|
|
Post by Dietrich on Apr 25, 2019 4:13:45 GMT
It had been a quiet evening in Waterdeep, for the most part. As the sun sank low over the western horizon, the maze of roads and allies were bathed in a dull orange glow as the shadows of buildings and trees slowly crawled along the ground, growing larger with each passing minute. The streets were slowly emptying, the denizens of the city hurrying home or to their favorite tavern for the night.
The North Ward was exceptionally quiet, the streets seemingly devoid of any life aside from the occasional gutter rat or street urchin. The stillness of the ordinarily bustling roads made Dietrich uneasy. Coupled with the quickly diminishing light, the feeling propelled him forward at an increased pace. He had intended this trip away from the Silent Shield to be a short one, merely a quick visit to a local glassware shop to replace a few vials destroyed in a mildly explosive alchemical mishap earlier that day.
He was crossing the High Road via Delzorin street when his heightened senses picked up on the sound of light, hurried footfalls behind him, slowly increasing in volume. Someone was following him. And by the sound of it, they were trying to do so quickly and quietly. Dietrich cast a glance over his right shoulder, looking for a silhouette or outline of his pursuer, but saw nothing but an empty street and what looked like a stray dog. The shadow must have ducked into an alley.
Increasing his pace towards the Silent Shield, Dietrich quickly pulled his hood over his head before stuffing his hands into the front pockets of his coat. His head ducked low as he aimed for an alleyway just ahead. If he remembered correctly, it opened into a small courtyard between an abandoned inn and a small apothecary’s shop. It would give him some room to work with and decrease the likelihood of any collateral damage if his pursuer proved to be capable with magic as well.
As he rounded the corner, Dietrich’s right hand wrapped around the handle of a dagger while his left closed on a small crystal. The little stone began to warm in his palm as he started to mutter in a strange, guttural and growling language. He could hear the footsteps growing louder behind him. The pursuer had given up on being stealthy now and had seemingly gone into a sprint to catch up to him.
As the sound of hurried footfalls rounded the corner behind him, Dietrich turned on his heel and wrenched his hands from his pockets. As soon as his left arm had extended in the direction he expected his target’s midsection to be, a chaotic beam of black and crimson energy exploded outward from his hand, along with a deafening crack that rebounded off the walls of the courtyard.
|
|
Faye
Approved
Aislinn Atwood, 3rd Level Circle of the Land Druid | Merli, 3rd Level Sorcerer
Posts: 68
|
Post by Faye on Apr 25, 2019 6:36:37 GMT
It had taken a fair bit of time, and even more effort, but Merli had managed to find a steady source of income. It wasn't glamorous and certainly wouldn't earn her any awards but it paid. That source of income being working as a messenger, she delivered letters, packages, and anything in between. It was still her first week on the job and the young kobold was determined to do a good, no, great job. Even if she managed to get lost five times on her first day, eight the next, and then four the third. It had briefly crossed her mind to invest in a map, but she had more pressing monetary concerns.
Currently, the kobold was on her last delivery of the day, nothing too exciting just a small letter addressed to an individual staying at the Silent Shield. Unfortunately for her, the individual the package was addressed to had left earlier, from what the nice lady she'd asked said he'd gone to get something from a nearby glassware shop. Which brought a brief moment of nostalgia to the small kobold as she idly played with the blown glass beads of her necklace. Though the kobold couldn't reminisce for long, saying a brief thank you and farewell she took off towards her new destination.
Sadly the kobold's luck didn't change, getting to the store just to hear the man matching her recipient's description had left a few moments ago. With another thank you and goodbye Merli turned on her heel and darted out the door. Her eyes scanned the darkening street for signs of her target, only to come up empty. Giving a final hopeless scan of the surrounding street, Tymora must have smiled on her as turning a corner she caught a glimpse of someone who fit what she'd been told of this Dietrich person.
With that, she was off, hoping this particular brown-haired and coated individual was in fact, Dietrich. Clawed feet thumped against the ground as she all but ran after the man, wanting to catch him before she lost him, which seemed to be proving quite difficult. When she managed to draw closer Merli noted the man glance over his shoulder, though before she could get his attention with a wave he looked away, in addition to picking up his pace. Which in turn meant she had to as well.
As the man turned a corner Merli broke out into a dead sprint not wanting to lose him, worried she'd never track him down again. Mentally cursing her short legs Merli did her best to catch up with the recipient of the letter safely tucked away in her cloak. Skidding around the corner herself Merli's gaze fixed on the individual before her as she bolted down the abandoned street still hoping to catch up with him. Though the small hint of relief she felt as the distance between them closed vanished within seconds.
Instincts, accompanied by a yelp, took over as Merli registered the beam of energy flying her way and her ears rang from the accompanying noise. As she ducked behind a pair of barrels to her left the first one was struck with the brunt of the attack. Wood cracked and splintered from the force as Merli crouched down with her back pressed firmly to the same type of flimsy wood that had just been obliterated not five feet away from her. This was when the panic set in.
Maybe Merli had greatly misinterpreted who this man was, instead of being Dietrich perhaps he was a crazy murderer, current circumstances leaned heavily towards that theory. Fears icy talons started to sink into her heart as her brain raced to try and come up with a plan. Attack, run, explain, hide, beg all of these zipped through her thoughts but none stayed for more than a moment. Leaving a fearfully frozen kobold hunkered down behind a wooden barrel that Merli dearly hoped had something to soften the impact of another attack.
Out of habit, and for a small sliver of comfort in this stressful situation Merli grabbed at the old book hanging at her hip pulling it up to her chest in a tight hug as she squeezed her eyes shut. It was in these moments Merli wished the owner of the book she was so desperately clinging onto was still with her. Doing her best to think of what he'd tell her to do she came up empty, other than use magic but that would involve coming out of her hiding spot. Giving up on coming up with a plan the kobold decided to just go with her gut.
"I'm sorry!" She called out, remaining huddled up behind her barrel attempting to make herself as small of a target as possible. "I didn't mean to scare you," She continued stuttering slightly in her signature raspy voice. It was an apology she'd said a lot over the course of her life and seemed to be a good explanation for this kind of reaction. "So, um, you know please don't attack me," It wasn't eloquent and perhaps not all that understandable as her nerves made her voice trembling.
"I swear I'm not even dangerous, I might look scary but I wouldn't hurt a fly, okay not exactly true they're really annoying. But what I mean is I wouldn't hurt you even if I wanted to, which I don't, and wouldn't ever want to. So just don't attack me and I won't attack you fair right?" Merli babbled.
"So, parley? Please?" Merli stated taking a second to peek head around the corner of her hiding spot. Both as a small sign of good will and to see if his location. If this was going to turn into a fight she at least wanted to know where in the world her attacker was.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dietrich on Apr 26, 2019 6:28:36 GMT
As the empty barrels burst into a cloud of wooden shrapnel, Dietrich swore under his breath and gave his focusing crystal another squeeze. That should have at least knocked the bastard on their ass, he thought to himself. How in the Nine Hells did I miss?
The crystal began to warm in his and again as Dietrich took a deep breath, readying the incantation to loose another spell against his attacker. As energy crackled around his left hand, slowly building in power, he heard a voice call out from behind the recently deceased barrels. It was sharp and raspy, with a pitch almost like that of a frightened child. The sheer oddity of it caught him off guard. He paused, letting the prepared spell dissipate as his arm lowered a small fraction. The unseen individual pleaded their case, claiming innocence and peaceful intentions. It was a classic ruse, to be sure, but something about the tone of the disembodied voice added a layer of sincerity to the proclamations.
As the hidden individual requested a parley, Dietrich saw something that wiped away any caution or hostility he might have been harboring and replaced it with equal measures of confusion and curiosity. There, peaking over the rim of a somewhat singed barrel, was a small head. No typical head, mind, but a small grey and ivory draconic head, complete with wide yellow eyes and small horns. Despite every ounce of logic in him denying that there could be one in the city, Dietrich knew a kobold when he saw one.
Most of his interactions with kobolds had been...negative, to put things politely. They were something of a nuisance in the Dalelands and were a constant problem in Shadowdale. Bands of the little pests often raided grain storehouses or stole livestock, occasionally even attacking en masse and injuring a farmer or two. Dietrich had treated his fair share of kobold bites and wounds from their makeshift weapons. All in all, they had proved themselves time and again to be little more than slightly more intelligent and vicious versions of raccoons or rats.
But here was a kobold, dressed in proper attire and speaking in passable common right in front of him. Dietrich absent-mindedly shook his head and gave his eyes a brief rub, muttering to himself that he had, at last, well and truly lost what little sanity he had left.
But he could worry about turning into some slack-jawed mind cripple later. He had more pressing matters to attend to at hand.
“Parley, you say?” His voice came out a bit louder than he might have intended, likely as a result of the aggravating ringing from the spell’s report. “Very well. If you come out from behind there, I won’t harm you. Just keep your talons...paws...hands where I can see them and make no sudden movements.”
Dietrich’s hands would lower more as the small kobold made its way out of its hiding place, his eyes following every subtle movement the little lizard made. Once the two individuals were both standing in the open, the tension slowly seemed to drain from the air around them. Dietrich would return his dagger to its place in his coat pocket, but keep a firm grip on his arcane focus as he let his hands fall to his sides.
Continuing to look over the kobold like it was some kind of intriguing scientific or arcane curiosity, Dietrich would speak up once more, his voice returning to a more reasonable volume. “So...why exactly would a kobold of all things find a reason to follow me, hm? Clearly, you must be working for someone.” The man would take a few steps closer to the kobold, trying to get a better look at her belongings and searching for anything that might provide him a clue to the mysterious lizard’s motives or employer.
“Did Affra send you? No, I think not. Perhaps Striveus. He seems the type to hire a non-human to do his dirty work, the pompous coward. And all for a few hundred silvers and a priceless book.” At this point, Dietrich was simply thinking aloud rather than directly addressing the kobold before him. He continued to ruminate for a few moments on which of his many adversaries or spurned patrons might have sent a tail after him before managing to reign in his train of thought.
He cleared his throat and straightened his jacket, brushing some unseen dust or dirt from the sleeves before returning his attention to the kobold before him. “But, more importantly for the time being, what name do you go by?”
|
|
Faye
Approved
Aislinn Atwood, 3rd Level Circle of the Land Druid | Merli, 3rd Level Sorcerer
Posts: 68
|
Post by Faye on Apr 27, 2019 16:40:42 GMT
Big words, big words generally made people at least pay attention right? Admittedly the small draconic lizard had few ideas about what parley actually meant, but had Erwin used it once, maybe twice, she couldn't quite remember. Not that it mattered, if it worked it worked and seemingly it had. When this supposed Dietrich person spoke his voice was loud and caused Merli to flinch. Even with his agreement, all she wanted to do was run, but the odds of that working were slim. In the battle between instinct and logical reason Merli's desire not to turn into a roast lizard won out. With a gulp, she complied with dark-haired human's request.
"Okay," She called back, dropping the book she had been clutching onto for dear life back to her side. The kobold moved out from the safety of her hiding position, taking painstaking care to keep her clawed hands out in the open. As she rounded the corner of the obliterated and still smoking barrel Merli kept her arms bent at the elbow with her hands up in the air, palms facing forward and as far from the small dagger hanging from her belt as could be. While she hoped this was a sufficient form of 'keep them where I can see them' Merli still felt uneasy.
With her heart thumping in her chest, she stopped after taking a few painstakingly slow steps forward as she entered the still empty courtyard. Not wanting to risk angering the man, she stopped a good twenty or so feet away and remained as still as possible. It did take a great deal of what willpower Merli had to not latch onto the thick leather-bound book that was hanging at her waist, held in place with the help of a deep red sash that worked as a strap keeping the book in place.
With the next string of words came out of his mouth Merli gave her head a tilt, confused. Though confusion was quickly replaced with apprehension as he drew closer, causing the scaled individual to instinctively take a step back. While the initial hostility had certainly dissipated, and the air itself seemed somewhat calmer Merli still found she was apprehensive about the entire situation. She supposed it could have been due to her less than pleasant interactions with individuals she'd come across in and on her way to Waterdeep. Then again, none of them had outright tried to attack her. Albeit the more he spoke the more Merli wondered if perhaps this man had his reasons for doing what he'd done. If that was, in fact, the case she hoped this misunderstanding could be resolved in a peaceful way.
"Merli," The kobold said when asked what she could be called, while she'd remained silent through most his rambling, not sure whether to answer or not this seemed more directed. "People call me Merli," While she continued the Kobold kept her voice as even as she could, but even with her effort, the words came out shaky. Deciding not to dwell on that fact, she continued.
"And, I wasn't hired to follow you, sir. In fact, I have no clue who any of those people are I promise," She said. "I was hired to give someone, possibly you, this," Forgetting her situation for a moment, even with all the worry still bottled up inside her, the kobold reached to her side and under the small cloak she wore and pulling out a small piece of parchment that had been folded over a handful of times to make it easier to store. "Maybe one of those people wanted to give it to you, I don't know. Typically I don't ask a lot of questions I just give people what I'm told to,"
"But, maybe it's not even for you," Merli bolted on to her previous statement with barely a pause in between. "I got it, was told where to go and went. When I got there the lady told me he'd left, so I went to where he was supposed to be but he'd left there and then I left saw you and, well, you know," Rambling seemed to be a habit of the kobold, along with an overuse of hand gestures. "But you don't need to know that, are you this, um," Merli paused, glancing back down at the letter as she mulled over the name she'd been given in her mind. "Die-trick?" She questioned, still unsure if she was pronouncing it right but no one had corrected her.
"If you aren't him I am so, so sorry about this whole thing. I didn't mean to follow you or make you worry, or anything, I just really want to get this delivered before it gets dark," As per usual Merli found herself speaking before even giving the other party a chance to interject. "If you are, hi, I was hired to give you this," Merli stated, though she still kept the letter close to her chest, not wanting to hand it over to a random stranger. She'd already managed to do that on her first day, and she wasn't looking to repeat the experience.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dietrich on May 6, 2019 4:40:09 GMT
Dietrich listened quietly as the Kobold, Merli, explained why she was there. To be frank, he honestly expected something more sinister than merely delivering a letter. Or at least something more interesting. As Merli fished the small letter from her pockets, Dietrich couldn't help but laugh, both at the absurdity of the situation and the kobold's butchered attempt at pronouncing his name.
With a loud sigh, but a smile still on his face, Dietrich spoke up again. "Well, that's as good a reason as any to come running up behind someone. You might want to be a bit more cautious about that in the future though, Merli."
He ran a hand through his hair, sweeping a stray lock away from his eyes. "And, yes, my name is most certainly Dietrich" — he made a point to emphasize the proper pronunciation of his name — "so I suppose that letter is, in all likelihood, meant for me. I've been expecting one, as a matter of fact."
"So, why don't you just hand it off to me and we'll try to forget this little misunderstanding ever happened. We can try starting over fresh, hm?"
As he extended his hand to receive the letter, Dietrich noticed the glow of a lantern slowly fill a curtained window of a nearby building. It was at that moment that he recalled the noise his spell had emitted, and his eyes were drawn to the smoking pile of splinters and twisted iron bands that were once a barrel sitting just behind Merli. Judging by the scorched and crushed turnips scattered amidst the pile of wreckage, he imagined that he wouldn't enjoy being here when someone arrived to investigate the commotion. Being jailed for vandalism wasn't exactly high on his list of priorities at the moment.
He looked over his shoulder, the alleyway that would lead him back to the street and eventually to his inn was still clear of curious onlookers, for the time being. Turning back to Merli, he would give his hand a small shake to emphasize the need for a bit of haste. "And the quicker we can get to that fresh start," he said, his voice lowered ever so slightly, "the better, wouldn't you agree?"
|
|
Faye
Approved
Aislinn Atwood, 3rd Level Circle of the Land Druid | Merli, 3rd Level Sorcerer
Posts: 68
|
Post by Faye on May 14, 2019 15:35:05 GMT
Giving a nod of her head at his initial piece of advice Merli still held the letter close to her chest. While she had no real reason to doubt this individual, in her mind, she couldn't count attacking her against him. Merli had, after all, been the one to charge up behind him and as she put more thought into it that certainly hadn't been the best idea. Even if it had simply been to get a letter to its rightful owner. Which after a moment, she got confirmation that the man before her was, in fact, Dietrich, a relief to be sure. Otherwise, this situation would have gotten even more awkward than it had already become.
"Oh," Merli started, straightening her posture a little. Her mind had managed to wander off for just a handful of seconds. She refocused her attention as the next string of words came her way and gave a small nod of her head. "Fresh starts are good, and, um, it's nice to meet you Dietrich," With that Merli reached forward and lightly placed the letter in the human man's awaiting palm. Pulling her hand back the kobold clutched her hands together in front of her and gave a small bow.
"Sorry for any inconvenience I caused you, and well, I hope if we do meet again, it's less explosive," The last bit was accompanied with Merli standing upright once again all well letting out a small nervous laugh and a quick glance towards the remains of the barrel. Though her gaze shifted back to Dietrich quickly after and she gave a nod of her head. "With that, I should take my leave...unless of course, you have anything you need to discuss or have delivered," Merli stated her messenger instincts kicking in at the end after all one should always be on the lookout for more work.
"But if not, I suppose this is farewell for now Dietrich," With that Merli flashed what equated to a smile for the young kobold in an attempt to be somewhat friendly at least.
|
|
|
|
Post by Dietrich on May 15, 2019 20:42:57 GMT
As Merli handed off the letter, Dietrich took a moment to glance at the parchment. He didn't even need to read any of the flowing script that graced the face of the folded sheet, as the style of handwriting and small wax seal were more than enough to identify the sender of this letter. In an effort to avoid slipping away into the absent-minded void of his own thoughts once again, Dietrich quickly pocketed the letter and turned his attention back to matters at hand.
It was reasonably clear that, although no longer quite as nervous, Merli was keen to be on her way. Dietrich couldn't blame her, really. It had indeed been something of a shocking first meeting, one that would likely leave a lasting impression. On the positive side of things, it seemed the impact would not be a negative one, as the little kobold straightened up and allowed a small grin to creep across her face.
"Well, I'll certainly keep you in mind Merli. I feel I'll be needing a reliable courier in the coming weeks, especially one as dedicated to their profession as you seem to be."
He returned a small smile to her and gave a little bow of his head as a farewell to the kobold. "Now, I suppose I ought to get back to my room. A fair evening to you, Merli."
With that, man and kobold went their separate ways. Dietrich swiftly walked the rest of the short distance to the entrance of The Silent Shield and pulled open the heavy oaken door just in time to hear a shout of surprised indignation echo through the air. It would seem that he had made his exit from the scene of the vegetable massacre at the perfect time. He gave the young woman behind the counter a brief hello before quickly climbing the stairs to his room. With the door closed and bolted behind him, Dietrich removed his coat, but not before retrieving the letter and one of his daggers from the garment's deep pockets.
He made his way to the desk then, taking a seat in the sturdy wooden chair. He held the letter before him, finally taking the time to read the text written across its face. It was a fairly standard affair, his name and the address of the inn were cleanly printed across the top of the stationary, with the name of the sender scrawled in a larger font across the middle. As he read the name twice over, he felt an odd feeling overcome him; some combination of unease, excitement, and a hint of panic.
Eva Silverkin
It had been a long time since he'd seen his sister's name, let alone his family's real surname. He had been calling himself "Shademore" for so long he'd come to feel more attached to it than his inherited name. Somehow, the courage he had mustered when he finally wrote his sister to tell her everything that had happened over the past few years was now gone, replaced by unease. What if she thought he was a madman? What if she refused to help him?
But now was not the time to dwell on such thoughts. Steeling himself, Dietrich took his knife in one hand and sliced through the letters wax seal, unfolding the parchment to begin reading its contents.
|
|
