Chapter 1
In Athkatla, the late days of Nightall, or The Drawing Down, as it more commonly known, as soggy, cold, miserable days, where the best thing to do is seclude oneself by a warm fire and not move from it save to fetch a mug of ale or mulled wine. The wealthy merchants and nobility take this to heart, and don't stir much except to hobnob with one another, sign off on trade documents, or go over finances and such. Everyone else just goes about their usual daily routine, albeit much damper and with a heightened chance of coming down with whatever fell disease is going around. Then there is a third group of people, those who are neither a part of society nor apart from it.
Adventurers.
It's safe to say that most common folk either love or revile adventurers; there really isn't much room for feelings of the in between variety, though some cases are the exception to the rule. In particular, one rather famous group of adventurers, once a ragtag collection of disparate men and women of various races and creeds but now banded together under common leadership and mutual admiration, if not friendship, holds a sort of questionable place in the hearts of Athkatlans: The Blades of Honor. The somewhat uncertain general feeling of the Athkatlans toward their very own group of do-gooders is that many of them have both benefited and be the targets of some very, very enthusiastic do-gooding. Those on the receiving end of the Blade's sword points, mace heads, clubs, spells, arrows and various other weaponry and magery, generally leave those encounters either in body bags or with a healthy dose of anger and resentment.
In their escapades within Amn and without the Blades made quite a name for themselves, in particular their leader, Brynn Trueblade, the half-elven daughter of the dead god Bhaal, who despite her heritage, is generally found by most people that meet her a pleasant person.
Thus Brynn developed something of a following among young warriors throughout Faerun, and occasionally they would track her down to her home base in Athkatla at the Copper Coronet Inn, and shower her with praise until she wanted to retch.
Thankfully, on one particularly nasty night in the last tenday of The Drawing Down, the woman who dragged her complaining companions into the musty, badly-lit confines of the Copper Coronet was not quite that a devoted idolater.
Not quite.
"I can't believe we're finally here!"
"Bryseus, would you calm down?"
"I'm in heaven! Hsanin, I could die now a happy woman."
"Bry, this place is a pit! It stinks of drunk people who haven't washed in months!"
"Redleaf, that's you. Now shut up, you're ruining the mood!"
"Bryseus are you certain we have the correct inn, this doesn't seem to be the home of heroes."
"It's got ambiance Ashram!"
"Its ambiance smells like skunk farts."
"Red, I told you to shut up."
"I do believe he is correct."
"Alysandyr, don't you mutiny on me too!"
"Bah! I've smelt worse. Try a merc camp after three rainy days of battle and then a day so hot you could fry eggs on your armor. Ain't nothing I've ever smelt that smelt worse… not even troglodyte stench."
"That's the spirit, Anna! Come on, this is the place where so much recent history was born! See those dragon heads up there? In that room is where the Blades prepared before they took out the vampire queen and launched their assault on the captured elven city of Sundanesselar! History I tell you, history! They're heroes!"
"Bryseus, calm down."
"Aw, come on, Hsanin! It's like if you got to meet a big head-priesty guy and see his house and all his cool trophies. I'm supposed to be excited."
"Not this excited; you're attracting attention."
And indeed Bryseus was attracting attention, for many of the tavern patrons were looking at her with expressions that were equal parts irritation and boredom.
"Oh, well, let's just sit down and have a beer or something until they get here."
"Bry, this place is a dive, and coming from me that's saying something."
"Red, for the last time: Shut. Up."
"Be nice or I'll set Thorple on you."
"I fear not your weasel, tree-boy."
"You should. He has a tendency to viciously attack anyone who calls me 'tree-boy.'"
"Speaking of that, if those cuts scar I'm going to wring that stupid little rodent's scrawny little neck."
"Yeah, Anna, you and what army?"
"Me and this army."
"Oh that was so lame! I need ale after a stinker like that one. How'd we get this stupid conversation started anyway? Bar wench, bring me ale!"
"You called this place a dive. That's how it got started."
"When has the quality of the establishment ever stopped me from taking advantage of free booze? It was merely whining for the sake of harassing you a little bit, Bry."
"Who said the booze'd be free, you drunkard?"
"Well I assumed that…"
"Red, you drink like a horse, we can't afford to pay for you and still get rooms here at the inn."
"Well if Hsanin'd sell some of those pretty trinkets…"
"For the last time, absolutely not! These item are family heirlooms, I'm not selling any of them so that you can go on a drinking binge."
"It's not for a drinking binge, it for rooms, Hsanin, see the floating gold pays for the drinking, the selling of the… heh… 'family heirlooms' pays for shelter and soft comfy beds for us to pass out in after the drinking binge."
"I can't believe you're a druid."
"Nothing about liking trees and nature says I can't like a good drink too. I can't believe you're a cleric the way you hoard your stuff."
"Nothing about being a cleric says I can't be sentimental."
"Hsanin, love, you're being sentimental with enough magic items to buy and sell this dump five times over. Someday we might need that gold to buy better magic items."
"Bryseus keep it down would you? I'd rather not get my pockets picked. Besides, you can't get better magic items."
"Hey, no need to get defensive!"
"You're in a bad mood today."
"That's because it's 'that time of the…'"
"Anna Stormblade if you finish that sentence I'm going to gut you."
"How're you going to do that?"
"With my sword."
"My sword's bigger than your sword."
"Ladies, ladies, as I always say, it's not the size of the sword, it's how you use it. My dad was an elf, but he was a real ladies man, and you know what they say about elves."
"No, Redleaf, what do the say about elves?"
"Well, uh, you know, they're not as… well endowed as humans, but they must be fun in the sack, 'cause the ladies love 'em."
"So you take after your father then?"
"What? No! I take after my mother's side of the family. I like the benefits of my human side."
"Speaking on behalf of male elves everywhere, I think you are being a tad unfair."
"Alysandyr, you're not an elf."
"Well I know that, Bryseus."
"Well then you can't be speaking from experience unless there's something about you we don't know."
"Oh no! It's always the good looking ones. I should've known when you said you were a bard! For the sake of women everywhere, say it ain't so!"
"Anna, cut that out! It's not funny."
"Excuse me, but I think we have squabbled enough for now. It seems Redleaf's beer has arrived. I suggest we partake while we still can."
"Ah, there you go, listen to the paladin. Ashram, you're always the voice of reason! Give me my beer! And put a bottle of your finest wine on the tab."
"Redleaf!"
"Okay, okay, not your finest, but something that doesn't taste like my weasel peed in it, okay?"
"I'm not sure we should let you have any beer, or wine for that matter, Red."
"Bryseus, that's a cruel, cruel joke on a man who's been dry for the last week."
"I mean it. You're abrasive and crude as it is."
"You know very well that I get better after I've gotten a pint or two in me."
"Yes, because at least when you pass out you cease to wag that jaw of yours."
"Ally boy, you slay me."
"I only say it because I love you."
"Nooooo!"
"Anna, stop it, he doesn't mean it like that!"
It was at the beginning of this rather hectic, argumentative conversation that Brynn Trueblade and her companions entered the Copper, soaking wet from the rain and feeling slightly disgruntled. They watched the five strangers as the talked, joked and argued before sitting down around one of the tables with a bottle of wine and several pints of bitter beer. From what Brynn could tell, Bryseus was a petite blonde half-elf, and was either married or the next thing to married to the pale skinned, dark-haired cleric of Lathander –also a half elf- called Hsanin. She was perplexed by the 'druid' whom the strangers called 'Redleaf' for he did not resemble in anyway, shape or form any druid she had every known. She guessed he earned his name for his well-groomed mane of shoulder-length red-gold hair and his bright green eyes. She had to agree with the dark-haired fighter with the Ogre-sized greatsword strapped to her back –Anna she though the woman's name was- that it would be a shame if Alysandyr was not meant for womankind. A crying shame, for he was quite possibly the most handsome man she'd ever laid eyes on; his hair was nearly white it was so blonde, and his face almost feminine in its beauty. The last member of the group made her head spin more than the druid, for it was plain to see from the roots of his long, straight, ebony hair to the burning red points of light that were his eyes that he sported fiendish blood somewhere in his ancestry, and yet Redleaf had called him a paladin. Would wonders never cease?
She decided to stop her observation and confront them directly, seeing as, from what she could gather, they had stopped by at the Copper to see her and the Blades.
"Hello, welcome to the Copper Coronet, you look wet and soggy, like most everyone does these drab days, can I help you with anything or you just here for the eh… heh heh, 'ambiance?'"
All but the druid looked at her in frank disbelief. Bryseus looked caught between horrible, incurable embarrassment and joy.
"Lady you must mean the stink," said Redleaf, either not noticing the expression of his companions or not caring. "Skunk-fart's what we call it back at the grove, leastwise, I do. You gotta get some clean air in this dump. But that can wait. Bring me more beer and make it snappy. There might be a little extra tip in it for you, if you get my drift." He winked and Bryseus looked about read to keel over.
"Redleaf," said the red-eyed tiefling, "you are a fool of unbelievable proportions."
"Do you know who that is?" Bryseus squeaked.
"I don't care so long as she brings me alcohol. So far as I'm concerned, if she's not the beer wench, she doesn't matter. Here, sweetheart, plop that bouncy bottom of yours into my lap. Hey, you're a half-elf too. So am I, but I bet you could tell that." He gave Brynn a sly look. "You know, I'm half-elf, but I'm fully human in some respects." It was then that he had the nerve to point to his lap and say, "If you're lucky, I'll show you my weasel after you get off work."
"Lathander save us, we're all going to die," Hsanin said quietly.
Brynn could not contain herself anymore, and doubled nearly in half, finding herself forced to lean against the table until the fit of laughter subsided. "I like you guys!" she gasped. "Stars and moons, you're great."
"Yuck it up later, Beer Wench, bring me ale now. Redleaf's belly says 'bring ale! Must have ale!'" Redleaf said, doing a remarkably good impression of just about every ogre Brynn had ever met.
"Great Gods above us, Redleaf if you do not shut up, I will be forced to shut you up violently," said the tiefling angrily. "You are making all of us look like inane drunkards and with lecherous intentions toward everyone of the opposite gender!" He took time to regain his composure before saying to Brynn. "My lady Trueblade, if I have judged correctly and that is who you are, I apologize for my companion's behavior. There truly is no excuse for it, save that he was raised in a bar for the formative years of his life -though sometime I think it was a barn he was raised in."
"It's okay," Brynn said.
"Yeah, it's okay," Redleaf echoed. "She knows I don't mean it really, right lady Trueblade?"
"Right. Did you just figure out who I was now, or have you known all along?"
"Oh I knew from the beginning. I just have this thing… if the mighty can't take a good joke at their expense they're not really all that mighty, you know?"
"Sit down, have a beer," Hsanin offered. "Your companions are welcome too, if they care to join. Though, no doubt you and they both would like to get into to drier clothes."
"Redleaf here has put me in a good enough humor that a little dampness doesn't bother me much. However I would suggest going up to headquarters, there's more room up there, and we've got a running tab here so the ale flows like water. Plus it ah… smells better."
"That sounds wonderful," Hsanin said.
Brynn called the Blades over, and together all of them went up the stairs and into the Blades' headquarters. They pulled a number of chairs around the table in the center of the room and all sat down, except for Anna, who decided she'd rather stand by the wall.
"So, I suppose we ought to introduce ourselves," Bryseus said, over her stunned silence now that she had met her hero and found her to be not as aloof as she had expected. "I'm Bryseus de Rowan, and this is my husband Hsanin."
Hsanin ducked his head politely and said, "I am honored to meet you all."
"I am called Ashram Abyssguard," said the tiefling.
"I am Alysandyr Miron, formerly of Luskan, formerly of Uluvin," said the handsome bard.
"M'name's Anna Stormblade," said Anna gruffly.
"And I'm Redleaf, druid and merry drunk. Give me that bottle of wine, sweetheart." Redleaf grasped in the direction of the wine, which was near Aerie, and the elf girl put the bottle in his eager fingers.
"So, tell us a little about yourselves," Imoen prompted. "You seem like a bunch of interesting people."
"Honey," said Redleaf, "interesting doesn't begin to cover it."
To Be Continued
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Author's Notes
I'm working on this at the same time as Insurrection. I've got all these ideas and I sort of feel like getting them down before I forget them all. Just in case you're curious I've got the stats for our new friends.
Bryseus de Rowan: half-elf female; NG; Ftr7; str18, dex17, con15, int15, wis14,cha16.
Hsanin de Rowan: half-elf male; NG; Clr7 of Lathander; str17, dex14, con16, int15, wis18, cha16.
Alysandyr Miron: tiefling male; CG; Brd3/Sor3 (total character level 7); str14, dex19 con16, int14, wis11, cha18.
Ashram Abyssguard: tiefling male; LG; Pal6 (total character level 7); str16, dex15, con12, int14, wis14, cha16.
Anna Stormblade: human female; NG; Ftr6; str15, dex12, con12, int11, wis9, cha12.
Redleaf: half-elf male; NG; Drd6/Rgr1; str16, dex18, con14, int12, wis18, cha13.
I've played all of these various and sundry characters in a couple of different campaigns. Their all in 3rd Edition, in case you were wondering about the multi-classing stuff.
Please review!
The Blue Sorceress