((Played by the lovely Ms. Ravyn, GM'd by myself. Please pardon the rough notes to start.))<br/><br/>(Intro/Hook)<br/><br/>Two days ago, a local Baron had posted an offer of employment to all passing mercenaries and adventurers of any kind.<br/><br/>The Baron was known in these parts as being a brutal, heavy-handed and proud warlord.  To hear of him asking for help was somewhat rare; particularly of this sort of delicate issue.  After haggling and discussion with many potential offers, the Baron hired the adventurer known as Ziah.  Perhaps it was because she offered one of the slightly lower prices, but there were few questions when the Baron slid across half of the promised payment into the young tiefling's hands.<br/><br/>Yet there were two details that left doubts in the woman's mind, even as she approached the Tangled Wood.<br/><br/>The "Tangle", its most common name, was a fitting title for the mass of overgrown, unkempt and rampant growth of trees that had knotted themselves together in the southern reaches of the Baron's lands.  It was well-known that the Baron favoured banishing some of the more problematic citizens in his holdings to the Tangle, never to be seen again under the assumption that the feral beasts, the mysterious elementals, or the strange magics would consume them.  Indeed, no soul had properly mapped or explored the Tangle in over a century.<br/><br/>Rumors were told of those that dared set a few tentative steps into the place.  The odd scent of a nearby bog or swamp was kept somewhere in the Tangle's reach - a sweet sort of odor that grew stronger as you dared deeper into the Tangle.  Glimpses of creatures that flickered and glowed in the limited light, and the legends that not all who were banished did perish: some survived, and thrived.<br/><br/>The two thoughts floated back into Ziah's mind as she stood, one hand on the pouch of gold at her waist, staring at the northern entryway into the Tangle; framed by two entwined trees that formed a rough archway.<br/><br/>The Baron's daughter was the reason for the mission; to retrieve her and bring her home.  Yet he admitted that she had been gone for three weeks already.  Why on earth would he have waited so long to send rescue?  And...if the Tangle was truly the place for the banished, maybe she wouldn't want to leave even if she was found?<br/><br/>(First Post)<br/><br/><br/>Ziah finished patting herself down, checking one last time that everything was packed, and her trusty weapons are still here. She took the first steps into the embrace of the Tangled Wood, her keen ranger eyes sweeping the ground before her, then her eye-level surroundings, and finally the treetops that she could see hanging above for signs of movement. The faint scent of the lowland swamps that she'd heard so much about is already tickling her nostrils, but it doesn't seem to be much of a bother right now. The trees are clumping together in tighter and denser formations, creating near-solid walls of wood here and there, though the fading daylight is still easy to slip through the cracks between branches.<br/><br/>So far, she's wandered into what one might call the 'lobby' of the wood's northern entrance, judging by the small clearing and the rotting signpost that has been hammered into a fork in the road.<br/><br/>There are two pathways at the signpost; one that is narrow and littered with exposed roots. It curves upwards off beyond a gnarl of underbrush to the left. There is another, wider path to the right - it seems to run straight so far, but a series of low-hanging branches obscures clear sight.<br/><br/>Further to the right, there is a third path that is not marked with its own signpost. This one has a gentle slope downwards, and seems to be a little better lit by natural light.<br/><br/>The sounds of crickets and the rustling of birds in the upper branches are the only sounds Ziah can hear.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>