Quest The Disappeared

[Arnor Skuldsson]

Theme

The Spine.

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Darkness has fallen on several towns near Faragen.

Faragen itself- is empty.
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No life.

No sound.
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No people.

The towns around Faragen grow fearful...there is an evil to the air. Death creeps outwards- the life drained from the land itself. Not even the vultures dare go near Faragen.
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He was roughly, according to a very old map- quite near Faragen. Maybe a town over, only a few miles outside of the outskirts of the city. Faragen was a farming community- and a central trading post for the area. To say that the lack of traffic wasn't noticed by the neighbors was an understatement to say the least.

The Nordenfiir riding a horse into town was also noticed by the townsfolk as well. Nordenfiir were not known for their horseriding abilities.. or their horse riding in general. Not a lot of horses were up to the task of carrying Arnor, let alone many Nordenfiir- except Arnor's exceptionally large work horse, Rhi.

Rhi trotted into town, with Arnor on the back. Arnor was dressed to impress- and dressed to kill. Arnor's cuirass was adorned with his usual adventure gear, and his twin swords, one silver, one steel- poised and ready to kill at any moment's notice. However, Arnor was a very stoic man, and didn't carry the air of violence around him all the time. For now, he was playing the part of adventurer- and quite well.

Arnor's horse stopped in the middle of the village, glancing to and fro. Rhi had a personality of it's own, much like his owner- though people tended to like the horse more than they liked Arnor himself. Arnor slid off the large horse with a heavy thud into the mud under his feet. People parted for him as he headed into the tavern, intent on carrying on after a brief respite. He paid for a room and feed for Rhi- and curiously- mead for the horse. A lot of it. The tavern owner took Arnor's money all the same.

They asked why he was here- he gave them a simple answer.

"I came to find out what happened to Faragen."

The room went silent at the mention of the town. Everyone knew what happened to it- but no one dared venture into it. Curious Templars came and asked questions, and supposedly a Dreadlord even. But no one had dared venture into the town, save for a party of Elves who no one had heard from since, and the worst was feared. But the reality was, that whatever was consuming the life from Faragen, was spreading.

And the evil within it, growing stronger. It lingered in the air itself. And Arnor came to find out what happened.

And it happened that a neighboring community had paid him upfront, half, at least, to find out what happened. Enough to fund a particular wish of his. But that was for another time- Arnor had a mission... Venture into Faragen, and put a stop to the evil within.

He looked up at the tavern owner, staring at him while he drank his shitty mead.

"I'm looking for volunteers."

 

[Tera Lynx]

Havilah was getting used to human villages and traveling in disguise. She was human once herself but it was like she had forgotten everything about her previous life, she had to relearn the function of coins and compensation, but through the scanning of surface thoughts of those around her she was able to catch on.
She was dressed in a heavy coat and cloak with a deep hood that his her inhuman traits, though she made sure to keep her head down lest someone catch a glimpse under the hood of her golden reptilian eyes and grow suspicious.

A large human entered the town just as she was walking in from the opposite direction, riding an impressively large animal. When he dismounted she took some childish pleasure in the fact that she was still taller.

He went into one of the human entertainment buildings where they barter food and drink. She decided to follow the creature to see what he was about. Her swarm was never far away and she had sensed the darkness nearby, she didn't like it, so she turned her swarm to eradicate it... But information was vital first.

She followed him in and listened to his request for volunteers. A surface scan of his thoughts taught her what a volunteer was, in the way he meant it at least, and she stepped forward.
"We-... I will follow you..."

 

[Arnor Skuldsson]

Arnor could smell her.

Like insects, horded together. He made a face, but didn't comment beyond that. It wasn't his place to judge- but he would, all the same.

Her eyes stood out to him, as much as her speech did. Like a chorus, and her words echoed the sentiment.

"Glad to have you with me...Miss..." He said rather...unknowingly. He wasn't sure what to call her, but Miss didn't seem right. But then again, his theory that it was three gnomes on top of each other with a puppet head under the coat- probably didn't hold water either.

 

[Tera Lynx]

She nodded, still not raising her hood or looking up. She had glanced up at him which gave him a glimpse of the yellow glow of her eyes, but she didn't let it slip again.
"The darkness comes from the place called Faragen... I hunt that evil as well. What can you tell me about it?"

Her swarm had sent some drones to scout the place, but the presence of magic in the area was too strong and she couldn't keep contact with the scouting party, without contact with her mind those creatures would be feral by now, she had to locate them and bring them back into the swarm to learn what they saw.

 

[Arnor Skuldsson]

He always got the weirdos.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to relax as much as he could in the presence of the... thing. Not a person, not a woman, but a collection of things, all... moving around. He shuddered.

Gross.

But, help was help.

"That it's uh....there."

Arnor was not exactly a scholar.

 

[Tera Lynx]

This man knew about as much as she did then. They both knew nothing. She had the means to learn more provided she remained in close proximity to her swarm to maintain control, but she realized that by aligning herself with him she couldn't reveal the swarm to him, she would be traveling alone.
Already she sensed her disguise had (Somehow) failed, even though she hadn't revealed anything, having carefully practiced her movements in the reflection of a puddle and covered everything that might be deemed inhuman.

But he wasn't attacking her, so that was a good sign. Perhaps he might still stay his hand if she were to lose her disguise in the mission to come. Creatures like humans tended to react violently to her appearance, which is why she wore the disguise in the first place. Her multiple arms and chitinous body many found displeasing to look at... A monster.

She looked around the tavern, nobody else seemed to be coming forward to volunteer, at least at this point. Her swarm scattered in the forest outside the village were detecting others traveling through it, either making their way to the village or heading straight towards the darkness of Faragen, a quick look through the eyes of her Swarm Runner revealed that they looked like adventurers, mercenaries, or otherwise people of capable means.

"Do you desire to wait, or shall we destroy the darkness without delay?"

 

[Arnor Skuldsson]

Destroy the darkness without delay.

Arnor smiled, a somewhat macabre grin as the woman spoke more. Woman? Her eyes were...off. But he didn't want to impose, or assume. He'd plenty of strange things in the Spine.

She was just another one of those.

"We'll see."

He said, taking a seat across from her. He liked to get to know his companions- and it gave them a chance to gather more, if need be.

"I am Arnor, son of Skuld."

He leaned forward.

"Who are you?"

 

[Tera Lynx]

"The Queen of-..."
She stopped herself midsentence, she couldn't give her true name here, not to humans. Even if the swarm was still largely unknown by the people of Arethil she couldn't risk it. She had to dig into her memory to find the name she used to know as her own.
"... Havilah..."
Perhaps she could substitute a title? Perhaps as some explanation if they came across her swarm.
"Beast master."

He was sitting down to wait for more people to volunteer, that suited her just fine. Her swarm still needed to adapt to this area, they were currently hunting the local monsters to take their strength and use it for themselves.
She sat down across from him, draping her cloak around herself to maintain her disguise. This human was perceptive, but hopefully to others she would simply appear as a large woman in a deep cloak.

"You mentioned a hu-... a man named Skuld, and you are his son. Who was Skuld?"
This was the most she had ever spoken out loud since her transformation into the Queen of Venom. She was used to communicating telepathically to her swarm, and even to her Warlords and Advisors.
Now that she was speaking with a human she found her speech to be slightly thick and halting. And she was also doing her best to not use her normal language in reference to humans, as if she was no longer one of them. It was a struggle, but she was managing.

 

[Arnor Skuldsson]

"He's dead."

That conversation ended there. He leaned back, eyeing her entire... thing. Her whole get up. He grimaced a little, finding something offputting about the smell of her in general. She was a human... sort of. Or at least, appeared to be. But even with just the face, she didn't have skin, but he could tell it was a natural armor, of sorts.

Like a six foot cockroach.

"I hail from the Tundra- and I am one of it's people. Where do you hail from, Miss?"

 

[Tera Lynx]

That was a rather abrupt answer. But she had no concept of rudeness. He must not care much for the human that sired him.

He asked her where she came from. This she could answer honestly.
"I don't know, I don't remember. I've been trying to collect the fragments of my memory as I travel... But my memories of my past life are elusive. I live wherever I please now, there is no place for I or my people to call our own, not yet anyways."
He was definitely suspicious, but she wondered what he would do with the information he's observed and that she just gave him. Even though she was specifically careful to keep herself covered and hidden he somehow was able to see past the shadows of her deep hood and make out some of her features.

Perhaps it was an ability he had? It might be useful to the swarm...
No, for now he was an ally until proven otherwise. But she could sense tension rising in him, which meant his behavior could become unpredictable.