It had taken Ryn little more than an hour to reach the outskirts of the human town now that he was on horseback. He rode down the main street keeping his head down and trying to ignore the stares and whispers of the townsfolk as he rode by. He rode straight the town’s livery stable and dismounted Rolando’s horse. An old Dwarf waddled out to meet him smiling and croaking a friendly hello until he got a good look at Ryn then his smile faded. 

“What do you want elf?” any semblance of friendliness gone from the old dwarf’s tone.

“I would like to give you this horse. He is of no use to me and he tells me he is a loyal companion for any good master.” Ryn offered back attempting to be civil. The dwarf did not have to be told twice that he was getting a free horse and accepted. He allowed Ryn to fill his water skin from his well and filled Ryn’s ration bag with a few handfuls of oats and cracked corn. 

Ryn then left the town of humans, as passed the last house in town he heard the murmuring of men. Cocksure humans were discussing whether they should try to capture the clip ear that just entered town, they were sure that the next time a slave trader or bounty hunter rode through town they could get a reward. Ryn headed toward the area the job advertisement had said was the meeting point well outside town. He needed to wait two days and this town was not safe for him, or rather he was not safe for this town.

He sat up camp in a small dry wash about a mile from the meeting point, then pulled out his flute and began to play. As the notes carried on the wind he thought of the last time he entered the helscape. Anaquandai had ordered him to do so and he had spent nearly two weeks roaming the wastes going wherever Anaquandai commanded and fighting creatures so terrible and powerful that he had barely survived. It was out there in the helscape in a long forgotten cave he had found the flute he played now. Anaquandai had told him it was an ancient elf flute but that did not mean much to him, just another relic of a time long forgotten.

On the morning the job posting Ryn had taken from Rolando’s dead body stated was the start of the expedition Ryn left the wash and headed to the described meeting point. He arrived to find a handsome old ancient, a young beautiful dwarf, a human, and two filthy mages. The human strode forward a somewhat confused look on his face. “Hello sir. I’m Thomas Essex and who might you be?”

Anaquandai spoke to Ryn [i]“State the truth.”[/i]

Ryn looked Thomas Essex straight in the eyes. “I am Ryn the Clip Ear McCray. I have come here today to join your expedition into the helscape. I came across the job posting on the body of a mage that I killed in a fair fight outside of town and figured you wouldn’t mind having another experienced killer by your side.” He said this as he lifted the folded job posting into the air. 

“Well this world is a harsh place. I appreciate your honesty and I won’t ask any questions, but if you want to start any trouble of any kind during our expedition I want you know that the other men traveling with us are killers just like you. Do you understand me?” Essex said slowing in a deep serious voice.

“I understand. I am here to work and nothing more.” Ryn replied.

“Well alright then we have ourselves an elf warrior. We just need ourselves a Halfling and a talking dog and we’d have ourselves a mighty grand party.” Essex joked as he shook Ryn’s hand. 

Ryn introduced himself to the ancient and the dwarf shaking their hands and exchanging warm greetings. He then turned to the mages and gave them a slow acknowledging nod.