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On the road to from Liliaceleba to Aveceleba

Rumic and Don were ambivilent. Over the last several monsths they had been travelling along the Lathmimale Road, following the signs that the first caravan of vulpinan trader's had followed with little news or luck. Indeed, the forest seemed more wild and native than ever afte months of travelling along the low road, working their way over roots that grew in the soft loam and cutting down the rapidly expanding veigitation. More than once they had been forced to get down and lever a wheel out of a muddy rut, and at one point both of them had nearly panicked when the ditches that had been dug on either side of the road to stop flash-flooding began to seep. All of that changed when they passed the most recent caravan from Aveceleba.

They could hardly belive their ears when they heard that a caravan had reached the capitol. Finally, after months of work, sweat, and blood on the road an official trade route was opened. As time went on more and more people would be crossing, and eventually the loam ruts would be replaced by wood, or possibly even stone!

Indeed, both of them were ecastic, until the giant coyote-girl had came stumbling out of the woods.

At first both of them had panicked. Rumic had grabbed a bone spear, adorned with several rings of shad shell, and menaed the creature as it stumbled down the steep side of the path, while Don had taken off entirely, racing back down the path away from the strange creature and tripping ovef a root that had cropped up in their passing. However, their fear had been ineffective, since the stranger was certainly in no condition to fight. She had several wounds that indicated a difficult flight, long half-healed scars on her feet and hands indicating injuries that hadn't been properly treated. She was thin, gnaut even, weak and staggering.

Perhaps that was why Don had given her his bunk.

Over the last week spent on the road, she had lain there asleep. Occationally she would spout out gibberish, familier words strung together with alien ones that made no sense to the traders. And the occational comment that would freeze them to their bones as they set up camp at dusk, or attempted to sleep in the night.

Well, it didn't matter so much. Another three days and they would be in Aveceleba. The stranger could go into the care of the lords, and Rumic and Don could get paid for finding her and sell their wares under the palace.

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Kara concentrated, focusing inward while concentrating on the air between her hands. Like Dodak had instructed, she attempted to push herself *out* while focusing *in*, keeping this ambivilent state long enough to attract a spirit that she could pull *through* into this realm. It was a tiring process, one that was filled with failure after failure as either her concentration slipped or her balance faltered... or Iten cried, or somone knocked. Over the last several months she had learned much from the civilian summoner, although not nearly as much as she supposed she could have learned from Yaris she supposed.

For a moment there was nothing, then Kara felt a gentle touch. An epirmental graze, one that at once felt like a breath of wind on a warm cheek. If she hadn't know what to feel for, Kara would have discounted it was a simple draft. Now, however, she knew better.

With a decided push she punctured the barrier, creating a small, stable rift. Reaching forward and pulling inward. It was difficult, keeping those two forces stable. If the pull became too great than the barrier would close on it's own, and if she pushed too hard then the spirit she was seeking to bring out would be pushed with it. It was a circus act of balancing both the push and pull to create the stable rift, and then attracting a willing spirit along the stable barrier.

With a flicker a white whisp began to form between her hands, a perfectly white misty sphere one and a half hands in diameter. A smile came to her lips as the creature began to solidify, a faint plume of smoke and a glimmer of light appearing as it slowly faded into existance. She was almost there, just a little  more and her first sucessful summon would be...

A knock sounded on the door to her aparment, inturrupting her concentration and causing the wisp to dissappear in a dash of smoke. Kara slammed her handpaws on the table in frustration, causing Iten to jump in his chair a few feet away. Obliquly he offered one of the wooden blocks he was playing with to his parent, his one good eye watching her silently.

"Now who could that be?" she said irritably, awkwardly standing after a long time spent in her chair. She had been so close! Whoever it would be, there would be hell to pay if it wasn't deadly serious.

"This had better be for a good reason, otherwise.." Kara trailed off as she saw a number of strange vulpin in a military uniform standing on the other end,"... well what is this about?"

"Karaman, you are requested at the castle." Their leader, a male with a highly-embroidered badge that marked him as a squad captain, "We are to take you there immediatly." he paused, noting that Kara was wearing only a sleeping rope with a disdainful look and blushing slightly, "We'll give you five minutes to get ready ma'am."

Karaman frowned in frusteration, opening the door to the apartment fully to admit the officers. "Sure, sit down while I change into something a bit more appropriate in the back. Do you have any idea what this summons is about?"

The officer shook his head, his eyes on Kara as she walked into the back room. "We have no idea, but apparantly the High Lord wishes for you to talk to a prisoner, or a guest. He's in a foul mood since the rest of the council blocked his motion to have the military do it, and none of the lord's trust anyone in another guild to perform the interrogation, so you were suggested as a fitting compromise."

A ruffle of cloth accompanied Kara's reply as she put on her best tunic and her travelling harness, long mended and oiled since her previous journy five months ago. The Lords had not yet decided which direction she should explore next, and their talks with the dracon dispatch for finalizing the trade agreement had dominated her time anyway.

Finally, Kara emerged from her bedroom, grinning to the military vulpinan's as she took Iten's hand and led him over to the door. "Lead the way, we will be right behind you."

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Mranna smiled at Dodek as her husband set up the small summoning circle in the living room of their small home, his quiet melodic incantation as he finished the first portion of the ritual causing her to sway slightly in response. At long last they were out from under the eyes of the thrice-accursed Yaris, blast his bumbling soul! Mranna had never thought she would get herself and Dodek out from under his scriutny, free to study their own preferred form of magic.

The vulpinan woman had been a secret blessing, coming when she did. If Mranna didn't know better she would have assumed Dodek had summoned her as a fitting excuse! However Mranna knew the tramp was genuine, and her potential high even if her standards for mating were low. Indeed, for all Mranna knew or cared about these savages it was the norm for the mother not to know the father of their children. In her five months spent in their city, (built of flimsy wood and protected by flimsy bowmen and undertrained spearmen. Bah! Did these vulpinan's think they were invunerable? It was a good thing they were well-hidden.) Mranna had seen enough vulpinan mothers with their veritable brood of children to know that the species as a whole was highly proceative. Indeed, single births seemed rare for their bitches when compared to the number of litters.

However, Mranna had her private thanks for the vulpinan woman... Kada, or whatever it was. It was because of her that she was free, so it seemed only fitting for her to allow Dodek his one luxury of training her as a proper summoner. Dodek was a softhearted fool, like all men, but Mranna wouldn't berudge him that after the amount of good that Katanan (that was right, wasn't it?) had done for her.

As Dodek finished the circle the entire room began to glow in a violet light, causing several invisible markings that crisscrossed Mranna's scales to light up in a silvery candesence. With a wary glance the female Dracon looked around the room, her eyes drifting to each curtain furtivly to ensure that nobody was spying on her though the closed windows.

With a guesture she motioned for Dodak to dump the material's on the floor. Her gaze an icy parody of that which she had shown for Kara while on the Avien. The summoner stumbled slightly as he reached down to the sack at his feet, emptying it's contents in the center of the circle with a dry clatter. Mranna stopped and stared down at her components, the first half of her first graft in this new city. The beginnings of an army, scattered across her floor.

Satisfied Mranna stepped into the circle, focusing her power into a single point. At long last she could start her work in ernest! With a powerful tug of magic she began to tear at the barrier, reaching through with tendrils of power for a soul to bind.

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The first thing Larika noticed as she awoke was that she was in a bed with a stream of sunlight hitting her face though an amber-tinted window, the light reflecting from a draidle made of tree sap that hung above her head.

The second thing she noticed were the number of bandages that covered lacerations on her hands, feet, and legs. While she knew that she was injured, the pain was secondary, more null and numb than actual ache or sting. Upon closer inspection a number of herbs, some familier but many not, were packed amoungst those bandages. Each one nerly exceptionally clean and well cared-for.

The third thing Larika noticed was that a thin, but very strong rope was wound around each limb. A strong knot binding each limb just to the point where one could not reach the other without being uncomfortable. The tie was snug, but not tight, and no matter how much she pulled the knot did not loosen nor tighten.

As the Valtan slowly came to realize this third, and final, truth of her situation, she heard a female voice talking loudly to a low murmer outside of the only door to her room. "No, you can wait out here. Yes, I know nobody has talked to her yet... They told me she was bound? I'm not afraid of one bound stranger. He comes with me, now open the door."

A bief moment later the door to Lakita's right opened, admitting a creature that the scout had never seen before. It... no she, the shape of her clothing indicated a female, And if there had been any doubt in her mind then it would have been dispelled by the child at her side. She was small, slightly more than half of Lakita's size, and covered in short red fur from snout to tail. The first thought that Lakita thought when she saw this creature was is was an overlarge fox. That was, untill she remembered the speech and clothes.

Cautiously the stranger approached, walking forward on four limbs and stopping carefully to stand on the back two as she reached the bed. Her light green eyes glanced at the Valtan in a manner not unlike how Lakita was staring at her. Finally, the stranger broke the silence.

"Well, regardless of hiw the High Lord wants this to go I intend to at least try and be friendly. My name is Karaman, and this is my son Iten. We are both Vulpinan. You are in our capital city of Aveceleba, roughly translated in Dracon common as "Woodabby".

One of our caravans found you along the Lathmimale Trade Road, heavily injured. They brought you here and we have cared for your wounds.I was summoned as an intermediary between the seven guilds and the military to speak with you first, since I am a member of none of them. As the first member of the capital to met your species, I would like to welcome you to Aveceleba."

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"Depends on your definition of trouble. Most of us don't like thieves however." Graed replied as he tacked the riverboat to shore, spending a short moment to tie a temporary anchor before pulling free a slender dagger and hacking at a group of nearby ferns. Piling them untill he was certain he had eough to make crafting a tarp to cover the raft during the day. Watching as Ter untied the Pirogue and set it upside-down on the bank.

"How do you plan for us to tell her how to find the Pirogue though? For all we know she got eaten by carp or wolves."

((This post encompasses both turn 11 and 12. Nothing much really happened. In Aveceleba the High Lords have finished their trade agreement with Erois and are preparing to send a messenger downstream to Romilath so as not to miss the Dracon messengers. Erois may accompany them if he wishes, the lords will leave that up to him.

On the road a merchant group found Larika, who I wrote down as too injured to talk to avoid having to have an excessivly long dialogue with throwaway characters. They basically picked her up on the side of the road and continued onward, then reached Aveceleba in the next turn.

Romilath grew and the migration from Liliaceleba continued east behind Ter and Graed. As for Cenna, I leave her fate in the hands of the storm giants.))

((I expanded the map. It's very likely that if we need to expand the size of it more that there are valleys and such hidden in the middle of the vast mountain ranges. Not that I plan to go out there, but the mountain civs are welcome too.

Akroma, if you want the map expanded southward, I'm thinking there is probably a chain of islands to the south of you.

I will update the map on the front page when I wake up.))

[ May 28, 2008: Message edited by: Jamini ]

This map is copied from Captainblood's post. Also, I wish you the best of luck mate.))

Turn 11

Turn 10

"What was that?" Kara said as she sketched the ground below, her hand blackened from hours with the pen marking and remarking her canvas. Beletedly wishing she could take stop time for a moment to double check the shape of the ground below and ensure her maps were accurate.

With a furtive look she turned towards Dolak and his wife, the former obviously sligtly ill from the dips and swirls that the giant avien performed on the rising thermals that originated from where the cold sea met the warm land, turning her eyes away as the slightly green dracon began to retch into the bucket that he had brought aboard while his wife patted him on the back and encouraged him that this leg of the journy would still be over. Neither of them would be any help.

With a shuffle Kara left her seat and carefully walked over towards Erois, clinging to the gaurdrails of the travelling compartment as the avien made another swoop. Swapping Iten from one arm to another she sat across from the old warrior and pointed out the window to a small blot near a river delta far to the east. "What do you suppose that is?"

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Cheers rang thoughout Aveceleba as the first merchant boats sailed though the water gate, their drivers waving glibly to the assembled crowd as they made their statly way towards the central keep. People were everywhere. Cheering in the streets, raining the flower petals of late spring from the arches that lined the street towards the central depot, and constantly bringing boxes upon boxes of goods alongside the shore. Every vulpin with something to sell or something to buy came out of their homes, racing towards the massive wooden keep that straddled the river.

As the first boats reached the palace, two vulpinans wearing the bright red shoulder knots that marked them as members of the mechanic's guild gave a shout from thier stations beside the river. Each one pulled the long wooden lever that dominated their station, bringing forth a great creaking and groaning as the main gates of Sileraivis, the palace of foutains, opened in a rush of water, leading into a wide harbor.

Quickly the boats were docked, their gleaming hulls shining in the sunlght that filtered down though many bright laquar skylights. The white light turned into a yellow amber. As their captains set down they were met by a Vulpin dressed in a luxurious fox-fur cloak. The russet red accenting his own greying fur. On either side of him four other Vulpi stood, each quite old and wearing a canny look on their face.

"Welcome!" The old Vulpin said, spreading his arms wide as his voice was met with a resounding cheer, "Welcome back to Aveceleba merchants. Long have you have travelled to our sister city and now you have returned to us with goods. the first shipment of many. We, the lords of Aveceleba, welcome you!"

[ May 25, 2008: Message edited by: Jamini ]