World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

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JageshemashFTW
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World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by JageshemashFTW »

This is Book 2 of the World of Fantasy series. You can read Book 1 here: viewtopic.php?t=4528
—-
Okay, so, the People, right? That’s what you wanted to talk about?

Not surprising, given your own history with them.

So, you already know the basics. The People of the Open Road are nomads, four tribes that wander the region of Babylon, never staying in one spot for too long.

There are, of course, the Telani, the fire-dancers. The best of the People, in my humble opinion. We’re probably the tribe that has the most interaction with all the ‘civilized’ cities and towns of Babylon. Whether through entertainment or trade, we know how to give the people of Babylon something to remember us by.

Then there are the Rajann, the mountain-climbers. The ones you’re so familiar with, in more ways than one. They’re probably the most isolated of the People, living on top of one of the four tallest mountains in Babylon for one year before migrating to the next mountain. This pilgrimage between the mountains is sacred to the Rajann… For reasons you are very well aware.

Next are the Gevrud, the under-dwellers. I’ll be honest, even as one of the People myself, I’ve always thought the Gevrud to be a bit odd. Their choice to live underground in a labyrinthine network of caves and tunnels that spans all of Babylon… Well, it isn’t a choice I would make. But that hardy living has given them a preternatural relationship to rock and stone. You will never find finer stonemasons and craftsmen in all of Babylon.

Finally, there are the Zephros… And, to be frank, I’m not entirely sure they exist. Nearly all of the tribes' stories and legends always reference the four tribes, and Zephros is always among the four… But no one seems to be able to recall anything about when they were last seen in Babylon. No tribe member I have ever spoken to has ever remembered seeing a Zephros in any of the big gatherings between the tribes.

Some among the People believe them to be a metaphor of some grander purpose of the other three tribes. Some believe the Zephros are real, just in hiding until they are needed. Needed for what? Who can say.

Unfortunately, the most likely scenario is that the Zephros did exist… But they don’t anymore.

Supposedly, they carry the epithet of the cloud-scratchers… If that means to imply that the Zephros live up in the sky… Then I think the Zephros might just be a little bit more than just another tribe…

…Hmm? Oh, sorry. I was just… contemplating. Nevermind that, that’s neither here nor now.

Anyway, that’s the long and short of each of the four tribes. The rest, you pretty much know. Tattoos, breaking bread, the works.

Huh? Oh, Efreet? You want to know if the other tribes have a spirit like him?

Heh, you’re perceptive, aren’t you? There are… Legends of other primordial spirits that exist beyond our earthly plane, this is true. But I swear to you, I know of none of them beyond Efreet. If the other tribes do have a spirit watching over them the same way Efreet used to watch over the Telani, they are keeping that fact close to their chests, even among their fellow People.

—-
The Decaying Mule was more or less the same establishment since Peanut propositioned Bino for a job there all those weeks ago. The same unruly, legally-questionable clientele causing a ruckus well into the night with inebriated debauchery.

Even if they technically didn’t need the coin anymore, Prince Keene having been good on his word to give Zach and his brothers a home in the Gold District of Griffonrock, Zach still enjoyed playing the Bard for the lively folk of the tavern. It was good practice.

It was happenstance that Max had joined Zach that particular evening, and chance that their conversation eventually turned to discussing Max’s tribe and the others that made up the People.

“Beyond all that, There’s really not much more I can tell you.” Max said, downing the last of probably his third mead of the evening, but who’s counting? “We mostly just like to keep to ourselves. There’s a lot of old wive’s tales about some of our more secretive traditions, but those are mostly just ceremonial.”

Zach nodded, nursing his own drink. “Are… Are you allowed to enter other tribes’ territory?”

Max gave a shrug. “I don’t see why we wouldn’t be. We’re all part of the same family. Some of our relatives are just a bit more… distant than others.”

“So… If you were to suddenly show up at a Rajann camp, they wouldn’t turn you away?” Zach asked.

Max paused just as he was about to flag down the tavern-keeper for another drink. “Why do I get the feeling we are deserting the realm of the hypothetical?”

“And, if they did allow you in…” Zach continued, pointedly ignoring Max’s question. “Would they also accept any guests you brought with them?”

Max turned and gave a hard stare at the lapin Bard. “Zach, turn your back to me.” He said, uncharacteristically serious.

“I-I don’t-?”

“Turn around.”

Zach, confused but not wanting to challenge Max on this, turned his back to the black cat. Max, in full-view of all the other patrons, grabbed the bottom of Zach’s shirt and lifted it up to his neck, exposing his back for everyone to see.

“Wha-?! Max, what are you doing?!” Zach cried, taking note of all of the eyes suddenly on them.

“As I thought, you still have your tattoo.” Max said, pointing to the black, thorned spiral in question on the back of Zach’s shoulder. “Therefore, you are just as much part of the People as I am.”

Max finally relinquished Zach’s shirt as the poor Bard turned back to face him, utterly mortified by the continued stares they were getting. “Did you really have to-?!”

Max held up a hand to silence him. “You are Rajann, Zach. Now and forever. You do not need me to play the gatekeeper for you.”

Zach clammed up as he looked to the ground, dejected. “You know the story behind that tattoo. The Rajann still think my brothers and I betrayed them.”

“Betrayal or not, that doesn’t change what that tattoo means.” Max said. “You say you were framed? The Rajann will hear you out. They will always hear out one of their own.”

Max turned back towards the bar, leaning against his chair as his usual jovial demeanor returned. “Now, whether or not they believe you? That’s a different matter entirely, and completely on you to convince them. But even that won’t undo everything that tattoo entails.”

Zach still seemed unsure. “I was only meant to be a Rajann temporarily. I’m not a true member of the tribe, I never was…”

“You were meant to stay with the camp temporarily, but you would still be Rajann regardless of where you go and you are still Rajann now.” Max stated adamantly. “You owe it to both yourself and the tribe to speak to them and make your case.”

Max turned to Zach once more, and Zach was surprised to see a look of pleading in his eyes.

“The Rajann deserve closure for the tragedy they faced on that day. And you deserve to find peace with them.”

Zach only retreated further into himself, trying to make himself appear as small as he felt. “It’s been two years…”

Max shrugged. “All the more reason to get to it, and sooner than later.”

Zach was still for a good few moments before he roused himself up, leaned back in his chair, and gave a heaving sigh. “You really think it’s that simple?”

“Simple? Oh, absolutely not. This will feel like you’re pulling out your teeth the entire time.” Max admitted. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing to do.”

Zach stared at the back wall of the tavern for a bit, looking beyond the wall and borders of Griffonrock. Looking beyond the green plains all the way to the snow-capped mountains that sat on the border of Babylon.

“Then I shall go.” Zach said. “And finally bury these ghosts.”

“Excellent!” Max said, giving a hearty slap to Max’s back. “When do we leave?”

Zach was jostled out of his short-lived stoicism by Max’s slap and his words. “W-We? But… I thought you said I had to…?”

“I said you had to make your case yourself. I never said I couldn’t be there to give you emotional support.” Max said, giving one of his overly toothy grins. “After all, we’re family, aren’t we?”

World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann
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Krytus The Dreamer
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by Krytus The Dreamer »

Good to see you back at it! Hopefully there's a ton of D&D-esque misadventures further down the line.
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Harry Johnathan
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by Harry Johnathan »

Horray, you started this up again. I honestly can't blame you for leaving it behind for a year and a half lol, I've done the same numerous times (writing is hard).
Sarah was afraid, so she lied and said, “I did not laugh.” But [The LORD] said, “Yes, you did laugh.” - Genesis 18:15 (NIV).
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

Really happy that you started this up again! I really liked the previous story and I am sure I am gonna like this one also!
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CunningFox
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by CunningFox »

Glad to see this is back.
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by NHWestoN »

Exciting restoration. Nothing says a perilous situation like an expedition into potentially hostile territory - especially territory filled with aggrieved relatives.
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

We all are gonna be patiently waiting for the continuation as we know it will be so grand!
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trekkie
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by trekkie »

Nice world building, and character development, I’m in a Max and Zach adventure.
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

You would never thought that those two would work together but you made it work! Wonderful work!
JageshemashFTW
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by JageshemashFTW »

As far as the Thieves’ Guild was concerned, these past few weeks had been business as usual. While the Boss had been concerning himself with snuffing out the life of a traitor, the rank and file members of the guild, the cutpurses and the footpads, had been carrying on their work, taking on clients and procuring whatever trinket or treasure they desire, regardless of who already owned them.

So it was that a certain cabal of thieves had taken to hiding in a cave in the outskirts of Griffonrock’s borders, their illicit gains lining the cave walls as they waited for any attention on them to die down before meeting with the guild’s fences and go-betweens to unload their stash.

One of the thieves, a tiger-striped bengal cat, was currently nursing a small campfire in the middle of the cave floor, providing some warmth as the chill of night began to approach.

He absently made note of one of his cohorts, a white collie, re-entering the cave from her post outside, making her way to a game of cards between their other fellow thieves already in-progress.

“I’m turning in. Someone take over my shift.” The collie said, not stopping to entertain any debate on the subject.

The bengal sighed and made his way to the mouth of the cave, perfectly content to take the night watch and enjoy some quiet solitude.

Indeed, the forest surrounding their hideout was serene and peaceful in the dead of night. The new moon offered little illumination, but the shadows posed no threat to the bengal. He knew there was nothing out there more dangerous than him and his crew.

He enjoyed that certainty right up until getting smacked in the face by a bolo that came flying out of the undergrowth.
—-
The rest of thieves inside continued their card game in blissful ignorance until the bengal’s pained cries outside alerted them.

The collie turned to two of the other thieves, a wolf and a serval, and gestured to the cave’s entrance. The two nodded and grasped their crossbows from behind their backs, readying them as they slowly approached the mouth.

The collie herself grabbed the last of their crew, a young raccoon lad, by the scruff of his shirt and unceremoniously shoved him to the left side of the back wall of the cave, taking position on the right side herself.

She readied her own crossbow, silently gesturing to the raccoon to do the same and gesturing toward the mouth, taking a defensive posture.

The wolf and the serval stopped at the edge of the cave’s entrance, peering out into the night for anything out of place. Both of them taking note of the complete absence of their lookout.

Suddenly, a clacking noise caught their attention as they looked down at a tiny grey marble bouncing across the stone floor of the cave, rolling to a stop right at their feet.

The collie and the raccoon witnessed an opaque cloud of smoke suddenly erupt under their cohorts feet, completely engulfing them in a choking smog. They heard the two cry out in surprise before sounds of fighting, hitting, and clanging steel rang out within the cloud. A crossbow bolt shot out of the cloud in desperation, only to harmlessly fly into the empty forest outside.

The collie and the raccoon barely had time to react before a figure adorned in black leather armor, face obscured by a black mask with clockwork goggles, suddenly leapt out of the smoke cloud, sprinting full bore towards the collie, evidently marking her as a bigger threat next to the more inexperienced raccoon standing on the opposite side of the cave.

Indeed, the frightful appearance of their assailant made the raccoon hesitate on firing his crossbow a second too late as the masked animal suddenly pounced on the collie, wrapping his arms around her neck in a chokehold, applying pressure and kicking her legs out from under her as she choked and struggled to maintain consciousness.

The raccoon finally found his trigger finger and took aim at the masked animal, taking an extra second too long to aim so as not to accidentally hit his cohort. Before he could launch his bolt at the masked animal, another bolo came flying at his side from the entrance of the cave, snatching his crossbow right out of his hands and smashing it into scrap against the cave wall.

As the masked animal continued to choke out his collie companion, the raccoon turned in surprise to look at whoever threw the bolo, and was shocked to see yet another masked animal, identical in attire to the first.

Left without a weapon, and still shaking off the surprise of the ambush, the raccoon watched helplessly as the second masked animal brought out a large contraption from behind their back. It looked like a massive crossbow of their own at first glance, but the raccoon noticed it had a net instead of a bolt placed into its launching mechanism.

Indeed, the raccoon got a very good look at the net as the second masked animal fired it directly at him, the net tying itself around him as the weights on the ends of the net painfully walloped his body, knocking him to the ground completely restrained and spouting off a not insignificant number of curse words.

As the raccoon fell to the ground, the collie had finally succumbed to the sleeper hold and fell unconscious in the first masked animal’s hold, who then unceremoniously dropped her onto the hard stone floor of the cave.

With a silent nod to each other, the two masked animals grabbed their respective victims and dragged them out of the cave, dumping them onto a pile with the rest of their thieving cohorts, all just as unconscious as them.

The second of the masked animals, taking her net launcher and slinging it across her back, took her mask off to reveal a periwinkle cat with violet stripes along her cheeks, yellow eyes glancing at her companion as a sly smile crossed her face.

“Not bad for your first outing, Newbie.” Allegra praised.

The other masked animal took his mask off in kind, revealing a brown dog with large darker brown ears and striking emerald eyes that glared at the periwinkle cat.

“Hardly my first outing in any capacity…” Bino remarked. “Honestly, this wasn’t too different from taking out a group of guards in some noble’s mansion.”

Allegra shrugged. “Yeah, but doesn’t it feel nice to be on the side of the angels this time around?”

Bino scoffed. “I’d hardly call the Rogues ‘angels’. Our ranks are almost exclusively former criminals and thieves.”

As Allegra got busy restraining the limbs of their new charges, lest they awaken and try to run again, she responded “Emphasis on former criminals, Bino. You’re not the only one looking to redeem yourself or looking for a second chance…”

Bino turned his gaze away from Allegra. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. I’m not looking for any kind of… salvation with the Rogues. It’s just a job to me, no different than being in the Thieves’ Guild. Just with the added benefit of having a slightly lesser risk of ending up in jail.”

Allegra huffed as she pulled on the ropes tightly. “…Of course, Bino. I didn’t mean to insinuate anything. That said, you’ve taken to this job like a fish to water. Plus, you were pretty quick to choose this specialization over any other.”
—-
Several weeks earlier…

Bino followed Allegra through the halls of the Rogue’s private barracks. Evidently, due to the clandestine nature of the Rogue’s entire modus, the Rogue’s barracks was kept in a separate, secret location from the rest of the Royal Guard, only known to the crown and the Rogues themselves. An exclusive party that Bino now found himself a part of.

“You’ve probably heard the Rogues described as ‘King’s Thieves’ before, but that’s a bit of an… oversimplification.” Allegra explained, rounding the corner of a desk that stood at the center of a small, round room. Most likely some kind of meeting room if Bino had to hazard a guess.

“Here’s the deal, the Royal Guard and the Ranger’s Regiment have their purposes in safeguarding the people of Babylon. The Royal Guard serves as an excellent show of force when force is needed and the Ranger’s Regiment keeps our borders safe from every threat that comes from the natural world as opposed to the civilized one.”

“But…” Allegra continued “For those situations where subtlety and secrecy is needed to keep the peace, that’s where we come in. You could consider us the… shadow of the Royal Guard, always following along or going ahead, but staying out of sight until that ‘show of force’ is actually needed. Kinda like your mission to save Prince Keene’s boyfriend, in all honesty.”

“The more you bring that up, the more I’m starting to wonder if that whole quest was just one big audition for me.” Bino lamented, cocking an accusatory eyebrow at Allegra.

“That certainly wasn’t the Prince’s intention…” Allegra said, pausing before a crooked smile played across her lips. “But I won’t lie, I definitely treated it as such, and I consider it to be a very strong resume.”

Bino humphed as Allegra sorted through an assortment of papers on the desk, finally fishing out what looked like a loose ledger of names. Bino assumed the names on the list were other Rogues like himself and Allegra. If that were the case and that list represented the full force of the Rogues… they were far less in number than Bino ever imagined. A few dozen names on the list at most.

“Now then, the first thing we should square away is your specialization.” Allegra said, and Bino noticed the few names on the list were indeed separated into different groups.

“Specialization?” Bino repeated, though he could give a pretty educated guess what she meant.

“Simply put, there’s lots of different things you can do to protect Babylon from the shadows. There’s Crown-Shadows, who covertly follow members of the royal family around and prevent assassination attempts.” Allegra said, tracing a finger down the list.

“Ugh, pass.” Bino spat. He did not risk his life on Coraggio to spend the rest of it playing babysitter to the Prince and his gaggle of siblings.

Surprisingly, Allegra had nothing to say to Bino’s barely disguised contempt for their royal employers, she merely nodded and continued down the list.

“There’s Spymasters, who deal in illicit information gathering. Basically keeping the crown up to date on underground movement and power plays.”

“…. Pass.” Bino guessed that sounded a little better, but it also sounded a lot like sitting at a desk with a mountain of paperwork. He may not have wanted to risk life and limb every day of his life, but he knew he needed a job that kept him active, kept him doing something that made him move his hands and feet. It’s simply the kind of life he had been trained for since he was a puppy.

Allegra continued down the list. “There’s Thief Hunters. Essentially crown-sponsored vigilantes who track down and capture criminals the Royal Guard can’t find.”

“Wait…” Bino said, holding up a paw. Allegra looked up from her list, smiling slightly as if she knew that would grab his attention.

Bino considered his options. It would be dangerous work, but no more-so than anything he did for the Thieves’ Guild. And, if anything, if he were already considered an enemy of the Guild, why not take the fight to them with the resources of the Rogues backing him up?

The image of a sneering skunk with a crossbow and the feeling of water in his lungs hit Bino suddenly, and he made his decision.

“Do I get to pick my own targets or do the Rogues decide that for me?” Bino asked.

Allegra’s smile widened by just the tiniest bit. “You’re pretty much a free agent until the crown has a more specific task for the Rogues as a whole. Then it’s just a matter of allocating the right Rogue for the right job.”

Free agent. Those were the magic words Bino needed to hear.

“Tell me more.”
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

I am so happy that you were able to get back to this story! It was really interesting and I really didn't want you top stop it!
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by marciamaynard »

I read your Book 1 and Book 2. They are awesome. Hope that you will release Book 3 soon
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Amazee Dayzee
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Re: World of Fantasy: The Waters of Rajann

Post by Amazee Dayzee »

I'm sure that once they get the time they will get to work on that. We just have no choice but to wait until they can get back to it.
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