Aria crouched low on the ridge of the mountain pass, her cloak held tight against her body against the frigid winds and falling snow. Just below her a white eyed elf in gold armor with burn scars across his face argued with what appeared to be a large bipedal bug with four arms holding an alarmingly large battle-axe. She assumed they were arguing at least, as it seemed most of the noises coming out of their mouths were a series of clicks, keens, chirps, and chitters that sounded perfectly normal coming out of the man-bug, but far more strained coming from the elf. It didn’t really matter to her what they were saying though, she was just grateful that they were distracted, for some small distance behind them, next to a laden wooden cart, was the reason she was in this frozen mountain pass. A small brown-haired girl of roughly 14 years, Mary, lay tied up and shivering behind the two. Her tattered clothes doing little to keep the cold at bay.

Aria had been tracking her for two weeks now, ever since the portly mayor of Riverwick had seen her holy symbol and had approached her, seeking help finding his missing daughter. Apparently, she’d been spirited away from her room in the middle of the night. None of the staff noticing the disappearance. They’d been searching the town for her for days to no avail when she’d arrived. Aria, after a couple of…less than polite inquiries with the local color, had managed to discover she had left town in the night, being led by the hand by a man cloaked in shadow. Two weeks of tracking through dense wood and brush then up into the mountains, and she was just in time to catch her captors trying to drag her into their mountain lair. To do what she didn’t know, and didn’t want to find out. Aria could tell from how they moved that the two below her knew how to handle themselves in a fight, and she didn’t like the thought of facing them two-against-one. She moved silently as she could down the ridge, edging herself towards the girl, suddenly grateful for the strong wind she had been cursing minutes before.

Though it was Gadriel she prayed to, it seemed Jov and his divine luck were with her today as she managed to approach the cart without her adversaries noticing her. It seemed their argument was heating up. As Aria crouched silently next to the cart she whispered to Mary as loudly as she dared, just loud enough to be heard over the wind, “I’m here to help, can you walk?” Mary, eyes wide with terror, nodded silently. Aria pulled her dagger from belt and cut her bonds loose. She felt eyes on her, looking up her steel blue eyes locked with the man-bugs giant bulbous. It chittered and pointed at her, seemingly in a panic. “There goes Jovs’ damned luck; so much for the easy escape” she thought to herself as the elf turned. She quickly stood and unhitched her shield and hammer from her back, putting herself between Mary and her kidnappers. Her large warhammer suddenly burst into grey flame and she yelled at the two, “Stay back and no one gets hurt!”

The elf was frowning and looking past her as he drew his longsword, and the man-bug cracked its second set of…knuckles?… as its upper arms leveled its waraxe. “It took us the better part of a day to drag that damn girl out of that dungeon and subdue her!” called back the elf, “Now we’re going to have to do it all over again…” The man-bug made chittering noises and the elf nodded along with him.

Confused but undeterred Aria was getting ready to rush them when she heard a scream come from behind her. Turning, then taking a few steps back in horror and shock as the skin on Marys’ face started to peel away in strips, revealing the muscles and six eyes they had been concealing. She began chanting in a dark tongue and started to lift from the ground as her arms grew into long spindly things with razor sharp claws at the ends. She heard the elf shout again, “You let her go, you get to help.”