Zurai
First Post
Sorry for the week long delay getting this out to everyone. Part 2 will follow shortly.
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Session 3 Part 1: On and On the Rain Will Fall...
Few words were spoken that day as we continued our journey to Ompan; for myself, I only spoke to take over the archery training that Aden had been giving the Princess. Bows aren’t my preferred weapons – it is hard for me to focus on distant moving objects well enough to hit them with an arrow – but I am proficient in their use. She was a fast learner and was able to hit targets at reasonable paces with reasonable speed by the end of the day.
As afternoon turned to evening, the clouds turned to black and heavy rain began to fall. Not wanting to camp for the night out in the pouring rain, I scouted ahead of the party and, after an hour or so of searching, managed to find a small cottage that appeared to be abandoned. There were some chickens in a pen nearby that had gone feral, which Bronn quickly added to his growing menagerie.
The interior of the cottage was sparse – it appeared to be a simple peasant’s cottage. One bed rested at one end of the room, there was a simple fireplace near the bed, a cupboard and a table on the opposite wall, and a threadbare rug stretched out in the center of the single room. The Princess immediately claimed the bed, to no one’s surprise. V, as usual for him, offered to stand watch all night; sleep was irrelevant for him. Since I didn’t particularly want to stay up all night sharing his watch, and no one – himself included – trusted Bronn to spare enough attention from his books to actually keep a watch, V ended up as our only sentinel.
I drifted off to sleep fairly quickly, but was startled awake a short time later as a faint humming sound spread throughout the room. The Princess was awake as well, and V was already moving to shake Bronn awake – the boy was probably reading a book in his dreams, judging by his expression when he woke up. Together we did a quick search of the room, turning up nothing. None of us could pinpoint the source of the noise, and within half a minute we had decided the best course of action would be to exit the cottage as a group and try to see if the sound was coming from outside.
No sooner did we step out of the door, however, than the interior of the cottage began to fill with an eerie green light, seemingly seeping through the cracks in the floorboards. V immediately turned and ran back into the structure, looking around for a few seconds then, with an exclamation of triumph, yanked back the rug to reveal a trap door. He called out “There’s a trap door here!” then opened it up and clambered down the stairs it revealed before anyone else had a chance to react.
“Keep an eye on the Princess!” I called to Bronn – not my sanest moment, in retrospect – and followed V into the underground passage. The humming sound was growing louder by the second now, and the light flashed to nearly white for a brief moment as I neared a corner in the tunnel. As I rounded the corner, a completely unexpected sight greeted me: here, in this chamber underneath a house in the middle of absolutely nowhere, was Gate. Not just a Gate, but an active Gate, with a battle already in progress at its foot. Two large men in heavy armor bearing the crest of the Dragon, wielding a greataxe and a falchion, were locked in combat with a group of six men; four wielding glaives, one with a shortsword and a small dagger-like weapon unfamiliar to me, and one with a longsword.
Even as I ran forward to engage the Dragon’s men, the longswordsman was injured badly, his left leg nearly severed above the knee by a brutal strike from the greataxe. When he fell, the four glaive-wielders cried out “Master!” and moved to guard him. I got in range just in time to deflect an attack that would have slain the ‘Master’, then struck out offensively, lashing my chain across the large man’s more lightly armored thighs.
“Mathis! Fall back for now!” the man with the greataxe called to the other – but his words were not heeded. Mathis snarled and struck out with his falchion, neatly eviscerating one of ‘Master’s’ defenders. The leader of the attackers then turned and tried to dive back through the still-active Gate, but left himself open to attack by doing so; it was a fatal mistake, as I dropped him to his knees with a mighty swing to the back of his legs and the skinny swordsman plunged his shortsword into the visor of the leader’s helmet. He dropped with a clatter of steel on stone, inches from the Gate. Mathis gave a strangled cry of rage, breaking off combat to pull his commander through the Gate – which remained open but opaque behind them.
The immediate threats gone, I turned around only to find the Princess already kneeling over the ‘Master’s’ body, tending to his leg wound and stopping the bleeding that had already stained the marble floor scarlet. I gave Bronn a glare for bringing her downstairs, but spared him no words for risking her life needlessly. I was curious about what exactly we had stumbled upon – the room we were in was a stark contrast to the cottage above. The floor and walls were fine marble, several comfortable beds lined the wall opposite the Gate, and in one corner of the room was what appeared to be a small forge with an unfinished, ornate sword blade glowing a dim red on the anvil.
There was no time for talk, however – the Gate was still open, which meant there was still an active threat here. I helped the Master’s apprentices bring him upstairs and out of the cottage, making sure the Princess followed me closely. We tied him to the donkey, then closed the trap door and pulled the bed and cupboard over onto it to try to keep it closed. Bronn contributed with some sort of magic that seemed to warp the wood of the door, jamming it into its frame. Preparations complete, we set out immediately from the cottage and the Gate, our party now doubled in number.
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Session 3 Part 1: On and On the Rain Will Fall...
Few words were spoken that day as we continued our journey to Ompan; for myself, I only spoke to take over the archery training that Aden had been giving the Princess. Bows aren’t my preferred weapons – it is hard for me to focus on distant moving objects well enough to hit them with an arrow – but I am proficient in their use. She was a fast learner and was able to hit targets at reasonable paces with reasonable speed by the end of the day.
As afternoon turned to evening, the clouds turned to black and heavy rain began to fall. Not wanting to camp for the night out in the pouring rain, I scouted ahead of the party and, after an hour or so of searching, managed to find a small cottage that appeared to be abandoned. There were some chickens in a pen nearby that had gone feral, which Bronn quickly added to his growing menagerie.
The interior of the cottage was sparse – it appeared to be a simple peasant’s cottage. One bed rested at one end of the room, there was a simple fireplace near the bed, a cupboard and a table on the opposite wall, and a threadbare rug stretched out in the center of the single room. The Princess immediately claimed the bed, to no one’s surprise. V, as usual for him, offered to stand watch all night; sleep was irrelevant for him. Since I didn’t particularly want to stay up all night sharing his watch, and no one – himself included – trusted Bronn to spare enough attention from his books to actually keep a watch, V ended up as our only sentinel.
I drifted off to sleep fairly quickly, but was startled awake a short time later as a faint humming sound spread throughout the room. The Princess was awake as well, and V was already moving to shake Bronn awake – the boy was probably reading a book in his dreams, judging by his expression when he woke up. Together we did a quick search of the room, turning up nothing. None of us could pinpoint the source of the noise, and within half a minute we had decided the best course of action would be to exit the cottage as a group and try to see if the sound was coming from outside.
No sooner did we step out of the door, however, than the interior of the cottage began to fill with an eerie green light, seemingly seeping through the cracks in the floorboards. V immediately turned and ran back into the structure, looking around for a few seconds then, with an exclamation of triumph, yanked back the rug to reveal a trap door. He called out “There’s a trap door here!” then opened it up and clambered down the stairs it revealed before anyone else had a chance to react.
“Keep an eye on the Princess!” I called to Bronn – not my sanest moment, in retrospect – and followed V into the underground passage. The humming sound was growing louder by the second now, and the light flashed to nearly white for a brief moment as I neared a corner in the tunnel. As I rounded the corner, a completely unexpected sight greeted me: here, in this chamber underneath a house in the middle of absolutely nowhere, was Gate. Not just a Gate, but an active Gate, with a battle already in progress at its foot. Two large men in heavy armor bearing the crest of the Dragon, wielding a greataxe and a falchion, were locked in combat with a group of six men; four wielding glaives, one with a shortsword and a small dagger-like weapon unfamiliar to me, and one with a longsword.
Even as I ran forward to engage the Dragon’s men, the longswordsman was injured badly, his left leg nearly severed above the knee by a brutal strike from the greataxe. When he fell, the four glaive-wielders cried out “Master!” and moved to guard him. I got in range just in time to deflect an attack that would have slain the ‘Master’, then struck out offensively, lashing my chain across the large man’s more lightly armored thighs.
“Mathis! Fall back for now!” the man with the greataxe called to the other – but his words were not heeded. Mathis snarled and struck out with his falchion, neatly eviscerating one of ‘Master’s’ defenders. The leader of the attackers then turned and tried to dive back through the still-active Gate, but left himself open to attack by doing so; it was a fatal mistake, as I dropped him to his knees with a mighty swing to the back of his legs and the skinny swordsman plunged his shortsword into the visor of the leader’s helmet. He dropped with a clatter of steel on stone, inches from the Gate. Mathis gave a strangled cry of rage, breaking off combat to pull his commander through the Gate – which remained open but opaque behind them.
The immediate threats gone, I turned around only to find the Princess already kneeling over the ‘Master’s’ body, tending to his leg wound and stopping the bleeding that had already stained the marble floor scarlet. I gave Bronn a glare for bringing her downstairs, but spared him no words for risking her life needlessly. I was curious about what exactly we had stumbled upon – the room we were in was a stark contrast to the cottage above. The floor and walls were fine marble, several comfortable beds lined the wall opposite the Gate, and in one corner of the room was what appeared to be a small forge with an unfinished, ornate sword blade glowing a dim red on the anvil.
There was no time for talk, however – the Gate was still open, which meant there was still an active threat here. I helped the Master’s apprentices bring him upstairs and out of the cottage, making sure the Princess followed me closely. We tied him to the donkey, then closed the trap door and pulled the bed and cupboard over onto it to try to keep it closed. Bronn contributed with some sort of magic that seemed to warp the wood of the door, jamming it into its frame. Preparations complete, we set out immediately from the cottage and the Gate, our party now doubled in number.
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