Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Play by Post
IC [DW] From the Outside
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="doghead" data-source="post: 6328038" data-attributes="member: 8243"><p><strong>Time - Somewhere in the Monster Kingdom</strong></p><p></p><p>The Witching Troll considers Slice's response for a while.</p><p></p><p>"I need someone who can cooperate with others, and who is capable of more than just breaking things until he gets what he wants. Perhaps if I had a cave full of aberrations that needed killing you would be of some use. But the task I have at hand will require a range of skills and a degree of subtlety. You are brave, perhaps, but too blunt an instrument for this. I do not think you are going to be of any use to me.</p><p></p><p>She stands and moves slowly around Slice, sprinkling something from a small vial around the trunk of the tree. Eventually she returns to her original position.</p><p></p><p>"I have already spent as much time as I can afford on this. More, probably. </p><p></p><p>"I have left you something to think upon. Do with it as you will. Should you decide that you can work with the others and restrain your overweening sense of entitlement, then you just have to ask for me.</p><p></p><p>The clearing is empty once again. The stars wheel across an empty sky. The trees are quiet, as if waiting. </p><p></p><p>The wind moves through the leaves.</p><p></p><p>Limbs creak.</p><p></p><p><em>Roots and vines.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>At first Slice couldn’t tell what he was seeing except a profusion of writhing plant-life until the vines irised away, beyond his sight, to expose a blur of images, a hundred changing turns of a kaleidoscopic life with one face.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“Yes,” said the familiar, maddening voice. It spoke with no hesitation.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The shadow moved and Slice could tell that it was well pleased and yet, it was exactly what it knew would be spoken. It circled the edge of the grove and snagged a delicate strand of spider silk that gleamed like silver in the moonlight. As the shadow moved closer to the elf the web unraveled. Shadow wrapped the strand of silver around the elf’s finger.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“There are three in the forest beyond. Bring them here. Wind the strand and beware that you don’t break it for it will bring you here.”</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>---</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The baby was lying in a nest of silk and waving its tiny elfin hands and feet at nothing. A crone, one of the bent and broken fey and ugly as nothing Slice had ever seen before, uncurled a gnarled finger, spit upon the fingertip, and touched the spittle to the baby’s eyes. The image fractured as if he were seeing it from two vantage points: the finger reached towards his eye, dripping with some viscous fluid, and touched the ball of his eye. His vision blazed and faded as he blinked his eye clear though he knew something was there, deeper than skin, deeper than bone, some essential element that he could see if he only focused, that he needed to grasp, to drink in and understand.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>From the outside, the crone. He could see past the veil of her skin. She was rotten stump-wood carved into the semblance of a creature and made to dance like the wooden poppets at a market day faire animated by twitching strings controlled by…</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>---</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“Who are you? What do you seek from me?” demanded a low, husky voice at odds with the rumbling crash Slice expected. The voice emanated from a figure concealed by a shifting mass of shadow as the stars wheeled overhead painting circles in the night sky. Only his own vision of the figure was shadowed, through his borrowed eyes he saw a feminine figure of carved and polished wood yet able to move with serpentine grace. Slice thought to answer her questions but another voice spoke before he could.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“Khirynnax, born of the Great Forest and a son of the Stinking Mire. I seek the secrets of the aether, the animating force of the fey.”</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>“And will you serve me a year and a day for what you desire?”</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The moon, the same moon that gazed down on Slice and his companions as they fled through the wood, stopped in its track awaiting the answer.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>---</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Scene after scene flashed by, most too quickly to catch more than a fleeting glimpse. Each glimpse, however, revealed a root or vine, plucking, prodding, pushing some unknown agent to alter the course of Khirynnax’s life until it flowed in the channel dictated by each root and vine that led back to that grove of shifting shadow where the stars wheeled in the sky.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="doghead, post: 6328038, member: 8243"] [b]Time - Somewhere in the Monster Kingdom[/b] The Witching Troll considers Slice's response for a while. "I need someone who can cooperate with others, and who is capable of more than just breaking things until he gets what he wants. Perhaps if I had a cave full of aberrations that needed killing you would be of some use. But the task I have at hand will require a range of skills and a degree of subtlety. You are brave, perhaps, but too blunt an instrument for this. I do not think you are going to be of any use to me. She stands and moves slowly around Slice, sprinkling something from a small vial around the trunk of the tree. Eventually she returns to her original position. "I have already spent as much time as I can afford on this. More, probably. "I have left you something to think upon. Do with it as you will. Should you decide that you can work with the others and restrain your overweening sense of entitlement, then you just have to ask for me. The clearing is empty once again. The stars wheel across an empty sky. The trees are quiet, as if waiting. The wind moves through the leaves. Limbs creak. [i]Roots and vines. At first Slice couldn’t tell what he was seeing except a profusion of writhing plant-life until the vines irised away, beyond his sight, to expose a blur of images, a hundred changing turns of a kaleidoscopic life with one face. “Yes,” said the familiar, maddening voice. It spoke with no hesitation. The shadow moved and Slice could tell that it was well pleased and yet, it was exactly what it knew would be spoken. It circled the edge of the grove and snagged a delicate strand of spider silk that gleamed like silver in the moonlight. As the shadow moved closer to the elf the web unraveled. Shadow wrapped the strand of silver around the elf’s finger. “There are three in the forest beyond. Bring them here. Wind the strand and beware that you don’t break it for it will bring you here.” --- The baby was lying in a nest of silk and waving its tiny elfin hands and feet at nothing. A crone, one of the bent and broken fey and ugly as nothing Slice had ever seen before, uncurled a gnarled finger, spit upon the fingertip, and touched the spittle to the baby’s eyes. The image fractured as if he were seeing it from two vantage points: the finger reached towards his eye, dripping with some viscous fluid, and touched the ball of his eye. His vision blazed and faded as he blinked his eye clear though he knew something was there, deeper than skin, deeper than bone, some essential element that he could see if he only focused, that he needed to grasp, to drink in and understand. From the outside, the crone. He could see past the veil of her skin. She was rotten stump-wood carved into the semblance of a creature and made to dance like the wooden poppets at a market day faire animated by twitching strings controlled by… --- “Who are you? What do you seek from me?” demanded a low, husky voice at odds with the rumbling crash Slice expected. The voice emanated from a figure concealed by a shifting mass of shadow as the stars wheeled overhead painting circles in the night sky. Only his own vision of the figure was shadowed, through his borrowed eyes he saw a feminine figure of carved and polished wood yet able to move with serpentine grace. Slice thought to answer her questions but another voice spoke before he could. “Khirynnax, born of the Great Forest and a son of the Stinking Mire. I seek the secrets of the aether, the animating force of the fey.” “And will you serve me a year and a day for what you desire?” The moon, the same moon that gazed down on Slice and his companions as they fled through the wood, stopped in its track awaiting the answer. --- Scene after scene flashed by, most too quickly to catch more than a fleeting glimpse. Each glimpse, however, revealed a root or vine, plucking, prodding, pushing some unknown agent to alter the course of Khirynnax’s life until it flowed in the channel dictated by each root and vine that led back to that grove of shifting shadow where the stars wheeled in the sky.[/i] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Play by Post
IC [DW] From the Outside
Top