Oh, Eliana, sweet Eliana… What a troubled beauty she is. Oh! Pardon me, I did not see you there. Please, please, sit down. Care to hear a story? Great! I was just reminiscing about sweet Eliana, the beauty of Vesuva. Surely you have been to the Port? Regardless, everyone with ears has heard the tales of Eliana and her beauty, but in case you haven’t - It is I who shall enlighten you.
A few months ago rumor began to circulate about this woman named… Well, you probably figured it out, Eliana. Eliana was unlike any woman to ever set foot in Vesuva before. Tall, skinny with long, silky dirty blonde hair and hazel eyes. She drove the men in the Port wild. Not that it was hard to do, the Port of Vesuva saw all manner of scoundrel and pirates known to this side of Fenrir. Even I would be seen as a prize amongst these men, but Eliana was a cut above the rest.
But dear, sweet, Eliana… She had more surprises than just her looks. She had traveled far and wide, no doubt capturing every eye that viewed her, but she only searched because she was bored. Can you believe it? A woman who can have anything she wants! Bored! Settling down and marrying a rich man was not good enough for her and a big reason why she found herself in the Port of Vesuva. You see the young lass was desperate for something new. Desperate for adventure!
Any of those pirates would have taken her on their crew in a heartbeat, but you can’t confine such a goddess to the sea. Oh no, her need for adventure had to be satisfied on land. Right here on Fenrir. So she walked Vesuva in search of news, tidbits, whatever she could hear. She went to bars and town gatherings. She checked every notice board and flyer in hopes she would find what she was looking for. Then one day she journeyed out into the forest all on her own. Our sweet little Eliana out in the wild! Could you believe it?
After walking through the forest for some time, Eliana came upon a traveler. This traveler had clearly been through some things, she could tell by his dirty clothes and the way he was leaning.
“Are you alright?” she asked. The man went on to tell her that he had lost something very precious to him and the monsters that stole it brought it to a nearby cave. Clearly he was in no condition to go retrieve this item himself and Eliana saw an opportunity for an adventure. She offered to recover this item for him. The man explained that it was a trinket he had received from his mother, who had passed just a few months prior to their meeting. The trinket was connected to a silver chain and had a sapphire placed firmly in the center.
Eliana set out with her new found purpose. A potentially very dangerous one for our young beauty, Eliana… But she was not frightened. Whatever was in that cave she knew she could handle. However, when she arrived at the cave she heard people arguing inside. Other adventurers had beaten her here. She approached the cave slowly and heard the people rummaging through the treasure. But before she could enter the cave, a man spoke out to her from behind. It startled her.
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“Wandered into the wrong parts,” the man said to Eliana.
“I’m just here looking for a friend’s trinket. He said he lost it and some monsters took it here,” she replied.
The man led her into the cave and showed her the monsters. There was a large group of goblins dead on the floor. The leader of these humans was a female pirate. One who you would think would be jealous of Eliana’s beauty, but instead she respected it. The two spoke to each other and the pirate offered Eliana the trinket in question as long as she didn’t tell the authorities that she and her pirates were looting the cave. Eliana agreed and rushed out of the cave quickly to return to the traveler. She was smiling that she succeeded in her mission without much struggle or hardship.
When she returned to the post where she found the traveler, she didn’t see the traveler anywhere. She held the trinket close to her chest and sighed. Beautiful Eliana wanted nothing more than to make this person’s day. Then she heard someone call out from behind a nearby tree.
“Over here!” they said.
Cautiously, Eliana approached the tree… What stepped out from behind it was a tiny goblin.
“My cloaking spell wore off,” the little goblin explained.
In that moment, Eliana’s heart sank. You see, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that the monsters in this tale were not the goblins. Eliana knelt down and returned the trinket to the goblin. She apologized for the behavior of her own people, though an apology from Eliana would never be enough to excuse what had happened to this goblin’s friends or family. It didn’t matter how beautiful Eliana was.
The goblin took the trinket and thanked Eliana.
“I know the actions of some of your people don’t represent the actions of all of your people,” said the little goblin.
It would be best if our kind understood the same, don’t you think? The goblin reached into its tiny little pocket and removed a similar trinket to the one Eliana recovered.
The goblin handed it to Eliana and said, “Hold this up whenever you feel lost or unsure of what to do.”
Eliana nodded to the goblin and the goblin ran into the woods. Eliana returned to the road. She wanted an adventure, but she did not expect this to happen. She contemplated what happened and where to go from here. She heard the pirates returning to Vesuva from the road she just traveled. They were pushing a cart of the treasure they just looted. Eliana really didn’t want to encounter these pirates again, especially now that she knew they were the villains in this story. She held the trinket up and it began to glow.
When the pirates reached the path, they saw the trinket. Similar to the one they gave Eliana and beside it they saw a fresh pair of goblin footprints...