Beggining of a New Legend..., The start of the first Caravan's quest

A weird darkness seemed to loom over the city despite the daylight hours. The city streets were bustling and narrow, making it the perfect opportunity for a thieves' grab. There were shadowy characters in cloaks, innocent travellers unaware that their purses were a few bronze or silver lighter.

In the distance loomed the ever-present Bandit City, full of theives, bandits, and of course the home of the sniper clan. You could always expect an eye on you if you were to pass too close to the fortress. At this moment two figures were passing through the crowded streets in the transitioning part of town where it was turning from the brighter-more tourist attraction part of town to the darker less-noticed part of town.

Daelin looked around with a frown, it was a horrible contrast to the grand city of Kin. They hadn't even gotten to the slums yet, and they had left their caravan safely outside the city. Daelin and Morgan had recieved a letter from the shadow clan representitive telling them to come to their headquarters, but the strange thing was that it told them to come immediately, without the need to report to their own clans.

Both Daelin and Morgan knew this was suspicious but they came anyway, it wasn't good to test any clan's patience especially when it seemed to urgent. Daelin was careful not to make eye contact with too many people, because for some reason his strong stature and noble-bearing look revealed his juggernaut training. He could easily be a soldier from the castle here looking for a wanted man. Daelin made sure to always be aware of where his weapons were at all times.

"So how are we supposed to find our 'contacts', the letter was amazingly brief and undescript." He murmered towards Morgan.

Morgan felt how tense her companion was, a member of the Imperial Army in a slum full of people who would slit his throat almost as readily as they were now shying away from him. Yup, this is sure subtle, having us meet them in public like this.

“Calm down, I have a map. Besides, it's not like they sent us a suspicious letter to come alone without telling anyone if they wanted to kill us or anything. Besides, why bother having us boldly walk down the middle of a dark and crowded street to destinations unknown if they sent us a letter anyway?”

Turning her head to look at a sign which looked vaguely familiar, Morgan stopped to consult the note. “The Broken Blade. I think this is the place they said that we could meet our guide. Let's try not to have a repeat of last month's incident, mmkay?”

Almost tripping over the bench that was placed inconveniently near the entrance, Morgan stumbled into the anteroom as her eyes slowly adjusted to the relative darkness. As a matter of fact, as soon as they got a few feet from the door, it creaked closed behind them, plunging the room into utter darkness. Morgan swatted the back of her neck as she felt an insect bite her.

A voice spoke from the darkness. “Apparently promptness isn't one of the things which they teach you in the Life or Skills clan. Both of you must be smart enough to realize we can't reveal the true location of our headquarters, so the boss tapped me to babysit you two to him. I could say I'm sorry about this, but quite frankly, I'm not.”

Before the faceless voice had even finished, Morgan felt disoriented as her sense of balance seemed to have taken a vacation, leaving her to fall face first into the floor. Blissful sleep came shortly after.

Daelin followed Morgan faithfully, but when they were thrust into darkness he nearly reached for his weapon and activated his sight... but the voice stopped him.

Life...? He thinks I'm part of the life clan? Daelin thought, but he didn't get to think any more before he suddenly lost sense of direction and was suddenly unconcious.

----------------------*~

A while later Daelin woke, his head throbbing. He knew he hadn't been hit, but his head still felt strange. He suddenly became aware of an argument close by. Daelin looked up, but didn't move, not wanting to rouse the attention of anyone nearby. A tall man, very handsome looking with blonde hair and green eyes, seemed to be upset with another man, a little shorter, but with black hair.

"You could have left them to me, I would've been but a second." The blonde haired man said, the other one scoffed,

"You seemed preoccupied with your other guest, so I decided to take them off your hands... you like to play mind games too much Fox." The other man said, "Its only a healer and a skills member anyways. They aren't royalty."

"A healer?" Fox said looking a bit confused at first, but took a glance at Daelin and suddenly smiled, "Yes, of course, but we must treat our guests kindly, especially if they're going to do us a 'favor'." He said. The black-haired man decided that the conversation was boring and pointless and left. The man named 'Fox' looked towards Daelin's direction and put on a very charasmatic grin,

"Well, it looks like you two are awake, no need to play dead. The meeting hall is right next door. You'll meet someone else in there, but I'm sorry to say that there is something I must attend to, so I wont be there for the whole meeting, I'll be a tad bit late. Someone will be in there shortly to discuss what you are here for." He said, obviously in a hurry and left.

The room they were in was well furnished, and both he and Morgan were lieing on fluffy couches. The door to their right opened silently, and Daelin could see that inside that were more couches, but also a long table which would probably be the place in which they would discuss why they were brought here...

(Should I assume you walked in?)

A young teenage guy is standing in the middle of the room, his attention entirely on an imaginary opponent most likely with a weapon similar to the long thin Rapier held in his right hand. Under his breath saying, "Dance like a butterfly..." and with such moving his feet with graceful practice, "Sting!" with a fierce thrust, "Like!" with a flick of his wrist spinning the blade up and to the side to bring it into another stab while stepping offline, "A!" and with this makes a vicious X-cross slashing action where a torso might be while darting from side-to-side, "Bee!" and with the final word seeming almost to disappear from sight for a second but then reappearing a moment later only three feet from where he had but panting with the sword on the ground and his hands on his knees.

"Crap..." he barely got out, "Guess that needs more practice... eh?" finally looking up at the two newcomers.

OOC: lol, you're not that fast or adept young grasshopper ^_-, look at stats comparison, you're (And we're) about as fast as the average adult male, and that's not *that* fast.
IC:

Daelin walked in to find a teenage boy dancing around with a weapon drawn. His technique with the weapon seemed pretty good, but he was obviously trying to go too fast and hurry to his other poses, and trying too hard to impress either the ninjas or Morgan and Daelin, so he looked pretty rediculous. The other ninjas in the room watched him with mixed amusement and worry that he might slash one of the couches.

"Umm... Interesting technique you have." Daelin said, then extended his hand, "My name is Daelin. I'm a.... life clan member who got a letter from the shadow clan to meet them... Did you get one too?" He asked.

OOC: Your own dexterity is but a single factor. Specialization in the rapier means that you're excellent in its use, meaning that you can use it faster than you would another weapon of the same category because of your extended usage in such.

OOC: Of course that is correct, which is why in my post I put that your "technique with the weapon seemed pretty good" but your, "and with the final word seeming almost to disappear from sight for a second but then reappearing a moment later only three feet from where he had but panting with the sword on the ground and his hands on his knees" is totally different than specialization in the weapon. Someone want to post? ^^ *hopefull look* Or I'll just continue on then... (tommorow)

OOC: This is not Pelleas' swordsmenship alone. This is him attempting what looks to be the beginning of a technique and failing, hence the fact that he traveled a yard stick's distance panting for air and exhausted. I'm waiting for someone else by the way >.>

"tch, Showoff," Morgan muttered. "If you are done playing with your invisible friend, I think that we might want to deal with the issue at hand here. Notably, what kind of mission we'd need some sword swinging tower of testosterone to complete. If it's the kind of mission that needs that kind of fighting, I may need to sit it out."

Ignoring whatever response either he or Daelin might have to her intentionally insunting attack, she pushed past both and sat down at the large table, sitting with her back towards the them.

Straightening his back Pelleas smiled as he sheathed his rapier, "Well met good lady, my name is Pelleas but with such an introduction I can only imagine your name is *Morgian."

Turning to the male who had entered, "Geez, had a meat, cheese, and milk diet all your life? Goodness, if I didn't know any better I'd say you'd make a hell of a Juggernaut. But one knows that you'd have a suit of armor that'd weigh as much as I do!" and with this slapped a hand good-naturedly on his back. "The ninjas here haven't been so kind as to serve any drinks, but maybe I could head out this door and grab some..." his words drift off as he heads towards the door, "Anything for either of you?"




*Refers to Arthurian Legend

OOC: You mean technique as in Life energy technique? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to travel fast enough to blurr your physical motion, despite how well you can wield a sword, btw never answered Daelin's question, not important though since Spoit and you now posted
IC:

Another man entered the room from where Pelleas was trying to leave. The ninja guards immidiately bowed to the figure, then rightened up and stood still again. The man who entered had a kingly air about him, almost like an aura of royalty. His hair was black with some streaks of grey, but he was 6 feet tall and had a well built body still. His eyes looked at the three with cunning, and he didn't seem a day older than 35.

He smiled a strangely comforting smile and looked at Pelleas, "Going somewhere? I was just about to begin..." He said, the door closing behind him as if by some invisible spectre. The shadows from the candlelight seemed to lean towards him, but, probably was just a mirage Daelin figured. He then looked to the others and gestured to the chairs, "Please, sit." The man said, walking over and taking a seat at one of the ends of the long table. Daelin followed suit, ignoring Morgan's comment, he was already used to her sarcasm. What Daelin did notice though, was how the shadows seemed to reach further, or perhaps condense a little more, where he sat.

My eyes must be playing tricks on me... He thought, taking his mind off of the matter.

"My name is Kage, I am one of the three leaders of the Shadow Clan, and I already know your names." Kage said, "You are probably wondering why you are here. Well, one of my trusted servants 'Fox' was sent to find some people to help me with a small mission. The reason I could not use one of my own people is because, it is top secret and... I am stealing from my own clan..."

The ninjas made no outward appearance of movement or surprise, They probably are loyal to Kage Daelin thought,

"I'm no theif." Daelin said, scowling at the idea. Kage looked at him with a small twinkle in his eye,

"No worries young taivan, you wont be stealing anything... in fact it's already stolen from me by the other leaders, however, they don't know it's true value, and I'd like it back. You will be recovering it from theives, doesn't that suit your beliefs more?" He said knowingly, "It is located in a storage facility, in ... Kin." He said, Daelin stiffened, a stone-cold look coming into his eyes, Kage seemed to find amusement in Daelin's response but didn't make any outward indication,

"I can get you in... you just need to get the artifact out..."

"Kin?" asked Pelleas, "...Kin? I nearly got my hand chopped off for putting down six coppers instead of seven! Plus, with Kin being the Juggernaut headquarters, how are you going to get us in without getting us discovered or killed? We might have better luck trying to rip a Juggie's heart out through his armor with my bare hands."

Pelleas frowned and sat up, "What is the reward of the mission anyways? The note was written in a Bard's riddles and wasn't clear at all about what you intended to give us in return."

Kage grinned, "What, the chance to help out the leader of another clan isn't enough?" He asked, "Well, you're right about it being impossible to steal from the Castle, but my storehouse does not belong to the juggernauts, it actually belongs to the shadowclan, located in the city. You wont have a hard time getting there and getting in, it's getting out that will give you the most trouble."

Kage paused, "You will have a letter that will be permission to get inside, of course the letter will not specify which high-ranking officer you got it from, as I'm sure you can understand that if it was to be traced back to me I'd have some problems with the other leaders. You will be allowed inside, then you just have to locate the artifact, and get out with it. I'm sure with your various array of skills that you could devise some way of getting out. From there you just have to signal my agent, who will pick up the artifact." Kage said, making it sound as if it'd be a cakewalk. Strangely enough, while the party listens to Kage speak they start to trust his words and feel as if it really would be as easy as he makes it sound.
((Diplomacy, Morgan would be the least affected, but not by much. He's just convincing us to take the mission))

"But don't worry, you will have a reward, you give me my artifact, and I will give you one in return, it will be something that will help your caravan. I have skilled working artisans who will work your caravan do do one of three things, either it will make it unable to be broken, unable to be hindered by terrain such as sand, snow, plantlife, ect. That does not mean it will be able to climb cliffs or sail on the ocean however. The third working I can put on it is to make it, and everything inside of it, invisible while not moving and in the shade. The animals which pull it, however, will remain visible." Kage continued, "You can imagine that a working like that would cost a large amount, so you will be effectively paid a good amount, and if that isn't enough I will also give you a new caravan with new pack animals."

Kage sat back and let them absorb the information.

After a moment of silence Pelleas asked the thing that was bothering him. "I'm sorry, but none of us look at all like we're from the Shadow Clan. Not to mention not knowing secret hand motions, code words, and other things associated with such people."

"Also, just the three of us? I may be good with a sword, but hardly good enough to keep a lone Juggie away, let alone a squad if things go badly. Who will be coming with us? This is a suicide mission if it is simply the three of us."

Daelin nodded, "Why would a shadow clan outpost let those who are not shadow clan inside?"

"I'm surprised at you, by now I'd assume a taivan would know that clans often use caravans to carry out missions because of their mobility and knowledge of the surrounding areas. Your note will specify that you need to deliver something inside, and I will supply you with the trinket that goes in. I will have to disguise our friend here," Kage said indicating Daelin, "Also, you need not know any secret hand-signals or anything of that nature, the way that you will signal my agent is through this scroll." He continued, placing a small black rolled up scroll onto the table, "Instructions are inside in regular Kinnish, so you should be able to understand it easily enough."

Kage paused for a bit, considering something, and again spoke, "If you guys are willing to make a promise that you will return the artifact to me before you leave Kin, then I will give you sound advice for getting out of the storage facility. As for it being a suicide mission... you're right, it will be hard, but that facility is not as heavily guarded as others because it would attract the attention of the juggernauts, another will also be joining you, and between the four of you I'm sure you'll be able to figure something out... think of it as a test, I'm sure you'll be fine if you try hard enough. You wont come across any juggernauts, because they would not be in our storage facility, it is completely shadow clan owned. I will give you everything you need to make this mission work, and if you do come out successful, you will have high favor with me, and that is very valuable."