The Twelve

[The Great Nevareh]

"Shazbat! I have to think of something to get me beyond them without slowing me down? What can I... The guns!"

Zachary, without further ado, reaches into his coat and, while running (and barely aiming) takes out one of the two pistols and begins to fire into the mob of people that they are behind. With a little luck, he may just hit someone and clear the way a bit. All of his powers require him to stop moving, and he clearly can't afford that right now.

[Molokidan]

Zachary blindly fired the two pistols, knocking a few people down and sending the crowd into a panic.

Although the guns soon ran out of juice, most of the people had either gotten in, gotten hit, or had run away, cowering in fear.

Zachary dashed through the open doors, followed by Adarl, followed by Fwupo, followed finally by Jemyle. As he came through, the back strap of his rucksack was caught in the door, and he was flung backwards, smacking his head off the steel door, causing him to rub it in pain. He got up, ripping the strap to pieces. Those steel doors were not going to open again, not for anyone.

The tired warriors had just barely made it past the first preliminary round. . .and here they stood, with the 415 people who had gotten through it as well. Although that was a ton of people, the steel room was as wide as it was long. People were sitting, playing cards, eating, tending to their wounds, and the like. The atmosphere seemed completely different from before. It seemed that everyone was exhausted from the hectic race to the finish. Not to to mention, that this was the cream of the crop. . .definitely not the kind of people who would start a ruckus for no reason.

It was about a minute after the door closed, that a voice chimed in through the room. Attentive people would recognize it as the woman before.

"Well. . .the first preliminary round is over." she mumbled, still not sounding interested at all. "Looks like a lot of people made it through. . .well, I have no choice now, but to go to the second preliminary round." she said. "This one will not be a labyrinth, but a series of caves. At the end of these caves are elevators to the tower. If you can make it to the elevators alive, you will be granted access. There is no time limit. However. . .there's a big difference. You will be split up into groups of five this time."

As she said that, the mage from before appeared in the air, in the center of the room. A few of the flying contestants lowered their altitude and steered away. He waved "Hi" to everyone, looking around eagerly.

"The order of which you will be split up, is the order you entered this room. So, the first five people who entered will be a group. And so on and so forth. Since 415 people passed, it will be in groups of five."

The mage waved his hands, and suddenly, an uproar started in the crowd. Between each group, a strange green "handcuff ring" of sorts had appeared. There were lines connecting each hand of each person to each other. They looked like flashlight beams.

"Momo has activated the Life Line." the woman's voice said. "You will be connected to each of your other 4 team members. You can not move more than a quarter of a mile in a straight radius away from any of your other team members. So, you have to stay pretty close together."

The uproar increased, and some people began running away from their team members in fear, others beginning to shake hands and make alliances.

"Shut up. . .I'm still talking." the woman muttered. "Anyway. . .at the end of the cave, there are a total of twenty elevators. Each one will go up to the tower only once. There is only room for one team on the elevator. If two come up, they will both be killed. Just a warning. So, while there isn't a time limit. . .I don't suggest you dilly-dally."

The room was quickly beginning to segregate into groups of five, while people were getting under control and coming to assess the situation.

"Oh. . ." the woman said, as if she had just remembered something. "I almost forgot. If one of your teammates get killed. . .your entire team dies. The past round was to test your wits and ability to think quickly. This one is going to be one that measures your ability to work in a team. We're not giving the prize away to any psychos, you know. . ."

The crowd began raising their voices again, some hysterical.

"Anyway, you will all once again be teleported randomly into the cave by Momo. No one will get lucky this time, though. You are all being teleported as far away from the elevators as possible. Have fun."

Momo waved to everyone, and then clapped his hands together.

In a flash, the crowd of 415 people was gone.

*****

Sophia appeared with Averyl, and three others. One was a tall shirtless man with long brown hair and a goattee. He was very buff, ripped, and wore long dark grey slacks. There didn't seem to be anything spectacular or strange about him. It was odd that he was the third to enter. There was a long x-shaped scar across the center of his chest, but apart from that, there was nothing.

The fourth member of the group was a woman, a short woman with almond skin and long black hair. She wore a strange sort of armor/leotard getup, and she had a very small, lean figure. It seemed as if she could move very, very fast. She looked at the rest of the members with a look of distrust on her face.

The final member of the group was a tall man with green hair and a blue bodysuit on. Strapped to his arm, hanging and slumped against the ground, was what looked like an immense chain gun. There was a pack on his back, but the contents were not visible at the angle Sophia was standing.

Averyl turned to the group and then stared back at Sophia. "I suggest we make our introductions. My name is Averyl Vancougar, a bounty hunter and archaeologist from a southern continent. And this is my assistant. . ." he said, raising a hand for Sophia to begin.

*****

Adarl, Zachary, Fwupo, Theodarus, and Jemyle were all teleported together. The green bind between them resonated brightly. They seemed to be in a long, cut-out cavern. Water was dripping from afar, and lining the sides of the cave wall were torches. Despite them, however, it was very dim. It was seemed like the last time they had been in proper illumination was days away, although they had only been at this for a little over a half hour.

Jemyle sat down, a grimace on his face, and he began to adjust his hiking boots. "Well," he sighed. "At least we're not with some weird psychos."

[FF Fanatic 80]

"...we shall see." Adarl said, his sour mood apparent to everyone there. It was one thing being required to work with others. It was another thing entirely to be forced to work with complete strangers.

"I suppose we should at least know who each other are, if we intend to keep one another alive." he started, giving a very short bow to everyone, "I am Adarl Writon, blade for hire."

[Cuicio]

"My name is Sophia DeRespe, a mage from the west. It looks as though none of you can use magic, so I suppose I'll have a big burden, feel free to prove me wrong though."
((I don't know if you want me to RP the other charcters or if you want to, I'll leave it blank for now.))

[The Great Nevareh]

"Zachary Templeton, Runic Knight, at your collective services. I specialize in the manipulation of gravity."
Zachary takes a short bow, clanking slightly in his greaves. He then pats himself down for ammunition, just in case he had some and forgot he had it.
"I have to apologize. Don't usually go about breaking in walls. Any of you carry bullets?"

Edited by: The Great Nevareh at: 10/3/04 3:31 pm

[Molokidan]

(OOC to Cuicio: Nah, just leave that to me. Thanks for asking first, though, before going ahead and doing it. Most people don't.)

After Sophia introduced herself, it turned to the man with long brown hair. "The name is Cliff Vector." he said. "I'm a bounty hunter from the northeast. I'm here on a mission." he said, saying nothing more, keeping a stone face the entire time.

After Cliff was the other woman. "My name is Azusa Xiang." she said. "I do not wish to disclose my location. However, seeing as we were the first five to reach the exit, I hope we can use our brains to create a good team to reach the exit."

The final man, with green hair and the chain gun, spoke up next. "My name is Zale Gregory." he said. "I hope you jokers are done talking, because we need to head to the exit fast. Any ideas? Mr. Archaeologist?" he said mockingly to Averyl.

"Hmmm. . .I suggest you all follow me." Averyl said, putting a hand on his chin and considering the matter. "I am an archaeologist, so I can tell what parts of the cave have been exposed to more light. There are many ways to get to the end of this cave. Please allow me to become the captain."

"Hey, ain't it a little early to give orders?" Zale said, frowning.

"Yes." the woman spoke up. "This is supposed to be a team effort."

Cliff turned to Sophia. "You're his assistant, right? Is he strong, or what? We need to know more about someone who wants to be the leader."

Averyl smiled, and said nothing.

[wkz]

Theodarus had since snapped out of his looping self-absorbed thought train by the shock of getting teleported into the caves. He listened as the rest talked about themselves, picking up such information as what the bracelets meant and such.

When the oppotunity arised, he introduced himself: "Well, my full name is Theodarus Banjo of the Banjo Family in Toronda , and I'm a ...." he paused, a slight flickering of worry passing in front of his face as he sneaked a glance at Zachary, "...well, I'm a bounty hunter."

He continued after a slight un-interrupted pause, "And as for my skills, well..." you could see the concentration and worry as he carefully chose his words, "... you can say I'm good at persuading someone to do what they agreed to do..."

(OOC: I'm making up things on the fly: "Toronda" is the countie/state where the Banjo family is slightly famous for serving the character-thread-mentioned lord/baron....)

[The Great Nevareh]

"I think I've heard of it. The institute at Tharsta is there, isn't it? And no bullets?"

[wkz]

There was a sort of a horrified expression on Theodarus's face, as he replied, "erm...... No. No bullets."

[The Great Nevareh]

"All right, jeez. You'd think you'd be a bit less easy to offend if you're a bounty hunter and all. Damn, you'd think that cowboy'd have carried more bullets with him. Guess me must have been a good shot."

Zachary continues to pat himself down.
"Could we hurry this up? There isn't a time limit, I know, but I really don't want to have to go through the tedium of butchering a team so we can use one of the elevators."

[Cuicio]

"Well, he's the rock man, not me, and you all aren't either, so we should probably follow him."

[FF Fanatic 80]

"If you simply must banter with one another, I agree, we should at least get moving. Last I checked, most are quite capable of moving and speaking at once." Adarl answers. He moved himself to the front of the group, to get a look at their surroundings.

[Molokidan]

(OOC: Uhh...yeah. Sorry, I was trying to wait for JoshuaDurron [Fwupo] to post. However, this proved fruitless. . .)

Adarl led the party down the cavern, until they came to an outcropping that moved circular around a lower area. On the area, below, they saw a party of five, making their way across the expanse to a farther opening. On the west side of the outcropping, however, watching the lower party, was another group. A dark-skinned man with goggles and a bow was sniping one of the men below.

(OOC to Sophia: What did you mean by `rock man`? I didn't understand, anyway.)

"You had better watch your back." Averyl said, suddenly darting behind Sophia, and calmy allowing him to be caught in a net that, had he been a second slower, would have swallowed Sophia up.

The net immediately shook and began flying back to the thrower, a short woman with orange hair in pigtails, wearing a bucket hat and a long blue dress. She smiled, dangling her new prize in front of her. The net itself sparkled, and didn't seem to be made out of thread, or any other type of raw material. There was something strange about this.

"Of course, my other four team members are here. Although, I would not advise you to move, unless you want to share the same fate as your idiot friend here."

Averyl grinned, his back to the woman, and stared into Sophia's eyes.

[The Great Nevareh]

"Oooh, touchy, touchy Mr. 'Sword for Hire.' Hmm."

The last syllable is made as Zachary surveils the cavern about himself aside from the area that's below them. There might be other pools of light from which he can get bearings about the cavern's size. He's also patently ignoring the other visible party below them.

[Cuicio]

((OOC: Rock man as in...archealogy, since they have to dig for artifacts and such...rocks...yeah))
"May I ask what the purpose of this shenanigan is? It isn't wise to sit here and banter, and if one of you happens to die, you all do, and this doesn't look like a nice place to rot."
As she said this, Sophia was creating an ice knife to see of it would be able to break the net, as it was obviously magical, and a normal one was not going to suffice.

[Molokidan]

The cavern was lit by torches lining the sides. As Zachary surveyed it, it looked more like a donut than anything. The circle in the center was at least a good fifteen feet below them.

The dark-skinned man pulled his arrow taut.

****

"You're right." the woman smirked. "Which is why I really suggest you quit creating that weapon right now." she smirked. "I can detonate this net at any moment."

[wkz]

"Should we let that guy kill 5 with one shot?" Theodarus both thought and said out at the same time, "Or should we shout a word of...... heh"

"Warning down there!! Arrow!!" He shouted without waiting for approval from his teammates. Hopefully, with that warning, the team below can avoid the arrow, and also hopefully, the intended victim has some kind of ranged attack which will tie both of them against each other while Adarl and Co. gets pass....

There's also the fact Theodarus does not like people dying. Ever...

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=wkz@rpgww60462>wkz</A] at: 10/6/04 12:37 am

[Molokidan]

The group of five people suddenly looked up, spotting the dark-skinned man. He quickly shot the arrow, but was too late. His target, a man in a leather jacket and a bandanna, carrying a long spear, quickly dodged the attack. He looked up at the man with dark eyes.

In a flash, all five members had scattered into a hexagon formation. A man was stationed at the topmost point, wearing whites and grays, his hands pressed together and invoking what looked to be bluish barriers around all five.

Two men in the front also had their hands together, but were chanting something, staring up the cliff.

The dark-skinned man turned his head slowly to Theodarus. The bow moved in the same direction. "You. . ." If Theodarus could have seen through the man's goggles, he would have seen his eyes widen in recognition. "You really must have a death wish after all."

The other four members of his team moved out from the shadows, preparing to defend their sniper.

The first one to come out was the man in a turban and rags from before. He nodded at Theodarus and Zachary.

The second was a man with spiky red hair, wearing a scarf and a bodysuit. Connected to his right arm was a huge metal contraption. Upon further inspection. . .it looked a bit like a toenail clipper. At the end of the barrel-shaped metal shaft, there was a large metal clamp. Protruding back past the man's head, coming out of the top of the metal shaft, was a long shining blade. The man's arm seemed to dissapear into the metal from the elbow down. A strange device indeed.

The third was a small, teenage boy with ice blue hair and freckles. He wore a light white t-shirt, and ripped jeans. He didn't seem malicious.

The final to unmask himself from the shadows was a tall white man with a blonde afro. He wore what looked like a large potato sack, altered into a full-body tunic. Topping off the oddity were a pair of curved sandals on his feet.

"Negi and Rall, go to them. Christopher, please help them," the man with the dark skin and braids said, his look never faltering from Theodarus. "You know what to do."

Christopher, presumably the boy with ice blue hair, knelt down at the edge off the cliff. Amazingly, from the place where his hands stood, a dozen thick vines sprouted, and continued growing until they touched the bottom of the crevasse.

Negi, the man with the turban, and Rall, the man with the large metal device, each grabbed onto some of the vines and slid down. In a flash, they dashed to one of the closest chanting men, a bearded, greying man in faded robes.

Suddenly, from the rags that shrouded Icarus, four arms flew out, each of them carrying a mid-sized sabre. He positioned them around the man.

Rall aimed his device as well, smirking. "If I understand these barriers correctly, they work both ways. Which means if you want to shoot off whatever you're charging, you'll have to take them down. I suggest you don't, unless you all want to die."

The man with braids spoke again. "Let me guess, you didn't take the time to get to know your teammates' powers, and create a strategy for dangerous situations." the dark-skinned man smirked. "I'll give you five seconds to retreat."

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=molokidan>Molokidan</A]&nbsp; at: 10/25/04 1:18 am

[FF Fanatic 80]

It seemed, for the moment, Theodarus had indeed spared the group below from instant death.

However, it did not spare him from a right hook from Adarl, which the half-drow quickly landed on the man's face.

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?! TRYING TO GET US ALL KILLED?!" Adarl fumed at the man, eyes narrowed in anger.

To say he was very displeased was understatement.

[wkz]

"Oof" Theodarus did not even get a word off before he was knocked off the ground...... and stayed there for a while. He DOES have a frail body after all

Wincing from the trobbing pain, his eyes slightly glazed and un-seeing, he recovered to say "look.... owie.... they tied up each other... we dont have to worry th.....Owww, you have a strong punch, you know that?..."

(Note: Theodarus most probably will recover only after the next person/two persons speaks, so at the least assume he said the above after the next post.....)

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=wkz@rpgww60462>wkz</A] at: 10/6/04 9:55 am

[JoshuaDurron]

"Don't argue-kupo," piped up Fwupo from down below, speaking for the first time in a while. "It won't help-kupo. Should we try to get past now-kupo, or wait-kupo?"

[Molokidan]

The dark-skinned man watched Theodarus fall to the ground, socked by his own teammate.

". . ." he stared at the five, lowering his bow. "It'd be too easy. . ." he gritted his teeth. "You guys need some help. However, you should feel lucky, since it's one of my policies to never harm the weak." he turned back to the other two men, and crouched, waiting for the situation below to develop. "Get out of my sight."

[JoshuaDurron]

Fwupo knelt down and helped Theodarus up. "Up we go friend-kupo."

Supporting the larger man on his shoulder, at least for the time being, Fwupo announced, "We'll take you up on that-kupo. Let's get going-kupo. No way am I dying stuck in a dank place like this-kupo."

With that, the began to go forward, half supporting, half dragging Theodarus until he decided to move under his own power.

[FF Fanatic 80]

Adarl breathed heavily, trying to calm himself down as he follwed the small moogle and the others.

How foolish of myself... the half-drow thought, I am letting my fustration get the better of me... I should know better than this...

No matter his misgiving, this was his current situation. Either work with these people, or die. No grey area, no copouts, survive as one or die together. He continued to think on this as they walked...

...but made sure to keep an eye on the other group. He knew from earlier that nothing said should be taken for granted. And he did not desire them to be the sniper's backup target.

Edited by: FF Fanatic 80&nbsp; at: 10/6/04 9:27 pm

[Molokidan]

The group relocated themselves in the passageway they had originally started in, feeling a bit defeated.

It continued in the opposite direction, which seemed to the party's only option at this point, now that they had left the two groups to deal with each other.

(OOC to wkz: I need your AIM name and/or email, because I have something to talk with ye about! =)

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=molokidan>Molokidan</A]&nbsp; at: 10/6/04 9:33 pm

[wkz]

At about the same moment, helped by a surprisingly large moogle, Theodarus was thinking "Dammit!! That HURT!! ......... Serves me right, we are supposed to be working as a team, no more 'Loner Bounty Hunter' At the least, next time, INFORM THE QUICK-FISTED HOT-HEAD......"

Well, it is kind of expected Theodarus is more than a bit pissed-off at receiving that punch.

(OOC: are we still in the cave? Also, my AIM is noobartist. Good luck finding me there....
Instead, use wkz@hotmail.com, and put something like "From RPGWW" in the title as this e-mail is my "publicly given-out spam-filter"...)

[The Great Nevareh]

"Erm... right. Thank you."

Zachary, without really understanding what was going on, just followed his teammates. Who knows? Maybe he WON'T end up dead!

[JoshuaDurron]

"So, since we're working together-kupo, can I ask everyone's name-kupo?" The moogle continued to chug along under his humanoid burden, not seeming particularly upset by it. "I'm Fwupo the breakdancer-kupo. I specialize in moving fast-kupo."

[wkz]

Theodarus raised an eyebrow as he heard, and said: "Didn't we do this a few minutes ago??"

And just in case Fwupo was not paying attention just now, he added, "and I'm Theodarus Banjo."

And added again, this time to the entire party: "Ok, after the disaster just now, <span style="font-size:x-small;">*whisper*I'm sorry again, Mr Drow*whisper*</span> I think we have to explain some things, such as how we fight.

"As you saw just now, I am not exactly strong physically" he rubbed the sore at the side of his face for added emphasis, "I prefer to feel the water, as you say, and using the correct arguements or words to change the situation to our advantage.

"And I have the skills both as a trained negotiator and a word-spell caster to do so..."

He went on to describe the abilities Binding Agreement and Words of Power

(OOC: Note: He did NOT describe Binding Contract, or some of his other skills "not in use"....)

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=wkz@rpgww60462>wkz</A] at: 10/6/04 11:12 pm

[Molokidan]

Jemyle chimed in after Theodarus finished explaining his powers.

"I agree with this guy." he said, pointing to the wounded Bounty Hunter. "We should make a sort of plan if we get into a bad situation again. I'm Jemyle, an ex-thief. Which means, I'm fast, and good with knives. Obviously, not the strongest fighter of the group." he said, briskly finishing off his explanation.

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=molokidan>Molokidan</A]&nbsp; at: 10/7/04 12:07 am

[FF Fanatic 80]

Theodarus may notice another subtle glare as the word "drow" escapes his lips, thought Adarl seems to make his best effort to remain calm. Once Jemyle finishes, he takes a breath to collect himself and speaks.

"As I said earlier, I am Adarl Writon, blade for hire. Despite my 'apparent' heritage, I consider myself quite strong, and skilled in the use of two-handed weaponry. Paticularly, this bastard sword on my back."

He took another moment to pause, thinking something over to himself before he continued.

"While I would be hesitant to say such normally, in this situation I suppose it would do more harm not to. I normally work alone, and have little patience, or tolerance, for foolishness when I do not. I suppose that, along with my low mobility, would be my greatest 'weakness'."

He then turned to Theodarus.

"All that said, I should not have struck you in anger, and for that I do apologise. We will have to work together to survive this, and hurting one another will do nothing to help that along."

[wkz]

Theodarus took a deep breath to clear his head, then smiled "It is said when headstrong loners come together, there will always be a fight. Don't worry about it, Mr Adarl. I am also, if not more, at fault just now...

"At least this group can count on your strength."

Theodarus was positively grinning (and wincing at the pain of grinning) as he turned to Zachary. "Your turn. You manipulate gravity correct? But what exactly can you do?"

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=wkz@rpgww60462>wkz</A] at: 10/7/04 2:59 am

[The Great Nevareh]

"Well... let's see... Hmm... I guess I can do a variety of things, really. It just depends on practice. You're already familiar with one of my powers- We crossed that gap, which was making gravity essentially zero in a sphere by inducing an opposite force to the force of gravity as we know it in that sphere. I can make things heavier, ground flying foes, and another variety of things. I'm also pretty good in a scrap, and I can use any light weapon without much trouble, though don't expect genius, since I'm only fairly skilled with staff. I have a Master's in the Thaumaturgy of Physics and Kinematic Physical Dynamics, so my knowledge in those areas might help us, a bit. Oh, and I can break stuff at long distances."

Zachary seems perfectly content to enumerate all of his potential skills.

"I guess my main problem is that I'm not very good at making fast decisions, so if someone else would kindly give the orders, please? That, and I like to know exactly what I'm doing before I do it, so I might not just 'instantly' throw out some magic because I want to make sure I do it right."

[Cuicio]

"Well then, what should we do? Submit? I don't see quite haw that'll work out. Very well." Sophia dropped the knife she was creating in her hand, and looking to her teammates for some help.

[JoshuaDurron]

As Zachary went on and on and on, one could almost see Fwupo's eyes turn into swirly whirlpools. When he finished, Fwupo looked almost dizzy. "Kupoooo... I don't know what half that means-kupo, but it sounds impressive-kupo. I guess we can leave most of the head work to you-kupo."

He turned back to Theodore, "But I'm surprised you're not a sword fighter-kupo."

[Molokidan]

"She's clearly bluffing." the man with the scar on his chest whispered to Sophia. "But we would be wise not to let her know that. We have to find out where the other four are, target one, and then kill him so that they all die."

He eyed Averyl, who was sitting in the net, rather calmly. "So much for your fearless archaeologist." he scoffed. "What an idiot."

The ninja girl stepped up. "So right now, she can't kill him until she lets him out?"

"That's what I think." Scar said. "Sophia, I want you to create one of those ice blades again. This time, let no one see it. I will create a diversion, and when I draw that woman's head away from you, I want you to throw it at her and kill her. Can you do that?"

[wkz]

"Well Fwupo, ever noticed how weak people almost always lose fights? I wouldn't be able to use any sword to save my life..." Theodarus scratched the back of his head, "But if they are caught by surprise like... THIS!!" In a flash, he dug out his writing pad by the handle and turned his entire body around. The writing pad swung in one smooth arc around the back, headed towards Fwupo, but suddenly stopped well short of its target.

Theodarus stood straight up after the demostration, raising both arms towards Fwupo, while at the same time holding up the sharpened instrument for the others to see. "This is my writing pad by the way," Theodarus said, as he took out a piece of paper from the folds of his clothing and clipped it onto the pad....

And after a pause, the 'devious idea look' flashed by on his face, and he took out a scribing pen and started writing...

(Just to recap, Theodarus has a metal writing pad, the clip and handle is on top, and the entire right edge is sharpened.)

[The Great Nevareh]

"Yeesh! Don't DO that! Everyone slips up at some point in time and slipping up while brandishing a sharp object at an ally is a nice, easy way to kill us all. Can we try our utmost not to posture to one another? One death might make everyone's death happen."

And thus saith the Zachary, and it was said, and all was good.

[wkz]

(Last time I checked, "Well short of the target" = quite far from target...)

"Alright then" Theodarus said, and turned to go. He visibily paused after two steps, looking back at his teammates.

"Shall we move on?" Theodarus said, gesturing with a grand bow and a waving of his hands towards the distance...

[FF Fanatic 80]

Adarl listened to the others for a bit, somewhat confused by Zachary's long list of 'skills', and at a loss for what Theodarus could possibly accomplish with paper and a pen. But the 'scribe' did make a good point.

"Indeed, but we must be cautious. There may be others who shall attempt to strike us from concealment." Adarl said, "If you do not mind, I would prefer to lead. My heritage gives me better sight in the darkness than most."

He looked over the group a moment, adding:

"Unless any of you here have better skill at such."