A wagon bumps along a long dusty road that snaked its way across the Desert. There was a figure covered in a heavy cloak, which shielded him from the sun. Inside the wagon, sat three members of his race, Drow. These were Drow whom had ventured out from Onureth, the land of eternal night, for slaves. This wagon held three, a moon elf, a dwarf, and a Halfling. It was the elf who awoke first, bound and gagged. He quickly shut his eyes to make it seem like he was still asleep, and reached out with his magic, trying to sense the area, and find a way to escape. His magic surges forth and he's able to see everything, however his surge causes the rope to glow red. They were blocking his spell casting! The Drow in front of him launches forward with a downward slash the elf moves his hands up so that the rope is cut and quickly charges his hand with lightning magic before quickly grabbing the Drow by the throat. "Synnu Llaw!" cried the moon elf, as the lightning entered the Drow making his body convulse. He sent the Drow out of the wagon as the other Drow try to attack only for the dwarf to stand up and ram the Drow. This distracted the Drow enough for the elf to cast another spell. "Dwarf, Get Down!" He yelled before readying his spell. "Dartiau Hud!" A silvery circle of ethereal energy forms, an inverted pentagram surrounded in a circle of elven runes formed, and from it shot three small spheres of white energy. The dwarf fell to the ground as the spheres connected with the Drow severely injuring him. While the Drow were distracted the elf undoes the dwarf's binds. "Can you fight?" The elf askes quickly.
"Aye, I can take these Drow bastards any day!" The dwarf pulls forth an icy longsword with a cry of "Bundet Blad!" and slashes through the Drow who got shot by the missiles, killing him. The last Drow throws up his hands and backs up. "Yeka, yeka ngiyeke!"
"What's he sayin'?" The dwarf looked to the moon elf. The Drow rolled his eyes. "I surrender." His thick Onurethian accent hung on his voice as spoke common. "Why should we leave you alive?"
"I have the key to the chests holding the items you were found with!" The Drow help up the key. The elf snatches it from him and moves to the first chest labeled "Inyanga" the Onurethian word for moon elves. "Oi, Saleve, what's yer name?"
"Maxilos, Maxilos Siannodel."
Ah, nice to meet ya, Maxilos. I am Thorin."
"Of the Frostbeard clan? I know your third cousin, Mildr." Thorin was about to respond in earnest, when a muffled cry came from the small humanoid still bound and gagged. Thorin took his sword and freed the Halfling, and pulled him to his feet. "Ya alright, hobbit?"
The Halfling gave a deadpan look. "Navnet er Leam, og du er ikke en til ah snakke." The Halfling said in dwarven. Thorin guffawed, and slapped the Halfling on the back.
"Ya got guts, Leam! I like ya, can ya fight!"
"I'm not much of a fighter, but I know my way around an instrument." Maxilos looked over at Leam.
"You're a Bard?"
"You've heard of us?"
"In and amongst travel, yes. Bards were quite popular in my village supposedly." Thorin gave the elf a confused look. Maxilos saw the look as he handed Thorin the key. "'Were'? 'Supposedly'?"
"As you know humans don't quite like moon elves, because of our similarities to Drow," The remaining Drow scoffed. Maxilos yelled something in Elvish at him which shut up the said dark elf. "Anyways, my village was burned and razed, and I'm the only survivor." They continued gathering their gear in silence. They tied up the Drow and jumped off of the wagon. They walked in the opposite direction, following the sun's direction of west. They walked for most of the day and decided to camp at night. Leam played a song on his bagpipes as Thorin cooked a meal he called, "Ration Stew" which Maxilos was dubious of. As the meal finished cooking, they began to eat. It was quite delicious, if a bit rich for Leam.
"Halfling food is a lot more plain. We prefer simpler things, you know? The little things in life are much more important."
"Ya are a little thing in life." Thorin chortled at his joke. Leam rolled his eyes but cracked a smile.
"It's like my uncle used to say, 'Tá an pictiúr mór ró-mhór domsa.' Meaning, 'The big picture is too big for me.'" Leam smiled as he pulled out an elegantly carved pipe. The hole on the side signified it as a Morbuzahk root pipe. Thorin chuckled more, pulling out his own root pipe.
"Aye, sometimes, I can agree to that. Oi, Maxilos, do you smoke?" Maxilos looked confused.
"Smoke what?"
"Morbuzahk root, it's a special root that heightens one's senses." Said Leam pulling out a small compact cylinder. He pulled apart revealing spikes inside the cylinder, he stuck the bits of root in the cylinder before closing it, and began twisting it. He opened the cylinder, revealing the root to be ground up. He carefully moved the ground up root in to the pipe. He pulled out a match and light the pipe. Whilst Leam loads his, Thorin does the same, and lights his. Leam passes his pipe to Maxilos who takes a light puff of the pungent smoke. The elf holds back a cough as he blows out the smoke. They smoke well into the night, before going to sleep. They wake up a few hours before sunrise, and pack up their camp before continuing their trek back to civilization. They walked for hours before stopping in a nearby cave for shelter. "We cannot continue in this heat. Let's rest here, and travel by night." Thorin said, taking charge. Maxilos and Leam agreed and slumped down. "Gan y Mam Seren, it's blistering out there!" Maxilos said in between loud breaths. Leam could only in agreement as he too panted. That sat in silence, until from the cave they heard footsteps. Maxilos twirled his quarterstaff into a ready position as Thorin summoned forth his frozen blade, and pulled out his shield. Leam pulled out a small Halfling rapier and stood at the ready. As the person came into view, they lowered their weapons. It was a human woman of pale complexation. She was on the shorter side of the height spectrum, and had a strange device over her left eye. But what stood out about her was her softly glowing blonde hair.