The Beginning: "May I borrow this?"
I Y'Ranwelun, (pronounced ran-WELL-lun) "the Unseen One", left the city I called home for my 19 years of existence in a hurry. Unfortunately I left behind little in the way of loved ones or valuables. I did however leave behind a spell book that I just happened to have borrowed from a Shadow Mage. I'm getting ahead of myself though. A proper introduction is still in order. You already know my name, I was raised an orphan in the streets of Safeton, known by some as Sanctuary, stealing food to survive, and getting in more than a few scrapes with the law. Learning to evade capture in the crowded dirty streets was a skill I honed to perfection early on in life. I am half Elven and half Human. I can only guess what the origins of my parents were, for I know nothing of them. I spent most of my days stealing what I needed to survive, squatting in abandoned buildings, and doing the occasional dirty work for some crooked wretch. My life involved lifting purses in the market, stealing horses, climbing through second story windows, and a lot of laying low. When the heat got to be too much in Sanctuary, I would seek refuge in the forests outside of town. I suppose that the elf part of me lead me in this direction, but I never stayed long, the call of the crowded streets of Sanctuary always drew me back..
I never really had any parents, the closest thing you could call a parent was the old drunk Bartstone. He kind of took me under his wing on occasion. He taught me to read and write, and I shared my spoils with him for food and drink. He did a lot of drinking. He also knew magic, of which he taught me some. He always promised to teach me more, but died before the promise ever reached fruition. He was a smart and knowledgeable man, when he wasn't drunk, and I'm grateful for what he did teach me. His death left me yearning to learn more about magic, so one night while I was casing a bar for an easy score, I happened across a mage who had just gotten into town, intent on entering the college of Shadow magics the next day. He was young and naïve to the ways of a city like Sanctuary, and easily fell victim to a few too many drinks. I helped him to his room, and took the liberty of lifting most of his belongings, including his spell book.
I wasn’t able to study the book for long, before trouble came knocking. The next day in fact, I was hiding in the dark recesses of the inn's common room when a magely looking person entered the establishment with the naïve prestidigitator, looking rather sheepish, in tow. The innkeeper pointed them up the stairs to my room, and I knew it was time to lay low for a while. Luckily everything I own fits in my pockets, so I was able to leave quickly. I got passage on a ship, who's owner I'd done some "work" for in the past. I didn't know where the ship was going, nor did I care, so long as I ended up a long way from a mage bent on justice.
First Adventure: "Dig what?"
The ship carried me across the seas from the Wild Coast to the Prelacy of Almor. We travelled up a river, past the capital, Rel Mord, to a small port town that exported some exotic spices and herbs. I decided that this would be as good a place as any to hide out. Even if the mage knew where I was, he'd be unlikely to want to come here, you couldn't imagine how lifeless this town was. I spent a couple days drinking my few coins away at an Inn, and trying to figure out what I should do next. It was apparent that outsiders, like myself, stood out like sore thumbs, at least it felt that way to me, and that it would be near impossible for me to ply my usual trade without becoming the prime suspect. Just as my pouch was almost empty, I was offered employment by a strange looking fellow. He needed someone with a sharp eye to guard some treasure that he was digging out of a hillside not too far out of town. The pay was decent, and buried treasure always ignites the imagination, so I took the job.
You can imagine my surprise, or rather lack there of, when I discovered that the buried treasure in question, was actually old plates and broken pottery from some long dead community. This strange fellow, named Higgins, had a bunch of people digging up dirty dishes, and he wanted to make sure that no one stole them. Like anyone would want to steal this junk, or so I thought. I was forced to take orders from a large and overbearing Centaur, who was the head guard for this giant exhumation, and there was a shady looking human, whose name I believe was Burbon Harlot who also had the pleasure of finding this employment. A couple nights of wandering around camp dodging Centaur droppings, and I was ready to find somewhere else to go. Unfortunately some of the pottery found somewhere else to go first.
One morning, Higgins discovered that some of the more "valuable" items had disappeared from the storage building overnight. I can't imagine that anyone would actually have taken them, so I just chalked it up to an over excited imagination. Apparently Higgins was very serious, so he went into town and hired two more dimwits to help guard the shattered chamber pots. The dimwits in question were a scrawny looking half-elf, that wouldn't scare a mouse, and a large human who's constant drooling and vacant stare led one to believe that his mother had dropped him several times as a child. He was, however, able to help top off my quiver with arrows. The scrawny bald headed half-elf, whose name is Orion, at least that’s what he told me, claimed to be not only a mystic but a conjurer as well. I have no idea what a mystic does, as his powers are very "mystical" I believe his powers make grass grow. He had a pet badger with him and claimed that the scary looking critter belonged to an incarcerated friend named Refanij. The drooling human's name, is Cephalus Hydro, I think, and stupidly told me that it was his self appointed job to end the lives of all giants. I asked him what he was doing here since there were no giants about, and I just got the vacant stare as a fresh string of drool crawled down his chin and dropped onto his chest.
That night, I was stuck on watch with drool, while Orion and the shady looking elf slept. The Centaur went prancing by on occasion, and I set myself up on the thatched roof of the pottery storage shed. Sometime during my watch, the silence of the night was broken by a horrific scream coming from the area I was guarding. Many people came scurrying from their tents but nothing amiss was discovered. About an hour afterwards, a group of creatures were spotted to the east of camp. The creatures turned out to be a small band of Orcs, the first I'd ever seen not in captivity, or buying stolen goods from me. In any event, they attacked the centaur and drool, while I dropped them with arrows from my perch. The others came out of their tents, and joined in the fray. Soon the orcs were wiped out, and I went about investigating the shed on which I sat.
I quickly discovered that the area about the shed was under the influence of a spell of silence. I tore a hole in the roof and dropped down inside to see if anyone had snuck in during the commotion. Nothing seemed out of place, but then again, I couldn't really tell what was in place either. The spell of silence soon wore off, and I went to exit the building. The door was locked from the outside, and I had to pound on it to get some attention. I was just about to climb back through the gaping hole in the roof, when Higgins arrived with the key and unlocked the door. The rest of the guard were standing outside, some looking a bit the worse for wear, and I soon explained to them the situation with the silence spell. Higgins discovered that more items were missing from inside and bitched about a hole in the roof. I had no idea what he was talking about. Whoever was stealing was using magic to do it, not the most comforting thought for a thief who had just run away from an angry mage.
The next night we set up the same watch. Again I perched on the roof, and this time drool took up guard outside the door. I played "tap the dagger" all night in hope of discovering when and if a silence spell was cast. Late that night, the shady elf and Orion were disturbed by tapping sounds on there tent, again nothing amiss was discovered. Sometime afterward, more creatures came running into camp. This time I wasn't going to fall for the diversion, so I threw a rope down the side of the building for drool to climb up, and dropped down through the hole in the roof. I started singing loudly, so drool would be able to tell if and when a silence spell was cast. Not long after, the sound of my sweet voice was cut abruptly short, much to the disturbance of the local birds, who had been so enjoying my lullaby. I hid in a shadowy corner of the building, and waited in silence for something to happen.
Drool entered through the hole in the roof, and looked around, he couldn't see me, and moments later a box right behind him vanished into thin air. Assuming that the culprit must be near by, I leapt forward, swinging my short swords into the empty space near the vanished box. My quick movement startled Drool, and seconds later a person materialized before us, and struck me with a painful dart of magic. I went scrambling out the hole in the roof, to notify the others, as drool engaged the mage. I yelled for help, and looked back through the hole, just in time to see magic shoot from the mages hand and drop drool in his tracks. I leapt back down to help him, and the mage disappeared once again.
Help arrived and opened the door. Higgins and the others were once again congregated outside, but this time a shadowy ghost like form could be seen floating away from the building. Everyone went chasing after the ethereal form, while I stayed to hopelessly tend to my fallen comrade. Higgins launched a magical strike of his own,and felled the fleeing ghost mage. When I saw the rest of the party heading back toward the shed, I once again took to the shadows. The group came inside and discovered that drool's ill fated plan of killing giants would never come to pass. They then began inspecting a wand and a ring that they apparently had gotten off of the ghost mage's body. I took possession of the wand, and slipped up to the party to tell my tale. Higgins was grateful, that I had solved the mystery.
We went into town the next day to pick up some supplies, and had the misfortune of also picking up a raving hypocrite, oh excuse me, I meant "Crusader". His name was Muffin, Bran Muffin, and he was a priest of Errogenous or Erroneous, one of the two, I forget. Anyway, he carried a battle axe and a pious attitude. His hypocracy was obvious to the most casual observer. He was the type that claimed to live a life of poverty, yet counted every coin, and insisted on joining our group, when he found out that the job paid pretty well. When we returned to the camp the next day, it was discovered that some horrible creature had crawled out of a cavern that the diggers had unearthed, and killed a few of them. Being full of piss and vinegar, after defeating our first enemy, we bravely entered the cavern entrance in the dig site.
Cautiously, we trekked through the dark and musty cavern in search of the creature responsible. Unfortunately it found us, and it was actually they. They were giant ugly beetle looking creatures, and two of them jumped at the front members of the party. I was in the back, and couldn't do anything to help, so I ran down a passage that looked like it might loop around to the front. Sure enough, my hunch was right, and I came up behind one of these giant bugs just as it was about to kill the centaur. I sank one of my short swords deeply into its carapace, killing it instantly. Moments later, the other beetle fell to the combined attacks of three of the party members. We all decided that we had seen enough, and exited the tunnels, never to return.
The beetle attack had apparently unnerved the digging crew so greatly that they had left camp, and Higgins was forced to shut down his operation. With nothing left to guard, we collected our pay, and headed back to town.