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Zathria At'Arel

Zathria At'Arel

Exiled Drow Commander
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Keeps Coming Back You dabbed :| Seriously Likeable II Lore Maker I
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It was difficult to find places on the surface for a Drow to fit in. In this case, fit in was a strong word for what Zathria was doing. With hood pulled up over her head and a scarf pulled around most of her face, her features were obscured to the point that making out that she was a Drow under the waning crescent of a moon was remarkably difficult. That was the idea, after all.

Her trip into the underbelly of the city at the edges of the Ixchel wilds was to look for those who were unafraid to cut throats and generally engage in the seedier side of things. Building a warband of raiders and killers wasn't an easy thing and she couldn't believe she was having to stoop to recruiting surfacers - and men at that - to the cause. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

She came to a stop outside of a tavern - the Bustling Maids - and could already hear noisy laughter inside. Outside a man lay in the dirt and she guessed he was too intoxicated to walk although she supposed it was possible he might be dead.

Reaching out and pushing the door open, she surveyed the interior with a discerning gaze before heading to an end of the bar and dropping coin at the counter for a drink.

The scent of pipe smoke hung thick in the air and she stuck far from both torch and hearth as she watched those inside, looking for anyone who looked equally as seedy.
 
Drawen sat at a small table in a corner of the room. His Muck Beetles by his side, he was drinking a big cup of mead. His light armor shined on his body. He had given a coin to one of his beetles and it went up and got him another mead.

He looked at the entering Drow. Clearly if she was someone with her armor and weapons by her side. He got uneasy looking at the polished warrior.

The smoke of the pipes made him tense with wonder what to do, he chose not do make the first move, there wouldn’t be any trouble right, it’s just another Drow.
 
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Zathria's eyes fell onto another Drow within the tavern, overt and uncaring that he could be identified as one of their people. Were things really so open to Drow here? She would have thought it still prudent to conceal herself, but it did bring an interesting shift in the dynamic. She maintained her own hood for now, watching the man clad in his own armor.

He was a male, yes, but better a male from her people than a male from the surface. Besides, he would be far more familiar with what was going on in the area than she was.

She watched for a few moments more before rising and sliding into a seat next to him.

"You walk openly on the surface? You have been up here long?" she asked.

Drawen Asmunder
 
He looked as the other Drow walked closer. “I have been here since my parents kicked me out, I walk these paths freely because if a elf or anyone tries to harm me I would make sure that they would be followed by my beetles and dealt with. What brings a girl like you to the surface?”

He looked her dead in the eyes wondering what a Drow with so many weapons would be doing on the surface and not leading a army below?
 
Zathria looked at him with skepticism peeking out of the eyes from over top the scarf. It was a story that didn't wholly add up to her. No matter how good a fighter, even an elite warrior could be brought low if swarmed by a mob. No amount of beetles would protect him then, but she didn't speak on it further, simply filing it away in the skeptical mind of hers.

"A disappointing outcast of some noble family?" she wagered a guess. It wasn't an unusual story for those who came to the surface.

She eased herself lightly onto a stool almost like a panther perched to leap on its prey at any moment should someone move against her. There was no question she was on guard here and perhaps everywhere.

"I am looking for someone who has knowledge of the local region. And someone who is looking for their place in this world. Does that sound like you?" she asked. It was cryptic but gave a good enough idea that she was looking for real recruits for something.

Drawen Asmunder
 
He looked nearvous, not sweaty but not dry either. “You’re not wrong but you are not right either, my lineage used to be nobels but those days are long gone. You can only do so much for a nomadic family by tending to their pets, so one day they were forced to starve or send me away.”

He was in shape but not built for battle either. His hands looked soft and moist, like he had never been in a fight. “I’ve out in this area since my parents threw me out 70 years ago, and finding my place in the world does sound more adventures than living out in the middle of nowhere here.”

He looked at her nearly jumpy but still relaxed posture on the stool. “Now I have given my own reason for being on this harsh surface, what about you?”
 
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Zathria watched him silently as he talked about what had brought him up here. Seventy years a wander, isolated and forgetting who he was. Typical male, after all, but that didn't mean there wasn't potential here.

"War in Zar'Ahal. We lost and were forced to the surface," she said, the use of "we" indicating to him that she wasn't alone in this endeavor.

"Now, we're more nomadic for the moment," she said. It was a nice euphemism for "raiding and pillaging" but it wouldn't be like this forever. Every day spent in this exile made her blood boil all the hotter, craving vengeance against the House that had thrown them down and out.

Drawen Asmunder
 
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“No matter where Drows go it seems the nomadic life follows” He said with nearly sorrow in his voice. His beetles started to wander around the tavern, but Drawen didn’t seem to even take notice of it.

He took off his shoulder pad and started drinking some more mead with it getting faster with each sip.
 
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"Doesn't have to be," Zathria said, a sparkle at the corner of her eye.

"See, we're recruiting and we won't be nomadic for long," she said. Rumors about the Raid on Hallowmere didn't seem to have made it out here yet, but it would soon. A town taken for Vyx'aria's warband, and they were only going to grow in power.

"The question is whether you want to step up and into a role where you're not alone anymore. Where you can stand alongside your people," she said, her eyes flicking down to one of the beetles crawling along the counter next to them.

There was always the possibility, she supposed, that he was just crazy and talked to beetles, but she didn't think so.

Drawen Asmunder
 
Drawen finished his mead, he looked at her and asked “How long have you been up here?” while handing another coin to one of his beetles, which flew over to the bar.

He sat and down looking curiously at her intricate armor, while waiting for some more mead.
 
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Zathria was admittedly taken aback by his question, though she tried not to let it show. It was unexpected and she wasn't even sure it was relevant. Maybe he was just making conversation.

"Not all that long, it's part of why I'm still recruiting. Why do you ask?" she asked him. Drow were naturally secretive and she wasn't eager to volunteer much more information until she was sure it wasn't going to be just sold to the next rival down the line.

Drawen Asmunder
 
"It'll be dangerous but profitable. An opportunity get what you make and have support," she said.

Zathria watched how his eyes seemed to wander away to his bugs and she suppressed the urge to smash one of them just to make a point.

"Am I boring you?" she asked flatly, debating just getting up and leaving. "Because if I'm wasting my time, I'd rather know up front," she said.

Drawen Asmunder
 
“Oh I’m sorry my eyes wandered for a bit, but if I don’t watch those bugs who knows where they would go? But I’d love to join your cause” He stood up and started calling his Muck Beetles over, making sure he had all his things and counting them to make sure all of them were present.
 
She gave a nod, measuring him as being sincere in his interest and she pushed herself to her feet.

"Very well, then. You aren't the squeamish type, are you?" she asked, then her eyes dropped to her new companion's beetles, her Drow mind already working.

"Do they have venom? Do you milk them for venom or send them to kill people?" she asked curiously. That could come in handy for what she had in mind.

Drawen Asmunder
 
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