#while the Commander is fighting he circles up above and swoops down to rescue injured soldiers from the front line

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

Alright know what here's a little Guild Wars 2 reblog game for everybody; what mounts (if any) do your characters have in their canon, do they have names? Personalities? How'd they meet??

Spill it all below, tell me about all your creatures!!

[qualiteadnd]

The Chase is On

— A CHWINGA CHASERS ADVENTURE

With the city still in danger, Sei’ku and Messenger set sail in the pursuit of the yuan-ti and the stolen treasures of Halarahh.

Finding the city in a state of chaos and panic on their return, Sei’ku and Messenger quickly parted ways with Elmuuth and sought out familiar faces and answers. Though the Netyarch was unavailable immediately, they were able to speak quickly with some of the guards. The yuan-ti, seemingly displeased by the city’s return to the area, launched an attack by sea that caught Halarahh unaware.

The threat, to Messenger’s disappointment, had already retreated to the sea once more, but the city remained shook as some fires continued to blaze along the harbor.

Feeling beholden to the city they’d been calling home, the two of them spent the next tenday aiding however they could. Messenger, strong and tireless as he was by design, assisted in efforts to physically rebuild after the fires were put out. With only so much divine healing at his disposal, Sei’ku worked long hours with the healers of the city, bandaging and soothing the injured through more traditional means.

They accepted little payment for their efforts, focused more on seeing the city emerge from the ashes. And so when the Netyarch reached out once more, they answered her call.

The woman before them was tired, but Netyarch Kerime met them as regally as ever. A bandage wrapped around her hand and the shadows beneath her eyes were the only true signs of what she and her people had been through. “I’ve heard you’ve been helping my city. You have my gratitude, but I have yet another task to ask of you,” she said gravely.

“The artifact you recovered with Amara was taken from us. The yuan-ti came in force with a number of enslaved tabaxi and they raided and burned. I will not allow this to stand. Our mages have been tracking them since their strange vessel disappeared beneath the waves. An airship leaves port tomorrow to pursue them towards Chult — with or without you, but I pray it is with. You have aided us significantly these last few months and I would consider it a personal debt if you were to secure the Scarab. I can’t fathom what they want of it, but if they were this determined, it can be for nothing good.”

After assuring her that they would be on the ship by dawn, they asked after any captured in the attack and her own involvement during it.

She offered them a tense smile. “They were after arcane power, even took my finger to take my ring,” she said, with a gesture to her wrapped hand, “but that is, regrettably, all we know. The slaves we captured… they wore barbaric collars. Once the yuan-ti made their escape, those that did not return to the ship were executed remotely.”

Troubled by that knowledge, but no less determined to see the yuan-ti regret their attack on Halarahh, Sei’ku and Messenger made their exits and prepared for the journey.

Sei’ku was used to visions. It was part of the territory with divinity in the blood. His guide, Ithuriel, was not often talkative, but he communicated through dreams.

The night before leaving for Chult, he found himself standing in a dreamscape field of soft purple grain. The valley stretched on, a sea of amaranth planted between distant mountain peaks, with Sei’ku, insignificant and small, at the heart of it. This was familiar.

The fact that he was not alone in this field, that was new. Kneeling before him was a faceless figure cloaked in shadows. Their eyes, or what counted for them, met and a scream echoed through the valley.

Sei’ku woke in his room with a panicked start to empty silence. Just a dream, but even now Ithuriel’s warning echoed in the rapid beating of his heart: beware.

The Pride of Halar was a grand airship powered by six large crystals and kept aloft by a huge canvas balloon the length of the ship. Luckily, the ship hadn’t been docked during the assault. Captained by an excitable halfling man by the name of Felix of Khatz, it was now in commission of the crown to pursue the yuan-ti with the help of mages on board.

Felix was a jovial gentleman who welcomed them both warmly to his ship. With a “Tally ho!” the crew wasted little time in setting off with everyone accounted for. Messenger and Sei’ku met briefly with the mages responsible for scrying their quarry, but there was little either could do until the ship caught up. Even though the yuan-ti had a good head start, the mages promised the Pride of Halar would reach them before they made land.

Over the course of their travel, Messenger began to host a fight club of sorts with the crew. Professing enlightenment through challenge, there was a sense of spirituality in the way he looked at combat. Though Sei’ku often watched from his perch in the masts above, he could appreciate Messenger’s battle thirst in a new light. He didn’t agree — and during bouts of inactivity they lightly butted heads — but it was, in a way, enlightening.

Among the various sailors and Halruaan mages on board was a brown tabby tabaxi. While Messenger and Sei’ku had been recruited to hunt down the yuan-ti, Tabbus had volunteered to aid in the rescue of the tabaxi slaves the yuan-ti had taken. Keeping mostly to himself, however, no one knew too much about him.

As Messenger called another sparring circle together, Tabbus pulled himself up with his staff and approached. Accepting his challenge, he surprised Messenger with how quick he truly was. When the barbarian seemed utterly out of his depth, Sei’ku literally swooped in to try and mitigate. Together the two of them could only just keep up with the monk who eventually rolled back away from the fight.

A little fidgety, Tabbus looked between them now —Messenger with his metal fists still clenched and Sei’ku still holding the form of his own monastic traditions — and nodded mostly to himself. “Quite the tag team,” he said, batting a paw over his ear. “Let’s hope it stands up to whatever we face at the end of this journey.”

With the Pride of Halar expertly navigating the route of their quarry beneath the waves, the ship eventually lowered into the sea and anchored in an island cove. After several long days confined to the ship, Messenger and Sei’ku took advantage of the chance to stretch their legs and ventured out with one of the scouting parties.

The island itself was wild and the only signs of civilized life they found were ancient and forgotten ruins, half carved into the cliffs. With a couple of trinkets recovered and some fresh supplies gathered, they began to hear alarms from the ship.

Breaking from the treeline to the shore, they quickly spotted the issue: a dracoturtle had risen from the depths and didn’t seem keen on this ship in its cove.

Though the ship was already gearing to lift off, the crystals still needed time to charge up. But by the jets of steam the dracoturtle was giving off, they still weren’t moving fast enough. While Messenger seemed ready to wrestle a turtle, no one else was keen on engaging the massive creature.

Thinking fast, Sei’ku asked if anyone could speak draconic, to which Tabbus raised his hand. Looking for ‘stop,’ Sei’ku repeated the harsh word back to Tabbus until he had it right and flew up over the ship with Pharos, his spear. Shouting the draconic word with all the divine power of Command, Sei’ku managed to startle the creature with his audacity long enough for the Pride of Halar to lift out of the water.

Messenger glumly returned Nameless to its sheath. “We could have killed the turtle.”

From the partially loaded ballista he had been struggling to ready, Felix was the only one to share those sentiments.

The next days of travel went by without much fanfare. Before they could catch up to the yuan-ti, however, Felix had them anchor once more to allow everyone one last chance to prepare before they engaged. Feeling pretty prepared to fight and retrieve already, Messenger and Sei’ku explored the coast while keeping an eye out for errant turtles.

But they spotted something else out of place first: a maple tree.

Curious, they investigated and found the tree to be an even stranger oddity than they first guessed. After poking around the bright red leaves, they were surprised to get poked back. The tree — or treant as it were — wasn’t sure what to make of the bird-ish looking and metal men staring back at him and they certainly had no idea what to make of him.

Introducing himself as Stonebark Fallbreeze, he asked what had stranded them on his little corner of nowhere. Explaining they’d come by airship and weren’t stranded, they asked if there were more treefolk like him in there area. He seemed a little out of place.

“No, no. Haven’t seen much of anyone around these parts. Came by ship some years ago, but it’s been rather boring here. And a little too green, to be honest with you folks,” he added, prodding at one of the ferns.

With a glance towards Messenger, Sei’ku offered, “Well, we have a ship. We’re in the middle of something, but if you don’t mind joining us, we should be returning to Halruaa soon.”

Intrigued, the treant shook his root-limbs free of the sandy soil. “Sounds more exciting than anything here. You folks seem better company than the lizards at least.”

Before they could ask, there was a bit of a commotion from deeper in the jungle. The trio moved to investigate — Stonebark putting in a little more effort to keep up with his new companions — and quickly found Captain Felix in a tangle with some lizards [read as: dinosaurs]. They took care of the pack of creatures harassing Felix quick enough, but the roar of an even larger lizard [read as: a tyrannosaur] meant they didn’t get to relax for long.

Despite the reptile’s valiant effort to eat the halfling captain, they managed to put the creature down. With some help from their recently acquired shaman’s own summoned beasts, it was easy going.

“As fun as that was,” Felix said, wiping dinosaur saliva from his everything, “high time we set off. Vessel to catch and all that.” Then Felix really took in the nature of their new friend and tilted his head back. “And, ah, who might you be? A new ally in our quest, perhaps? Jolly good!”

To the surprise of no one, Felix was more than accommodating in letting the treant board his ship. And without a draconic beast hastening their departure this time, the Pride of Halar soon returned to the sky.

But as night fell and storm clouds rolled in, Felix and the mages remained on deck and kept all hands at the ready. “Keep sharp, folks!” the captain warned. “We’ll be descending on those slippery snakes momentarily!”

And as their cloud cover parted, the crew could finally see what the mages had been scrying since before the journey began: a massive, metallic underwater ship just beneath the waves.

Stonebark Fallbreeze — Treefolk Warden Shaman. Played by Malfrost.