Enter The Alchemist

I looked at the paper in my hands with intense scrutiny. It seemed that the group that was on this particular mission kept loosing members. Fun. Checking the pocket mirror I kept close I made sure I was still in the right form. Silver white hair, check. Violet Red eyes, check. High nose and strong cheek bones, yup. Most importantly I was pale enough, not a hint of grey marred the sublime paleness of my skin.
Beside me in the small room was a halfling. He had a badger on his side and smelled of the crisp must of the outdoors. His leather armor was stained, his brown hair was mussed up, but all in all he looked very capable and as in-sorts as a Halfling can be.
I was early. Always early.
After about 15 minutes the gate master in his runed robes summoned the group I was supposed to meet; join. Subconsciously I readjusted the alchemist lab I wore on my back and tugged on the chain shirt hidden beneath my blue green, double breasted, long coat.
They were an odd bunch to be sure. A human looking noble, who could no long accompany them because he'd been 'marked'. I made sure to note this, advantages that I had always gave me a little flutter of excitement, I would need to remember it. He asked for my papers and looked them over along with the halflings. There was a dwarf, an orc female named Slash, A Gnole called Two Ears, a human druid who acted like an Orc... I believe his name was Thunk. A surly old dwarf cleric with an onyx horse whose name I cannot pronounce or hope to spell correctly. The Halfling I believe introduced himself as Gerrard. Finally a massive earth giant. I couldn't have asked for a better cross section of the world. My drawings and my observations will no doubt come in handy to farther my abilities; and keep me hidden.
We're traveling to the west now, seems we will be doing so for a week. I can't wait to try out my new bombs... I wonder what my new comrades will think.
~Flannery Out

The Fighter

It was hot. No... maybe it was cold. The amazon of a woman shook out her right hand and gripped the shield tighter with the three hale fingers on that hand. Didn't matter anyways, she'd lug her scale mail ass up whatever mountain she had to in order to bring the weird druid back to life.
The bard made of crystal hummed a jaunty tune to himself as they continued their trek and the halfling could barely be seen flitting from shadow to shadow; like a mouse evading the hawks that whirled lazily overhead. Damn birds. She hated birds. Standing regally on a boulder she shook her mean looking spear at the oblivious creatures. "And stay up there you feather brained cowards!!!"
The bard chuckled. "I don't think we have to worry about them Mara." He said with a more orangish glow that usual lighting up the blue of his crystal limbs. One hand held up the tattered end of a purple sash.
Brown eyes regarded him for a moment, the odd flecks of living sparks that winked in and out of existance in her irises as she thought over something. "We need to find this King and a map. He can't be king of the world."
The halfling shouted down that they were being too freaking slow.
Mara held her spear in the crook of her arm and retied her chestnut brown braid into a bun above a sun browned neck. "Yeah yeah, we're coming. First things first and all that crap."
"Don't worry, we'll get to the bottom of this." Arrd said winningly.
Mara tried to smile, but it looked like more of a snarl. "Good. Because I'm not serving no stupid make believe king. Damned purple sash crap, stupid gnome cities, stupid no Wage..." The mumbles continued as the woman clicked and clanked after the energetic Halfling.

The Pscion

"..." Illuminated violet eyes stare through the one who'd addressed the woman with short dark hair twisted on the back of her head into a psudo mohawk that nearly falls over one eye. Her skin, too, looks as if a dim light shines beneath it with a lilac hue. She raises one slender arm, points a delicate looking finger at the big burly man and flicks her wrist. The man follows the movement straight into the wall where he falls all over the coat rack and himself.
She says nothing. Her face is graceful and poisted as her bearing, like the face of some godess statue in a temple, tall and lean she moves to make her way back to her table where an odd collection of people watch with morbid fascination.
"Why you little!" The man struggles with his sword.
The woman snorts as if bored with the entire scenario. "Pathetic, you can't get close enough to hit me with that pig sticker." Her skin pulses slightly brighter as she speaks to the bulky man entangled in stranger's cloaks.
His face falls and he makes a half hearted attack.
Touching the crystal ball hanging in the chainmail net on her belt she holds up her hand as if telling a bar tender that she's had enough drink. No emotion flickers through her half lidded eyes as he flies out the door and into the street in a crumpled heap of moans and curses.
Unconcerned eyes turn to the fellows at the table the man had come from. "To answer your query I am Zii Azrifel, where I am from you can guess, where I am going is none of your concern; and no one can get in my way." Something flashed in her eyes for a moment before she glanced back to the table where a human teenager, a dragon borne, and a gith sat nonchalantly.
No one saw the ghost of a smile that touched the forever neutral line of her purple lips.

The Ranger

My name is Cynica Arsina-Trissade...

"The things that hunt me are none of your conscern, but if you must know trouble follows me. I've been called many things; disaster incarnate, dark lady luck, bad side of the coin, whatever it's of no matter to me what frightened fools shout while avoiding my shadow. I tend to ride the wave just ahead of bad tidings and those with plans of their own, or simplistic ideals, haunt my path time and again. Really, there's no need to worry. Betwixt my arrows and my steel they shouldn't hinder our progress." Her eyes, green and luminescent, sparkle just a bit with a confidence earned. Dark tendrils of hair, broken by thorns and blades, touch the light tan of her face. One would not consider her half elf just by looking at her, the points of her ears were too rounded, her grace was well hidden behind the musculature of her body and the green black leather of her armor. But those eyes, they gave her away, bright and glorious even in the half light of the tavern.
A long sword swung on one hip, a gladious strapped to her lower back, and a short bow hung across a quiver on her back. One could tell they were as much a part of her as her arm, even more so than the thick braid of black hair that hung over her left shoulder. "Besides," she continued before the blonde man dressed in the high fashion of Central could say anything in return. "you need me. An army though you are, you can't deny that fact." She winked at the red head standing to one side in her red battle skirt and chainmail before downing her ale in one long swig. "So... Who are we screwing over this time?"

And Tacit Strikes Again!

I have a striker, her name is Tacit, she's 16 and girly and odd. Even when she's saying things like "let's cut off their heads and throw them in a bag to take with us, as evidence." she's still super cute and innocent.

Well our adventurous adventurers found themselves in an Oasis, surrounded by baddies. Not only did my Sorceress not take any damage, she also ran up to both the enemy casters and dealt them something in the neighborhood of 19 damage with her morning star (and she's a level 2). She's a striker in every way, she just can't take a bloody hit!

Anyways I get a little too into playing Tacit sometimes (not crazily or anything, but like anyone really into drama would tell you I 'become' the character for a little bit). So when she got a double critical I got excited and played her as I imagined her. Dropping her dainty umbrella to pull out her huge mace and run screaming around a sand dune to smash the enemy party's healer in the face! As Matt would say: "She was a vicious ball of screaming hate holding a mace."

Oh I haven't told you nonexistant readers about Matt's campaign yet. Let me just say that the way Matt does things holds my attention and excitement way better than the way Adam does. Maybe we just roll in the same general direction, but I digress.

Jex and I are probably going to be playing every day because, well, going from being very busy to having ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do is hard on him. I have the internet and am very good at busying myself (hooray for bookworm artists and their antisocial tendencies) so I could care less. But I have to keep the man occupied or suffer his despondency.

Random Encounter: From Dungeon Magazine

In all my minute experience with D&D I've never played a prefabricated dungeon. We've played in Adam's version of Faerune (or however it's spelled). Jesse has a world of his own. I made up an island. So, far we've all thought out the encounters and story line ourselves. We made up the badguys and good guys, the NPC's that you run into are guests from our imagination to guide or distract the players from what the 'grand scheme' is.

Jex pulled out a level 1 prefabricated dungeon today. Mostly because there's not much to do at Leon's. And let me tell you... it's different.
In some ways it's a little freeing. Jex can play with me at the same time even though there's not really a "DM" it makes it more of a two player game than the traditional set up.
The different mostly comes in the form of the monsters you fight and how the DM reacts to it. Jex didn't sit down and memorize the prefab, so there's lots of cheezy dialog that get's thrown in, a few flash backs and fast forwards. A lot of things like rolls to avoid encounters and such that aren't as obvious when the DM has laid everything out themselves (yay facial expressions!).

Today, our adventuresome little group comprised of a 15 year old human sorceress, a deva psion, a dragon-born warlord, and a gith (can't remember if it's yanki or zerai) sword mage nearly got slaughtered in the desert by a swarm of beetles. Ew.
It was fun. For the most part. Till everyone dropped but the girls who only had an AC of 13 & 14. lol But we survived!