Chapter 1: Chapter 1

Iris was no stranger to waking up in strange places. She got around. Be it in the bed of some stranger, or camped in the back of her truck in some far off locale, she very rarely woke up in the same place twice. But this was different. This was strange. And very concerning. 

For starters, she had been in her truck when she had crawled into bed. As she picked herself up, grass, damp with the morning's dew, squelched beneath her hands. As she blinked sleep from her eyes, Iris was met with the strangeness of her surroundings. Trees stretched out and up as far as the eye could see, encircling the clearing she found herself within like the imposing walls of a penitentiary. Her mind lagged, as she struggled to come to some rational conclusion as to how she had ended up here.

Seeing as how she had been driving through the arid reaches of the Great Basin, a simple run from Carson City to Salt Lake City, her brain drew a blank. Iris hauled herself to her knees, wincing. She'd had her fair share of hangovers, but never had she had a headache like the one she was experiencing now. Her head felt like it was being viciously stomped on by a coterie of angry bulls- very, very spiteful bulls who kept aiming for the temples. She couldn't help but groan, clutching her head in her hands.

"Where the hell am I?"

That was all she could think to ask herself. She certainly wasn't expecting the response. Flaring to life before her eyes, dazzling her already strained eyes, was something like a screen. Her lip curled and her eyes squinted as she read it. She almost wanted to laugh, the concept of what it said being so ridiculous.

---

• Situation Updated; New Quest Initiated! 
  You've woken up in the middle of nowhere! Best figure out what is going on!
• Objective: Explore; 0 / 1

---

Her eyes flickered across that screen again and again. She had no clue where it had come from, and as she reached out to touch it, the display wavered and fizzled. She tried a few more times- and finally got a response when she tracked across the display with her eye, mentally guiding it towards the grid shape in the upper right corner. Iris had little practice using technology, she wasn't 'hip' like her nieces. Her job involved a lot of travel, particularly through desolate reaches of the United States, and that meant no service, which rendered most contemporary technology useless. But the screen was intuitive enough for her to navigate, albeit quite hesitantly. 

"This is ridiculous...Whatever I drank last night, I'm never touching it again. I hate stupid dreams."

As she selected the grid, she was met with an entirely new display, joining the first slightly off to the left.

---

Iris Neumann 

• Lineage: Far Traveler
• Occupation: N / A

Attributes

• Strength - Notable
• Endurance - Extraordinary 
• Fortitude - Extraordinary
• Intellect - Average
• Affinity - Negligible

Intrinsic Traits

• Traveler's Guidance - Perception is altered to allow information to be accessed and digested more efficiently.
• Long Haul - Endurance and Fortitude are massively increased. Resistance to the elements is greatly increased.

---

It took Iris a long time to get down the list. Not for any lack of reading comprehension, she could get through it just fine. It was the contents of that list that sent her reeling. What was an Outsider? What did 'attributes' even mean? And what was up with the numbers? Pieces collected slowly- she guessed that whatever "Traveler's Guidance" was, it was what these screens were. Something to help her access and digest information about her current situation. 

It wasn't fucking helping.

She picked herself up, and nearly jumped when she was met with a soft;

"Mrrp!"

She looked down, and was met with the comforting sight of the ugliest cat she had ever laid eyes upon. Her fur was off-white, like a used napkin, and just as rumbled. Her ears were crooked, her eyes wild. She held herself with an oddly wonky posture, her back half-arched and legs raised up as if she were on her tip-toes. Iris felt relief blossom in her chest, it washed over her in waves, and for the first time since she had woken up and been assailed with all manner of strangeness- here was a piece of home.

"Napkin," Iris said, her voice hoarse. She leaned down to pick her cat up, and pulled her close to her chest. Iris wasn't prone to wanton displays of emotion, but there she stood, her eyes damp and her lip quivering. Of all the things, it was the thought that she would leave Napkin alone that terrified her the most. And with her presence, she was able to banish some of the anxiety that had begun to cloud her thoughts. She stood still for a moment longer, Napkin purring against her, before the cat wormed her way out of Iris' arms and onto one of her broad shoulders, where she dangled like a limp rag.

Iris stood a little taller. She breathed just a little bit easier. She blinked away the tears that had threatened to spill from her eyes, and swallowed thickly- steeling herself.

"Probably just dreaming. Or crazy. Maybe we're dead. Hell if I know. Might as well look around, I guess...?"

Iris posed the question to Napkin, who, being a cat, did not answer. Iris shrugged as she hesitantly took a step. Then another. She set off slowly, cautiously, into the woods.

---

She'd walked for hours. Hours. And she didn't feel a thing. Iris was in shape, quite so. But even she then, she shouldn't have been able to trek through untamed underbrush for hours on end like she was taking a stroll in the park. She hadn't even broken a sweat, and Napkin had long ago fallen soundly asleep, leaving Iris to set a pace to her quiet, content breathing. That left Iris alone to her thoughts, which was more often than not quite a dangerous thing.

What if this isn't a dream? What if I've wound up missing in some strange spot of wilderness, never to be found? But how did I even get here? Why is Napkin here? And what's with the screens?

Iris shook her head, muttering to herself. It wouldn't do to get lost in thought now. She was vulnerable out here.

So she kept walking. On, and on, and on. Iris walked until the sun began to set, and on she walked still. The forest was as beautiful as it was seemingly endless. She had never seen such a variety of flowers in her life. Some twisted up the trunks of trees like creepers, others made their homes nestled between the roots of the larger trees. She even passed a bouquet of huge, thorny flowers with morbidly pale petals, blood-red veins sticking out starkly. They were bunched within the hollowed out trunk of a dead tree. She wanted to inspect them, at first, but the pungent scent of rot drove her away. And when she looked down to find a bone crunching underfoot, she beat an even hastier retreat. 

It was well into the night when the darkness was split by light. It was so sudden, and so bright, that it caused Iris to stumble back half a step. She held up a hand against the glare, grimacing.

"Who goes there?"

A gruff voice called out in her direction, and Iris felt suddenly relieved. People! She lowered her hand, blinking the dazzling light from her eyes; and her brow knit suddenly in consternation. Never in her life had she seen someone dressed like the man before her- not in real life, anyway. A bulls-eye lantern clasped in one hand, another resting on the pommel of a sword, she got a good look at him. He was a good few inches shorter than Iris, with weathered skin and craggy features, his dark hair close-cropped and his beard well-trimmed. But it was what he wore that surprised her. Armor- honest to goodness metal armor, like something out of a movie. Iris was struck dumb by how incongruous the man was, and very nearly didn't hear what he said next.

"You! Woman! What are you doing here?"

Iris sobered quickly, the novelty of the man's outfit evaporating as she registered his tone. He was used to people listening to him. There was an air of authority and command to him. Iris sized him up, and it was clear in his posture that he was doing the same to her.

"Uh...Walkin'?"

That was the best she could muster. She looked around. The forest had gone on, and on for so long that she hadn't noticed it begin to thin out. The sameness of her surroundings had dulled her senses. She stood on the cusp of the forest's edge, which overlooked a rolling plain. She peered out behind the man, swallowing. The grassy hills rolled on for miles, with no end in sight. But they weren't barren. She couldn't gauge the distance properly, but a ways out was the unmistakable outline of a city. 

"Walking? Unarmed, without escort, through the Grimroot Forest?"

He scoffed, and Iris pulled a face. She had never heard of a 'Grimroot Forest' in her life.

"Uh...I guess? If that's where I am?"

She shrugged, gesturing around herself.

"Look, pal, I woke up in the middle of nowhere. I have no idea where I am, or where this is, or what a 'Grimroot Forest' is. Can you tell me where I am?"

The man took a step forward, and Iris stepped back. He squinted up at her, grumbling to himself. Iris quirked her brow, and the stranger stepped back again. He clipped his lantern to his belt, and relaxed his posture somewhat.

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"You haven't the making of a brigand about you. So I suppose you really are lost. You are on the border between the Grimroot Forest and the Rolling Plains. Just over yonder is the fortress-city of Rov," the man gestured to the city on the horizon, just barely visible, framed by the rising sun.

The...rising sun. Iris chewed her lip. She had walked all day, and all night, and she wasn't even tired.

"Never heard of it..." 

She began cautiously, and the man held up a hand.

"I have gathered that. I will escort you to the city gates. The wilderness is no place for an unarmed, unarmored woman. Even one of your...considerable size."

Iris' brow raised at that, and she crossed her arms. Her mind raced as she struggled to take in the information she had received. Grimroot Forest. Rolling Plains. Fortress-City of Rov. She was loathe to follow some stranger she had met in the middle of nowhere- but what choice did she have?

---

• Situation Updated; Quest Updated:
  You've made it through your first day! Having found your way out of the forest, you are presented with an opportunity! 
• Objective: Explore; 1 / 1
  Objective Complete!
• Reward: Simple Warhammer
  Quest Completed!

---

Iris held out her hand, and the man gave her a strange look. 

"You don't see the boxes?"

"...No?"

Iris shrugged.

"Just me, then. 'Kay. Take me to the city, I guess...?"

She rested her hand on her hip, and was met with an unfamiliar weight. She looked down, finding herself newly festooned with a simple leather belt. Hanging from a loop at her right was a large hammer. The handle was roughly two feet long, and made of dark wood. The head was large, with one heavy, blunt end, and the other swooping back into a wicked point. 

"I'm, er...not unarmed," was all she managed to say, quite unsure of how to process the new acquisition. So she mirrored the stranger, resting her hand on the head of the hammer.

Throughout the conversation, she had nearly forgotten Napkin, and was startled a bit by her pet's rousing. She stretched and yawned atop Iris' shoulder, affectionately nuzzling her head, before casting her cross-eyed gaze in the strange man's direction. He gave Iris an odd look. 

"Your familiar? Are you a magus?"

"A...what now?"

It was his turn to be exasperated, and the man shook his head. 

"Never mind. Come this way."

He turned, and Iris followed. They walked in awkward silence, filled only by the crunching of footsteps upon the gravely road and the metallic clank of the man's armor. iris wasn't keen to break the silence, and neither was her companion it seemed. 

"May I ask your name?"

He asked after some time.

"Iris. You?"

"Ser Gregoir Tallis. Ser Tallis will suffice," he responded. His chest seemed to swell with pride as he did. He had certainly seemed knightly to Iris. A tad long in the tooth, perhaps, but he had that air of machismo that most men who fashioned themselves as 'chivalrous' did. 

"Right, Ser Tallis...can you tell me how far I am from the Great Basin?"

"I have never heard of a Great Basin."

"The giant desert in the Western United States?" 

"I know nothing of a United States."

"So we're in Europe?"

"This escapes me as well," he said, brow knit in confusion. 

"Where are you from, Lady Iris?"

Iris took a few long moments to consider her reply. Things were beginning to settle into place, and forming a bigger picture she really was not liking. She was far, far from home. Way too far. She was surrounded by things, and people she couldn't fathom...Iris sighed, looking up at the dying night sky, at constellations she didn't recognize...at the three moons. 

Wait.

Three moons?

Iris wet her lips, and swallowed thickly.

"I'm from...a long ways away."

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