Chapter One: Bright Lights and Deep Shadows

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…The city of Elleek stands before you travellers the crown jewel of Ghelt. You all enter through the South gate, the only gate which allows walkers passage, and cross the threshold into the Outer Ring. The size, sights and smells of the place will startle and amaze even the most worldly of you as you wander into the Gate Market a place for bric-a-brac and wagging tongues…

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Jhayze entered the Gate Market and grinned, he took a minute, just standing and gawping at the place. He’d been to markets before, of course, but this place sprawled and there were things on the stalls which he couldn’t even name. The smell was intense and his rumbling stomach directed him to a stall whose countertop was a large hotplate on which fried huge sausages and chunks of meat, the owner grinned at him and Jhayze smiled back.
‘How much for Sausage?’ He asked, already reaching for his coin pouch in his jacket pocket.
‘Three coppers boyo, four if ye want it in a bun.’ Chirped the stall owner, the smile still on his face and his accent heavy, making him from the Farmlands.
Jhayze paid for his food and thanked the man then wandered off, eating while he went. As he turned a corner a large white owl seemed to fall onto his shoulder. It took all his composure not to scream or jump out of his skin. He looked at the owl and the owl looked back, its big dark eyes seemingly intelligent. Jhayze managed to pull himself from the owls gaze long enough to see the note on its ankle, he untied the tightly wound scroll and no sooner had he done so the owl flapped its soft wings and was gone. Jhayze read the note and grinned, this place WAS fantastic!

Haelene was in heaven, if there were such a place, she stood staring at a stall filled with tick-tock devices not too dissimilar to the items that her family sold. Of course, she couldn't afford to by anything but looking never harmed anyone now, did it? She touched a small clockwork pig, jumping back in fright when it twitched beneath her finger. She couldn't help but notice that all of the items on the stall looked slightly more 'real' than she was used too. It was obviously the side-effect of good craftsmanship.

There's a growl from behind Haelene and when you turn around you will see a large black dog with odd eyes. In the hounds mouth is a tooth-marked scroll tube, the dog eyes you for a few more seconds and then drops the tube barks once and scampers off. There is a note in the tube and it’s to you…

Kryas stood in awe at all the stalls sprawling before him. Coming from a prosperous mining community such as his, he was used to busy marketplaces, but even to him this looked unreal. More importantly, he was hungry, it had been a long journey from the last township and supplies had ran out when the city was just in view. He re-holestered his pack and carved a path through the crowd to the nearest food stall. He eyed the cooked chicken legs hungrily "Hey, storekeep! How much for the chicken?!" He had to shout over the buzz of crowd, which made his already thirsty voice quite intimidating.
"4 coppers a-piece!" The storekeep held out his hand almost instantly, and Kryas replied, scooped up the chicken and began eating with vigour. Kryas wandered off, absent-mindedly gnawing the chicken bone while looking for stall that sold water.

There's a bark and a huge black german shepherd rounds the corner towards Kryas, it sits on it's haunches panting and raises one paw. On the paw is tied a small sheef of parchment, the dog watches intently, waiting for you to do something.

Looking considerably perplexed, Haelene bent down to pick up the tube. Pulling the note from its hiding place she skimmed its contents, her fingers brushing over the words as she read. Now matter how interesting the tick-tock items were, they were now forgotten, the note was ample distraction and more interesting than she would have thought.

Kryas spotted the dog through the crowd. Despite the many people around him, he knew the dog was looking at him somehow. He walked over to it, as if something commanded him. Kryas took the note from the dog's paw and read it intently, taking care to absorb all the information from it. When he looked up, the dog was gone.

Jhayze approached an elderly man sitting on a bench close to the outer wall.
'Excuse me... sir?' He says, taking a small bite from his sausage sandwitch
'yes m'boy?' Replied the leder, his tone wavering and hoarse,
'Can you direct me to the temple of The One please? I know it's in the Inner Ring but I'm new here and I don't know the way.' Replied Jhayze
'Certainly...' The old man proceeded to explain the route in great detail and explain just why every building on the way was important to him.
Jhayze eventually managed to break away, thanking the fellow and wandering north, through the market, smiling at whoever he passed. Today was a fine day indeed!

Kryas pocketed the note and tapped a passing woman on the shoulder, who simply ignored him and carried on walking. City people! He grimaced and grabbed the next one roughly around the shoulder, an older man who was in conversation.
"Excuse me young man, I was in conversation!" He was attempting to be disciplinary and failing. Kryas gave him a flat look.
"Yeah, where's the Ogre's Eye in..." He consulted the note again "Gate Market?" The man explained the way and Kryas thanked him and carried on his way. The man watched him go with almost confusion before returning to the conversation he was having with his friend.

Haelene was not a nosy person, by any means, but she couldn't help but notice a young man asking about the whereabouts of The Ogre's Eye, which was exactly where she was trying to get to. Pushing her satchel up her shoulder she hastily skipped after him.

Jhayze ambled along at a slow walk, taking in the sights of Elleek on the way. At one point he stopped for nearly ten minutes just gazing at a particularly grand house. Eventually the looming inner wall came into view and Jhayze passed through one of its pedestrian gates. Once through he followed the old mans instructions and began his walk east. Jhayze stopped far more in the Inner circle than the outer as the buildings were far more grand and imposing.

Kryas wandered through an iron gate where the market became decidedly lower down the social ladder than the place where he had met the dog. A homeless man was sleeping in a door stoop and there was a fair few drunk people wandering around, the buildings were constructed with shoddy brickwork which instantly spoke of haste to solve a population problem and the thatched rooves were heavily frayed places. Kryas remembered the man's instructions and took a first right, and began walking straight until he saw the Ogre's Eye.

Hael trudged after him, she wasn't really paying much attention her surroundings, it didn't have the hustle and bustle as the main part of the market and failed to hold her interest for long enough for her to want to look around. That, partnered with needing to keep Kryas in her sights, was enough to keep her walking straight down the path - getting lost was one of her specialities and it would not be very productive if she were to get lost now.

When Winep came to the city gates he got kind of nervous about becoming an adventurer. He had come too far to turn back now. He entered the gates and was amazed at all of the shops. Nothing in the farmlands compared to the sights, sounds, and smells. Winep almost forgot why he had come here in the first place. He looked at the flyer and saw that he had to find the registration stand a 50 yards into the city. Winep couldn't help but walk slowly and take in all of the spectacle.

Driianalyn smiled faintly at a few of the people passing through the gates as she did, all of whom never paid her a glance. She forced herself through the crowd and finally looked up, seeing as much of the market as she could in one eye full. "I'll be damned." She muttered in suprise, realizing that this very well could be the most enchanting place she'd ever been. She began through the market as a quick pace, the pace that all the city people seemed to be using. Something caught her eye, however, a shine from a stall. She hurried in that direction.

A great tawney owl shrieks and then plummets at Winep, landing heavily but with grace on the young mans shoulder. The large bird turns it's head at stares at Winep, its great wise eyes seemingly searching for something in his face. Attached to the birds leg is a tightly bound scroll...

At the same time Drii see's the stall that interested her a short fat but jet black dog trundles up to her. It's slobbering and wagging it's stubby tail, tucked in its collar is a scrap of paper. The dog sits in front of her, waiting for something.

(You all experiance this vision, thats what italics will mean:)) ... he screams as he's impaled, the pale man is laughing as he pulls out the sword and stabs it in again and again. The pale man is a vision you recognise, he is white as a sheet with greased back black hair and a terrifying malice in his eyes. The scene pulls back and you see him atop a craggy mountain peak, the stabbed man is old, very old with blue eyes and a jutting jaw... The vision fades but there is something about the pale man and his victim which strikes you all as incredabley important...

Kryas shook his head as his mind's eye cleared, stopping dead in the middle of the street. What in sweet mercy was that? His head felt as if he was waking from a dream, that sort of dreary recognition that things you had just experienced weren't real. He shook his head again. Come on, to the Ogre's Eye, this Serrina must have answers. Kryas found the Ogre's Eye, staring at the odd sign for a bit, a grinning goblin sat on the ogre's shoulder holding his eye while the blind creature cried. He stepped in to the bar and was not surprised by the pugnant smell of the bar. The moist straw squished with every step to the battered bar and the rough looking patrons all glanced briefly in his direction when he walked in. Kryas got to the bar and looked the bartender in the eye. "I'd like to see Serrina please" The bartender smirked and returned Kryas' steady gaze.
"Ye'll have to buy a beer furst, 5 coppers" Kryas sighed and dropped his money on the bar, waiting patiently for his beer and the heeding of his request.

Hael stopped dead, well, not literally, of course, but she thought she would have keeled over if it were possible to die from seeing strange images in the forefront of her mind. With this in mind, she began walking again, only with a quickening pace, slipping into the tavern moments after Kryas. She took a moment to look around at the patrons, wishing she could be invisible when one of them began to stare, before tripping towards the bar not remembering that there was an empty stool in front of her.
"Stupid thing..." She muttered as she kicked it aside.

Serrina looked up at the mention of her name, she'd been sitting at the far end of the bar talking quietly to a man in a deep hood.
'You got a reason for wanting to see her?' She asked Kryas, her tone cautious and her long fingered hand resting on her daggers sheathe.

Jhayze is still wandering the streets of the inner ring, he's had a long conversation with three people already and discovered a few useful and a great many useless tidbits of information. He rounds a corner and see's the temle for the first time. Jhayze gasps, it's not a temple in any real sense it's a huge circular platform with a towering staue of a nondescript person (pressumably the one) at its centre in white marble. There were a great many stone benches on the platform, some being shletered but some not. Jhayze whistled, the statue was the tallest thing he'd ever seen.

Kryas looked down the bar at her, glancing briefly at the man in the hood. "Yeah, I'd love to know how she trained a dog to find me and give me a note," He brandished the piece of paper that had been tied to the dog's paw and realised the the bartender had just conned him into buying a drink he didn't want. Well, I needed to satisfy my thirst anyway...

At this point Haelene decided it was best she spoke, "I have the same... issue." She perched herself on a stool a small way away from Kryas. It was a strange coincidence, one that she would probably be pondering for the rest of the evening. She glanced at Kryas before looking towards Serrina's table.

'Fuck...' She said, ice entering her tone 'Fine, Morgan, we'll talk again soon...'
The hooded man nodded and left the tavern.
'Right, so the Mongrel picked both of you did she? Why she can't do this herself I'll never know...' Serrina then grinned, her tone easing a little 'I suppose you'd both best come with me then, we'll go and find Serinna'
With that she small woman hopped off her stool and proceeded up the stairs behind the bar and into a room at the end of the corridor.

Eleirah sat in a corner just off the marketplace playing a lively song on her fiddle. As the vision sprang into her mind her bow slid unmusically across the strings and her face paled. 

As she plays her fiddle A large long haired black dog approaches, it sits closeby and stairs at her, howling when she stikes the off note. After a few seconds it holds out a paw, tied to it is a scrap of paper...

Eleirah stared at the dog for a moment in puzzlement. "Is that for me?" She asked it, as if it could understand her. She set aside her bow and cautiously reached out a hand for the scrap of paper.

Drii momentarily was lost in the vision, but shook it out of her head, her dreadlocks shaking a bit and clinking the trinkets and fishbones in them. She looked at the dog, noticing the paper. She reached down to the collar and grabbed it, reading.

Eleirah read the note over twice in confusion before looking back at the dog. "Directions? Who would really want to talk to me? I hope this isn't about my family." Eleirah began gathering her things together, and put her fiddle carefully away with care not to ruin her precious instrument. Then she got up and started in the direction of where she'd heard Gate Market was.

Kryas drunk as much of his drink as he wanted, savouring the cool relief of his satisfied thirst. He burped loudly and followed the small woman behind the bar, nodding his head once at the bartender as he went.

Following, Hael trotted after them moving past the bar and down the corridor - glancing from side to side as she went.

Drii frowned at the note. I s'pose my father was right. There are bigger things for me in the universe. But why here? She moved through the crowd to the stall that had originally caught her eye. Turns out, the stall held necklaces of splendor, several different gems and such. She resisted the urge, however, to grab every one of them and take them home to her mother. "Sir, Can you direct me to the Ogre's Eye?"

The man looked and smiled.
'Yeah no worries!' He said, he then proceeded to tell Drii where to find the tavern, explainign the route in fetail.

"Thank you for your kindness." Drii said in her best kind voice and quickly made her way through the crowds in the diretion that he had pointed in. Her palms itched for those necklaces, but she'd push it out of her mind. She was more interested in that note and whoever this Serrina was.

Serrina left the small room at the top of the stairs, a slight smile on her scarred face. She'd let the other two sit out the odd sensation left by Induction to the Shadows in a side room. The small woman sat on a bar stool after pulling herself a pint of bitter ale.

Eleirah made her way to the Ogre's Eye tavern, though she did ask directions from a couple of street children that she ran into along the way. After entering the tavern she stopped just next to the doorway to let her eyes adjust to the different lighting and looked about.

Serrina eyed Eleirah over her now half empty pint, the girl looked out of place. At that point Serrina muttered a quiet curse to the Mongrel who had seen fit to 'bless' her with so many new recruits today.

Eleirah walked over to the bar and grimaced with embarassment. She had to lift herself up on her toes to be able to see and be seen over the top of the counter. She blushed but waved at the man behind the counter to try to catch his attention. "Excuse me?" She tried calling in an tentative voice.

The bar keeper looked down at her, his expression unreadable.
'Yeah?' He questioned

Drii counted on her fingers the different directions, making sure she had made it all the way through the right way as the man at the stall had explained. She frowned and looked up at what was the Ogre's eye. She made her way into the building and shut the door behind her, blinking her eyes a few times, glancing at all the different objects in the room.

Eleirah looked down and the crumpled message in her hand and then back up at the bar keeper. "Umm... could you tell me where...Serrina L’Craz... is?" She asked sounding the name out carefully.

'Fucking great...' Hissed Serrina 'A busy day indeed, thank you VERY much...'
The barman turned away and went to wipe some glasses and Serrina drained the rest of her pint.
'I assume you recieved that scrap of paper from a dark coloured hound?'

Driianalyn peaked around the corner and found the bar where a shorter woman was with another who drank impressively. Driianalyn held back the want to like the woman already. Anyone who could drink like a sailor was fine in her books. She slid into the room and smiled worriedly. "I am, as well, looking for Serrina."

Serrina sighed her scarred face finally settling into a more friendly grin.
'Fine, you'd both better follow me...' Witht hat the short woman hopped off her stool and wandered up the stairs behind the bar. Once at the top she crossed the landing and entered the room opposite the stairs

Eleirah nodded akwardly to the woman, feeling ever more out of place among so many people. Holding her precious fiddle case across her chest, she took a deep breath and followed the woman.

Winep didn't notice the great bird land on him because of the vision. When it was over Winep caught a glance of the owl from the corner of his eye. He flinched and then looking closely he saw a peice of paper on the owl's foot. He took it and the owl flew away as he read its contents. Winep was surprised. He had to sit down after all that had just happened.

Theed Cresh entered the gates of elleek and was immediately onslaughted with a thousand sights and smells. He felt he was very out of place, as everyone was moving quickly, as if they had a purpose, while theed just stood there, looking around in a daze.

As Theed stood and gawked at the Gate Market a small black dog padded up to him, a scroll in it's mouth. It sat down and dropped the scroll at Theeds feet,barking once...

Winep wasn't sure what to do. "...meet me at The Temple of the One in the Inner Ring..." the note said. Should he follow this random notes instruction or should he find the registration booth. "Well why not both" Winep thought to himself. He found the booth and showed him the flyer. The man looked at the paper and said "Sorry kid we're full with applicants we don't need anymore." Winep frowned but at the same time thought "how perfect". Winep asked the man there "Can you tell me how to get to the Temple of the One?"

The man nods once and gives Winep directions as best he can, explaining which gates are best to use to access the Inner Ring and the directions to head in etc.

Winep wrote down the directions and followed them. Winding through boothes and allies he finally came to the temple. What a sight it was. He walked into the grand building and looked for Tolanar. Winep wasn't sure what to do really he thought "What am I doing here. I don't even know what this man looks like and Tolanar doesn't know what I look like or if anyone even recieved the note. Way to go with another one of your half baked plans. Maybe if I..." Winep gave three hoots to try and give a clue to why he was here. Tolanar must have sent the owl, right? Winep stopped because he was embarassed someone else might have heard him.

Tolanar was sitting on one of the many benches which circumnavigated the vast statue of the one, sitting next to him was Jhayze, the seemed to be deep in conversation. At the sound of the hooting Tolanar turns and grins at Winep
'I suppose you got a message from a feathered friend too?' He enquired 'O do hope you can talk human too... Follow me!'
With he stood and approached the altar at the foot of te vast statue...

as Theed heard the bark, he jumped and quickly placed his hand on the hilt of his sword. He then realised it was a domestic dog, and had placed a note in front of him. "wierd." He said to himself, before picking it up and reading it. Apparently the note read that he should visit an inn called the "Ogre's Eye". It was kinda strange, as it didn't give directions. After asking a nearby merchant (in exchange for a copper piece) Theed was pointed in the right direction and (hopefully) headed towards the inn.

Serrina lounged on a bar stool, hlaf asleep from the exertions of inducting so many, around her the taverns patrons were just as loud as ever

Theed eventually arrived in the inn, and asked one of the bar maids for a person called Serrina L'Craz. She pointed to a woman who looked like she was about to fal off the stool she was sitting on. theed walked over and tentatively said, "Hi. I got a note from you, I think. Is it a bad time, I could come back later?"

Serrina sighed, she didn't even say anything this time, just motioned Theed to follow her up the stairs behind her...

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