Three Worlds: Sylphenhest; The Quest for Dark Razor (A narrative of an ongoing campaign)

[Xeviat]

While it may benefit you to know a think or two about Sylphenhest, the world on which this story takes place, I intend to write it in such a way that readers shall learn all they need to know through the prose. All but one of the players in this campaign are new to this world, and so can be the readers.

I hope you enjoy this. In the next few days I should be posting quite a bit until I catch up to the campaign's current location. Then a chapter/session should be posted once a month.

The Quest for Dark Razor

Chapter One

   Books lay strewn about the immense library, their covers bent and their pages crumpled after they were unwontedly dropped by the searching reader. Half of the library's multitudes of ten foot high shelves had been stripped in such a fashion, and the levitating scholar would have surely been evicted if it weren't for the grads swordswoman guarding him.

   After twelve hours of searching, reading each book in a manner of seconds, the scrawny blue skinned man let the last book slip limply from his thin fingers and plummet to the floor. His violet eyes thinned and he slowly drifted back to the ground till his soft soled shoes touched down upon the black marble tiles. Sucking in a deep breath, proceeded by a heavy sigh, a look of disappointment crossed over his soft featured face. The well dressed man straightened his tussled black hair, brushing it behind his faintly pointed ears, and adjusted his loose purple shirt before calmly walking towards the captive library owner and the woman holding her at bay.

   "It is not hear Schu," the man murmured, growing depressed, "somebody must have told her of our coming." The pale blue skinned swordswoman quickly snapped her rapier out from it's hanging position on her right hip, brandishing its thin blade at the neck of the bound librarian, bloodlust shinning in her eyes. "Then the bitch's of no use to us; can I kill her?" she happily questioned through a grin which stretched from one sharply pointed ear to the other.

   "No Schu," he replied, the faint glimmer of a smirk at the corner of his thin lips, "I will handle this."

   "Please Crow?" she childishly pleaded, looking up from her prey with a pout, her sword's tip dropping and pricking the librarian's shoulder; hardly an accidental maneuver.

   "Won't you let me handle this," he calmly repeated, "why don't you stand guard at the door?"

   "Dammit!" she defiantly cried out, stomping her foot as she reluctantly re-sheathed her sword, "you never let me have any fun." Even as she spoke those last words, she swiftly turned on her heals, flipping her long white pony tail before stepping off in clicking high-healed boots.

   Once the flamboyantly purple dressed dualist had left through the library's front entrance, the captive librarian turned her teary gaze up at the man identified as Crow. "Thank you, thank you, thank you" the bound woman whimpered doggishly, "just spare me my life and you can take what ever you want! Please don't kill me, I don't want to die!"

   "I didn't come here to kill you," Crow reassured in a manner which spoke no lie, crouching to look directly into the woman's eyes, "I have only come for the book. Where have you concealed it, I am aware that it had been here. Just tell me where it rests and we will be on our way." His voice was calm and relaxing, and his posture showed no menace.

   "I don't know," she began to lie, but paused, biting her lip with sharp teeth before correcting herself. "Some men came and took it three days ago," she whined, her breath quickening. "They said they'd kill my family and torch the library if I told."

   "Who came?"

   "I don't know! some men, commonfolk mostly, five of them. You'll protect me though, right?"

   "Which way did they come from, and which way did they leave?"

   "Into The City of Lights I think, but that's okay 'cause you'll ..."

   Crow stood and shook his head, cursing his fortunes. He turned to leave, but the woman squirmed and cried out.

   "Wait, where're you going? I assumed ..."

   "Do not assume," he calmly interrupted with the tone of a teacher, continuing away towards the doors.

   "But I cooperated! They'll kill me 'cause I told."

   Crow craned his head back as he put his hands on the door handle. "Then you shouldn't have told," he answered with a sadistic smile.

~~~~~~~~~~

   Schu waited outside in the red starlight,  her thin arms crossing her small chest. Leaning against a carriage pulled by two tall scaly bird-like creatures, she tapped her foot, her violet eyes glaring and her lips moving silently with ranting mutters. She wore a loose white shirt under a purple leather coat, the long sleeve cut away from her left arm at the shoulder. An ornate rapier hung at her right hip, and a violin stuck out of a pack hanging over her right shoulder. Tight leather leggings clung to her slender legs, tugged into her calf-high healed boots.

   Inside the carriage sat a squat, cleanly groomed man with wide features and a thick beard which was tucked into his open collar like lapels. The man's beady eyes watched the swordswoman with unabashed annoyance. "Cool yerself girl," he spoke with a deep song-like voice, "Crow'll be done shortly and you can have your way in Black Spire once more."

   Just after he spoke, the library doors opened and Crow came walking down the steps. Schu flew to attention and clapped, racing up the stairs like a child. "Can I kill her now?" she exclaimed gleefully.

   "Leave her," he said with a smirk, walking past the excitable elf.

   "Not fair!" she whined with a huff, stomping a foot and crossing her arms once more.

   "What be yer plan boss?" the deep voiced dwarf said, opening the carriage door as Crow approached.

   "To wait of course dear Kwellic," he plainly answered as he stepped up into the vessel, followed presently by Schu.

   "For what?" Schu asked, drawing a glare from Kwellic.

   "Our old 'friends'," Crow replied. He closed his eyes and sighed, relaxing into the plush carriage interior. "Just stay quiet and wait."

[Numinous]

Oh goody, more fiction.  I'll edit when I have time to give decent feedback, but now I'm catching up on what other topics I missed...