[Laura Simmonds]

Valton keep, afternoon
Leandra

Well, the sun's already past peak. Nice to know I've wasted so much time already.

Frowning slightly at Magnus' unrelenting march through the sky that signaled she was taking a bit longer to get things done than she would've prefered, Leandra pulled her sleeve up and scratched underneath the front-most piston on her lower arm, sighing softly. Things were only calm enough for her to remove the contraptions covering her right arm once every week, frequently even less frequently, and by the Eight it could get itchy and uncomfortable sometimes.

Realizing that the guard she was approaching obviously found the unsightly Dwemer devices disturbing at best, the young Nibenese pulled her widened sleeve over her arm again. Not to worry, A slight smile found its way to her lips again. If I'm staying here longer, I might get a whole couple of days off from this thing. That was a prospect to make her happy. Well, happier, what with already feeling rather good about finding a well-paid job so quickly in this new hold. Disappearing court mages or no, it seemed Valton would turn out alright.

With the amount of people looking for an audience with the Jarl, it was no wonder that the guard remaining at the door seemed quite befuddled; to be fair, of course, she hadn't exactly helped him get off to a good start to such an avalanche of petitioners or whatever it was they all were. Being stuck with an odd crossbow of ancient design was fun enough on its own, but exposure to a mess of tubes and pistons hanging from an arm tended to affect people in a peculiar manner.

Rubbing her right shoulder slightly with a glint of concern to her eyes about the slightly larger puff of steam that had just come out of her tube, Leandra thus decided not to 'chat up' the guardsman any further. Bugger already has enough on his plate, let's just get my things and get on it...

Huh.

Slowly, her left palm closed into a fist. There seemed to be a soft whisper of the wind gently blowing as though through a small crack in rock in her ears; the strong smell of exotic incense and a more stinging stench of bitter smoke...

Be alert. Her heart gave off one slightly faster beat before steadying again.

Leandra grinned to the guard, slinging her crossbow over her back and taking her dagger. "I have to say, you lot have this whole 'creepy village in the middle of nowhere' act down pretty well. First it's all empty, tension building and all, then a solitary farmer pops up and points me on my way, hurrying off afterwards..." The blade lingered over its sheath, its owner not in much of a hurry to return it there. None of what she'd just felt was real, but she knew well enough what it meant.

"Then you do the whole 'mistrustful' part - nice work by the way - and you have a scene with the Jarl, granted a mysterious and mystical task... People gathering up and all... And then,"

Slowly, the Nibenese turned around, tilting her head slightly and looking at the Argonian who'd followed her out of the hall. Her smile was friendly, that much was true, but the slight twinkle to her eyes seemed... uncertain. "Then I get followed out by the slightly creepy looking resident Argonian - which is an original touch, I was expecting a huge-eyed hunched man of uncertain pedigree with a wooden club. I presume this is where it turns out there's a horrible secret cult in this town and I can't leave now that I know?"

Either that, Dagger still neglecting to be shoved into its sheath, Leandra showed little sign that she was ready to get to work with it any second. Or we can be less dramatic and you tell me what made you make this interesting decision to follow the obvious mercenary who might be various levels of paranoid, in trouble or crazy.

[Nany Smith]

Itan-Ru, Valton Keep, Late Afternoon

Itan-Ru had only been waiting a few minutes when suddenly a guardsman came into the hall and headed straight for him. The guard asked him, in a very serious tone, if he was a mage. The young argonian immediately suppressed a fearful twitch in his tail, and was relieved when the guard clarified that he needed help of a magical sort.

"What's wrong?" he asked, "Is someone hurt?" He looked at the Guard's face for a moment and decided that whatever it was, it was clearly a grave matter. "Never mind what it is, just lead the way, and I'll help however I can." He got off the wall and set down his pack, deciding that if he were to leave it anywhere, then the Jarl's Keep was among the safest places to do so. He stopped to grab a few magicka and healing potions from the bag, just in case someone needed them, and followed the guard out of the keep.

[Schel[Anne]FTL]

A guard of Valton, Valton keep-The barracks, late afternoon.

The argonian turned out to be a mage, just like the guard had thought. Apparently some sort of alchemist as well, judging by the bottles he took with him. The guard figured he shouldn't be all too surprised by this, if the argonian thought someone was hurt. And well, technically someone was.. But that someone was at that other alchemist elf, hopefully.

The lizard followed him out of the keep and down to the barracks, where two other guards greeted them nervously. The body was a little distance away, at the very edge of the town of Valton, as if the guards didn't want it near their barracks. The guard and the lizard approached the body. It looked just as pale and just as wrinkly as before, and the red eyes were unmistakable. The guard nodded at the dead mage with a puzzled looked and said to the lizard beside him:
"This is the situation... We have no idea what this dead mage is suffering from... or what he is. I know as much that he's a mage. He created some sort of illusion of four bandits earlier, as well as do something odd with two other bandits." He had that serious tone and look on him again and continued, "We need to know what's going." , while pointing at the dead mage.

[Grace Francis]

Itan-Ru, Guard barracks, Late Afternoon

Itan-Ru had followed the Guard to the barracks where he was led around the back to be greeted by several confused-looking guards standing around an incredibly pale corpse. He listened as the guard who had found him explained what had happened, though his unfamiliarity with magic left his version of events... lacking. He moved closer to the body and took a closer look at it.

He was struck by how red the eyes were, as well as the paleness of the skin. If the guard had come to him immediately after this man had died, then his skin should still have much more color. Itan-Ru mumbled to himself as he examined the body. He wasn't fazed by corpses, as he had helped the other priests prepare bodies for the Hall of The Dead before.

"The body is a Breton male, age difficult to determine. Extremely pale, despite being dead less than an hour," he felt the body's hand, "Body is colder than it should be, again despite the time frame. Unusual deformation of face and eyes, and-" he stopped short and, following a hunch, quickly turned the corpse's head to one side, exposing his neck. The skin was relatively smooth, nothing out of the ordinary. He held his breath and turned the corpse's head to the other side.

There on the dead man's neck were two small round scars, about an inch apart. He stood up quickly and backed away from the body, turning to face the guard. His face was grim as he said, "I'm certain. This man is a vampire. From what i can remember of what the other priests told me, the appearance of his face and eyes suggest that he hasn't fed for quite some time. You said he was doing something strange to some bandits. could you describe it in more detail? It might help determine if there's any more lurking about that we may need to worry about."

[tegan fiamengo]

A guard of Valton, outside the guard barracks, late Afternoon.

The lizard examined the body for a second but suddenly took a quick step away from the body and said it was a vampire. The guard also took a step back and almost fell backwards as his foot hit a small stone. He managed to regain his balance and listened as the mage asked for more details of the happenings. He tried to recall everything as perfectly as he could, which wasn't difficult at all. The tricky part was voicing what he'd seen. He tried his best to use as many of the mage-words he'd heard during his life when he answered:

"He created an illusion of him looking like a bandit. In addition, he created four other images of bandits running next to him. Then there were to deep blue, slightly purple glowing bandits as well. When I killed him, the illusions disappeared, he turned into looking like a necromancer in his black robe, and the two glowing bandits turned into ash-piles." The ash had probably disappeared with the wind a long time ago.
"Not much more to add I'm afraid. That's pretty much it. I sincerely hope there's not a vampire lair close to Valton." He trembled at the thought. They'd definitely have to be extra careful from now on, especially from the direction the vampire had come from. North and east, and north-east would have to be guarded more carefully. And not alone. He two other guards were on their way to spread the news to the other guards. Hopefully this was, however, just a lone drifter who'd followed the newcomer to town from quite a distance away. He looked at the argonian again and pointed at the corpse.
"What should we do about that?" He figured perhaps burning it would be best, just to make sure it stayed dead... Or something. The guard didn't know much about necromancy or vampires, or magic, but you could never be too careful.

[JUDY FIGHTS]

Jormaw, Valton Keep, Afternoon.

The argonian bursted into laughter. "Cultists? haha! duk si mah, you're a funny one." Jormaw when to scrunch up
the imperial's tied hair and gave a soft teeth-filled smile. "This one simply requests to briefly aid you in your endeavour."
He gave a brief bow to the nibenese woman, a gesture learned from the nobles he once served. Indeed, her heritage was too easy to tell.

[ZANEY82]

Skarpi, Valton Inn, Late Afternoon

The farmer named Alguidar introduced himself and his companion, and then explained that he was delivering his foodstuffs to the Inn. He was very polite to Skarpi, and offered to give the old sailor some apples for free before inquiring on who he was.

“I am the legendary Skarpi!” laughed the old man as he handed Alguidar a bag of coins. “Sailor of Tamriel’s most torrent seas, plunderer of the most ancient tombs, and teller of the most girpping tales!” at this point, the retired adventurer went to into a coughing fit. “I also play the flute sometimes” he said after recovering, a shadow of a grin on his weathered face.

[Carlitos Avila]

Itan-Ru, Outside the Guard's Barracks, Late Afternoon

Itan-Ru thought for a moment before speaking, "Hmm...So he was skilled in illusion as well as necromancy... The fact that he created fake bandits to help him, as well as bringing some back from the dead, makes it likely that he was working alone. He also didn't seem too smart, attacking while most of the town is still wide awake. While I don't think there are others from what I can see and what you told me, it's best to err on the side of caution when it comes to vampires. As for the body, burning it would be the best option, I think."

He turned to the body on the ground, the guardsman's arrow still jutting from his throat. The priest shook his head sadly, wishing it could have been different for this poor man. He walked over to the body and placed a hand on it's forehead, murmuring a prayer for the man who it once was, wishing him more peace in the afterlife than he'd received in this one. He stood once more and looked at the guard.

"Burn the body as soon as possible and keep an eye on it at all times; if it's not really dead we don't want it hurting anyone else." He paused for a moment, "Was there anything else you needed of me?"

[Sanctum]

A guard of Valton, outside the barracks, late afternoon.

A few other guards returned, carrying fire wood with them. The guard watched as the lizard mage muttered a prayer, which made him think he was actually a priest and not a mage. The argonian asked if he needed anything else done, but the guard couldn't think of anything. So he said,
"No, not really, no. We'll get to burning the thing right away, further west from the town." And with that, the other guards began dragging away the dead vampire. The guard stayed behind and waited for the others to be out of ear-shot before he said to the lizard priest,
"Good to have you in our town stranger. You should probably return to the keep and finish your business with the Jarl. Thanks again for the help."
Then he waved good-bye and disappeared behind a set of rocks after the other guards, where they burned the body without any dramatic things happening.

[matt white]

Nuramon, His House, Late Afternoon.

He had been reading the whole midday. Searching in the pages for any clues on what way every prince likes to mingle with the mortals, but to no direct succes. He had found nothing of use. I guess I’ll have to speak to Sargon about it. But where is he? He can’t still be asleep?” Just as he was about to stand up to check it out he smelled death and decay walking into his house, soon followed by a loud knock on his front door.

He jumped ontop of his armchair turning around in the process. His nails were digging into the soft cussions while letting out a loud hiss. Whatever thing had come into his home, Nuramon was ready to tear it down with teeth and nail.

But it wasn’t anything dangerous. A guard who seemed to be carrying a nord or maybe a redguard, Nuramon couldn’t clearly tell. The guard quickly walked in and spoke to him. While Nuramon was sniffing in the air surrounding the two man. That stenche is deffinetly coming from one of them.

"Here's another one for you, if you could be so kind?" The guard explained.

Nuramon nodded and looked around the room to find a place to lay him down. “Put him on the table.” He simply said when he realized every bed or couch was taken. “What happened with this one? The way I see it the guards aren’t doing their jobs correctly.” He didn’t want to offend the man, he just stated a fact.

When he got closer to the man he found out the smell of death and decay came from him. He ignored it for the time being and under the watchfull eyes of the guard started examening the man. He had an arrow sticking from his back and it had probably perforated his lung. From the look of his clothes he also had a dangerous wound in his abdomen. Together with the man’s pale skin and very slow breathing, Nuramon concluded the man had lost a lot of blood and was at the brink of dying.

“alright, alright, alright, no time to lose. Bloody wanna be adventurers bleeding my whole dinning table under.” He cursed as he paced to the closet. He rumbled through it until he found the things he needed. He took out his mortar and pestle together with some ingredients he knew he would be needing. He also took out a premade potion that would speed up the healing process that the paste he was going to make would begin.

He placed on the table an egg from a rock warbler, a jarr filled with grey dust and a conserved heart. The thing was still bloody. He then quickly produced some clean bandage which he used to clean the wound at the man’s abdomen as good as possible. He wasn’t touching the arrow because he knew it had perforated the lung and he didn’t want to make it collaps. As long as the arrow stuck in, the hole it had created was closed.

He then started working on the paste. He took the egg and crushed it in the mortar, “Now the dust, where did I put it? A yes, there it is, just a small handfull vampire dust will be enough” he mumbled while he opened the jar and took the dust out with his hand. He started mixing the two ingredients together until it became one homogenigue mixture. “tell me, guard, what happened to this man? What attacked him?” he asked while working, wondering what could have smelled so bad, because it sure wasn’t the scent of the man.

When he was done mixing the egg with the dust he took the heart. “Carefull now, no need to use the heart. I only need the blood.” He mumbled while waiting for an answer as he picked up the heart and squeezed the remaining blood out of it. It had been magically conserved the moment he had harvested it so it was still very... fresh. He started mixing the whole again while he continued mumbling to the guard unknowingly.

“you know? Not only the heart has great magickal benefits, the blood itself is great as well. Especially to speed up the process of the creating of blood in a man’s body.” He added in a bit of water to make it a little bit more liquid. “and we all know blood is what keeps us going and this man has lost a lot if not almost all.” He stopped. “It’s done.”

He took the rags around the abdomen away. The wound was cleaner and there wasn’t much blood coming out of it again. With two finger he went in the mortar and then smeared the paste over the wound, covering it. “I yes, I forgot.” He mumbled to himself. He looked up and picked some dried hanging moss from his ceiling. He had harvested it recently and it was just dry enough to be used.

He covered the paste with the moss and then wrapped new, clean bandages around the man’s abdomen. He then proceded to start on the man’s lung and back. He looked at the guard while he thought about what he could do. I’ll have to prepare a healing spell to heal the lung before it collapses after the arrow has been pulled out.”

“you pull the arrow out quickly so I can cast the spell. Ready?”

[Christine]

Another guard of Valton, inside Nuramon's house, late Afternoon.

The guard helped the elf a bit and watched as he mixed some paste together and cleaned the wound. The elf also asked what had happened, between comments of what he was doing. The guard who'd actually seen that had gone away with the body, so whatever the current guard knew wouldn't be much. He shrugged and said,
"You'd better ask him..." He pointed at the wounded newcomer, "Because I didn't see much of the situation. Just the some sort of sick man who created a mirror-image of himself was running after him. He had the arrow sticking out of him already at that point though."
The elf asked him to pull out the arrow from the newcomer. Surely he was joking? No, no he wasn't. "Bloody mages..." He muttered to himself and grabbed the shaft of the arrow with his strong right hand, while pushing against the shoulder of the wounded man with his left. He still didn't think this was a good idea and before his mind had completely accepted what he was about to do, he said:
"Yeah I'm ready. Three.. Two.. One.." He pulled the arrow out as steadily as he could and hoped by the eight that the elf knew what he was doing...

[Tai Scott]

Nuramon, His House, Late afternoon.

The guard explained that he knew nothing of the situation and just brought the man here for treatment. He did however mention a sort of sick man that had been chasing this guy. Nuramon listened with one ear as he concentrated his mind on the spell.

The guard said he was ready and started counting from three to one. As the guard pulled out the arrow Nuramon quickly mumbled the words he needed while placing his hands on the wound. The spell took imidiat effect and Nuramon felt the lung repairing the perforation. He knew his knowledge of restorative magic wasn’t great and that the new tissue covering the perforation was weak and could rip with the faintest movement.

He quickly took the paste and covered the wound with it. He then covered it with the rests of the hanging moss. “I’ll leave it as it is since I don’t dare to move his body. The new lung tissue is very weak and it’ll rip with the smallest movement. He must remain here.” He said while walking back to his cupboard. There, after searching he found a poison of paralyse.

He first took the potion he had already placed next to the man and made him gulp it down as good as possible. He then took a spoon and gave the man five filled spoon of the poison to keep the man’s body completely still. “I have given him something to paralyse his body. I don’t want to take any chances. He’ll probably wake up in a few hours.”

“Can you show me the body of the sickly looking fellow I wan’t to know if the man wasn’t carrying any disease that can become an epidemic. He sure smelled like death and decay, the sick man that is.”

[Charles Weber]

Another guard of Valton, Nuramon's house, late Afternoon.

The elf calmly paralyzed the newcomer and turned his full attention back to the guard. Just as he was about to answer that he actually didn't know where the sickly looking man was right now, another guard entered Nuramon's house. He quickly explained the situation that had happened at the barracks not long ago. They'd uncovered the sickly man was a vampire and the body was being burned as they spoke. The guard explained they should be extra cautious, but pointed out that the vampire had probably been alone and everything would be ok. This he mentioned because Nuramon was there, as well as his two patients and any other citizens who could be hearing their conversation.

The two guards left Nuramon's house, but before they left the other guard mentioned the lizard priest, who was around the barracks somewhere, or already at the keep. He could probably help Nuramon if he had any further question. With that, the guards headed inside the barracks, equally eager and scared to discuss the new turn of events with their fellow guard-comrades.

[Suzy Santana]

Titus Aetius, Valton Keep, late afternoon

Once the woman had left and gone, Titus walked up to the Jarl, and said,"Jarl of Valton, my name is Titus Aetius. I am a mercenary from Cyrodiil. I served as commander of a small company of longbowmen, the blackguard, I'm sure you've heard of them, and after we parted ways, I heard of this new keep, and thought you must have some work. Do you have any jobs that require sellswords?"
Titus wondered what the Jarl had been talking about to the imperial woman. He hoped that wasn't the only job availible, and it had been taken. The woman who had just left had a strange arm, which looked like Dwemer technology. Using Deep Elf artifacts was never a good thing, and Titus didn't any good would come of it. The best mages didn't know much about the Dwemer, so he doubted the imperial knew much more. A dwarven arm was unpredictable, and Titus decided it was best that he stay away from that woman.

[Mashystar]

Danus Maximus. Valton. Late noon

After spending a few hours thinking of what to do he then entered the hall. As he entered an Imperial woman came out... With what looks like a Dwemer arm. (By Akatosh what is wrong with this woman? Thought Danus. The Dwarves technology were not well known by the mages. Surely she must have been somehow forced to wear that rather by choice.

As he entered the hall he noticed that what looks like an Imperial mercenary, probably the one he seen at the tavern earlier, talking to the Jarl He heard him mentioning about being a former officer of some bowmen. He must be a former legionary soldier. The Imperial got an idea. He sat at a chair waiting for the mercenary to be done. Maybe he could hire him to help him with his mission.

[Javier Borjas]

Alguidar, Hela's Foly, Late Afternoon

"The legendary Skarpy!" said the inn keeper, referring to himself. Alguidar laughed with him, not quite sure if he meant that as a joke. Either way, he seemed like quite the entertaining bloke to have around. Alguidar's mind went straight to business again as he spotted the bag of gold moving in his direction over the counter. He took the gold from Skarpy's hand with a smile and, after counting the coins within, he got busy separating his products. He was whispering to Jacqueline in the process, doing his best not to interrupt the quite excited introduction that the Imperial gotten himself into.

"Leave one tin, we'll pick it up tomorrow. This will be enough for most apples too." Alguidar spotted an empty crate on the floor that he picked up to fill with apples. He barely noticed all the coughing in the background as he was counting the apples. With his first big sale in the new hold, Alguidar felt energized, optimistic. The farm desperately needed the gold coming in and he could finally afford paying Jacqueline for her help.

When he was finished, he turned back to the inn keeper as he was mentioning his skill playing the flute. Nothing that would normally get Alguidar's interest but his mood prompted an out of character response.

"Wonderful! I shall come by when my duties allow and listen to your craft, Imperial." Alguidar was briefly interrupted by the sound of the inn's door closing. A man with a familiar face walked in. Roymund, still nursing his arm. He didn't look too good, it seemed foolish to come all the way to town to have a drink in his state.

Turning his attention back to the inn keeper he said. "I'm sure you'll be pleased with the products we brought today. I'll bring more supplies soon, we have garlic, leek, cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes, you name it!" Alguidar picked up the crate with the few apples left in it and took his leave. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Skarpy!"

Alguidar walked over to the table Roymund was at. He placed the crate down on the floor and sat beside him.

"You're not looking too good, friend. That can't be a mere wound, you must have caught something." Alguidar paused for a moment, trying to remember some recipe used in his family in these situations but there was nothing quite like this. "It's beyond my abilities now. I'll ask around town for a healer."

[Nany Smith]

Varyn, Hela's Folly, Late Afternoon



Varyn watched as the Nord and Breton girl from earlier sold their wares to the innkeep, who had introduced himself as the legendary Skarpi. Varyn scratched his beard as he thought for a moment. Where in Oblivion have I heard that name before? He let the thought slip though as the Nord walked away. He scooted forward a bit in his chair as he propped his old elbows up on the counter.

"What is it you say you had to drink again? Argonian Ale? So the slaves think they can make Ale now?" Varyn laughed hysterically as he rocked back in the stool, almost losing his balance. "We should have just left those scaly bastards in the swamps and let them kill themselves. The only thing they were ever good for was farming eggs and plowing fields...Oh and pulling carts. A team of lizards is much more responsive than a team of guar, yet I can't help but think that the guar were smarter," Varyn let out a short chuckle as he slapped the counter with his wrinkled bony hand. "Give me the strongest thing you have and none of that Argonian piss."

Varyn chuckled once again as he mumbled Argonian Ale to himself.

[Emily Jones]

Jacqueline, Hela's Folly, Late Afternoon.

She left one tin on the counter as instructed and took the other in her hand. "Bye Sir," she smiled and nodded at the innkeep. She followed Alguidar over to Roymund's table and put the remaining milk tin down by the apples. She was kinda surprised to find him here at an inn while sporting such an ill unattended wound.

"Umh, why are ya 'ere? Dont'ya think ya should 'ave that wound checked out instead?" She wasn't really that good with wounds and healing, but she could see that his injury was so serious that daffing around at the local watering hole really shouldn't be prioritized over a healer.

"Well, if ya don't mind" she turned to Alguidar. "I'll be goin' outside for a bit. Just gettin' some air 'n stuff. Just shout if ya need me to carry stuff."

She turned and walked out of the building, stepping around the weird old man's luggage. "Wonder if 'em fellas inside are gonna put this stuff somewhere else" she mused to herself. She maneuvered her way through the crates and walked out in the street. She took a moment to look at her surroundings. The smithy turned out to be just across the street. The big house at the south end of town had to belong to the Jarl.

"No marketplace... Hmm..." she walked to the north end of Hela's Folly and looked at the big open space. Perfect for marketstalls and travelling merchants. She bent down by the edge of the road and picked up a stick. She proceeded to drag the stick across the ground, drawing up plots for stalls on both sides of the road. As she thought, there would be plenty of space for both people and big carriages to pass through so there would be no hinderance to travellers and people visiting the Jarl.
After a few minutes of silent pondering she put the stick back where she found it and walked back to the inn. She sat down on the steps leading up to the porch in front of the entrance and enjoyed the warming sun. Why anyone would want to sit inside a musty inn while the weather was so nice she would never understand.

[^~LIL B0NE5~^]

Gorbad Yak-Bogadbu, his forge, late Afternoon.

The molten steel was giving away mighty heat and smoke as Gorbad poured it into the sandy and waxy mold. He repeated this a few more times in other molds, creating the starting point of the final five arrow-heads he'd need to do. He didn't have to wait long before he could start slightly correcting and sharpening the first of the five heads. He grabbed the smallest hammer he had and knocked the steel-arrow out of its mold. It had some irregularities, but that was only expected. As planned, the steel was still hot and soft, so it was easy to hammer it back to shape. He repeated the same with the four remaining arrow-heads and took them to the grind-stone. Instead of putting the stone into motion, Gorbad merely scratched at the rough surface with the sides of the arrows. Grinding too much would destroy the balance of the arrow-head, but grinding too less would make them weak and dull.

It didn't take long before he was finished and he took all twenty arrow-heads back to his wooden table. There, he double-checked the fit for each head. Most of them fit the arrow-shaft perfectly, but a few of them didn't. He took them back to his forge and heated them up again and corrected their base-shape ever so slightly. When he tried them on again, they fit perfectly. With a smile, he put them all into a small bowl at the end of the table and sat down in his chair for a moment. What would he need to do next? Oh yeah, there was that Chitin armor he wanted to finish. Then there was the light and small armor Elarian had ordered. He'd have to send Nellis down to the mine at some point, all the way to the bottom. However, he'd heard news of a mason building something there right now. Perhaps Gorbad should wait until that was finished? "Yeah, it's probably best that way." he thought and gave the netch leather another look while he rested his old bones for a second.

[Brandon Wilson]

Itan-Ru, Outside the guard's barracks, Late afternoon


Itan-Ru had begun making his way back to the keep, glad that he'd at least been able to help the town guard, even if it was in a small way. At least he couldn't lose his way, as the keep was visible from most parts of the town. He again walked up to the large doors and made his way inside. He walked over to where his bag was till sitting on the floor against the wall. After a brief inspection, he determined that all of its contents were still there. Not that he believed someone would attempt to steal something in front of the Jarl, but it was best to be careful.

He moved back over to the spot by the wall where he had left his pack to resume waiting. The Jarl was talking to the man from earlier, who was saying something about about sellswords and bowmen, but Itan-Ru had no interest for such things. He realized that he could use a snack and began to rummage through the pockets of his pack until he found the treasure he'd been seeking.

With a happy grin, he pulled out a long taffy treat that he'd previously cut into sections to make it more manageable. Removing one section from the rope, he began to chew it while he waited, savoring the sugary treat while he waited for the Jarl to finish speaking to the other man.

[Joey Bel]

Nuramon, At home, Late afternoon.

“To bad.” He said while the guards were walking away. He then decided to give them a warning though. “Know that vampires are rarely alone. This one must have had a nest somewhere not to far.”

With that Nuramon walked back inside. “At least I know what that smell was coming from.” He mumbled to himself while he closed the door behind him and this time he put it on lock. Suddenly he realized something he had failed to check so he ran towards the man on the table and quickly reexamined his body in search for any bite marks.

Luckily he found none. I’ll stay here for the time being until the other one on the couch wakes up. Should be any minute now anyway. He picked the books from the ground and stored them on the shelves.

He then took a bucket, went outside to fill it with water and with a piece of cloth, started cleaning the floor around the table and his equipment. He stored the alchemical ingredients back in the cupboard together with the remaining of the poison and his mortar and pestle.

When he was done he decided to sit down again and wait until the imperial would wake up.

[Ash]

Roymund, Helas' Folly.

Roymund sat with his head propped back against the fireplace, he had a cloudy look in his eyes. He noted Alguidar and Jacqueline appeared, then after a couple moments she left. Roymund gazed vaguely in Alguidar's direction and watched him as he spoke.
"I'm awaiting an Argonian, claims my wound is that of Rockjoint and that he knows a cure for it. Couldnt find a proper healer in town, so he'll have to do." Wincing, Roymund slung his arm up on the table "I believe you had already met him, the fisherman."

Roymund offered a glance at the box Alguidar had carried "How goes the sale?"

[FirDaus LOVe farhana]

Valton keep, afternoon
Leandra

The dagger was shoved back into its sheath with a silent thud as the Argonian laughed at her evaluation of the situation. That eliminates creepy small town cult, then. Those types usually don't laugh but go 'for the masteeer'. Whether or not his intentions towards her were actually decent hadn't been cleared up, but at least it didn't seem like there was any immediate danger.

Whatever intentions it had signified, the odd twinkle disappeared from Leandra's eyes, along with the faint smell of incense tickling her nose. Not that the smell had actually been there to begin with; however, such hallucinations had accompanied her for a very long time now, to the point where she hardly even registered them as something out of the ordinary.

She was certainly beyond the stage where they'd worried her and prompted frequent checks on the reality of even the most ordinary noise or smell. Whether the fact the young Nibenese had practically embraced such... quirks of hers and rarely stopped to consider the fact the things she felt weren't real was a good thing was highly debatable, but it was not a debate she was intending to have anytime soon. With a profession like hers, some measure of wear and tear seemed inevitable and almost expected.

"Aid me, huh." Tilting her head slightly, the mercenary's smile became slightly wry as the Argonian bowed, a clear imitation of nobles' manners. The faults of the motion one who had been drilled in such things from childhood could spot from a mile off, making it seem rather silly - and definitely unneccessary - to Leandra. Maybe next time leave the nobleness to the professionals.

Even if not entirely proper, however, she found the gesture funny enough to respond in kind, performing a small curtsy with her long coat, much as she had for the Jarl if with clearly less effort behind it.

"And how precisely do you know about my 'endeavour' anyway? And, for that matter, why would I want your company? Because unlike what the tavern stories seem to suggest, a well-traveled mercenary who fights at range isn't really required to have a larger, exotic-looking stoic friend who hits things with other things from up close."

OOC: Uninspired post, sorry.

[Karl harris]

Daikanos, bandit cave – Valton, Afternoon.

No one had answered his question but he wasn’t sure if there weren’t still some deeper in the cave. They had managed to capture two bandits and they would be taken back to Valton for punishment by the jarl.

One of the guards came back with ropes in his arms. “I found these a bit back, next to some cages. I guess we could use them to bind the bandits.” He said.

Daikanos nodded. “Bind their hands and feet. Give them just enough rope so that they can walk. I don’t plan on carrying them.” He ordered.

The men began working immediately. when the bandits had been securily bound Daikanos turned to one of them. “With how many of you were you?” he asked.

The bandit turned its head and valiantly refused to answer. Daikanos only laughed with the man’s futile attempts. He bucked until he stood at eye sight of the man. He then proceeded to pick up a handful of sand from the ground.

“I have found ways to prolong someone life,” he started with a devilish grin. “what would you say if I’d heaten this grain of sand until it burns through flesh at an extremely slow pace. About a n inch every ten years and I could keep you alive long enough to see it get out your body again?” he asked the man.

Both of the bandits became almost white when their blood left their faces. Daikanos turned to the other bandit. “The same goes for you.” He simply stated. He dropped the grain and picked up a small handful. “Now imagine if I’d use this amount.” He simply stated.

The bandits quickly began to speak for fear of such torture. Only thing Daikanos could make up out it was that two others had gone deeper in the cave. The right one said it were Wulfgar, their leader, and his right hand, Ulag.

Daikanos nodded. He knew what he had to know. “Take them to Valton so the jarl can decide what to do with them. I’ll go and look for the two left.”

“Are you sure you don’t need one of us with you for back up?” one of the guards asked, hoping he’d say no.

But Daikanos ignored the man and went deeper into the cave. There were nomore torches to light his path, only the strange blue mushrooms that seemed to be radiating light. It gave the his surrounding an eerie glow and Daikanos feared that there might be things down there much, much worse than just a bandit leader.

At this time he relied more on his hearing than he did on his eyes and it was this that saved him from the attacker at his back. He heard the swoosh of a sword coming down from above and he quickly jumped forward hitting an armored chest in the process. But the chest got knocked on the ground as well.

He concentrated his mind and created a ball of light that rose to the ceiling and lightened the hall. He saw an Orc laying on the ground and a large Nord sprinting towards him with his weapon raised.This must be Wulfgar. He thought with a grim resort.

The Nord swung his sword from left to right and Daikanos caught the blade with his own. The power of the steel hitting on steel send shivers down his arm and Daikanos had to admit that it was one hell of strong Nord. He also saw the Orc was rising to his feet again.

When the nord attacked again Daikanos closed the distance between them while blocking the sword of the Nord just above the handle, breaking the force of the blow. He then punched the Nord with his armored hand in the face. Once, twice and a third time.

Wulfgar stumbled back grabbing his destroyed nose with his hand while he cursed. This gave Daikanos the time to turn his attention to the Ulag. He waited until the Orc would attack with his massive warhammer.

He did not need to wait long tough. The massive thing came crushing down towards his head and Daikanos knew he shouldn’t even think of parrying it. Instinctively he jumped to the right while slashing with his own sword at the man’s gut.

The Orc was a beast as well, he quickly turned his attack in a defence and blocked the incoming sword. The moment the sword hit the hammer, Daikanos turned and pushed his sword downwards with the hammer under it and got closer to the Orc.

He needed both his hands to keep the hammer down so instead he headbutted the man as hard as he could, at the same moment he kicked him in the groins. The Orc went down from he kick but the headbut made Daikanos stagger back with what seemed like a sledgehammer pounding in his head.

He was staggered long enough for the Nord to puch him in the face, making him stagger back some more. Wulfgar screamed and yelled while he worked Daikanos to the ground who was only doing a weak attempt at defending himself while he was still seeing stars.

When he realized the situation he was in he came into action again. He blocked the next incoming attacks and dished out some of his own. Wrestling to get the upperhand they rolled through the dirt, punching, scrathing, he could even feal the Nord bite. Daikanos hand felt the curves of a rock and quickly picked it in his hand. With a roar he used it to knock the Nord on the head. the man fell next to him, unconscious.

Fearing for his life, Daikanos jumped up again, to face the Orc but he was gone. Apart from the two of them the hall was empty. He moaned when he kneeled to pick up his sword and sheated it. he then started dragging the Nord upstairs to were the first battle had been.

The guards had left some of the ropes and daikanos used these to bind the Nord’s hands around his back and his feet. He then went back down, limping and moaning at every step to see if there was another way the Orc could have gone.

It was the last room in the cave and he found no other passageways through which the Orc could have left. “Humpf. He’s alone. He won’t be to much of a problem I guess. Man the skull of the thing. I’ve headbutted boars with weaker skull.” He mumbled while he went back to the banditleader.

~ ~ ~

After he had gotten the banditleader awake again he forced the man to walk back up to the surface at the quickest pace they could bring up. He knew he wasn’t in a state to fight against that orc and wanted to catch up with his guards as fast as possible.

Halfway to Valton he caught up with them. They were travelling to Valton at a slow pace. One of them kept an eye on the prisoners while the other six each held, in pairs of two, a travois with one of their fallen comrades on it. When they saw their captain come closer they all wisely shut up and said nothing about his looks, but Daikanos could imagine how bad he would look.

They made their way to the town fairly quick and took the straight way to the keep to lock them away. The guards took the largest street in Valton which held the inn, blacksmith, shop and other important buildings. Behind the guards walked Daikanos, mooding and brooding, while he imagined how his sword went all the way through the leader of the bandits.

For once the voices in his head were silent. Happy about the blood he had just spilled.

[Josh Sabatini]

Wolfgar. Valton. Late afternoon

It is over. Most of his men are dead, the rest including him are captured. Most of the time Valborn, Rolaf, and Wolfgar were silent. However Wolfgar give the dunmer who captured him a cold stare. (Ulag is a coward) The Nord thought mad at the orc for abandoning him. He then told the Dunmer.

"You are a good fighter, How many men, women, and children did you killed Elf? I myself had killed a lot, though I occasionally take some women and children with me. In fact I may not know you but you and me are not so different. We fight and kill money, Sure I may have done it illegally and you fight for the law or whatever reason your with the guards; but that's where the differences end, besides for our races. We may even would of been good companions if it wasn't for this. But tell me why must you take me alive? I am dead anyways so what's the point of taking to a trial."