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Fate/Esoterica Mk 2

I actually would really have liked to roleplay with GYWYDK's master. She seemed really interesting and right up my alley, but I generally dislike playing servants.

Did you still need a master?

Faction based Crossover RP? (With Umineko elements)

I'm debating between using Log Horizon or Valkyria Chronicles. The factions in both of them should be pretty interesting in this scenario...

Faction based Crossover RP? (With Umineko elements)

Interested, definitely keeping an eye on this.

Edged Horizon

It was the slight trembling of the ground that first alerted them to the enemy presence, followed by the shock and awe of a frighteningly close lightning strike only a dozen meters away from their position.

The light was temporarily blinding, but Lyra shook it off. The flare was disorienting but not badly so for the others, with most of the light refracted away from the party by one of Lyra’s pre-casted spells. Chad reacted quickly, as did Lyra, who reformed her set of shields into a more spread out pattern meant to provide better defilade against a ranged magical attack.

“Mages!” shouted Chad, although everybody likely already knew the source of the strike. “Probably on the other side of the summit. Lyra, can you engage?”

The young mage shook her head. There were no mages that she could see or sense, so they were likely at a more remote location. Perhaps a vantage point. In any case, the people coming over the summit were not mages.

“No mages. Knights. Nine of them,” said Lyra, briefly pointing at a small, but tight formation of armor clad men barreling towards them. “Easy pickings for you, Chad. I’ll get the Astopolian mage, don’t worry about it. There’s only so much they can do at range.”

As she spoke, she materialized a lance of metallic nature, of a length about equal in height to Chad. Without wasting a breath, she planted the rod in the ground a couple meters ahead of her, and not a moment too soon, as the prison mages launched another round of lightning. The lightning bolts surged through the air right into the makeshift lightning rod and were completely neutralized by the ground.

From a tactical standpoint, the situation looked grim. They had lost the element of surprise, and their own party of combatants just about equaled the squad of knights in numbers. While Chad’s own band of crewmembers was less trained, they were also lightly armored and more agile, and they had the support of Lyra, and for better or for worse, the house maid Nephenee. He drew his sword.

“Let’s make swift work of these knights and get in, and get out,” said Chad, coordinating the group. “Dig in, but don’t take importance in holding ground. Remember, we have the advantage in agility and speed against armored knights. Mr. Abe, have Mr. Bennet’s party rejoin the main party, inform him the element of surprise has been lost. Nephenee, you’re… you’re with me. Rilolia, I have no clue what you do, so do as you see fit. Yazu, stop playing with the leaf and do something about the bad people approaching us.”

Within seconds, the two groups met in a flurry of combat. Chad stepped aside as the leading knight charged him. He stepped into the charging knight’s wake to kick the man off balance, but the enemy recovered as quickly as he had charged in, and the captain was forced to leap back to avoid the cleave of the armor clad man’s claymore. The Astopolian garrison was small, but definitely no slouch, Chad realized. He dodged another attack from a second knight, deliberately avoiding parrying the knights’ heavier swords with his light weapon, knowing that the lighter smallsword would not take the beating from the types of weapons that heavy knights wielded. Breaking away, he rejoined with Mr. Bennet and Nephenee, who had both taken up a defensive position along Lyra’s shields.

After the initial contact, it became clear that the knights’ goal was Lyra and her position, which was now at the right-flank of the group. The trio engaged the first knight that arrived, with Mr. Bennet directly engaging the lance knight with his heavier broadsword. At the same time, Nephenee stepped in with a polite with a polite “excuse me,” and with a flash and a bit of a refined flourish, took hold of the knight's arm and weapon. With a twist of her arm and a fraction of an upward force, she hyperextended the man’s elbow backwards, cracking his joints. The man released the weapon with a scream, and with a swipe of the polearm, the battlemaid knocked the man back towards Chad, who delivered a well-placed finishing stab through the visor. A second knight, coming to the aid of his fallen comrade, was knocked over by the swing of Nephenee’s poached weapon. Taking no liberties with her time, the maid drove the spear into the man’s chest.

“Just like old times,” commented Nephenee as she doubled back.

“From defending against stagecoach bandits to fighting Astopolian knights,” said Chad, with a grimace, having been forced to parry an incoming knight.

“An apt comparison.”

Edged Horizon

Lyra Bay Mauretania

[CENTER]
Quote:
“The facts are laid out before you. Whether or not you choose to believe them, they still remain truths.”
Name:
Lyra Bay Mauretania
Age:
17
Gender:
Female
Race:
Human
Country:
Illiserev
Personality:
The word that best describes Lyra is eccentric. She maintains a cool, aloof demeanor, but is not a person to refrain from getting down and dirty. Inquisitive, studious, and overly logical, Lyra is the type of person that you might find nose deep in a book in the deepest of Dansila’s libraries. Indeed, if shown any non-fiction title, she has probably already read it and memorized its contents. In fact, her memory is nearly impeccable to point that she can repeat facts and immediately cite their sources down to the page of a book, much to the irritation and ire of others.

With her great intelligence and memory comes a great ego, and she makes no effort to hide such fact. Lyra walks a fine line between pride and arrogance, but somehow manages to charm, and not annoy. Despite all of her intelligence, she is actually quite naïve and socially awkward. For all of her textbook experience, none of it translates to real-world experience. This often lends her a nonplussed expression when introduced to the gritty and grimy speech of everyday life, or resulting in going off on a tangent to observe a unique-looking bauble.

Lyra has an obsession for knowledge and research. She fears the day she dies like any other normal human would, but for a completely different set of reasons. She believes that she could accomplish and learn so much more were she not human with a short lifespan of a mere hundred years. As such, she holds great respect towards the inhabitants of Talze Utera, namely to the witches and the pure blooded vampires that inhabit it. Naturally, she keeps these thoughts and ideals to herself, although she fumbles awkwardly around it when approaching such aforementioned individuals.

Appearance:
[hider=Lyra]

Biography:
Lyra was born to the Mauretania family, an influential noble house in the kingdom of Illiserev. The Mauretania family is well known for its massive overseas and domestic trading business, a massive company importing and exporting thousands of gross tons of product a week. Within the family, Lyra is regarded as more of a black sheep. While any other noble family would heap copious amounts of praise onto their child for her intellect and superior magical skills, the Mauretania family didn’t give two shits. They only cared if their sons and daughters were good businesspeople or politicians, and Lyra wasn’t interested in any of that.

Despite being disliked, her family was not narrow sighted enough to spite her for her own indifference towards the family profession. While they shied away from directly associating with her, they saw her potential and allowed her to indulge in her addiction for knowledge. They saw it as an investment; in fact, they went as far as to pay for her books, her research, and for her time in Dansila, where she graduated early from one of the twelve great schools, top of her class.

In Dansila, Lyra’s penchant for magic grew even stronger. The scholarly nature of Dansila and their schools were a boon to the young mage, and as she learned more and more about magic and the arts, the more inquisitive she became about utilizing different ways to use magic. For one reason or another (read: stingy bastards), Lyra’s family only sent money to just cover tuition, room and board, prompting her to take up odd jobs. Much of her real-world experience came from hopping around the Dansila countryside killing wanted stuff. After graduating from Dansila, she returned not to the capital, where her family maintained their little political circlejerk, but to a small coastal city on the Illiserev mainland named Wayford.

Despite maintaining no official position in the family business, Lyra uses one of the branch houses as her personal home (much to the displeasure of the branch manager) and holds some political sway on the company and assets.

Magic:
Lyra always has magic at the tip of her fingers. She uses magic where convenient for her, and is often testing and developing new spells or different methods in which to use them. Lyra tries to be efficient as possible when executing her spells, wasting the least mana when possible and aiming for practicality above all else. She has an absurd penchant for stringing along simple spells to create more powerful ones, and she shies away from using single spells for a task in a combat scenario. This often leads to cumbersomely and long string of spells that can leave her guard open, something she mitigates and overcompensates for with quick-casting point-defense spells.

A few useful examples:

•Lance of Mauretania (or Lyra’s patent method for shooting down airships)
Akin to artillery, this spell takes an extended period of time to set up, but has magnificent range and accuracy when perfectly executed. The spell is made up of several smaller spells that would not normally be used in combat scenario: A spell that magnifies the air like an eyeglass, a spell that calculates distance, another that calculates angle and azimuth, and a simple funneled wind spell are all used to accurately propel a materialized lance (or a real one, but that’s a waste of money) at a distant target. It has an impressive absolute maximum range of three and a half miles.

•Aegis
As the name suggests, this quick defensive spell materializes a small translucent hexagonal plate of about equal strength to a knight’s shield. It can be cast multiple times to create up to six plates. These plates can be moved around in an oval-like fashion around the caster, or locked together to form a single larger shield.

•Light Wave Diffraction
Not necessarily diffraction, but a set of spells that aim to confuse, disorient, and disarm by manipulation the light around her. Bend light, double an image, distort, reflect –These are a couple of the spells that Lyra might use in a given situation.

Weapon: Lyra carries a single bound tome with her. It is not a weapon, per se, but it contains verses, incantations and notes that are useful in one way or another. Its spine is bound with a metal plate and talentium on the inside facing plate for its useful amplification effects. It could also be used as blunt weapon, but really, if she’s resorted to using as a weapon, she’s as good as dead. How would a leather-bound tome defend against a lance or a sword, anyway?
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Chad Howard

[center]
Quote:
“That’s obviously not going to work, but by all means, be my guest and try it out!”
Name:
Chad Howard
Age:
20
Gender:
Male
Race:
Human
Country:
Illiserev

Personality:
Chad is cynical and jaded, and rightly so; several years of experience bumping up and down in the backwaters of Illiserev tends to do that to a person. He is sarcastic and full of snark, but he is a good natured man. While he appears confident and worldly, his confidence and snarky comments actually mask a more insecure side of him.

To his advantage (or disadvantage if looked at from another angle) his perceived confidence and sound reasoning make him a fit individual for leadership positions.

Chad is a networker. He explicitly goes out of his way to meet new people and to always maintain relationships and he burns no bridges, no matter how snarky he may seem. To the outside observer, this makes him appear to be an ambitious individual, but he really is only trying to maintain a sense of personal security.

In contrast to his indifferent female traveling partner, Chad has a strong sense of morality and justice. He tries to go out of his way to see a wrong turned into a right. He is a person that will always repay a debt, and in turn would always expect likewise. Nomadic in nature, his obligations towards the Mauretania family is the only thing anchoring him in one place.

Appearance:[hider=Howard]
If ray-bans existed, he would be wearing one.

Biography:
Chad was born to a simple family in a sleepy fishing village at the fringes of Illiserev. Within the confines of their small, tight-knit community, his family lived well, although their standard of living could have been considered near poverty in normal society. The region Chad lived in was a fairly lawless land, an area where soldiers and lawmen didn’t exist, and the people governed themselves. Although he was too young to take place in the time-honored tradition of self-policing, it allowed him to develop a keen sense of justice growing up.

Like the rest of the villagers, his father was a small time fisherman. From his father, Chad learned to fish, swim, and even hunt a little bit, and before long, he was just as good of a fisherman as him. Chad’s peaceful and sleepy life continued as his family continued to make their living off of salmon and big fish, and it seemed he was destined to continue the life of his parents and his forefathers. Although everything was stable and life was generally good, the young fisherman found himself wanting to do more. He was never the type to sit around and rot away in idleness; Chad was a person that wished to travel and see the world. He wished to leave the village.

Be careful what you wish for.

Chad’s monotonous life ended the day the rift beasts came. Within a day, all that he knew –His friends, family, livelihood—was erased from the face of the earth with little more than an unceremonious squish. The young boy only survived because he was inside his parents’ fishing boat, hidden from view as his fellow villagers were viciously torn apart. At the tender age of eight, Chad left the remains of his village.

It came to be that he was picked up by a patrolling company of men-at-arms. The group was ragged and battle worn, and it was from these men that he learned that the vile creatures that had killed his friends and family were appearing all over the nation. For his ‘safety’, Chad was placed aboard a refugee ship along with other survivors. It would sail away to the archipelagos, to wait out the destruction of the unholy monsters or for the when the monarchy would find a solution to the problem. It was a terrible concept and poorly executed, and indeed, conditions on the ship were less than desirable. The refugees were ill-treated and the vessel was rife with disease, although Chad received marginally better treatment for his prior knowledge of seamanship. On board, he lived off of fish, stale water and moldy hardtack, cut off from any news from the outside world. He had little else to do but twiddle his thumb and pray he did not catch a disease.

After a year at sea, the disease-laden boat unceremoniously returned to land, with much less fanfare than those aboard would have thought or liked to believe. Chad was placed in a crowded orphanage, where dozens of other orphaned survivors were looked after by a few people who didn’t give two shits about happened to the children. In kind, Chad didn’t give a damn being moved about like an unwanted child, so at age nine, he left.

The young boy traveled for a little while before making it to the large, but cozy seaside town of Wayford. Arriving at the end of August and with the winter season quick to follow, Chad found refuge in a large building by the docks. The building was the Mauritania Company’s local trading house, and as luck would have it, the Mauritania family themselves were in town for their extended summer vacation. There in that trading house, Chad met a young girl, Lyra, scion of the Mauritania family. As luck would have it, they became fast friends despite their age gap. They got along very well; the intelligent six-year old girl was more than capable of keeping up with the older Chad. Against all odds, her family took him in as a sort of servant for the girl, a playmate, during their stay in town. While Chad enjoyed the cushier life with the family (having a job of essentially playing), he felt that he should be doing more for the family in exchange for their hospitality. He insisted on a proper job, but nothing came of this until the family returned to the capital at the end of the year. Travelling by sea, the family’s ship encountered a severe squall that threatened the vessel and swept many men overboard. Quick witted and possessing the proper set of skills, Chad was able to jump in to secure rigging lines and fill in for the drowned crewmen, and the ship safely made it through the squall. Impressed and humbled, he was given a position as a cabin boy on a company vessel by Lyra’s parents.

As the youngest of the crew of about 150 on the boat Pendleton Castle, Chad was taught quite a lot by his fellow crewmembers. Although he was lightly teased for being the playmate of the Mauretania family, he gained valuable life skills from the experienced crew. He learned how fight competently from a few of the former navy sailors aboard, and general tips on how to not suck by some of the older sea dogs. As he grew more experienced, he transferred to other vessels, gaining credentials as a competent and hardworking individual of an influential noble family. Influenced somewhat by older navy sailors that he worked with and driven to become more than a mere seaman, he worked to apply to an Illiserev naval school. By the time he was in his teens, he was able to pull a few strings from some of his former captains and he was able to gain entry to an esteemed naval college.

Hathaway Academy was a rich kid’s academy. The young Chad had to pull a lot of favors from his former acquaintances, but he was able to obtain a fully paid scholarship through his former captain on the Pendleton Castle, a close friend to the school’s headmaster. Academy life was far from easy, however. Chad was one of the only people amongst the school’s student body that was not either noble or rich, and he got a lot of flak for that while he attended. The teachers were equally harsh in their requirements and he had to do many odd jobs to stay financially afloat, but he graduated the academy with full honors as a reservist navy lieutenant. Wonderfully decorated, he returned to work at the Mauretania company as a second or first mate on a few ships before distinguishing himself enough to make captain at age 18. As a captain, he was granted the fast but lightly armed merchant vessel, the Laurentine Castle.

As master and commander of his own vessel, he made speed runs to and from the Illiserev mainland and the isles, and occasionally diplomatic missions at the behest of the Mauretania family. Home ported in Wayford, he was reunited with his childhood friend Lyra who frequented the town more often than not. Maintaining their former friendship, he was the one who conducted her to Dansila for school, and was also the one to return her to Wayford when she graduated early. They kept in touch, being in the same town, and Chad often was the one to bring her pallet loads of books and interesting trinkets (which later forced the Wayford branch manager to buy more land and extend the trading house as the Mauretania main family ignored his pleas.)

While still directly working under the Mauretania company, Chad is able to do as he pleases as captain of his vessel as long as he makes money for the company. Although he plans his own routes and has discretion over the passengers he conducts and the goods he takes aboard, he still doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of money after tariffs, taxes, and payment to the company are all said and done.

Sword Skills:
Before he came into the employ of the Mauretania family, Chad’s fighting style was more akin to the rough garden variety sword styles and techniques. After getting a job with the trading company, he was trained in a manner not different from that of an Illiserev naval officer. Long past those days of training, Chad’s fighting technique is a mesh of those rough childhood skills and the more fine and elegant style of Illiserev’s finest. It is best described as a style emphasizing speed over power.

A few examples of his sword skills include:

• Mirage Dance
This is an attack that completely ignores elegance of the rapier and gets down and dirty. The attack starts out appearing to be a spin that leaves the wielder open to attack, but cuts short to hit the enemy with the pommel of the sword and then the finishing blow of a jab to the vitals.

• Defense Break
An exceptionally powerful sword thrust in the guise of a normal fencing jab; the unique torque of this jab is meant to parry a blade without extra movement while still aiming for the other combatant.

• Flash Squall
A sword skill that diverges drastically from the normal bounds of fencing, this is a tight spinning attack that can be used either conventionally or airborne. The weapon is held closely to the body with another sword or dagger in the other hand (to maintain guard) while the wielder spins his body in a controlled manner. Used correctly, it should disarm the attacker with the first pass and kill with the second.

Weapon: Chad wields a talentium alloyed colchimarde. A colchimarde is a direct, lighter descendent of the rapier, made for the purpose of outmaneuvering and out-parrying its elder. It looks nearly identical to the rapier, save for a slight wider blade section at the hilt that that tapers drastically to the point of the blade. Like the rapier, it is a well-balanced weapon that can stand up rigors of complicated swordplay. He also uses a steel dirk for those other situations.

Ship:

Laurentine Castle

One of the fastests vessel in the company fleet, the Laurentine Castle is an overhauled military surplus unit sold out of the navy. Built to chase and run down pirate vessels and smaller enemy warships, the Laurentine is possibly the fastest merchant vessel out of port Wayford with its removed gun deck. Originally a 38-gun frigate, the ship still mounts 12 guns on its main deck to ward off pirates. While it mounts less iron than most other armed merchantmen, its ability to GTFO more than outweighs its disadvantages.
Because the vessel is significantly lighter than what it was built for, the vessel handles best with a full load of cargo.

Imgur gallery of the ship's interior and exterior

[/CENTER]
[/hider]

Interference from the Higher Dimensions - SciFi Spaceship RP

Posted. Sorry if it's a bit of a mess, I had a lot of catching up to do and it's quite late at night.

Interference from the Higher Dimensions - SciFi Spaceship RP

She’d only known the man for a little over two weeks, but she already had an immense respect for her chief engineering officer. Despite conservative estimates on warp availability, Lee had managed a solution that would allow them to jump to warp 5, if only for a fraction of a second.

With a bit of coordination and luck, they got the hell out of that star system, although they were probably the last to do so.

After the briefest of jumps, they appeared at the edge of the system, moving along at one half impulse power behind the USS Aurora. Ahead of them was the greatest gaggle of unusual ships that Noelle had ever seen.

There was little time to stare and gawk at the ships through the viewscreen, however.

On the bridge, Nephenee was having a field day intercepting the communications traffic between the vessels.

“There are multiple requests for identification from various vessels, captain,” she said, replaying the set of relevant messages for the rest of the bridge to hear.
“That’s… A bit to take in all at once,” mused the acting captain. “Has the Aurora responded?”

“She has,” responded the science officer, still picking through the morass of communications. “Diplomatic as expected of a Starfleet vessel. Shall we respond with a message of our own, captain?”

Noelle nodded slightly, giving a wry smile. She pressed a button on the LCARS interface on her armrest.

“This is Captain Noelle Tatham Poole of the USS Illustrious. We mean no harm and are currently engaged with recovery efforts of our own people.”

She sighed, and sank back into her seat as she finished the general hail. From what she could see, the other ships were cooperating with each other, but she could only hope that that would hold.

“Captain?”

Noelle straightened herself back up in her seat. She would need a nice, long rest after this shitstorm blew over. “Yes, Nephenee?”

“The Aurora has just sent us a set of coordinates. It looks like they aren’t comfortable getting too close to the other vessels.”

Noelle nodded. “That’s a sound enough move. Helmsman, move us into those coordinates.”

The science officer didn’t seem to be finished, however.

“It also seems… A good number of the traffic here is in fact transmitting in Earth languages,” said the science officer with an intrigued expression. “Japanese and English, specifically. It seems to back up the evidence that we are in an alternate universe… No, that each ship here is likely from independent universes.”

“If that is true, how has this happened? Or… to what purpose?”

“It’s… Not unprecedented, but nothing on the scale of this.”

“I see… This is going to be a diplomatic mess, isn’t it?” she shook her head. “We may have a common ground with fellow… Earthlings. But they will likely be the people we will have watch out even more for. There’s no knowing from what kind of Earth they came from.”

“In anycase, we need to get up to speed with the Aurora,” continued Noelle, nodding toward Alara. “Let’s see what they’ve learned from the other ships.”

Interference from the Higher Dimensions - SciFi Spaceship RP

Well shit. Yeah, I'll be posting tomorrow as well. Sorry.

Edged Horizon

“Hold.”

Lyra, who had barely spoken since the family maid appeared, finally spoke up. A few meters away was a large, crater-like hole, and in the distance, the sheer face of the mountain, dotted with similar holes. They did not look recent, but everybody knew that it was most certainly not an act of nature.

“Is this it?” asked Chad, in a lowered voice.

The young mage shook her head. She had a few ideas, but she could be certain until they actually got to so-called prison. Nonetheless, she proffered a conclusion that immediately darkened Chad’s face.

“I don’t think we were the first to attack this place,” she commented. “They are craters, left over from a previous engagement or similar expedition. If it is from an Astopolian weapon, which it very is, I would wager a single unmitigated hit would put a swift end to our efforts.”

As was par for the course, Lyra’s comments were helpful but delivered in a completely tactless manner. The tense atmosphere of the group certainly was not aided by her comments, and Chad merely shook his head.

“Well, we can’t fall back now.” Chad seemed to come a conclusion, and waved over a sailor.

“Mr. Bennet, according to Mr. Lenz, the pit should be just over the summit. I want you and your men to hold this position. Fortify yourselves, and remember your primary mission: deny them of any and all reinforcements.”

Mr. Bennet, a trim officer with military discipline nodded grimly, and he and his party of six detached themselves from the group for a more defensible position.

With the first stage of the plan executed, all was left for the main party to rush the sad little Astopolian pit. After taking a moment to rest, and for Lyra to prepare her own defensive and supportive spells, the party forged on with her in front, making straight for the pit and perhaps utter disaster.

Edged Horizon

True to Chad’s words, the party was underway within ten minutes, making slow, but steady progress through the thick, mountainous forest of Hanzen. The little expeditionary force of fourteen people was a sad little sight to behold, with what little semblance of a respectable band of individuals only upheld by the likes of Lyra, Rilolia, and her presumptuous vampire butler.

With Chad and Lyra at the front, the rag-tag band made it a kilometer into the forest until they were met by a small clearing, likely the remnants of a long forgotten dirt road. It was a quiet little place, perfect for a pleasant picnic in any other circumstance. Ahead, on the low branches of an oak tree sat a lone girl. Instintively, the merchant captain reached for the sword at his side, but was stopped by Lyra, who placed her arm in front of him. In a single smooth sweeping motion, the individual jumped off the tree, gracefully landing in the center of the dirt clearing. She was cleanly dressed, clad in full maid’s garb, despite being in the middle of a forest on a mountain. Chad’s eyes widened as he spied the clasp just below the hem of her collar. It was a golden clasp in the shape of a shield. In the center was a smooth azure sapphire with a golden trident inlaid in the center of the gem. The Mauritanian house symbol was unmistakable, worn only by the primary members of the Mauritania family and high ranking members of their household. Lyra too had the same crest adorning both of her sleeves. The presence of the crest on this maid’s uniform meant that she was no other than Lyra’s personal maidservant from the main household. Chad groaned.

The girl, no younger than Lyra bowed in front of the group, her short hair, tied up in a maid’s headdress bobbing as she did so. The young maid’s deadpan expression changed into a slight frown as she looked judgmentally at the group behind her mistress. Recognizing that Rilolia and Lenz were on a somewhat equal social standing to Lyra and herself, she introduced herself and curtsied once again, this time directed towards them.

“Milady,” she started, in a smooth even-toned voice, “Might I ask why you are in a foreign forest with such unusual company?” The maid stopped herself short of saying “awful company” so to not offend her mistress’s more cultured companions.

Chad’s face visibly twitched as the purple-haired maid spoke. “Nephenee Ruvenheiz-Mauritania,” said Chad, grumbling in recognition. “I could ask the same thing of you. Aren’t you rather far away from home yourself?”

“Master Bay Mauritania saw it fit to send to send somebody to protect Lady Lyra and honor fell upon me,” said the maid, with a brief flicker in her otherwise deadpan expression that betrayed a hint of contempt. “Some dreadful activity has happened in Dansila and Illiserev. Precautionary measures are a natural nature of the family, Mr. Howard. Now, might I ask again why you are conducting covert combat operations in Astopolian territory, Mr. Howard?”

“Nephenee,” said Lyra, finally speaking up. Her neutral tone seemed to display her disinterest in the conversation at hand. “I am helping my friend Rilolia here save… A friend. I find the experience to be interesting and educational. The situation created here is mine and mine alone. Chad is only the person that is executing my wishes. That said… Please tell me more about what has happened while I was away…”

And that was that. Nephenee became the 15th member of the sorry little band of people, and the remaining two kilometer trek remained uneventful as the maid brought the party up to speed about current events, and vice versa. After an hour, they finally reached the vicinity of the pit that held Vance Warren.