Zilo adjusts is new hat as he continues down the road. He's rather lucky that the outfit fits him, but what would be even luckier is if he would find a town soon. To pass the time, Zilo decides to take out his violin and play a tune to pass the time.
The landscape is filled with a very somber tune, one that cascades across the landscape as the melodies show a hollow pain of one who has only lived a life without meaning, but just as Zilo finishes he realizes that he has an audience.
Zilo stops in his tracks to stare off toward the tree to see a monkey like creature hanging upside down from a branch. the creature wistfully stares at Zilo.
"Ah, hello little friend. Did you enjoy my song.?" Zilo asks as he cockily strolls down the path some more.
"Ooo ooo yup, me like!" Says a grizzly voice from the tree that Zilo was not prepared for. In a panic Zilo spins and grabs his bow and takes a shot at the creature.
"AH! Talking monkey!"
The creature gets wounded as the arrow deflects off his arm and it drops into a bush below the branch. Zilo slowly walks his way over to the bush with another arrow strung up.
"Maybe I shouldn't have done that on second. It may have been a peculiar creature, but it did enjoy my song. In fact..." Zilo puts back his bow and looks to the sky
"I may have just made my first material plane fan. And with it, my steps to fame in this world would have began and-!"
Suddenly the creature leaps out of the bush brandishing two metal claws in each hand. It lands on Zilo's shoulders then wraps it's tail around Zilo's eyes.
"Ah! I'm blinded!"
Zilo swings his sword around randomly trying to get the creature off of his shoulders and it works, but not before Zilo gets one of the claws slashed across his shoulder blade. The nimble creature lands and gets into a combat stance.
"Very well, creature, you leave me no choice." Zilo flicks his blade up and at the ready, staring the creature down. Just before Zilo can move in for the attack someone from up the trail shouts,"Sleep!"
Before Zilo knows it he feels incapable of standing anymore and then falls to the ground unconscious. When he awakens he looks upon the faces of four individuals and a horse. The first is the monkey creature he had encountered and fought against.
Standing over the monkey is a woman dressed in all black with a black scarf hiding her face, and her outfit looks to be some sort of mix between a robe and leather combat armor. She seems armed with scythe. Next to the woman is a red skinned man with horns and is dressed in a high collar black robe and a book strapped to his belt. On the other side of his belt he is also armed with a sword
The last person sits atop a battle horse. The man himself is dressed up in some sort of engraved plate mail with a closed front helmet. The man is armed with a engraved magic looking sword and a normal steel shield.
The horned man holds his sword out at Zilo and says," Get up, Fetchling."
Zilo rises and raises his arms.
"What's our new friend's name?" Says the woman in black. At that question Zilo smiles and leaps back tipping his hat into a dramatic bow.
"Glad you should ask madam, I'm Zilo Realms, The Master of Strings." Zilo flicks out his bo and gently rests it onto his violin that he Mage Handed to float to his shoulder.
"Would you like to hear a demonstration of my skill?" As Zilo finishes his introduction the horned man's sword jumps from his hand an hold's itself to Zilo's throat.
The man smiles as he places both of his hands in his pockets. Then the woman walks forward and says,"Thanks but no thanks mister Realms, I'm more curious what a man from the Plane of Shadows is doing attacking my Monkey Goblin slave."
Zilo looks down at the angry looking monkey creature and then back at the woman.
"Ah, a slave, well that takes me back. You know my entire race is effectively a giant slave force where I come from. I was to be one of the entertainers for a fierce lord Umbral Dragon. I tell you that-" The floating sword once again places itself close to Zilo's throat. This time drawing blood.
The horned man rolls his neck and says,"By the Gods shut up! You don't see me recounting the history of Tieflings do you? I may just kill you for the annoyance."
"Now hold on." Says a reverberating echoed voice from the armored man on the horse.
"There's no need to kill a man just because. He might have made a mistake. To be fair the monkey-!"
"Zigger!" Spouts the monkey goblin.
"Zigger... is a rather scrappy and intimidating fellow when he gets angry, maybe he started the fight."
Zilo raises his finger and says, "Oh no, I started it."
Everyone stares right back at Zilo
"Yeah, I shot him with an arrow then tried to cut him in half with a sword." The armored man looks to rub his temples on his helmet and says,"Well then..."
The sword flips up and cracks Zilo in the nose and he falls to the ground. The woman walks over to him and sets her scythe to Zilo's cheek.
"Tell me why I shouldn't send you to Azdan to be judged?"
Zilo doesn't truly listen to her, all he is concerned about is his newly bloodied nose and his still sore shoulder from his scuffle with Zigger. So he flips his hand up and casts Cure Light Wounds, instantly fixing his nose and his shoulder. At that the knight and wizard perk up.
"A Bard Healer?!?" Say both of them at the same time. Even the horse looks excited over it. The goblin takes notice as well, but is trying to remain stoic looking. Zilo himself, is completely oblivious that he had such an effect on them.
"Nice plea, but we already have me as our healer." Says the woman, who turns as she hears a stifled chuckle from behind her. She suddenly rises and points her scythe at the men watching.
"What was that, am I not a good enough healer?"
The horned man speaks up first."It's not that you're a bad healer it's just that you never heal until you're in danger."
"Name one time!" Yells back the woman.
The goblin monkey points at his wounded arm from the arrow.
"I was gonna get to that"
The horned man says,"When? We've been waiting an hour for the 'Master of Strings' to wake up."
"Plus there was Twenty-two." Says the armored man.
"You didn't heal Twenty-two?! How could you!?" Says Zilo as he stands and brushes himself off. The woman spins and points her scythe at him again before saying, "You stay out of this!"
She spins back to the armored man.
"Anyway you have Twenty-three now so I don't see how it matters." Says the woman.
"I say we put it to a vote." Says Zilo, who once again is threatened by the woman before the horned man claps his hands and says," A great idea. All in favor of bringing Zilo along to heal our injuries say aye."
Everyone besides the woman raises their hand and says aye, except for the horse, Twenty-three, who raises a hoof and whinnies.
"All opposed?"
The woman silently crosses her arms.
"The ayes have it!" Says the horned man who walks over to Zilo and offered his hand as his sword flies back into its sheathe. They both shake as the man motions toward himself.
"My name is Maldrek the Wizard, specializing in Necromancy." Next he motions to the Monkey Goblin.
"You've already met Zigger, our Brawler, sole survivor of the goblin cave clans." Next he motions to the woman.
"This here is May, a secretly trained Shadow hand, who is sorta like a mixture of a Cleric and a Rogue." Maldrek motions lastly to the armored man and his horse.
"This here is Sir Alaroc, our Cavalier, and his valiant steed Twenty-three that we just picked up in the last town. Hopefully you'll get to last longer than Twenty-two did."
Zilo walks over to the horse and pats him on his side.
"Don't worry buddy, I'll do my best, just one question Maldrek."
"Yeah?"
Zilo points past Maldrek at something and says,"What's the name of your friend there?"
Everyone turns to see a Gigantic Frog the size of a small mountain. Zilo smiles at it, but everyone else just stares at it dumbfounded.
"Zilo, that is not with us."
"Ah, well that's bad." Everyone in the group reaches for their weapons, but they are all suddenly airborne and are being vacuumed into the toad's maw before being swallowed whole. The group doesn't die, but they are definitely not safe.
No comments:
Post a Comment