Stranger in a strange land

[Bob]

The air was filled with the thunderous roars of battle. Battle shouts and roars of bloodlust from the invading pillagers, cries of terror from the towns people. The latter were being silenced the by spears, axes, and clubs of the former. The blood soaked into the ground, staining the earth where the bodies fell. Homes were set aflame with families still inside, huddling and praying to their gods for protection.

The orcs, gnolls, hobgoblins, and other foul creatures washed through the streets of the village, burning and killing as they went. The militia of the town was overwhelmed and caught unprepared, and were crushed underfoot wherever they made a stand. The invaders fought with savagery and ferocity, their greater strength and superior weapons making short work of the poorly trained and organized militia of the small town.

And they were driven by one driving force. Standing in the middle of the carnage, that force crushed anything within reach, humans or not. The force stood seven feet tall and swung his war maul with deadly effectiveness. That force spread its draconic wings and bared its orcish tusk to appear as threatening as possible. That force was named Azhi Dahaki.

The half dragon was always at the focus of the worst part of the battle, whether he put himself there or not. Many of the city’s defenders had realized he was in command, and even they were aware from experience fighting off smaller bands of orcs and gnolls that to slay the leader would break the will of the horde. Unfortunately, so far none of them had been up to the task, and the bodies that littered the ground in his wake spoke to that.

Of course, there were threats other than the local militia. In the land of Faerûn, there were always people wandering the country side on some ‘adventure’ or another. And a surprising amount of these adventurers were do-gooders, moving from town to town doing good deeds. So it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to Azhi when a ball of flame came whirling by his head so close that it very nearly singed his scales, it was accompanied by a challenge, “Pig-lizard! Stop preying on helpless victims and run like the helpless newt you are!”

Azhi’s only response was an angry growl. As he turned to face the wizard, he slammed his axe down into the body of someone who’s head he had already crushed. With a roar, he took his axe and lifted it off the ground, the body stuck on the blade.

“Take your swarm of frogs an be gone from these lands, let your foul breath of rot plague a wallowing bog!” The wizard shouted as he threw another ball of fire at the dragon half.

Azhi swung his axe as he began to charge the mage, swinging his maul wide, the body twisting free of the blade with a crunch of cracking bones and flying toward the mage, colliding with the fire ball and exploding in a cloud of ashes, though it was more out of luck than any skill or intention. Emerging from the ash cloud, Azhi was too consumed in anger to notice that the wizard was smiling.

The dragon saw a flash of white light, and then nothing. Blinking a few times, he had to shield his eyes from the sun. Why was the sun out? A moment ago it was the dead of night and the sky was blocked with smoke. Not only were his eyes assaulted by the bright light of day, but his ears were bombarded by sounds. Not the cries of battle but the bustle of a city, not that he knew what that sounded like.

As his eyes adjusted to the light, he looked around, blinking, and highly confused. He was in the middle of a crowded street, surrounded by people. People who seemed equally confused by the dragon half appearing suddenly in the middle of an overcrowded street. His stomach was churning, he was dizzy and dazed from what he guessed had to be teleportation.

But as he took in a deep breath of air, he smelt fresh blood, and saw that the crimson liquid still stained his axe blade. He may not know where he was, but he had been robbed of at least one kill, probably dozens more. It was time to replenish those loses.

[BlackAngelYume]

So this little trip to the backwater port turned out to be fruitful in the end. Elysia walked out of one of the nearby buildings, something similar to a look of joy on her face… if one could call a sadistic smirk a look of joy.

She had managed to get exactly the right information she had been looking for. Her father’s ship had sank off the coast of this isle… this… Etheric. All she needed now was to inform the crew that there’d be riches on the horizon and find herself some extra muscle. She had a crew of dwarves, but they were dwarves and refused to leave the ship… and she had Azzron and Raywyn. Raywyn was holed up in the bowels of the ship performing all kinds of strange alchemies and magics that Elysia did, nor did she care to, understand and probably wouldn’t come out even if gold was involved. Azzron would join Elysia, but the half-elf knew that it couldn’t hurt to have a little more muscle than her drow ranger companion… despite the fact he and his sentient swords did pack a mighty wallop.

Speaking of which, she had lost her drow companion at some point after leaving the building with a spring in her step. She stopped in the crowd of people to look behind her, not being able to pick him out of the crowd and shrugged it off. He was a ranger, he’d find her… and even if he didn’t, he knew where the ship was. So Elysia continued on her way, heading to the busiest part of the part where the busiest tavern would be so she could announce her need of strong-arms.

Elysia, like most pirates, was paranoid, so it wasn’t a surprised that when she saw the bloodied half-dragon appear in front of her, her initial reaction was to grab one of her crossbows and aim it at the creature. Now, this paranoia was in part due to her life as a pirate, but mostly due to her previous occupation as a part of an adventuring party where this sort of thing happened on a normal occasion and this had taught her that she should hold her trigger finger when these kind of things happened. So she did just that, lowering the crossbow so that it didn’t appear as an immediate threat.

She peered at the dragonhalf with a frown; he seemed confused to be where he was… in fact… Elysia seemed to be the only one handling the sudden appearance of a half-dragon as well as she was. The various townsfolk nearby shrieked and ran and before long most of the street was cleared, leaving only the half-elf pirate and bloodied half-dragon within any reasonable distance to one another. Elysia peered at him for a moment before putting a hand on her hip.

“’Ey! Y’look lost. Need directions?” she called out to him in her harsh British-sounding accent.

[Bob]

Azhi snarled and anger as he lifted his maul high, bringing it down in a furious strike. The hammer head of the maul came done, slamming into….the stone paved street. The paving was crumbled and broken, but the dragon half had been hoping for the sound of bones shattering and the splatter of blood against his skin. He felt a combination of frustration, disappointment, and, surprisingly, amazement that the locals were able to clear out the street so quickly.

His eyes clearly locked onto the one who didn’t disperse. If he was the contemplative type, he may have wondered how she didn’t get trampled, but he wasn’t. No, he was more focused on the fact she was there. With a toothy grin, he walked over to her. Looking her over, he scowled, however. She didn’t look like much of a warrior. She was probably the type who would duck and dive and twist and slither out of the way before he finally got the chance to break her in half. Humans and elves seemed to think that type to be skilled, Azhi just thought of them as annoying.

And what was worse, she apparently wanted to talk. Alright, he’d indulge her for a moment. If she was talking, she might not be able to duck and dodge so quickly. Azhi wasn’t much of a thinker, but he wasn’t completely devoid of the cunning of his parent races. So he responded in his deep, guttural voice rumbling from his lips, “Lost, yes. You can give me directions to people for me to smash.”

[BlackAngelYume]

"People to smash, eh?" she looked up at the dragonhalf in front of her. Despite the obvious difference in size she didn't flinch, well... she did, but that was only when she smelt his breath, instead she stood her ground, a hand still on her hip, looking up at him.

"I might be able to help with that. Y'see, I'm hiring on some warriors to help with a little personal matter of mine. I'd throw out the name Captain Redriver, but you don't seem to be much of a local, so you prolly wouldn't recognize it. Regardless, there's plenty of gold and riches to be had for you if you accept."

She could hear the townsfolk that hid nearby gasp and mutter among themselves at the mention of the name "Redriver" and she sighed and rolled her eyes. Must be taboo enough that even the non-sailor commoners get all twitchy when they hear it. Really, was her daddy that bad?

.... Course, there was always the possibility that the name Redriver was associated more with her doings than her notorious father's. Whatever the case was, she had more important things to worry about... namely the blood-soaked apparently blood-thirsty half dragon that loomed over her. She'd dealt with the dim-witted, smash first ask questions later types before... hell, she practically lived with one during her adventures (and he was beaten many a times out of frustration on the pirate's part) this one wouldn't be any less easy to convince.

All she really needed to worry about was him getting impatient and deciding she'd be a good target to try and smash.

[Bob]

"Captain, eh?" The name Redriver meant nothing to Azhi, but Captains were usually incharge of ships, and ships usually meant fish. He liked fish. Now that he wasn't so focused on slaughter, he could clearly smell the sea nearby, and from the look of this...half elf, he was guessing, she was a sailor of some sort. Which meant fish was likely.

And gold. He definately liked gold. Treasure of any kind, really. Orcs were known for pillaging treasure, dragons for hoarding it. He liked both. The pillaging for taking something from someone else, the hoarding just to have it. So far this deal was sounding pretty good.

"Riches, and the chance to smash people, eh?" Azhi considered for a moment. If she was one of those quick little bastards that ran around in a fight, hard to catch as a greased up pig, trying to kill her wouldn't be much fun at all. The people she wanted him to kill would probably be easier targets; not that he minded a challenge, he just didn't like a hassle. Besides, he could always smash her in her sleep if the need arose.

"Alright, sign me up." The dragon half smiled again, exposing his discolored fangs, hefting his maul over his shoulder and folding his wings.

[royaleagleofthor]

Standing in the tavern as he sucked down the last gulp of his ale the dark elf Azzron scanned the room. He quickly realized he no longer saw his half-elf companion. Apparently Elysia had done it again, she had a real habit of running off by herself and normally getting into some sort of trouble along the way. Trouble that always seemed to result in the ranger having to save her ass.

It didn't so much bother Azzron that she ran off by herself, he knew he could easily find the pirate.

"Should we not be going after the Captain, Master Azzron?" inquired the blade Tempest.

"I say we let the bitch fend for herself for a change," spat Ignis brazenly.

The drow had come to learn that the pair of scimitars where indispensible as battle companions, even if their constant chatter irritated him as was the case at the moment. Hearing enough from the blades for the moment Azzron slammed the face like pommels against each other.

"Silence," the ranger bellowed in his native tongue which he typically only spoke when angry.

"My most sincere apologies master," said Tempest quietly.

"Why, don't you can the ass-kissing sister,"growled Ignis.

"I told you both to shut-up and I mean now," the drow scolded.

Looking around he notice that everyone had fallen silent regarding the spetacle of the dark elf and his talking blades.

"And now you've caused a scene again," Azzron stated, "let's just go find Elysia."

Azzron stormed out of the tavern greatly annoyed with the attention that Tempest and Ignis had drawn to him. As if the mere presence of the drow was not enough to make others uneasy the two had to continually draw more attention to the dark elf.

As he stepped into the sunlight the ranger squinted his eyes as he tried to let them adjust to the sunlight that they did not handle very well. Once his eyes had become accoustomed to the light the ranger knelt down looking for signs of Elysia's passing. As he examined the cobblestone street a familiar scent wafted past his nose. The smell of freshly spilled blood, and a lot of it. For the moment the drow opted to abandon the search for his friend to investigate the source of the smell.

Thats when he finally spotted Elysia with her crossbow pointed at some gore spattered abomination. Mustering all of his great speed the ranger rushed toward his companion as he set his scimitars singing from their scabbards.

"Now thats what I'm talking about, let's tear that ugly bastard a new asshole," shouted Ignis excitedly.

[Bob]

Azhi Dahaki was a bane on all life within whatever general area he occupied at any given time. His enemies were subject to brutal deaths and the pillaging of their possessions, the burning or melting of their homes, and if they lacked sufficient food stuffs to satisfy his hunger, the devouring of their remains. Even his ‘allies’ would suffer bullying and abuse from him, anything they owned truly belonged to him and it was only a matter of time until he took it from them, used it up, and let them pick up the scraps.

And despite a deplorable disposition and actions that would easily earn him the label of enemy of all life, killing and pillaging on a whim, he couldn’t say he hated very many things. He disliked magic, found no use for strategy, and thought of diplomacy with amusement before killing any enemy who attempted it or minion who suggested it. Even elves and other quick little races who used their speed and agility to avoid the inevitability of his maul he thought of as little more than pests and annoyances.

But once thing he truly hated were annoying voices. Some beings just had voices that, regardless of how others may think of them, rang in his ears and annoyed him to no end. It wasn’t physical pain, but it was infuriating. And when he heard a voice call out something about ripping an ugly bastard a new anus, the first thing he thought of, before it occurred to him that the voice may actually be referring to him, was how quickly he could find the source of the voice and remove their vocal apparatus.

It didn’t take him long to figure out that the comment had been referring to him, probably less than a second. He shouldn’t be surprised, he had learned that most of these elven and human creatures thought of him as ’ugly’. Didn’t bother him much, many of them associated ugly with scary and horrifying. And besides, they were rarely any more pleasing to his eye than he was to theirs.

When Azhi looked up from the half elf in front of him to see the source of the piercingly annoying voice that apparently wanted him to defecate twice as much as he already did, he saw what he naturally assumed to be the source of that voice; a drow. Drow, like all elves, tended to have more annoying voices than most other creatures from Azhi’s experience. Azhi was surprised there was a drow in a populated city without his head on a pike. That, along with the fact that this drow, wielding two toothpicks, or scimitars as the elves and humans called them, was attacking him, and not trying to use and manipulate him, lead Azhi to one conclusion as to who this drow was.

“Do’Urden!” Azhi Dahaki exclaimed, not hesitating to unleash his breath weapon against the charging drow, a line of acid shooting sixty feet from his mouth. Azhi had heard the stories of the dual scimitar wielding drow ‘hero’, as had most everyone in Faerûn. Among his hordes, the drow existed invscary stories orcs and goblins told each other. He had killed them for their cowardice, of course, but never doubted the drow existed.

And true to the stories, the dark elf sidestepped the acid spray, unlike a few unlucky citizens at the end of the street, who were soon melted away, and continued his charge. Grinning, Azhi hefted his maul, preparing to swat the elf into one of the walls that framed the street.

[BlackAngelYume]

"Glad you decided to join my merry little crew," Elysia responded to the half-dragon with an attempt at a friendly smile that seemed more like a half-hearten smirk than anything else. She had decided that if she needed to be close to this man for any reason, she would have someone else do it... perhaps Azzron... his breath just smelt too bad for her to want to be.

Speaking of Azzron, she heard a familiar voice shortly after saying this. It wasn't the drow's voice, no, but the voice of one of his swords. She glanced over her shoulder as she heard this and was about to say something akin to "cool your heels" when the half dragon responded to him.

Several thoughts ran through her head, and she decided to act on the one that appeared first. A moment after the acid sprayed from the half dragon's mouth Elysia stepped in between the two, just enough distance to have one of her crossbows pointed at both men.

"Halt now or face a bolt in your eye," she said calmly with enough of her natural captain-like sternness seeping through, "And don't think for once I won't do this."

Once she was certain they listened, which wasn't long because she didn't give them much of another option she looked between the two, "You two need to play nice now, you're part of the same crew. Azzron meet my newest addition..." she paused, looking to the half dragon "What was your name again?"

[royaleagleofthor]

With fleetness of foot nearly unparrelled by others the dark elf easily avoided the spray of acid. As he continued his charge he pondered what the creature had called him, Do 'Urden? What or who was that? It mattered very little at any rate. Azzron merely quickened the pace of his charge already playing out the possible scenarios of the coming battle in his mind.

Noticing the large bludgeoning weapon the creature took up when his first assualt failed the ranger merely chuckled to himself. The savage races were always that way, never using anything but brute strength to accomplish their goals. This creature would be in for quite a shock if it thought it could even land a hit on the drow with such a clumsy and slow weapon.

Just as he was reaching striking distance his companion Elysia pulled out her crossbows aiming one at each of the other two. Azzron halted his charge sliding on his heels as he came to a stop just inches from his companions weapon.

"Why don't quit barking orders at the boss for once, who the hell do you..."

Tempest cut off the angry words of Ignis, "Perhaps this creature is no threat master."

At Elysia's threat Azzron broke in full laughter, "And if you shoot me, who's going to be around to save that sweet little ass of your's?"

"Damn that is a nice ass isn't it," blurted out Ignis already distracted if not still a little agitated at not being able to slake his thirst for blood.

"Seriously though get that thing out of my face," said the drow still chuckling as he swatted the crossbow away.

Pulling himself together the dark elf looked over the monstrosity before him.

"You really want this savage for the crew? How do you know we can even trust it," inquired the drow.

"With all due respect Captain, Master Azzron is right this creature wreaks of foulness, are you sure about this," stated Tempest cooly.

"And more importantly it hurts my eyes," added Ignis.

Azzron at least for the moment slid the blades into place on his back and crossed his arms awaiting the pirates response, never shifting his wary eyes from the creature before him. Just give me one reason pal was all he could think.

[Bob]

Azhi would never admit he would make a mistake. If something he did went “wrong”, then he intended the “wrong” outcome. Or at least that’s what he’d tell people. So, when the drow had dodged the line of acid, Azhi simply took satisfaction in the lives of the townsfolk he had killed with his breath weapon. He didn’t regret using it then, in fact he half expected it to miss. No, he regretted it when the half elf pointed the crossbow at his face.

He regretted it, especially, when he noticed that the half breed was standing just inches out of range for him to cleave off her arm, taking a single step forward would give her time to let the bolt fly. Azhi had come out of several battles covered with the feathered ends of arrows sticking out of his thick hide and feeling only minor discomfort, but he could still be felled by a single dart to the brain.

So, since he wouldn’t have enough acid stored up to melt her down to a puddle for a few more hours, and since dying would prevent him from a dinner of fish, which a mild rumbling in his stomach told him he greatly needed, he lowered his weapon. He looked over the captain as she asked his name, before replying, the foulness of his breath increased by the acid that had washed through his mouth, “Azhi Dahaki.”

Dahaki took note of something fairly quickly; the drow’s voice wasn’t the one who had made that bile raising battle cry a moment earlier. No, the drow’s laughter, while nearly as annoying, was too different. And he quickly learned the source, it was the swords. By Tiamat’s acidic drool, they both spoke, and both of their voices were as ear splittingly infuriating to the half dragon as the sound of sick cats howling in heat were to humans.

“You didn’t tell me you had a drow rat aboard your ship, Captain.” Azhi stated, bluntly. “Or that the drow rat carried such annoying butter knives.” Never before had Azhi wished that swords had throats. But now, he wished it more than anything. Because if they had throats, Azhi could tear them out and silence them. But alas, they lacked throats, and while he had no training or magical study, he knew that magic was a very difficult thing to dispose of, so his hopes that shattering the blades would silence them were not high.

“This may force me to reconsider your offer, Captain….” Azhi noted the rumbling in his stomach once more, and the smell of fish on the salt air, “How much gold did you say there was? And how is the fishing in these waters?”