Andrei walks in and takes a seat...he only wanted a shelter from the heavy rainfall...He picks out his violin and starts, as all elves do, composing slowly, muttering to himself pasages from his creation in languages that few mortals comprehend...



Salek FireStag stands in the corner, watching Andrei play and twirling a knife in one hand...

"Knives bother me...stop that, for the sake of music!" says Andrei, not even bothering to turn around...

She snorts amusedly, saying,"tis an easy-going room, but if you are that anxious to play without the presence of my blades, so be it."Salek sheathes the blades and sits back...

"Well then play with your knife if you will, but listen to my latest creation:" doing so, he warbles horribly a ballad about nothing in particular.


Salek narrows her eyes and draws her knives out. "Stop singing or I will knife your violin and your throat," she says slowly.

"Give your best shot and see what an elf can do!" says Andrei grinning...

The blades land with a thunk as Andrei's violin produces a knife that cuts through all its strings and his hat seems to have found itself pinned to the opposite wall...

"You will pay dearly for that!" saying so, Andrei flings a powerful punch that sends Salek flying to the other wall although leaving her bruiseless...Andrei was using a magic gauntlet that gave him humongous strength..."You're lucky that The Violin can still be repaired! Otherwise I would have killed you!" says the bard calmly.

Salek smiled at him, chuckling. "You're lucky I aimed for your hat, not your neck, or else I would have killed you."
She stood up, putting her hand out. "Salek FireStag. Occupant of this here castle."

Andrei extends his arm and Salek notices that his gauntlet was off, although she never saw him take it off..."I am Andrei,lonely bard and wielder of magic...That ballad you just heard was improvised and was meant to anger you, for you disturbed me back there..." He smiles. "Pleased to meet you!" *looks at his broken violin* "I think..."

Salek laughs. "Don't worry about that. I'll get Pitch to fix you some new strings, and I'm sure one of the woodworkers will fix the neck."She gestures for him to follow."C'mon, I'll show you around."

"Thank you...but I'd prefer to mend the Violin myself...it is enchanted, so I doubt anybody less than an elven mage can repair it...Do you have any food to spare, knife-wielder? I'm quite famished...but afterwards I will repay you by aiding you any way you wish..."says Andrei calmly...

"Well, if the elves are enemies of Karmikale, you'll find a mage here for sure. Go tell the cooks to spare you some pastries--tell them I said so." Salek pulls out more blades and juggles them faster than the eye can see. "Well, go on, get a room while you're at it."

Impressed by Salek's generosity Andrei creates several lights that twirl around her knives, creating a beautiful effect..."The Elves are enemies of anything that might harm the land...by the way...I am a mage...Thank you for your hospitality!"

"I suspected as much..."Salek smiles to herself, amused at Andrei's antics and fingers the lights.

A figure clad in a brightly patched bard's cloak strides into the room with a flourish. The hood is pulled back to reveal a human face... "Hail to thee, Salek... I have come as requested" *curtsy*

"[Rivkeh]! You made it!" Salek smiles, revealing the rest of the castle with a gesture of her hand. "Come! Allow me to show you the rest!"

"What?" Rivkeh says gently, "You're not going to introduce me to your friend, or offer me repast?"

Andrei, knowing it wouldn't be polite to intrude or to leave stands his ground...

Salek ducks her head slightly in embarrassment, saying, "My apologies, Rivkeh, just hadn't seen you here before..."She gestures to Andrei."This is Andrei the Elf, here on an unknown errand. Come, have a seat and I will order a meal for ye." She moves towards a table. Noticing Andrei's discomfort, she says kindly, "You too, Andrei. Come along, have a seat. You both must be famished."

Rivkeh curtsies slightly to Andrei, then removes her cloak. She is wearing traditional gypsy garb, with many baubles and instruments hanging off her belt. She sits where motioned to. "Do you have servants, Salek?"

Andrei bows politely then begins picking the pieces of his now broken violin...

"No, I don't believe in that. No one in this castle has the title of servant or slave. However, everyone here has to work for their pay and room, and that is an entirely different matter." Salek picks up the bridge of Andrei's violin and hands it to him. "Here, this is relatively important.."

A waiter comes to the table with notepad in hand. "Ello, My name's Eric, wot can I do for ye?"

Salek looks up and grins. "So, Eric, ye've finally found a job. Good for you!"
He smiles, and replies,"Oh, it's a job alright, not a very high payin one, mind you, but still a job..."

"Thank you Salek!...I guess it's your turn to reveal your identidy since you know who I am..." says Andrei as he turn towards Rivkeh.

To Eric, Rivkeh orders "Chilled spiced wine, please, love" and then turns to answer Andrei. "I'm a human, an adventurer, and very little else of any use".

"I'd like some mead Eric...the rain has chilled me enough...Hoping I aren't too intrusive Rivkeh, but why are you here?" says Andrei.

Rivkeh fixes him with a mysterious little grin "I came under invitation from Lady FireStag... I've never been here before, and had no better place to go. Seemed a goodly reason."

"I myself ended up here uninvited but it seems Salek and myself heve the same goal...so I intend in aiding her for some time..."

Rivkeh, interested, leans forward, "May I enquire about this 'goal'? I'm a useful companion in certain quests..."

"Hmm...You are here on Salek's invitation and she has proven herself hospitable...Very well then...I shall tell you,but not here...folow me to my chamber...it's in the Right Wing....

Later.....

Salek paces the floors, unsure of what to do next. She stuffed her hands into her cloak pockets and paused for a moment. She lifted a crystal stag the size of her palm and let the light dance through it, recalling the dragon she slayed to obtain it. She smiled.
"Salek?"
She turned, seeing Eric twisting his hands. "What is it, Eric?"She said softly.
"Ahem, the bill."
"Right." She pulled out her moneybag. "How much will it be?"
"twenty-five gold peices." Salek counted the coins into her hand and handed them to Eric.
"That should cover it," She said briskly.
He nodded, handing them back to the bartender.

"Although it's not polite to be intruding...what is that crystal?" says Andrei after Eric leaves.

Salek smiles unconciously."Part of an ambush. It's the Bastard Prince's brother's hart. As I told you, every dragon has a crystal hart, and this is one of them. The dragon himself is long dead." Seeing his inquisitiveness, she laughs and continues, "It was during n ambush. We managed to find a tunnel leading into the castle and attacked. They were caught completely off guard. We inflicted a serious blow that day; we split up into two; one broke into the safe and stole their supplies, the other made it to the Bastard's rooms. I was part of the second team. We buirst in and fired with arrows and bullets alike;Karmikale had not known of the Revolution of the Outsiders and had not taken atvantage of their technology, and thus was unprotected against guns. I shot at him, but the Bastard pulled his brother into the way of my bullets and remained unscathed of them."She sighs, enveloping the stag in her fist in frustration."The parties escaped nearly untouched;but I missed him."
She looks at him, relaxing. "But you didn't need to go through that little lecture of mine. My apologies."She smiles.

"Hmmm...technology...it is usefull...the crystal has atracted me beacose I specialise on light related magics and energyes...it is imbued with much powers that are locked deep inside it...it might be a usefull power-up when batteling the creature...now that it has probably protected itself from the weapons of the outsiders...Will you let me unlock these powers?"

"Not now, not ever, besides in the deepest need will I allow you to do such a thing. Unlocking the hart in turn unlocks the creature and the unfortunate victim becomes a reincarnation of it." She tucked it back into her pocket. "When all of this is over and done, I shall melt all the fallen dragon's harts into ten pebbles and bury them as deep as the sea floor will allow so spread around the world no one will be able to reform them. Gods forbid that they should be mistaken for pearls."

"You do not know that...these orbs hold the power of life...this power can be controled and used although this risk exists...It is your choice,but know the folowing: no mortal has ever actually studyed one of these objects...it could be transformed and even destroyed...It is your decision and you have spoken...now,shall we continue our quest to slay our vile enemy?"

She smiles. "A little bird told me that Rivkeh is joining the 'quest', as you call it,(I call it going to war)and I think it would be rude to leave without her." She turns."Oh-and if you ever get to slay a dragon or even the Bastard himself, feel free to tinker with its hart to your heart's content."

"You are corect...we shall wait..." says Andrei with an inexaustable suply of patience.

The rain outside was terrible... a regular down pour with frequent lightining bolts and a cold wind...
The door slowly opens with a weird noise allowing a cold gust of wind to come in... nothing can be seen in the door frame except the pitch black darkness outside...
Then, there's a a flash of light from a lightning bolt and an immediate large noise... the lightning bolt throws a ghostly light over the outer courtyard and the front of the doorway...
Then, the occupants of the entranceway could see the frame of a small humanoid dressed in a black monk robe standing in the doorway holding a gnarled staff...
He seemed to be very tired, but the downpoor didn't seem to bother him to much...
He slowly closes the door behind him, and with a slow but sure step, makes his way to one of the far corners of the room and takes a seat at one of the tables that was unoccupied, not seeming to notice the curious looks of the other occupants of the room...
He sits silently like this for few moments, making sure the hood over his head is well placed and that nobody could see his face, as if fearing that somebody would recognise him...
After this short pause, he slowly takes a a strange book from his backpack, opens it, and begins writing with a very strange instrument...
His hand was quick and he wrote in an unrecognisable language... what he was writing was undiscernable... as he alone could understand the book's meaning...
And during all this time he hasn't said a word, as if he was citing in a empty room...

"Ooh, nice theatrical entrance!" Salek smiles at the stranger, drawing a blade and fingering it. "But must you drip all over the floor? We just cleaned it yesterday.."She looks at the newcomer oddly. "Any reason for the secretiveness, sir?"

He continues writing for a few moments, as if not hearing what Salek said, then, slowly puts his pen down and raises his head to see who just spoke...
He sees Salek but doesn't say anything as if not knowing whether to trust her or not... finally he decides to speak...
His voice was that of a man that was carrying a large burden and a great deal of pain with him, but was controlling it nicely: "Sorry about the floor... but it's a downpoor and what am I sapposed to do?
My secretivness is my own concern and, if you don't mind, I would appreciate it if you wouldn't ask about that any more." His last words were rather harsh, but with no bad intentions... he obviously wasn't very good at opening conversations...

"Alright, sah, sorry I bothered you...don't worry about the floor, it's going to be cleaned someday anyway...I shall leave you alone, now.."She turns and retreats to a corner of the room.

Andrei although he didn't have a instrument to acompany him (OOC-thank you Salek!)starts to sing:
"in the shallow fog of darkness
that bears no likeness
to the light,i lift my eyes
and realize
that life is worth to live
if i just take that one breath
one breath of life...the darkness
shall become full of life


if tomorrow never comes
then i hope it never did
if tomorrow never comes
then i hope i shall be rid
of this anger
this pain inside me
i can not hide much longer
it lingers it festers it burns up my soul!

if tomorrow never comes
i will never be content
if tomorrow never comes
myself i shall resent!

i can not bare
to stand this stress
i can not bare
to be "the rest"

i can not stand
to never last
i can not be
the one... to stop..."
After this Andrei leaves...

The Wanderer is quite pusseled by what had happened... as if he was citing in his own room and people came bargin in and out at will...
Not alowing himself to be disturbed he returns to his book and continues to wright in a fast rithm...
This lasts for houres and houres with no change... he just keept writhing as if totally forgeting the flow of time and the fact that he was veary tired...
At last, he closes the book and puts it back in his backpack only to take another one out and continuying his aperantly sensless work...
If one would take a look at this book, one would notice that next to the veary small and unreadable writhing, there were images done by hand, depicting black dragons... they seemed to be anatomy sketches... the entire work seemed to be on the study of black dragons...
while he was writhing in this book, there seemed to be a even darker shadow, looming around this strange character... even with his aperant rigidity, one could notice he was visibly disturbed by something from the book... but exactly -what- was troubeling him was not clear...

Andrei came back a few hours later and spoke to Salek: "I cannot be imobile...I cannot be patient...I shall try to cause enough mayhem in the villain's army to turn he's atention from this place...I will go alone but I need one thing: gunpowder...and lots of it!"

"Any reason for this? Anything you can do will be very helpful. But why the gunpowder?do you intend to find a lot of dynomite and smuggle it into the castle?"She smiles. "If you cannot be patient, be annoyed. I am coming with you. It would be useful to have a caravan and I have one myself, not to mention the things inside it!" She smiles. "I will go and talk to the gunsmith about it. Tell Benjamin to rent you a horse and let us be off!"

"In case you haven't noticed I have made these preparations and I have trained...I have a special plan that requires the gun-powder but the caravan is unacceptable...Join me but do not expect easyness...I only needed the horse to carry the explosives..." says Andrei.

"One horse is not going to carry 45 kegs of gunpowder, sweetie, it's not going to happen. Besides, I've got an enchantment on my caravan. See?" Saying this, she takes out a small package from her pocket and proceeds in unfolding it. It springs open into a large caravan that fills the room. She opened the back and pulled out a Harley-Davidson."i don't use it much, seeing that there are no 'gas stations' on the Ballad Islands, but i keep it just in case."She folds up the caravan and puts it back into her pocket.

"I was going to try to shrink the kegs...but this is much better..." *smiles* "It seems your destruction of the Violin has been for the better...although I still have to repair it..." says Andrei with an amased glance...

"Oh, go over to the Woodworker's Suite, I'm sure there's an elven mage there somewhere who can fix it for ye." Salek turns and leaves the room, bustling off.

After another sive houres of continous writhing, the Dark Wanderer is finally to tired to write any more... he puts his books away and finally steps away from the table he had been citing at for so long...
He slowly aproches the bartendr and trys to find out how much a room fore a night would cost him...

Seying as how it was IMPOSSIBLE to get service in this place, the Wanderer decides to simply help him self to one of the keys on the wall, after wich he leaves the entrance way mumbeling to him self how good help is inexistent this days...

Nayneve slowly walked into the 'place' that every one was in. Her hood was up, so that no one would see what she was.

Salek looks at the newcomer, then continues playing with her knives. After a few moments, she asks, bored, "Who might you be?"

"im nayeve." Nayneve lookes at her and then shoves out a hand. "who are you?"

"Salek FireStag. Occupant of this here castle."She smiled and sheathed her blades, taking Nayeve's hand. "Any reason for coming?"

"nothing really... i just got bored of doing wat i was origanly doing." Nayneve said pulling her hood up even more.

Rivkeh strides back in the room. "Sorry, I didno mean to dissapear like that... I had a vow to fufil. What is our next plan of action?

Seeing Rivkeh's arrival, Biron (Andrei's old friend) greets her and starts to explain why the two hadn't waited for her..."Andrei and his new comarade have left...he told me to wait for you here until you arive..."
"Andrei told me something about a powerfull disturbance in the magical world...His obvious choice for a culprit was the dragon Karmikale...I am not so certain...Go quickly and ride south...you will probably meet them soon enough..."
---OOC sorry Salek...but I was quicker than you...---

"I am glad they did not wait," says Rivkeh "action requires haste sometimes. Andrei knows that".

"If yee wish, I could tell you how te meet up with the two..." says Biron whispering.

[bluefan44] enters then goes to the smithy.

A young woman with eyes so big that they hint at being disturbing enters from a rafter. Slowly hopping down, her dragonfly-wing-like cloak flutters behind her. She stares hauntedly at them and begins to back away.

Maelek stood on his hind legs, spreading his wings slightly. Who be you?

The woman stares more heatedly and answers in a strange, undulating toungue. "Hsssh hassh, ekkk. Rrrrakh klru Mearsi."

The dragon tittered a little, settling down. Hardly complimentary. Have you any news of Salek? He asked hopefully.

The woman settles down as well, sitting and remarking thoughtfully, "Herk haus."

Oh. Maelek was crestfallen.

[Gwendolyn Blackflame] walks into the castle, not sure how she got here. But it is not the first time this has happened to her. At least she remembers more this time. She pulls down her dark red hood to reveal her elven features. She looks around the room looking for a friendly face.

Maelek perked up, looking at the newcomer. Oh! Who's this?

Gwendolyn nods a greeting to Maelek gives a shy smile. Hello

Maelek lifted himself into the air, settling on a table next to her. Who're you?

My name is Gwendolyn, I'm a little lost again. She smiles and holds out her hand to offer a greeting. On her lower arm is a silver bracelet of a silver dragon.

The dragon smiled, showing several pointy teeth. Hallo! I'm Maelek. Salek's not here right now, but I'm around to keep the peace. You can stay the night, if you wish.

Thank you very much. Perhaps I shall look around a little. Any place you recomend I start? She removes her cloak, and puts it in her bag. She is wearing a simple dress that stops above the knee, also of Dark Red. Silver, black and gold patterns of flames are seen throughout. A Belt of a silver and gold bird sits at her waist. Tattoos on her upper arms of flames flicker with the candle light as if they are on fire themselves. The one on her forhead flickers in a strange silvery pattern. She smiles at the dragon and sits down. Perhaps I should learn a little about this place before I go exploring. Will you tell me?


Well, the best place to start looking around would be the Main Hall, Maelek said. But this castle has been a protecting fortress against the King for near twenty years.

The King? I am not from around here, is he a bad king? Gwendolyn takes a seat.

He's about as corrupt as they come. Maelek took a seat on the table. Can't expect anything different from a family of corrupt leaders.

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