Story HourPost your ongoing tales from your campaigns, and read those from others for inspiration. Lots of other RPG boards post "Story Hours", but this is where it started!
Hey! I'm leaving for the weekend, and there's no update? Aieeeee!
Okay, fine. I can be patient. Honest.
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Sorry - major business at work, trying to hit an April 1st deadline with a new online service for UK doctors :rolleyes:
But here's the next installment
The company ride into the town of Bellhold as the last rays of the sun still reflect off the top of steeple mountain, shining on the winter ice. Even this late in the day the ring of bells and the striking of forgehammers is clearly heard. Riding down the main street to the Wyrmcall plaza they notice that many of the better class of shops are closed and boarded up - it looks as if many of
the wealthier people in town have moved out.
Finding the Bell and Clapper is easy, and Trajan leads the horses to the stable at the rear.
“Treat Lightning special” he tells the stablehand, who glances at him and stammers “It’ll be a whole Mark for oats, sir”.
Checking his pouch, Trajan removes his last five Marks.
“Oats for all the horses then lad”
He’ll have to rely on his friends for drinks, but Trajan likes horses. He can’t see them badly done by.
Inside the inn there is a hubbub of noise. Many of the foundry workers are enjoying a drink before wandering home, and it is a few minutes before the company can gain the attention of Tokket, the barkeeper. M’ir and Darra circulate, listening for rumours while Azrin and Trajan speak to Tokket.
It turns out that Tokket is the son of one of the adventurers which killed Copperdeath, nearly 50 years ago. There are many souvenirs of that campaign hanging on the walls of the bar, including a huge claw. Azrin is interested to hear about a fragment of diary from those old adventurers, and is soon sitting at a table, poring over it and laughing to himself as that story unfolds. Tokket is sure that the headaches are the results of something in the water, and recommends that everyone drinks more ale.
M’ir discovers more about the missing children and the Heroes of the Bell - the local adventurers who were out looking for them, but have been gone over a week and a half now. One of the drinkers believes that the headaches are a curse from Asura, because the local people are shallow in their religion - he is shouted down but some men glance over the rims of the mugs at Azrin the priest.
Darra discovers tales of a witch who lives just outside town - and heard that she says the headaches will end within a week. Crazy old woman, tells fortunes and stuff. Sometimes she really gets a prophecy right though.
As they meet to confer notes, the inn door slams open, and a wide-eyed man looks around the room, fastening his eyes on Trajan and company. “Aha, new friends! Welcome, welcome!” he shouts before his voice drops to a harsh whisper “you will be welcomed by he who will swallow us all into his abysssss” He rants on and on, then with a sob turns and flees out the door. The silence in the room gives way to ordinary chatter again, and Tokket explains - “That’s just Cobble. He’s taken a bit funny recently, I wouldn’t pay him no mind”.
As they talk, a huge bell sounds outside in the plaza. Its sound is so deep and loud that they feel it in their chest more than hearing it by their ears. After two strikes a town crier is heard, calling for a town meeting at the next bell. Tokket explains that *everyone* goes to the town meetings, and Mayor Hob will be answering some of the questions which people have.
Half hour later, as the great bell chimes once more, Tokket closes up the inn and they join everyone else gathered in the plaza - facing a raised, torchlit platform on which stands Mayor Hob with Krekket the mine owner and his wife on one side and the guard chief on the other. Azrin attempts to detect thoughts, but finds it hard to concentrate with such a seething mass of people before him, although he senses that Krekket wants the mayor to calm people down. M’ir makes his way to the front of the crowd and the others stay near Tokket.
Mayor Hob addresses the problems of the town, attempting to calm people down and reassure them that everything is all right. He covers most of the issues that the company had discovered people talking about in the inn, but none of his “solutions” ring true. Azrin has a bit of unwanted excitement when three ruffians who had watched him in the bar attempt to pick a fight with him for being a “baldie”, but after the training he used to do with Ynnsfeardh (the monk who died a couple of months ago) he finds their fist fighting and trip attempts ludicrous - they keep leaving themselves wide open for simple counterattacks, and within seconds the scuffle has ended with all three staggered or knocked out.
Tomorrow the party will have breakfast with Othic, then go and visit the witch.
They all retire to the inn, paying for less luxurious rooms on the 1st floor. Syl creeps upstairs and picks a lock on one of the luxury bedrooms, but with a bare mattress and not having been prepared she has little better sleep than her companions on the floor below.
In fact, they all have an awful nights sleep. Disturbing nightmares, different for each of them - full of threats and veiled promises. Difficult to remember the details in the morning, but sharing their experiences is quite difficult and distasteful.
Ready for breakfast, they await their farming companion. Then the door crashes open, and a dirty and puffed farmhand cries out
It’s Othic - he’s been murderered!”
__________________ Plane Sailing
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"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
Last edited by Plane Sailing; 18th March 2002 at 02:17 PM..
While the farmhand runs off to find the guards, Trajan and the rest quickly saddle up and ride out to Othic’s farm. Arriving there they can see the barn doors open and the horses all out in the field. They ride up, dismount and investigate.
Inside the barn there is a stink of blood, and in the middle of the floor lies the body of Othic – face down, trampled and with great bloody chunks torn out of him. Darra promptly goes back outside the barn and loses his breakfast. Azrin dispassionately examines the scene, and turns over the torso – rather surprised to see a bridle forced into the old mans mouth...
M’ir and Syl help Darra into the farmhouse, where he looks for a drink while they search for signs of suspicious activity. K’tan stays with Azrin and Trajan goes out to check on the horses.
He notices that they are in two groups – Blaze and Broadsword are further away from the barn and separated from the rest of the horses. He decides to go and check on them first.
Drawing closer, and making ingratiating noises, he is startled by a voice inside his head
“Stupid two-legs!”
He glances around looking for the speaker. Nobody around except for the two horses, Blaze and Broadsword.
Looking at him.
Suddenly he feels a stiffness grip at his limbs, as if a giant hand is trying to make a puppet out of him – and to his mounting horror, he sees Broadswords jaws unhinge and elongate, becoming nearly a yard long and filling with finger-long razor sharp teeth as it leaps towards him!
__________________ Plane Sailing
(Enworld Admin)
If you need to email me click here
"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
Originally posted by Piratecat
Author note: it was originally going to be cows, but a friend asured me that psionic cows are silly. Good advice, I think.
I think your friend was right - it would have been more "Gary Larson/Far Side" than horrific surprise
__________________ Plane Sailing
(Enworld Admin)
If you need to email me click here
"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
Originally posted by Piratecat Author note: it was originally going to be cows, but a friend asured me that psionic cows are silly. Good advice, I think.
The grace of Asura is with the young Jazumai, and he mentally casts off the unseen shackles that attempted to bind him. Vicious teeth gouge his ribs as he jumps back, quickdrawing his scimitar and slicing back at the beast.
“Asura’s Blood!!” he cries out.
Once again he hears the refrain “Stupid two-legs” and the attempt to mentally control his body but his resolve is sure; he calls for help as he defends himself against the razor sharp teeth of Broadsword and the attempts by Blaze to either control him or knock him down.
Back at the barn, Azrin and K’tan hear his cries and start running down the field towards Trajan, apparently battling with two… horses? In the house M’ir and the others hurriedly make their way out of the small door. M’ir concentrates briefly and horrible whip-like welts appear on Broadswords side. Trajan spots his opening and critically hits the beast, slicing its awful head clean from its body.
Concerned, Blaze steps back from Trajan, and Darra spots his chance. From his position by the farmhouse he throws his arms forwards and cries out arcane words – and a bolt of lighting blasts across the field, catching Blaze squarely in the side and tumbling it over, dead. DMsnote: this is the first big damage spell ever thrown by the good-guys in my campaign – the first 3rd level arcane spell come to that. It was great!
The party gather round the two corpses.
“What in Asura’s name was all that?” they wonder. Examining the corpses carefully, Syl notices partly-healed wounds on each horses forehead – and apparently some kind of splinter beneath. Azrin does his best to carefully dig out each of the splinters for further examination, but they are delicate crystal, and shatter as he attempts to remove them. M’ir and K’tan both confirm with their knowledge of magecraft Dmsnote: psicraft in my campaign that these goings on sound like magery – and particularly the banned disciplines of the telepaths and the mutables.
“OK” says Darra “Lets go and see that witch now”.
“NO” says Trajan, sharply. “We are not leaving that old mans body lying there in the barn. We hardly knew him, but he was a friend and he deserved better than this. We are not going anywhere until he is properly buried.”
As they are starting to make preparations, a group of guards come up the road from Bellhold, along with the farmhand who originally raised the alarm. A short discussion, and the evidence of the frighteningly deformed head of one of the horses convinces the guards about what has been going on.
With matters settled at Othics farm, and with an increased sense of urgency, the company mount up and ride off to find the witch, and to… discuss… matters with her.
to be continued
__________________ Plane Sailing
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If you need to email me click here
"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
It doesn’t take them long to reach the small wood where the witch lives. Dismounting and leading their horses through the frosty trees, Darra sends his raven, “Awk”, to circle the cottage they come across. They hear Awk talking to someone behind the cottage, and find an old lady with parcels on her back, trying to head off into the forest and shouting at the familiar.
The company learn that she is the local oracle, but she is on her way off to another town now and if they wouldn’t mind, she would like to be on her way. She repeats the assurance that all the headaches will be gone within a week – but when pressed her voice drops to a hush as she reveals the rest of what she has seen
“Within a week, nobody will notice the headaches - because nobody will have any free will or volition of their own. Doom is coming to Bellhold, and I don’t intend to be here to see it arrive”.
They want to talk to her further, but in the end she bribes them with three magic potions and they let her go.
Obviously there is still a problem with the missing children and local adventurers, but there is now a real sense of urgency about solving the problem facing Bellhold. The answer must lie in the dragons old eyrie, high up on steeple mountain. But those sheer cliffs look virtually unclimbable.
Then M’ir says
“My mind can open the way for us to climb up there. Follow me.”
__________________ Plane Sailing
(Enworld Admin)
If you need to email me click here
"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
They make their way back through the town and to the base of steeple mountain. It is imposing and cold, with a 300 ft scree slope, followed by a near vertical cliff. The plan is that everyone will scramble up the scree slope (once Trajan has blazed a trail), then M’ir will manifest his power to enable everyone to spiderclimb up the sheer wall.
Trajan makes it up the first section without too much difficulty, but to get the attention of the others he ends up shouting out to them and waving his arms up and down. Eventually they get the message and Awk is sent up to communicate with him (but not before the denizens above are thoroughly alerted…). While the rest start on their way up a shower of rocks comes from above, striking Trajan although he maintains his footing.
Darra gets out his precious scroll of “Fly”, and casts it, using Awk as the touchee to impart the spell to Trajan (since he has the greatest carrying capacity of any of them). The others then make their way up the slope, albeit with a few tumbles from Azrin.
Trajan uses his new flying ability to help Azrin and the others up the scree slope, then he zooms up to the top of the mountain to peer into the cave entrance. No sooner does he reach the same altitude as the entrance when two large arrows shoot from the darkness, piercing him badly. He falls from the sky and pulls out of his dive where the rest of the party are at the top of the scree slope. Azrin quickly calls upon Asura to heal him, giving up many of his prayed-for spells in order to help Trajan recover from the vicious wounds.
Once M’ir has manifested his power and they start scampering up the mountain face a barrage of rocks starts in earnest – there is small chance that the rocks will hit, but the icy surface of the mountain is hard for the spiderclimb to adhere to.
They are halfway up the vertical section, an additional 200ft up, when one of the defenders strikes luck – a hurled rock bounces into Syl! – fingers scrabbling for purchase, the young female rogue from Morannon loses her grip on the surface – and tumbles into space!
__________________ Plane Sailing
(Enworld Admin)
If you need to email me click here
"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
Is it a bird? Nooooooo! Is it a dragon? Nooooooo! It is: SUPERTRAJAN!
Just make sure he won't be wearing underwear.
Straight ahead approach of the group. Some arrows and boulders didn't scare them, eh? And the first lesson: Never climb without ropes attached to each one... was forgotten too?
I tried to dissuade them by mentioning (again and again) how steep and treacherous and high steeple mountain is.. The one thing that I forgot to take account of at the time is ice and snow - after all, it is drawing towards the middle of winter now. Doh!
Still, they have some luck, as it happens.
Cheers
__________________ Plane Sailing
(Enworld Admin)
If you need to email me click here
"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
As Syl falls, Trajan dives down to attempt to catch her – but misses! with a scant 50 feet to go Syl reacts instinctively with the sorcerous trick she learnt many years ago – and gently floats the remaining distance to the scree slope DMs note: she was the only one who could featherfall, so in that sense it was a "lucky" hit.
Trajan carries Syl back up to the rest of the party, but even though they try to angle their climb sideways around the peak it doesn’t seem to put off the defenders boulders. Eventually K’tan decides that he’s had enough. He says so in no uncertain terms and sets off down the cliff again. Azrin points out that he has used up almost all the divine power vouchsafed to him at the start of the day (2 spells left) and questions what state they are going to be in if they actually reach the top. Furthermore, it is even more icy and slippery up there. After a short discussion Darra decides to retreat down as well, and the rest of the party follow.
The direct assault on Steeple Mountain has come to an end.
With the aid of the spider climbing and the remains of the fly spell, all reach the ground safely again – the barrage from above ceased when they were on the way down. As the sun starts to set on their first day in Bellhold they retreat wearily to the Bell and Clapper. Trajan mentions that up on the mountain he thought he heard a voice whisper to him – it said something like
“I hear you coming. Your thoughts are very tasty. Hurry to me, my little delicacies”
Several of the others also heard whispered threats or promises while on the mountain face, but nobody can say where the voice came from. Worrying.
After an evening meal, a short talk with Mayor Hob and another study of the old diary, they decide that in the morning they need to check out the old mine – it seems likely that the dragon used to have some way of getting from his eyrie down to the mine, and maybe they can use that way to get up to the dragons old hideaway unannounced.
They retire to another unsettled night full of nightmares.
__________________ Plane Sailing
(Enworld Admin)
If you need to email me click here
"It makes as much sense as having Batman kill his parents and then go on to fight mutants from another dimension." - Rykion
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