puts them on, and double-checks to see that her daggers are still sheathed in her boots before slipping them onto her feet.

Kaldera looks at a worn out spot on the branch where her elf friend was perched for so long before taking flight and beginning to soar in circles around Aelfgafu as she gleefully descends the oak.

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Early the next morning Aelfgafu stashes her longbow in a tight clump of saplings at the outskirts of town and waves goodbye to Kaldera before heading into town. Upon arriving she sees a bluntly chiseled sign that reads “The Peaceful Promenade,” chuckles to herself, and then walks in through the swinging doors with a smile on her face.

[Ælfgafu]

{OOC: By the way, this thread is OPEN} :D


The odor of spilled beer and stale ashtrays works its way up her olfactory canal. Disgusting... she contemptuously muses to herself as her eyes scan the interior of the dimly lit bar, her green lips holding a smile. Simple wooden tables and adornments tell her that this place is far from young and that these walls have seen many a fight, heard many a plotting scheme hushed back and forth between hooded faces tucked away in the shadowed corners of the room, and witnessed countless others just looking to throw back some drinks. She approaches the bar and plops herself onto a barstool, beginning to slowly rock to and fro.

The barkeep looks at her with indifferent eyes and brashly blurts out in a voice as rugged as the Jagged Mountains, "Whadd'ya havin'?"

The contrasting merriment of her voice turns the heads of no less than two patrons as it cuts across the somber room with such audacious merriment. "I don't suppose you have mead, kind sir?"

The barkeep shakes his head and grunts.

"Very well then. Surprise me with something!" Aelfgafu watches as the man reluctantly turns around to pour her a drink. Despite her keen sense of hearing, the only words she can decipher from his mumbling is graah....damn elves. He reshelves an unmarked bottle of cheap whiskey before turning back around to set a triple-shot down on the bar in front of her. Some of it spills over the brim of the dirty glass.

"Ya gonna pay for that now or..." As he begins to speak his eyes make contact with hers. Suddenly he becomes transfixed by the patterns of light and color emanating from her eyes, their glow briefly penetrating his soul. For a moment he loses himself in rapturous joy and cannot finish his sentence.

But just as quickly as it had come on, it left him, as alone and aloof as he had been before. And never since has the thought crossed his mind to try to understand or explain what just transpired - a single second in his life where for once he was caressed by a sooting hand of love. The barkeep shakes his head at his forgetfulness and mumbles some more. "This'ns on the house," he says grimly before going to check on the other patrons.

"Thanks Mr. Grumblepants," the elf cheerily says without looking up. Her eyes begin to stare at the tiny little waves of alcohol still bouncing around inside of her glass.

[Terror's Thrall]

Something stirred, deep beneath the surface of Althanas. More specifically someone stirred. Thios felt the oppressive bounds of his crystalline prison around his essence, tearing at his being as he struggled.

Long before, aeons before any sentient life existed on Althanas, Thios had been a ruler of worlds. He had been seated among the stars in his homeland, his reality bent to his will as he endeavoured to serve his many followers. In short, he had been a God. He had learnt with the harsh passage of time that myriad soldiers marching under command - even benevolent command - could turn fickle if a better offer appeared. Especially if that offer was from another god.

A long and finally fruitless battle had ensued, though his injured pride would not allow him to dwell on the details, and he was defeated. His adversary gods had deemed him inferior to their wills and combined their might to bind him and cast him from the reality that he had made his own. He was not without aid though as two men sacrificed their souls to join him in his oblivion. They were Beren and Fenris and he had absorbed their essences as he Had been encased in a crystal deep within the crust of a far off world.

Hence his current entombment. During the early years of his imprisonment there had been much grinding of proverbial teeth and cursing by every oath in this dimension and the next. Eventually though he had learnt to accept his fate and had set about discovering weaknesses in his prison, for even in his weakened state he was still a god, a master of material.

He blessed the souls of his two companions, with all the will he possessed as he soon discovered that the extra potency they allowed his spirit let him escape his prison, if only to the surrounding world. He soon found a weak-willed individual and by the use of subtle visions, sent in his brief excursions from the crystal he had been tied to, he broke down the man's mental defences and gained entry to his mind. He knew that if he could take up residence in a mortal's body, he could stay away from his 'home' for longer, courtesy of the natural spirit wards that every living creature posesses...


****

Rathe was never a lucky man. However, recently he had taken a particular downturn in his fortune. Many had professed him mad and he was inclined to agree. Almost 2 years had passed since the visions started. Accompanying them was the feeling of a heavenly being probing at his consciousness, and this Rathe resented.

He was as devout a believer in creator spirits as the next man, more so than some, but he was also firm in his conviction that no truly benevolent god would directly intervene. This meant that the presence he felt was not benevolent, and so he hoped he would have to reassess his belief soon.

He was currently occupied in a bar, in the Peaceful Promenade, where he was scrounging a living scrubbing ale-mugs. It was hardly fit for one of his intellect but since the visions had started, he had had difficulty in finding employment. He paused in his mug washing to wipe his lank brown hair away from his eyes and the rough skin of his hand rubbed his forehead and he looked down. Another thing that had started at the time of the visions was this strange drying of his skin. The backs of his skin resembled fish scales in pattern as the skin died and flaked.

He hurriedly tucked his greying shirt into his trousers as the bar tender looked around. It wouldn't be the first time that carelessness had earned him a thick ear from his taskmaster. This time, however, the man's face had a bewildered countenance. He blinked and looked vaguely surprised as he resumed serving the customers.

Suddenly, a white fog clouded the edges of his vision.

'Not now, please' Rathe's voice was little more than a pleading whine as he fell to his knees and the vision violently took hold. Several of the tavern's patrons hurriedly vacated their seats as he moaned and knelt on the flagstones. The white mist had encircled him entirely to his mind and a figure was shrouded in the distance, as was always the case.

This time though, it was different. The figure advanced and slowly resolved to the form of a heavily armoured and thickly muscled man. He raised a solid steel broadsword and charged at Rathe's now prostrate form.


****

Thios could feel the mortal's mind finally giving up and knew that complete thralldom was within reach now. He pressed his and his follower's essences onwards and drove home the spiritual blows. He fought forwa-

And found himself lying spreadeagled on the floor. In a mortal shell. Uncountable sensations assaulted him, the taste of beer-sodden dust, the smell of urine and worse, the sight of cracked flagstones and legs beyond. A particular set of skirted legs caught his eye before he realised that the body had a certain will of its own.

He was aware as he fought to control the body's faculties, that this body was not quite as he remembered it. Indeed when he momentarily left it and viewed it as an outsider it looked positively different. The mortal Rathe had had a fairly well-trained body, indeed that had been a factor in his selection, but now, the flesh was rotted, decaying and scarred. The tongue hung loose in the mouth, missing the tip which observers later swore he had spat out during the vision. And the eyes were missing entirely, replaced with smooth skin. Thios had only been able to see because of his capabilities as a spirit.

He returned to the body and felt the presence of his two followers, Beren and Fenris. Their appearance comforted him somewhat for he was now bemused. Perhaps this body had stronger wards than he had thought...

Apologies for infodump. I will probably clean this up later. Hope its OK, my joining btw