РОЛЕВАЯ ИГРА

Elvanae panted as she pushed her shoulder against the doorframe but it was refusing to budge. Some of the guild hall storage rooms were full to the brim of materials and she had decided to spring clean… even though it was the middle of summer. She had spent hours the other night haggling prices with Lini Girinia, the raw materials merchant, eventually persuading him to advertise the materials at the prices she had insisted. This was the last storage room left to explore. Giving the door another hard push, and failing miserably again, she decided to ask Aleeskandaro to sort it out. And so, she changed her dusty gloves for a new pair and headed out into Yrkanis, waving lazily to Bene Zarini and rolling her eyes when she noticed he was snoring softly.

Autumn was still a while off but she could feel a chill in the air. She would soon have to dig out her Matisian armour, good sturdy armour that covered you up and kept you warm! She made her way over to Lini Girinia noticing that he was in deep conversation with Lini Antollo. As she approached, the latter abruptly concluded the discussion, bowed to Elvanae and moved back to her station. What a weird homins she was, Elvanae mused.

Lini Girinia had a broad smile on his face. Elvanae raised one of her eyebrows at him, “Lini, you look awfully cheerful this dreadful morning. Tell me, have any more of my materials been sold?”

He looked down and began to flip through the pages of his ledger, glancing up at Elvanae now and then. She had noticed but pretended to be engrossed in the mektoub mount which had been tied to a nearby post.

“Hmmm,” Lini Girinia mused, tapping an entry in the book, “yes, looks like we have sold your yelk skins!” He exclaimed proudly.

Elvanae groaned inside, Aleeskandaro had asked her to remove the yelk skins from being advertised but recent events had made her forget. “Oh thats bloody brilliant!’ She praised. “But if you do see any yelk skins for sale be sure to let me know please, I shall need to purchase some,” Elvanae nodded firmly at Lini.

He blinked several times in confusion, “oh… yes.. of course,” he hastily responded, bowing his head.

With business concluded, Elvanae reached over to Lini’s ledger and shut it, smiling up at him and nodding firmly. “So Lini, I heard you just recently came back from Zora.”

“Oh yes, it was marvelous, it was actually Lini Antollo’s idea… it is known that Vao Pei-Ziao sells the most cratcha moss in all of Atys, naturally one must… keep an eye on their competition now and then…”

“Of course one should!” Elvanae agreed, “besides, Zora also has some interesting sites to visit, I must admit.”

“Oh yes!” Lini exclaimed, “we stopped off at the bar there before making our way home and ran into Pei-Jeng Fuan and you know, just got chatting”

“Ohhh..” Elvanae lowered her eyes, “did Pei-Jeng Fuan have any interesting news to share?” She asked innocently.

“Well you know I hate to gossip,” Lini insisted.

Elvanae raised her eyes to look at him, widening them in disbelief, “Of course you are not a gossip Lini! I would never say such a thing about you!” Lini Girinia was the biggest gossip Elvanae had even have the fortune to know.

“I guess it isn’t really gossiping,” a broad smile appeared on his face and he visibly relaxed. He took a deep breath and proceeded to tell Elvanae how Pei-Jen Fuan had heard from Sun Nai-Da who had heard from his wife’s cousin who worked as a guard that apparently the Kami were bent on taking over all the outposts and building their Kami drills which according to them, apparently drilled the soil gently compared to Karavan drills. Elvanae had rolled her eyes at this comment. A drill was a drill. If the Kami felt so strongly about this, then they would have removed even their ‘gentle’ drills and not drill whatsoever! Besides which, she had never come across any such report validating this. But Lini’s gossip did not stop there…

Elvanae's eyes widened. She shook her head, “I’m sorry, he had said what?”

Lini’s head bobbed up and down and he looked around them to make sure no one was eavesdropping. “He said,” Lini paused for dramatic effect, “that he explicitly heard this homin saying, ‘seeing how no guild owns an outpost without installing a drill, of course we have to choose the lesser evil - gluttony over allowing the Karavan to place those filthy machinery on sensible soil.’”

Elvanae could not contain herself any longer and burst out laughing. The mektoub tied nearby gave a grunt and Lini jumped slightly, eyes scanning everywhere. He forced himself to laugh along with Elvanae, nodding to a guard who had turned to look at what the commotion was all about.

Elvanae wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Oh dearest Lini, I recall a quote I read when I was a little girl, ‘Atys provides enough to satisfy every homins need, but not ever homin’s greed’,” she tapped her chin in concerntration, “Sadly, it appears that the author’s name has slipped my mind…”

Dawn was approaching on what was set to be a glorious summer's day, tainted only mildy by the stench of mektoub dung that lay beside Marceline in the dugout she had called home for the night that had just passed.
Rising slowly from her slumber, Marceline rubbed her eyes and stretched,

"Ooooof! well, i've had better kips" she said as she staggered to her feet. "Next time Pappasmurf wants protection whilst he digs, he had better book me a bed in an Inn!"

It had been a long day previously, endless running around dodging various Kitin Patrols whilst trying to juggle between weather patterns. It was safe to say that Marceline was exhausted. 
After bathing in the icy cold waters of mystic falls, she poked what was left of her fire and got the heat rising again. Breakfast was to be roasted Tyrancha thigh and Thinking Moss tea.

"Breakfast of champions!" she told herself.

A gust of summer wind blew by carrying with it the smell of a dead campfire and, strangely, a copy of 'The eye of the Tyrancha news'.

"HA!" blurted Marceline "How fitting as i tuck into this breakfast?!"

She let her eyes gaze over the headlines, searching for something easy to take in while her brain was still reconnecting itself. On page 3 something caught her eye;





"Pfffft!" scoffed Marceline, slamming the paper into the ground, "Absolute nonsense!"

Finishing her breakfast and gathering her weapons, Marceline's thoughts tumbled onto an old Matisian friend of hers by the name of Elvanae. Word on the hills was that Elvanae had been going through a tough time lately. The ever increasing population of God complex-ridden Kamists were once again threatening to attack her family's outpost for reasons that were still unclear. Marceline had heard rumours of Kamists using excuses regarding drills, though what about drills, she did not know.

"A drill is a drill, no matter how many flowers you throw over it." mused Marceline as she walked. "How much longer will this silly conflict go on? How many more Homins are going to suffer before they realise their 'Gods' are but non-entities in this world?"

Realising that she was starting to sound a little too serious, Marceline quickly took a swig of rum from her flask. She could not be seen to be thinking clearly, what would the world think? She did, after all, have a reputation to uphold.

An hour or so passed, swig or two was swallowed and a thought or three was forgotton. As she turned a corner her path was promptly cut short by a group of Eyes of Intuition heading her way. She ducked into the nearest bush she could find, now was not the time to be fighting no matter how pathetic a group of fighters they were.
The group ambled slowly past, striding long with heads full of self-importance, they were talking amoungst themselves quietly but loud enough for Marceline to hear.

"Have you heard?" said one.

"Heard what?" replied another.

"There's an Oracle in Min-Cho!"

"A what?!"

"There's an Ora...."

"Yes, i heard you, but what is an Oracle?"

"Oh, well, it's a Homin that knows stuff... you know... like, lots of stuff"

"Cool! Do you think he or she would be able to tell me what to do about my Yubo? It keeps wetting my bed."

Before Marceline could hear the answer the group turned a corner and went out of ear-shot. Jumping out of the bush and dusting off the leaves, she focused her thoughts on what she had just heard. She muttered under her breath,

"I think a trip to Min-Cho is in order". 

the oracle of Min-Cho 

As the day faded after a tiresome week of harvesting in primeroots, astarth sat in fairhaven...

Binarabi sat beside him near the stables and started talking about the latests news, they chuckled about virg's misadventures and then bina's face became shadowed as she remembered the last battle in Fleeting Garden, Astarth knew what that meant as he was feeling that same restlessness.

and so he thought:

I have been wrong, for years i refused to think the strategy from my bretheren trytonisnts was the right one, I once choose kami side thinking that fighting for the stromnger side was the answer.

We have been saved twice, and even after surviving those times we have been able to understand how powerless the "higher powers" really are and how strong is the blood of homins. And what has become of that frail unity forged under the threat of extinction? now we dont need kitins, we have ourselves.

Ive heard both sides of the story as ive walked among karavans, kamis, marauders and rangers, none of the higher powers have called for this bloodshed induced by the outposts, that's one lie i cant even see as manufactured by them, and in the end is about power of one homin over another. Wish hominity could see this, and how sad it is that those "higher powers" count on this fundamental flaw in our nature to use us as their slaves.

then he came back to himself, binarabi had been talking to him for over 10 minutes and now was getting mad at him not paying attention.

Elvanae flung her gloves onto her desk and collapsed into her chair. Her apartment was a mess and her desk was covered with messages in preparation for the battle at Frahar Towers. She pushed them over the edge so they fell into a heap on the floor. Placing her head in her hands she closed her eyes.

The battle at Frahar Towers had exhausted her. As time had worn on, they had had to regroup after losing a great deal of ground. One of the outpost guards had approached her to informed her that they were being overwhelmed and wouldn’t last much longer. She had decided to withdraw them from the battle and called a halt to the defense.

Some had expressed their frustration, blaming one homin or another for not following orders. And others had congratulated one another on what they had achieved. Back at Yrkanis, the guards had engulfed her, exclaiming that next time they would surely be victorious and take over the Fyros lands. When one of the guards had patted her on the back she had raised an eyebrow at him coolly and shouted at them all to move out of her bloody way. She had stomped over to her apartment and locked the door behind her.

The silence inside was comforting. Silence was good.

She opened her eyes slowly and frowned. One of the parchments had fallen onto her lap...  one which she did not recall reading before. It appeared to be a message from one of Binarabi’s relatives. Surprisingly, it did not smell of rum. Elvanae placed the letter on her desk and proceeded to read the contents with interest.

Her jaw clenched. Rowwena’s words had conjured up memories of her father. Her father had been a true Matisian. A General of the Matis army. He had raised her to have one faith and one faith only, that of the land she had been born in. To respect and to defend the Forest. But she had been a restless teenager and befriended a homin called Pokeraitis who had been a Karavan follower. Her father had told her she was prohibited from communicating with Karavan followers but the more she got to know Pokeraitis, the more she had got to know his family, the Armageddons.

When Pokeraitis had introduced her to Jola she had felt like a little child before the grand guild leader. She had informed her father in writing that she had now joined the Armageddons and that she was old enough to make her own decisions. She had not heard from him until Jola had asked her to go on a hunt. After they had slain Slavekya and Quana had wondered off in the direction of Zora, Jola had told Elvanae that her father had been killed in an expedition in the Prime Roots and sadly could not be revived. Jola had handed Elvanae an envelope and ordered her to go back to Yrkanis and rest.

The envelope had been a letter from her father…

Nae mindalae Elvanae,

I know that I have not been the father that I wish I had been, nor the father you needed. Your mother’s death, she could not be saved… it left a deep wound in my heart that that I was not strong enough to overcome. Your mother....

Her vision had become blurry as tears had welled up in her eyes. She had hastily averted them to the bottom of the letter.

When you receive this letter, I will have parted from this world. I know you will accomplish great things for I know you have a strong mind. Remember who you are and where you come from. Keep yourself safe from those who will try to infest your mind and soul and use your for their benefit.

Remember your strong heart and the faith of your forefathers.

Elvanae was brought back to reality when she heard a floorboard squeak behind her.

“Took you long enough.”

“Miaccia Stazzo had fixed the hole in the gate,” Virg said in irritation.

Elvanae rolled her eyes wondering what Virg had had to do this time to get into Yrkanis. Usually it was better she didn’t know…

He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders, giving them a soft squeeze.

“You know I could sneak you into the Marauder camp if you wanted,” he grinned mischievously.

“I don’t doubt that for a second,” Elvanae replied, “anyways, its too dry and stuffy in Hidden Source and I would need a constant supply of refined kirosta secretion.”

“You already take all my dappers,” he murmured, “might as well sell myself for some kirosta secretion too.”

Elvanae turned around and raised her hand to smack him. “No I bloody don’t take all your dappers! But if you don’t stop sexy dancing for them I might not feel the need to confiscate it from you!” She exclaimed. “Besides which, everyone on Atys had seen your butt! How do you think that makes me feel, eh?” She crossed her arms.

“You are so cute when you get grumpy,” Virg teased.

He reached over Elvanae’s ear and produced a wisdom flower and gave her a wink. She squinted her eyes at him dangerously. “Are you trying to suggest I lack wisdom?” She said through gritted teeth.

“Oh... no... look at the time,” he said dramatically, peering out of the window, “well looks like we will have to continue this conversation tomorrow.” He gave her a peck on the cheek and winked at her again before jumping through the window and disappearing out of view.

Elvanae smiled, returning her attention to Rowwena’s letter.

She reached over to her ink jars and picked out the one with fresh redhot sap, she had often wondered why it was called redhot when it was green and cold.

Deles Silam Rowwena,

You letter was most interesting.

Yes, it is true that the Kami and the Karavan have played a major role in some historical conflicts over the outposts. I feel that many followers have strayed too far from the teachings of Jena and Ma-Duk. Some going so far as to distort these teaching in an attempt to justify their ruthless ambitions. I have even been told of how some Kami believe that their drills should be placed in all the outposts because they drill more gently compared to Karavan drills. It is unbelieveable what lies some Kami are being told to persuade one-another with fake excluses to wage war on the Karavan.

As regards to Frahar Towers, this was done in the name of defiance to these corrupt Kamis. I have just returned from there and bore witness to the magnitude of how the Kami leaders are exploiting innocent homins. Many of the homins looked like empty shells, casting their heals as if they feared that taking a moment’s rest would bring the wrath of the Kami leaders upon them. Indeed some of these healers had glazed eyes, like no one was really behind them. I even began to wonder if some of them were drugged. It was a frightening thing indeed and I wish that you had seen it for yourself. “Empty husks carrying out mindless tasks, oblivious to the bloodshed around them” is the most apt fitting description I can convey to you.

I have not expressed this to anyone, but I anticipate that Finders Farm outpost will be taken from us by the Fyros guild who declared. I will try to put on a brave face later on tonight to keep morale high but I will weep for the loss of our beloved outpost.

I have spent many a sleepless night trying to think of where we have all gone wrong and what we can all do to overcome the issues we are faced with. I do not think the answer to the recent events is to advocate a less Kami or less Karavan following but a deeper and truer Kami and Karavan following. I think that change of heart has to come from within these followers themselves.

Division between our lands will only create more opportunities for further conflict which bring more pain and suffering as homins fight to take over the outposts in their lands that are held by foreign guilds. I cannot see how this will be a way out of us.

I fear for us all if we cannot unite together.

Jena aiye!

Elvanae.

Elvanae placed her new Izakoo quill to the side and rolled up the parchment. She went over to her window and tied it to the Izam perched on a nearby branch. As she was tying the final knot, she spotted Miaccia Stazzo marching towards her apartment tree. It was a good thing Bene Zarini usually slept on the job, since he would not have seen Elvanae enter. She decided that she would have to be more careful to avoid Miaccia Stazzo, clearly something was going on which had gotten Miaccia in a flurry and Elvanae had too much to worry about without having to listen to the Chief Guard of Yrkanis’ complaints.

The tribe leader halted abruptly, lifting up his hand to signal for everyone to stop. There was a lot of activity in the Grove of Confusion today. He scanned the landscape and called for his tribe to carefully follow him on their usual route up to Ginti Outpost. As they approached the outpost, a mass of homins came into view. Clearly a battle was being waged here. The tribe leader shook his head sadly. These homins only thought of fighting and ripping this land apart. He shoved past a homin who was too busy healing to notice the tribe approach. He was pushing his way towards the centre of the outpost when all of a sudden, he felt the force of a launcher bomb knock him to the ground. He grunted. Looking over to his tribe, he signalled for them to attack the launcher.

Elvanae had tried to stop the launcher from firing but it was too late, she had hit the tribe leader. She turned back to her guild and hastily called out for no one to heal just as Sabreshadow cast a heal on her. He threw her an innocent smile. She reloaded the ammo into the launcher and turned back in time to see the tribe coming towards her. It was not her fault the tribe insisted on continuing their patrols through Ginti when battles were going on. No doubt they would insist on returning to patrol again! Bah! They were such frustrating homins! Although she did sympathise, the tribe should keep out of her bloody way if they knew what was good for them! She took aim and fired the rockets at them.

The battle seemed to be going well so far, the guards had been slain but one or two were managing to avoid detection, hiding amongst the Kami ranks. She turned to see Ingfarah next to her. The Fyros looked to Seralee and Virg and motioned for them to come over. Virg nodded when he heard her plan and so his guild sneaked out of Ginti and headed over to Westgrove outpost.

As the battle dragged on, the remaining forces moved over to Westgrove. Meanwhile in Ginti, the homins assigned there struggled.

Overwhelmed with exhaustiong, Elvanae groaned when she spotted a  swarm of Kamis appearing from around the corner at Westgrove. She was determined not to lose the ground they held. Virg came running around the back of the Kami forces and signalled for Elvanae to heal him. The last moments of the battle were a blur as he wielded his Axe with ferocity.

The air was thick with apprehension and the Karavan were slowly pushing into the Kami forces and wiping them. Elvanae assessed how many guards had been knocked uncouncoius. She knew soon enough they would stop fighting.

Cheers erupted from the homins at the outpost.

Returning back to Yrkanis, she decided to sneak past the teleporter in order to avoid the bloody annoying guards who would no doubt swamp her with their congratulations. There was still much planning to do and she did not want to be held up by them. Bene Zarini was snoring softly as usual as she slipped past him. She was reaching out to open her apartment door when she felt a tap on her shoulder. She jumped, startled and turned to face the intruder. It was Triplex, grinning. She breathed a sigh of relief and rolled her eyes at him.

“Well, what a pleasant surprise,” she said dryly, bowing her head to him.

He punched Elvanae playfully on the arm. “Jena really did shine upon you today!”

She rubbed her arm, she had long since given up trying to work out the homin, you just had to take him as he was. “Yes, well a great deal of homins fought by our side today, they certainly have my thanks. And you, I take it you didn’t get a message with the battle times?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Oh, that," He scratched his chin thoughtfully, "Maja cooked the last few Izam that came to us with messages over her campfire, so they kind of stopped coming.” He admitted cheerily. “Some were actually rather delicious, I think she had sprinkled some Arana wood shavings over one so it tasted…”

Elvanae sniffed very loudly in dissaproval. “Yes, well,” She interrupted, “I heard you ruffled Aen’s feather too the other day.”

Triplex crossed his arms. “Oh that,” he said lazily. “I take it Virg told you.”

“He sure did, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much… the WHOLE spawn!!” She burst out laughing. Triplex grinned madly.

“I wish I had been there to see the looks on the Kami’s faces as Aen and his guards wiped them! They do say there is a fine line between crazy and pure genius!”

He shrugged shyly. “Before I forget,” he said, “I have something for you.”

He reached into his caster skirt and, with a flourish, held out a letter to her. A dark grin had spread across his face and his eyes twinkled. Elvanae opened the letter and read the contents. Her lips curled into a small smile.

“Triplex, you are one bloody brilliant homin!” She winked at him.



Back in her apartment, she hastily wrote a letter to Seralee and Ingfarah informing them of Triplex’s plans and pushed the Izam out of the window. The poor thing plummeted for 10 meters before regaining his flight. She then started pacing her apartment in deep thought.



She was contemplating organising her launcher materials when the same Izam descended through her apartment window. It landed and tumbled towards her, hastily getting up and holding out its leg. She untied the parchment and before she should open it, the Izam turned and flew off as fast as it had landed.

“Hey!” Elvanae called out, “I never said I was finished with you!”

The Izam was now a small speck in the sky.

She looked down to the parchment. It was from Seralee. A wide smile appeared on Elvanae's face. It was on!