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July 7, 2016 at 8:17 pm #1879
Later that night, you find yourselves relaxing at a table. The Prince has just played his last encore for the night before retiring back stage. You are all well fed and watered by this point, just happy to be where you are and with your friends. (if you want a woman on your lap you have one)
A well-dressed young man appears at your table, his purple robes hugging a splendid specimen of a man. He bows smiling. “My master would like you to join him for drinks in his dressing room.”
I am pretty sure you all would just about fallout of your chairs at this moment, then begin scrambling to get up and follow the young man back around the expansive bar into a close hallway with draping strands of beads and silks along its length.
At a tee juncture the young man leads you to the left up a short flight of gilt stairs to a small landing, where two burly men stand arms crossed over ripped hairless chests. Biceps bulging at your approach and giving you the eye.
The effete young man waves hand imperially and the two hulks step aside to allow you to pass. Behind them is a large door of carved copper, spiraling dragons cavort on its surface with winged figures. The young man claps his hands and the door rolls aside into the wall, revealing a large room beyond, an intricately embroidered screen of flowing silk hangs neatly bisecting the room.
Large opulent couches and piles of silken throw pillows are strewn about this half of the room, with half a dozen finely crafted low dark wood tables, with gently glowing candles on them. Little spritely creatures move amongst the pillows and the tables. Adjusting the drape of the silk screen, or scraping candle wax from the table while replacing a candle that had burned out, another positioning the couch cushions to some exacting plan only it knows.
The young man steps aside at the threshold and motions for you to enter before him, “They await you within.” Gesturing to the area beyond the curtain.
Smiling your thanks you stroll through the room to the part in the curtain, Hrothgard in the lead. With one brawny arm Hroth parts the curtain and holds it up and aside. Revealing a purple lit room, with an immense black U shaped couch, the walls are covered with instruments, the end tables hold many bottles and cups, and the floor is a soft expertly woven rug with a design too big to take all in at once.
There is a single glass topped table sitting within the U of the couch, a pair of glasses, half full, with golden liqueur sit beside a fine crystalline decanter of the same liqueur, two fat red candles provide the magical violet light for the shadowy room. The Prince sitting casually in the center of the U, his bright white sequined suit brilliantly white in the dark room and against his dusky skin.
But all of these details escape you as you see Who the Prince is sitting hip to hip with, one of Prince’s delicate musician arms resting lightly, familiarly, across his guest’s willowy shoulder.
Grey smiles at you all and reaches forth to take up one of the glasses and offers you all a silent toast.
July 7, 2016 at 7:26 pm #1877You can see the paper lanterns and the fire flies flitting around them. The smell of the bayou washes over you as you draw closer to the ancient bridge. The sounds of revelry spilling out of the Blue Bayou Inn roll over you, igniting the urge for drink and dance, singing and good times to be found within. The dark armored forms of the town guard, encased in their alligator scale armor roam the outskirts of the light, their eyes glowing golden in the dark night, the silhouettes of those strange swamp things visible here and there in the waters amongst the huge trees.
As the hooves of your horses begin to clatter upon the stone bridge, each of you feel that sense of peace and belonging you had last time settle upon you. Then you realize that Cassiel has stopped his wagon well before the bridge. His face pale in the twilight. You can tell he is having some kind of internal conflict at this point.
Finally, he squares his broad shoulders coming to a decision, He calls ahead to you all cheerfully waving you forward. “You kids go right on ahead and go enjoy yourselves. I know from you babble how much you have been looking forward to returning here. Me and Ol’ Stone will go back a few hundred yards and make camp there if you need us. We will see you here at dawn, or as soon as your able.” He finishes with a genuine smile. He begins turning the giant Rhino around and heads back the way you came. You can hear him grumbling to himself for a while as they plod their way into the dark.
You all sit there, mid span, astride your tired horses, maybe torn a bit. When Lone Bear pipes up from his usual station by Caris’ side, his rumbly voice full of unexpected wisdom. “He is not ready for place with many peoples.” Then with a gentle pat on Caris’ knee Lone bear lopes off after Cassiel. “I stay with him, things in common we have.” He calls back, vanishing after the Priest.
Slowly and maybe a tiny bit less jubilant than before you carry on to the Inn, checking your horses at the unusually full stable. BY the time you are all striding up the steps to the invitingly open double doors of the Inn, with its life and light spilling out across you lifting your spirits. You are all in fantastic moods.
Stepping into the maelstrom of people, you stop just inside the threshold, striking a pose unconsciously, a pose that says “Bad assess”.
Directly across the large common room on the stage you see a pair of female orcs dancing with a giant snake, the giant purple piano sits behind them covered with a black velvet cloth.. The bar wrapping around the left lower half of the room is packed with patrons of all descriptions. Many of the tables have been pushed back almost to the walls to provide even more dance space before the stage. The dance floor is full of people milling about watchi8ng in awe as the snake charming women cavort around with each other and the snake. The majority of the tables are packed, with many people just standing by a table full of their companions.
The second story balconies are also full of people talking, drinking laughing, and other stuff in darker corners. You are noticed right away by some many people you cannot keep track of them all, a round of cheers roars out as you enter, filling you with joy. Looking at each other, slapping each other on the back, or ass, you step down into the throng and get swept up in the feasting and drinking. The feeling of being welcome and appreciated amongst your own.Remember there are examples of a lot of races here. Hulking nomadic pelt wearing orcs and in the corner furthest form the stage a trio of proud hobgoblins in red and white Samurai armor stand drinking and talking amongst themselves, they eye Hroth and raise their flagons in recognition. A pair of snooty looking golden haired elves stand back to back at the bar each conversing with the people around them, a quartet of long bearded dwarves stand at the edge of the stage heckling the orc women. On the balconies above, there is a cackling old man with a long white beard covered in fetishes and brandishing a gnarled staff telling some kind of joke to a stern faced well-dressed human in formal robes, his long black hair pulled back from his high forehead with a circlet of gently glowing jade, his robes a pale blue.
To name but a few of the notables in the Inn at the time you enter. It is not long into the night before you are all standing together, drinks in hand, cheering as The Prince takes the stage for a rousing piano number accompanied by the deep voices of the Dwarven quartet.July 7, 2016 at 2:02 pm #1876You travel the rest of that day, in companionable silence. The road clear, the sun bright and the breeze cool. Stopping to make camp that night not off the road in the woods as you had on your way here but directly in the middle of the road. Cassiel simply stops the wagon, throws the brake and with gentle thanks dismisses Stone Solid for the night.
Cassiel starts whistling as he sets camp for you all, pulling off the wagon all sorts of comforts. You pass the night uneventfully, the old Priest telling tales of his younger days. Each of you beginning to get slightly nervous as nothing has tried to kill you in days. Sometime after midnight that night you are all awoken by a strange “Chattering” sound, like someone loudly clenching their teeth together over and over, the sounds swells and surround you filling the dark pines for the better part of an hour before just as abruptly stopping. The majority of you have trouble sleeping after that, some just lying awake as the night passes.
The next day you are up before the sun, packing up the wagon in the pale predawn light. Cassiel summons his rhino again and hitches it to the wagon and before you know it you are all back on the road making good time. Impromptu races and shows of horseman ship abound this day as you rotate around the wagon throughout the day. Jokes and pranks abound, tawdry songs echoing out across the land around you, as you all enjoy your time on the road. It really is not until the bulk of the day had gone by that you realized you had passed through the area where the Sword Wraiths attacked you, and through the choke point on the road where you had met the sprite pestered Black Smith.
Again Cassiel stops the wagon in the road and you all fall into what is fast becoming a nightly routine of getting the camp ready for the night, assigning watches, etc;
That night turns out to be a quiet night, introspective, less chatter and more relaxation by the fire. Some even turning in early as the lazy night drifts by, maybe still tired from the night before. Though admittedly some of you will be on edge, that’s just how you have trained yourselves. Tonight it is a good thing though. An hour or so after you have all finished dinner, Grognak notices movement in the woods around you. Fleeting man sized shadows, appearing and disappearing within the dark woods to either side of the road surrounding you, occasionally darting across the road in the distance.
You are ready for anything at this point, your defensive formation perfect, camp routine flawless. Nothing will get the drop on you. This last for less than an hour before the woods go deathly still, no movement, and no strange sounds. Only the normal sounds of the night time forest. Even then you do not relax for the better part of an hour, before sending Stern and Lone Bear to investigate. They return empty handed, without a single clue as to the mysterious nature of the shadowy troupe that had been circling you all.
You pass the rest of the slow night in tense silence, straining your eyes and ears, double watches for the remainder of the long night.
Already packed up from the night before, the next morning you break camp early, still vigilant as the sun rises. You travel maybe one hundred yards down the road, to just about where the trees give way to the gently rolling hills sweeping down towards The Blue Bayou. There in the road, where the shadows of the tress give way to light of the moors is a single emerald fletched arrow. Stuck point first into the ground. You guys being you guys immediately go into high alert as you approach…..and then gently pass the arrow by.
Putting the woods behind you, you soon pass the place where you encountered Noburu of the New Moon. A sense of eagerness begins to grow with you all as the Ancient Bridge that marks the eastern boundary of the Blue Bayou comes into view in the distance. Thoughts of your time there making you all smile and your spirits soar, like the circling hawks above you. You mood even infects Cassiel who has spent the trip so far caught somewhere between nervous apprehension and unabashed wonder as the world around him unfolds.
As the sun sets, the lights of the Bayou go up, a glittering expanse of fire fly like luminosity, and though you are not quite there yet you can hear the boisterous music radiating from the mystical little town.
July 6, 2016 at 8:56 pm #1873It takes you all the better part of the day to get the wagon finished. Sure with magic it could have been done in a quarter of the time but Cassiel would hear none of that. Preferring the “honest” ways of hard work.
By dinner time the wagon is finished with its deep flat bottom and high sides, looking like a moving crate on four rugged wheels. The driver’s seat a wide plank upon the front of the box like structure, almost like an afterthought. The long and wide yolk big enough for Stern and Hrothgard to stand side by side within? When asked what manner of horse will fit the yoke, Cassiel just chuckles and smiles, enjoying his secrets. He has packed all his earthly belongings into the wagon, as well as many specimens from his gardens.
That night you sit on the construction refuse, felled trees and stumps, and enjoy a savory stew provided by Lone Bear, laughing and enjoying your last night in the special clearing. One by one you retire to the cabin to catch some sleep, preparing yourself for the trek back to Fan Lu. Leaving at the end of the night Cassiel and Stern alone. Looking into the fire and discussing their futures together as well as the road ahead.
The dawn of your eleventh day away from Fan Lu, is bright and cheerful. You gather your gear, scarf down a quick tasteless breakfast of porridge and hard biscuits. When it comes time to leave you stand aside as Cassiel walks to the head of his wagon, to the immense yoke. He looks around at you all smiling then pulls something from a pocket of his rough traveling robes, and places this object on the ground within the yoke whispering something.
In the blink of an eye a mammoth creature stands, straining the yoke. Roughly ten feet long from its stubby tail to the viciously pointed pair of in line horns protruding from its angular head. At about six and a half feet tall at the shoulder, it is massively muscled with four stumpy legs. Its hide is smooth as finely polished marble with dark veins running through a light grey base color. It has beady bright glowing blue eyes and its dual horns are of jade intricately carved with tiny runes and chased in copper.
“Everyone, this is Stone Solid.” Cassiel laughs with a big grin, then addresses the giant marble rhino “Stone Solid, my old friend, this is everyone.” The rhino gives throaty “Chuff” of hello as Cassiel gestures at the group, before leaping sprightly for such a big man into the driver’s seat. With a slight tap of his booted foot on the rhino’s rear, the rhino chuffs again and begins plodding forward.
“First we must go to town to pick up your horses and I have some…” Cassiel pauses looking down at your astonished faces, “…I have some business to deal with.” He finishes suddenly grim, eyes forward. He starts cajoling the rhino to go faster.
You fall into step alongside the wagon, slipping easily into the distance eating gait of far travelers. In less than an hour you arrive at the gates to Tsurui Village. Cassiel takes the wagon straight into the center of the town and parks it directly in the middle of the main, and only street. He motions you to go into the inn to retrieve your horses and settle any debt for their boarding. Should only take you guys a few to gather your horses saddle up and settle yourselves before falling in line behind the wagon.
Once you are already Cassiel prods the rhino into action again plodding along through the well-kept village. By this time most if not all of the village inhabitants are out looking at the spectacle before them, and for once it is not you guys. It is Cassiel and his wagon, His rhino and his grim countenance that has them all transfixed as you near the other side of town and the gates out of Tsurui. The expressions on the townsfolk range from relief to face contorting scorn, from amusement to sorrow, and many more. Well before you reach the gates Cassiel suddenly calls for the Stone Solid to stop. Roughly in front of a larger than most home. He sits deathly still in the driver’s seat, eyes fixed ahead.
On the extended porch of this dark paneled home, stands a hunched well-dressed elderly man with a vulture like face. Bald but with large white eyebrows and a long wispy beard. The old fellow’s expression one of disgust mixed with fury. Behind this elder is another man, significantly younger, with long black hair tied back with an iron circlet. His features easily mark him as a son of the elderly man, though he stands tall in much patched ashigaru armor. A sword rests uneasily at the younger man’s hip, his right hand absently playing with the red tassel affixed to the swords pommel, his expression grim.
Behind them in the open door way, her mien inscrutable, stands an elderly woman, in fine robes, leaning on a cane watching you all like a hawk. You have the impression of others watching from the hall beyond the door and maybe from a window or two.
After a tense moment the elderly man spits on the ground, barking something in Yun Shanian.
Like a boulder suddenly freed from the top of a mountain Cassiel slides from the drivers bench like a landslide. Gliding effortlessly up the couple of steps to tower over the old man, who steps back a bit bumping into his son. The elderly man, then rally’s barking off long streams streams of obviously affronted and angry language at the towering priest. Cassiel just stands there for a moment taking it, beefy fists clenched at his sides, you can see his back moving as he is taking deep breaths.
When the agitated elder spits upon Cassiel, what happens next does so in the blink of an eye.
With one swing of his might left hand Cassiel knocks the elderly man down and back to send him sliding past his son to slam against the wooden wall of the house. Knocking the wind from the crotchety old crow and putting the fear of Cassiel into his rheumy eyes, as he lay there all disheveled and shocked.
Cassiel’s other hand shot forwards swift as a striking serpent, even as the elder was flying through the air, to catch the younger man’s hands on his sword. Crushing them in one big hand, gripping them both tight keeping the man’s blade in its sheath. To his credit the black haired fellow struggled mightily to draw his weapon, but against Cassiel he did not stand a chance. The struggling man gave up pulling his hands away and out to his sides, weaponless, eyes full of fear.
There was a commotion in the door way, a pair of young faces looking out past their grandmother to get a better view. One green eyed dark haired boy with striking Yun shanian features, the other a light to his shadow. Blonde blue eyed with pale features, features somehow familiar….
At this appearance of these boys, Cassiel straightens up, whispering to the stricken man before him something you cannot make out. The stricken man’s shoulders slump and his hands falls to his sides, fear in his eyes replaced by something else something difficult to quantify.
Cassiel slowly releases his grip on the man’s blade, stepping back for him but keeping eye contact, Cassiel’s large shoulders bulked out his chin held high as he stares down the man before him, everyone ignoring the cawing of the vulture like elder, berating everyone in sight.
Cassiel steps away and turns heading back across the porch and down the steps pausing to look back at the elderly woman in the door way. An elderly woman who is smiling gently at the departing warrior-priest. She lets one fine boned hand drop protectively across the shoulders of the blonde haired boy and silently nods to Cassiel.
Cassiel turns back face impassive as his stone rhino, remounts and without a word begins driving out of the village not looking back.
You however do get to look back at, seemingly the entire village gathered, near where you had stopped staring on in awe. You could swear you can hear the old man’s bitching long into the distance as you put the town behind you. You last look at the village, through the trees, is of the two boys standing in the road way watching you go.
July 5, 2016 at 9:15 pm #1871Stern, you wake to the rhythmic sounds of someone chopping wood in the clearing of the cabin.
You look out the small window to see Cassiel, stripped to the waist again, in the center of the clearing a sturdy wagon is taking shape. He stops to wipe the sweat from his bald head, before he carries on hacking the branches of a small tree he had drug into the clearing while you all slept.
In fact it looks like he has been at it for quite some time. With the exception of the wheels and axles, the body of the wagon looks pretty much done.
Without turning back, his voice carrying well He says “Well Boy, seeing as how you’re up now, why don’t you come help me out. That is if any of you are skilled at anything other than fighting? If not well then I will teach you a thing or three.” And he keeps on chopping, pausing again “Oh and someone do make breakfast. I am starved.”
He begins singing to himself, his deep voice carrying easily through the walls of the cabin, waking anyone who is not already up.
July 5, 2016 at 4:57 pm #1870The combatants squared up across the octagon, deathly still for moments. Nothing but the flickering of the firelight and the gentle breeze. Clouds swirled overhead, fire flies buzzed brightly by. The chanting of Brother Zun blending in and around and through the natural world.
With a mighty roar, unsheathing both gleaming blades in one magnificent sweep Hrothgar hurtled across the clearing, Brother K’ni impassive. Settles and balanced as Hrothgar hurtled with the might of an approaching avalanche towards him. Hrothgar the wind rushing by swords balanced lightly in his strong hands despite their size, every step balanced and precisely timed to bring him perfectly to his foe.
His foe who stepped within the reach of Hroth’s giant blades and punched him in the sternum cracking armor. K’ni flipping his Sai’s, previously held close against his inner forearms out to swivel left and right. Effortlessly disarming the dumbfounded Hrothgar, leaving Hroth’s magnificent blades clattering across the ground. Before with a swift precision kick to the Warriors leading right knee K’ni knocked the charging warrior to the ground. With contemptuous ease he spun around again and brought one swift fist down onto prone Hroth’s chest again with a resounding crack, before stepping back perfectly poised again.
Determinedly, Hroth reached out for his precious blades, enduring the ferocious onslaught of kicks, punches and disarming Sai’s. Even when the shadowy K’ni burst into a frenetic pace far beyond a normal man’s abilities raining attacks down upon the struggling Hroth cracking armor and battering the great Hroth.
Keeping a firm grip upon his weapons Hroth endured, push on rising to one knee, heroically he began to swing, bringing the fight back to the powerful dark monk, scoring powerful but glancing hits upon the swift monk. Glacially reversing the Monk’s almost insurmountable advantage, battered and bloody despite Brother Zun’s powers Hrothgar persevered, with a wordless cry he managed to sweep the dominant Brother K’ni up in a desperate but glorious wall of blades, barely laying the ferociously focused monk low as Hrothgar stood. Beaten but victorious!
There is silence in the clearing for a moment, broken only by the heavy breathing of the stilled combatants. There is faint clapping from the side lines and roars of Krom’s approval but the two fighters hear none of it over their own breathing and the rush of blood throughout their bodies.
Hrothgard twirls his huge blades above his head and sheaths them upon his broad back, never breaking eye contact with the kneeling monk. Hroth then extended one hand, still shaky from battle and the after effects of adrenaline surge, to K’ni to help the battered monk to his feet, both knowing that K’ni does not need the help but both respecting the gesture.
K’ni took Hroth’s hand and rose, a little cautious, keeping eye contact with the southerner the whole time. Still he was caught off guard when Hroth swept the gangly monk up in a huge bear hug of appreciation.
“That was the hardest fought dual I have ever participated in. Gratitude. My respects to you, Brother.” Hrothgard softly said, His deep voice heavy with sincerity, to the apprehensive monk as Hroth released his grasp, then placed a fist against his palm in front of him, and bowed before the great monk.
“Thank you Hrothgard. That was the finest duel I have had. I have learned much from our battle.” The Dark monk whispers slowly. Turning his head to look over to Grey and Stern for a moment or two, before bowing low and long to Hrothgard. Straightening He whispers “Good night, Warrior.” And steps backwards out of the octagon into the shadows and simply vanishes.
July 3, 2016 at 7:06 pm #1856You spend the rest of that morning lounging around in the cabin, it is good to be away from everything you have accrued over your time in Yun Shan. Not a single pressing notion or concern. Just relaxing the morning away. Caris eventually gets up and makes everyone a yummy breakfast. Everyone even skips their usual daily rituals, Weapons practice, prayer or study. To just simple exist in the peaceful clearing. The smell of the huge pines, the swaying of Cassiel’s small garden, butterflies and puff balls floating through the sunlight glade. Critters scampering around in the forest, the birds chirping and the sun shining warm through the cool breeze.
Later in the afternoon, you wander through the woods around the clearing. Seeing the animal paths as well as manmade stone markers here and there, eroded by time. Also here and there in the woods strange fetishes hang from the lower tree branches or are tied to low shrubs, their purpose unknown. There are times when your peaceful perambulations are halted as you feel yourselves being watched but without malice or evil intent, sometimes you even sense curiosity.
You return to the cabin before the sun sets to settle in for the evening, Hrothgar volunteering to make dinner that night. As the sun sets and the shadows fall, you cannot help but tense just a bit, even after the day you have had and the feeling of security in the humble cabin. It is just who you are now, it is the subtle change life on the fringes of civilization has wrought in you all, some more so than others.
Which is not to say that the jokes and laughter do not ring out loudly from the open door to the cabin as you enjoy your feast and southern Ale. You are after all heroes, each a monumental bad ass in your own right but when combined with the others in your merry group you become truly mighty.
You stay up long into the night, sipping your drinks and letting the fire go low, and talking in low voices of your designs on the future, slowly relaxing into slumber.
June 30, 2016 at 7:20 pm #1852The next morning you all wake, though having slept in a pile on Cassiel’s floor you feel as rested as if you had slept in your own beds after a quiet night. Instead of the rip roaring barn storming riot that was last night. Oh you are all still a bit groggy but from deep sleep not deep drinking.
Caris you prop yourself up on one elbow and look over the curve of Grognak’s back to see a splendidly armored Cassiel quietly stuffing things into a beaten up old back pack. Roused by the wakefulness of one of the pile, the rest of you rise up or roll over to regard Cassiel. A big smile on his face.
“Wait here, relax. I have to go tidy some things up and I will be back tomorrow morning.” With that he slings his pack hefts his axe and strides out the door whistling, stopping just past the threshold to poke his head back in and nod smiling “Krom be with you.” Then he is gone, you can hear him whistling for a while in the distance.
June 26, 2016 at 1:23 pm #1851Somberly he says“All our welcome in My house Lady, if you can cross the threshold”,he finishes with a wink.
“Even skinny up tight casters”He drops a beefy hand on Grognak’s shoulder as Grog walks up“and tree hugging Unicorn kissers.” Laughing boisterously, He goes to drop his other hand on Caris’ shoulder, then thinks better of it dropping into a low comical bow.
Now tell me,”He asks rubbing his hands together and smiling, once everyone is in the cabin,Who here knows how to cook?The rest of that day revolves around cooking and of course drinking,with real home brewed southern ale, none of that watery crap you have to drink up here. Everyone pitching in cooking, arguing about the best ways to do things, general chaos in the kitchen but having a blast doing it. Telling tales and boasting of exploits long into the night.
June 22, 2016 at 8:08 pm #1839Cassiel, Smiles genuinely happy for the first time in a long time, He reaches out and grasps Sterns strong forearm, “Too true Brother Stern, but now” and Cassiel stands up abruptly“we cook and you can introduce me to your mighty companions!” with that the two divine warriors throw back their chairs and stomp over to the sturdy door and out onto the porch, Where everyone else is suddenly peering off into the distance at Lone bear’s antics or perhaps at a pretty butterfly.
“Come children, let us be well met and then well fed.” Cassiel booms out, coming to stand before you all.
June 14, 2016 at 9:21 pm #1832After a long pause, Cassiel gets up and fetches a pair of small steel cups and a btole of some dark liqueur. He pours them both a glass and sipping it slowly He begins to tell his tale, voice growing stronger with every word.
Some time ago, my brothers and I were called upon to provide support to our King’s army. We marched out in all our glory, from the High Axe of Krom to the newest of acolytes. We marched from our Bastion Temple to the east, heads held high, singing to the Glory of War and to…..Krom. Many goodly folk flocked to our banners, our numbers swelled. I found myself again in the company of The Radiant Guard, a valiant group of hardy adventurers I had traveled with in my younger days before taking up the mantle of Forge Warden and the duty of training new generations of the faithful.
For nearly a week the land trembled with our advance, it was a time of great bravado and boasts of deeds to be done. One and all we would honor our Lord of Battle in the war to come and drive back the forces of S’peranza the wretched Wizard King of Voi. We would turn the tide in favor of our rightful King Ogni.
I never had the chance, the bastard spell casters ambushed us, catching us as the sun was high a day or so from the battlefield. Explosions and destruction were all about us, I stood with my chosen and the Radiant Guard near the vanguard of our forces. The last thing I recall of that time was an actinic violet light washing over us brighter than the sun…then darkness….
Suddenly, it was night, a foreign star speckled sky over head barely glimpsed through the gargantuan boughs of mighty pines. Of the Radiant Guard only three of my friends were there and only a dozen of my acolytes.
I fell to my knees immediately shaken by not only the disorientation of our transport but from the awful feeling of Kroms gauntlet removed from its rightful place around my soul, leaving me bare to this strange unforgiving land.
I lost two acolytes that first night to the horrors of this land. After that it was a losing battle of attrition, bereft of all but the faintest measure of our Lords gifts we struggled, fought and died. At the end of the first month there were only six of us left, my three hardy friends of the Radiant guard and my two toughest acolytes, though at that point they had proven themselves more than acolytes and I inducted them into the Brotherhood, a sad induction it was. On a cold rainy night over the corpse of one of our own, the area around us strewn with what I would call Hobgoblins. Ferocious fighters and worthy opponents.
It was not long after that when we ran out of land. In the distance at night we could see the signs of habitation. With hope at last we built a sturdy barge and took to the water, yes, and just another mistake in a long line of mistakes since coming to this land. The creatures of the water are just as unforgiving as those of the land. Saved only by a sudden storm that pushed our blood drenched raft south before we capsized and washed up on the shore of a heathen shrine.
The inhabitants of which were strange, but welcoming. They took us in and gave us respite despite being unable to communicate. We had lost track of time in the wilds of the land, and in the quiet of the Shrine time became nonexistent.
We regained our health and strength. With those we became restless. Unable to reconcile our defeat at the hands of such a cowardly wizard and our exile into this horrid land of spirits and strange gods. All but bereft of the light of our lord. Unable to communicate fully with the Monks, unable to tell where we were or even when. We eventually deiced to strike out on our own to find more civilization and somehow figure out what to do next.
We did not make it even a whole day away from the Shrine when we were set upon by creatures out of nightmare. Then there were three of us. I was gravely wounded and without aid I would have died, alone in this horrible land, frightened that I would never see the halls of Krom, that I would never sit beside His holy forge.
My friends dragged me all but dead into a wood walled village. We were tended to but with obvious disdain. We were after all, foreigners. My wounds both physical and spiritual were grievous. My surviving companions of the Radiant Guard at my urging left the village to range ahead and look for signs of civilization and hopefully answers to our questions.
They never returned.
I was put up in an empty cottage on the east side of the village. During my convalescence I was tended to by various villagers and even once one of their so called Priests came to see me. I refused his barbaric healing spells. I would rely on my own grit and tenacity to make it through as well as my limited healing skills.
Forsaken and alone I carried on. Before long I was able to move about the village, ragged and treated like a stray dog. In a state of benign neglect, I crept about unable to understand these strange people and their even stranger ways. The fire of Krom so distant here, leaving me cold.
Soon unable to stand it anymore, one dark night I gathered my remaining things and struck out east, back towards the Shrine. I had barely gone a hundred yards from the village wall when I was set upon by Gaki, not just any Gaki but the corrupted remains of my last two Axe Brothers.
With righteous vengeance and furious anger I destroyed them, with tears in my eyes at the injustice of it all.
It was then I felt it, a gentle pulse in my soul as I wandered into this clearing. I took it as a sign, though before long it felt like I was a man dying of thirst in a desert who sees the waters of a quenching oasis only to reach and find a mirage. Cool refreshing waters turned to choking sands.
I built my cabin, my garden and became self-sufficient. No longer would I live on the scraps of the villagers. Through determination and will power, even so far from Krom, I rebuilt myself stronger. I prowled these lands purposefully searching for combat, striving somehow to reach Krom but finding nothing but emptiness….a finely honed blade in the darkness.Here he pauses, and smiles for the first time
Well maybe not emptiness. I found my wife or maybe she found me. But that is another story, suffice it to say that she and I connected regardless of the language barrier. Though with her patient teachings I did learn their language, and eventually gained a better understanding of their outlandish ways.
She would sneak out of the village at every chance she could, even risking the dangers of the night to be with me. Not to mention the dangers of her kin folk and the village itself should they find out what she was up to. She was a fiery tenacious woman, totally at odds with the mewling, sheep-like villagers. I was as happy as I had ever been….for a time.
When she began to show the first signs of her pregnancy, we decided to reveal our marriage to her father, that officious prick. He and his brothers grew enraged and I let them chase me out of town, rather than slay them all.
For months they would not let me see her, even began barring the gates so I could not enter. No one would speak to me, until a bright summer afternoon. Her older brother appeared to inform me that she had died in child birth. No doubt of neglect, I should have taken his scrawny head then and there but I did not. I ran for the village. They had gathered in what numbers they had to stop me. They could not! In my utter grief I threw them aside like sickly stalks of wheat, I rushed to her house only to find it empty. They had taken her to the village shrine for internment.
The heavy stone doors of that forsaken place stopped me then, I battered on them until my fists where raw, fingers broken. In the end they would not even let me see her, they would not let me say good bye and the heathen bastards would not even allow me to consign her body to the righteous flames. Instead she was left to rot….
He chokes up fully at this point and stops talking for a while, his features wracked with unforgotten pain.
After that I existed in a fugue state, simply existing here in my cottage. Going to the aid of travelers set upon by the creatures of this land, or the village itself despite the horror they had inflicted upon me and mine.
I would go down to the shrine on occasion to help the brothers with their stone work, being a stone mason back in my home land I showed them the proper way to quarry and dress stones.
Here I have been ever since, time has become meaningless to me. I do not even know how old I am anymore, though I was in my late thirties when we came here I know decades have passed but I do not feel very much older…. He shrugs.
Thus was my life day in and day out until a few weeks ago. I was awoken by the sound of my wife calling for me. Admittedly I was enraged and grabbing up my axe I rushed out into the clearing to strike down whatever despicable creature would dare to profane my wife’s memory.
There in the center of the clearing, just beyond the radishes, was my wife, or at least the image of her smiling, beckoning me towards her waiting arms. Tamping down the fires of my rage, having played this idiot game before with similar creatures, I pretended to be entranced and stumbled along towards her.
When I made it to the center of the clearing, she stopped and smiled at me, her likeness so perfect, and her demeanor so exact! I was stunned and that’s when the fire in the sky came roaring down upon me and I felt once more the strong grasp of Krom armoring my soul, filling me, having been so empty for so long I gasped and was struck unconscious.
When I woke, I knew something had changed, I knew that Krom had not forsaken me after all. I felt different but still unsettled and unknowing exactly what I should do.
Until now…
I have spent many days wondering what it all meant. Should I strike out in the direction that the light appeared, or perhaps in the direction where the ghost of my lost wife appeared? What was Krom trying to tell me? Why did he send me a sign, and why so vague? What did he want with me? I even considered traveling back to the shrine, to ask the goodly monks there to do a divination, to do what I had always refused to do, reach out to the crazy gods of this place for help, or at least a hint. Until that night I had felt resigned to die as an old, a lonely curiosity, lost in a land that does not understand me. Cut off from my God, my friends haveing long since died, and there being no way I can make the trip home alone, and what would be left when I got there anyways? I have been lost but now I am apparently found…by you. A mighty Favored of Krom, I cannot help but believe the Lord of Battle has brought us together for a real reason.
June 8, 2016 at 6:34 pm #1826Group initiative was so much cooler that individual.
Oh yes sure Grey gets a +10 to initiative so kind blows my goat but the fun and excitement and the speed were so much better and frankly nostalgic.Story wise it is so much better and that is the greatest of things there.
Beyond that i agree with some of what Jeff has posted(not all).
I liked it so much more that in any further game i run that will be how we dooze it:)
Mad love to you all hope you enjoyed yourselves and were not too scared.
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