The Weary Paladin

One of my friends from my EQII guild also has a blog, the Weary Paladin at http://wearypaladin.blogspot.com . Check it out.

Here's a peice I wrote a while back about how we met... Enjoy!

The boat ride from the Enchanted Lands back to Qeynos Harbor is long and so well traveled these days that it is usually uneventful. This leaves a lot of time for reflection and thought.
Addey was missing “her boys” Niz and Darkmage. Due to various circumstances she hadn’t seen them in weeks.
“They’re probably up to their ears in trouble,” she thought. “I mean, I met Niz when he offered to help me prove myself to Qeynos and, next thing I know, I’ve got a dead Paladin on my hands to resurrect!”
Addey had not enjoyed growing up in Freeport. She wondered what kind of person could have a happy childhood there. Her mother was a complete unknown and her father had “disappeared” when she was just a toddler. Thanks to some priests who saw it as their mission to try and reform Freeport from the inside, she had lived. She had not lived well, but she had lived and learned. It was hard to think of the priests as family, even though they were all she had. The did not love her for herself, but merely as another poor lost soul of Freeport that needed to be saved.
She followed in their footsteps though, trying to help those even less fortunate than herself. She dedicated herself to easing the suffering of others and doing the will of the gods. She learned quickly and found herself drawn more and more towards Tunarae and her nurturing, but sometimes vengeful, ways. Freeport did not feel like the place where she could live and grow in Tunarae’s light.
Thrashing her tail with emotion, Addey thinks “my poor, misguided friends. There is no hope for Freeport!” Once she realized this for herself she decided she had to leave. Her whiskers twitched in disgust just thinking of that stink hole she used to try and call home.
Just getting out of Freeport was a trying and terrifying adventure. The two most memorable moments of her escape to Antonica in hopes of getting to Qeynos was that fateful meeting with the Overlord himself and those miss-begotten owlbears in Nektulos. Of all the twisted creatures she’s seen, they’re the worst.
Once in Antonica she was dismayed to find out that her word and the promises of the one who aided her in Freeport were worth almost nothing. She would have to prove herself a reformed person and a citizen of the light.
“Gnolls! I still can’t stand that whining bark they call speech,” Addey thought. “Why did it take so many to prove my worth? I know the ones in Antonica are not to be trusted, but why did it seem like I had to clear them all out myself?”
She had finally gotten word after several painful weeks to two other Ratonga she’d heard of who’d made a life for themselves in Qeynos. They offered her what aid they could and brought her into their guild of friends, even if they couldn’t bring her into the city.
“That Rodentia, “ Addey mused, “so much bravado, but somehow I think Treats really is the one who runs things between those two. Or at least she tries to keep him in one piece!”
Through the guild she was introduced to another new member; a slightly suicidal Half-Elf paladin called Niznusan. What Addey didn’t know when she met him was exactly how much trouble they’d get into together. Or how much fun it would be.
She remembered their first meeting vividly. It had been a hard day going after Gnolls; they seemed to know she was coming now and were better prepared. She’d been asking around the guild to see if someone could help her and Niz volunteered almost immediately. “And I was so excited! A sword to team up with my Tunarae granted powers,” Addey remembered. “Little did I know I was teamed up with a walking trouble magnet,” Addey laughed, swishing her tail.
It seemed like she had to resurrect him at least once for every three Gnolls they killed. “Don’t get me started on those wolves either,” she thought. “Every time we turned around or stopped to catch out breaths those beasts were wanting one of us for lunch. They always went after Niz, but I’m thinking they wanted to scare him off to feed on the ‘helpless’ rat.”
“Eventually we got those beasts under control, but my quests for citizenship was not finished yet,” Addey sighed. “No, I then had to run around all of Antonica practically and convince people that forgiveness is the right and honorable thing. Thankfully Niz stuck with me through that as well.”
Niz knew the land well and helped Addey avoid most of the pitfalls, except some that were undead and looking for blood. They had been quite inseparable for a while then. There was always more trouble to find, more wrongs to right. They met up eventually with Darkmage and they became one of the most dangerous, often to themselves, threesomes out there. Unfortunately, other pressures had kept the three of them apart in recent months.“I wonder how my boys are doing…” Addey murmured to herself for the hundredth time that day as the boat pulled into Qeynos Harbor.