Gale

We left Onstrend about two days ago now, and since then we’ve had some casual conversations with each other but not anything substantial. Currently the sun was setting, so we decided to set up camp in a small patch of forest about a day out from Ryciden on our map. Corrin woke up about two hours through our journey complaining about how uncomfortable his nap was, we all then proceeded to remind him he was sleeping on the floor. Monsoon almost caused a little accident on our trip, she nearly spilled a bottle of some nasty smelling chemical she was fiddling with. NoName thankfully was able to catch it and cork it before anything spilled. We got all of our camping gear out of the cart, set it up along with a campfire, and as we were finishing up Kellen said.

“We’ve been together for a few nights now and we haven’t properly introduced ourselves, so why not take the opportunity to do it now? Look, all of you probably think we don’t need some sort of introduction, because we already had one. That introduction was nothing and it was only our first names, we don’t know any of each other’s last names. NoName probably doesn’t need to participate considering they told us everything they know about themselves already.”

“And who do you suggest goes first Kel?” Corrin spoke up asking.

Kellen replied by just shooting an expecting look at him.

“I now regret speaking up, well I guess if proper introductions are asked for. I am Corrin Isol, I am a monk of Ranon, god of the stars and skies. ” Corrin properly introduced himself.

Kellen looked at Corrin expectantly with a hand gesture like she was telling him ‘go on’.

Corrin let out a sigh and continued talking “uhh… I’m from Moricaiya, a region in Fairewind, and like I said before I’m on a journey. This journey is the last leg on the path for me to become a full fledged monk of Ranon.”

“See?, wasn’t a proper introduction nice?” Kellen asked like we were all going to just suddenly open up to this new group of people, “Now how about you guys.” She said pointing to me and my siblings.

“Oh us!?” I said motioning towards ourselves. “We don’t have a last name”

“We do have a home through, a town in Southern Lithiyurn,” Seethe followed me up, “Lahal.”

“We grew up there in an orphanage together, raised by a high elf named Zahar Arnes.” Monsoon added.

“Zahar used to be an adventurer, he used to lead a group known as Wise Hearts. When the group disbanded and he retired he opened up an orphanage that he named the House of the Golden Heart.” Quarry said.

“Huh so you guys are orphans too?” Corrin asked.

“If we are looking for more orphans, I believe I would qualify as an orphan myself as well. Seeing as how I don’t know who or what created me, since my creator would technically be my parent.” NoName added.

I chuckled, I didn’t know if NoName had a sense of humor but if they did, they had a pretty darn good one.

“NoName I get, but Corrin, how are you an orphan?” Kellen again surprised asked.

“When followers of Ranon have a child they have to give up the child to a house. I guess orphan may not be the best word for it though.” Corrin answered. “The house we grow up in determines our last name; for example, Isol is a last name for the House of the Hermit, you know, like the constellation. ”

“What about your parents, how do they deal with giving up their child?” Monsoon asked

Corrin responded “Oh, we still get to know our parents but instead of parents they are more like teachers. Our parents are the ones who teach us about the practices and traditions of Ranon. While the person who would be our guardian is the elder monk of Ranon who is aligned with the constellation our house represents.”

While Corrin was discussing this I could tell he was getting increasingly excited, his culture seemed to be a big deal to him. I thought Corrin was the quiet type, but I guess he just hadn’t had anything he wanted to talk about before.

“Cool, I guess. So besides Kellen, am I the only one who has yet to properly introduce myself? So am I next, ‘cause I don’t wanna be next.” Liz commetened

“I can go first if you want Liz” Kellen suggested

“Go ahead, I ain’t in any rush.” Liz replied.

“My full name is Kellen Dorritha, I’m from ‘The Bastion City: Trensor’, my parents are Klein and Sala Dorritha. If you couldn’t tell, I'm a Kalashtar and I speak Common, Quori, Primordial, Elvish, and Undercommon. I am currently twenty years old.” Kellen said with a huge grin on her face as if she had scripted this beforehand. She had said that all so fast all of us our jaws dropped, or at least those of us who had jaws. “So any questions?”

“Hey Quarry wasn’t a man named Klein Dorritha a part of Wise Hearts?” Seethe asked.

“I think s-” Quarry got out before being interrupted.

“He was. Along with Sir Donovan Wisehorn, a Paladin of Bahamut, your guys’ foster dad, Zahar Arnes, a Drow Elf monk named Lunaya Lonis and General Alight Voxith of the Fairewind Arcane Navy.” Liz said out of nowhere. “Before any of you ask, I know all of this Sir Donovan is a personal hero of mine so I did my fair bit of research into him. While researching him I learned about his previous adventuring group Wise Hearts, surprised though, the fact that five of you are related to them is insane.”

“Make that six,” Corrin raised his hand and commented. “I mean I’m not related to her per say but, Lunaya is the Elder Monk of the House of the Hermit, and so she served as my primary instructor and caretaker back at the monastery. I can't believe that old hag went adventuring in her time, always thought she was kind of boring.”

I didn’t know that Zahar was that big of a deal, but I guess none of my siblings did either. I’m honestly surprised I thought that Wise Hearts was a small time mercenary group, not an adventuring band big enough to be recorded all the way in the Wildlands, the place with only one location that resembles a city.

“This connection to this group named Wise Hearts you all have is very interesting. Most of my kind would likely just say that is a coincidence, but I think this may very well be fate.” NoName said with a light chuckle.

“I’d say, kind of crazy how we’re all interconnected somehow. Does seem like fate huh?” Monsoon said, grinning very giddy.

Quarry said obviously trying to curb a bit of Monsoon’s excitement. “A bit of an exaggeration but it is quite insane honestly how all of us save for NoName and Liz are connected.”

“Liz since you seem to feel up to talking now, wanna take your turn?” Kellen asked.

“Sure… ugh. I’m Lizles Aleis, I’m from the Wildshifter tribe located on the Beastrune Mountains up in the north-east side of the Wildlands, I’m 25. I don’t really have anything else interesting about me, except that I’m from a barbarian tribe I guess.”

“Well nice to meet you Ms.Aleis, now ‘The Siblings’ since we don’t know your last name, care to properly introduce yourselves, since you were interrupted before.”

Seethe started us off by saying. “Uh… yeah sure; I’m Seethe, I’m 20 years old, from the town of Lahal, son of an unknown woman and my patron, an Efreeti who lives in my lantern.” stomping his staff onto the ground showing it off.

I thought to myself “Guess I’m next” and said “I am Gale, I’m 20, also from Lahal, unlike Seethe the rest of us didn’t have the luxury of knowing the identity of our parents, genie or otherwise, but I did learn some magic tricks from Zahar.” trying to match Seethe’s flourish I unsheathe my rapier a bit and let it glow with ‘Minor Illusion’.

I looked over towards Monsoon and Quarry and saw that they were playing ‘Boulder, Parchment, Shears’ probably seeing who would go first between them. Quarry lost, then they tied, then Quarry lost the best of three. He was visibly upset, which was very rare and very funny. So in hesitation Quarry sighed and said “...I am Quarry, I’m 23 years old, like the rest of my siblings I am from Lahal, I was in the military for a few years before meeting back up with them. I was part of the Lithiyurn border guard for about eight years. I protected that border with the Rune Guard Company, which is where I was taught how to use these.” mimicking Seethe and I, Quarry lit up the runes on his halberd.

When we all looked at Monsoon awaiting her introduction, she was writing down something in one of her notebooks. I sighed and knew she was making a script. Monsoon looked up and said. “Now it's my turn! I am Monsoon Arnes from Lahal! When I was dropped off at the orphanage I was given this rusty ring that even after 19 years, my current age, I still haven’t been able to clean it. When I was 15 I moved away from the orphanage and went to pursue my passions for a few years, learning how to do alchemy. Though I was away I still kept in touch with my home and made sure I still had a strong relationship with my family. Now I would do a flourishing move like the others but all these bottles have highly unstable and volatile chemicals and I really don’t wanna blow us up or anything.”

Watching Monsoon’s introduction made everyone burst out in laughter, though those of us who knew why she left had a more sour mood.

While laughing Corrin asked “Heh… wait you’re older than me? How you’re so childish.”

“If you want an actual answer, I basically isolated myself from physical interaction with other people for 4 years so I haven’t had the chance to properly mature in a social context. A joke answer would be, you’re younger than me so now you have to listen to everything I say.” Monsoon said with a personality switch faster than Corrin’s reflexes.

Another burst of laughter came from that exchange. When the laughter died down everyone in the group seemed tired which made sense, we just had a long day of travel and the moon was getting higher in the sky.

“I think it’s about time we all settle down for the night. Who wants to be on the first watch?” Kellen asked.

NoName raised their hand “I can be on watch the whole night, I do not need to sleep, I do need to be inactive but for only 6 hours, but I am still conscious and can switch to an active mode quickly.”

“Well I trust you NoName, the rest of us should start settling down for the night then.” Kellen said.

And so we did, Liz took a page out of Corrin’s book choosing to sleep in the cart using her bag as a pillow. Corrin, seeing his spot taken, decided to sleep next to the campfire and quickly fell asleep. NoName went inactive as soon as Kellen asked for everyone to settle down, though their eyes were still doing their glowing thing. Speaking of Kellen, she and Seethe stayed up talking for a bit in primordial, talking about the intricacies of Kellen’s faith and what it meant to her, and how Seethe ended up having his father as his patron. The rest of us set up next to each other, Monsoon tinkering for a long while before going to sleep, and Quarry doing some weapon maintenance. I started organizing my things before I went to sleep, once I was sure everything was in order, I laid down in my sleeping bag and went to sleep,