What's new
By:
Filters

Trapped in the Underdark - In Character


1525695956530.png

We'll play it by ear, Sylvie. I'll take a high paying job. And if nothing of that sort presents itself, I'll find an alternative. Need is the mother of all invention, they say. That and desperate and foolish acts.

The ghost's mocking tone was ignored. After all, if Sylvie did care about Ventus, then mocking the dire and unavoidable situation that Dasyra was in trying to save the Death Knight from the curse was a bit self-defeating.

It took a while, but she gradually made her way down the mountainside. She resolved to sit and rest a while to allow her shadow energies to recharge, and thus entered the city well into the early morning darkness. Her stealth skills were enough to move past the guard and into the city of heroes. Once there, she approached the guild, and sought to enter it first by the main entrance, as she wanted to see the quests on offer. If she didn't find anything interesting, she would seek to find any information on what quests Midnight and Dawn were on currently.
 
You must be registered to see the links
is easily enough entered, not locked down, even at night. Who'd break into an adventuring guildhall, after all. It was like asking to become the next quest-target, even if you were sucessful.
The place has certainly grown -and- become more polished since Dasyra had last been here, but, if she knew anything about the questlines, they were posted.. Aha, there they were.

The old questboard, and two new ones, standing there, with a nostalgic feel to them. Perhaps Dasyra briefly rememberd squabbling infront of them, a lifetime ago, with a younger Del.. She had to focus.
The quests are seperated by difficulty. 'New adventurers' 'Advanced' 'professionals'
Professionals sounded good, though.. 4000 gold. 3000.. that's not that much. Something about marauding gnolls for 2000 per partymember up to 10.000..
There was a note on the bottom however.

For specialized Veteran missions and our honored heroes, see the clerg.
~This is to make sure no one who just got their first magic sword gets overly cocky and tries to 'quickly advance through the ranks', stop asking. - R.T.

The clerg.. well, there was one person, behind a desk at the far off wall, however, considering the time of day, they were currently asleep. Most people would have mistaken her for an elf, but the fact she was most certainly sleeping gave away a half-elven nature.
"Hmnn.. creme..." Or.. was she sleeping? "creme.... puff... pufff" Yep. Sleeping. Most awake people didn't slightly drool onto the table beneath them.
886694.jpg




(you wouldn't believe how hard it is to find art of some girl not sexy-sleeping)
 
Hrmm. These job postings just weren't lucrative enough. They were great for young heroes. More than generous in fact for clearing out some gnoll investigations... but Dasyra didn't have that kind of time. She needed a major pay day. Something with some bite to it, and hopefully something she could take advantage of her unique attributes in order to succeed where others might fail.

Check in with the clerk, eh? Guess that was the only way.

She approached the sleeping half elf. A smirk appeared on the undead ranger's dark cherry lips. With a cold finger, she traced along the half-elf's bare spine.

"Wake up, wake up, sleeping cutey~" She half sung, then giggled, hopefully rousing the girl gently. "I need to see your veteran contracts."

She added that last bit as the girl started to wake up, preferably before she looked too closely at Dasyra and started asking the inevitable questions about her drow-like skin, or her red eyes. Hopefully, there were enough oddball heroes coming and going here that the clerk wasn't going to have too hysterical a reaction. The ranger did her best to not appear aggressive.

Smile. Dasyra decided. Smiling is universal. Even an orc understands humor. Best way to let her know she's not going to be murdered at her desk...

The ranger pointed at herself with her thumb.

"I'm Dasyra. Eternal Song in Darkness. Formerly Dasyra Sunsong. I'm on a mission to save the world - but I find myself needing some cash to do that. I need to hear about the guild's high profile contractors. Can you help?"
 
886694.jpg


"puffff.. pffff... Giaaah?." She eeped, looking up at the half cloaked elf, coughing, stumbling to reach out for her paperwork, clearing her throat. "Y.. you should not interrupt another elfs meditation. What if I'd been focusing on my spells!" She complained, clearly flustered and looking for an excuse.

"Veteran huh.. ugh.. should've known. You lot always arrive at the" *Yawn* "Most weird times... .." She sighed, reaching under the table with a special folder. "Let's see.. Dasyra.. doesn't ring a bell... but we got archives of old names for that.." She began flipping through the pages, grumbling a little. "It's easier for elven or gnomish adventurers who grow quite old compared to most... Daun, Da.. Dasyra. There you are. Alright, you qualify as Veteran hero alright. We need to get you set up with a new guild-badge and you just missed the heroic portraits. Also.. err, you kinda need to do a B-Rank or below mission before you are officially allowed the most dangerous. After all, it's our name on the line." She looked at Dasyra and sighed.

"Well, there are three... 'special' missions... I wont lie to you though, they are special because no one wants to take them. Classified as too dangerous. On two of the three the heroes didn't return and usually they involve something artifact-class.
.. alright, alright, you want to hear them, I get it, just stop smiling, you're kinda scary like that.. Well, if you really desperately need money to save the world..." She gave Dasyra a look that indicated she dealt with quite a lot of world-savers..

"The least dangerous is propably the warlorld of Ar'vania. An isolated kingdom, now ruled by an iron fist, there are a few remaining rebel-cells, but the last we heard is.. months back. Normally not an issue, but we lost one experienced hero to find out that this warlord is actually the rightful ruler, who has come under the sway of one of the Regalia of Evil. Presumably, taking that from them will fix the situation. Payment is a collective donation of several goodly churches, 50,000 gold plus blessings.. you know, free healing magic, discounts on being raised from the dead... good stuff. Could propably ask them for some enchanted equippment too if you're a shrewd negotiator.
Finally, there's also this old case, There's some sorta undead monster in the underdark, has control over ice and an evil artifact sword. Send several heroes packing, among them one of the eight, and a father of two more of them.. all retreated. Payment for the desturction of evil is 60,000 plus .. oh my.. The hand of one of Lord Lightbringers daughters...? I think that's a bit old.. I mean... if you succeeded in the mission, they'd certainly be impressed, but I doubt they -have- to marry you.. well, you're a girl, so not interesting to you anyway. Perhaps we can hammer up some more gold.." She exhaled and flipped through the pages.

"What is the third one again.. oh yes.
The prison of Vhaun. The mages guild over in Aiunstat discovered that one of their 'Esteemed members' had been doing forbidden experiments, quite sucessfully. Whatever he created is contained in a prison-plane.. thing.. but those things don't last forever, they want someone to go in, clean it up, come back out alive with his staff as proof of sucess. Originally submitted as merely an advanced mission, several heroes went onto that one.. and never returned. Now the mage guild offers 5.000 platinum and another 50.000 gold in value of magical items as chosen.

So yeah, if you're feeling daring, just tell me which one you want to go on and we'll see.."

(But! Before we go on any missions, Dasyra gains a level for progressening with things and escaping dwarf-mountain!)
 
"You were focusing on cream puffs, from what I could tell from your sleep-talking - or is it trance talking?" Dasyra winked at the clerk.

"Yes, let me consider the special missions - I'm afraid I'm on a bit of schedule." She continued, then listened to the three missions being spelled out to her. The first one seemed like a decent goal, but the payout was by the churches, of which no doubt one of them, if not all, would be alarmed by Dasyra's nature and certainly not interested in helping undeath to continue. Likely even a Baelnorn was a topic for debate among them, and a particularly orthodox group of priests might try to turn her, or straight away destroy her. Not ideal.

Then there was the second mission, which she was already working on. She supposed she could try to cash in on that one but maybe only when the evil had been properly 'destroyed.' She could argue semantics, but doubtlessly Lord Lightbringer would want the sword smote and not be interested in the after effects on Ventus' soul. Tricky.

That left the prison of Vhaun. Paid well. And mages didn't necessarily mind the undead per se. And they'd probably know how to spellforge an artifact like Ventus' souldrinker. Seemed like that one would be the best bet.

"Daring? These days it's not so much a choice, but a mandate.~ I'm interested in the prison of Vhaun. Tell me more about that. Also, Lord Lightbringer's daughters are Midnight and Dawn, right? They wouldn't by chance be on one of these quests as well?"

The undead ranger was guessing the second quest was of importance to them. After all, dearest daddy had offered up their hand in marriage to any old ale-drinking adventurer, murder hobo? Dasyra would've wanted to take care of that mission herself. It made her worry a bit about how much she could trust those two, but on the other hand, if they could be convinced of helping her succeed, then Dasyra could spare them the forfeit of the marriage, and save their family some money, as money meant little to the ranger, save what it could buy her. If the Lightbringers could arrange some celestial steel and a proper smith, then that would be enough.
 
886694.jpg

"I was.. look they're delicious, ok." She said, flustered.
"Hmn.. Yes, exactly, Miss Midnight and Lady Radiant Dawn.. And, no, although Lady Dawn was interested in the Underdark mission herself. I can't actually tell you what missions other heroes go on, veteran or not.

Anyway. So, the prison. Apparently one of the mages went a bit crazy and senile in old age, a transmuter. Tried to create the perfect creatures or something, but, see insane, he messed up. Whatever he made it is dangerous, but that's about all I know for sure. The wizards sealed off the place, send in a probe-golem, that came back, just fine, send in battle-golems and heroes.. none came back.
You'll have to travel to Aiunstat, about a half-day on horse if you can't teleport, then talk to the mage-guild.. Now where did we keep the contract insignia.." She began didgging through her table, groaning frustratedly after a short while..

"..You know what, just go there, I -doubt- they'd turn down the help because you lack paperwork..."
 
"I suppose I'll be making my way there now." Dasyra said.

"However, while I can appreciate that you can't tell me about what missions they are on, surely you can tell me if there is a way to get in contact with veteran heroes through guild means? I would like to convey a message to those two heroes before I leave."

Dasyra smiled and waited for Miss Cream Puff to explain if there was a way and how to accomplish her message - probably some sending spell.

The baelnorn ranger needed to make sure she could come into contact with the sisters once more, as Radiant Dawn had powers that probably could be relied upon to break down the blade, and she would want to convince the heroes to go down to the Underdark with her eventually. Once her inquiry at the hero's guild was done, her next course of action was to retrieve Ventus' blade and then make her way towards the mage guild. A horse might be a problem renting out, given that she was undead, so it probably meant either hiring a wagon or leaving now and just relentlessly plodding on foot, as undead could do.
 
886694.jpg

"If it's something important, you can just pay for a send message spell. Otherwise, I can take a message if you want to write something down.. err.. I guess I can fast-track you past the fanmail. Lady Radiant Dawn especially gets a loveletter every other day.." She said, with just a -hint- of jealousy and a slight shrug.
 
Dasyra nodded and plucked up a quill and ink bottle from the half-elf's desk.

"I'll write down my message and then yes, if you could pass it through past the fanmail, it is something of importance to them. Information that they would find useful."

Taking a piece of parchment she set to task laying out the situation as she saw it.

To Radiant Dawn and Miss Midnight, greetings from a friendly, questing baelnorn.

As this is a matter of urgency, I will get straight to the point. There is an evil afoot, deep in the Underdark. A rift to the Positive Plane of Energy has been taken advantage of by an intellect of malicious intent. The positive energy, which to so many represents a weapon against the lower planes and undeath, is now being used to create a growing army of mutating abberations. Monstrous, regenerating beings who corrupt and twist those who are affecting by their nature. Just as positive energy is the bane of the darkness, so too is negative energy the bane of the light. Forces that you would normally consider enemies are paradoxically your greatest potential ally against this threat.

As a baelnorn, I represent an exception to the rule - that undead are a curse unto the living. In fact, it is possible for eternal good to be contained within an undead shell. Such is the true nature of my Mistress, whose name is Ventus. Yet her true nature, which yearns to break free and stand against evils as she did in life, has been cursed by an ancient lich's twisted magic. Ventus became a Deathknight - the very deathknight that defeated your lord father many years ago, and upon whose demise now rests your betrothel.

Were I in your position, I would desire to finish that quest, and ensure that your partners are yours to choose - but Ventus is key in this fight to stop the evil escaping from the Positive Plane. She must not be destroyed. Instead, she must be uncursed, unfettered, and free to resume the work she did in life. The true key to obtaining this outcome is to destroy and then reforge her blade - the Souldrinker - which enslaves her spirit. I have already begun the process, but I require the holy might that Radiant Dawn commands to destroy the blade. Then, I will also need the means and materials to reforge a mighty replacement that could house the soul of a champion of good.

Were we able to do this, Ventus would be reborn as a baelnorn, your father's defeat would be avenged, and the true battle to save this world could begin. I am currently trying to secure funds to forge the replacement blade. If you receive this message soon, please meet me at the Prison of Vhaun. I am consulting with the mages guild to complete the veteran quest. I invite you to join me at your earliest convenience. If nothing else, it will be a new, and unlikely chapter to write into your already well-loved biographies. Should you not be able to meet me there, I will return to this guild, and then be heading down towards the Drow capital city, where I have a contact who is making inquiries about a possible forge. I'll leave a lock of my hair if Miss Midnight wanted to try a communication spell. I've no concern with you scrying me. my intent is genuine and aligned with the best interests of the world I once loved as a mortal elf.

-Yours Eternally,
Dasyra Shadowsong

The dark ranger rolled up the parchment, sealed it with some wax and gave it to the half-elf.

"Right, see that it's delivered. Radiant Dawn will probably want to kiss the messenger that gives her that." Dasyra winked and giggled a bit. After that however, she would take the information she had gained from the desk and move as swiftly as she could in the direction of the mages' guild, hoping to reach there with all possible speed.
 
"Hummmk...." Was all the elf said, poketing the message and subtly yawning again. "I'll make sure to give it to Geoffry or something then." Amazingly, this elf seemed to not be a lewd lesbian. Either way, she waved Dasyra goodbye, happily indicating a map, displayed over the mission board, to let Dasyra know where to go.

Dasyra traveled.. actually, for quite a ways while, it turned out that the next town was a half-day away, and what was for a swift elves feet. Still, she made good time and arrived at the mages guild at the next town, a drive of urgency (and partially, her undead nature) Preventing her from admiering the vibrancies of nature and liveliness of the city streets she wandered through. The sunlight was a bit of a bother still, she found herself yearning for the calmth and comfort of cooling darkness now.. it was no painful aversion like a vampire would have, just a preferance, a yearning for the dark embrace of her mistress over traveling free, yet alone.

Arriving at the mage guild(not hard to find, mages alwasy had a tendency to the towery-pomous, flashy aspects of architecture), she swiftly regretted the lack of contract-insignia given out to her prior... as some sort of magical ward went off, a slight tingling of magic the only sign of such, as a concerned mage approached. Well, it beat being blown up by a fireball, certainly. It seemed the mages had prepared wards against undead creatures, as the mage approached, smirking triumphantly and twirling his hand.

LG-cardart-Artaeum_Savant.png


"Aha!" The mage proclaimed, pointing at Dasyra. "Nice try, Sunsong. And I see you disguised yourself as a chick this time. Bit weird, bit weird, but creative. Greater Dispel magic!" He shouted, his hand twirling, arcaneries gathering...

Unknown elf-mage initative: 16
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top