LORE*

~Intro~

A few thousand years after the original characters have left Lore, each in their own way, and without them to maintain order, evil has overtaken Lore. Frostvale is a wasteland, Darkovia's darkness spreads past its borders, Battleon seeks to control the continent, and the frame work of the planet is beginning to collapse into itself. With no one stepping forward to end the world's problems, people believe it is only a matter of time before Lore destroys itself or is saved by divine intervention.

OOC:Note that you can post in any style you want, it doesn't have to be descriptive.

~Story~

In an out-of-the-way village eats of Battleon, a maroon-haired girl pretends to sleep as villagers outside argued with her father, who oversaw the town. A rare and dangerous pest, an Gax, had been plaguing the town for a little over a week by slaughtering livestock and poisoning crops with its venom. As the talks quieted, she knew where they were headed. The beasts lair, the town's mine. Confident her father would take care of this problem like all of the others, she rested easy as her mother cried herself to sleep in the other room.

The next day she awoke to the warmth of the sun, and gleefully exited the room to hear the story of how her father had slain the monster. No one was home. She went outside and saw that a funeral was being held for all who were lost. Surely her father was there, giving a eulogy for the families of the fallen. It was not her father though. It was a man in strange robes adorned with symbols giving his condolences. The bodies were lined across the ground next to their burial holes, and uncovered them to find her father and beginning to tear up as she did so. She felt arms pull her away, and just now noticed that she recognized none of the corpses. All had chunks of their bodies missing, chemical burns distorting their features, and horrific gashes along their bodies. She fainted.

Years later, the girl stands outside of the mine, a few years from being of age. In one hand she holds a large wooden shield with an iron rim, and in the other a steel battle axe. She's clad in mostly leather armor with plating of mixed materials, and wears a steel helm. She advances in, feeling a drop in temperature as she ventures deeper. The smell of earth and rotting flesh permeates the air. Drops of water drop into puddles, and a faint breeze blows through the cave. It's difficult to see, but a shape is visible near the end. She creeps slowly toward it, its heavy breathing becoming audible. She swings her axe downward into its skull, and it barely penetrates the skin. She freezes with fear as its reptilian eyes open, glowing a bright green. The roar that escapes it is deafening and she falls back as it leaps at her. She feels its teeth sink into her left arm before being knocked out from the pain.

Weeks pass. Nearly a month after the battle, she awakens in a hospital in Battleon.

"It must've been a dream." she said to herself, running her hand through her hair before realizing where she was. She looked at the arm that was bitten, now mechanical, and her right one showing signs of a bite and burns but intact. Upon hearing a conversation in a hall, she turns right and leans forward to see around the doorway. A cleric and a doctor walk towards her room, with the latter dominating the conversation.

"I'm telling you she won't wake up. Gax venom's lethal with only a handful of people've lived through it. You have to understand that hocus pocus can't save one from death; and don't give me that necromancer bullshit! I don't wanna hear it! Tell her mother her daughter's dead and that they better find a priest before we dump her body into the sea! She's wasted enough time her where someone else could've used-

He was cut off by his patient, who made sure she would voice herself in light of his arrogance.

"Hey ASSHOLE! I'm not dead!"
"Well Ni, I see you're doing well."
"You just basically called me a waste of space, don't try to bullshit me!"
"Alright, alright. Cleric, send this girl off, her mother already paid us."
"My name's Dotra, sir."
"I don't care, just get this bitch out of here."

With that, Ni found herself stranded in one of the most famous cities in the world. As nice as it may be to some, for a person with no gold it can be a very, very harsh place to be.

A young girl wearing a bright yellow tunic with short sleeves and the shirt going down just below her hips and meeting finger tip length walked through the BattleOn streets, she shook her short bright blue hair and smiled. The buckles of her two belts crossed, the belts being made of a brown leather and with metal lined holes clicked as she walked a small leather pouch jingled as it hung from one of the belts as well. The girl took a took breath in and out and smiled.

"Today is going to be a good day. A good day to get new shoes!"

As the girl approaches the store, the wooden door opens and accidentally hits the girl in the face. The person who opened the door, another girl with long, black hair wearing a green hat with matching jacket and short skirt, a pink and black shirt, and black stockings, looks outside and sees the girl she hit in the face.
Girl: Oh, I'm so sorry. Are you alright?

Ni narrowed her red eyes a little as the brightly dressed girl was hit by the door, a condescending smirk forming on her face. Surely someone so jovial is somewhat charitable. She shuddered at the thought of talking to total strangers however. Ni mentally repeated "focus" in her head, and eventually could do so long enough to quell her fears. She bit her upper lip as she went to meet her.

At some point Ni stopped and waited before calling out to them.

"Um, excuse me? Uh...I kind of just got out of the hospital and was wondering if either of you could help me out with maybe some money or a place to stay for a bit...?", she scratched the back of her head and looked down awkwardly, holding her helmet in her right hand while unnerved by how she could feel no sensation in her mechanical arm.

"Ow. That hurt. Anyway, sure, I can help you. I love helping people. Anyway, i do have an apartment you can stay in and stuff." The girl rubbed her nose a bit before returning to a smiling jovial expression.

Girl: I'm sorry about hurting you, you're going to be alright, right? *Helps the girl onto her feet*

"Wow, thanks, glad you could help me out. So um....what're your names?" Ni was smiling now, able to take in the architecture of the city as she looked around her while waiting for an answer.

Yuki: My name's Yuki Hershel, and yours?

The girl with the black hair looks at Ni, and noticing her smile, smiles herself.
Girl: Names Andrea. Nice to meet you both. ^^

"My name is Ni, and it's nice to meet you two too. So do you guys live in Battleon or are you visiting?"

Andrea: Visiting basically, heard that this place has great weapon shops.

Yuki: My family's estate's right outside here in the suburbs.

Andrea: Really? I see. >.>

Yuki: nah, I'm kidding, my apartment's there, hehe. ^ ^

Andrea, realizing it was a joke, and how cute Yuki was while laughing, giggles.
Andrea: Oh, you're funny, and really cute. Wait, did I just say that out loud? <////<

Ni:Yep. Oh well it happens...*looks around* Wow this city's so cool. ^ ^ Always wanted to come here. So what were you guys doing? Cuz awkward conversations are...yeah...not fun.

Yuki: I was just gonna go shopping for new boots. Mine are wearing out right now.

Andrea: >.> Um...here you go, Yuki. *Holds the door to the shop for Yuki*

Yuki: What? this was a shoe store?

Andrea: Yeah... >.>

While they spoke, Ni realized something. She came from a village, and although her family had some prominence, there was no way they could have afforded her recovery. There were also other miscellaneous fees that would've made such a task even more improbable. She decided she'd figure out who managed to pay for her trip to Battleon, stay at a hospital good enough to heal her from near-death, and better yet, who saved her in he first place.

"Guys, I'll be right back, just realized something.", she then turned and jogged back to the hospital she stayed at and went to the cleric, Dotra, as her office had a wood sign that stated she was in charge of record keeping.

"Excuse me, cleric? I wanted to ask about who brought me here?"

There was a first a sigh of slight irritation, but then a response.
"Yes, he wore some strange clothes but was very kind. Struck me as a paladin or a priest. Despite what the doctor said, it was not your mother, the one who brought you here simply told us about her."

This was all a little confusing. She didn't really remember anyone like that in the village. A passerby perhaps? She shook her head. If this person took responsibility for her getting here and the payment, then he was bound to be around to help her after her recovery, right?

"Okay, um did he tell you guys where I could find him after I was healed?"

The cleric's face looked upwards for a second and shook her head, confused.
"No. He seemed to be in a hurry. He didn't even tell us his name. Oh, and feature-wise he had blue eyes, but he was wearing a hooded coat since it was raining that night. Nothing on hair color. He did say that you would find friends when you awoke. We thought he was a little crazy, since it looked like the acid was going to either destroy your brain or your heart. You coming back from this is nothing short of a miracle."

Ni could see there would be some digression if the conversation kept going.
She nodded and thanked the cleric for her time before going back to the others.

All of this was definitely strange. No leads, nothing. Her best chance would be to head back to town. Not only to figure out who her rescuer was, but also to end the Gax threat once and for all.

"So...what do you guys do? Do you do any adventuring? I mean it's almost a redundant question but you guys don't really look it to me. N-no offense."

Yuki: I do do some adventuring. I like to explore forest areas sometimes. I also do some amount of rock climbing too if you could believe that. I know I don't look like I'm the most athletic person there is, but I'm really the outdoors-y type of person anyway. I'm also a well-trained level 5 mage so I can do something on the field of battle too. I'm not useless.

Andrea: Sure, I'd like to go. And I'm a pretty decent shot with my composite bow.

Ni nods while looking at a small crowd of people getting larger, her face taking on a look of slight puzzlement.

"I'll keep that in mind...hm. Looks like there's something going on over there. Definitely gonna go check it out."

She runs over and maneuvers through the crowd to get a closer look at the point of interest. She frown when she sees that they're bothered by a corpse. It's a common thing these days.

She looked around and saw that most of the people did not look the part of a traveler, or they were new to it since their gear wasn't damaged.

She looked back to the body and saw there were no bruises, just a deep gash around the right side of the victim's throat. Not only did it look like an assassination in practice, but the target was of high-value, adorned in expensive clothing and jewelry - an aristocrat of sorts.

Feeling the pressure of being watched, she gazed upward and browsed the roofs of the buildings. Must've been paranoia, as there was nothing there.

Yuki: Huh. Oh well. *goes inside the store*