A Chronicle of Ice, Luck and Honour - updated 19th December
HalfOrc HalfBiscuit
Adventurer
Perceptive b*gger that Torious ...
freedoms_edge
First Post
Palskane said:Great update! I'll be happy to see Torious, Thalin and Milo back in action. Torious especially.
HalfOrc HalfBiscuit said:Perceptive b*gger that Torious ...
You see Spider!!!
I told you I had fans!!!!!!!!!!!!
On a more serious note guys, i'm glad you like Torious, he was a little eccentric, slightly gung-ho, and of the unshakable (but probably false) belief that he was the son of a god....
So, I played myself in D&D then - sweet
Spider_Jerusalem
Explorer
“what good is your soul consumed in the fires of Kossuth?”
Flames rained down from all sides. Milo backflipped as the table he stood on caught fire. The sudden stench of burning paper and wood billowed through the temple. Outside, the cries of Robar pitched up to a frenzied cackle. The frostwood doors heaved with a crushing thud. Thalin caught the sound of The Bear's commanding barks forcing his men onwards.
“We must retreat!” cried Thalin.
Torious whirled on the mage, “and fall to dishonour here? Do not think of it Thalin, we shall stand this day.”
“Then die in the flames,” shouted Thalin as he kicked a burning brand form his feet, “what good is your soul consumed in the fires of Kossuth?”
Thalin pulled back to the safety of a stone arch, his mind racing with escape plans. Torious flung a burning table towards the doors and readied himself. Milo pounced back to Thalin's position and gripped the robe of the mage.
“We have to flee,” whimpered Milo, “we can't fight here without weapons.”
As Milo finished his words, Rellin stalked from a side door and took in the devastation around him. Brothers of Oghma moved quickly about, unnerved in the fiery assault as they collected armfuls of books and hurried through a small door at the rear of the temple.
“Why do they not fight?” roared Torious.
“Because this cannot be won,” answered Rellin as he stepped next to Torious, “we can but save what we need and continue.”
Rellin pushed a second table against the mighty frostwood doors, his aged frame suddenly fused with strength. Torious saw that he wielded Pilgrim in his right hand. The executioner's sword cast a baleful glow as it passed. Torious locked eyes with Rellin.
“I will fight this to the death Father.”
“No, you won't. There is a greater cause calling for you,” answered Rellin, “and do not worry of us, we shall shelter from the flames and arise again. Knowledge does not burn my son, we shall survive this.”
Rellin then called urgently over to Thalin, “my son, you must stop Gruulth. If his hands hold Erifeci when the comet strikes, all is lost... To Tilverton! To Tilverton!”
The temple blazed with light as a cask of oil shattered in the midst of a scroll stack. A brother of Oghma fell back, his robes ablaze, his face a mask of concentration as he flung a book to safety moments before his skin blistered with fire. The book skidded against Torious's feet. He knelt and picked up the volume before nodding to Rellin and falling back to Thalin and Milo.
“Fall back to the vault my brothers!” cried Rellin, “do not fail me!”
Milo, Thalin and Torious followed the surge of burdened brothers. Torious's last glimpse of Rellin was as a demonic Emberguard suddenly erupted from a pool of fire and wheeled on the priest. Rellin's face contorted to hatred as he swung Pilgrim clean through the torso of the demon. The Emberguard exploded in a brilliant white flame and was gone. Rellin whirled Pilgrim in his hands as two more Emberguard thundered from nothingness and charged.
That was the last that Torious saw before being swept towards the vaults.
Thalin commanded Dariel to fly free. His companion hesitated a moment, then screeched loudly and spiraled through a shattered window and into the smoke laden sky.
Milo dashed into the vaults and stopped. His face dropped.
“What?! How are we safe in here?” cried the halfling, motioning at the small chamber that the brother of Oghma filed into. Thalin emerged from the hallway, followed shortly by Torious.
“This is not the vault,” stated a brother.
Torious span on his heels and heaved the heavy vault door shut. Torious answered everyone's question as he turned to the crowd, “Rellin will be safe. We must serve ourselves for now.”
“Yes,” coughed a brother, “we need a short time to gain access to the vaults.”
Torious looked about in incomprehension, then understood, “Then hurry. We don't have much time.”
Torious, Thalin, Milo and Mikka huddled against one of the chambers corners, the press of bodies suddenly a greater threat than the fire.
“If only we had our weapons!” hissed Milo.
“True,” nodded Thalin, his tortured arm violently shaking as he spoke, “but we have none and the priests require time. What can we do but wait?”
“Well,” ventured Mikka, “I believe I can help out on that front.”
The companions turned to Mikka with incredulous faces.
“No seriously,” grinned Mikka, “I can help”
Torious plunged a hand against Mikka's exquisite silk shirt and hefted him against the wall, “then help us god damn it!”
Mikka thought to ask Torious to say please, but thought better of it. The Tiefling pulled a heavy book from the bottomless depths of his cloak and let the book fall to the floor with a thump.
“What the hell does this mean?” cried Thalin, “did you take that from the temple?”
“Goodness no,” answered Mikka, “just let me down and I'll show you.”
The Bear grinned beneath his helmet as the frostwood doors splintered and fell inwards. He hefted his warhammer and moved through the temple doors. A single priest stood in the centre of the inferno, a longsword levelled at The Bear as he entered.
“Yes yes, of course it's safe!” called Mikka, “I've used it a hundred times”
Mikka waved up to the onlookers from the bottom of the ladder. Thalin shook his head. Mikka had opened the heavy tome at a certain page to reveal some kind of gateway into a small room, inside the book. The pages and the room were quite big enough to accommodate the four adventurers. Milo shimmied into the page of the book without hesitation and started poking about the small room. Thalin followed, then finally Torious stepped inside.
The brothers of Oghma looked on dumbfounded as the Aasimar disappeared into the heavy tome, which promptly shut itself closed once Torious had gone down.
The small room was well decorated and save for the unruly ladder back to the book page, was quite homely. Two little leather chairs dominated opposite corners and a door stood against each of the four walls. They were locked. Milo had already checked.
“I don't trust this,” growled Torious as he stood hunched against the low ceiling.
“You don't have to,” smiled Mikka, “actually, it's better if you don't.”
Milo flopped down into one of the chairs and Isplit reclined on the arm rest. Mikka stood proud of his portable home, then saw Thalin staring at him menacingly and the Tiefling got to work. Mikka fumbled through his cloak to first produce a small crunched up map, then a ring of keys. As Mikka worked, Milo's face was an unabashed glow of admiration.
“So, this little place serves as something of a junction for my... business” intoned Mikka as he unruffled the map.
It was a sketchy map of Waterdeep. Each of the major houses were outlined and scribbled arrows marked every inch of the plan. Mikka grinned and refolded the map. Thalin felt a blip of magic and saw as the map unfolded it showed a region near Phlan, a town that bordered the Moon Sea. Once again, the paper was coated in little notes and markings. Mikka coughed, then concentrated as he folded the map up once more. This time, it unfolded to a detailed plan of Ilinvur, complete with decimated keep. Mikka grinned and stabbed his finger at a room in the keep.
“Your weapons will be there,” said Mikka
“What?” answered Thalin, “how do you know?”
“Because I've been there before. It's where they keep all the prisoners belongings. Quite the source for interesting items let me tell you.”
“This is wrong,” said Torious, thumping a fist against the wall, “so once we retrieve our weapons you must turn this den of thievery over to me for holy destruction.”
“Not a chance scarboy, not a chance.”
Before Torious had a chance to strangle the Tiefling, Mikka shuffled to one of the doors and plunged a key into the lock. With a satisfying scrape, the door opened outwards into the weapons room of Ilinvur keep.
The brothers of Oghma chanted. The cluster of bodies seeming to grow one voice from many as power surged through the room.
Milo crept out into the quiet of the weapons room. He looked back towards the eager faces of his companions, who gestured him onwards. Milo padded in silence to a row of chests and quickly unlocked them until he found their equipment.
Mikka gave a possible thumbs up to his halfling companion, but Milo turned and shook his head. However, Milo whispered an invisible helper into existence and carted the chest into the safety of Mikka's room. With a dull thud, Mikka closed the door and turned towards the open chest. The wooden box was full of Torious's armour, and Milo's leather, but little else.
“Where is Freedom's Edge?” snarled Torious.
“Well, I'm guessing they are carting the weapons westwards with Robar,” said Thalin.
“Fine!” barked Mikka and thrust a second key into the opposite door and kicked it open in fury.
The door swung open into a small wooden box stuffed full of weapons. A guardsman dropped a crate of crossbow bolts in surprise, his face a mask of incredulity as Torious barreled through the door and smashed him against the far wall.
“Keep him quiet!” hissed Thalin suddenly.
Torious thrust his arm against the guards throat and locked his head in a tight grip. Within moments the startled guard was unconscious and Torious dropped him to the floor. Mikka gave a generous thumbs up and began to scoop weapons into his room.
Torious turned and upended a crate of weapons. Freedom's Edge spilled against Sliverspike which knocked against Shard. Torious looked torn between two ideas for a moment then slung the unconscious guard over his shoulder and hoisted him into the room. Thalin dragged them all in and closed the door quickly before anything else happened.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the door swung shut and the companions collapsed amid a pile of weapons old and new.
The characters pulled themselves from the sodden earth. After two days of hiding the brothers had allowed them to move out of the vault and into the sunshine. Milo had loved earthwalking to the sanctuary, but the kick of the trip was quickly drowned by being closely surrounded by librarians and scrolls.
Thalin, Torious, Mikka and Milo stood next to each other, re-armed, re-armoured and full of purpose, as the dusk set slowly about them. They would have a hard ride to catch Gruulth and Robar and the devastation left in Ilinvur had to be put behind them, but the upper hand was suddenly gifted to the heroes. Robar and Gruulth would never know they were coming.
To be continued in…
Ice, Luck and Honour
Chapter 13: Stairway to Heaven
Our heroes have escaped the clutches of Robar and are hot on his heels! Erifeci must be tracked down, but the characters are quickly pulled into a melting pot of prophecies and eternal lives as they encounter Mellius's Tower. Will the heroes triumph again? Will they be fast enough to stop the forces of darkness?
Flames rained down from all sides. Milo backflipped as the table he stood on caught fire. The sudden stench of burning paper and wood billowed through the temple. Outside, the cries of Robar pitched up to a frenzied cackle. The frostwood doors heaved with a crushing thud. Thalin caught the sound of The Bear's commanding barks forcing his men onwards.
“We must retreat!” cried Thalin.
Torious whirled on the mage, “and fall to dishonour here? Do not think of it Thalin, we shall stand this day.”
“Then die in the flames,” shouted Thalin as he kicked a burning brand form his feet, “what good is your soul consumed in the fires of Kossuth?”
Thalin pulled back to the safety of a stone arch, his mind racing with escape plans. Torious flung a burning table towards the doors and readied himself. Milo pounced back to Thalin's position and gripped the robe of the mage.
“We have to flee,” whimpered Milo, “we can't fight here without weapons.”
As Milo finished his words, Rellin stalked from a side door and took in the devastation around him. Brothers of Oghma moved quickly about, unnerved in the fiery assault as they collected armfuls of books and hurried through a small door at the rear of the temple.
“Why do they not fight?” roared Torious.
“Because this cannot be won,” answered Rellin as he stepped next to Torious, “we can but save what we need and continue.”
Rellin pushed a second table against the mighty frostwood doors, his aged frame suddenly fused with strength. Torious saw that he wielded Pilgrim in his right hand. The executioner's sword cast a baleful glow as it passed. Torious locked eyes with Rellin.
“I will fight this to the death Father.”
“No, you won't. There is a greater cause calling for you,” answered Rellin, “and do not worry of us, we shall shelter from the flames and arise again. Knowledge does not burn my son, we shall survive this.”
Rellin then called urgently over to Thalin, “my son, you must stop Gruulth. If his hands hold Erifeci when the comet strikes, all is lost... To Tilverton! To Tilverton!”
The temple blazed with light as a cask of oil shattered in the midst of a scroll stack. A brother of Oghma fell back, his robes ablaze, his face a mask of concentration as he flung a book to safety moments before his skin blistered with fire. The book skidded against Torious's feet. He knelt and picked up the volume before nodding to Rellin and falling back to Thalin and Milo.
“Fall back to the vault my brothers!” cried Rellin, “do not fail me!”
Milo, Thalin and Torious followed the surge of burdened brothers. Torious's last glimpse of Rellin was as a demonic Emberguard suddenly erupted from a pool of fire and wheeled on the priest. Rellin's face contorted to hatred as he swung Pilgrim clean through the torso of the demon. The Emberguard exploded in a brilliant white flame and was gone. Rellin whirled Pilgrim in his hands as two more Emberguard thundered from nothingness and charged.
That was the last that Torious saw before being swept towards the vaults.
Thalin commanded Dariel to fly free. His companion hesitated a moment, then screeched loudly and spiraled through a shattered window and into the smoke laden sky.
- - - - - - - - - -
Milo dashed into the vaults and stopped. His face dropped.
“What?! How are we safe in here?” cried the halfling, motioning at the small chamber that the brother of Oghma filed into. Thalin emerged from the hallway, followed shortly by Torious.
“This is not the vault,” stated a brother.
Torious span on his heels and heaved the heavy vault door shut. Torious answered everyone's question as he turned to the crowd, “Rellin will be safe. We must serve ourselves for now.”
“Yes,” coughed a brother, “we need a short time to gain access to the vaults.”
Torious looked about in incomprehension, then understood, “Then hurry. We don't have much time.”
Torious, Thalin, Milo and Mikka huddled against one of the chambers corners, the press of bodies suddenly a greater threat than the fire.
“If only we had our weapons!” hissed Milo.
“True,” nodded Thalin, his tortured arm violently shaking as he spoke, “but we have none and the priests require time. What can we do but wait?”
“Well,” ventured Mikka, “I believe I can help out on that front.”
The companions turned to Mikka with incredulous faces.
“No seriously,” grinned Mikka, “I can help”
Torious plunged a hand against Mikka's exquisite silk shirt and hefted him against the wall, “then help us god damn it!”
Mikka thought to ask Torious to say please, but thought better of it. The Tiefling pulled a heavy book from the bottomless depths of his cloak and let the book fall to the floor with a thump.
“What the hell does this mean?” cried Thalin, “did you take that from the temple?”
“Goodness no,” answered Mikka, “just let me down and I'll show you.”
- - - - - - - - - -
The Bear grinned beneath his helmet as the frostwood doors splintered and fell inwards. He hefted his warhammer and moved through the temple doors. A single priest stood in the centre of the inferno, a longsword levelled at The Bear as he entered.
- - - - - - - - - -
“Yes yes, of course it's safe!” called Mikka, “I've used it a hundred times”
Mikka waved up to the onlookers from the bottom of the ladder. Thalin shook his head. Mikka had opened the heavy tome at a certain page to reveal some kind of gateway into a small room, inside the book. The pages and the room were quite big enough to accommodate the four adventurers. Milo shimmied into the page of the book without hesitation and started poking about the small room. Thalin followed, then finally Torious stepped inside.
The brothers of Oghma looked on dumbfounded as the Aasimar disappeared into the heavy tome, which promptly shut itself closed once Torious had gone down.
The small room was well decorated and save for the unruly ladder back to the book page, was quite homely. Two little leather chairs dominated opposite corners and a door stood against each of the four walls. They were locked. Milo had already checked.
“I don't trust this,” growled Torious as he stood hunched against the low ceiling.
“You don't have to,” smiled Mikka, “actually, it's better if you don't.”
Milo flopped down into one of the chairs and Isplit reclined on the arm rest. Mikka stood proud of his portable home, then saw Thalin staring at him menacingly and the Tiefling got to work. Mikka fumbled through his cloak to first produce a small crunched up map, then a ring of keys. As Mikka worked, Milo's face was an unabashed glow of admiration.
“So, this little place serves as something of a junction for my... business” intoned Mikka as he unruffled the map.
It was a sketchy map of Waterdeep. Each of the major houses were outlined and scribbled arrows marked every inch of the plan. Mikka grinned and refolded the map. Thalin felt a blip of magic and saw as the map unfolded it showed a region near Phlan, a town that bordered the Moon Sea. Once again, the paper was coated in little notes and markings. Mikka coughed, then concentrated as he folded the map up once more. This time, it unfolded to a detailed plan of Ilinvur, complete with decimated keep. Mikka grinned and stabbed his finger at a room in the keep.
“Your weapons will be there,” said Mikka
“What?” answered Thalin, “how do you know?”
“Because I've been there before. It's where they keep all the prisoners belongings. Quite the source for interesting items let me tell you.”
“This is wrong,” said Torious, thumping a fist against the wall, “so once we retrieve our weapons you must turn this den of thievery over to me for holy destruction.”
“Not a chance scarboy, not a chance.”
Before Torious had a chance to strangle the Tiefling, Mikka shuffled to one of the doors and plunged a key into the lock. With a satisfying scrape, the door opened outwards into the weapons room of Ilinvur keep.
- - - - - - - - - -
The brothers of Oghma chanted. The cluster of bodies seeming to grow one voice from many as power surged through the room.
- - - - - - - - - -
Milo crept out into the quiet of the weapons room. He looked back towards the eager faces of his companions, who gestured him onwards. Milo padded in silence to a row of chests and quickly unlocked them until he found their equipment.
Mikka gave a possible thumbs up to his halfling companion, but Milo turned and shook his head. However, Milo whispered an invisible helper into existence and carted the chest into the safety of Mikka's room. With a dull thud, Mikka closed the door and turned towards the open chest. The wooden box was full of Torious's armour, and Milo's leather, but little else.
“Where is Freedom's Edge?” snarled Torious.
“Well, I'm guessing they are carting the weapons westwards with Robar,” said Thalin.
“Fine!” barked Mikka and thrust a second key into the opposite door and kicked it open in fury.
The door swung open into a small wooden box stuffed full of weapons. A guardsman dropped a crate of crossbow bolts in surprise, his face a mask of incredulity as Torious barreled through the door and smashed him against the far wall.
“Keep him quiet!” hissed Thalin suddenly.
Torious thrust his arm against the guards throat and locked his head in a tight grip. Within moments the startled guard was unconscious and Torious dropped him to the floor. Mikka gave a generous thumbs up and began to scoop weapons into his room.
Torious turned and upended a crate of weapons. Freedom's Edge spilled against Sliverspike which knocked against Shard. Torious looked torn between two ideas for a moment then slung the unconscious guard over his shoulder and hoisted him into the room. Thalin dragged them all in and closed the door quickly before anything else happened.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as the door swung shut and the companions collapsed amid a pile of weapons old and new.
- - - - - - - - - -
The characters pulled themselves from the sodden earth. After two days of hiding the brothers had allowed them to move out of the vault and into the sunshine. Milo had loved earthwalking to the sanctuary, but the kick of the trip was quickly drowned by being closely surrounded by librarians and scrolls.
Thalin, Torious, Mikka and Milo stood next to each other, re-armed, re-armoured and full of purpose, as the dusk set slowly about them. They would have a hard ride to catch Gruulth and Robar and the devastation left in Ilinvur had to be put behind them, but the upper hand was suddenly gifted to the heroes. Robar and Gruulth would never know they were coming.
To be continued in…
Ice, Luck and Honour
Chapter 13: Stairway to Heaven
Our heroes have escaped the clutches of Robar and are hot on his heels! Erifeci must be tracked down, but the characters are quickly pulled into a melting pot of prophecies and eternal lives as they encounter Mellius's Tower. Will the heroes triumph again? Will they be fast enough to stop the forces of darkness?
Last edited:
HalfOrc HalfBiscuit
Adventurer
Cracking update, Spider!
Spider_Jerusalem
Explorer
Cheers buddy. The campaign really steps up the pace at this point, now the characters have the elusive *purpose* that so rarely strikes. The players really wanted Robar and Gruulth dead... great to DM for.HalfOrc HalfBiscuit said:
Thanks. Next update will be flying in soon, though before that happens I intend to put up the long-awaited pdf of the chapters and a summary of the story so far (now that we are at the convenient story arc break) and hopefully snare a few extra readers! Ah well, heres hoping.Funeris said:
Palskane said:
I can't believe Torious has fans... everything I've worked for dashed apart in a single blow!
no no, Torious is cool. I'll admit that.Oh, Mikka's map was one of those creations were it was pulled out and the players went "oooooooh" whereas I had meant it to be a throwaway gag item. It was Mikka's anyway. A catch-all map is far too powerful for these guys
.hey man, glad to hear that you enjoyed it. I never really mocked up the stats for the book, but perchance I had, they would be a little like this:brellin said:
Mikka's Book of Junctions is a modified Bag of Holding that is equipped with a Dimension Door capabilities. A character can go inside the book (medium size or less to get through the page opening - room will snugly fit 4) at will but to operate the doors you must:
1: have the keys
2: know the distances involved (up to dimension door as standard), which is why Mikka had the map. It works like "I want to travel 20 metres west and then 3 metres upwards". The dimension door then creates a realistic wooden door as an exit point.
3: don't let the door slam - you'll be stuck and need to go find the book again
4: that's it.
Change it about as you see fit - it's kind of an artifact-in-progress.
Righto, summary and update soon.
Spider (back to WoW!)
