CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

The long awaited sequel to Infinite is finally here! However, some things have changed since we were last here...

It has been four years since the Cataclyst, the time when the hackers almost succeeded in their attempt to gain total control of the gameworld Infinite. The people who tore them down, Cyrano, Saify, Nancy, the moderators Romulus, Oracle, and the Chancellor, are all hailed as heroes and the tale of their adventure is one of the most popular in the world.
But chaos has once again overrun Infinite.
Sparked by some unknown factor, two factions, Nescala and Tiera, have started a war that has taken over the whole world. Friendships are torn apart as players and NPCs alike are forced to choose sides. What's worse is the apparent lack of concern from the mods, who have not been seen for months. Dark rumors are circulating...
There are other rumors of a new legendary treasure, Fafnir's single egg, which could only be found if all six dragen gems could be broguht to Fafnir's Lair. This treasure has arrested the attention of hundreds of treasurehunters, all willing to kill or whatever else it took to claim this treasure.
Amidst this chaos is an independent group who has managed to stay perfectly neutral and out of the war. The Independant Flight Force, as it is called, focuses only on the funner aspects of the game, and staying out of the war entirely. however, one of its leaders, in her hunt for the Dragon's Egg, is about to get more than she bargained for...

That about sums it up. Your spawning stations are the Nescalan faction, the Tieran faction, the Indepentdant Flight Force (IFF) or a single long individual without a clue. Ah, just kidding. You can be with one of these groups or by yourself. I will be posting further details on the three groups later.
Now for the character sheets. Max of...oh, six characters for everyone. If you think you can handle that many.
Name: this should include real and game names
Gender: include for both again, please
Appearance: again, I'll need both real and game
Race: this is just for game (duh)
Power: hopefully, you all know what this is, right?
Personality: make it as obnoxious as you can. JUST KIDDING!!!!
Time: How long you've played Infinite (and I mean your character, not you.)
Loyatly: Basically, who are you loyal to? Nescala? Tiera? IFF?...or yourself?

and that's the lot. By the way, if you want to play your old character, Infinite veterans (my thanks again for doing so much with me Adri, and my thanks for finishing with me, Oddood. You guys are the best! ) then you may, though we certainly can't treat them as newbs anymore! Okay, that should be it till the faction info. I'll just input my characters now.

Name: Zara Keyes / Kiari
Gender: F/F
Appearance: Real- bright red hair that curls inward on the ends, framing her face. Pure black eyes (the non-bruised kind). She wears a white tee-shirt, black jacket, and dark blue jeans. Her tennis shoes used to be white, but have turns grey, brown, and green from constant abuse. 5'6''
Game- Think blue and you won't be far off. She has a turqoise jacket with yellow star buttons, a dark blue skirt patterned with stars, a long sleeveless dark blue jerkin decorated with a star pin, light blue almost-but-not-quite-skin-tight leggings, and blue boots. Her cerulean blue hair is tied back into a ponytail, which reaches mid-back. The only flaw in all this blue are her eyes, which are a light grey. 5'6''
Race: Human
Power: Is profficient with various healing magics and can craft shields out of light and air.
Personality: Active, fiery and steadfast. She will stick fast to her friends and do anything in her power to protect or help them. Usually kind and open, but be careful not to make her mad.
Time: She had been playing Infinite for 5 years now, having started playing 2 years after its birth.
Loyatly: one of the leaders of the IFF, along with her best friend Hawke.

Name: Rowan Thaler / Caesar Regal
Gender: M/M
Appearance: Real- Dusky black hair which he often slicks back. Blue eyes. Wears a long-sleeved dark green shirt, midnight blue jeans, black boots. Both ears are pierced, sporting two small pearl earrings.
Game- his pure silver hair curls slightly, and the right side is a little in his face. His eyes are a deep cerulean blue. his face, well-shaped and formed, contains the beauty and charm which seems to attract most women. His black, long-sleeved coat reaches just below his knees. The grey tunic is lined with silver, with a rose embroidered on the left side. He also has a brown belt from which hangs his slim rapier. The ends of his grey pants are tucked into boots made from softened leather, with turned down tops. Ears also pierced, diamonds instead of pearls.
Race: Unknown. Some say he's a vampire, though that was never an option. other's say he's just an odd human.
Power: A Windmaster, able to do incredible things with wind and air-related things.
Personality: Smoothly callus and self-interested. Dispassionate towards others. In his world, he's the only one who matters, his goals and desires being first and foremost, no matter what he has to do to reach them. Yet, there are some good qualities in him. His few friends can count on him for anything, though he's often sarcastic and pretends he does't care.
Time: Since the very beginning, which would be 7 years ago.
Loyalty: He's the master of the slavers' guild, but his first loyalty is to himself.

Thank you, Caesar, I almost forgot. There is another group, the slavers' guild, that you may join in. Here's a place for anti-heroes and villains alike. Albeit Cyrano's managed to rather effectively tear down the guild, leaving only small tatters of its original power alive, and they are in constant fear of being destroyed, but of such stuff villains are made, eh?

Have fun!

Name: Iris Brown / Lydia

Gender: Female

Appearance: Iris is a tall girl, for a 14 year old, being five foot six inches, and weighs 130 some pounds. She has a slim build, lightly tanned skin, and, for the most part, is fairly average-looking. Her eyes are, despite her name, blue, and she has long blonde hair usually tied up somehow.

Lydia has a shorter, smaller build than her real-life counterpart. She is about 4'7", and has an all-around smaller physical build. Her avatar would actually be described as cute by most. She has a round face, the predominant features of which are her large, deep forest green eyes, and her small lips, which hold a radiant smile. Her skin is lighter than in real-life. Her face is framed by her bright green hair, which is cut short and falls close to her face.

For clothing, Lydia has semi-hardened leather clothes that are brown and dark green, covering most of her body, leaving her shoulders, hands, and head bare, with her feet covered by comfortable brown shoes. She also has a small knife hanging from her belt. She also wears a small backpack which she keeps some adventuring essentials in. The bag is slightly enchanted, as it can hold more than it should be able to, but doesn't have unlimited space.

Race: Human.

Power: Lydia's power is beast taming. She trains a monster from birth, or perhaps befriends one, and turns it into her ally. Beast taming is actually a very complicated skill, so not many players use it, but Lydia manages to keep things in check and loves the skill.

Personality: Lydia is a hyperactive, ever smiling, fun-loving bundle of energy. She usually manages to find the silver lining in any situation, and even when she dies, she's usually laughing by the time she respawns.

Time: She's been playing Infinite for a couple of years now.

Loyatly: If you asked Lydia what her loyatly was, she'd probably stare at you for a second, then start laughing. Her loyalty, however, is mostly to herself, although she IS a member of the Independent Flight Force. Her relationship with the leadership of the IFF is a bit interesting, however, as Lydia is also aggressively pursuing Fafnir's Egg.


All right, how's that look?

Interesting, could you post some more background material? Maybe the stuff from the original thread?

sure I could, just give me a bit to put something together
also, great character Odd, accepted. Welcome aboard, back into the mess.

Edit:Well, I can give you the ending, and if you need anything else, I'll go for that too.
Infinite

Is it to late to join??

Wayback to the rescue! These are from September.
Look in horror at your old sigs and avatars!

Setup thread
http://web.archive.org/web/20121021234535/http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=62963

RP thread
http://web.archive.org/web/20121021234639/http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=63081

I guess at this point what I'd like is a brief overview of the wold (or worlds) or the game. From a quick poking around it seems to be fairly standard fantasy fare, but I figure I'll ask.

EDIT: Oh, and any limitations/suggestions for Race and Powers(in the original it was Powers/weapons).

MomentOfInertia wrote:Wayback to the rescue! These are from September.
Look in horror at your old sigs and avatars!

Setup thread
http://web.archive.org/web/20121021234535/http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=62963

RP thread
http://web.archive.org/web/20121021234639/http://www.christiananime.net/showthread.php?t=63081

I guess at this point what I'd like is a brief overview of the wold (or worlds) or the game. From a quick poking around it seems to be fairly standard fantasy fare, but I figure I'll ask.

EDIT: Oh, and any limitations/suggestions for Race and Powers(in the original it was Powers/weapons).

OH MY GOSH! I thought I'd never see these things in original form again. Truly amazing.
Infinite...the world...to be honest, when I first began Infinite, it was a single contenant, and I expected the players to fill in the field. Then, suddenly, it grew into something more. As the players opened up the world, I began to see just how small my contenant was, compared to the vast world that was opening up before me. So, I dived deeper, and discovered that, while yes, we were right now on a single contenant, it was much larger than I had previously anticipated, and there were others if you had a boat to cross the oceans and seas. Naturally, most of the world is still open to exploration - you will notice that, in the rpg, I mentioned a wild country where only the bravest ventured - but there are a few set details, such as the Tanmul Mountains, and Fafnir's Ridge, which is located on the contenant north of the original contenant, now named Jarva.
Anything else?

Some information about Nescala and Tiera would be nice.

In the meantime how's this look?

Name: Maxwell Jefferson
Gender: M
Appearance: A clean-shaven young man of indeterminate age, thinly built and well dressed, sporting a tidy mop of dark brown hair capped off with dark grey fedora.

In Game
Name: Arnwolf Rune
Gender: M
Race: Mostly Human
Appearance: A tall scarecrow of a man, dressed in a battered brown tunic, and tattered, mottled grey cloak. Darting about with his unruly dark brown hair peeking out from under is deerstalker cap.
Power: Teleportation of the ‘open a hole and step through it’ sort. Limited by line of sight or familiarity with the location (level of needed familiarity scaling with distance of course). Blind portals can be opened, though there is no guarantee that they will lead anywhere but the inside of a wall. Also includes the effect that he has supernatural special awareness, due to his connection with the vary workings of the world he always knows where he is, though unconsciousness and other factors tend to blur this blur this sense rather severely.

Personality: Unpredictable; involving himself in affairs purely for the fun of it, leaving whenever he chooses unless explicit word has been given. Gonzo, fey, often self-centered.
Time: 7 Years
Loyalty: Himself generally, though he has been out of contact with most of the world for a while...


Powers is a bit long, but I thought I should define it down a bit.

Looks pretty good, and I'll be posting the faction info today. Sorry it took so long. Your power is pushing the boundaries slightly, but...I'll let it go. All in all, looks really good. I'm looking forward to seeing how he acts.
Meanwhile, the information. Here we go.

Nescala: Stretching from the south edge of the Tanmul Mountains to the Iospean Sea, Nescala controls most of the merchant cities and stations, therefore the richer of the factions. However, for all it has in quantity, it is somewhat lacking in quality. Items tend to be lower-leveled and higher-level stuff is often ridiculously expensive. However, if you need a quick herb or a night at an inn, a town, village or station isn't far off. Nescala has sided with the guild, though no one knows why.

Tiera: Located in the north edge within the Tanmul Mountain range and the lands beyond, Tiera's cities and villages are scattered across the territory, and can be hard to find. However, the lands are fruitful, so you needn't worry about running out of HP. Also, though shops are few and far between, they sell higher-level, special items that are normally harder to find. Tiera has taken a public stand with Cyrano against the guild, but deceit takes place in the shadows.

Independent Flight Force: Located just inland from the coast of Aersha ocean, hidden by the sharp peaks of the west edge of the Tanmul range, right on the border between factions, the IFF lives in a large fortress with more than enough room for everyone. The food is some of the best and the Armory contains some of the more legendary quest weapons and armor due to their excessive hunting. The treasury, stock-piled with treasure of all sorts, is located in a hidden cave. The IFF prefers to take a neutral stand in the wars, but most of its members are against the guild and will not hesitate to fight.

Slavers' Guild: Located in scattered patches across the world. Mercilessly hunted and attacked by Cyrano and company, much of its former power and glory have been torn down, leaving its survivors constantly on the move, afraid for their lives. However, through whatever means necessary, they mean to rebuild, and the war that has sprung up has proven beneficial towards this end, as well as hiding them much more from the vengeful Cyrano.

okey-doke, that's the lot.

Character #3

Name: Carter Brody / Valerian Farshadown
Gender: M / M
Appearance: Real- Carter has blonde hair, though its almost white, cropped short. His skin tone is extremely pale, as though he's never been in the sun. His eyes are the green of the jade gem, and glitter with a friendly, inviting light. He prefers wearing a white turtleneck sweater and black pants. His black boots are sturdy, hardened leather. 5'3"
Game- Valerian's hair is a dark violet, hanging to the neck, and curls slightly. Ingame his skin color is darker, a light tan. His eyes are the same jade green, but are a bit larger and have just the faintest slant. He wears a long-sleeved white shirt with a tail reaching to his ankles (No clue what that is called), grey pants and black, jade-studded sandles. Resting on his waist is a black sash, where two of his knives are hidden. He has six in total, of carious types, sizes and shapes, hidden in various spots. 5'11". Pure black wings.
Race: He is half-human, half-raven, and is often called a half-blood as an insult. He doesn't care, he likes his character.
Power: He has an innate sense of where treasure is. When he says treasure of any sort is nearby or under your feet, believe him. 10 out of 10 times, he's right.
Personality: Most people describe him as friendly and interactive. However, what they don't know is that while he's laughing with you over a joke, he's sizing you up and figuring out your strengths and weaknesses. Calculating and crafty, but not cold. He's a very nice guy, but has a strong mercenary streak in him, so you never can quite tell.
Time: Approximately 3 years, give or take a month or two.
Loyalty: Since his base is on their side of the mountains, he claims to be Nescalan to avoid trouble. However, he belongs to himself, avoids their conflicts, and intends to move house to one of the new recently discovered lands, where he would open shop as a mercenary, revealing treasures for a fee. However, with no ship to take him, he's going first to the mostly-neutral Tanmul Range to get out of the factions' mess.

Name: Khaleesi Captor/ Meeka Ampora
Gender: F/F
Appearance: Real- Khaleesi has strawberry blonde ringlets that reach just to her mid-back, her wide beryl eyes gleam with a certain warmth and innocence, she has pale skin. She wears a grey long sleeved V neck shirt, dark red skinny jeans, along with black hightops with a small ring of chain of the back of both, and an aviator jacket. She is 5'6 near 5'7, 15 to 16, and she's delicate looking but curvy (If that makes any sense. C: ).
Game- One way to describe Meeka's look is angelic (Kha too.), she has pure white slightly shorter then shoulder length ringlets, her eyes are a kind lilac, her pale skin almost seems to have a soft aura, barely noticable. She wears a pale purple tunic that flows at the bottom with cream white leggings underneath; as well as having light tan boots. 5'7
Race: Its hard to determine, she's probably half elven; cause her ears are slightly pointed in-game.
Power: She can manipulate frost and cold air, she can levitate using cold air aswell as some other stuff (I don't feel like listing what she can do with it atm. XD)
Personality: Khaleesi is someone who you'd call genuinely kind, sometimes her smile can be contagious, she is a gleeful and sweet person but cross her, or hurt her friends; you've got little time to run. She's also emotional and embarrassed easily, she loves a good joke or witty remark, and even people are sour or cold on the outside, she tries to give them a chance.
Time: About 3 years now.
Loyatly: Tiera.

OOC: I'll be making another character soon. C:

So is this okay? :3

Would it be possible to join in sometime after the RP has started? I'm kinda in the middle of a few things, and I think adding another RP--albeit, a very good one, one that I am very interested in--to the list would be too much at once. So would it be possible to come in later, after I've gotten everything sorted out?

To start off, great charcter Koneko, and I'm looking forward to the next one. Why don't you join...Tiera? Accepted! Yes, everyone will meet eventually, or at least just be aware of each other.

And Banana, you're welcome to hop in anytime. Until I'm preparing to wrap this thing up (which hopefully won't be for a while), there's always room for new members. So no hurry, just join in when you're ready.

OOC: Thanks, Wolfie!


Name: Landon Vantas/ Arystar Makara
Gender: M/M
Appearance: Landon looks to be about 17, he has wispy cocoa brown hair with two strands of hair in the front slightly longer than back, his skin is an olive tone which compliments his dark forest green eyes that seem to hold wit and mischief, he is about 5'9. He wears a navy blue t-shirt underneath a white plaid button up t-shirt along with gray jeans and dark blue sneakers. He has a lanky build.
Game- One way to describe Arystar's look is mysterious. His hair is indigo while his eyes are a soft gray, a small moon mark on his left cheek glows ever so slightly, he wears a pale blue hooded cloak, a long sleeved white shirt with black buttons adorning it, his pants a dark almost black blue, and he wears brown combat boots.
Race: He reminds me of an elf too, so he is half elf considering slightly pointed ears.
Power: He seems to make light from the moon his advantage, making moonlight creatures and powerful blazes of moonlight, but when he isn't in the moonlight, he can mimic these things except using sunlight; though it is a bit more difficult for him.
Personality: It's hard to say for him, he can be friendly and kind one moment and cold as the tundra the next, but more so to strangers he is cold unless he has a good feeling of course, he has a bit of a mischief streak, along with his sense of humor and wit, you either like him or not, he knows how to be serious when need be, he's a tad bit of an open book, he doesn't usually care what people think of him or they're opinion of him, he just cares about his and his friends'.
Time: 5 years.
Loyatly: (Uh, no idea where to put him XD, either Tiera or somewhere else.)

This RP seems to attract Landons... OK, here's my second character.


Name: Real name is Jean Kent, his in-game username is -<\Aeon/>-, but generally just goes by Aeon.

Gender: Male X2

Appearance: In real life, Jean has a somewhat intimidating appearance, he is about six feet tall, he is in excellent physical shape, lean muscles, and is quite strong. He has tanned skin, dark brown eyes and short black hair. His wardrobe usually consists of long, dark clothes.

His in-game counterpart, Aeon, is rather different. Aeon is a good head shorter than his real life self, but also looks to be quite in shape, which is necessary to survive in Infinite, actually, so little wonder there.
His skin is light, as it is not often exposed to the virtual sun. He has a head of white hair, reaching down to his jaws, in a bit of a downward spike style. He has electric blue eyes, which are abnormally bright on his grim face.

By way of clothing, the most eye-catching article Aeon wears is his thick brown cloak. It is made from some kind of light and supple leather, it stops just above his ankles, and is wide enough to go entirely around him, but it can also be thrown back and stays out of his way in a fight. There is also a deep hood, that he almost always has over his head, obscuring his features in its shadow.
Under the cloak, Aeon wears a light brown layer of clothing that covers almost all of him, barring his hands, feet and head, and over that he wears a second layer of dark green clothes. He has steel kneecaps on both of his knees, and his entire left arm has metal plating over it, thickest on his shoulder and forearm. This can actually work as a shield and deflect weaker blows, but it isn't as effective as an actual shield, and he will take more damage than if he had one, but less than unarmored. Over his feet, Aeons wears a thick pair of brown leather boots.
On his thick brown belt hangs Aeon's sword. It is in the style of a medieval knight's sword, but also has some fantasy elements added to its appearance. The blade is about one meter long, and is polished, shining silver. The sword is actually a high-level item Aeon received as a rare drop from a monster, and it is enchanted to have increased durability, to the point it's almost indestructible.
Also, on the back of his belt, Aeon has his adventurer's pouch, it seems to be a small knapsack, but it actually has the storage capacity of a large crate. Inside, he has potions to replenish health and magic, cure status effects, resurrect party members, and give some buffs, as well as some food, teleport items, and a magic map he has that can focus on specific areas with frightening detail.

Race: Well, probably human.

Power: No actual power, just an experienced player with a good sword.

Personality: I'll let it be revealed in the RP.

Time: Having been a member for almost seven years, Jean is one of the oldest Infinite player there is.

Loyatly: Mostly himself, but he could be swayed to any side if it sparks his interest. Aeon is also a member of a small guild of players that keep in loose contact and only meet up once in a blue moon. They're an old group, but not particularly strong or well-known.

Accepted Koneko, and yes she can be Tieran.

Accepted Oddood, and I like the creative loyalty. Great job.

I have a few people who I've sent invites to, who have yet to respond. However, I will try to start the rpg tomorrow, if everything goes as planned, since they can jump in whenever they want to. Get ready everyone!

Name: Karissa Pickering / Nagakura Kenji
Gender: F/M
Appearance: At 16, Karissa is a short, average-looking girl, about 5 feet tall. She has a slight but not quite delicate build. She has mild green-blue eyes and light brown hair that flows down below her waist, which she almost always has in a ponytail but will let it hang loose every once in awhile. She wears video game-themed t-shirts and baggy shorts that go below her knees, and a worn out pair of gray sneakers.
Kenji is 16, 5'6", with jet black, fairly close-cut shaggy hair and intense emerald green eyes. He's very thin and wiry, and not exceptionally well-muscled. He has Asian features and naturally darker skin tone than his real-life counterpart. He wears a black t-shirt, faded black cargo pants, and black combat boots (apparently he thinks it makes him look cool and mysterious).
Race: Human
Power: Mental manipulation - He can cause someone to see an illusion for up to 10 second (more experienced players can do it for longer). This doesn't actually hold the person in a trance, simply shows them something that isn't actually there (i.e. put up an imaginary wall so they think they have to go around it). He can't actually manifest objects; it's all in the victim's head. He can also make someone forget a conversation they had with him, as long as he does it directly after the conversation. He has other telepathic abilities that he hasn't learned about or developed, but only parlour tricks - nothing on the level of world domination. His main form of fighting involves a pair of daggers that he can fight with close range, but prefers to throw and retrieve via telekenesis. He recently obtained a mid-level katana, but he's still learning to use it and usually sticks with his daggers.
Personality: Highly mischievous and slightly insane. He has a tendency to act very strange and unpredictable. He'll wander around acting like he doesn't know up from down, then turn around and start laughing hysterically at absolutely nothing. He's obsessed with pulling pranks and loves irritating people. There's no rhyme or reason to anything he does. When he's not driving people up the wall, he's acting. He can play a myriad of personalities, and he has the most fun convincing people that he's sane before being his normal self.
Time: One year.
Loyalty: Everywhere. He literally will affiliate himself with whatever country he's in at the moment, and defend it as if he'd been born and raised there. He never stays in the same place very long.

Name: Eric Cavanaugh / Zareshtyvojikunemstyx (Zare)
Gender: M/M
Appearance: Eric is 18, 6'0'' with short dark brown hair and hazel eyes. He's filled out and very muscular, but not big-boned. He wears a grey t-shirt and dark blue jeans, a brown hoodie, and black sneakers. He usually has his hands shoved in his pockets.
As far as personal features, Zare looks very similar to Eric, but with deep indigo hair and unnatural golden eyes. If anything, he's more lean and agile. He wears a sleeveless forest green shirt, black belt, and tan trousers tucked into dark brown, kneehigh lace-up boots. He also has a dark grey jacket, but he seldom wears it, preferring to keep it tied around his waist.
In cat form, Zare's coat is the same indigo as his hair in human form, with dark grey facial markings. He's about 8 feet from head to tail tip. He's very panther-like but more slender and lithe, and with a slimmer muzzle.
Race: Werecat
Power: Primarily shape-shifting. He has a transformation crystal that he keeps on a string around his neck, that is the source of his morphing abilities, and without it he can't shift (regardless of what form he was in when he lost it). It can be lost or stolen, but each crystal is specific to it's holder, and ineffective for use by others. He's currently working toward a skill level that cancels the need for the crystal, at which point he would be able to morph at will. He can only change into a cat. He has no weapons, so in human form he's basically useless as far as battle. His other "power" is extreme speed, but he can only maintain it for bursts. But considering his skill level, that's quite awhile.
Personality: Takes everyone at face value, until they give him a reason to do otherwise. In general, he treats people with polite respect. He's extremely serious, and to the point. If he asks you something, he expects a straightforward, no-nonsense answer. He's fairly patient, but when he gets angry he's not to be trifled with. He won't go out of his way to make friends, but he's not unsocial, either. An in-game acquaintance of Kenji's, he absolutely hates him and can't stand to be around him.
Time: Almost seven years, a little while after the game came out.
Loyalty: Severely loyal to Nescala.

Accepted. I will now commence quest. Welcome aboard, peeps! Hold on to your hats!



/Zara/Kiari/
"Hawke? You there?"
There was a moment's silence over the phone, then he spoke. "Yes, but shadows dwell within."
Zara nodded slowly. "They say it'll snow today," she replied carefully.
"Yes, sometimes so cold it burns. You'll want protective gear?"
"Not too warm, but enough I don't get frostbite."
"I'll be there in half an hour. Click!"
Zara, grinning, put the phone down and logged into Infinite. She'd left it in sleep mode earlier in order to make that call. She'd located the Dragon Emerald, and was about to set about getting it when...something happened. Well, the IFF was on their way, she'd just enjoy the ride from here out.

45 minutes later, she was lying bound and gagged on the stone cold floor and thinking, "Hawke, you're 15 minutes late."
Kiari, as she was known in the gameworld of Infinite, calmly considered her position. In her hunt for the Dragon Emerald, the first of the six dragon gems, she had discovered to her dismay that her arch enemy had captured it. She'd followed him to his stronghold in the Tanmul Mountainrange and had attempted to steal it. Unfortunarely, he'd anticipated her and had successfully caught her. now he had apparently decided to leve her to rot while he cleaned up the mayhem she'd created.
The door suddenly opened. Two burly men - NPCs most likely - came in, seized her, and dragged her to her feet. They tried to propell her forward but she stumbled.
"You tied my ankels together, boys," she said, having loosened the gag 25 minutes ago. "I can't walk. Wanna untie me?"
Instead o being nice guys, they grabbed her by the arms and carried her out. She was trying her darnedest not to laugh, thoroughly enjoying herself. Since she could log out at any time, she was in no danger, so she was simply enjoying herself. She wouldn't log out if she could help it, she wanted that emerald so darn bad.
Out of the dark stone passages carved into the mountain they came and entered the only room in the whole place lit by daylight, due to a ceiling made of a special glass that was strong as iron but still retained the qualities of glass. It wasn't a big room, more of a sitting room really, containing various chairs, cabinents, tables and trophies.
And he was there.
Dressed in white and red, he stood in the center of the room, staring up through the glass. He turned when they entered and smiled. "Kiari, its good to see you again," he said warmly.
"Mithos," she replied. "You're looking well." She glanced around at the fancy room. "Too darn well..."
He grinned, amused. "Passible. Now that we've finished with the usual pleasantries, on to the inevitable question. What in the world shall I do with you this time?"

/Rowan/Caesar/
"Just sent the scouts out sir. So far, everything has been quiet."
Softly, Caesar nodded. "Very good. Dismissed." Listening to the whispers of the wind, he heard the guard go. Grimly he considered his next move.
Everything was falling apart. Just when he'd finally reached the point where he could settle down, maybe even "retire" and enjoy the luxuries he had collected for himself, Cyrano had received open support and approval from the mods to tear down the guild. All thanks to the rogue mod who'd sided with the hackers and had used the guild during his work. Before that, Cyrano had been working by himself, with the occasional group to help him. Now the mods had risen from the shadows and given him the commision personally. Now here he was, struggling to keep the last remnants together.
At least he'd spoken personally to the mods about his position. He'd honored his end of the bargain all these years, keeping a fairly clean slate. They knew he hadn't been involved in the Cataclyst four years ago. So they'd told him they wouldn't move against him, but he was on his own.
Then they disappeared. Even theri homebase had vanished. But at least that meant Cyrano didn't have their support anymore and was once again having to use his own resources. Just like himself.
But what next? What could he do next?

/Carter/Valerian/
Softly, he inspected his base. He'd almost finished moving out, he just had to get those maps...
Those maps, those precious maps...he had to get them out, had to keep them safe. They had some of the most valuable information in the whole Infinite universe. Thousands of treasure hunters would turn into assasins if they knew he had these.
"Amazing what you can barter off of random NPCs," he murmured. He folded them up and carefully hid them in the hidden pockect inside his shirt. He felt the crisp paper scratch his skin as it slid into place. These would sell for a lot, if he could find some non-crazy buyer who'd be willing to pay thousands for it.The problem would be finding one willing to not simply try to cut his throat.
He heard a noise outside and whirled around. Someone stood there, someone he recognized.
"Valerian? What are you doing here?"
"This is my base. Why shouldn't I be here?" he retorted. "If Nescala's hosting another draft, I'm not interested. I want to keep my head attached, thank you."
The man shook his head. "You won't be able to continue like this for long. You know how crazed some of these people are."
Valerian nodded, sighing. "I know Jaques. I know. I'm almost fully moved out. If I could just reach the mountains in safety now..." he hoisted his pack over his shoulder. Jaques watched him silently.
"I'll join you, when I make my getaway," he said softly. "I've had no luck finding a shipmaster willling to take us. But I haven't given up yet."
"We'll make our own if necessary," Valerian promised. He shook the man's hand. "Good luck Jaques."
"Good luck Valerian. Godspeed."

Iris was sprawled out on her bed, wearing casual clothes, and utterly exhausted. She had just spent the past two hours doing homework, while on the phone with a friend, texting two others, FaceBooking with a fourth, and somewhere in it all she had also managed to have dinner.
Now, the phone was shut off, internet browser closed out, books closed, and dishes washed. Now was the fun part.
Unable to keep the grin from spreading across her face, Iris swung her legs over the side of her bed, standing up, she walked to her computer. Sitting down, her setup was a blur as she prepared and logged herself in, and entered the world of Infinite.

Lydia opened her eyes, looking around at the world that had materialized around her. She was laying down, she always laid down before logging off, it helped to reduce the vertigo she had when she switched between worlds, where the difference in body height was almost an entire foot.
Immediately, she bounced up to her feet, grinning with excitement, and opened her inventory menu. Quickly navigating through the completely unorganized item names, she stopped at one, called simply 'Pet Daggeron'. She selected this item from the menu, and dragged it to her equipment screen.
A creature started to materialize on the ground in front of her, in a few seconds it was complete. It was a Daggeron, a black, four-legged creature with a tail and lots of sharp teeth, and a dozen large, jagged scales covering it's thirty-inch body. The daggeron was her newest pet, she had bought the rare egg at an auction for a high price, and trained it to be useful in her adventuring. She called him Relly.
Relly looked up at her, then opened his mouth widely and made a sound somewhere between a purr and a snarl. Lydia smiled, looking at her inventory, then she took out a fresh caught rabbit and tossed it to Relly, who happily went about munching on it.
Lydia smiled, then went to her inventory again, dragging a few more items to her equipment slots. Her everyday gear materialized on her, her leather armor, her small dagger and, since she was in the mood for it today, a pink hairband on her forehead.
She looked down at Relly, who was finishing his breakfast, and grinned. "Time to go, boy." She said, "We're gonna head out to the fields and do some searching. Fafnir's egg isn't going to find itself."




-</Aeon\>-, or simply Aeon, sat in the dark inn room he had rented, hunched over the desk against the wall with only a single candle lighting the area. Before him, sprawled on the desk, were dozens of sheafs of paper, all of them written on, scribbled on, or holding a vague drawing.
"Not here... Not here... Not here..." Aeon muttered, systematically picking up a piece of paper, examining it, dropping it into his bag, and then moving to the next. He had been at this for hours now, he had started with hundreds of papers, and moved through them one after the other, all of them getting a "Not here" and being dropped into his bag.
"Not here... Not here... And... Not here." He said as he dropped the last paper into his bag. All of them, those papers he had spent a fortune on, all held scraps on information that was either useless to him or that he already knew.
Frustrated, Aeon slammed his metal-clad left hand onto the desk, cracking the wood. Another day spent uselessly. Curse it all. How can this even be possible? He thought, Everything must leave a trace, something to follow...
He stood up, knocking the chair over, he stepped over it without bothering to pick it back up. He grabbed his cloak that had bee cast onto the bed and threw it around his shoulders, pulling the hood up, casting shadows over his face. He left the room, then the inn building entirely. If he got away fast enough, the NPC inkeeper wouldn't be able to charge him for the broken desk.
Next time... Next time, for certain. He thought, just as he had last time this happened, and the time before that.

OOC- lets get this party started again...

/Zara/Kiari/
Kiari grinned impudently. "I don't suppose you'd just give me the Dragon Emerald?"
"Heck no! Do you realize how many times I nearly got mauled getting my hands on this thing? And all to bait you to come here! No, I'm not giving it up for nothing."
"Bait?" she raised an eyebrow. "I'd so hoped you'd finally grown up."
"By the way, where's your pet hawke?"
She shrugged. "Beats me. He was supposed to be here eightteen minutes ago."
He studied her quietly, then said to the guards, "Go out and get ready, expect visiters soon."
The guards nodded, and left. Kiari rolled her eyes expressively and said, "You really stink, you know that Mithos?"
"One does one's best," he replied, inclining his head with a grin. "So tell me...what are you willing to exchange...for this?" Out of a fold in his robe, he produced an emerald that was as large as his hand. Within it was the clear image of a dragon in flight. Kiari's eyes widened, but she forced herself to remain calm.
"Well I sure ain't giving anything personal, you stupid letcher. Go pick on someone else."
"Now that hurts. You know fully well my eyes are for you alone." He gave her what was probably supposed to be a look of charm. It kinda fell flat.
"Yeah right. Its in your nature. Come on, seriously."
"Kiari-"
"The lady said no!"
Next thing they knew, the glass windows above shattered into a thousand pieces....

/Rowan/Caesar/
"Where are we now?"
"Eastern Jarda, captain. No sign of Cyrano or his pups, but you never can be certain."
Caesar stared hard at the ground, saying nothing. They'd lost some good men through lack of caution.
Softly, he turned the horse around. "Send three men, Nescalan garb. Have them sniff out what the current opinion is," he commanded. He listened to the other leave, then kicked his horse. Instantly it galloped forward, surging through the camp. He studied the tents and men as he flew past, noting tidiness and dress. It was imporant to look like they were in control, that those nasty attacks weren't the end of their world. Appearances mattered, to him and to the rest of the world. It showed the factions just how they were handling the abuse. It was part of how he'd managed to have both Tiera and Nescala eating out of his hands, by playing like he still had an ace up his sleeve.
He didn't, of course. He had no clue what to do.
The open countryside was before him, as he rode straight from the camp. He needed to think, needed to think really hard about what he had to do next. There had to be something!

Lydia and her Daggeron, Relly, were out in a dark forest-type field. The trees were massive, and cast heavy shadows down on the ground. The monsters here were mainly monkey-like creatures with three arms and a crude club, and some black furry goblin-types. Lydia was a few levels above the area average, so she didn't bother with most of the monsters that attacked, opting to simply run past them all.
The reason for her visit was something other than hunting. She grinned as her destination came into view, it was a large treehouse, built in the air and hung between several trees, there was a weak illusion over it to make it blend in, but Lydia knew to look for it.
She opened her menu and went to her equipment. She indicated the icon for "Pet Daggeron (Relly)" and unequipped it, then went through her inventory and picked another one, "Pet Skyslicer (Kera)" and equipped it. In the air in front of her, a white bird with silver-ish wings formed, and once it finished it started flapping and keeping itself aloft. "Kera, go tap on the window." Lydia said, pointing up at the treehouse. The Skyslicer, Kera, shrieked like a hawk and flew up to the treehouse.
Lydia stopped under it and waited for a few seconds, and before long a rope ladder was dropped down to her. She climbed on, hooking an arm through a couple rungs, then put her fingers to her mouth and whistled piercingly. A second later, the ladder started to move and Lydia ascended. She was soon inside the treehouse, it was an utter mess with strange orbs and bowls of water on just about every single flat surface.
There were two people in here, one was, with no nice way to put it, a shriveled up raisin of a man, wearing long robes and with a long beard. Lydia wasn't sure what race the man was, but she was a bit glad there weren't many of them around, he creeped her out a bit. The second person was a large, grey-skinned Anthro-Tortoise with a spiked shell. He crossed his massive arms when he saw her, and she smiled at him.
"I told you I don't like pulling you up on the ladder. You can climb it yourself." The giant turtle-man said.
Lydia grinned, "Aw, come on, I'm light, and you gotta keep using those muscles, or you'll get fat. Or something." She said as she walked past him, patting his arm as she did. She looked at raisin-man and smiled, "Hey, Sal! What do you have for me today?" She asked.
The man looked up at her and seemed to be thinking for a moment. "Ah, Lydia, it's you." He said finally, "It took me a minute to figure it out, you wouldn't believe how bad the eyesight parameter is on this race."
Lydia grinned, "Well, you can see plenty what others can't, and that's good enough for me." She said.
Sal chuckled, "I'm sure it is. Well, let's see here... Ah, I think I may have just the bit you've been looking for." He raised his hand over one of the bowls of water, and it began to swirl around and take on a milky color, before a scene formed inside of it. It showed a small room, with wooden furniture and a large glass ceiling, and two people inside. The image was too blurry to see any features, but as one of the people reached into his robes, one thing became vividly clear. Lydia sucked in a breath, "A Dragon Gem!" She exclaimed. She looked up at Sal, "Where is this?" She asked.
"In the Tanmul mountans, somewhere near Rugheist." Sal said, then reached out a wrinkly hand, "That'll be 20,000 {currency}." He said.
Lydia whined slightly, like a dog having a treat taken away from it, and navigated her inventory. She did a lot of hunting,, sure, but 20,000 was still a lot...
After dropping the money into Sal's hand, Lydia said goodbye and grabbed a teleport item from her bag. She walked to the trapdoor at the base of the treehouse and stepped out, beginning a free-fall, but her legs didn't stop moving, instead maintaining a walking motion. Before she had time to hit the ground, Lydia tapped the item and scrolled quickly through a list of names of cities she had previously visited, picking Rugheist from the list. space inverted around her, and then, with a flash, she was gone.

Next, she found herself walking on a paved, snow-covered road. "Rugheist... cold." She said, grabbing a coat out of her inventory and equipping it. She looked at Kera, who had teleported together with her. "Go look for any suspicious holes or deformities in the scenery, specifically, a big glass pane." She said. Kera shrieked again, and flew off into the sky.
"Meanwhile, I need to get some climbing equipment..." Lydia said, walking off into the town.

/Karissa/Kenji/
Karissa yawned and stretched. She was sitting at her desk, trying to read a book. Her mom had told her, no games until she'd done something to stimulate her brain for at least one hour. So she'd spent an hour staring at some random book she'd found on her shelf, randomly flipping the pages to make it look like she was reading, and every once in awhile laughing or nodding pensively. She glanced over at her mom, who unnervingly looked up from her magazine to look her in the eye. Karissa quickly turned back to the book. Then she looked up at the clock, brightened up, and slammed the book shut, tossing it on the table. She threw a quick "I won't be long" over her shoulder and rushed to her room before her mom could imprison her again. As she logged into Infinite, she thought about what her plans for the day were.
Kenji grimaced at the crook in his neck as the world came into focus. He was sitting on his head, leaning against the wall. He slowly slid onto his back, letting the blood flow back through the rest of his body.
Well, that was a good way to start off the day, he thought. What to do next was a mystery, though. He'd just fought in a battle on the Nescalan side the other day. His division had fought splendidly and annihilated the enemy forces. But as soon as the dust had settled, he'd taken his leave and wandered into Tiera territory, looking for something interesting to do, and found this back-woods inn just in time to bed down. Of course, Tiera was technically his home country, or at least where he'd started out. But hopping countries was way too fun, and he hadn't thought of it as home in ages. No, he tended to stay detached from any of the factions, instead blending in wherever he went and playing soldier along the way.
Kenji scrolled through his inventory and equipped his katana. He pulled it out of its sheath and spun it experimentally. He was pleased that it no longer felt awkward or ill-balanced in his hand, and he was getting more and more confident in his skill. He'd surpassed his previous teacher, and been referred by a Nescalan friend to an expert in the Slavers' Guild who could supposedly get him up to a high level in katana-wielding, if he could find his hideout. As scattered as the guild was, that might end up being a bit of a challenge. Looking at his weapon, he made up his mind. He hadn't been to the Slavers' Guild in awhile, and he wasn't exactly in the mood to trudge around the uninhabited sections of Tiera. Unless he actually had a mission, not being around people was insanely boring.
Kenji sheathed his sword, made the necessary preparations, and exited the room he'd been staying in, going to the front desk to pay for his stay. He pulled up his inventory, ready to fork over the money, but noticed out of the corner of his eye that the clerk was sitting off to the side, absorbed in conversation with one of the customers. The clerk looked up and nodded, ready to cut off his conversation, when Kenji had a brilliant idea. He held up a hand quickly to stop the man.
"Don't let me interrupt, I'm just here to pay my bill." Here Kenji held up a pair of gold coins that added up to the 100 he owed for the night so the clerk could see, then set them on the counter. The man nodded gratefully, then went back to his conversation. Kenji nonchalantly wandered toward the door, noting with a sideways glance the clerk absent-mindedly groping for the coins, deep in his conversation. As soon as Kenji shut the door behind him, he bolted down the street, dodging people and livestock.
...8...9...10. A shout erupted from the inn, and Kenji veered down an alleyway just before the door swung open, the innkeeper yelling angrily. Kenji threw back his head and laughed merrily as he ran, leaping over a pile of crates.
Now, which way to the Slavers' Guild?

/Eric/Zare
Zare took a deep breath, one of the 10 he'd just executed.
"Ready?"
Zare closed his eyes and concentrated. The crystal around his neck began to glow faintly, and he felt the transformation as he smoothly descended into a four-legged stance. The crystal faded again, and Zare opened his eyes. His senses were all sharpened, and he picked out the sound of a mouse scurrying over the path that he hadn't noticed a moment ago. His whiskers twitched as he felt the pollen from the field of wildflowers blow over them. The flowers grew in oceans on either side of the dirt road Zare was occupying. A few yards down the path, the wildflowers were drowned in a deep, lush, forest that flowed down from the towering expanse of the Tanmul Mountains.
"Set."
Zare mentally pored over the map he'd been studying for the past few days, checking and double checking the route he'd planned, trying to think up any and all possible circumstances and the solutions to each. As far as he could tell, his plan was flawless, but he wasn't about to fail because of over-confidence or carelessness.
A low chuckle interrupted Zare's thoughts, and an irritated growl started up in his throat as he turned to the source of the laughter. Standing a few feet off to his left was a tawny orange werecat, a bit shorter than him in length, but with the same lean, agile build. Even though Archer appeared to be smaller than Zare, he was just as tough and long-winded, and Zare knew they were more evenly matched than they appeared. Archer's advantage was his famous quick start, that always seemed to leave his opponents in the dust. Zare was counting on his longer strides to help him regain the lead he would inevitably lose in the beginning.
"Why are we even bothering with this," Archer sighed dramatically. "It's a waste of valuable time that could be put toward something more useful." Then he narrowed his eyes and grinned evily. "There's no way you're going to beat me, you overgrown house cat."
Zare didn't bother with a retort, but simply snarled and whipped his tail. He turned and fixed his gaze on the path ahead, settling into a crouch. He'd never forgive himself if he lost to this newbie. Archer had only been playing Infinite for about 3 years, and although Zare had been on a long hiatus due to a few real-life issues, he liked to think he had a bit more experience. And that was part of the reason he'd determined to do this. Apart from securing a position Zare had coveted for years, winning this race was part of his goal to get back in the game he'd missed so much of the past couple of years. For the six and a half years he'd been playing, Zare didn't have near the skill level he felt like he should.
"Go!" The official yelled as he waved a cloth over their heads.
Zare lunged forward, gritting his teeth as Archer surged past him, calling over his shoulder, "Seeya, kitty!"
As soon as they entered the forest, Zare veered right, giving up the ease of the path to plunge into the trees. Although they'd been given a map to study, they hadn't been allowed to actually see the area, and the terrain was a bit rougher than Zare had expected. But he'd made his decision, and he still felt like this route saved a fair amount of time that the path sacrificed in its winding pattern. Overhead he noticed a bright red bird, and knew that it was one of the two that had been sent to make sure they followed the rules.
No fighting or intentional harm to one another. There should be no bodily contact between the two contestants, barring accidental circumstances. Each contestant may take whichever route they deem best. No blocking the path or placement of obstacles.
Your instructions are to carry a satchel of provisions to a minor division of the Slavers' Guild, the location of which is marked on this map. Study it, memorize it, and decide how you want to get there. Your destination is located immediately within the Tieran border. If you are discovered, your mission will be compromised and you will be disqualified.
The first one to successfully deliver their satchel is the winner, and will obtain the position of messenger of the 107th division.
Contests like this were held often, to help the Nescalan forces determine the best messengers. Werecats were popular choices as messengers, because of their speed bonus and acute senses. Zare had been steadily working his way up into the more elite divisions, and this particular division was renowned as one of the best. Zare was determined to secure this position, and no punk kid was going to steal it from under his nose.

OOC: Wow, are my posts too long? Because this just looks really long and drawn out. I'll work on keeping them shorter in the future.

OOC- no, they're great. I love them! Though I am interested in seeing how this plays out...

/Zara/Kiari/
Kiari flung up a shield over herself, only to find Mithos covering them both. She raised an eyebrow expressively. "Where did you learn that?" Since his concentration was off of her, however, she decided to make use of it. Dropping her shield, she rushed him, crashing straight into him. He gasped and lost his concentration, so the shield crashed, but so did they. Kiari however was prepared for it, as she used him for a cushion to soften the landing. In the end, he lost his breath, and she tore the emerald from his weak grip.
"Hawke, I got it!" she shouted, leaping up.
Instantly, something with a huge wingspan dropped into the room just long enough to grab her under the shoulders and bodily lift her up. Hawke grinned at her, saying, "Good! Lets get going!"
"No you don't!" Mithos snarled, leaping up and unhooking a glowing rod from his belt. Hawke shrugged as he lifted off, hoisting Kiari to his shoulders. "Ready?" he shouted at her. Without waiting for her reply, he transformed. No longer a boy with wings, he was now a full-blown hawk, larger than a man with beautiful golden plumage. Kiari swung from his claws to his back, and they soared into the open air. She could hear Mithos shouting curses below, as well as something else.
"Hawke, we should probably expect an attack. Do they have wyverns up here?"
No answer, but she knew he heard and understood. Softly, he veered into a nearby cloud, and they vanished from sight. Moments later, men riding on wyverns entered the air, seeking them.
But their prey had eluded them, rising high into the sky out of reach of the wyverns, and headed for their base.

/Rowan/Caesar/
He didn't ride too far, just ten or so miles from the camp. Of course, with his eyes on his horse's mane and his mind somewhere else, its not surprising he almost ran over the guy with the katana. His eyes focused on the other man's, both froze as the horse bore down, and then Caesar jerked his horse to the right, almost tipping it over. He however did fall off. The horse, hurt and kind of irked, kept up its gallop and rushed further into the plains.
Caesar watched it go disinterestedly, then stood, brushing off his tunic. Then he turned to face the other man, again noting the katana. "My apologies, I was lost in thought," he said, as was the gentlemanly thing to do. "Are you alright?"

OOC- ...I sent Valerian off...now I don't know what to do with him.

/Karissa/Kenji/
Kenji turned to watch the horse gallop away, then stepped back and studied the man who had very nearly killed him, half listening to the rather boring-sounding apology. He supposed the regular thing to do would have been to act furious at being almost run over by a horse, or graciously accept the man's apology and continue on. Instead, he just stared blankly at the man, cocking his head as he looked him up and down. He seemed ordinary enough, but there was something...mysterious about him. Kenji nodded to himself, deciding that this man was definitely odd. Kenji couldn't help but notice the rapier the man wore, and that he in turn had glanced at his katana. Considering his polite attitude, Kenji assumed he wasn't a foe, but you can never be too careful with someone who came within a few feet of flattening you. And there was that air about him...
Ignoring the question, which had a rather obvious answer, Kenji instead asked his own question.
"Are you by any chance, a member of the Slavers' Guild?" Then he bowed dramatically and added. "My sincerest apologies if you find this question offensive."
As he rose from his bow, Kenji casually took his hands out of his pockets and shifted into a stance that prepared him to draw his katana, in case he'd had the ill-fortune to run into someone who despised the Slavers' Guild and didn't take kindly to being associated with them. Either way, he was sick of looking for a needle in a haystack, and he needed some information. If nothing else, he could tag along with this stranger. He was about to die of boredom...

OOC: Maybe he could somehow or another meet up with Aeon? I haven't specified his location so he could be anywhere.


Lydia walked out of the items shop, quickly equipping her newly-bought climbing gear. She had a pair of spiked boots, a couple of climbing axes, plenty of rope, and a hardhat. She was ready to climb a mountain. She looked around in the sky, but couldn't see Kera anywhere. Sighing, Lydia went to a list of her skills, finding the one she wanted, she first laid down flat on the ground, this always made her dizzy.
Activating the "Beast Sight" skill, Lydia closed her eyes, and visions began to form on her eyelids. This was a fairly advanced skill that Beast Tamers had, where they could tap into the sight of their pet. There were restrictions and limitations, for one thing, it took a lot of mana to use and maintain, and it also only worked with "Scouting" type pets, which the Skyslicer was.
What she saw made her glad she had laid down first, because if she was standing up she surely would have fallen. Kera was high up in the clouds, pursuing a dark shape that Lydia couldn't quite make out. From it's wingspan and the shape of its body, she guessed it was some type of bird, and there looked to be someone riding on top of it.
Now, Lydia took a moment to think, quickly adding things up. The location of a Dragon Gem had become known, Kera had taken to following whoever this person was, so Lydia assumed they had acquired the Gem. Now, Lydia considered how many people there could be that would have gotten the information about the Gem before her, and of those, how many rode on giant birds. One person stood out vividly in her mind.
"Kairi..." She said, gritting her teeth in frustration. If it was Kairi that had gotten her hands of the Gem, then it was well and truly out of Lydia's reach. If it were a solo player or someone from another guild, Lydia would consider PKing them and taking the Gem that way, but she couldn't do that if it was someone from the same guild, lest she be kicked out and have a price put on her head.
Lydia quickly undid the skill, then went to her Pet menu and recalled Kera to her. Maybe if she could hire a master Thief, she would be able to get the Gem from Kairi, but that would have to wait. "For now, I'll just have to go after the next one." She said to herself, standing up, de-equipping her climbing gear and putting it into her inventory. I'll beat you to the next one, Kairi. She vowed.


OOC: This post doesn't feel very productive...

OOC-Yay, everyone's at odds!

/Rowan/Caesar/
His face remained impassive, but inside his thoughts were moving quickly. Either this man had made a lucky guess, or he somehow knew. "And what, pray, gives you that impression?" he asked, speaking lightly.

/Karissa/Kenji/
Kenji looked at the man quizzically. Beneath the disinterested reply, was that...apprehension? Kenji brushed it aside, deciding that he'd imagined it.
"Oh, nothing specific," he replied dismissively. "It's just, this area is rather unpopulated to my knowledge, and you seem to know your way about. I assure you, I've drawn no conclusions based on your personal character." Kenji paused and smiled what could have been a sincere and innocent smile, if it had been anyone other than himself performing it. Perhaps the best thing to do was to get off the subject of this man's loyalty, since it could potentially be dangerous waters.
"I would ask you, could you direct me to the nearest camp of the Slavers' Guild? I'm looking for someone specific, and his location eludes me as of the moment. I would be forever in your debt." Here Kenji bowed dramatically again. If he wasn't careful, his impatient sense of fun would break out, and he wouldn't be able to maintain an air of...sanity, for much longer. If he was going to get a straight answer, he needed to look like he had a level head on his shoulders.

/Rowan/Caesar/
He was beginning to wonder about this particular man. Caesar was usually a good judge of character and personality, but this man, despite his outward...calm, had none to speak of.
"An enigma," he decided. "One of the unpredictable. Truly am I in trouble today."
He considered how to answer the man's question. He could either lead him astray, pretend he had no clue, or go ahead and tell him the truth. Whichever he chose, he needed to choose quickly, before insanity broke loose.
"What the heck. What have I to lose, really? If you'll be so good as to follow me." and he turned, walking back toward the camp. The horse was long gone, so he'd need a new one. Well, at the rate things were going, there would be a horse freed up soon when the next arrow or sword found a slaver's heart.

/Carter/Valerian/
"Midge? Midge, are you in here?"
He waited a moment, then kicked the junk pile again. It was a crappy place to live, but one of his contacts seemed to like it, so...He kicked it again.
"Alright alright! Hold your horses, I'm coming up!"
He waited. After a few seconds, an old pan disappeared, and a head took its place. It wasn't that pretty a head, Midge's black hair being all greasy and filled with dirt and grit, which also covered his face. Midge's beady green eyes glanced around. "No horses," he remarked.
Valerian raised his eyes heavenward, then said, "No time for jokes, Midge. I've got something good, but...there's a problem."
"Lemme guess: soemthing on those dragon gems everyone's hunting for?" Midge asked. At Valerian's nod, he sighed. "Well, most people would kill you off the bat. I imagine that's why you're anxious to get rid of them?"
"Without losing my life in the bargain."
"Yeah, yeah, that goes unsaid." Midge thought a moment, then said, "Well, that narrows it down to very few people. Avoid most Nescalans and Tierans, Slavers' Guild's probably a bad idea but there's a couple people in there who might be interested without being lethal. Also a few lonely idiots, and some in the IFF."
"Any names I can use?" Valerian asked.
"Val, that costs. Costs big, you know?"
Valerian quietly pulled a bulging money bag from his pack/inventory and held it out. "The usual," he said quietly.
Midge's eyes lit up. instantly he reached up, snatched it, and vanished into the hole. "Look up Kiari, Lydia...." after naming some random people, he wrapped it up saying, "These are the ones least likely to kill you on sight. Bye bye!" and he was gone.
Valerian sighed. He decided he'd try to set up contact as he walked away. But with who...or should he get them all at once?

Arnwolf Rune:

I woke to a clamor, to the thudding of feet upon deck, and the yelling of orders. We were finally nearing port. it had been supposed to be a two-month trip to explore what laid beyond the edge of known territory, 'to go where no PC has gone before' as the captain put it with a bit of a smirk. A fun little trip the weather there in fact be dragons. That had been the plan; the reality turned out somewhat differently.

The first thing we discovered was that Infinite was an amazingly detailed world filled with things that were crated by finite people; this is not news, but we all thought that such oversights had all been found and fixed in the first few years, or the beta releases of new content. The wrinkle of unreality in this case was the weather, our best guess was that whoever had set up the weather on the continent had defined what he wanted to occur on the mainland and told the system to make it so. This created some very odd weather patterns once you got a few days sail out of sight of land.

I suppose at this point I ought to explain the use of plurals up to this point. Some years ago after one of my "organize and rent kit to a bunch of newbies and take them on a mid-level raid" gambits I got to meet one "JackAudrey89" and his merry band of lunatics. They were all mad, they had the deepest, most realistic, fantasy MMO ever created and what did they want to do? Go sailing. Long story short; we became friends, I helped his little gang run some raids on targets that would normal have been well above their level, helped them find a secluded cave where they might build their ship unnoticed. I even go invited back for the launching. So now among the NPC galleons, carracks, caravels and, other typical fantasy fare, there runs a two masted brig, secretly crewed entirely by PCs playing at being merchants, messengers, smugglers or whatever else strike their fancy.

So anyway; I went sailing of the edge of the world with a ship full of naval enthusiasts. And in that wild blue yonder we found many odd things though none stranger that what we came to dub the maelstrom. It seemed to be just another one of the fierce but brief storms that danced about the open seas, but after a few days being battered about we had give up on sailing though and change course to escape it.

Fortunate that we did, by the time we were clear we had lost both our main topmast and the gales had liberated the whole of our foremast from its mounts and moorings. It was even more fortunate that we found the island. We sighted it the morning after we cleared the maelstrom. It turned out to be a fairly stereotypical deserted tropical island; palm trees, coconuts, ominously smoking volcano. We spent the better part of a month there, cutting new masts and fitting them, patching the rigging, and so forth. With clear skies that night we were able to determine that not only had we hardly moved during the days we spent in the maelstrom but the storm, still visible on the horizon hadn't moved either. Discussion of weather this as deliberate or not helped fill the time it took to repair the ship.

Between the storm damage, the repair, and the odd weather, our two month trip turned into a four month ordeal, and as the Sophie came into harbor the humming of the old Giligan's Island theme did not stop till the harbor masters launch came out to meet us.

----

I spent the last morning aboard the Sophie in conference with her captain and officers; their little club had gotten too big for their ship and we were discussing possible ways to raise the funds to build another vessel. We came to the conclusion that any group large enough to raise the funds in a reasonable time frame would not pass unnoticed by the armies roaming about the land. I left them with the joking recommendation that they should try to get a letter of marque from one side.

I spent the rest of the day drifting through the taverns along the waterfront picking up on the latest news, the war was heating up, lines drawn, sides chosen, etc. It was depressing big world of wonder and folks have to fight over it. A few days travel brought me just short of the little town in the foothills of the Tanmul mountains, and brought me news that my little piece of peace had just been occupied by one of the armies roving about the area looking for a fight.

I set out to sneak into town, find out who's forces were holding it and deactivate the wards on my house and hide anything that might give it away as being anything more than just a large home rented out by an elusive owner. My vault was safe from quite a bit of digging on their part, but those wards were _nice_ and there's nothing like bored soldiers to keep digging at something.

While I could just 'port in and grab my stuff, there's a lot of it mostly redundant mid-high level gear, to say nothing of all the books and maps, I couldn't travel with it all and trying to sell it would draw all sorts of attention. Best to make sure there's nothing amiss in the house and leave it there until I could either set up a new base, or remove the intruding army, without just replacing it with one of its twins of course.

The banners gave it away as a Nescalan army. As nightfall approached I made my way in to town, masquerading as a humble NPC. I safely made it into town, disabled the wards, and slid down into the vault to grab some kit that was more useful onshore than the stuff I had taken to sea.

I almost made it out undetected. As I was slipping out of the perimeter one of the sentries challenged me; low level NPC, I knocked him on the head a few time and he fell over like a sack of potatoes.

In the morning I set out into the mountains to see if I could find anyone who could remove an army for me; the IFF was supposed to be mostly neutral and might be worth singing on with....

--------

OoC: There. Sorry about taking so long to get going. I hope that's not too long, or too ... innovative. Now I just need to figure out how to meet up with some people.

EDIT: fixed where I accidentally some words in paragraph five.

/Karissa/Kenji/
Kenji tensed momentarily, trying to determine if this man was being honest or not. He'd taken a great risk, admitting that he was looking for the Slavers' Guild. But how else was he supposed to find who he was looking for? After all, he didn't really have anything to go on, except that the person he was looking for was a member of the Slavers' Guild, and skilled with a katana. He didn't even know the guy's name. He would have felt like an idiot, except that...well, he kind of was one...
As the man turned and started walking away, Kenji breathed a sigh of relief. Even if it was a trap, that would be all the more fun. He unequipped his katana, trading it out for his twin daggers. As he followed the stranger, Kenji fell forward and caught himself on his hands, using his momentum to arch his legs up into the air. He then started walking on his hands, keeping pace with his guide.
"I'm Kenji," he offered. "And you are? Don't tell me - it couldn't be...Are you the Artemis Cordan?" He put a shocked expression on his face, waiting for the man's response.


/Eric/Zare/
Why now of all times? Zare thought crossly, crouching lower into the undergrowth. At this rate, Archer would beat him by leagues.
Walking casually through the forest were a pair of soldiers with spears, apprently patrolling the borders. Except they were doing more stopping and talking than any patrolmen Zare had ever seen. Assessing the two, Zare guessed them to be low-level NPCs. He was confident that he could take them out, but that wasn't the point. Whether he could overpower them or not, the rules strictly stated that the messenger wasn't to be discovered. He'd been caught at just the wrong moment, so that there was no way to go back or travel around them without potentially being noticed.
This would be the perfect time for an invisibility item, he thought sourly. Except that another one of the rules had been prohibition of item use. On a real mission, there was no guarantee that a messenger would have an item to get them out of a sticky situation.
When the soldiers finally passed far enough that Zare felt comfortable moving, he darted out of the bushes, muscles straining to give him that extra burst of speed. He just hoped he had enough of a lead to make up for that.