Raven, Background

My name is Raven and I'm a fifteen year-old-boy. My life has never been very interesting, in fact, up until a couple of years ago I was pretty much bedridden. My parents were extremely protective of me because I've always been kind of weak, not to mention, clumsy.

Two years ago, I found out that I had a tremendous talent for singing. Unfortunately, my parents died in the attack on Tarenvale before I figured this out, which really sucks. I miss them an awful lot. The way I  discovered this hidden talent was when I started to chant a prayer that my parents had taught me. See, they were worshipers of a god named Shelyn, and we would chant prayers together in our house to ward off evil spirits. Nobody ever told me that it was our own kind we needed to worry about. Anyway, where was I, oh yes... I found out about this particular skill because after my parents died, right in front of me. I started to sing the prayers we used to do together, and to my surprise, people actually stopped and listened to my voice while I escaped slowly through their fingers.

When I was safely away from the only home I had ever known, I found the nearest tavern. I have been singing for my food and shelter ever since. I usually just sang by myself because I have no instrument, but do have perfect pitch. A little bit ago, I found someone who actually does play an instrument. His name is Roran. He's awesome at what he does too. We started working together very recently.

Which brings me to the night I met his friends, singing at the Tarenvale Tavern. It was a magical evening  because one of his friends was this absolutely gorgeous half-elf named Lilith. Actually, I was singing about "sheathing the sword", and didn't know about what it meant. She snickered at me, so I asked her what was so funny. She didn't tell me, but she did lend me a book supposedly explaining it.

Her friends didn't have much to say about her, so I took it upon myself to get to know her better because I was completely infatuated with her. Everyone went to a funeral for this guy named, Dalton, so I showed up because Lilith was going to be there. She looked so sad, and I put my arm around her. She didn't seem to mind....

Travis Neos Background

Ivory Lynn Durren, was a traveling dancer. She stood about 5 feet tall. With her blond hair and crystal blue eyes she quite the sight to see. One severely stormy night her traveling sideshow was attacked by a band of thieves.  She saw some of her group being assaulted, and that's when she ran for her life.  While she ran from the thieves, she heard cries and screams of torment, pain, and death. While escaping she ran into a tree and fell into a marsh.  Laying there dizzy and scared, she saw a shadow coming her way.  After waking up, she found herself in a bed, warm and very comfortable. Shaking the cobwebs loose she heard a deep raspy voice, "Are you ok?" She rolled over and saw a broad shouldered dark haired man.  "You hit that tree pretty hard. Here, drink this, it should make you feel better." said the man.  

Aching in pain she muttered, "Who are you?"  

"My name is Marcus Neos." the man said.  

Ivory asked, "How did you find me?" 

A voice from the other side said, "You scared me when you hit the tree, then I dropped out of the tree as my dad rushed across the marsh and pulled you out before you drowned or got attacked by something in the forest," the voice said. "I am Harris. Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Ivory." 

A few years later, Ivory and Marcus opened the Tarenvale Tavern.  One year later, born to them, was their only child, Travis Neos.  After Travis's 5th birthday Harris decided it was time for him to go and have his own life.  Travis became good friends with Aerynithia, Evander, Lilith, Rothus, and Tyler.  though, he was living with shame from Harris leaving.  Even though he was 12 years older, Travis felt that Harris's leaving was his fault.

At age 11, Travis noticed Tyler started acting jealous around Evander and Lilith when she's giving Evander special attention. "Why does he like her?  She's a girl!....YUCK!  She don't even like to fish."

The Adventures of Rothus, page 59 [D-846]

Tarenvale:

I take the long route to avoid going past the mayor’s office. As I enter the Tavern, I hear the beautiful music of two people playing instruments. Looking over at them shows one to be Roran and the other to be a stranger. I sit down with the group and Lily immediately says, “Did you notice Raven? He’s the guy playing music with Roran. Did you know he’s an orphan? His parents were killed on the night of the Harvest Festival the same day we left town with Roran.”

“No, I didn’t know that,” I say.

“Also, I don’t think he knows what he’s singing. Just listen to that chorus!” Lily says. As she says that, some phrases about sheathing the sword reach my ears that make me blush, but Raven seems unmoved. Roran, though playing well throughout, is occasionally on the verge of laughter! Lily isn’t even trying to hold it in.

After the song, Raven walks over and asks Lily, “Why were you laughing at my song?”

“Do you know what you were singing about?” Lily asks.

“No--” answers Raven.

“Ha Ha HA!”

Aeryn then pulls Raven aside and explains how the sword is a.... nevermind.

Evan, thankfully, changes the topic, asking how long we are to stay in town. Aeryn doesn’t want to stay long. I don’t either, considering Father’s reaction. I did want to meet with Mother, though, so I ask around to see if she can be found someplace other than the farm. One guy says she was hired on by Mr. Smith and works at the mayor’s office. I will swing by there today.

“Why didn’t you just see her at home?” Aeryn asks.

“I was busy getting chewed out by my Pa. And feeding pigs,” I explain.

“Are you ill?” Aeryn asks.

“No, why?”

“It’s just.... you actually fed some pigs today?”

“Well, yeah, but my pa was there while I did it!” I explain.

“Well, I hate to leave just as the story’s getting good, but I’d rather see my parents,” Evan says as he leaves the Tavern. Then Travis grabs a bottle of ale and goes up stairs to his room.

Lily, Aeryn and I stay and talk with Raven. Apparently he’s spent a lot of time in Karfal. That’s pretty close to the Dragon’s Teeth mountains. Maybe he can lead us there?

“If you want to come with us, you can,” Lily offers.

“Really? That would be cool! When are you leaving?” Raven asks.

“We’ll call you when we leave,” Lily says.

“How?”

“Take this,” Lily says as she hads Raven her stone of communication stone and walks out. “Wait! What is this?” Raven says as he chases after her, trying to give it back.

Well, I’d better go talk to Mother. I go to the mayor’s office where she is working on something. After all the greetings, I then ask her some cleverly worded questions to figure out if she remembers the conversation I had with her back in the dwarven caves. It may have been a hallucination, but it looked so real that I wonder if we were speaking over the distance. She has no idea what I’m talking about. I then explain to her everything that happened in the last two years. She listens, but doesn’t seem convinced that it all happened. Dejected, I head out.

On the street, I run into Lily. She wants to be disguised so as to not be recognized by Sister Daily. I rummage around my bag and pull out an empty waterskin. Then I plop it on her head.

“That’s all I can do in a hurry,” I say. She is not amused.

“This is serious! We need to arrange a funeral for Dalton,” she says as she hands me a bag filled with ashes. “I can’t just carry him around in this bag!”

“Aaah!” I say, as I drop the bag. “You have been carrying Dalton’s ashes in this bag for how many weeks and you tell me today?! After throwing it at me?!”

“Shut up and help me with the funeral,” she counters.

“Okay, okay. Just, next time you have someone’s ashes tell me before you give them to me!” I say as I pick the bag back up. I then bring them inside the church and look for Sister Daily. The place seems empty, though. We look out in the yard and come across a tombstone with Sister Daily’s name on it. It says she died two years ago, at the Harvest Festival. Well, that’s a slight complication....

Lily then goes snooping and finds the church’s ledger, the official record, which says Brother Thomas is now managing the church. We knock on the door to the living quarters and Brother Thomas greets us.

“Sir, we need your help in honoring Dalton,” Lily says, lifting the bag of ashes up to Brother Thomas.

The Adventures of Rothus, page 58 [D-846]

Tarenvale:

Now that we’re back home, I want to see my family. It’s been over two years since I’ve seen them (unless you count the mysterious conversation I had with Mother in the dwarven caves). I still remember the route from town to the Karadrid farm and hurry down it. There are still some cows and chickens, but I see no people outside. It doesn’t look abandoned, so maybe they are inside? I knock on the door and I wait to see little Traubon answer! He’s gotten much bigger over the years.

I greet him with a piece of candy and walk inside. Father comes around a corner and just as I am ready to give him a hug, he says, “Where have you been?! There are pigs that need to be fed and cows that need to be milked! Get to work!”

“But Pa, I’ve been--” I explain.

“You’ve been slacking! Just like you’re always slacking! Now go feed those pigs!”

“I’ve been really busy working--” I counter as I start walking to the pig feed.

“You’ve never worked a day in your life, boy!” I pull out my crossbow, hoping to show evidence of my adventures. “Where did you steal that from? They’ll be mad when they catch you, ya know!”

“I didn’t steal it! It was given to me!” I say.

“By Dalton? The man who led you off to the woods to do who knows what?! Don’t take his gifts.”

“We were on a quest. Look at these!” I say as I pull out a communication stone. He gives me a scowl as he tries to figure out the value of the rock. I say into the stone, “Hey guys! How’s it going?”

Is Lily with you?!” Mr. Smith shouts back.

“No, I’m at home with Pa.” I say.

“Oh. Well, tell your Pa I want to see him at the mayor’s office,” he asks.

With that, Pa headed for the door, stopping long enough to say, “When I come back, all the pigs had better be fed.”

It looks like nothing has changed since I left. Well, I’d better just feed the pigs then. When I finally get to the pig pen, a stranger starts yelling on the stone, “How’s this thing work? Do I just speak into it?!”

That’s Travis’ Pa, I’m sure of it. “I can hear you, so you must be doing something right,” I say.

“Rothus? Is that your voice? I haven’t seen you in town! Why don’t you come over to the Tavern and have a drink with us?” Mr. Neos says. Well, I can’t say no... I guess the pigs will have to wait!

The Adventures of Rothus, page 57 [D-846]

Outside Tarenvale, two days later:

We see Tarenvale in the distance as the sun begins to set. We approach to see that it is now a city and it is bustling. Lily doesn’t want to come inside the city limits and instead goes to find her old home out in the woods. “But what if your mother is in the city now?” Evan asks her.

“She’d never move into the city. Tarenvale was never our home,” Lily says right before marching off into the distance. The rest of us go into the town itself and try to find Mr. Smith. One building has a sign that says MAYOR in big bold letters. We ducked inside to see who was there.

A young woman is there to greet us. None of us recognize her. “I’d like to speak with the mayor, ma’am,” Evan says to her.

“Certainly. He will we free to meet with you... in two days. Will that work for you?” she asks.

“Actually, I’d like to speak with him now,” Evan counters.

“Oh. Well, what’s your name?” she inquires.

“Evander Smith.” With that, she stood up and went into the back room and closed the door.

“EVANDER, GET IN HERE!” cries out the voice of Mr. Smith. Evan immediately moves to the backroom and again the door is closed. It’s good to know Mr. Smith is alive and well, even if he is still a bit intimidating. The woman comes back out and chats idly for a few minutes. We tell her a little of our adventures, but she seems busy with doing the mayor’s work, so we leave her alone. Unfortunately, with her there, I can’t sneak up to the door and listen in on Evan’s conversation. It’s definitely got to be interesting!

“LILY! LILY!” Mr. Smith screams from the backroom. Then Evan comes out and rolls his eyes at us.

“I’m going to go looking for Lily’s ma. You want to come with?” Evan says.

“Of course!” I say. We all then exit the mayor’s office and go off down the street.

“So, what did your pa say about all the changes, Evan?” Aeryn asks.

“Well, I guess he didn’t say much. I did most of the talking, actually. I told him all about our adventures,” Evan answers.

Evan spots a building and goes right up to it with a purpose. He knocks on the door and we wait. Then Mrs. Graves opens it and smiles, “It’s been a long time! How have you been? How is my Lilith?”

“Ah, well. Actually, Lilith is on her way to your old place in the woods. She didn’t think you’d be in town,” Evan explains.

“Well, we’d better go after her then,” Mrs. Graves says as she goes to grab something.

“Wait, we can talk to her using this stone!” Aeryn says lifting the communication stone up so everyone can see. She then hands it to Mrs. Graves who looks at it with some suspicion. “Really, just pretend she was the stone and speak right to it.”

“Lily, are you in there?” Mrs. Graves says.

“Ma, did you marry Cruroar?” Lily’s voice came out of the stone.

“What? No I did not marry anyone,” explaine Mrs. Graves.

“Oh, but then why does Mr. Smith say you are in town?” asks Lily.

“Because I am in town, Honey. Where are you?” Mrs. Graves asks.

“I’m headed home, in the forest,” Lily.

“That’s not our home anymore. The forest isn’t as safe as it used to be,” explained Mrs. Graves. “Now come back to Tarenvale and we can talk about this.”

“Listen to your ma,” Mr. Smith’s voice came over the stone.

“Fine,” Lily finally says. With that, we all wanted to go find our families.