Kai Lord's Story Hour - Elijayess the Shadow Years [Dragonlance]

Having posted the backstory for Elijayess Moonshadow, the Kagonesti Barbarian Archer from the Dragonlance world of Krynn, here is a Story Hour based on the last session I played with him from a little over a month ago. This is all from actual role-playing. If anyone has any particular "gaming" questions about how something was orchestrated, just ask. I'll be happy to answer.


Elijayess, the Shadow Years

As several hundred human marauders charged the front gate of the small elven coastal town of Ankatavaka, Kishpa the red-robed mage looked intently at Elijayess Moonshadow, questioning the real nature of the mysterious wild elf’s visit. Elijayess had arrived earlier that morning, and he brought along a human companion named Scowarr. He claimed to have met the human in the nearby woods and that he had already done battle with some of the advancing human forces. The wild elf was powerful and lean, and carried himself with a worldliness that seemed unnatural for a warrior, almost as if he knew far more about the current situation than he was letting on.

Kishpa had lived in Ankatavaka his entire life; though the only elven blood that flowed through his veins was from that of his grandfather, a highly respected elven counselor notorious for his love of human women. Kishpa’s father was a half-elf, and his mother was human. By all appearances Kishpa looked human but the denizens of Ankatavaka knew this wasn’t entirely true. Though the mage had no official political standing within the town, all knew that it was his magic they leaned on in times of trouble. Times like now.

Elijayess and Scowarr had been ascending a cliff outside of town along the ocean. Kishpa wouldn’t have known they were there were it not for Yeblidod, wife of Mertwig, the only dwarven couple in Ankatavaka. She heard them below and threw down a long scarf which Elijayess caught and began to climb, with the wiry Scowarr clinging desperately to the wild elf’s waste. Unfortunately, the sash was tied to Yeblidod’s wagon, and right as Elijayess and Scowarr were about to reach the top the wagon rolled off the cliff, sending the two climbers toward the waves below. Kishpa saved them, using his magic to levitate them out of harm’s way and onto solid ground up above.

Almost immediately Kishpa was suspicious of Elijayess. It was just a feeling, and Kishpa couldn’t figure out why. But he almost got the impression that the wild elf was here to take something. Something of Kishpa’s.

“Kishpa, down!” Shouted Elijayess and tackled the thin mage on top of the town’s front battlements. A swarm of arrows from the advancing human army sailed overhead, just missing the distracted mage.

“Hmph,” snorted Kishpa. “I suppose now you think we’re even for me saving your life.”

“I didn’t give it a moment’s thought,” replied Elijayess, leaping to his feet and studying the human warriors. “Up, Kishpa, the town needs your magic.” The mage rose to his feet. Elijayess turned and looked uncomfortably toward the northeast barricade.

Focusing on the moment, Kishpa rose and began chanting a spell. Immediately the ground under the charging humans became a wasteland of knee-deep slimy mud. The humans slowed, and many of them fell as the their legs sank into the dark mud.

“Your archers will take care of them. But now, I must go to the northeast barricade. You’re vulnerable there, if the humans break through they’ll take the town.” Elijayess addressed the assembly of elven archers firing mercilessly from the battlements. “I need reinforcements to follow me to the northeast barricade! The humans are trying to break through!”

As the helpless humans fell to volley upon volley of elven arrows, a small group or warriors ceased their fire and hurried after the charging wild elf. Kishpa turned and watched with confusion, then amazement. Elijayess was not even halfway to the barricade as a wave of human attackers suddenly appeared on top of it and began hacking the meager elves defending it to pieces. Elijayess would definitely get there before the humans fully broke through, but how did the wild elf know!? How could he have known?

Elijayess knew because he had been here before, fighting this exact same battle, in this exact same place. And it was even at this exact same time. Same day, month, even year. A year that existed before Elijayess had even been born.

* * * * *

Ninety years from now, a young wild elf named Elijayess Moonshadow will meet a dying old mage named Kishpa. Kishpa had spent years looking for Elijayess, a lithe and ferocious warrior that the mage could manipulate to his advantage. The lonely wild elf had recently left his homeland and was travelling through Southern Ergoth, the island he had lived his entire life. The mage had sought Elijayess because he planned to use his magic to send the elf on a magical journey into the realm of the mage’s distant memory to rescue Kishpa’s beautiful lover Brandella, so that she might live on after he died.

He told Elijayess that if the elf served him he would get to meet his older brother Abikar, the only other Kagonesti wild elf to leave Southern Ergoth, a brother that Elijayess had never known. This was a lie, because Kishpa never knew Abikar, but he felt manipulation was necessary in case Elijayess declined his plea for help.

Elijayess agreed and Kishpa cast the spell sending the elf into his memory to the time of the current assault on Ankatavaka, the town where Kishpa and Brandella lived. Elijayess entered the town, fought bravely against the human attackers, and met Brandella. The elf was immediately smitten, but knew that he had a duty to honor. He explained to Brandella why he was there. It was difficult at first, but eventually she believed.

The young Kishpa thought Elijayess was trying to steal Brandella away from him and tried to stop them. In the end, he realized that it was Brandella’s wish to leave, and not quite understanding what was going on, used his magic to help them escape. They were all set to emerge from the elderly Kishpa’s memory when the old mage died. This plummeted them into the afterlife where they bonded as they made their way through regions inhabited by a gardener claiming to be Huma of the Lance, flesh-eating demons masquerading as old women and young children, a strange town of mismatched (Minotaurs, kender, a silver dragon, etc.) dead beings, and the mountain lair of the dark spirit of the long dead archmage, Fistandantilus. Fistandantilus possessed the magic to set them free, but would only do so if they agreed to take him with them. They agreed, but lied. When the time came to complete the spell, Elijayess disrupted the process right as he and Brandella fled through the portal causing the spirit of the evil archmage to remained trapped in the netherworld.

Free at last, Elijayess soon became aware of a horrible truth. Since Brandella as he knew her was but a figment of Kishpa’s memory, she did as all memories do and faded from existence. Elijayess was crushed, as he had begun to fall deeply in love with her.

He did not have long to mourn, for within days he found himself whisked away to an alternate world called Averoigne. He met two adventurers, a human fighter/mage named Markus and a kender thief called Kief Pathfinder. They had been brought to a cursed mansion called Castle Amber, a place where Elijayess and company encountered all sorts of bizarre, lethal, and sometimes comical situations as they fought to lift a curse on the entire land and return home. In the process, Elijayess found several potions of Time Travel, and when he and his companions prevailed in lifting the curse on the strange new landscape, he met an epic sorcerer named Stephen who enabled Elijayess to return to Krynn.

Back on Krynn, Elijayess made a decision. He deduced that something tragic must have happened to Brandella 90 years earlier which prompted Kishpa to spend his life searching for a way to bring her back. Elijayess may have changed nothing in Krynn’s history by travelling into the mage’s memory, but now he had the magic to do so for real. He decided that he would use his potions to go back in time to the very moment that Kishpa sent him in his memory. He would join the fight against the humans and make sure nothing happened to his precious Brandella. Even though she would have no memory or knowledge that he had met her once before, he would save her, and then leave, secure in the knowledge that she would live a happy life with Kishpa. He wished there was some way he could have her for himself, but she had given her heart to the mage, and Elijayess wouldn’t get in the way of that. He would simply go back to protect her and return alone, simply because he believed it was the right thing to do.

He sipped one of the potions and traveled 90 years into the past. In case anything went wrong that Elijayess would have to account for, he decided to go back six months before the time he traveled the first time. This would prove to be very prudent, because Elijayess took such a small sip that the magic didn’t fully work the way he wanted it to. He went back to the exact point in time he envisioned, but instead of appearing near Ankatavaka, he appeared in the frozen wastes of Icereach, the southern tip of the continent where a community of arctic barbarians were being terrorized by Frost Giants. He helped the humans kill the threatening Frost Giants then made the trek north to Ankatavaka.

Since his first visit in Ankatavaka, Elijayess has acquired an elven cloak, boots, and enchanted leather armor. Covering his head with the magic hood and rendering himself all but invisible, Elijayess journeyed to the exact spot he appeared in Kishpa’s memory and threw back the hood, materializing in the middle of a battle between humans and elves in the woods near Ankatavaka. He decided that since he had traveled to the past for real that he would do as little as possible to modify the events as Kishpa remembered them, save for whatever it was that took Brandella away from the mage.

* * * * *

Elijayess charged ahead of his fellow defenders, his bastard sword gleaming in the late morning air, and arrived at the base of the barricade as several human marauders clambered over the edge and jumped down into the street. Elijayess had fought this battle before, and he was victorious. He would simply need to do it again. But there was something about the fight on the northeast barricade that Kishpa was not aware of, and therefore was not a part of his memory as Elijayess experienced it. Something that Elijayess was about to discover as the first human warrior charged him with a wicked mace raised high in the air….

PART II

With a ferocity much greater than Elijayess expected the human warrior swung his mace at the charging wild elf. Elijayess barely dodged to the side, but was clipped on the shoulder by the human’s mace, tearing a nasty gash in his skin. Reversing his blade in a swift stroke, Elijayess sliced the foot soldier’s stomach open as a mass of gore spilled out onto the street. Two more humans charged down the barricade; Elijayess shoved his blade into the base of the first warrior’s neck, then withdrew it and sliced open the throat of the second in a firm two-handed stroke.

* * * * *

A woman stood on a balcony. Directly below her she saw humans fighting with elves in the streets. To the south she could see the main army of the humans struggling in the sucking mud made just for them. It was the sight to the east, however, that filled her with dread. The barricades had been breached. A small branch of the human army had broken through, and all of Kishpa’s warnings to leave Ankatavaka came home to her. But she dismissed them now as she had dismissed them then. She would not flee her home, not while she still had the power to fight back.

The woman appeared fragile, but she was not; a great heart beat in her chest. Her exquisite face, however, belied the woman’s fighting spirit. She seemed eternally, mysteriously feminine, with shining blue eyes framed by improbably thick lashes. She had a strong, proud nose, a delicate, sensuous mouth, and thick, curly hair that spilled nearly to her waste. Each of her features, alone, was startling in it perfection. All her features, together, were breathtaking.

She was Brandella.

With a longbow in her hands and a pile of arrows beside her, Brandella took aim at a human climbing over the barricade and let loose of the bowstring. She didn’t see her target as a fellow human, but rather as an enemy. She had qualms about killing, certainly, but not about defending her home, her friends, and her life with Kishpa. Her arrow struck its mark, lodging deep in the human soldier’s left thigh. He fell backward, clutching his leg, then tumbled off the outer edge of the barricade and out of sight.

It was then that Brandella saw the elven charge to retake the battlement. She estimated nearly one hundred humans were swarming over the barricades, yet only a force of a dozen or so villagers were attempting to retake it.

With controlled fury, she began shooting her arrows at the enemy atop the barricades, trying desperately to buy a few moments more for the handful of elven martyrs.

Despite her barrage of arrows, she expected the charging elves to be quickly slaughtered by the far-superior human forces. Although some elves did fall, the rest still managed to fight on, driving the humans, step by step, back up toward the top of the battlements. Brandella looked closely and saw someone she’d never seen before. He was taller than the other elves, and he fought with a ferocity she’d never witnessed.

He ranged in front of the others, muscular body lithe in tooled leather, urging the elven soldiers on, battling like a brave warrior she had dreamed about as a little girl, a man who would come to her from a mythical world and take her on a grand journey to eternity.

With all her heart, she hoped he would not die.

* * * * *

The men Elijayess battled were burlier than those he had encountered in Kishpa’s memory, and it took all of his combat prowess to dispatch them as quickly as he needed to. There were barely a half dozen elves left above defending the 30 foot wide barricade erected between two solid buildings. Elijayess charged up to the top as an incredibly large human climbed the barricade from the other side. He was over six and a half feet tall and appeared to be comprised of solid muscle. He wore a heavy breastplate and was adorned in a great helm with two horns protruding from the sides. His massive fists clenched a giant double-bladed greataxe that Elijayess knew was thirsty for elven blood.

This was their champion, a barbaric warrior of enormous proportions. The great human roared in rage, and Elijayess could see the warrior’s physique bristle with adrenaline. Unmoved, Elijayess knew this was a fight he would win. Gripping his bastard sword tightly he moved toward the human champion as the barbarian swung his greataxe in a furious sideways stroke. With the quickness of a leopard Elijayess sprang backward as the barbarian completed his swing. The barbarian almost cleaved Elijayess in two.

As Elijayess leaped backward the axe cut so deep into the side of the wild elf’s abdomen that his splattering blood completely enveloped the face of another elf climbing the barricade. Elijayess stumbled backward, utterly stunned. He looked at his side half expecting his intestines to be dangling past his waste. Instead he saw just a massive gash through his leather armor and side. For a moment he became dizzy but suddenly the great human swung his axe again at Elijayess, this time ripping his armor and cutting flesh along the front of his torso.

Elijayess stumbled backward and tripped over the body of a fallen elf before collapsing onto his back. Elijayess’ mind reeled, how could this be happening? The human barbarian quickly took two steps and raised his axe to finish off the fallen wild elf. With his axe raised high above his head the warrior screamed a battle cry just as an arrow shattered against his great metal helm. This shook the human, though the arrow did not penetrate.

Elijayess’ eyes narrowed. The barbarian turned back upon him and swung his axe in a hearty downward stroke. The axe blade imbedded itself into the wood walkway on top of the barricade as Elijayess rolled to the side. Turning back, Elijayess slammed the human’s groin with a swift kick of his shin. As the human doubled over in pain Elijayess followed with a close-fisted club into the barbarian’s jaw. The human fell backward but managed to stand up straight as another arrow shattered against his solid breastplate. Adrenaline surged through Elijayess’ veins as his anger grew. In the blink of an eye the wild elf was on his feet and swung his blade across the human barbarian’s shoulder. The warrior growled and reversed his axe, aiming for Elijayess’ head. The wild elf ducked and shoved his sword into the human’s right thigh.

The great warrior roared in anger and swung his axe at Elijayess but again the wild elf dodged, withdrawing his blade from the imposing man’s leg and slicing open his belly just beneath his breast plate. This instinctively caused the human to momentarily lower his arms to cover his stomach and Elijayess immediately followed with a vigorous swing at the barbarian’s neck and chopped his head clean off, causing it to go bouncing down the other side of the barricade toward the oncoming human soldiers.

Two more burly barbarians immediately charged Elijayess, one sliced his arm with a battle axe. Still raging with adrenaline, Elijayess swung his bastard sword with such ferocity he literally cut the man in two. The other bull rushed Elijayess and sent him careening five feet backwards where he landed on his side. Eyes burning with hatred, Elijayess dropped his sword and pulled his massive longbow off his back in a split second maneuver. In another moment an arrow was notched and he drew the bowstring to his ear. The barbarian soldier charged and caused Elijayess to fold his arms in response to the impact and loose his arrow.

The human warrior raised his sword as Elijayess scrambled for another arrow while prone on top of the battlements. Before the warrior could swing, Elijayess had notched another arrow. The human’s blade came down but Elijayess kicked his attacker’s swordarm wide and fired an arrow straight through his left eye. As the man fell backward, Elijayess dropped his bow and scooped his blade as he rose to his feet.

Elijayess lifted his sword in the air and roared like a rabid grizzly bear. Seeing what the elven champion had done to their captain and his entourage, the humans turned and ran. It was at this time that Elijayess noticed that the small frame of his human friend, Scowarr, his head adorned in bandages to keep his human ears hidden from the elves, had been fighting at the other end of the barricade. Emulating Elijayess, Scowarr lifted his meager blade and howled as well.

“Ready your bows!” Elijayess commanded. Of the 21 combined elves that had joined for the defense, 15 remained. They raised there bows. Elijayess’ command was simple, “Shoot them down like dogs.” The elves loosed their bows and half a dozen men fell. Elijayess grabbed his own bow and contributed to the slaughter. “Keep shooting.” The elves fired two more volleys and killed another 20 men but then the humans reached the woods.

Breathing heavily, Elijayess suddenly felt a rush of fatigue and almost lost his balance as his vision grew blurry. His left leg was covered a dark, sappy red as his great wound continued to bleed. He clutched his side but blood flowed through his fingers. He lowered his head and began to cough but suddenly an elf shouted, “They’re coming back!”

Elijayess looked up and saw the ravenous humans had regrouped and were mounting one last charge. They knew how close they were to breaking through in full force, and they weren’t going to give up that easily. Almost 60 men charged the across the grass plain to the barricade. Elijayess and the elves began firing arrows feverishly as the men pressed on. The humans lost half their number before hitting the barricade and charging upward in an almost uniform rush.

Elijayess was weak, and had to make a focused effort to stay conscious as he continued to bleed. But he did not fall back. Instead he fought the humans off from the forefront of the elven defenders and together with his brave companions and cover fire from Brandella they killed every last man. 10 elves remained.

The end of the battle brought a surreal moment of pause. The elves looked at each other in disbelief. Twenty-one elven villagers had fought off a horde of almost a hundred bloodthirsty human warriors. Twenty-one villagers and Elijayess. As several of them collapsed in relief the rest turned to the blood stained wild elf, as Scowarr hollered a victory cry.

“Your bravery has saved the village,” Elijayess stated to his fellow warriors as he descended the barricade into the village. His body shivered with the loss of so much blood. Clutching his side as he hobbled away from the barricade, the elven soldiers could only look on in amazement.

In his weakened state, Elijayess wondered how he would protect Brandella from the dangers ahead...

PART III

Elijayess left behind the remnants of the battle for a moment and made his way to the shoreline where he collapsed in the dark sand. Greater than the stinging pain in his side was the knowledge that he was here, in Ankatavaka, for real. She was here. Brandella. He wondered what she would be like. Would she be anything like the woman he had fallen in love with? The woman as she appeared in Kishpa’s memory? It didn’t matter. He was not here to claim a bride, for that was not his right. He came back to protect her. She deserved no less.

Elijayess gathered himself and headed back into town, where he promptly found the center court outside the temple filled with elves who were dead and wounded. The few elven priests tending the temple worked tirelessly to tend to those whose wounds were not mortal, for there was no healing magic on Krynn at this time.

Waiting until those weaker than him had been cleaned, Elijayess bathed and then bandaged his own wounds. His torso wrapped in bandages, Elijayess found a mat in the town square and drifted off to sleep, confident in the knowledge that there would be no more attacks this night.

It felt like he had just closed his eyes when Elijayess woke with a start. It was fully dark and everyone in the courtyard except for a few sentries were asleep. He had heard something, or did he dream it? Elijayess closed his eyes, all was silent. He strained to remember what happened this night the last time he was here.

He had met Brandella in Reesha’s shack, but that was because he was actively seeking her out with the intention of taking her away in accordance with the future Kishpa’s wishes. The reason he found her was because in the middle of the night…Yeblidod! Elijayess jumped to his feet and hurriedly pulled on his sleeveless leather armor. Tossing his crimson cloak over his shoulder and gathering his weapons he rushed down to the beach.

It was all coming back to him. Yeblidod had been attacked in the middle of the night by a renegade human, a hardy and grizzled warrior that had almost killed Elijayess. Still weak from his injuries on the barricade, Elijayess could not afford to be damaged further by the human. Fortunately for the wild elf, this time he had a magic cloak.

As Elijayess reached the beach he could hear Yeblidod’s muffled cries from the open doorway of a building near a dock that stretched into the sand. With singular purpose the rugged elf pulled the hoad of his cloak over his head. As the enchantments of the cloak took effect, the light around Elijayess contorted and bent as it hit him, rendering him nearly invisible. Appearing as nothing more than a wavy apparition, only his footprints could be plainly seen in the sand as the bright moons illuminated all. Elijayess approached the doorway and drew his bow.

The attack was indeed being played out similarly to the way he remembered it. He could see the vile human leering over the poor dwarf’s crumpled form, one hand clutching her throat as another held a dagger poised for the kill.

The twang of a bow was heard a split second before the evil human’s wrist exploded in a shower of blood. He screamed in surprise and pain as his dagger dropped harmlessly from his grasp. Turning to face his attacker, he could see no one outside. Two more twangs echoed from the beach and suddenly the man saw a pair of arrows materialize out of thin air and slice through the air right toward him. He tried to twist out of the way but each arrow struck him in opposite shoulders.

Panic stricken, the man gathered himself and burst through a window facing the water and raced toward the dock. Without mercy Elijayess notched another arrow and as the man desperately tried to hide behind a post under the dock shot him through his exposed side. The man was bleeding profusely from his wounds but was still alive. Elijayess fired again but this time the warrior was ready. He lunged from his hiding place and the arrow just missed him. His unseen attacker did not miss again, and the man collapsed into the water, the final arrow lodged in his throat.

Shouldering his bow, Elijayess rushed to Yeblidod’s side and gently cradled her in his arms. She was alive, but badly beaten and had suffered a pair of deep cuts. Without wasting any time Elijayess scooped her up in his arms and ran to where he remembered Reesha’s shack to be, the place he had taken Yeblidod the first time, the place where he first met Brandella….