Errissa was used to being in a bad situation. Hell, bad situation after another pretty much summed up her life. Trapped in a cage with little more than rags for clothing, in the middle of a bandit hideout, with her adopted clan slain and no one to help her. Yep, this was not too different from the usual. She brushes her blonde hair away from her face and her blue eyes flash with anger. Damn shem, damn them all for their destructive nature. Speaking of shem, the leader of this particular band of shemlen walks through the door and right up to her cage. She sticks her arms out through the bars to test his distance and he wisely stays far enough away that she can't reach him. He smirks "Well, little knife eared bitch, you are going to make a fun little addition to our collection. And, once we have enjoyed our games, we can put you in the gibbet outside and then all the dumb wandering travelers and lost traders can wave at you before our watchman puts an arrow in 'em." He smirks and blows her a kiss then he goes still, as she hears the sound of blades piercing flesh. He collapses against her cage, three throwing knives protruding from his back. In the door stands a shem, who has black hair, green eyes, pale skin, black leather armor and two daggers on his waist, his armor sporting various compartments and pouches. He bows politely, his voice a mix of condescending and mock formality "My lady, my name is Draven. And it would seem as if I happened upon you at a good moment."
Errissa smiles at him "Is this providence or do you have a particular reason for showing up?" He shrugs "Well, I was hired to kill these idiots. Grieving widow or somesuch. And here, I find a sightly elven woman in need of assistance." She folds her arms "I can take care of myself shem." He nods "True. Perhaps. But, you must admit I have a good sense of timing. Someone needed to quiet that tongue of his." "He was frightfully irritating." He unlocks her cell door and his demeanor turns serious "You are free to leave. But, before you do, I want to extend you an offer." She brushes past him "I want nothing you may offer me. Do not fake yourself into the illusion that you saved my life. I am fully capable of defending myself." "What I offer you is something you may take of your own free will. I offer you a job, and I offer you companionship." She walks down the hall of slaughtered bandits and snorts "Companionship? With a shem the likes of yourself?" "Not that kind of companionship. I meant to say that I wish for you to join my mercenary group. I had hoped that perhaps you would want to avoid future unpleasantness and recapture." "I'm not a morally ambiguous mercenary for hire." Draven smirks "Perfect. Neither are we." She walks out into the main hall and amongst the corpses she sees two dwarves, a male and female, drinking at the table. They both have brown hair and similar facial features, though the female has a softer, more feminine look, naturally. Their black body armor is spattered with blood, as is the black armor of everyone else in the room. Her eyes slowly observed the Qunari reading a book in one corner, who had one metal horn and one real one and grey hair that fell to his shoulders. Two more shemlen, one olive skinned, clad in leather armor, leaning against his bow. The female wore the heaviest looking set of armor, with a shield leaning against the wall beside her as she leans back against the stone, arms folded, eyes closed, her brown hair falling around her face. From the room opposite walks out an elf, with Dalish markings, holding Errissa's robes and her staff. Errissa smiles "Glad to not be the only elvhen in the room."
Draven points at the dwarves "Salvador, Helga, no drinking on the job." Salvador chuckles "Come on boss, you know I like a little victory pint after a decent fight." Helga nods "Not a lot of bandits around to cause a problem." Salvador pulls a dead bandit in the chair beside him "You want a drink too buddy?" He pours some beer from his pint glass on the man then pushes him aside "Nah? Fine, didn't want to share anyway." "Men, women, introductions are in order I believe. Salvador and Helga, twins, are our crowd control. Finest Berserker warriors this side of the hundreds of feet of rock separating… too long winded, moving on." Salvador groans "He didn't do my intro right. I feel ripped off." Draven motions to the female shem "This is Maxis, a Grey Warden and our expert defender." Errissa watches Maxis, looking for a reaction, to which she gets a sideways look and nothing else. "And of course, we have our Antivian assassin Amere" he bows politely "our Qunari rear line defender Neros" he closes his book and puts it back in his pack "and naturally you noticed Lisette, our Dalish sharpshooter." Lisette hands Errissa her robes and she smiles "Aneth ara." Lisette frowns and reaches up, pulling down the collar of her undershirt to reveal the scar on her throat. Errissa touches it softly and a tear comes to Lisette's eyes. Draven nods "I couldn't stop her captors from rendering her mute the day I rescued her. Medicine can only do so much to repair her vocal cords." Lisette puts a hand on Draven's chest and she smiles, then turns back to Errissa, touching her Dalish marking then touching Errissa's in a fashion her particular clan must have used as greeting. Errissa smiles and touches her shoulder before turning to Draven "I think I may stay a while. By the way, my name is Errissa."
After changing, Errissa finds her place in the traveling group near the rear with Neros. Since she was a mage, it was natural she be nearest the back, and if they were attacked from behind, at least she could protect Neros with magic so they couldn't be overrun. Lisette was nowhere to be found, far off scouting the area in search of potential threats. Maxis led the front line, with Draven behind her and the twins behind him at a distance. At the middle of the pack was Amere. Neros turns to Errissa "You are an exceptional mage I would assume." "What brought you to that assumption?" "That staff is the staff of a keeper." "So you know of my people." "I know of many things. So, what is a keeper doing out here in the middle of a bandit camp?" She frowns "Well, the group of shem-" "Bandits." Neros says this with a slight growl and his aggressive voice shook Errissa with a fear she was not familiar with. But this 8 foot tall Qunari bore into her and frightened her with his mere glare. "Bandits… they attacked my Dalish clan. At first, handling them wasn't difficult.. but then…" Her mind flashes back to the Antivian firebomb hitting their herb storage aravel. "Ir abelas, ma vhenan." Errissa looks up at Neros, surprised "You speak elven? You are full of surprises." He chuckles "And you haven't even seen me fight yet."
Errissa saw their destination ahead. A large cottage of sorts with a couple sheds for storage, a full forge out back and a well. It sports an impressive garden with everything from elfroot to various vegetables. As they all head inside Draven walks to Errissa "We have a spare bunk for you, and you can leave your weapon in the bedroom closet. There are pegs to hang it from. Don't do what Neros did one time and just set it in there. Helga was almost split in two." They all start stripping from their armor with the exception of Maxis and Neros. Errissa looks around the cramped cottage "Is it safe here?" Draven chuckles "This is the safest building in all of Thedas. Except maybe the royal treasury in Denerim." Maxis turns to Neros "Ready to train big guy? That scuffle back there wasn't the fight I was hoping for." He grunts "I was hoping you would say that. I felt the same way." They head out the back door and Draven turns to Errissa "Feel free to explore the grounds. I have plants for alchemy. Tools for woodworking. Whatever you need to train, relax or create new equipment for later fights." She nods "Alright then. I'll make sure to look around. I think I am going to enjoy it here."
