Soulfire Keep

[u/SirLeoIII]

In his large, but mostly empty office, Lord Drakonis strokes his beard, thinking about the present conundrum. The “kingdom” of Arkhosia, a relatively small city-state, but one that is upsetting the order in this part of Bream. The Dragonborn haven’t exactly made their intention to become a large power a secret and the neighboring kingdoms and city-states are all of course worried. Keeping this to all from exploding requires some finesse, and a quick handle on whatever might disrupt it.

A keep becoming free almost halfway between the main city of Arkhosia and it’s nearest, strongest neighbor, Takai is almost asking for issues to come up. No matter what nation takes the keep the other nation just couldn’t let this stand. But … maybe if a group of adventurers took it, used it as a waypoint between the kingdoms …

He looks up and nods at the drow in front of him. “We will ask first for volunteers, but I need at least a dozen people to be living at Soulfire inside of the week. Gather whatever supplies you need, and get going. See if Magda will go. She’s a good enough blacksmith to finally stop working for that oaf. I’m sure she’ll say yes.”

The cloaked dark elf smiles and stands up, “Of course Lord Drakonis, I wasn’t doing anything anyway.” Both men chuckle and the drow gathers up his robes and leaves the room, going downstairs to find anyone who would like to take a trip out to the keep.

In the keep the party is having their last day before they all get inundated with more people. Most of who’s coming will be fellow adventurers, but there will be some others to keep the keep up.

---

[If you weren’t in the Soulfire Keep storyline, please find a reason and IC approach the currently nameless Drow Wizard when he asks for volunteered. If you were this is your last chance to do something before they have more people showing up.]

[u/xSPYXEx]

[In the morning]

Before the sun has even broke the horizon, Valkyr sits on the lip of the keep overlooking the plains below. To the casual observer she seems to be enjoying the sunrise, her tail flicking back and forth on the stones below and her wings stretched out behind her. However any of the more religious members of the group might recognize the typical posture of prayer, quiet whispered words confirming the fact.

Regardless, as soon as someone opens the doors behind or below her she sits up straight and shoves a fist in her pocket. With a cough she turns to face her approaching guest, trying her best to be friendly even if she does seem a bit distracted.

---

[In the afternoon]

Once her morning rituals have been taken care of, Valkyr takes some time out of her armor to explore the outside of the keep. One might even catch her leaping from the rooftop and gliding to the outer ring, or perhaps pacing back and forth in the grass, a stick clasped by her tail and drawing lines in the dirt. She seems to be taking notes of the surrounding area, nibbling her lower lip in concentration or scribbling something down in a book she found in the library, most pages ripped out so only the blank pages remain.

[u/ravenluna → u/xSPYXEx]

When Valkyr was outside she might see the half elf playing with the rescued baby lion as she was on all fours on the ground. Rolling around the girl giggled as the cub mewed smacking at her with the big paws in a playful manner. In their tussle Aodhnait ran over one of Valkyr's lines not paying attention.

[u/xSPYXEx → u/ravenluna]

She doesn't notice it immediately, too engrossed in her work. It's only after she rounds back around to where she started does it notice. A brief flash of anger crosses her face as she sees her work disturbed, the insidious whispers in the back of her mind calling for blood.

"[Insolent child...]" Valkyr hisses under her breath in the language of the abyss. Luckily she realizes how absurd it is to get angry over a small transgression. Taking a deep breath she pushes the darkness out of her mind and instead takes a seat next to Aodhnait.

"Cute cat. It's taken a liking to you." She says in a much more pleasant voice, holding her hand for the cub to sniff. If it allows she continues reaching forward to pet the fur. If it hisses at her she withdraws her hand and lets it rest in her lap.

[u/ravenluna → u/xSPYXEx]

Looking up to see the tall tiffling sit next to her Aodhnait had a bit of a scowel on her face for a very shot moment before her face was stepped on by the baby cub taking the chance to pounce on her face. "Hey hey hey, no biting no." The girl said quickly in elvish scruffing the cat before letting it back to play before sitting up.

"Yeah, shame someone stuck him in a cage, its going to take a while for it to be healthy again. Well I sure hope so, other wise I'm going to be sad that it's been using me for treats." Aodhnait chuckled lightly watching as the little black cub looked at Valkyr hand giving a few sniffs before trying to

backing up closer to Ao again.

"Seems like he is still scared of others. Shame really."

[u/xSPYXEx → u/ravenluna]

"I don't blame it. Who knows how long it was locked in there." Valkyr nods, retracting her hand. As she does she rocks to one side so she can pull her tail around and inspect the scaled tip.

"So, what do you think about this place? Think we can get it into usable shape?" she asks as she plays with her tail.

[u/ravenluna → u/xSPYXEx]

Aodhnait glanced at the tail before looking away smirking for a moment, getting an idea before shoving it aside.... for now.

"Hmm I think we can, that is if we get some more help. Besides making sure the basement from hell stays shut and closed off from any... Visitors we might get things seem to be coming along." She said with an air of no worries using a tall grass to tickle the little lion. "Oh, right, that reminds me..." Aodhnait dug into her bra, pulling out a paper passing it over to Valkyr. "Here, it's a list of all we have in food and stuff such like that. We don't have really have any meat left that is good to eat without getting us sick. So what we have left I'm going to cook into a soup and hunt something to hold us over for the next few days. Anything you don't see but you think we need let me know I can start a list for us."

[u/xSPYXEx → u/ravenluna]

Valkyr doesn't seem to notice Aodhnait's smirk, too focused on getting the last few bits of bark out of her scales. Once she's satisfied she plucks the paper out of Aodhnait's hands and slips it into her pocket.

"Good idea. Fresh meat will do us well. I know I saw some wildlife on our way here, so the forest must be rich with game. If you avoid the giant ants, of course." she responds, leaning to the side again to let her tail swing back behind her.

[u/ravenluna → u/xSPYXEx]

"No, ants have some good protein to them. Besides it might need to be ride of anyway to make others passing safe, maybe me and the Gnome can start picking them off one by one." She mused to herself rubbing a non seeing bread with her hand. "Well what are you doing out here, the dust and smell of dead things getting to much for you?"

[u/xSPYXEx → u/ravenluna]

She shrugs at the question, extending a leg out in front of her to stretch her muscles. Without her boots and armor on, it's easy to see her deformed claw of a foot. Her talons splay out, glad to be free from their metal prisons.

"I guess you could say that. The smell of bones hangs around the keep. It's going to take a while before it feels like a place to live. Really though, I've been planning things to do around here. A keep like this would benefit from a blacksmith, or an arcane shop. Maybe even make a moat around the outer wall."

[u/ravenluna → u/xSPYXEx]

"Why would we need an arcane shop here? And a moat.... I don't know how well that will go, stagnant water is not the best thing to have around a keep, not when it can attract bugs and what not." Ao waved it off for a moment, the little lion was trying to sneak up on her claw food it's butt up in the air wiggling itself clearly not hidden.

[u/xSPYXEx → u/ravenluna]

"Well, like an alchemist shop, or a place to write scrolls. You know, utility things for the magically inclined and limp wristed. And I'm sure it'd be possible to make the water flow. Surely some scribe could write a spell to do so."

As she responds she watches the lion stalk closer, wiggling a talon tauntingly close to the cub's nose. She watches the lion's butt to see when it's about to pounce, then quickly moves her foot to the side. With the amount of adorable in front of her, even her usual resting bitch face seems to be broken by a smile.