Years ago, this world of lush forests, bustling cities, life everywhere you look, and magic of old and new was nearly brought to its knees. The undead, led by their king, King Degeni, swept through the nations, killing all in their path. The undead were only stopped at the Battle of Vilen Vesa, the Beautiful Alliance. It was at this battle that the alliance of the Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, and Goliaths successfully held back the undead horde.
The alliance then pushed forward. A joint Human-Dwarvish force successfully reclaimed the besieged Dwarven capital of Vaan-Amo, and a joint Human-Elvish force recaptured the major Elvish city of Falini later that summer.
Within a year of the Battle of Vilen Vesa, the undead horde had been reduced to one last stronghold. The alliance then finally defeated the horde, killing the last of the undead, as well as their leader. The land was restored to how it was previously, but with a new sense of uncertainty for the future. There was also talk that King Degeni had a son, with authorities looking tirelessly for this specter.
It was this wounded world that we find ourselves in now, here along the major Sayn Highway that connected all five major nations. More specifically, the Five Nation Tavern. This tavern is a place where people from all around visit. It is also where four unsuspecting people would meet, forever changing the course of this world.
Chapter 1 – A Mission and a Team
The sun was high on a warm summer day. The Five Nation Tavern was bustling with life from all around the world. This tavern was relatively small, yet homely. No two pieces of furniture were the same, and it was clear that there was something for everyone of every species.
As the old, rickety doors of the tavern flew open once more, a woman entered the tavern. She was roughly five and a half feet tall and had long black hair. She was of the human species and wore what looked like heavy metal armor. She also appeared to have several types of weapons ranging from a great sword all the way to a short bow.
The woman walked in, the doors closing behind her. She walked up to the bar, sitting down and waving over the barkeeper.
“Hello there,” the barkeeper said to the woman. “What can I get for ya?”
“I’ll get the cheapest drink you’ve got,” the woman responded.
“Well, the tap is free, but I can get ya a drink of our cheapest wine if ya want,” the barkeeper responded.
“That would be great,” the woman said as the barkeeper left to get the drink. The barkeeper gave the glass of wine to the woman, taking a few copper pieces as payment.
“And where have you come from?” the man sitting next to her asked curiously.
“I come from Alejo, and you can call me Jaz,” the woman responded to the man.
“Ah, you’re a mercenary. I hope that Alejo treated you well. The name’s Bruce, by the way,” he responded as he took another sip of his beer.
Bruce was roughly the same height as Jaz, though with short brown hair and blue eyes. He was also wearing a lime green cloak and had a wooden staff next to him leaning against the bar. He also appeared to be a half-breed, half human and half elf. As he talked, a large figure walked behind the two of them. Though Jaz didn’t notice it, Bruce noticed that the man had put something in Jaz’s drink.
“Don’t drink any more of that,” Bruce said urgently to Jaz.
“What? Why?” Jaz asked, perplexed.
“That guy put something in it,” Bruce said, gesturing toward the large man who was now sitting down a few seats away from Jaz.
“He did what?!” Jaz exclaimed as she got up to confront the man. Bruce reached out to stop her, clearly not wanting a fight to break out, but was too late.
Jaz walked up to the man. When he noticed her, he looked up, and her promptly slapping him across the face. The man, enraged, sprang up from his stool, picking it up once he got up. He must have been at least seven and a half feet tall, clearly a Goliath. The man swung the stool at Jaz, with her clattering against the bar in a heap as the stool crumbled, splinters going everywhere.
“Hey, back off!” Bruce called out to the Goliath as he got up from his stool and picked up his staff.
The Goliath smirked. “And what’re you going to do if I don’t?” he asked teasingly.
“This!” Bruce responded, invigorated, as a thick vine ushered from the staff, wrapping itself around the Goliath’s neck and tossing him in front of the doors.
The Goliath then got up, clearly ready for a brawl. At this point most everyone in the bar was hiding, watching this fight unfold. Upon getting up, the Goliath swung at Bruce, who backflipped over the bar and away from the punch very nimbly. After this, Jaz got up, charging into the Goliath with a dagger in her hand. The two of them toppled outside of the tavern, with the Goliath letting out a yelp of pain as the dagger went into his side.
Bruce ran outside of the tavern as the other two were lying on the ground, though the Goliath was getting up. The Goliath got up, charging up a punch. As he threw the punch, Bruce hit the ground with the end of his staff, causing a thick root to jolt up from the ground, holding the Goliath’s fist in place before making contact with Jaz.
Jaz then pulled an arrow out of her short bow holster, plunging it into the Goliath’s now stationary arm. The Goliath let out a wail at this as the root disappeared back into the ground.
Jaz then stood up, out of breath, and kicked the Goliath across the face, knocking him out.
As Jaz and Bruce re-entered the tavern, there was a round of applause. As this was happening, the barkeeper passed Jaz’s money back to her across the bar, seemingly as a way to thank her for taking care of a troublemaker. As the applause died down, there was one person at the far end of the bar who continued clapping. This man seemed to be an elf. He was wearing a set of chainmail armor.
“The name’s Garilee,” the elven man said, approaching Jaz and Bruce with his hand out. “I’ve been looking for a group to send out on a mission. I’ve got two already, but need two more. Something tells me that you two’ll fit right in.” He said, gesturing toward two people at the end of the bar.
“And what do we get out of this?” Jaz asked the man.
“Well, I’ll pay you a good sum of money, and can you really ask for much else?” the man asked.
“Fair enough,” Bruce responded, shaking Garilee’s hand and walking over to the other people at the bar. Garilee then turned to Jaz, his hand still out.
“I’m only going ’cuz he’ll get himself killed without me,” she said sternly, walking past Garilee without shaking his hand.
At the end of the bar, there were two other people apart from Jaz and Bruce. One of them was a man, dwarven by the look of him. He was wearing a thick leather coat with a furry ruff around the collar. He appeared to be very muscular and had what looked to be a war hammer placed on the ground behind his seat. The other was a woman who was very clearly a tiefling, which was rather uncommon for these areas. She had a light pink skin tone and hair to match. She was a bit taller than Jaz and Bruce, but only by a few inches. She also had a large bow and arrow behind her.
“So, yer our other teammates?” the dwarf asked as Bruce and Jaz walked up to them.
“Yeah. I’m Bruce and this is Jaz,” Bruce responded enthusiastically.
“Joy,” the tiefling said in response. “What’re you gonna do exactly? Make us laugh?” The tiefling said, feeling one of her dagger’s razor-sharp edges.
“I will have you know that I know my stuff, my natural magic especially,” Bruce said as a vine came from the tip of his staff, grabbing the dagger away from the tiefling.
“Impressive,” the dwarf spoke at this. “The name’s Cobalt, Cobalt Arin.”
“Nice to meet you, Cobalt,” Bruce responded as he handed the dagger back to the tiefling.
“The name’s Julia. You can call me Julie if you must,” she said in response.
As the four of them were talking, Garilee walked toward them.
“Well, now that we’ve got four of ya, what do you guys say that we move on with this plan? Follow me. There’s a training dummy in the courtyard that you can show your skills on,” he said as he walked through a door on the side of the building, with the others following suit…
