[url=http://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/1824953]Signups[/url] --- It is a beautiful, spring day. The sun shines down upon the valley, the forested roads leading onward. At the end of the valley there lay Irontown, the fittingly-named large down that sprawled in the shadow of the Great Iron Mountain itself. It had earned its name in a rather straightforward manner: The Great Iron Mountain was a wealth of minerals, of all sorts. Certainly, it was why many believed there was a vast, ancient mine within the massive stone giant, and yet even they had not exhausted the resources of what many now called Irontown's sentinel. The town bustled, filled with miners and blacksmiths, and its own share of nobility and rich merchants. It was, in some people's opinions, only a few steps away from becoming not simply an exceptionally large town, but a city. And yet... now the residents of Irontown lived in fear. For the great mountain that bestowed its wealth upon them was now the home of the enemy of humanity(or indeed, all similar peoples). Not simply a single dragon, but many now roosted in the mountain. At this point, all the citizens of the industrious settlement had seen was shadows and gouts of flame from the entrances to the mountain's innards, but they new how dragons behaved. Sooner or later, they would descend upon the town and destroy it. Those who attempted to leave the town were faced with either a dragon choosing now to hunt those attempting to escape... or bandits. The scum at the bottom of humanity's barrel had chosen to corral the residents inside and kill anyone who attempted to flee. Their reasoning was that when the town was destroyed with every man, woman and child within it, they could slip in unnoticed and pick it clean of all the wealth. Irontown was failing, and it needed intervention. It needed help. --- The carriage rattled along the road. Lily sat with her arms folded across her chest, seated in the back. The driver was nervous. She had seen him, moments before... she wanted to reassure him in some way, but was unable to think of any possibility. She would simply settle for paying well. It had been difficult to find transport to Irontown given the town's current situation, and Lily had nearly settled for going on-foot before a carriage had offered to take her there. He was a man older then her, but not very old, likely in his thirties. Tanned skin, brown hair, green eyes... he had seemed confident until they had reached the forest valley before Irontown. There were bandits, and worse, awaiting them. Lily would not allow the one who had agreed to take her to such a place to be harmed. And, as if in response to her thought processes, Lily heard an arrow thunk through the wooden door of the carriage. The horses drawing it whinnied and the driver let out a yell. Lily's head snapped up as the carriage drew to a halt. Almost immediately, she heard voices. Men's voices, outside. Low and threatening. It did not take a genius to reason what was occurring, especially given that a dark, bearded face peered in. "Oi, he's gotta girl back here... come on out, girlie. We ain't gonna hurt ya..." his voice was rough, and he spoke in a manner that indicated that yes, they were going to hurt her and everyone involved if it benefited them. Once again, it took little intellect to figure out what these people were. Bandits. As she rose, Lily mentally calculated how much it would cost to pay for the damage she was about to inflict. Ideally, the door would still function... Though it would cost more to repair it if it did not. It mattered little, Lily would pay whatever was required. One hand raised to her back, gripping the hilt of her massive blade, Drakecleaver. "What the-" The bandit was cut off when the wooden panels of the door were suddenly pierced from within. The gigantic blade erupted from inside the carriage, and effortlessly pierced the bandit's chest and burst through his back in a spray of blood! Lily could hear cursing from his fellows. The door and torn from its hinges and stuck to her sword, along with the corpse. She raised one armored foot and pushed the door and the body off her blade, before leaping out. The bandits were clad in leather armor, with simple metal helmets. One held the carriage driver at bow-point, but right now he wasn't looking at the man and was instead distracted by the death of his comrade, and the girl who had just stepped out of the carriage. "Th-that sword!" one of them cried, "It's... it's huge!" Lily swung her blade foreward and put on a burst of speed. The bow-wielding bandit attempted to pull the string and fire, but he was suddenly cut entirely in half, up from his right side to his left shoulder! Lily spun, standing in front of the carriage, as the halves of the corpse fell beside her. The carriage driver had taken the opportunity to take cover behind his cart. "With this blade..." she began, calmly, regarding the bandits. They backed away, terrified. This certainly was not what they had expected. "... I slay dragons. But dragons are not the only evil I extinguish." "Sh-she's a damn d-dragonslayer!" Lily took a step forward. The bandits took a step back. She readied Drakecleaver once again. Indeed, this was not the only place bandits had set up ambushes. And it would certainly be easy to spot the stopped carriage and the bodies lying beside it, the blonde girl facing down over a dozen armed men.