An Unlikely Party 15: Tale Of The Dead Prince

          Merely moments had passed before an elven lady came running out of the trees to greet Shade while the rest of the party looked around in confusion. She gripped him tightly in a loving embrace, “Thank the stars you got the message!” She said swiftly.

          “The raven is tied to my blood.” Shade reminded her, “It can ALWAYS find me.”

          She let go of him and gripped his shoulders looking into his eyes with care, “It’s good to see you again Shade.”

          He smiled for only a second, “Indeed, but you know how I feel about this place…how dire is he?”

          Her gleeful attitude shifted to darker tones. She sighed heavily and shook her head, “We needed to call you, what do you think?”

          “Tell me the story of his affliction.”

          She looked over the party who had followed him, “Who’re they?” She asked licking her lips.

          Shade nodded at her, “They’re friends of mine. It’s safe.”

          She eyed them suspiciously before quickly turning on her heel, “I’ll believe you, but mother will decide that. Follow me and I’ll tell you what’s transpired.”

          Shade quickly walked after her using his head to signal for the others to come with, “So?”

          “Faris came home one day after hunting like normal.” She started to tell him, “Learned this part later, but while hunting he accidentally inhaled some powder from an artificial plant that has since been carefully removed.” She paused for a moment, “I don’t know how better to describe this so…” She opened up a door that was carved into the side of a large tree trunk and quickly stepped down into the small passageway. “It’s exactly like that one time…when you…” She let the sentence fade away knowing Shade would follow she meant.

          Shade froze for half of a second before quickly taking off after her at a quicker pace than before, “What?!” He said in shock, “Why didn’t you contact me sooner?”

An Unlikely Party 14: A Crimson Raven

          The party waited patiently at the top of the tower for the next airship to come. Even after travelling through the barren wasteland just north of Mount Grimskull, they were still inland quite a bit making it easier and quicker for them to take an airship out to a port city, and then another ship over to Port Phishk. Nobody else was up here waiting for the airship, the only other person was the gnome who ran the tower. Rede was sitting on Callie’s lap, while Shade occupied the other bench with Gorgos who stood in front of her.

          “How long you been working this?” Walker asked the gnome operator.

          “Oh this coming Wednesday marks my tenth year.”

          Walker whistled, “Ten years? Damn. Guess it must be a decent job.”

          “It has its up and downs.” The gnome shrugged at him, “Guards never check up here, that’s both a blessing and a curse.”

          “Get robbed often then?” Walker asked him.

          “Nah,” The gnome smirked, “People don’t think an airship tower operator is gonna have a lot of money. Do have trouble with people stealing free rides though, refusing to pay me.”

          “But I suppose it does let you swindle some extra cash out of your customers.”

          The gnome laughed, “That’s not how I find it a blessing, but yea. If the customer’s being a dick I totally charge them more.”

          “What’s so good ‘bout it then?”

          The gnome tilted his head towards Rede and Callie, “Check out your couple of friends over there. Tell me they aren’t getting bored and wanting to have sex.” Walker glanced over at them and quickly rolled his eyes nodding in agreement. “I get people like that every day up here, couples, singles, hell sometimes whole parties. I run them a deal: They let me in, I won’t kick their sorry asses off this tower.”

          Walker broke out into laughter, “If it works, it works!”

          “You would not be able to guess some of the things I’ve had sex with and done.”

          Walker shook his head as he continued to laugh, “Not going to try to, but I can see the appeal to sticking here for so long then.”

          The gnome smiled at him, “Wouldn’t trade it for any other job…besides maybe airship captain. They get to do that AND fly a ship.”

          “You ever flown one before?”

An Unlikely Party 13: Mount Grimskull

          They had conquered and already set up their hold over the harpies mountain of Grimskull weeks ago, yet still they were finding hallways and passages that had yet to be explored. Captain Greennorn grumbled as he walked down one of the many hallways left behind. He had with him a small contingent of six men; they were investigating the disappearance of the last group which had been sent down here.  The group stopped suddenly the sound of metal scratching across metal filled the corridor alongside with an inhuman blood-curdling howl. One of the men spoke up in a wavering voice, “That’s no harpy…”

          “And how the hell do you know that?” Greennorn challenged him, “Harpy screams change all the damn time.”

          “Sir, no offence,” The soldier spoke up, “But it’s been over a month since we started the fight with those bitches. Ain’t ever heard a scream remotely like that one from ‘em.”

          Greennorn growled, “What the hell’s would it be if it wasn’t a bloody harpy though? Hm? It’s just starved and crazed harpy. There ain’t nothing else in the mountain.”

          “Sir,” A different soldier spoke up, but froze as the scratching sound filled the hallway again. Once it passed, he spoke back up cautiously, “The locals tell tales of terrifying forces that live in this mountain, kept content by the harpies offerings.”

          “What?!” Greennorn shouted at him, “What sort of absolute nonsense is that? I’ve never heard a single tale like it in these parts!”

          “You haven’t left the mountain since we finally drove out the harpies.” The solider responded, “The locals are starting to get concerned that these…sprits will seek vengeance  on us all.”

Greennorn shook his head, “And you honestly believe them? You...you believe these tales of the supernatural?”

An Unlikely Party 12: Curses!

          It took them much longer than expected to reach the temporary home of the harpy princess considering how quickly she was able to reach them. There was no fancy effigies or displays leading into the abode of the princess that would normally be expected, just a very tight passageway up the cliff face of a small plateau that overlooked the barren land. Right past the plateau was the small mountain patch that held both the jade mines and quarries, but also the harpies’ original home. The party sat down on the orange and brown stone once they finally reached the top, “See what we have been degraded to?” The princess asked him, “I live in poorer conditions than most of your commoners…imagine how the rest of my brood must be living.” She glared at Rede and Callie.

          Rede took a deep breath, “I knew the old king very well, the one who left you alone.” He told her, “We often discussed about driving you out of your lands, but you and your clutch almost never caused problems for our miners and so he felt it safe to leave you alone. I doubted his choice, but seeing how civil you can be…I am glad he did not listen to my advice.” He paused for a second, “You’re just another kind trying to survive.”

          She scoffed at him, “We grow up hearing the same horror stories, but instead of harpies being the monsters it’s you humans. The only difference is that most of the time our fear of your kind is well earned, whereas harpies hardly ever will engage with a human.”

          Rede swallowed heavily and said nothing. Callie shook her head at him, “Excuse him for his…awkwardness.” She told the princess, “He’s not used to being put in a position like that…it’s good for him though.”

          The princess turned to face Callie, “I care not for his awkwardness. I care about the future of my brood.”

          “Understandable.” Callie nodded at her, “I’m assuming those mountains are where you used to live.”

An Unlikely Party 11: Why Did It Have To Be Harpies

          The shrill scream cut through the blue sky sharply like an arrow. Everyone in the party cringed and shivered as the sound was even worse than the classic ‘nails on chalkboard’. “Harpies…” Walker growled, “Why did it have to be harpies?”

          “Got some grudge against harpies?” Shade asked him, “I mean more than the normal hatred everyone has of them?”

          “I just…” Walker clenched his teeth, “I hate harpies.”

          “What’re they doing this far north, I wonder?” Callie asked as she looked across the barren landscape in front of them. “No trees or mountains around here for them to make a good home.”

          “Probably being pushed out of their homes by the jade mines farther south of here.” Rede told her, “I remember when I was in the Kings’ council that the harpies there were quite a concern. Kanith never went to deal with them though as the harpies had quite the defense set up.”

          “You thinking the new King Lance went for it?” Callie asked him.

          “He’s all about money. Doesn’t give a shit about the soldiers he’d lose just to increase the size of those mines.” Rede sighed, “It’s the best explanation I can think of at least.”

       

An Unlikely Party 10: The Walker

          Walker was wrong about one thing. Guyil was the head of the shadow government, but that did not change the fact that there was more work to be done. They had already bought off some of members of the town, most importantly someone they called ‘The Mayor’. There was no government or mayor in Talama. While Walker spent time going over the papers in hopes of figuring out who this ‘Mayor’ was, the rest of them spent time gathering up the masses of coin that had been strewn across the room. It took Walker some time, but soon enough the story started to come together.

          This ‘Mayor’ was an original citizen of Talama. He knew many things, including the fact that the new human King was interested in expanding his reach. He contacted them first saying that if they helped set up the government in the city, he would in turn give them necessary insights to the city and gladly rule it for them. All mentions of who this ‘Mayor’ was though was unfortunately avoided in the notes, except for one. There was no honor among these thieves, as Guyil had planned to betray the ‘Mayor’.

          Walker grumbled and looked up from the papers, “You guys done looting yet?” he asked them. Everyone but Gorgos had handfuls of gold that they were shoving into their backpacks. Gorgos had spent the free time making a large effigy out of the corpses. They all stopped to look at Walker except for Gorgos.

     

An Unlikely Party 9: The Redemption

          Walker was correct there was a money trail, or part of one at least. Almost all of the money Garet was making from the drugs was going to one singular cost. Of course what that cost was, wasn’t explicitly listed anywhere, but it was a very safe bet that it was this shadow government. “How exactly is this helpful?” Callie asked him, “Yipee we know about their money flow…yet we still don’t know anything else.”

          “Look at the amount of cash that’s moving into this place!” Walker shouted at her, “You really think they’d be able to safely move this out of here without either A: getting murdered, or B: needing a whole regiment to escort it?”

          Callie sighed, “What’re you getting at?”

          “The money’s still here…?” Rede asked confused.

          Walker rolled his eyes shaking his head, “No the money’s not here, but I’d bet that there’s a passageway for them to safely, and discreetly, transport all that money out of here.”

     

An Unlikely Party 8: Gorgos Punch

          One lead. That’s all they had, but it was technically better than nothing. Hunting down a select few individuals that are trying to start a shadow government in a city this large could easily take months. Thankfully Pascal had a single lead for them to check out. As a group they decided that if this lead was a dead end they would leave the job unfinished, they just didn’t have the time to waste spending possibly months here. Pascal had told them about a house in the slums of the city that had been having much more traffic than it should be, so that’s where the party headed off to.

          As they walked through the slums of Talama, they stood out like a bloodstain on a wedding dress. While they weren’t overdressed for this place, they were armed too well to belong in this part of the city. Even as mercenaries, it was obvious they would, and could, find better work in the main part of town. A skittish woman crawled out from an alleyway and stood up right in front of the group, “What’d’ya g-g-gu-g-gu-guys-guys-s-s want?” She asked as she twitched constantly in front of them, “Don’t look-look like ya belong-…here.”

          “Well you got that part right.” Walker smirked at her. He shot a quick glare to the rest of his friends letting them know to leave him alone with this.

       

An Unlikely Party 7: The Good Ol' Days

          Walker was the first of the group to wake up after their long night of partying and sex. Considering he didn’t participate in either of those and spent his whole night at the bar, it was no surprise he woke up first. Walking down the stairs he smiled seeing Para again behind the bar while she cleaned up what was left from last nights’ patrons. “You ever leave that bar?” Walker asked her as he sat down across from where she worked. He couldn’t see anyone else besides them anywhere near the bar. Back into the stripper section there was a girl or two working on cleaning themselves up, but that was it.

          She smiled at him and chuckled, “Not when duty calls. Not much to do around town here besides go to other bars. Figure I might as well stay in mine and make money.”  She shrugged, “Plus, we’re slow as hell in the morning and early afternoon. Practically don’t have to work.”

          Walker shrugged, “Fair enough. I got nothing else to do till my friends wake their asses up, want some help?”

          Para laughed at him, “Oh no. I got this covered. Anyways, won’t take help for free.”

          “Coffee as payment?” He asked her.

       

An Unlikely Party 6: The Ladies' Door

          The journey to Talama had been fairly uneventful after their escapade with the wyrms. In Talama there was no such thing as a simple, normal tavern to stay at. Everything was a club, stripper joint, or both. Rede let out a sigh, “Well then, where shall we stay?” He asked the party as the stood in the very center of town.

          “I’ve heard The Ladies’ Door is quite good.” Walker told him.

          Rede slowly turned to face him, “And what kind of place is it?”

          “Full of strippers that are mostly whores as well.” Walker smirked, “Friends always said they made damn fine burgers too.”

          “Your friends, huh?” Rede questioned him.

          “Hey man, I hardly ever left my home city.” Walker shook his head at him, “Plus, I could find all the whores I wanted where I was.”

          Rede rolled his eyes, “Anyone else have a say?’

          Shade looked over at Gorgos for a second, “Don’t care.” He said.

          Callie shrugged, “Can’t say I even knew this city existed. So nope.”

          Rede sighed heavily shaking his head, “Alright Walker, where’s this Ladies’ Door?”

       

An Unlikely Party 5: Stay Frosty

          Callie carefully led their party through the mountain tunnels rumored to be the home of many wyrms. They could’ve taken the pass or bought passage on a ship around the mountain range that stood in between them and Talama, but to pass up the chance on stumbling across mounds of treasure was unthinkable. Even those these wyrms, flightless dragons, were less of a threat to the surrounding areas than their winged brethren, but a dragonkind is a dragonkind, and they always hoard massive amounts of treasure. The heat in the tunnels was slowly increasing the farther they walked down them. It was too steady and constant of a heat to be coming from the wyrms, leaving a lava flow to be the only logical answer.

          “Shade?” Callie asked quietly, “I’m burning up in my armor, got any magic for that?”

          Shade shook his head at her, “No ma’am.”

          “Dammit!” She cursed.

          “But I do have a normal potion for that.” Shade chuckled, “Or the ingredients for it at least. Give me a few.”

     

An Unlikely Party 4: Katak, The Legend

          Callie and Rede left the town to head towards the predestinated meeting point. Neither of them had much to do in town besides trade a few items, so they figured they could head out early and have camp completely set up for when the rest of their party finally came around. It was nice and peaceful in the woods where they set up camp. Just another average, calm day of their travelling life often filled with interesting precarious moments. “How long has it been since we paired up?” Rede asked her while he worked on the tents.

          “Oh geez…” Calie looked over at him, “A few years at least from when you ‘hired’ me on.” She wasn’t in any of her large plate armor as they hadn’t any plans to be causing trouble anytime soon. Rede found it nice to see her in more form fitting clothes.

          Rede chuckled, “Turn out as stupid and boring as you first thought it was going to?” He teased her, “What was it you told me? It was probably a waste of time and a loss of money?”

          Calie shook her head at him, “You’re never gonna let me live that down are you?”

          “Oh hells no!” Rede immediately replied, “Only since you like it so much.”

          Calie rolled her eyes and got back to work, “To be fair, it was a pretty good waste of time the first few months. No one wants to hire just two people for a job normally.”

          “We got by well enough.”

          “Speak for yourself,” Calie scoffed, “I was about getting ready to ditch your sorry ass before we ran into Shade and Gorgos.”

          “Well, glad you didn’t.” Rede smiled at her, “This party would be lost without you.”

          Callie laughed, “Oh trust me, I know.”

An Unlikely Party 3: Wings Of Light

          The metal door to the cell slammed shut, echoing throughout the whole, otherwise empty, block, as the large lock clicked in place. One of the two guards spit on the floor of their cell, “Y’all’ll pay for what you done.” He grimaced at them and left with the other guard. They slowly closed the large and insanely thick steel door behind them, sealing the party in the most secure zone of their prison.

          “Well…shit.” Rede finally exclaimed after they were alone, “They didn’t even tell us what we were charged with! Those bastards!”

          “Probably something along the lines of running an illegal alchemy shop, stealing from their bank, and slaughtering a third of their city guard when we dealt with their street gang problem.” Calie forced a chuckle, “But I’m no expert.”

          “It’s not our fault their own guards were part of their gang problem!” Rede shouted at her.

          “Calm down, Rede.” Calie said softly, “Getting pissed off isn’t going to change the fact we are fucked.”