I love waking up to posts in this game, just so you know! These characters have really come to life of late and I'm overjoyed to read every little snippet!

Adedra Undolithe - This is the "witch" who has Ch'dau in chains at the beginining of this adventure (and, possibly, something of a recurring villain for, at least, the first part of this adventure). She's a fairly powerful necromancer with hopes of challenging Amer Loch for rule of Sendria. Her capture of Ch'dau was fortuitous, given the proximity of "The Burning" and her plans are to sacrifice the exotic warrior on the eve of D'hurgen's festival, in hopes that the kazari blood will be enough enticement that the death god will grant her the power she seeks to challenge if not overthrow the current "high and mighty" of these dark lands.

She is a slight woman, aged beyond her years but still appearing vital in a sickly sort of way. She is almost skeletally thin, her skin is pale, the hue of curdled milk, and her eyes are the sickly yellow of a late autumn moon. Her hair is dark and thin, streaked, here and there with silver, and she wears gowns to complement the hues, with high, spiked collars and frilly cuffs of lace.

Tecla - Adedre's favored attendant and budding protege. She is a young girl, perhaps 16 summers old or so, and appears to be human with auburn hair, muddy green eyes, full lips, and the nubile figure of a girl just coming into full womanhood. These features are rarely glimpsed, however, as, she is rarely ever seen without the bone and leather mask and shapeless black hooded robes worn by all of Adedre's girls.

Saeriel Galandel - A Sylvari seer and artist turned Bladesinger. Not as skilled with a blade as her brush and paints, but her bladework and song is still beautiful in its own right.

Ascinar Driol: One of a few notable members of the slave trade in Sendria, Ascinar Driol is a human man who has basked in the excess of the riches he has procured through his trade. Always showing off his wealth through his attire and jewels, the man of 50 some years has greyed and balded, though his beard has managed to stay in spite of his years. Not particularly fit, nor tall, the man stands at 5'6", though he makes certain to always sit above those he invites as his guests. Though he may personally lack any particular talents beyond those skills of a bronze pinching merchant, his coin is able to secure the assistance of many formidable guards in his keep at Dravnor.

Morgana: A dangerous assassin of whom little is known. No one has ever reported meeting the witch, or sorceress of whatever ply of magic she wields, in person. Only her masks are known, black as pitch, embedded with a deep red jewel in the forehead, and wearing bright red lips. It is said that those who don the masks will die, though this rumour has never been reliably proven. Reputable to be both expensive and effective, her price for service is a life in return for the life she takes; a body and soul she may take for gods know what purpose. But not just any will do; it must be a healthy body and a soul with a defiant will still in it. She is also known as the Puppeteer, for the wooden manniquins that her masks wear in both meeting with a prospective client, and killing her target. However, it is also rumoured that the Puppeteer can make use of many other kinds of puppets in her work...

That... was a BEAUTIFUL post, Reralae!   

Now, I'm really glad I didn't hesitate launching this any longer than I did! Very excited to read the first Kith post!!!

Yup! I'm excited to see what Ch'dau's Khatun-to-be was up to in these earlier days. Going to be away for the afternoon but if anyone has questions or whatnot, I'll check in and do my best to answer in a timely fashion.

Looking very forward to exploring these characters and fleshing out how they might have come together! 

This is the Q&A thread for "The Adventures of Kith and the Cat."

This is a "prequel" of sorts to Olan's horror game The Corruption Hidden Beneath the Surface and is intended to be a look back at how Kithran and Ch'dau first met and how they became a "team." As an added bonus, we've convinced Reralae to join us along the way, too, so we'll be getting a look at what was going on with her Bladesinger, Aranwen, before the events of Hidden Corruption. So, the cast so far is:

• Breebles as Kithran Aldeath - a half-Sylvari rogue


• Reralae as Aranwen Galandel - A Sylvari Bladesinger


• And, yours truly as Kh'ur Ch'dau - A Kazari Mercenary

Anyone is free to post here in the Q&A but the game is locked down to authorized players only. If you have a character that you'd like to throw into the mix, hit us up in this thread or send me a PM and, if we can fit you in, we'll be happy to have you join us.

Edit: Please note that this game is rated "M" for language and themes.

26^th Day, Ternoth Ore, 452 E.R., Davnor, Sendria. The dungeons of Adedra Undolithe’s estate.

He had not been here long, it seemed, but, in the same breath, it felt as if he’d been here much longer than he should have been. He crouched in the corner of his cell, three feet of rusting chain tethering him to the thick stone of the floor. He wanted to lay his ears back in defiance but he was tired… so tired… and he could barely snarl, let alone pin his ears back and roar. It had been days that he’d felt so and, especially after today’s visit from the monkey-faced witch, he longed for the torture to be over. The dishonor of having allowed himself to be captured by the Sendrians had been punishment enough for his failings as a warrior but the fact that he had endured days, if not weeks, of pain and suffering at the witch’s hands without having managed to kill her was that much worse…

“It will all be over for you, soon,” she had promised when, just hours ago, she had paid her visit to bleed him, “Two more turnings of the sun, great beast, and The Burning will be upon us.” She drank his blood from the goblet in which she had collected it, then, and smiled that coldly sadistic smile as she licked it from her lips. “Your flesh and blood on the fires will feed The Devourer and, in return, He will grace me with the power I seek.”

“If it is power you want, monkey-bitch,”Ch’dau snarled, straining against the manacles and press of the guards that restrained him, as she opened him again, and pressed the goblet to his wound, “loose these bonds and I will show it to you!”

“That power I have already seen, cat-man,” the dark woman tittered as she floated just beyond his reach, sipping away at the second cupful of his lifeblood, “when you tore through my soldiers. It is that power, in fact, that spared you the same fate I visited upon the rest of your company, hmm? It is that power that will sate The Walker of Shadows’ appetites and grant me His favor. Then I will wield that power in ways that your simple mind can scarcely fathom.”

The captive kazari growled, teeth and claws bared, as he tried to lunge at her, but the heavy iron chains and the weight of the guards held him fast. Unable to sink claw or fang into the witch’s throat, Ch’dau spat out a string of curses in his native tongue that, had she been able to understand them, would have melted the ears from her head.

Instead, the witch rolled her sickly yellow eyes and cackled before turning her back on him and gliding for the heavy bars that formed the door of the kazari’s cage. Once she was beyond the door, she deigned a glance over her shoulder and that hateful smile slithered over her blood-blackened lips. “Put the beast to sleep,” she commanded before, still sipping at the blood in her goblet, she drifted away along the slick, dark stone of the dungeon’s corridor. Per her orders, the quartet of guards relished in their task, raining blows down on the defiant cat-man until he succumbed to unconsciousness.

… How long he had languished in that cudgel induced sleep, Ch’dau couldn’t be sure but, when he woke, the dungeons were quiet. There were no screams echoing in the dark of Adedra Undolithe’s prison and even the incessant dripping of fetid water from the damp stone walls seemed stilled. It had been long enough, then, that the witch had retired from entertaining her guests. That, he thought, forcing his aching form into a crouch and testing, once again, the resolve of the shackles which tethered him to the cell’s center, or all the rest are dead and, finally, free of her attentions. Despite the rust that coated his bonds, the chain and cuffs were still as unrelenting as the first time he had tried to escape them and, again, his claw was unable to find a way to disengage their locks. A soft, irritated growl rumbled in his chest as he slumped against the stone of the wall, taking some small comfort in the way the cold of it eased the aching of his wounds. “Khr’a take this unnatural place,” he chuffed, “and Rrowl give me the strength to bring it down around her ears.”

It was then, in the wake of his pleas to his gods and above the dank stillness of the dungeon, that Ch’dau heard it… the faint scuffing of a misplaced foot and the barely whispered curse that followed. He lifted his head from where he’d rested it on his arms and peered into the darkness beyond his bars and, after a moment, found the source of the sound. A lithe figure crept through the shadows of the corridor where it bent out of sight, presumably leading to the witch’s lair above. It couldn’t have been the witch, the Kazari deduced, as she, despite her confidence, never appeared without her guards. Nor was it a member of the guard; the figure was too small and the fall of it’s feet far too light to have been one of them.

Curious and wincing from the effort, Ch’dau got himself to his feet and padded as close to the bars as his chains allowed. His gaze strained to keep sight of the figure in the dark but, as he sniffed the air, Khr’a blessed him with enough information about the shadow-lurker that he was all but certain, now, that this was no follower of the witch, at all, nor was it a fellow prisoner whom, through some miracle, had managed to slip their bonds. There was no Sendrian stink that clung to the stealthy figure and the faint perfume that did catch in his nostrils told the kazari that the lurker was female and, based on her measured breaths and the furtive nature of her movements, she most certainly wasn’t supposed to be here.

He watched her in silence for a moment longer, his eyes keen on her but his other senses searching for signs of anyone else nearby. When he was all but assured there was no one else about to hear it, he rumbled softly into the shadows; “You there… Girl… free me from this cage and I will help you find your way out of this foul place.”

...let Rrowl sort 'em out!

FWIW, I can see width of the caves coming into play where marching order is concerned, too. Where they're narrow, the order proposed by Aranwen, above, makes complete sense. However, should they widen at some point, I can envision a shift of sorts in the distribution of fighters vs otherwise skilled folk.... Blades around the blasters, so to speak. "Around the survivors, a perimeter make!"

#WisdomFromMissPiggysHusband

But I am skeeeered!

*jumps into Olan's arms* Hoooooold meeeeeee!!!

This is why Ch'dau follows the bladesinger! Always thinking but always dangerous, to boot!

Don't kill my Kith or my Khatun... Otherwise marching order may go the way of monkey's flinging their own poo and you'll all be stuck in a closed cave system with a raging cat-beast! And I'm killing Garn first! 

As I understand it from posts and such is that the marching order would be as follows:

Kith and Aranwen at the point, Garn and Gib behind or beside them, Midge and Davena in the middle followed closely by Cedric, and Ch'dau playing rear guard. 

If I'm mistaken in any of these, of course, I leave it to our leader(s) to clarify.

Let's do some damage!

Stand by... I've got some aloe for that somewhere! 

....that I love it when the posts fly?

Good stuff!

And such good stuff, too!

Re: Kazari-Kith - Ch'dau kind of already thinks that., too  

- I imagine so! Probably not a ton of "official holy days" per se, but most certainly various celebrations amongst clans and such... much meat, much feasting and fighting, and if no one leaves missing an ear or minus a mate or two, did anyone really have fun?

...Breeble's ;ast post brought up a good point. Out of the entire party, I'm thinking that only Kith, Aranwen, and Ch'dau have any form of night/low-light vision. Is that right?

If so, might I suggest that those three take the lead heading into the caves? "Monkeys with torches" at the fore might serve to diminish whatever small advantage the party as a whole might gain from those capabilities... Alternatively, especially if we make it deeper into the caves and there are few light sources, we may want to place two at the fore and one at rear guard.... *shrugs*... just a thought (following a drink) before I go to bed.

I blame Olan and his creepy-a$$ story for my paramoia...

~I'm a creep;

I'm a weirdooooooo~

A Brom post and a Breebles post!

Friggin' kazari christmas, I tell ya!!!

*snap...crackle...pop* Ow! My self!

...that you think I mgiht be offended.

I've written some pretty dark and disturbing stuff of my own, of course, and I doubt that whatever is coming will offend me, personally. That said, I do appreciate the warning.

*painful awareness of my own age intensifies* 

You raised him well!

Forty-Three! Forty-Three! Forty-Three! Forty-Three! Forty-Three!

Unless that'd kill us all... then I'm all for 11.

...that was a lovely post! So good to have you back!