Taris's Story.

[*Spiegel1]

In the Prime Plane of Coralos you have all kinds, the rich and powerful to the poor and downtrodden with those inbetween. We are not talking about any of the people with a routine life though, we are here to watch Karas Darrow, there are many like her but she is the one who will influence this small part of the world. Right now she is in the City of Fallows. Shall we go see her?

Karas looks over at the blacksmith. "Hurry it up already, will you? I need that sword rather soon ya know." The blacksmith turns a glare onto the woman. "Don't get yer knickers in a twist, i'm almost done." Her turns the grinding wheel two more times before examining the blade. "Mmhm, looks nice and sharp to me." Karas responds with a roll of her eyes and a few coins clinging on the table. "About time ya old coot, I need to go out and earn my pay in ears or I can't feed myself." The old man, Erlas, hands the sword over. "Fine, fine, sheesh. Every time you come here you get all impatient with me."

Karas glances over at him with a smirk. "I'm well aware of that, I keep the Orcs off of your property though don't I?" Erlas grumbles. "Aye, ya do but i'm wondering if your short temper is worth keeping us from being run over." At that moment a horn sounds in the distance, the bounty hunter and blacksmith swiveling around thinking the same thing: "This can't be good." The bounty hunter runs off towards the sound of the horn as the old blacksmith picks up his own weapon. "It better be a false alarm, this town's defenses arent up."

The blacksmith arrives at the closed gates before shouting up towards the sentry on the wooden wall. "What's going on Darek?" An arrow whistles by toppling the sentry before the poor militiaman can respond. Karas runs over, examining the arrow. "Orcs, i'm not sure how many though, we might have ahorde on our hands are just a small bad of marauders. We best gather the militia regardless." She picks up the sentry's horn letting out a solid blast on it several times, untrained and untested farmers picking up their tools of war on the first blast and at the gates by the last. Karas looks over the militia with a tsking noise. "We will need to get you better weapons and armor than this when we can, in the meantime there is a group of Orcs out there. Possibly no more than a rogue band or possibly a horde, I hope for the former rather than the latter." "We will wait here to see if there are any advancements by this group of Orcs, I will be on the wall trying to see if I can catch them."

The bounty hunter does just that, another arrow whistling by, Karas manages to hide behind one of the abutments, the arrow knocking into the one next to her. She shouts back down to the group of farmers. "All I see is a small group, though they seem to be shifting something in the back." She quietly points to the archers in the militia, waving them up to the wall before whispering to them. "Try and take out as many as you can, I want to see what they're doing in the back." The archers pull back their bows taking a few ofthe Orcs through the throat, toppling them instantly. Karas mutters under her breath.

"They seem to be fussing over some stone in the back, that's as far as I can tell." She looks around before gesturing the archers to take down the rest of the Orcs. "I am curious about what that stone is." The Orcs fall with a thump, the stone rolling on the ground and down the hill towards the village. Karas hops off the wall before speaking in front of the gate. "Open this thing enough so I can slip out and grab that stone, I want to know what it was they were squabbling over." The gate creaks open and Karas darts out, palming the stone before slipping back inside. "That was easy . . ." She peers down at the green stone with curiosity. "Hmm, I wonder what this is?" She rubs the stone, falling silent as she peers into its depths momentarily before shaking her head. "It doesnt seem to be anything special."

Months pass, she now has a necklace with the green stone set in it, the farmers have better weapons by an appeal to the king for funding in defense of their home. The Orcs and Darek's corpse were cited as evidence that they needed all the help they could get. It's late at night and Karas is staring into the green stone, oblivious to all things around her. There's a flash of green light and she disappears, the necklace resting where she previously was.

[*Spiegel1]

Karas groans, shifting in her bonds before looking around blearily. "This isnt good." She lets her eyes roam over her body examining the bonds. "This really isnt good." Her eyes peer around the dark room. "I can't see much, there arent any candles lit or any light. "Where am I?" A softly spoken voice echoes around the room. "You are in a crypt, Karas Darrow, here to be sacrificed to our God. But first we will need to know how you came by the green stone that brought you here."

Karas responds after a brief pause. "If I told you what would you do?" The as yet unseen . . . Man? Woman? The voice is too soft and distorted by the echo to tell, responds. "We would raid the village and burn everything in our path." Karas stiffens in her bonds glaring up at the unseen voice. "Then why should I tell you?!" A soft reply echoes around the room. "Telling us would make our job easier, that is why. Or we could get the information other ways. There are always options."

The voice steps forward out of the gloom, reaching a hand down to the poor woman. She drags her along the stone to another room. . . . The screams echo in the hollow chambers. Time passes, exactly how long is unknown to the prisoner. She is tied down to an alter, her limbs broken. She watches the knife raise up then clatter to the ground as an arrow slams into the back of the dark Priest. An Elf slowly walks up to the altar, glancing into every shadow before heading towards the bound Karas. "Let's get you out of here, we'll need our Cleric to heal you first." he pulls out a knife, sawing away at the ropes. "Elos! We need our Cleric!"

The one known as Elos walks in. "Our Cleric? I do not recall feeling beholden to this group." Her eyes drift over to Karas. "The argument can wait another day though." She helps move the poor woman onto a board, carrying her out of the dark tomb. "Sunlight, she must be enjoying this." She breaks pieces of wood off the board making a makeshift splint before healing each of her limbs. "Where are you from Human?" The Human groans softly. "The City of Fallows, is it still up?" The Elves share glances at each other. "I am afraid not, it was razed some weeks ago by a horde of Orcs." Another Elf pipes in. "Why do you ask though? Is there something going on underneath the surface of this?"

Karas blinks up at the sun before sliding into unconsciousness. The Elves once again shoot glances at each other. "I guess we will find out later."