RPS = Role-playing story, in case you were wondering.
Here's what I'm thinking. We write/play this over the forum, not over HL. Why? Because I can't access HL from work, but I can access the forum without raising undue suspicion.
Now, on the the point. To start off, we all create our characters, and give them starting points. Since I'm working off my RPG character, I'm gonna start him where he left off.
He was walking down a dirt path from Willow Creek along the northern edge of Forest Heart, about to depart on the long trek to Muirthemne, when he spotted two Ghols hiding behind two suspiciously placed boulders, their backs to him, apparently unaware of his existance. He stopped for a moment to contemplate the situation, when I tired-looking Dwarf rounded the corner of the street.
Not wanting to attack two Ghols which had done no harm (yet), he called out to all three of them, "Hallo there, friends!".
The Ghols were spooked. Both took off after the Dwarf, who was only startled more by Hermes' call. The Dwarf had been hacked beyond help by the time Hermes could run to his aid. One Ghol ran off into the desert, and the other turned to fight. With his expert block and parry skills, he avoided a single hit from the Ghol, while lopping off its good hand and stabbing it into the chest.
It squealed and ran into the desert, Hermes jeering it on behind him. He then turned to the Dwarf, and asked his name and what he could do for him. The Dwarf, Oni, was unable to speak, but motioned toward a paper in his vest pocket. Hermes withdrew it and read it to himself as the Dwarf died. It was a message to a general in Muirthemne, confirmation of the order to proceed with the assault on Stoneheim - signed by Balin himself.
Hermes buried the Dwarf in a shallow grave in the woods just off the path, and took a strange artifact from one of the bags the Ghols' dropped bags. It was an obsidian-black polished stone, with the golden face of a Ghol-like beast crudely molded onto its surface. When he gets to Muirthemne, he intends to look up its significance in one of the old libraries there. Even if it's not worth anything historically, it's bound to have some monetary value.
Hermes left for Muirthemne with the note and the strange idol, intent on delivering the note to the general, but urging him to forstall the assault in the hopes of negotiating a more peacefull solution. For some Ghols have grown used to city life, and have evolved moreso than their bretheren. Hermes stood and watched the sun start climbing higher into the sky, thinking that the resolution of the Ghols' long-standing conflict with the Light may be the great adventure he has always felt called to.
