A long way from Mistveil Ridge

[MayaSenden]

Not far from the Moonsea lake was standing Mistveil Ridge. The small village, mostly occupied by miners and traders, was blessed with a mild climate, thanks to the natural barriers offered by the icy mountains surrounding it.
The life was mostly quiet here, the harsh cold of the mountains was keeping most of the threats away, and the few merchants roads leading here were enough to satisfy the villagers needs and fill the head of the local childrens with the stories of the few adventurers passing by and seeking a bit of shelter.

Maya was one of thoses childrens. A pretty unnoticeable, even banal one among the other, if it wasn't for her deep blue eyes sparkling with an hint of resolve and contrasting with the darkness of her raven hair. Her mother, a pretty harsh woman, was working as a waitress in the local inn. It wasn't like Mistveil Ridge was opening a wide range of jobs anyway. But Maya was loving the simplicity of this life. When she wasn't doing her own share of chores, or trying to help around, she was either having some childish fun with others childrens, or listening to the stories of the ones halting to the inn. And there was Millie, a young gnome who found a similar home inside of the inn. Millie had that heartwarming presence. When she was not humming some song, or playing some music, the two girls could spend hours sharing the stories she heard. If Maya was far from as creative, she could listen for hours to Millie turning the even simplest thing in some epic story Elminster would have been jealous of.

Maya never knew about her father. Her mother was evading the topic, and Maya was too aware that trying to get more would owe her some punishement. Like most of the childrens in her situation, she was often wondering if it couldn't be one of thoses mens in armor, simply passing by. Of course her mother would eventually notice, and get pissed after her. Some could have said it was a bad woman, some others that she saw too much maybe, and she was trying to rough Maya up to make sure she wouldn't endure what she had to endure. But whatever her motive was, there is things no mortals neither gods could have changed. That sparkle of hope in Maya's gaze was one, and her inherent careness and compassion for the others was another one.

Maybe it was all thoses accidents at the mines, thoses many wounded or exhausted faces she was seeing too often. Maybe it was a lack of self-worth thanks to her mother attention, but Maya was always worrying and caring about the others, much more than she was for herself. Maya was pretty respectfull of laws and autority, she could even be that annoying too serious child. But she wouldn't hesitate a second to put herself in troubles to prevent someone to get hurt.

This is how she became friend with Marvin. He was a tad older. The kind of troubleseeker usually getting away with it with a charming smile and some make up story. Usually people would buy it and leave him go because he was part of the village and his mischiefs could bring distraction in their exhausting routines. But this day was different.

Surrounded by some local nervous crowd, a really pale and grim man in a dark armour, a nine-tailed barbed whip symbol engraved in his breastplate, was walking with an hatefull expression, a leather whip in his hand, while Marvin was crawling backward in the snow, staring at the man with an obvious fear. If some of the locals were considering how much of a good idea it was to step in front of someone like him, Maya didn't hesitated for a second, standing between Marvin and him, her eyes shining with anger and resolve. It was a thing to punish some scoundrel for some prank or offence a young boy could commit. It was something else to whip a young girl in front of everyone. As the whip hitted her and burned through her flesh, the crowd decided to interfere, and soon the man had no other choice but leaving. Maya was bring to the local temple to be healed and taken care of by an old man that would changer her life ; the father Gorham.

The man who devoted himself to Ilmater felt something in her, and decided to take her under his protection, teaching her his own beliefs, trying to guide and channelize Maya's nature. Maya, on her side, found in him the fatherly presence she lacked all her life. She was drinking his words, his teaching, but somehow Maya's own nature was preventing herself to put all her devotion in the worshipping of a god, locking herself away from a clerical path. But as her mentor would say, there was many different ways to serve, and he helped her the best he could to find her own path.

Maya was growing up, becoming a young woman, spending more and more of her time practicing a way to learn to ease the pain of the others, and to protect them without falling into a circle of violence. The open hand way was her own now, wherever it would lead her. But nothing would ever kept her really far from her friends. Her social circle was short, and for a time, Millie and Marvin were almost all her life, the caring family she never had. Untill eventually Marvin's eagerness for troubles led him to mess up with the local store. The owner was rather stern, definitely lacking any sense of humor, but he isn't the one Marvin ended up falling into while re-arranging jam jars in his own way. There was that blonde girl ; Keeva.

Keeva had her own reputation in Mistveil Ridge. She was that weird little girl saved from a strange cult in a mountain by an adventurer who didn't survived his wounds. For many, she was cursed. The fact that she seemed to age much slower than any other kids around didn't helped her either. Kids being kids did what they usually do. They started mocking her, then bully her. And when Keeva showed up some uncontrolled magical abilities, it was over. From that time, she was the local monster parents were dragging their childrens away from, condemning her to solitude.

If, as they grew up, Maya, Marvin and Millie did like most of the others childrens did and stayed away from her, this incident at the shop opened something small ; a kind of curiosity. And eventually, one step after the other, they broke inside of Keeva's ice shield, the strange girl soon joining their group. Something in her was looking off, she was definitely different, but Maya's careness, Marvin's goofy jokes and Millie's big heart had their own kind of power. Life was going on for a time, Marvin was getting money... And no one wanted to ask him how... Millie was taking a more important role in the Inn... Keeva could stay alone in the shop for hours, even days, digging into the books adventurers would bring, maybe inquiring about her own nature... Or something else... And Maya, on her side, was still learning from her mentor in the Ilmater temple.

Among the many stories Gorham would share with her, one especially was making Maya's gaze shines : the forgotten relic of Ilmater. The bandages the god himself was rumored to wear around his forearms at some point, infused with the power to heal any wound, any sickness. For Maya it was the promise to never see a suffering face ever again, to be able to help beyond any means upon her reach. It was rumored to still sleep in some forgotten Ilmaterish temple, somewhere not so far from Narfell.

When the opportunity appeared to go there, to be able to live an adventure that she would share with her friends, the temptation was simply too high. They jumped in one of the merchant's caravan, and soon Mistveil Ridge started to disappear in the distance...

[MayaSenden]

Marvin, Millie and Maya were following a path to the south, glancing around, holding a kind of relaxed pace. The way was clear so far, aside from the dense forest surrounding them from each side, the thick vegetation preventing us to see too far. If there was wild life there, or some branch cracking, the cold freezing wind was muffling most of it.
"Are you sure this is the way ?"
The old man asking their help to reduce the kobold population endangering the travelers wasn't that specific. But they just arrived in Peltarch and they needed to make some money.
And yet, so far, the most threatening creature they came accross was a small angry rat. The three of them were pretty enthusiastic about the adventures to come, already fantasizing it quite a lot. Everything was so different from their small village.

Maya smiled warmly as they approached some river, an old stone bridge standing from probably decades and decades. She pointed at the man in armor a bit further away.
"Wait, i will ask him !"
He was focused on the road, offering them his back. The shield at his arm, the long sword at his belt and the intensity he was displaying at watching for some travelers or caravan. Maya didn't had a single doubt ; he was probably a guard or some soldier.
She smiled warmly as she approached him, her steps pretty light on the grass floor. He seemed a bit startled as he noticed her, studying her with a grim expression, his gaze wandering along her rather simple and rough robe.
"Excuse me good sir, we are looking for Kobolds... We want to help, but i think we got lost."
Maya will smiling at him, her hands joined, like a schoolgirl knocking at some stranger door to sell cookies. The man, silent, looked up at the young gnome woman, then at the moustached man with them who didn't looked like such a threat.
The smile that creeped up upon his lips was nothing like Maya's one as he pulled out his sword.
"Well, well, well..."
Maya froze, her expression faltering to a really tense and shocked one.
"We don't mean... What are you..."
Her training was, for a second, completely forgotten. It was thing to practice movements in the opening, doing katas and picturing invisible opponents to defend yourself against. It was a completely different thing when the one in front of you wasn't here to show you some technic, but really intended to hurt you.
Maya barely evaded the sword slashing toward her, moving aside by survival instinct. As the bandit pressed his teeths, some mad anger in his gaze, and was straightening to go with another attack, she found herself overwhelmed, lost about even the idea of attacking back.
She was pulled out of her torpor as Marvin rushed in front and lifted his rapier to deflect the curve of the swinging sword, letting Maya keep her head on her shoulders for a bit longer.
Marvin and the bloodthirsty bandit were duelling relentlessly. If Marvin was agile, extending his arm and trying to hold some distance, the scoundrel was much more savage, throwing his sword brutally forward, putting Marvin in a difficult situation.
The bandit went from a wild slash, from bottom to up, striking hard in Marvin's belly. If the leather armor he was wearing prevented her mustached friend to see his bowels fall to the floor, the hit of the heavy weapon and the strength of his opponent were enough to make him stumble backward, his breath cutted, his free hand holding his painfull ribs.
Before the bandit was able to finish the work, Maya stepped in, swinging her weight, then throwing it forward, pushing him back with her two hands, her feets spread and rooted in the floor. The bandit loses his balance, almost tripping on the irregular ground, but a second later he was trying to impale Maya.
Maya was moving fast, keeping her center weight low, constantly changing her position to be out of the bandit trajectory. The few openings she got to punch him were mostly meeting his metal armor, hurting her palms as much, if not more than him.
When she saw an opportunity, she leaned to the side to evade an hard thrust forward, and redirected the sword over her shoulder, trying to control his arm, but she didn't saw the shield coming, the man using his other arm to slam the wide piece of wood in her, throwing her to the floor.
Maya's gaze widened as the man was towering her, ready to pin her to the floor and put an early end to her adventuring hopes.
And then, suddenly, a crossbow bolt whistled in the air and pierced through the man metallic breastplate, the pain surging from his pectoral to his whole chest. He locked his gaze on Millie with deadly intention, a raw rage distorting his facial expression, breaking the bolt sticking out of his chest to throw it away.
Maya sized the opportunity to kick his lower belly, punching him backward, before she kipped herself up, switching back instantly to a defensive fighting stance. But the bandit didn't got enough time to get back his balance, Marvin's rapier stabbed him hard from behind, piercing his chest until the tip banged the opposite inner side of the armor.
The bandit's arms went loose, before he falled on his knees, then collapsed simply on the ground.

They took a few minutes to catch their breath, still stunned by what just happened. But Maya's gaze didn't took long to stare down at the man with a worried, almost depressed, expression.
"Did we... Is he... ?"
"He is... In deep sleep... Maya."
Maya was not convinced at all and frowned, parting her lips to say something, really horrified at the thought they might have killed someone, as bad as he was.
But she didn't got much time to question it further, another bandit was already appearing in the distance, calling for help, and soon an half-dozen of mens were chasing them.

After a few long minutes running between the trees, Millie, Marvin and Maya managed to lose them in the forest. They caught their breath, finding their way out in a clearing. Maya was tense, glancing around cautiously.
"We should warn someone i think... Imagine if another traveler fall on them..."
As they were speaking, a man came out from his awning in the distance, gesturing at them to come. Maya, still tense, approached him fast to warn him about the bandits, but he seemed especially confident about dealing with thoses bandits.
He eventually offered them a drink, letting them vent out what they just came through.
But as he mentionned he was seeing a lot of faces around here, Maya couldn't resist the temptation. If many adventurers passed here... Maybe some of them were sharing stories... Or...
"Did you heard about an abandonned temple... ? Probably one belonging to Ilmater ? There could be an artifact hidden there..."
Maya's nervous expression seemed to melt to be replaced by an optimistic glow in her eyes. She started to speak about the stories the father Gorham told her and the good that that artifact could bring to the world.
Since she have been in Peltarch, no one seemed to know what she was talking about. Untill now...
Oscura... This name spinned in Maya's head for the whole day and filled her dreams. The bartender seemed to believe that such temple could be hidden there, under Oscura.
For the first time, she had something... Maybe even just a slight hint... But enough for her hopes to find that artifact become much more vivid.
She would go there, no matter where Oscura was... She would take months to search under any stone if she had too. But if there was something there, she would find it.