The seperatist's hideout
We find our 5 hero's at a campfire near the Priory base. Ethaisa and her newfound friends had travelled to lornar's pass in persuit of Ethaisa's new mission. Gidzar told her that he had seen the mark they found back when he was just a kid norn. "I've seen it at False lake when I my father took me to hunt a giant barracuda with him.". this sentence kept repeating itself in Ethaisa's head. She can't believe that she had never seen it before, she had been at false lake on holiday with her sister more then she can remember. "Ethaisa…. Ethaisa! snap out of it already!" Shaevan said growling. "Oh sorry, I keep thinking about what my sister possibly had to do here in lornar's pass." Ethaisa replied. "I can't think of any reason why she would come back here, not after…." Ethaisa suddenly stopped speaking and looked straight into the fire. "for the eternal alchemy, try finishing your story for once. You are even more mysterious then Anti You." Oonk says irritated. "sorry, well… our parents died here. They got murdered by a man they took in to recover from his wounds. At least, that's what we think" Ethaisa explained. "You think?" Ailnir answered confused. Ailnir, who was normally an enthousiastic norn, was visibly affected by the story Ethaisa told. "well, my sister and I woke up in the morning and we found our parents in their bed. And the man was gone." She replied again. "But don't worry about it, it was a very long time ago, and at that time I was to young to understand."
"That's hard to hear" Shaevan grumbled, though his grumble was sadder then then normally. "I suggest you all catch some sleep. We have to be in our best element in the morning. I'll take the first watch."
It was almost morning when Gidzar woke up first. "by wolf, why didn't you wake me up to take over watch."
"I wasn't tired and we are going to need you in top element. My charr instincts are telling me that we haven't seen the last of those separatists yet." The charr grumbled. "You might be right" the norn confirmed. "But let's wake up the rest so we can leave."
It wasn't much later or everyone was awake. Our hero's took their weapons and as they were about to leave they see Vesper Lynx approaching their camp.
"I finally found you guys." she said while trying to catch her breath. "Milla send me. An eagle had arrived at the in with a message for Ethaisa. Milla told me to bring it to you guys"
"Give me the message Vesper" Ethaisa said in a hurry. She said it so fast that it was pretty obvious that she didn't trust Vesper with the message any longer then was needed. "Calm down Ethaisa." Oonk said conforting. "Vesper is very trustworthy."
Ethaisa pretended she didn't hear this and unfolded the letter that she had just received. "Sister of our fallen ally, we know you took over the mission of our ally. We strongly discourage this. Go back home before it's to late. Signed The Shaded Genesis." Ethaisa read the letter out load by accident.
"So the shaded genesis knows we are on the mission" stated Oonk. "Good, then they also know that we won't back down. We are going straight foward"
"Not you Oonk!" Vesper said quickly. "Milla asked me to send you back, something about Bnok being stuck inside Nemesis his flesh golem"
"Not again! Bnok should learn to get out there himself. I'm not leaving!" shouted Oonk.
"Haha that halfwitted asuran did it again!" Shaevan tried to say while laughing.
"You have to oonk. Milla ordered me to send you back" Vesper responded again
"It's okay Oonk, go save Bnok once again." Ailnir tried to get Oonk to get their guildie out of that flesh golem. The idea alone of being stuck in a golem gave Ailnir chills all over her body.
"I swear as soon as I get Bnok out of that golem I'm going to tie his ears to a table and leave him there!" Oonk shouted in anger.
He then turned around to Ethaisa.
"Sorry Ethaisa, but it seems you have to go on without me. But Vesper is going to take my place. Don't worry she is really capable. A bit weird…. But capable." he said trying to cover that he'd rather stay.
Before anyone could say something Oonk changed into a big swarm of flies and flew away.
"so euhm…. Shall we be going then?" Vesper mumbled like she felt as an intruder. She had noticed the hostility from Ethaisa against her.
"Sure, let's go" Shaevan grumbled. "And don't worry Vesper, she'll be normal against you soon. It's a long story I'll tell you on the way to False Lake"
Our hero's moved towards False Lake. Ailnir and Gidzar telling old Norn stories to eachother. Shaevan and Vesper talking to eachother and Ethaisa was walking in the back. She was in her own thoughts again. She tried to focus on Shaevan's and Vesper's conversation.
"….And so we found the grave of her sister surrounded by traps from seperatists…"
she heard shaevan explaining to Vesper. She couldn't hear Vesper say much but the things she could hear was always something among the lines of "I understand it now" or "That's so sad".
As the walk towards False Lake continued, so did the conversations continue till at some point everyone became silent and stood still at the edge of the lake. Ethaisa didn't really notice it and ran into Gidzar.
"auw!" Ethaisa mumbled "why are you guys sto…"
she stopped speaking the moment she saw the same thing everyone saw. In the middle of the lake was a giant construction made out of broken ships and wooden cabines. Every 5 meters there was a separatist guarding the whole building.
"This is new, I have never seen this building here before" Gidzar told the others. "I hate to say it but we have to go inside the building, I saw the symbol we're looking for near it."
"But how can we go in there unseen? That place is crowded with guards." Ethaisa asked.
"Well if you allow me, I can use Mass Invisibility and stealth us all long enough for us to reach inside without being seen. But after that we have to figure out a new way. It requires a lot of concentration and energy." Vesper suggested the others.
"Can you really do that?" Ethaisa asked
"You clearly don't know our Vesper" Shaevan reacted before Vesper could answer. "She can do things that will blow your mind!" he growled.
"I think it's a good plan!"
"Fine…we'll do it." Ethaisa responded.
Our 5 hero's sneaked as close as possible towards the separatists hideout.
"Now remember, as soons as I cast the spell run as fast as you can towards the door at the end of the bridge. The spell doesn't last as long as you'd think." Vesper reminded everyone.
"Here we go, 'Mass Invisibility'" she mumbled. In a split second everyone was invisible and started sprinting towards the door at the end of the bridge. Once they were inside the invisibility wore off.
"Right on time." Ailnir whispered. "You guys go ahead. I'll find something to barricade the door and keep guard so they don't come in" she then instructed.
"Good." Shaevan said "But I'm leaving Banana Cupcake here with you to help you."
The remaing 4 hero's ventured deeper into the hideout. Encountering only a few separatists that they took out efficiently. When they finally reached another door they see the same symbol marked on it. The eye with a blade in it. Ethaisa looks at it and opens the door and moves forward into the big arena looking room. "Wait here." She said. Ethaisa looked around and at one point she sees a man sitting on a broken piece of wall. The man stood up and walked to the middle of the room and threw down his gloves as a symbol that he is ready for a challenge.
"Come here girl! It's about time that I kill you too!" he screamed across the room.
"What do you mean 'too'?" Ethaisa yelled back.
"Who do you think killed your mother… your father….and your dear sister!". Ethaisa suddenly realised that the man in front of her looked a lot like the man her parents took in all those years ago. She shot an arrow as fast as she could aimed towards his head. The man tilted his head and the arrow flew right passed his head.
"Do you really think that is going to help anything!?" the man screamed again as he took his sword. The sword was engulfed in blue flames and looked chipped. "This is one of the famous Ascalonian swords" he explain as he believed Ethaisa needed an explanation. In the meantime Ailnir showed up at the door too
"get ready guys! Separatists incomming!" she warned the others.
"Vesper you go help Ethaisa she will need you more then she might realise. Gidzar, Ailnir and me will keep these meddlers at bay." Shaevan said to vesper. Vesper rushed towards the middle to help Ethaisa while the other 3 prepared for battle. This battle was going to be fierce. Ethaisa shot arrow after arrow at her enemy. While Vesper spawned multiple phantasms. 1 phantasm with guns, 1 with a greatsword and another one with axes. The man had no problem fighting our 2 hero's and 3 phantasms at the same time. His movements were fast and agile. Meanwhile on the other side of the room you could see Gidzar bashing his mace into every separatist that came near. Shaevan and Ailnir efficiently killed an enemy with every shot fired.
"Is this all you got!" the separatists leader said trying to provoke Ethaisa to lose complete control. Ethaisa grabbed her sword and dagger and charged the enemy. And with quick slashes she attack the separatists leader. She was enraged…. Yet she was still concentrated. With each slash she did you could see the leader had more and more problems trying to evade each swing.
Vesper saw this and mumbled "Time Warp". A big pink dome surrounded both Ethaisa as the leader. But the dome only had an effect on Ethaisa. She could feel her arms and legs become lighter. She could swing her sword way faster and move around a lot more efficient.
"Use it! You only have 10 seconds!" Vesper yelled to Ethaisa. As Ethaisa heard this she started slashing on her foe again. Each hit faster then the one before. 8 seconds have passed and the separatist still held out. Ethaisa then pretended to strike from the left but turned around to the right planting her dagger in her foe's shoulder.
The shiny Ascalonian sword fell on the ground and the man looked defeated. On the other side of the room Vesper saw that Ailnir and the others had also won their battle. As they were just finishing up some enemies.
Ethaisa looked straight into the eyes of the separatists leader. She looked like she was trying to find to most painful way to kill him.
"well, guess I underestimated you. I think it's time for me to go." As he hardly spoke these words he threw a smoke bomb on the floor and escaped, leaving an enraged Ethaisa behind.
Shaevan, Ailnir approached Vesper and Ethaisa but Gidzar ran straight to a wall on the left side... he then winked the others to come to him.
"here is the mark, I knew i had seen this mark before. But this message around it is new. It's freshly carved in the stone.
"End the people their suffering in Gendarran Fields" it says.
"Gendarran fields? Their is no suffering in gendarran fields anymore?" said Gidzar "The centaurs have been pushed back ever since lionguard and vigil put up the refugee camp for lion's arch unless….. oh god these guys might attack the refugee camp" he reacted in disbelief.
"Then we have to help them as fast as we can" responded Ethaisa.
"What about your sister's missio….?" Ailnir asked.
"This is her handwritting, I'm sure that whatever her mission was… it has something to do with that!" Ethaisa said before Ailnir could finish her sentence. "We have to go as fast as we can!" she said louder then she ment, you could clearly still hear her rage in her voice.
"I can help here." Vesper said.
"I can use a portal. Most mesmers can only use portals when there is an exit or within a certain reach. But i have studied the way portals work. I can use a portal here towards the asura gate in the Vigil keep" as she spoked these words she whispered "portal entry" a pink circle appeared on the floor and one by one our hero's entered the portal…
Ethaisa stayed behind a little longer and whispered to herself "i'll finish this for you Lesselte, I promise!" and then Ethaisa too stepped in the portal to the next part of their adventure.