Joachim
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Power out on Wed, back on late Fri. (Shout out to Southern Co.)
Ya damn right.
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JollyDoc's Kingmaker-Updated 7/4/2011
- Thread starter JollyDoc
- Start date
Ya damn right.
JollyDoc
Explorer
THE SOUND OF A THOUSAND SCREAMS
The wedding of Mox and Stevhan was THE event of the year, and everyone who was anyone was in attendance, including representatives of the Sword Lords themselves. The celebrations lasted for over a week throughout the united kingdom, and alliances among the disparate factions of Kardashia were solidified. In the months that followed the royal wedding, Kardashia achieved a new level of peace and prosperity, even as circumstances in Brevoy spiraled ever closer to civil war. By mid-year, a second announcement from the royal family brought even greater rejoicing to the Kardashian citizens…Mox was pregnant with her second child. She gave birth the following winter to another son…Prince Henry. Life was good…and then Spring arrived…
__________________________________________________________
“A representative from the Fishermen’s Guild, my Lady,” Harold the herald announced.
The old salt stepped cautiously into the throne room, obviously unaccustomed to such opulence and ostentatiousness. He shuffled up to the throne where Mox held court.
“Me Lady,” he sketched a brief bow.
“What news?” the Queen asked.
“There be trouble in the Tuskwater,” the sailor said without further preamble. “A whirlpool, and a right big one at that! It be five-hundred feet if it be an inch, and it be growin’ damn quick! Pardon me language. It already claimed three boats, and the fishin ain’t for crap! Yer pardon again, my Lady. Then there’s them freaky strange birds swimmin’ around in it, pretty as you please! It ain’t natural, I tell ye!”
“I see,” Mox replied, her expression neutral. “This is news indeed. Very well, I shall launch an investigation immediately. Your service is duly noted, Master Fisherman, and greatly appreciated.”
The old man bowed again as he backed hurriedly out of the chamber.
____________________________________________________________
It didn’t take Mox long to notify her comrades of the situation in the middle of the Tuskwater. Within the hour, the citizens of Veritas cheered as their Queen and her consort took to the air above the castle mounted atop Reggie, whom most of the city folk had come to see as an unofficial, if ghoulish, mascot. Selena, lifted aloft by her own magic, flew alongside the royal couple, while Davrim and Velox literally walked on air above the waters of the lake. Below them, Tungdill transformed himself into a water elemental, and knifed through the water as if born to it.
It didn’t take the companions long to spot the whirlpool the fisherman had spoken of. It was enormous, and it appeared to reach all the way down to the bottom of the lake, leaving a fifty-foot span of the lakebed exposed. Eerily silent black swans congregated in the waters surrounding the vortex. As they were drawn into it, they would fly up into the air and then settle back in the water some distance away, only to slowly drift back into the whirlpool over time. As Tungdill swam near the vortex, he felt himself caught by the current. At first he was not concerned, confident that his watery form could easily break free. It only took a moment, however, for him to realize that, incredibly, the force of the whirlpool was too strong. Shortly after that, real panic set in, as four smaller whirlpools formed within the main one, and began moving purposefully towards him. As they drew near, they began to rise into the air as huge columns of water, forming into the shapes of enormous, watery swans. Thinking quickly, Tungdill transformed himself again, this time into an air elemental, and he flew desperately out of the vortex.
High above, Selena conjured a small ball of ice between her palms, and then hurled it at the water below. As it struck, it burst and formed a vast sheet of solid ice across half the surface of the whirlpool, trapping two of the elementals within it. Then, at Mox’s command, Reggie dove towards the lake. As he dropped, Mox hurled a glittering emerald beam at one of the elementals, dissolving a large portion of its body in the process. Reggie’s tattered wings spread wide as he swooped towards a second elemental, gnashing with his broken teeth at its amorphous hide. Seated on the dragon behind, Mox, Stevhan turned backwards in the saddle and loosed two arrows at the creature that his wife had already injured. Abruptly, he felt something strike him like a sledgehammer as Reggie banked past an elemental that reached out a watery wing and slapped at the ranger as he passed.
From across the whirlpool, another of the elementals charged across the vortex, looking just like an enraged swan with wings flapping as it came. It struck Reggie as the dragon banked skyward. The creature snapped its beak at him as he rose, but a moment later the elemental was engulfed in a column of fire as Tungdill unleashed hell upon it. It reeled back towards the middle of the whirlpool, but before it could escape, Selena sent a blast of electricity streaking towards it from a slender wand in her hand. When the lightning bolt struck, it coursed through the creature, conducted by the water. It reared up again, slamming into Velox as it struck out blindly. The oracle hit back, his blade flaring as it ripped through the creature’s watery hide. Still in the air above Velox, Davrim opened fire with his bow, and Stevhan joined him from his perch atop Reggie. The elemental screeched and roared, but collapsed in on itself a moment later when Mox fired a volley of arcane bolts of pure acid into its body.
Velox hovered for a moment, then turned his opaque eyes on the elementals still trapped in the ice sheet. The oracle unleashed a blast of searing light from his palm at one of the creatures. From above, Mox directed Reggie in a wheeling arc back towards the trapped pair. As the dragon drew near, however, one of the elementals slammed into him, sending him tumbling from the air. Fortunately, he landed, sprawled on the ice and clamped his teeth down on one wing of the elemental. It struggled to break free, but then Tungdill sent a snake of fire winding towards all three of the remaining creatures. In rapid succession, the elementals dissolved, first as Davrim polished off one with his bow, then Mox disintegrated another, while Velox destroyed the last one with a devastating charge. No sooner had the last of the elementals been dealt with, than the central vortex collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing but black feathers floating on the surface of the once-more tranquil water.
___________________________________________________________
“I was afraid of this,” Evindra said as she turned one of the black swan feathers over in hands.
“What?” Mox asked.
“That whirlpool, those creatures,” the nereid replied. “They were no natural occurrence.”
“We figured that out on our own!” Tungdill barked.
“Continue,” Mox told Evindra, pointedly ignoring the dwarf.
“It was a bloom,” Evindra said, “a First World bloom. An incursion, if you prefer. Nyrissa is preparing her invasion. The bloom was but the first foray. There will be more.”
“How do you know this?” Selena asked.
“This,” Evindra held up the feather. “Use your powers if you doubt me. You’ll find it bears a potent aura of magic about it. It is a token. Call it a trophy if you will. It is link between this world and the First World. It allowed Nyrissa to breach the barrier between worlds just enough to allow some of my world to spill over into yours…the bloom.”
“Well how do we stop them?” Stevhan asked.
Evindra shrugged. “You can defeat them, as you did this one, but there will be more, and more, until finally, a permanent portal will open between the First World and yours, and then Nyrissa will come through with all the powers at her command. The only way to prevent this is to stop her before this happens. You must go to the First World.”
“How?” Mox asked.
“Each bloom will have a trophy token similar to this one,” Evindra indicated the feather again. “Something that links it to the First World. If you have enough of them, you might be able to trigger a portal into the First World…but first you have to find one.”
“And you know where one might exist?” Selena asked.
“Perhaps…,” the nereid trailed off. “I will look into it, but you must alert your people, in all corners of your kingdom. At the first sign of a new bloom, you must act quickly to destroy it, else it will spread like a plague, and Nyrissa’s work will be made that much easier. You must prepare.”
_____________________________________________________________
It was exactly as Evindra foretold. Eight days after the appearance of the whirlpool, word came from the Narlmarches that a foul tangle of enormous mushrooms, molds, and thick fibrous roots had appeared in the middle of the forest. It was spreading quickly and choking out any existing plant life. Furthermore, nearby farms were reporting swarms of tiny, plant-like creatures that were biting the ankles of livestock and children, chasing pets, and sometimes even climbing into the rooms of sleeping farmers during the night to drink blood from exposed necks or arms.
Mox and Selena teleported their companions to Fort Spears. From there, Stevhan led their trek into the forest, and it wasn’t long before they came upon the horrific, fungal growth. It covered everything, and from everywhere there was the smell of rot from where the natural flora was being suffocated. Worse still were the sounds that came from the bloom. Countless tiny cries, not unlike the sound of miniature babies, echoed throughout the unholy undergrowth. It wasn’t long until the companions discovered the source.
The shrieking reached an abrupt crescendo, and as it did, the companions reflexively covered their ears to protect them from the sonic assault. Even so, Davrim and Stevhan were overcome with waves of violent nausea. A moment later, the undergrowth seemed to erupt as thousands of tiny creatures, each no more than four inches high, burst from cover. Each resembled a vaguely humanoid plant, with tiny eyes, leaves for hair, and sharp wooden teeth. They swarmed over Stevhan, biting and scratching, and it was all the retching ranger could do to quickly clamber up onto Reggie’s back. Mox, already perched there, opened her mouth, and as she did so, her eyes became reptilian, and her tongue forked. Acid spewed from her throat, and the creatures died by the hundreds, yet still they came. It was only through a combined assault by Velox, Tungdill and Selena, all of them bringing arcane fire to bear, that the swarm was obliterated. The respite was only a brief one, however, as a second cacophony of shrieks sounded from the forest, and another swarm of the teeny terrors came rushing into the clearing.
Stevhan, still sitting atop Reggie, wasn’t feeling very well. The bites inflicted on his arms and legs by the swarm were starting to throb and burn. His vision blurred, and his head pounded. For a moment, he forgot where he was, even who he was. When his thoughts began to clarify, he realized that he was sitting on a dragon! An undead dragon! Shouting a challenge, he drew Briar and plunged it into the neck of the horrid abomination.
Tungdill conjured another column of flames upon the new attackers, while Mox hurled an explosive ball of fire at them. The swarm fractured, but did not break. Instead it surged towards Davrim. The inquisitor dove through the circular wall of flames that Velox had created around the previous swarm. Fire licked at his clothing, but he rolled across the ground and to his feet once he was in the center of the ring, quickly putting himself out. Unfortunately, though dozens of them died in the process, the little horrors were not deterred by the flames, and pursued him within the wall.
Mox turned when she heard Reggie roaring. She saw Stevhan atop the dragon, slashing and hacking with Briar. Cursing roundly, the sorceress wove a glowing web of magic about Reggie, instantly transporting him to safety, but leaving Stevhan behind. He fell heavily to the ground, and sat there for several moments, bleary-eyed.
“What…what happened?” he asked in confusion.
“You were poisoned,” his wife snapped. “Drink this.” She tossed a flask his way, and he quickly upended it. Within seconds, his head began to clear.
Davrim reached into a pouch at his belt and retrieved a potion flask, which he immediately drank down. His body abruptly felt lighter than air, and he quickly rose into the sky. The swarm, denied its prey, rushed back through the fire wall, and headed immediately towards Stevhan. It never made it anywhere near him. Mox stepped in front of the mandragoras, opened her mouth, and engulfed the swarm in acid, obliterating it completely.
___________________________________________________________
The Kardashian leaders didn’t receive even a one day reprieve before the next report of trouble reached them. This time, however, it didn’t seem as if another bloom had appeared. Rather, reports came in that Littletown in Pitax had been attacked. It seemed as if a horde of two-headed giants led by a horned warrior had attacked out of the Forest of Thousand Voices, and then promptly disappeared back into it as quickly as they’d come. Rumors began running rampant that the Stag Lord had returned. Mox and Selena acted rapidly, and teleported the companions to Littletown.
The town itself was intact, but the damage was extensive. Survivors and witnesses repeated the account of marauding ettins led by a horn-helmed warrior who wielded a bow with deadly accuracy. It didn’t take much effort on Stevhan’s part to pick up the trail of the raiders where they’d trampled through the forest. From there, it was only a matter of hours until the companions came upon the giants. There were twelve of them, all hulking, massive brutes with equally large axes. Behind them stood a lone warrior. He was bare-chested, and wore a massive helm on his head, concealing his features. Two large horns did indeed curve out of the helm, but when the companions saw that he walked on a pair of goat-like legs, they knew that the horns were not part of the helm, but of the warrior. He nodded silently to his giants minions, and then unlimbered his bow.
Velox, Stevhan, and Davrim didn’t wait. The trio charged across the clearing, deftly dodging the clumsy blows of the ettins as they passed. In seconds, they had the horned hunter surrounding, and they laid into him, their blades flashing, especially Briar. The fey-bane weapon hummed with such power that Stevhan almost imagined the sword was excited. The hunter recoiled under the assault, blood flowing freely from several wounds. Suddenly, his helm flashed, and he vanished, only to reappear an instant later on the far side of the clearing.
Mox saw the horned hunter appear behind her, but she also had to contend with the ettins who were ignoring her more heavily armored companions and charging right towards her, Selena and Tungdill. Thinking quickly, she conjured a large pit directly in front of the oncoming horde. The lead giant couldn’t stop his momentum, and tumbled in…only to fall some sixty feet and land in a pool of caustic acid below. Two more behind the first ettin, despite the warning screams of their comrade, were also too cumbersome to alter their path, and they to slipped into the acid pit.
“Reggie, kill!” Mox commanded the undead dragon.
Reggie leaped awkwardly into the sky, his tattered wings beating the air. He groaned as he turned and flew towards the horned hunter. The satyr began to backpedal, bringing his bow up as the undead dragon bore down on him. Too late. Reggie plowed into him like a battering ram, his rotten teeth tearing into the hunter’s flesh. In desperation, he teleported again.
Selena, now with all of the ettins lined up nicely before her, sent a coruscating blast of lightning into them. It struck the first, and then arced to each one in turn, killing a half-dozen of them instantly. By the time the remaining three had recovered, Davrim, Stevhan and Velox had closed the distance to them, and quickly put them out of their misery.
The horned hunter reappeared at the opposite side of the clearing and looked balefully about the battlefield. All of his minions were slain, and he grievously wounded. He raised his bow in defiance, and prepared to teleport one last time and make good his escape. The last thing he saw was Tungdill shaking one admonishing finger at him, then a flash of black light. Tungdill’s bearded face grinned from ear to ear as the satyr simply collapsed.
“Now that’s how ya kill somebody,” he laughed. “And ya don’t get yer hands dirty doin’ it, neither!”
_____________________________________________________________
For three days, no further news of First World incursions reached the companions. Then, on the evening of the fourth day, Velox had a strange dream…more of a nightmare, really. In it, he had become lost in a bog and stumbled into a pool of quicksand. As he struggled to free himself, thousands of insects swarmed around him, eating him alive. As he was overwhelmed, he saw in the dark, night sky above an immense, black bird looking down upon him. Somehow, he knew, just knew, that it was the bird that had brought him to this doom.
When the oracle awoke, he was horrified to find that the dream had followed him! He was still in his own chambers, and in his own bed, but he was literally covered by thousands of biting, stinging centipedes. He leaped from his bed, only to find the floor alive with the bugs as well. His armor hung on its stand, and his exposed flesh was bleeding from hundreds of tiny bites. Thinking quickly, he called on Iomedae’s power and wove a spell about him which rendered his skin as hard as stone. Then, he summoned a circular wall of flames in the center of the chamber, immolating hundreds of the creeping doom, yet still they pursued him. Like a living cloak, they began crawling all about him. The oracle, in desperation, conjured a wall of whirling and slashing blades across the room, decimating the furnishings. He took a running start and leaped through the barrier, carrying his assailants with him. Though the blades nicked and cut him, they completely shredded the insects. He landed in a heap, sweat and blood dripping from his body. All the centipedes were simply gone. What had just happened?
____________________________________________________________
The following morning, Velox told the others what had transpired the night before.
“So we are being attacked in our sleep now, is that it?” Mox asked.
“We have to sleep!” Selena exclaimed. “How else can Mox and I regain our spells?”
“Don’t worry,” Stevhan said. “The rest of us can go without. Velox can use his prayers to keep us from exhaustion. All of us will stay in the throne room tonight. You and my lady can rest safely while the rest of us stand watch.
Selena and Mox did not rest easy that night. Mox dreamed that she wandered alone in a desert, while gigantic scorpions dogged her path. Looming over the horizon as she fought for her life was the great, black bird Velox had described. Selena dreamed that she was being mauled by a vicious tiger, and she too saw the bird observing her plight, but unlike Velox and Mox, she recognized her tormentor. Her grandmother had once told her the tale of the Nightmare Rook, a mythical creature said to dwell in the First World. It was said to visit its victims in their dreams, where it would inflict living nightmares upon them. Those who had survived these attacks, were said to have done so by ignoring the creatures in their dreams and confronting the Rook itself, threatening to attack it. Selena tried to force her subconscious mind to do this, but the ferocious attack of the tiger was too distracting. As it clamped its jaws around her throat, she awoke screaming.
When Selena’s eyes flew open, she felt hot breath on her face, and large, slitted golden eyes stared coldly into her own. The tiger’s mouth gaped wide, but before it could pounce, the witch forked her fingers before it. The big cat’s eye lids drooped, and it rolled heavily onto its side, purring deeply in its sleep. Then Davrim was there, plunging his blade through the tiger’s neck. It vanished as it died.
Across the room, three scorpions the size of bulls surrounded Mox. The Queen spewed acid from her mouth upon one, dissolving it to nothingness, while Stevhan and Velox expertly dispatched the other two.
“It’s the Rook!” Selena gasped as she struggled to catch her breath. “Tomorrow night, we have to focus upon the Rook!”
__________________________________________________________
The following night, Selena dreamed again, this time of being buried alive while the Rook looked on. Selena calmed herself through a great effort of will, and then focused her magic upon the rook, hurling lightning into its face. The Rook, startled by the unexpected aggression, took wing and disappeared into the night sky. Selena awoke as the nightmare ended.
Across the room, Stevhan wasn’t certain what had just transpired, but he suddenly felt Briar pulse with warmth where it lay strapped across his back.
The wedding of Mox and Stevhan was THE event of the year, and everyone who was anyone was in attendance, including representatives of the Sword Lords themselves. The celebrations lasted for over a week throughout the united kingdom, and alliances among the disparate factions of Kardashia were solidified. In the months that followed the royal wedding, Kardashia achieved a new level of peace and prosperity, even as circumstances in Brevoy spiraled ever closer to civil war. By mid-year, a second announcement from the royal family brought even greater rejoicing to the Kardashian citizens…Mox was pregnant with her second child. She gave birth the following winter to another son…Prince Henry. Life was good…and then Spring arrived…
__________________________________________________________
“A representative from the Fishermen’s Guild, my Lady,” Harold the herald announced.
The old salt stepped cautiously into the throne room, obviously unaccustomed to such opulence and ostentatiousness. He shuffled up to the throne where Mox held court.
“Me Lady,” he sketched a brief bow.
“What news?” the Queen asked.
“There be trouble in the Tuskwater,” the sailor said without further preamble. “A whirlpool, and a right big one at that! It be five-hundred feet if it be an inch, and it be growin’ damn quick! Pardon me language. It already claimed three boats, and the fishin ain’t for crap! Yer pardon again, my Lady. Then there’s them freaky strange birds swimmin’ around in it, pretty as you please! It ain’t natural, I tell ye!”
“I see,” Mox replied, her expression neutral. “This is news indeed. Very well, I shall launch an investigation immediately. Your service is duly noted, Master Fisherman, and greatly appreciated.”
The old man bowed again as he backed hurriedly out of the chamber.
____________________________________________________________
It didn’t take Mox long to notify her comrades of the situation in the middle of the Tuskwater. Within the hour, the citizens of Veritas cheered as their Queen and her consort took to the air above the castle mounted atop Reggie, whom most of the city folk had come to see as an unofficial, if ghoulish, mascot. Selena, lifted aloft by her own magic, flew alongside the royal couple, while Davrim and Velox literally walked on air above the waters of the lake. Below them, Tungdill transformed himself into a water elemental, and knifed through the water as if born to it.
It didn’t take the companions long to spot the whirlpool the fisherman had spoken of. It was enormous, and it appeared to reach all the way down to the bottom of the lake, leaving a fifty-foot span of the lakebed exposed. Eerily silent black swans congregated in the waters surrounding the vortex. As they were drawn into it, they would fly up into the air and then settle back in the water some distance away, only to slowly drift back into the whirlpool over time. As Tungdill swam near the vortex, he felt himself caught by the current. At first he was not concerned, confident that his watery form could easily break free. It only took a moment, however, for him to realize that, incredibly, the force of the whirlpool was too strong. Shortly after that, real panic set in, as four smaller whirlpools formed within the main one, and began moving purposefully towards him. As they drew near, they began to rise into the air as huge columns of water, forming into the shapes of enormous, watery swans. Thinking quickly, Tungdill transformed himself again, this time into an air elemental, and he flew desperately out of the vortex.
High above, Selena conjured a small ball of ice between her palms, and then hurled it at the water below. As it struck, it burst and formed a vast sheet of solid ice across half the surface of the whirlpool, trapping two of the elementals within it. Then, at Mox’s command, Reggie dove towards the lake. As he dropped, Mox hurled a glittering emerald beam at one of the elementals, dissolving a large portion of its body in the process. Reggie’s tattered wings spread wide as he swooped towards a second elemental, gnashing with his broken teeth at its amorphous hide. Seated on the dragon behind, Mox, Stevhan turned backwards in the saddle and loosed two arrows at the creature that his wife had already injured. Abruptly, he felt something strike him like a sledgehammer as Reggie banked past an elemental that reached out a watery wing and slapped at the ranger as he passed.
From across the whirlpool, another of the elementals charged across the vortex, looking just like an enraged swan with wings flapping as it came. It struck Reggie as the dragon banked skyward. The creature snapped its beak at him as he rose, but a moment later the elemental was engulfed in a column of fire as Tungdill unleashed hell upon it. It reeled back towards the middle of the whirlpool, but before it could escape, Selena sent a blast of electricity streaking towards it from a slender wand in her hand. When the lightning bolt struck, it coursed through the creature, conducted by the water. It reared up again, slamming into Velox as it struck out blindly. The oracle hit back, his blade flaring as it ripped through the creature’s watery hide. Still in the air above Velox, Davrim opened fire with his bow, and Stevhan joined him from his perch atop Reggie. The elemental screeched and roared, but collapsed in on itself a moment later when Mox fired a volley of arcane bolts of pure acid into its body.
Velox hovered for a moment, then turned his opaque eyes on the elementals still trapped in the ice sheet. The oracle unleashed a blast of searing light from his palm at one of the creatures. From above, Mox directed Reggie in a wheeling arc back towards the trapped pair. As the dragon drew near, however, one of the elementals slammed into him, sending him tumbling from the air. Fortunately, he landed, sprawled on the ice and clamped his teeth down on one wing of the elemental. It struggled to break free, but then Tungdill sent a snake of fire winding towards all three of the remaining creatures. In rapid succession, the elementals dissolved, first as Davrim polished off one with his bow, then Mox disintegrated another, while Velox destroyed the last one with a devastating charge. No sooner had the last of the elementals been dealt with, than the central vortex collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing but black feathers floating on the surface of the once-more tranquil water.
___________________________________________________________
“I was afraid of this,” Evindra said as she turned one of the black swan feathers over in hands.
“What?” Mox asked.
“That whirlpool, those creatures,” the nereid replied. “They were no natural occurrence.”
“We figured that out on our own!” Tungdill barked.
“Continue,” Mox told Evindra, pointedly ignoring the dwarf.
“It was a bloom,” Evindra said, “a First World bloom. An incursion, if you prefer. Nyrissa is preparing her invasion. The bloom was but the first foray. There will be more.”
“How do you know this?” Selena asked.
“This,” Evindra held up the feather. “Use your powers if you doubt me. You’ll find it bears a potent aura of magic about it. It is a token. Call it a trophy if you will. It is link between this world and the First World. It allowed Nyrissa to breach the barrier between worlds just enough to allow some of my world to spill over into yours…the bloom.”
“Well how do we stop them?” Stevhan asked.
Evindra shrugged. “You can defeat them, as you did this one, but there will be more, and more, until finally, a permanent portal will open between the First World and yours, and then Nyrissa will come through with all the powers at her command. The only way to prevent this is to stop her before this happens. You must go to the First World.”
“How?” Mox asked.
“Each bloom will have a trophy token similar to this one,” Evindra indicated the feather again. “Something that links it to the First World. If you have enough of them, you might be able to trigger a portal into the First World…but first you have to find one.”
“And you know where one might exist?” Selena asked.
“Perhaps…,” the nereid trailed off. “I will look into it, but you must alert your people, in all corners of your kingdom. At the first sign of a new bloom, you must act quickly to destroy it, else it will spread like a plague, and Nyrissa’s work will be made that much easier. You must prepare.”
_____________________________________________________________
It was exactly as Evindra foretold. Eight days after the appearance of the whirlpool, word came from the Narlmarches that a foul tangle of enormous mushrooms, molds, and thick fibrous roots had appeared in the middle of the forest. It was spreading quickly and choking out any existing plant life. Furthermore, nearby farms were reporting swarms of tiny, plant-like creatures that were biting the ankles of livestock and children, chasing pets, and sometimes even climbing into the rooms of sleeping farmers during the night to drink blood from exposed necks or arms.
Mox and Selena teleported their companions to Fort Spears. From there, Stevhan led their trek into the forest, and it wasn’t long before they came upon the horrific, fungal growth. It covered everything, and from everywhere there was the smell of rot from where the natural flora was being suffocated. Worse still were the sounds that came from the bloom. Countless tiny cries, not unlike the sound of miniature babies, echoed throughout the unholy undergrowth. It wasn’t long until the companions discovered the source.
The shrieking reached an abrupt crescendo, and as it did, the companions reflexively covered their ears to protect them from the sonic assault. Even so, Davrim and Stevhan were overcome with waves of violent nausea. A moment later, the undergrowth seemed to erupt as thousands of tiny creatures, each no more than four inches high, burst from cover. Each resembled a vaguely humanoid plant, with tiny eyes, leaves for hair, and sharp wooden teeth. They swarmed over Stevhan, biting and scratching, and it was all the retching ranger could do to quickly clamber up onto Reggie’s back. Mox, already perched there, opened her mouth, and as she did so, her eyes became reptilian, and her tongue forked. Acid spewed from her throat, and the creatures died by the hundreds, yet still they came. It was only through a combined assault by Velox, Tungdill and Selena, all of them bringing arcane fire to bear, that the swarm was obliterated. The respite was only a brief one, however, as a second cacophony of shrieks sounded from the forest, and another swarm of the teeny terrors came rushing into the clearing.
Stevhan, still sitting atop Reggie, wasn’t feeling very well. The bites inflicted on his arms and legs by the swarm were starting to throb and burn. His vision blurred, and his head pounded. For a moment, he forgot where he was, even who he was. When his thoughts began to clarify, he realized that he was sitting on a dragon! An undead dragon! Shouting a challenge, he drew Briar and plunged it into the neck of the horrid abomination.
Tungdill conjured another column of flames upon the new attackers, while Mox hurled an explosive ball of fire at them. The swarm fractured, but did not break. Instead it surged towards Davrim. The inquisitor dove through the circular wall of flames that Velox had created around the previous swarm. Fire licked at his clothing, but he rolled across the ground and to his feet once he was in the center of the ring, quickly putting himself out. Unfortunately, though dozens of them died in the process, the little horrors were not deterred by the flames, and pursued him within the wall.
Mox turned when she heard Reggie roaring. She saw Stevhan atop the dragon, slashing and hacking with Briar. Cursing roundly, the sorceress wove a glowing web of magic about Reggie, instantly transporting him to safety, but leaving Stevhan behind. He fell heavily to the ground, and sat there for several moments, bleary-eyed.
“What…what happened?” he asked in confusion.
“You were poisoned,” his wife snapped. “Drink this.” She tossed a flask his way, and he quickly upended it. Within seconds, his head began to clear.
Davrim reached into a pouch at his belt and retrieved a potion flask, which he immediately drank down. His body abruptly felt lighter than air, and he quickly rose into the sky. The swarm, denied its prey, rushed back through the fire wall, and headed immediately towards Stevhan. It never made it anywhere near him. Mox stepped in front of the mandragoras, opened her mouth, and engulfed the swarm in acid, obliterating it completely.
___________________________________________________________
The Kardashian leaders didn’t receive even a one day reprieve before the next report of trouble reached them. This time, however, it didn’t seem as if another bloom had appeared. Rather, reports came in that Littletown in Pitax had been attacked. It seemed as if a horde of two-headed giants led by a horned warrior had attacked out of the Forest of Thousand Voices, and then promptly disappeared back into it as quickly as they’d come. Rumors began running rampant that the Stag Lord had returned. Mox and Selena acted rapidly, and teleported the companions to Littletown.
The town itself was intact, but the damage was extensive. Survivors and witnesses repeated the account of marauding ettins led by a horn-helmed warrior who wielded a bow with deadly accuracy. It didn’t take much effort on Stevhan’s part to pick up the trail of the raiders where they’d trampled through the forest. From there, it was only a matter of hours until the companions came upon the giants. There were twelve of them, all hulking, massive brutes with equally large axes. Behind them stood a lone warrior. He was bare-chested, and wore a massive helm on his head, concealing his features. Two large horns did indeed curve out of the helm, but when the companions saw that he walked on a pair of goat-like legs, they knew that the horns were not part of the helm, but of the warrior. He nodded silently to his giants minions, and then unlimbered his bow.
Velox, Stevhan, and Davrim didn’t wait. The trio charged across the clearing, deftly dodging the clumsy blows of the ettins as they passed. In seconds, they had the horned hunter surrounding, and they laid into him, their blades flashing, especially Briar. The fey-bane weapon hummed with such power that Stevhan almost imagined the sword was excited. The hunter recoiled under the assault, blood flowing freely from several wounds. Suddenly, his helm flashed, and he vanished, only to reappear an instant later on the far side of the clearing.
Mox saw the horned hunter appear behind her, but she also had to contend with the ettins who were ignoring her more heavily armored companions and charging right towards her, Selena and Tungdill. Thinking quickly, she conjured a large pit directly in front of the oncoming horde. The lead giant couldn’t stop his momentum, and tumbled in…only to fall some sixty feet and land in a pool of caustic acid below. Two more behind the first ettin, despite the warning screams of their comrade, were also too cumbersome to alter their path, and they to slipped into the acid pit.
“Reggie, kill!” Mox commanded the undead dragon.
Reggie leaped awkwardly into the sky, his tattered wings beating the air. He groaned as he turned and flew towards the horned hunter. The satyr began to backpedal, bringing his bow up as the undead dragon bore down on him. Too late. Reggie plowed into him like a battering ram, his rotten teeth tearing into the hunter’s flesh. In desperation, he teleported again.
Selena, now with all of the ettins lined up nicely before her, sent a coruscating blast of lightning into them. It struck the first, and then arced to each one in turn, killing a half-dozen of them instantly. By the time the remaining three had recovered, Davrim, Stevhan and Velox had closed the distance to them, and quickly put them out of their misery.
The horned hunter reappeared at the opposite side of the clearing and looked balefully about the battlefield. All of his minions were slain, and he grievously wounded. He raised his bow in defiance, and prepared to teleport one last time and make good his escape. The last thing he saw was Tungdill shaking one admonishing finger at him, then a flash of black light. Tungdill’s bearded face grinned from ear to ear as the satyr simply collapsed.
“Now that’s how ya kill somebody,” he laughed. “And ya don’t get yer hands dirty doin’ it, neither!”
_____________________________________________________________
For three days, no further news of First World incursions reached the companions. Then, on the evening of the fourth day, Velox had a strange dream…more of a nightmare, really. In it, he had become lost in a bog and stumbled into a pool of quicksand. As he struggled to free himself, thousands of insects swarmed around him, eating him alive. As he was overwhelmed, he saw in the dark, night sky above an immense, black bird looking down upon him. Somehow, he knew, just knew, that it was the bird that had brought him to this doom.
When the oracle awoke, he was horrified to find that the dream had followed him! He was still in his own chambers, and in his own bed, but he was literally covered by thousands of biting, stinging centipedes. He leaped from his bed, only to find the floor alive with the bugs as well. His armor hung on its stand, and his exposed flesh was bleeding from hundreds of tiny bites. Thinking quickly, he called on Iomedae’s power and wove a spell about him which rendered his skin as hard as stone. Then, he summoned a circular wall of flames in the center of the chamber, immolating hundreds of the creeping doom, yet still they pursued him. Like a living cloak, they began crawling all about him. The oracle, in desperation, conjured a wall of whirling and slashing blades across the room, decimating the furnishings. He took a running start and leaped through the barrier, carrying his assailants with him. Though the blades nicked and cut him, they completely shredded the insects. He landed in a heap, sweat and blood dripping from his body. All the centipedes were simply gone. What had just happened?
____________________________________________________________
The following morning, Velox told the others what had transpired the night before.
“So we are being attacked in our sleep now, is that it?” Mox asked.
“We have to sleep!” Selena exclaimed. “How else can Mox and I regain our spells?”
“Don’t worry,” Stevhan said. “The rest of us can go without. Velox can use his prayers to keep us from exhaustion. All of us will stay in the throne room tonight. You and my lady can rest safely while the rest of us stand watch.
Selena and Mox did not rest easy that night. Mox dreamed that she wandered alone in a desert, while gigantic scorpions dogged her path. Looming over the horizon as she fought for her life was the great, black bird Velox had described. Selena dreamed that she was being mauled by a vicious tiger, and she too saw the bird observing her plight, but unlike Velox and Mox, she recognized her tormentor. Her grandmother had once told her the tale of the Nightmare Rook, a mythical creature said to dwell in the First World. It was said to visit its victims in their dreams, where it would inflict living nightmares upon them. Those who had survived these attacks, were said to have done so by ignoring the creatures in their dreams and confronting the Rook itself, threatening to attack it. Selena tried to force her subconscious mind to do this, but the ferocious attack of the tiger was too distracting. As it clamped its jaws around her throat, she awoke screaming.
When Selena’s eyes flew open, she felt hot breath on her face, and large, slitted golden eyes stared coldly into her own. The tiger’s mouth gaped wide, but before it could pounce, the witch forked her fingers before it. The big cat’s eye lids drooped, and it rolled heavily onto its side, purring deeply in its sleep. Then Davrim was there, plunging his blade through the tiger’s neck. It vanished as it died.
Across the room, three scorpions the size of bulls surrounded Mox. The Queen spewed acid from her mouth upon one, dissolving it to nothingness, while Stevhan and Velox expertly dispatched the other two.
“It’s the Rook!” Selena gasped as she struggled to catch her breath. “Tomorrow night, we have to focus upon the Rook!”
__________________________________________________________
The following night, Selena dreamed again, this time of being buried alive while the Rook looked on. Selena calmed herself through a great effort of will, and then focused her magic upon the rook, hurling lightning into its face. The Rook, startled by the unexpected aggression, took wing and disappeared into the night sky. Selena awoke as the nightmare ended.
Across the room, Stevhan wasn’t certain what had just transpired, but he suddenly felt Briar pulse with warmth where it lay strapped across his back.
carborundum
Adventurer
Crikey - these incursions are tough!
Good luck folks!
Good luck folks!
JollyDoc
Explorer
SPRING’S BLOOM
Two weeks after the appearance of the first fey bloom, Mox was still receiving reports from across the land of First World incursions. The latest news came from the mountains of the Tors of Levy. Despite the increasingly warming weather of Spring, mountaineers in the area told of freak blizzards occurring out of nowhere. In addition, new growths of vegetation had sprouted seemingly overnight. The companions had all remained at the keep in Veritas since the onset of the blooms, and it didn’t take Mox long to assemble them for a journey to the alpine country.
The trip was surprisingly swift, thanks to Velox transforming the team to cloud-like mist, and then sweeping them along on the wind across the plains to the Tors. It wasn’t long after they reached the foothills of the mountains until they saw the unnatural terrain of the bloom below them. Tangles of alpine shrubbery, twisted pine trees, and sheets of thick, slippery lichen covered the terrain. It was only when Velox dismissed his spell, and the companions returned to their solid forms, that the extreme cold bit into their flesh. Tungdill quickly wove an enchantment about them, protecting them from the worst of the elements.
The group set about exploring the area, looking for the source of the bloom. It took over two hours before they stumbled across it. It rose over thirty-feet into the air, an immense gravestone carved from ice, upon which were inscribed tens of thousands of names. Cautiously, the companions approached. The names were written in Common, and as each of the heroes gazed upon them, their own name was the first one they saw. Suddenly, large shapes began to loom out of the falling snow, emerging in a circle surrounding the companions. Six giants, nearly fifteen-feet in height, with skin as clear as ice, and eyes that glowed with blue light, stepped forward, each clutching axes that looked to be made of thick ice as well.
As the giants moved in, Selena waved her hand before her, and the nearest collapsed into a deep slumber. Velox, his eyes glazed over, spun in a circle, conjuring a ringed wall of flashing blades as he did so. Three of the oncoming giants were trapped within the churning metal. They roared in pain and struggled to break free, but Stevhan and Davrim barred their path. Together, they cut down one of the brutes, sending him falling back into the blade barrier. At Mox’s command, Reggie leaped to the side of the warriors, and clamped his teeth down on the upraised arm of another giant. Snarling, he ripped his weapon arm free, and hacked at the zombie, sending bits of rotten flesh flying in all directions. Davrim quickly moved to the dragon’s aid, running his blade through the giant’s chest and sending it crashing into the blade wall. Tungdill foiled the escape of third giant by immolating it where it stood with a column of white fire. Only two of the frost giants remained, but Mox quickly reduced that number to one by creating a pit of boiling acid beneath the feet of the nearest. Davrim met the last head-on, and in a brief but violent exchange of blows, brought the creature to its knees. As the final giant fell, the great tombstone cracked and shattered into a thousand shards. In an instant, Spring returned to the Tors.
____________________________________________________________
Over the next week, two more blooms appeared in the kingdom. The first was in the Kamelands, where a tangled mass of briars and brambles rapidly grew to a height of fifteen feet, and began to spread like wildfire. When the heroes arrived to investigate, they found a trio of huge, three-armed giants who were apparently acting as “gardeners” for the bloom. The creatures were dealt with, only to dissolve into large seed pods which began to grow into new giants. It took white-hot, arcane fire to finally put an end to the threat, and destroy the bloom.
The second bloom opened in Hooktongue Slough as a hideous mockery of the swamp, filled with thousands of wriggling, red worms. Upon arriving, the companions were immediately set upon by three of the vermin grown to immense size, with hook-shaped jaws that extended from their rubbery maws, as well as jagged, poisonous stinger-tipped tongues. Once more, the heroes dealt with the threat, but not before Stevhan inadvertently dropped Briar down the gullet of one of the beasts. To the ranger’s credit, rather than lose the powerful blade, he dove down the worm’s mouth after it, and subsequently cut his way out of its gut, Briar glowing with power as he did so.
___________________________________________________________
Near the end of the month, strange news reached Mox, which was saying something, considering the events of the previous weeks. The original trading post owned by Oleg, the place where it had all began, so to speak, had been abandoned years ago. Oleg had built a new, much larger establishment, and a town had grown up around it. The old post still sat alone on the prairie, neglected and ever more decrepit over time. The word that Mox received, however, was that not only had a new, rampant bloom appeared, but it seemed as if it was center upon Oleg’s old outpost. Not only that, but there were rumors that the post was inhabited again, and since the bloom had appeared, a young woman had gone missing, the daughter of a wealthy merchant friend of Oleg’s.
As Mox made preparations to depart, Tungdill stomped into her chamber.
“Ya ain’t gonna believe what just happened!” he snapped.
“Don’t you knock?” Mox replied irritably.
Tungdill shrugged. “Ain’t no doors out in the woods. Anyway, I was just takin’ a walk in the park…,”
“The park?” Mox asked. “How urbane of you.”
“It’s my park, ain’t it?” the dwarf barked. “Got my name on it! Can I finish my story, or not?”
“I suppose you will whether I say so or not,” Mox said.
Tungdill glared, and then cleared his throat.
“So like I said, I was walkin’ along, mindin’ my own business, all of a sudden this little pixie appears outta nowhere?”
Mox raised one eyebrow, but said nothing. Tungdill’s face turned red.
“It was a pixie!” he shouted. “Ya think I don’t know a fairy when I see one?”
“I’m certain you would,” Mox smiled.
“She started yammerin’ at me a mile a minute, like them little folk do,” the druid continued. “Said her name was Limm Ticklewing, and before ya say anything, I ain’t makin’ that up! She said she was worried about her six sisters. Said they was all kidnapped a month ago by a ‘nasty wizard made outta worms.’ She said the wizard and a scary witch put her sisters inta some kind of magic cage, and then gave the cage to a big troll. She seemed to know that we was fixin’ to leave for Oleg’s old place. Funny coincidence, huh?”
“Very funny,” Mox said. “Seems like all roads lead to Oleg’s.”
__________________________________________________________
Midnight in the Stolen Lands. The place: Oleg’s trading post. Shadowy, hulking shapes prowl through the darkness inside the compound, yellow eyes glinting in the sparse moonlight. Then, a flash of brilliant light. Six figures and a dragon appear out of nowhere, and all Hell breaks loose!
Selena whirled as she sensed movement out of the corner of her eye. Two great, black-pelted cats, with upper fangs like sabers, came leaping out of the night. The witch hurled fire at them, and they yowled as the flames exploded between them. Still, it only slowed their momentum for a moment. One leaped for her, bearing her to the ground where its claws began to tear at her flesh as its jaws sought her throat. Suddenly, a flash of electricity from the witch’s flesh sent the tiger flying backwards…straight into Davrim’s blade.
Velox caught the second tiger in mid-leap with his own sword. As the cat hissed and rolled with the blow, Tungdill sent a tendril of fire its way. It leaped aside again, landing near Selena, who’d only just regained her feet. The witch simply laid her hand upon the animal’s pelt, and it just…died.
Across the courtyard, Stevhan threw open the doors to the stables. As he did, a thousand pounds of tiger flew at him from inside. The Stag Lord fell back under the assault, only to come up against the fetid snout of Reggie. The undead dragon moaned low in its throat as the tiger raised its hackles. Fearless, the great cat leaped, only to die a moment later in Reggie’s jaws. Stevhan heard a small whimper from inside the stable. He turned, Briar raised before him, but lowered the blade quickly when he saw the young girl cowering in the shadows of a stall. A moment later, Mox rushed past him to the girl’s side.
“Be still,” his wife whispered, and then she wove a spell of invisibility about the young noblewoman.
Suddenly, a furious roar sounded from the main building as the doors were flung wide. Three more black tigers leaped out, followed by a monstrously large troll clad head to toe in plate armor. He carried a vicious-looking ranseur in his hands, and around his neck he wore a strange necklace. It consisted of six, tiny cages, each of which contained a miniaturized pixie. They screamed in abject terror as the troll rushed forward, foam slavering from its jaws.
As the troll charged forward, a pair of his tiger pets leaped on Reggie’s back, while another mauled Davrim as the inquisitor tried to meet the giant head-on. The brute raised his pole-arm high above his head and drove it through Velox’s shoulder. As he did, a smaller wound opened in his own, leathery hide, and immediately began to knit shut again. The troll laughed maniacally as he dipped one finger into his own blood and then licked it clean. Davrim broke free from the tiger, flinging it from him. He surged towards the troll and swung with his full might. As his blade struck, however, there was an ear-piercing scream from one of the imprisoned pixies as it exploded in a small fountain of blood, leaving its cage bent and broken. Davrim was dumb-struck, while the troll simply chuckled, and the other pixies wailed in anguish.
Selena witnessed what transpired with horror. Then she saw Mox preparing to unleash a spell upon the troll. When she realized the Queen intended to disintegrate the creature, she shouted a warning, and shouldered Mox aside.
“What are you doing!?” Mox shouted as her spell went wide and only clipped the trolls arm.
“The pixies!” Selena cried. “He’s using them as some sort of shield!”
The troll began to snarl low in his throat as he clutched at the spot on his arm where a sizeable chunk of his flesh had just vanished. When he turned towards Mox and Selena, however, the witch forked her fingers at him, and his eyelids sagged. With a deafening snore, he collapsed to the ground, asleep.
Reggie’s neck snaked around and seized one of the tigers on his back in his jaws, snapping its spine in two. Stevhan snapped off a volley of arrows into the other, sending it tumbling to the ground in a heap. Davrim rushed over to the fallen troll and ripped the necklace from around its throat. As he did so, the giant grunted and opened his eyes. With a roar, he surged to his feet. Velox threw himself forward, slashing furiously with his blade. The troll was rocked back on his feet, and then Selena struck with an explosion of electricity, sending him crashing down, smoldering, and killing the last of the tigers in the backlash. Knowing full well that trolls were not so easily slain, Davrim stood over the brute and hacked its head off.
Mox took the necklace from Davrim and opened the remaining cages one by one. As she did so, the pixies emerged and grew to their normal size.
“I’m sorry for the loss of your sister,” the Queen said, bowing. “We did not know her peril.”
“It was not your fault, Lady,” one of the faeries said, tears in her eyes. “We owe you our lives, and we give you and your clansmen our blessing.”
Then each of them took flight and disappeared into the night with a twinkle of light.
Across the compound, Stevhan’s brow creased in confusion as he felt another pulse of energy from Briar. With it he also felt something else…awareness? When he drew the blade to examine it, he found that it had transformed into cold iron…
Two weeks after the appearance of the first fey bloom, Mox was still receiving reports from across the land of First World incursions. The latest news came from the mountains of the Tors of Levy. Despite the increasingly warming weather of Spring, mountaineers in the area told of freak blizzards occurring out of nowhere. In addition, new growths of vegetation had sprouted seemingly overnight. The companions had all remained at the keep in Veritas since the onset of the blooms, and it didn’t take Mox long to assemble them for a journey to the alpine country.
The trip was surprisingly swift, thanks to Velox transforming the team to cloud-like mist, and then sweeping them along on the wind across the plains to the Tors. It wasn’t long after they reached the foothills of the mountains until they saw the unnatural terrain of the bloom below them. Tangles of alpine shrubbery, twisted pine trees, and sheets of thick, slippery lichen covered the terrain. It was only when Velox dismissed his spell, and the companions returned to their solid forms, that the extreme cold bit into their flesh. Tungdill quickly wove an enchantment about them, protecting them from the worst of the elements.
The group set about exploring the area, looking for the source of the bloom. It took over two hours before they stumbled across it. It rose over thirty-feet into the air, an immense gravestone carved from ice, upon which were inscribed tens of thousands of names. Cautiously, the companions approached. The names were written in Common, and as each of the heroes gazed upon them, their own name was the first one they saw. Suddenly, large shapes began to loom out of the falling snow, emerging in a circle surrounding the companions. Six giants, nearly fifteen-feet in height, with skin as clear as ice, and eyes that glowed with blue light, stepped forward, each clutching axes that looked to be made of thick ice as well.
As the giants moved in, Selena waved her hand before her, and the nearest collapsed into a deep slumber. Velox, his eyes glazed over, spun in a circle, conjuring a ringed wall of flashing blades as he did so. Three of the oncoming giants were trapped within the churning metal. They roared in pain and struggled to break free, but Stevhan and Davrim barred their path. Together, they cut down one of the brutes, sending him falling back into the blade barrier. At Mox’s command, Reggie leaped to the side of the warriors, and clamped his teeth down on the upraised arm of another giant. Snarling, he ripped his weapon arm free, and hacked at the zombie, sending bits of rotten flesh flying in all directions. Davrim quickly moved to the dragon’s aid, running his blade through the giant’s chest and sending it crashing into the blade wall. Tungdill foiled the escape of third giant by immolating it where it stood with a column of white fire. Only two of the frost giants remained, but Mox quickly reduced that number to one by creating a pit of boiling acid beneath the feet of the nearest. Davrim met the last head-on, and in a brief but violent exchange of blows, brought the creature to its knees. As the final giant fell, the great tombstone cracked and shattered into a thousand shards. In an instant, Spring returned to the Tors.
____________________________________________________________
Over the next week, two more blooms appeared in the kingdom. The first was in the Kamelands, where a tangled mass of briars and brambles rapidly grew to a height of fifteen feet, and began to spread like wildfire. When the heroes arrived to investigate, they found a trio of huge, three-armed giants who were apparently acting as “gardeners” for the bloom. The creatures were dealt with, only to dissolve into large seed pods which began to grow into new giants. It took white-hot, arcane fire to finally put an end to the threat, and destroy the bloom.
The second bloom opened in Hooktongue Slough as a hideous mockery of the swamp, filled with thousands of wriggling, red worms. Upon arriving, the companions were immediately set upon by three of the vermin grown to immense size, with hook-shaped jaws that extended from their rubbery maws, as well as jagged, poisonous stinger-tipped tongues. Once more, the heroes dealt with the threat, but not before Stevhan inadvertently dropped Briar down the gullet of one of the beasts. To the ranger’s credit, rather than lose the powerful blade, he dove down the worm’s mouth after it, and subsequently cut his way out of its gut, Briar glowing with power as he did so.
___________________________________________________________
Near the end of the month, strange news reached Mox, which was saying something, considering the events of the previous weeks. The original trading post owned by Oleg, the place where it had all began, so to speak, had been abandoned years ago. Oleg had built a new, much larger establishment, and a town had grown up around it. The old post still sat alone on the prairie, neglected and ever more decrepit over time. The word that Mox received, however, was that not only had a new, rampant bloom appeared, but it seemed as if it was center upon Oleg’s old outpost. Not only that, but there were rumors that the post was inhabited again, and since the bloom had appeared, a young woman had gone missing, the daughter of a wealthy merchant friend of Oleg’s.
As Mox made preparations to depart, Tungdill stomped into her chamber.
“Ya ain’t gonna believe what just happened!” he snapped.
“Don’t you knock?” Mox replied irritably.
Tungdill shrugged. “Ain’t no doors out in the woods. Anyway, I was just takin’ a walk in the park…,”
“The park?” Mox asked. “How urbane of you.”
“It’s my park, ain’t it?” the dwarf barked. “Got my name on it! Can I finish my story, or not?”
“I suppose you will whether I say so or not,” Mox said.
Tungdill glared, and then cleared his throat.
“So like I said, I was walkin’ along, mindin’ my own business, all of a sudden this little pixie appears outta nowhere?”
Mox raised one eyebrow, but said nothing. Tungdill’s face turned red.
“It was a pixie!” he shouted. “Ya think I don’t know a fairy when I see one?”
“I’m certain you would,” Mox smiled.
“She started yammerin’ at me a mile a minute, like them little folk do,” the druid continued. “Said her name was Limm Ticklewing, and before ya say anything, I ain’t makin’ that up! She said she was worried about her six sisters. Said they was all kidnapped a month ago by a ‘nasty wizard made outta worms.’ She said the wizard and a scary witch put her sisters inta some kind of magic cage, and then gave the cage to a big troll. She seemed to know that we was fixin’ to leave for Oleg’s old place. Funny coincidence, huh?”
“Very funny,” Mox said. “Seems like all roads lead to Oleg’s.”
__________________________________________________________
Midnight in the Stolen Lands. The place: Oleg’s trading post. Shadowy, hulking shapes prowl through the darkness inside the compound, yellow eyes glinting in the sparse moonlight. Then, a flash of brilliant light. Six figures and a dragon appear out of nowhere, and all Hell breaks loose!
Selena whirled as she sensed movement out of the corner of her eye. Two great, black-pelted cats, with upper fangs like sabers, came leaping out of the night. The witch hurled fire at them, and they yowled as the flames exploded between them. Still, it only slowed their momentum for a moment. One leaped for her, bearing her to the ground where its claws began to tear at her flesh as its jaws sought her throat. Suddenly, a flash of electricity from the witch’s flesh sent the tiger flying backwards…straight into Davrim’s blade.
Velox caught the second tiger in mid-leap with his own sword. As the cat hissed and rolled with the blow, Tungdill sent a tendril of fire its way. It leaped aside again, landing near Selena, who’d only just regained her feet. The witch simply laid her hand upon the animal’s pelt, and it just…died.
Across the courtyard, Stevhan threw open the doors to the stables. As he did, a thousand pounds of tiger flew at him from inside. The Stag Lord fell back under the assault, only to come up against the fetid snout of Reggie. The undead dragon moaned low in its throat as the tiger raised its hackles. Fearless, the great cat leaped, only to die a moment later in Reggie’s jaws. Stevhan heard a small whimper from inside the stable. He turned, Briar raised before him, but lowered the blade quickly when he saw the young girl cowering in the shadows of a stall. A moment later, Mox rushed past him to the girl’s side.
“Be still,” his wife whispered, and then she wove a spell of invisibility about the young noblewoman.
Suddenly, a furious roar sounded from the main building as the doors were flung wide. Three more black tigers leaped out, followed by a monstrously large troll clad head to toe in plate armor. He carried a vicious-looking ranseur in his hands, and around his neck he wore a strange necklace. It consisted of six, tiny cages, each of which contained a miniaturized pixie. They screamed in abject terror as the troll rushed forward, foam slavering from its jaws.
As the troll charged forward, a pair of his tiger pets leaped on Reggie’s back, while another mauled Davrim as the inquisitor tried to meet the giant head-on. The brute raised his pole-arm high above his head and drove it through Velox’s shoulder. As he did, a smaller wound opened in his own, leathery hide, and immediately began to knit shut again. The troll laughed maniacally as he dipped one finger into his own blood and then licked it clean. Davrim broke free from the tiger, flinging it from him. He surged towards the troll and swung with his full might. As his blade struck, however, there was an ear-piercing scream from one of the imprisoned pixies as it exploded in a small fountain of blood, leaving its cage bent and broken. Davrim was dumb-struck, while the troll simply chuckled, and the other pixies wailed in anguish.
Selena witnessed what transpired with horror. Then she saw Mox preparing to unleash a spell upon the troll. When she realized the Queen intended to disintegrate the creature, she shouted a warning, and shouldered Mox aside.
“What are you doing!?” Mox shouted as her spell went wide and only clipped the trolls arm.
“The pixies!” Selena cried. “He’s using them as some sort of shield!”
The troll began to snarl low in his throat as he clutched at the spot on his arm where a sizeable chunk of his flesh had just vanished. When he turned towards Mox and Selena, however, the witch forked her fingers at him, and his eyelids sagged. With a deafening snore, he collapsed to the ground, asleep.
Reggie’s neck snaked around and seized one of the tigers on his back in his jaws, snapping its spine in two. Stevhan snapped off a volley of arrows into the other, sending it tumbling to the ground in a heap. Davrim rushed over to the fallen troll and ripped the necklace from around its throat. As he did so, the giant grunted and opened his eyes. With a roar, he surged to his feet. Velox threw himself forward, slashing furiously with his blade. The troll was rocked back on his feet, and then Selena struck with an explosion of electricity, sending him crashing down, smoldering, and killing the last of the tigers in the backlash. Knowing full well that trolls were not so easily slain, Davrim stood over the brute and hacked its head off.
Mox took the necklace from Davrim and opened the remaining cages one by one. As she did so, the pixies emerged and grew to their normal size.
“I’m sorry for the loss of your sister,” the Queen said, bowing. “We did not know her peril.”
“It was not your fault, Lady,” one of the faeries said, tears in her eyes. “We owe you our lives, and we give you and your clansmen our blessing.”
Then each of them took flight and disappeared into the night with a twinkle of light.
Across the compound, Stevhan’s brow creased in confusion as he felt another pulse of energy from Briar. With it he also felt something else…awareness? When he drew the blade to examine it, he found that it had transformed into cold iron…
JollyDoc
Explorer
At this point in the SH, the group is in the last adventure of the AP. I'd say about half-way through. In real life, we completed the AP this past Sunday. However, I have another one-shot adventure designed for 17th-20th level characters that is going to dovetail nicely with the background of one of the PC's. We'll be starting that next week, which I will also be chronicleing. I hope to have the next update this weekend...promise!
JD, I just wanted to say thanks for all the great adventures you've shared with us over the years. I can't say enough how much I enjoy reading what you write!
JD, I just wanted to say thanks for all the great adventures you've shared with us over the years. I can't say enough how much I enjoy reading what you write!
Ditto for me. Your early story hours were a big part of what got me hooked into the story hour board in the first place.
Any idea what will follow once Kingmaker and its expansion is complete?
carborundum
Adventurer
Hear hear! Sunday mornings begin with turning on the computer and checking if there's a JD update, then printing it out to devour over breakfast
Whatever comes next, I'm sure it'll be awesome. I kind of hope it's Carrion Crown though!
Whatever comes next, I'm sure it'll be awesome. I kind of hope it's Carrion Crown though!
JollyDoc
Explorer
Thanks, you guys! I really do appreciate your feedback. I enjoy writing the SH's, though occasionally, I get a bit of writer's block. After Kingmaker, we're actually going to be starting Serpent's Skull, wherein our heroes will all be well and truly...EVIL!! Some of them will even have ties to events in Kingmaker!
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