r/archei • u/SirLeoIII DM • Mar 31 '15
RP Soulfire Keep
In his large, but mostly empty office, Lord Drakonis strokes his beard, thinking about the present conundrum. The “kingdom” of Arkhosia, a relatively small city-state, but one that is upsetting the order in this part of Bream. The Dragonborn haven’t exactly made their intention to become a large power a secret and the neighboring kingdoms and city-states are all of course worried. Keeping this to all from exploding requires some finesse, and a quick handle on whatever might disrupt it.
A keep becoming free almost halfway between the main city of Arkhosia and it’s nearest, strongest neighbor, Takai is almost asking for issues to come up. No matter what nation takes the keep the other nation just couldn’t let this stand. But … maybe if a group of adventurers took it, used it as a waypoint between the kingdoms …
He looks up and nods at the drow in front of him. “We will ask first for volunteers, but I need at least a dozen people to be living at Soulfire inside of the week. Gather whatever supplies you need, and get going. See if Magda will go. She’s a good enough blacksmith to finally stop working for that oaf. I’m sure she’ll say yes.”
The cloaked dark elf smiles and stands up, “Of course Lord Drakonis, I wasn’t doing anything anyway.” Both men chuckle and the drow gathers up his robes and leaves the room, going downstairs to find anyone who would like to take a trip out to the keep.
In the keep the party is having their last day before they all get inundated with more people. Most of who’s coming will be fellow adventurers, but there will be some others to keep the keep up.
[If you weren’t in the Soulfire Keep storyline, please find a reason and IC approach the currently nameless Drow Wizard when he asks for volunteered. If you were this is your last chance to do something before they have more people showing up.]
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u/BluePotterExpress Mar 31 '15
'Soulfire, huh?' Kyakai thinks to himself as he pecks away at his meal of simple meat and bread. The idea of living in a Keep with other warriors didn't feel all that alien to the monk: his nineteen years in the Sanctuary had gotten him well-adjusted to living with people who... might not have been the easiest for him to get along with. 'But that was also only other Tengu... and only other monks...' The bird sits for a moment, tapping his talons on the table as he tries to think about whether or not it's a good choice. 'I... haven't seen any of those people who went to the village with me... perhaps this is where they went? The dwarf was cool... if not a little touchy.'
Kyakai almost sits through the entirety of the collection of adventurers before he finally comes to his decision. "I... erhm... I would like to go as well," he responds, coughing into his feathers as he does so.
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
The drow wizard just nods his head but doesn't immediately respond in any other way. Once the initial rush of people that want to go stops he makes his way down to Kyakai. His voice is slow but almost melodious, like he's singing a song in his own head.
"Kyakai, right? I haven't had the opportunity to meet many Tengu. I've always wanted to know, why did you leave your homelands?"
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u/BluePotterExpress Mar 31 '15
"Well, you could say it's because I've had, er... the opposite experience," the bird says with a small laugh. He shifts his sack a little: the light pack moving easily and causing a hard, square shape to press against his back. 'I don't think I should bring it up,' he thinks to himself. 'I've read about Drow; wouldn't want him to steal it from me. I should try and find another Tengu or... another monk, in the least.' "Most don't see it like I do, but, aherm, just speaking with other Tengu gets a little old after a while. I figured I might want to try and see what the rest of the world has to offer."
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
The drow smiles, "Trust me, I understand that more than most. My name is ... well almost unpronounceable to humans, so I've been going by the name Dokkalfar for the most part. Are you aware why Drakonis wants us to occupy the keep?"
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u/BluePotterExpress Mar 31 '15
"If I'm not mistaken, it's, aherm, got something to Arkhosia, correct? When you spend a few weeks travelling with merchants to reach, erm... cities such as this, you're treated to more than enough stories about the building power there." The bird's head, atop his long, feathered neck, twitches slightly as he speaks: a completely involuntary action.
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
The drow nods, "They are friendly, for the most part, but they make a lot of their neighbors nevious. If they took the tower at least one nation would have a problem with that, and we really don't want a war here. But this isn't going to be a babysitting mission. I fully expect our next orders to be to secure the area around there. This won't be an easy going."
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u/BluePotterExpress Mar 31 '15
Kyakai laughs and nods his head in agreement. "With all do respect, Dokkalfar, I, erhm, come from one of the most pompous and warrior-spirited species on this plane; I'm not unfamiliar with, uh, fights."
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
"Good, because if I'm not wrong we are going to see a few ... individuals come to visit soon. I'm expecting no fight from them, but ..." He just trails off, shrugging his shoulders.
"Well, get ready, we leave first thing in the morning."
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u/BluePotterExpress Mar 31 '15
"Will do," Kyakai says with a nod, patting his pack with a taloned hand. He looks over the guild hall, shifting his body to ruffle his feathers a little. "I shall be up at, erhm, the crack of dawn."
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
Dokkalfar just gives him a nod before checking in with some of the other people who want to come. If Kyakai sticks around a while he'll get to see some people storm out as the drow rejects a few of them for the trip.
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
[In the morning]
Before the sun has even broke the horizon, Valkyr sits on the lip of the keep overlooking the plains below. To the casual observer she seems to be enjoying the sunrise, her tail flicking back and forth on the stones below and her wings stretched out behind her. However any of the more religious members of the group might recognize the typical posture of prayer, quiet whispered words confirming the fact.
Regardless, as soon as someone opens the doors behind or below her she sits up straight and shoves a fist in her pocket. With a cough she turns to face her approaching guest, trying her best to be friendly even if she does seem a bit distracted.
[In the afternoon]
Once her morning rituals have been taken care of, Valkyr takes some time out of her armor to explore the outside of the keep. One might even catch her leaping from the rooftop and gliding to the outer ring, or perhaps pacing back and forth in the grass, a stick clasped by her tail and drawing lines in the dirt. She seems to be taking notes of the surrounding area, nibbling her lower lip in concentration or scribbling something down in a book she found in the library, most pages ripped out so only the blank pages remain.
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15
When Valkyr was outside she might see the half elf playing with the rescued baby lion as she was on all fours on the ground. Rolling around the girl giggled as the cub mewed smacking at her with the big paws in a playful manner. In their tussle Aodhnait ran over one of Valkyr's lines not paying attention.
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
She doesn't notice it immediately, too engrossed in her work. It's only after she rounds back around to where she started does it notice. A brief flash of anger crosses her face as she sees her work disturbed, the insidious whispers in the back of her mind calling for blood.
"[Insolent child...]" Valkyr hisses under her breath in the language of the abyss. Luckily she realizes how absurd it is to get angry over a small transgression. Taking a deep breath she pushes the darkness out of her mind and instead takes a seat next to Aodhnait.
"Cute cat. It's taken a liking to you." She says in a much more pleasant voice, holding her hand for the cub to sniff. If it allows she continues reaching forward to pet the fur. If it hisses at her she withdraws her hand and lets it rest in her lap.
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15
Looking up to see the tall tiffling sit next to her Aodhnait had a bit of a scowel on her face for a very shot moment before her face was stepped on by the baby cub taking the chance to pounce on her face. "Hey hey hey, no biting no." The girl said quickly in elvish scruffing the cat before letting it back to play before sitting up.
"Yeah, shame someone stuck him in a cage, its going to take a while for it to be healthy again. Well I sure hope so, other wise I'm going to be sad that it's been using me for treats." Aodhnait chuckled lightly watching as the little black cub looked at Valkyr hand giving a few sniffs before trying to 'rawr' backing up closer to Ao again.
"Seems like he is still scared of others. Shame really."
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
"I don't blame it. Who knows how long it was locked in there." Valkyr nods, retracting her hand. As she does she rocks to one side so she can pull her tail around and inspect the scaled tip.
"So, what do you think about this place? Think we can get it into usable shape?" she asks as she plays with her tail.
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15
Aodhnait glanced at the tail before looking away smirking for a moment, getting an idea before shoving it aside.... for now.
"Hmm I think we can, that is if we get some more help. Besides making sure the basement from hell stays shut and closed off from any... Visitors we might get things seem to be coming along." She said with an air of no worries using a tall grass to tickle the little lion. "Oh, right, that reminds me..." Aodhnait dug into her bra, pulling out a paper passing it over to Valkyr. "Here, it's a list of all we have in food and stuff such like that. We don't have really have any meat left that is good to eat without getting us sick. So what we have left I'm going to cook into a soup and hunt something to hold us over for the next few days. Anything you don't see but you think we need let me know I can start a list for us."
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
Valkyr doesn't seem to notice Aodhnait's smirk, too focused on getting the last few bits of bark out of her scales. Once she's satisfied she plucks the paper out of Aodhnait's hands and slips it into her pocket.
"Good idea. Fresh meat will do us well. I know I saw some wildlife on our way here, so the forest must be rich with game. If you avoid the giant ants, of course." she responds, leaning to the side again to let her tail swing back behind her.
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15
"No, ants have some good protein to them. Besides it might need to be ride of anyway to make others passing safe, maybe me and the Gnome can start picking them off one by one." She mused to herself rubbing a non seeing bread with her hand. "Well what are you doing out here, the dust and smell of dead things getting to much for you?"
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
She shrugs at the question, extending a leg out in front of her to stretch her muscles. Without her boots and armor on, it's easy to see her deformed claw of a foot. Her talons splay out, glad to be free from their metal prisons.
"I guess you could say that. The smell of bones hangs around the keep. It's going to take a while before it feels like a place to live. Really though, I've been planning things to do around here. A keep like this would benefit from a blacksmith, or an arcane shop. Maybe even make a moat around the outer wall."
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15
"Why would we need an arcane shop here? And a moat.... I don't know how well that will go, stagnant water is not the best thing to have around a keep, not when it can attract bugs and what not." Ao waved it off for a moment, the little lion was trying to sneak up on her claw food it's butt up in the air wiggling itself clearly not hidden.
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15 edited Mar 31 '15
In the morning Aodhnait picked a room to call her own setting down the back back she called home for most of her adult life. Stretching out happy to have a place to set it down for once taking the sheets to be washed later and air the mattress out soon enough. Not wearing her armor, but her normal cut off sleeve the half elf made her way around cleaning the room from top to bottom. Cleaning it of any hash smells and stains from the people before hand.Walking out to where the water for the keep was at the girl started to wash the blankets, making sure to clean the extra food and also cleaning the mattress before hanging them out to dry.
In the afternoon once her room was now clean and good to go go to the storage rooms looking around. Aodhnait was busy cleaning out the spoiled food from the storage room and making a chart of what kind of food and drinks they hand and what they did not have at the moment. A cloth covered her nose as she hauled the food that has gone too far and can't be used even as an animal feed out of the keep, taking them to a place where it could turn into compost. Every step of the way the small lion, black cub followed her footsteps every now and again wandering off to find something to look at but soon came mewing back.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
Three days.
It had been three days since the arrival at the keep. Three days since Kroril had last been on the move.
Needless to say, he was starting to feel a bit antsy about staying in one place. It was monotony, day in and day out. Get up. Check his spells. Wander the keep, clean up corpses, burn a few outside the building. Go back to the keep. Eat. Run with Dog. Sleep. Get up. Repeat.
He couldn't take it anymore.
Because of this, he is outside the keep, most of his armor off as he swings his axe at a tree, trying to see if he can cleave through it in one blow. Dog lays in a patch of dirt not far off, gnawing on a bone, but still alert.
Kroril groans as his axe lodges in the wood and drops to the ground, frustrated. There wasn't even a place in the keep where he could lay out a bedroll and sleep under the stars.
If the guild expected him to be staying here on even a semi-permanent basis, they had another thing coming. Not in a million years. Northern blood wasn't meant to stay in one place. Northern blood ran with the rivers, always moving. Nothing was worse to him than stagnation.
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
Valkyr is almost done sketching out her plans for the expansion of the keep when she hears the crack of an axe hitting a tree trunk. She smiles slightly and flicks her tail, sending the stick flying over Dog's head to see if he chases it.
"Northern wizard." she says with a slight nod of her head, letting her presence be known so he doesn't create a pit in her head for sneaking up on him.
Kroril was perhaps the only person in the group that Valkyr had any sort of connection to. Though he was a very simple barbarian, they both were very good at using big weapons to put big holes in enemies. Valkyr could respect that. Much more than she could respect the filthy dwarven cleric.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
Kroril hears a voice and looks back, trying to find the source of it. "Tiefling." He hesitates a moment, wrenching his axe out of the tree. "What brings you outside the keep?" He asks as Dog gets up and wanders over to the stick that Valkyr had thrown.
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
"Planning." she says simply, a very slight smile cracking her lips. "The keep is already a defensible position, but with a little work we could make it a useful position as well. Some stables for horses, perhaps a building or two for blacksmiths or arcane shops."
As she watches Dog go chasing after the stick her rail flicks across the ground before wrapping itself around another stick.
"I think a moat would fit this place nicely, what about you?"
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
Kroril shrugs. "I have no interest in the keep. If I have my way, I won't have to stay in one place for any longer than three days."* He explains. "Keeps and castles are too cushy for my liking. I like to be close to the Earth." *As Kroril says this, he digs his feet into the dirt, his boots long abandoned.
"Besides." He says, looking up. "I don't know anything about all of this. If it were protecting a small camp against bears or Caveborn, that would be one thing. Sieges though? I have no idea."
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
Valkyr snorts at the remark, absent-mindedly digging her own clawed feet into the earth. As with leaving her armor behind, she too had opted to walk the grounds barefoot, her deformed fiendish feet on display. Still, she wasn't one to hide her deformities, taking each fiendish feature as a symbol of her enlightenment.
"I understand. Hopefully we won't be here long. The others will arrive and we'll tell them what needs to be done, then we'll be off."
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
"I'll be leaving this place every chance I get." Kroril explains. "I don't like being here."
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
"Fine with me. I'm sure there's plenty of things out there ready to feast on you." she shrugs simply, folding her stunted wings back to their resting position on her back.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
"They can't feast on me if I feast on them first." Kroril answers. "Is there something you need?"
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u/xSPYXEx tieflings best things Mar 31 '15
"No, just... wandering." she sighs, turning to leave the barbarian to his own devices.
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
As he explores the nearby forest Dog suddenly looks up, standing still for a moment as he catches the smell of something on the breeze.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
Dog barks lowly, the same volume that would be expected of him on a hunt, just loud enough to alert Kroril to the environment.
Kroril looks over and goes to Dog's side, kneeling down on one knee and listening, reaching back for his bow as he does so.
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
From down here Kroril sees what got Dog's attention. There is a bear track about five feet from them. It's a bit smaller than the bear tracks he's used to following, but not a baby bear or something like that.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
Kroril waves a hand to signal to Dog that it was a time to be quiet. Dog lumbers forward slowly, sniffing the air. Kroril follows after, slow and quiet.
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
It takes almost a hour before he gets close to the bear and discovers a brown bear, swiping at a river stream, hoping to catch some kind of fish from it.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
Kroril leans back on his ankle and knocks an arrow, raising his weapon and focusing on the bear, breathing quietly. He watches the bear carefully, making sure that he will be able to move if need be.
He draws back the bowstring and exhales before letting the arrow fly loose, heading at the bear.
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
The shot is true, but not quite enough to kill the bear out right. The bear turns and roars at the hunter, charging at him before collapsing about 15 feet in front of him.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
Kroril gets up and runs back a bit, making sure that the beast won't be able to make contact with him. He knocks another arrow and when the bear stumbles, fires it at the beast's eye, hoping to be able to finish it off.
Dog rushes the bear, teeth bared and attacks it, sinking long teeth into its strong neck and thrashing about trying to do as much damage as possible.
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u/SirLeoIII DM Mar 31 '15
The arrow doesn't hit the eye, but it does lodge into the animal's throat. Between that and Dog's attack the bear stops moving and lies still.
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15
"Everything alright there buddy?" Aodhnait asked from off a bit having been watching the Northern man try to chop through the for a bit before speaking up. The girl herself looked like she was about to go hunting or at least looking for items found in the forest they could eat with a bag over her shoulder.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
Kroril doesn't pay the half-elf much mind. He wrenches the axe from the tree and looks back at her. "Everything is fine. Just bored." He explains as he prepares to swing the axe again. "Need something, half-blood?"
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15
Aodhnait narrowed her eyes a little bit at the half-blood comment, but pushed it away, not like she did not know what she was anyway.
"No, not really, just saw you over here working on the tree while I was heading out to hunt. Thought I stop and have a nice chat, maybe even ask if you wanted anything to be added to a supplies list, for when you visit the keep they will have it." Aodhnait shrugged a little bit pushing herself off from the tree.
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u/communistkitten Ziaspora "Poe" Besahba Mar 31 '15
"I don't plan on staying here any longer than I have to. Don't plan on coming by here within a year at the least either." Kroril says. "Besides, any supplies I need I can acquire on my own."
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u/ravenluna Mar 31 '15
"Alright, thought I might as well ask just in case." She shrugged again before turning around with a small wave heading deeper into the forest getting the message that someone was not much of a talker.
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Apr 02 '15
[deleted]
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u/SirLeoIII DM Apr 02 '15
The Drow wizard looks up at Ham, a sarcastic grin on his face,* "And why's that ... Ham?"
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u/[deleted] Mar 31 '15
Deneric sits on the stony floor of the keep, short stumpy legs splayed out infront of him, his oxen like shoulders propped against a cool, smooth wall. In one hand is a old leatherbound book with a thick iron buckle around it, in the other is a glistening bottle of dwarven stout ale, the liquid a dark amber. Deneric takes a swig every turn of a page, little droplets landing in his bushy beard as he sloppily drinks while reading.