Gentlemen,

We do hope this letter finds you well and in good health, and that it arrives to you in a prompt and timely manner.

We are in a need of your certain skill set and have a proposition for you, should you choose to accept it. We are of course willing to compensate you with a small sum of money in the form of your choosing. We are also willing to forgo the sum and instead negotiate a different reward. We have a good deal of resources and if your request is reasonable, we will do all in our power to fulfill it.

We find that, if the above does not interest you, that you should destroy this message instead of reading it to the end. We suggest fire. We hope you will take the possible consequences into account before you decide to finish reading.

It has come to our attention that a Lord Branniston, from the country of Azeal, has been discovered plotting treason. Lord Branniston is only a minor Lord and would be unable to raise the funds and the army, even if he wasn’t such a coward. As such, the King is willing to pardon him and his family, if the Lord Branniston sends a gift of his family’s most valuable treasure.

The little Lord loves his neck to much to refuse the generous offer and so the package leaves for the capitol midnight on the first night of the second month of Spring. We wish for you to intercept the package and bring it to us. If the package’s guards travel the route as they should, they’ll be traveling through Shenwoods forest the third week. This will be your prime opportunity to acquire the package.

What you do to the guards is no concern to us. Be sure that once you have the package – it will not be smooth sailing. The King wants it. We believe that you are skilled enough to avoid detection, even while taking the package through the King’s own territory.

Once you pass the border from Azeal into Raphal, further instructions will be given to you.

Good luck hunting.

Setting

The War of the Ancients ended centuries ago, and to the lesser lived races of humans and such, it is history and a story to be told to young children. To the longer lived races of the dragons, it is a reminder to keep constant watch against the evils of both this world and the next.

The immortal humanoids of the dwarves, elves, and fey, disappeared after the war. Humans have taken over, as they are known to do. At first those in charge were concerned: the immortals kept the magic of the world in balance. But instead of being thrown into chaos as they expected, magic simply started to disappear as well.

Now, most humans can’t even light a candle or make a water pot boil. Those that do must spend years studying to expand their powers. To most, this was unimportant. Common folk didn’t need magic for their day-to-day lives. The nobility were a bit grumpier, but also no more willing than those below them to fix anything.

Centuries passed. Magic became an oddity. In some places, it was feared. In some of the oldest cities, schools still stood. Those who were discovered to have magic were either killed off or demanded respect through their power. If they were lucky, another with power would find them before the rest of the community.

The creatures of magic also dwindled. Many humans went their whole lives without seeing a single unicorn, dragon, or griffin. Those humanoids that were not immortal but still held magic grew fewer and fewer. Minotaurs diminished, whole shifter clans died out, even the lizardfolk far far to the south were affected. Part of it was that magic ran in their blood and when the magic bled out, so did their will to live. And part of it was because humans, unhindered, swept over the lands and took what they wanted, unconcerned for whoever got in their way.

There was, however, one race magical race that was kept, coveted, instead of being destroyed. The Xhati, a race connected to the birds. As birds are beings of both air and land, the Xahti are beings of both this world and the next. It is said that this connection is what gives them their divine powers – premonition, precognition, and in some cases, the ability to communicate with the dead. They are the only race to have ever had these powers, even when the immortals walked among the mortals. The Xhati were a peaceful race and were easily taken over by the more domineering races. Now they are kept as exotic pets, given every thing they could want but freedom.

There are no known Xahti tribes left – all Xahti belong to someone else. Born into servitude for the last 300 years, they know nothing else. However, even with breeding and careful selection, their numbers have dwindled until they have become a status symbol for the incredibly wealthy or powerful. Even Luricus Mey’hath, King of the nation of Thoraint – largely considered the most powerful nation, ruled by the most powerful man – has only nine Xahti to call his own.

Though some of the larger, more powerful nations have made strides in the areas of science and technology, most nations still use swords as the main weapon of choice. Horses and dog-pulled sleds (in the more snowy regions) are the main mode of transportation.

Characters

Character race and class are extremely open to the wishes of the players. Just remember the setting – magic is distrusted and races besides humans are few. If your character has magic, please keep it to one or two specialties. Magic works in odd ways, so while some characters may have to ‘cast’ spells, others may be able to do the same thing just through force of will.

Please be imaginative.

Remember that your character was contacted because they’re very, very good at something. As such, they shouldn’t be 13 years old. On the other hand, the employers don’t want an elderly wizard who might drop dead at any moment. Medicine isn’t particularly good in this world, but there are a few healers around. Common folk live to be about fifty years old (excluding deaths caused by accidents), while those with power tend to live further into their sixties. For the sake of simplicity, humanoid races should have the basic life span of humans. The 'immortal' races disappeared, so mortal races shouldn't live more than a century or so.

I am not going to accept the first character submitted. I want them to be well-thought out and written. Feel free to reserve a spot, but that doesn’t guarantee that you’ll get it if you aren’t up to my standards. Don’t worry, my standards are pretty low.

One person will be able to play a Xahti, but this is a very important role. Please PM me if you’re interested. If no one wants it, I’ll pick it up.

Character sheets are open to however you want to do them. I would prefer it if everything was put under the description tab and then separated into the appropriate segments from there, but do what feels best.

Some place in your character sheet mention how your character feels about the Xahti. That’s how I’ll know you’ve read everything :)

Characters:
Reserved for Silverclawedmouse
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