Segon: F, F, Power
From Create Your Own Story
And so it is, Segon Eagle Eyed, a Ranger.
There was a time when Rangers were a proud order of men and women who traveled about the unpopulated areas of Elaria, rooting up evil wherever it may rest - or, more likely, pissing off the local bandits and then leaving whatever village was nearby to deal with their bloodlust - but those days were over before your grandparents were born.
Now, the only remnants of their order were moss covered ruins and legends told to children. Oh, and a young woman named Segon. It is easy to tell why the locals confuse you with this ancient band of "heroes." The Rangers of legend were the greatest marksmen in all of Elaria if not the entire known world, and your skill with a bow is nothing short of legendary. You prefer the solitude of the forest and the company of animals over the peasants of the nearby village who pleaded and begged for your aid against whatever marauder or bandit or tax collector was currently oppressing the town. You even wore the fabled grey hood of the Rangers, although you remember when the hood was blue before time and rain wore out the color. If it weren't for your red eyes and red hair the people would have called you Taeral the Silver Arrow reborn and their pleading would only increase. Segon thought she might go mad if people kept referring to her as Ranger Segon. Reports of Ranger Segon's supposed "Heroism" were varied. Some peasants exalted her, crying out in glee about the lives saved by Segon's arrows. Others claimed she had never given them anything but the dust from her heels as she wandered back into the forests after selling her pelts and meat.
Whatever the truth may be, everything changed when Lord Daren traveled through the forest a week ago. You knew his face as his courser walked up the road toward you, and even if you didn't recognize his face it didn't take a genius to guess who the man surrounded by a dozen armored knights and two squires was. Arguably the richest - and some might say the most ruthless - vassal of King Humont, Lord Daren paid no heed to the bowing ranger as he rode past. You waited for the Lord to pass before standing again, but instead you hear the thrum of a bowstring in the trees behind you. You spring to your feet as the knight to Daren's right slumped to the ground, followed by one of the squires crying out as an arrow pinned his hand to his chest. In a flash you nocked an arrow and let it fly, firing another into the tree across the road before the first body had started to fall. When the first bandit hit the dusty road, an arrow sticking out where his left eye once was, the Ranger had fired three arrows into three men. While the caravan turned and spun in confusion, you kept firing at faint shadows in the trees, feathering Daren's would-be assassins. Once the bandits in the trees were dead, the reinforcements rushed Lord Daren. Segon and the knights, now with visible enemies, made quick work of the rabble seeking to ransom one of the most dangerous men in Elaria.
As the last of the thugs tries to flee you put an arrow in his leg. He's dragged off by knights armored in boiled leather, and you don't have to hear what they're saying to know what lies in store for the fool. The knights salute you and one says "I heard about you Rangers, never thought it was true until now." You try to tell him you're no Ranger but you're cut off by Lord Daren. "Knights! Seize her!" Without a second's hesitation the two closest armored monkeys grab and drag you to Daren. "You fight well, and you react faster than any man I've ever seen, but though you wear the grey hood I know you're no Ranger."
"Never said I was. In fact I've been trying to get the bloody peasants to stop calling me that for years."
"Hmmm, a woman with the skills of a Ranger and without the moral code?" He considered you closely before offering you the horse of the knight who took an arrow in the neck for his lord.
"Ride with me, we have much to discuss." Sensing this isn't negotiable, you sling your bow over your shoulder and mount the horse.
Daren yelled at the injured squire to stop "squealing like a stuck pig or he'd stick him properly."
The other squire asked what he should do with the body of the dead knight. "Throw him over your damn shoulder if you care so much. Everyone else not keen on wasting my time, we make for the estate."
Daren's estate was filled with velvets and expensive furniture and everything you think a person has no need for. Disgusted by the wasteful use of materials in this estate you decide to keep your words succinct for fear of breathing in the poison of civilization. In Daren's private study you listened to his offer silently, constantly scanning the room and the man for clues to his intent. He wanted you to travel to the Widow's Coast, and before you could protest he dropped the largest bag of gold on the table.
"What need have I of this?" You ask, and Daren replies "Ranger, if you do not accept my offer I'll have you executed for conspiracy to assassinate a noble lord and vassal of King Humont. You may as well take the gold coins rather than the iron shackles." You realize you are a rodent caught in a trap set by someone much larger than you, and that in the end you have no choice but to comply and hope he frees you without skinning you.
The next morning, after an uneasy rest in a feather bed, you set out for the Widow's Coast.
Your task seems as simple as it is strange; you need to:
- Find a way into the Nemroll Ruins,
- Locate a bronze pendant with a relief of two dragons intertwined on it,
- Destroy the inner garden if it still exists,
- Deliver the pendant to a man in Goll.
Lord Daren said little of his motives - and paid all the more for that - apart from it being crucial to the continued survival of Elaria. You don't tell him that Elaria was around long before anyone set a flag on it and will be there long after that flag is in tatters. You suspect that he might be put off by that. Instead, you head out at first light, your bow draped over your shoulder.
You arrive at the outskirts of a small fishing village resting upon the cliffs of the Widow's Coast just as the sun begins its slow escape beyond the horizon.
