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Story Hour
The Journey across Midnight (Updated 07SEP03)
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<blockquote data-quote="Tokiwong" data-source="post: 1099406" data-attributes="member: 961"><p><strong>The Accursed Forest</strong></p><p></p><p>It was raining, it was cold, and three days passed, for the motley band of insurgents. One could even dare to call them heroes, for they did what few had the strength or courage to do, they fought against the Shadow, the One God. They knew fear, but continued to fight, because the alternative for them, was far worse.</p><p></p><p>The cold stinging rain, made the ground slick with mud, and the journey made the travelers weary as they huddled from the fury and dark power of the elements. Corine shivered as she kept her cloak, close about her, Semmarin following closely behind, his sharp eyes watching the surroundings as the party sloshed through the rain slicked darkness. The moon overhead was yellow, and looked sick in tone, it’s light blocked by the frequent and thick gray clouds, passing overhead.</p><p></p><p>As the troupe broke through the tree line they found a desolate and deserted hamlet, it was quiet, even as the rain pounded against them. There was no life here, corpses littered the fields, the animals were thin, before they died, suffering from hunger before they died, or perhaps something else. Cobwebs dangled from the homes, and small spiders flitted through the shadows, as the parties split up to more thoroughly investigate the small hamlet. The rain was constant, and the smell of the decaying corpses was even more so, many of them wrapped in blankets of silk-like spider webs. Corine fought to keep her wits as she and Tuk stepped inside of a low-roofed hovel, the interior was filthy, dust, mud, and cobwebs seemed to fill every nook and cranny.</p><p></p><p>Tuk crouched low, ducking the maze of webs present inside, the small hovel. Corine shivered, she knew that the party was close to the Forest of Danath, the Accursed Forest. It was a place of evil, and these unfortunate serfs must have tried to eke out an existence far from the talons of the Shadow, and instead, encountered a foul evil of a different sort.</p><p></p><p>There was crash, and a scream.</p><p></p><p>Tuk squealed, as Corine, drew out her longsword, and rushed back out the door towards the sounds of fighting. By the time she had arrived, Malstrom, was bleeding from a stab wound, in his side. Both Semmarin and Dae, had their blades drawn, and a corpse lay on the ground its head separated from its body. Corine could recognize the scent of death, this hamlet was a breeding ground for the fell. </p><p></p><p>The party spread out and began gathering the corpses, it was nasty work but it had to be done. It was methodical, swift, and thorough, after a half-hours time, a pile of headless bodies sat in the center of the hamlet. Corine would have preferred a fire, but the rain did not allow them the choice. They had picked the hamlet clean of anything useful, which was not much, but then that was expected.</p><p></p><p>The party conferred in a small hovel out of the rain, although the roof was leaky, and in need of repairs. But it was cover, that spared them from the stinging cold rain. Malstrom spoke in a low rumble, “So we cross the forest, how far must we travel to cross it?”</p><p></p><p>Corine replied flatly, folding her arms across her chest, “We will be in the forest for three days at best, if not more due to the weather.”</p><p></p><p>Tuk shivered, “This place is scary, can we not go around?”</p><p></p><p>Corine shakes her head, “No, it will take much longer to go around then to just move forward, and press on. This forest may be known as the Accursed Forest, but it is not impossible to cross, not by a long shot.”</p><p></p><p>Malstrom nodded his Speaker Stone translating her words for him, “I agree, we have a mission to accomplish.”</p><p></p><p>Corine turned to Dae, “And what about you?”</p><p></p><p>Dae nodded, speaking in Erenlander, “I am not afraid, we go forward.”</p><p></p><p>Tuk groaned, “I hate this idea, but I am not afraid, not so much. Are you sure we couldn’t-“</p><p></p><p>“We are going through Tuk, and that is final,” Malstrom spoke forcefully.</p><p></p><p>Semmarin watched, and a placed a reassuring hand on Tuk’s shoulder, “Do not worry,” he spoke in the halfling tongue, “we are all in this together, we will survive.”</p><p></p><p>Corine stood, seeing the decision had been made, and the party proceeded to enter the Accursed Forest. The trees were pale, and many had thin sheets of spider webbing layered upon them. The deeper they forayed into the forest, the thicker the cobwebs became, although they could hear the rain overhead, very little seemed to pierce the veil above them, thin trickles of droplets fell from above but nothing like the downpour they had previously encountered. But in the darkness sounded a great and powerful war horn, the troop froze, recognizing its terrible blare. An orcish war horn, in all its glory was echoed by another, the orcs were still behind them, and the Accursed Forest laid ahead, and all around them.</p><p></p><p>Corine quickened her pace, following Malstrom who was at home in the darkness, although he could only see black, white and gray, it was enough to tell that the webs were getting thicker, he tightened his grip on the shaft of his greataxe, as the rest of the party followed his path. </p><p></p><p>Everyone felt the same emotion, fear.</p><p></p><p><strong>*****************************************</strong></p><p></p><p>Garnak stood proudly on the rise overlooking the Accursed Forest, he heard the second blare of the war horn off to the west of his position, meaning his other forces were moving into position. He loathed entering the forest, but if the ruse were to work, they would have to press, he did not like playing the bait, but there were greater gains at stake.</p><p></p><p>Garnak turned and looked to the female orc, she was a priest mother, and despite his rank, he had to defer to her wisdom, despite her actual lack of intelligence or wit. It was something Garnak was becoming more, and more annoyed with, the apparent stupidity of his race, but he brushed it aside, such thoughts were tantamount to heresy.</p><p></p><p>Vuna spoke, “We have them boxed in; give the order to press forward, Garnak, the tribe grows hungry for victory.”</p><p></p><p>Garnak paused, “That is the Accursed Forest, it may not be wise to press directly through it, if anything the demon spider will finish them off before they ever get across. We could skirt the edges, and encamp here and draw them into a well placed trap,” he replied making sure to keep his tone even and not patronizing.</p><p></p><p>Vuna thought for a moment, “We follow, the One God’s will. Do not tell me you grow soft, Garnak, Izrador does not honor the weak.”</p><p></p><p>Garnak scowled, and turned, <em>she is as stupid as she is beautiful, manipulative little…</em> Garnak turned to his brethren and roared, “Stand my brothers; we have the Lord’s work to do. We hunt till dawn, we will not stop until we have their heads. We know not fear, and we know not pain, stand and blow the horn, Visk, we have a hunt to finish!”</p><p></p><p>The orcs stood and roared to the heavens above, the roar mixed with the sounding of the war horns made for a terrible symphony or rage.</p><p></p><p><strong>******************************************</strong></p><p></p><p>Corine slashed her blade at the oncoming spider, it was nearly as large a dog, its spindly legs skittering across the moist ground trying to flank her. Dae laid still, his body limp with poison as another black spider loomed over the Dorn. Tuk tried to ward it away with his spear, but his aim was shaky, and he stumbled trying not to get too close to the abnormally large spider.</p><p></p><p>Malstrom swung his greataxe, and cracked a spider wide open, bringing the massive blade into a second spider, with a resounding crack, spilling its internals to the floor. Semmarin swung his shortsword, keeping another at bay, as Corine swung her blade taking a spider’s leg, she finished it with a piercing blow through its bulbous abdomen, leaving it a dying convulsing mess.</p><p></p><p>Malstrom turned to the spider trying to drag Dae off to fee, and smashed its head with a well place blow, Tuk following up with a jab from his spear, stabbing it in the side, adding more insult to its injuries. There was a delicate stillness to the air, as Corine drew ragged breaths, spider venom was coursing through her veins, but not to the same extent as Dae.</p><p></p><p>Semmarin crouched near the poisoned warrior and examined his injuries, and checked his breathing and pulse, “He will live, the poison is not fatal, but he will need much time to rest.”</p><p></p><p>“Time that we don’t have,” Corine replied, as she relayed the information to Malstrom via the Speaker’s Stone.</p><p></p><p>Tuk glanced around warily, “Perhaps we should camp, and wait for him to get better?”</p><p></p><p>“That could take days,” Semmarin replied to the halfling, “I can help him, but I will need to gather, some roots, to make a salve, the rest of you wait here, keep him safe.”</p><p></p><p>Semmarin crept through the forest alone in the darkness, his eyes keen, still could see quite well, even with the waning moonlight. He was wary being alone, in this forest of webs and spiders, but they could not wait for the Dorn to rest and heal, it would simply take too long. Luckily the elfling found what he needed, and worked his way back to his newfound allies quietly, he sat down and set to work on the salve. With that task completed, he applied it to Dae, and then Corine, even with the salve, recovery would still take several hours before the Dorn was back up on his feet.</p><p></p><p>The party rested, even as the sounds of the orc war horns grew closer, they rested. They had no choice, by the time dawn approached, Dae could move, though his muscles were stiff, and nowhere near where he should be, but his muscles could at least shift and move. The war horns sounded once more, and the resolve was steeled, and the party pressed on. The scuttling of spiders both large and small did not deter them, for even greater loomed behind them. There was no way in telling just how many hunting parties were following, but the multiple sounds of horns, alerted them to the effort involved in trying to find them.</p><p></p><p>Malstrom took the point, the horns sounded less, as the breaking of dawn came upon the party, it was now time to press the advantage and put some distance between the following orcs. The rain was thick, and slick, and pounded the canopy of webs, and branches above the party, by midday the ice-cold rain, had turned to almost unnatural snowstorm, buffeting the Accursed Forest like a demon.</p><p></p><p>But the party pressed, huddling in their clothes for warmth, all but the Dorn felt the numbing touch of the cold. The freeze that gnawed at their muscles, and threatened to eat to the bone, coursed through the heroes, as they braved the storm. The forest gave them no reprieve, and the infrequent blasts of the horn, kept the urgency of their situation in their minds.</p><p></p><p>That was when Malstrom fell.</p><p></p><p>The party had reached a sharp gully, and the mighty dworg warrior slid on the ice, and fell down the steep incline into the floor of the gully, nearly sixty feet down. He groaned from the pain, but the dworg was made of iron it seemed, as he rose to his feet, the snow and ice, obscuring his vision, as he tried to get his bearings.</p><p></p><p>Semmarin shouted loudly, “Malstrom, can you hear me?!” hoping that the Speaker’s Stone was still intact.</p><p></p><p>Malstrom heard the call, and turned toward the voice, “Semmarin? Semmarin where are you?” he called his voice nearly a roar.</p><p></p><p>Semmarin squinted, and tried to make out Malstrom in the snow flurry, instead he caught sight of something both huge and horrid. Across the gully, he spied a massive spider the size of a house, with long spindly legs, and a mirror black chitin all across its massive horrid body. The eyes gave off the eerie glow of hell fire, and burned with malice, and something Semmarin could think of as evil. It shot out a web across the gully, forming a roof over the gully, and then scuttled downward towards Malstrom.</p><p></p><p>Malstrom shouted again, “Semmarin, can you hear me, I can’t see you!” he stumbled about, holding his greataxe, trying not to freeze, as he felt or for a better word did not feel, the cold of falling snow flakes. He looked up, and saw a scintillating roof of snow flakes caught in the massive web above him. Malstrom turned quickly, as the demon spider slammed its mandibles into the dworg, causing him to sail through the air, and land on his back. The massive warrior rolled to his feet, and brought his weapon to the ready.</p><p></p><p>Semmarin turned to his allies, “Malstrom needs our help, that thing will kill him!”</p><p></p><p>Corine nodded taking careful aim with her longbow, and loosed an arrow into the air, it sailed straight and true, on any lesser creature it would have been mortal but this thing was a corrupted creature. Its skin was harder then stone, and the arrow left a slight gash, but did not pierce the chitin. Semmarin drew his shortbow and fired an arrow, it flew straight and true, but it glanced off the chitin, leaving not even a scratch.</p><p></p><p>Tuk watched, his knees shaking, threatening to collapse at any moment, as the demon spider ripped into Malstrom once again, drawing more red-black blood, causing the dworg to stumble, but maintain his mettle, the punishment was terrible, but somehow the mighty warrior stood. He retaliated with a mighty swing of his greataxe, and was rewarded with a glancing strike off its stone-like chitin. Dae drew his own longbow, and fired an arrow, and it struck true, cracking the chitin, causing a fiery red liquid to spray outward with a sizzle. </p><p></p><p>The creature scuttled forward trying to push Malstrom back, but the warrior ducked and rolled underneath it, out of harms way for the moment, as he tried to hack into its underbelly, but the chitin was proving much stronger then he had anticipated. Both Semmarin and Corine continued to rain arrows down on the nigh-unstoppable demon spider, as another blast of the orcish war horns sounded, they were closer now. Tuk in a surprising move of boldness charged forward and leapt through the air, and slammed his spear into the bulbous abdomen of the demon spider, sadly his strike did little harm, but the spearhead was lodged into the stone chitin, and allowed the halfling to ride atop the thrashing creature.</p><p></p><p>Semmarin smirked, “Tuk the Spider Rider,” he shook his head, as he let another arrow fly towards the demon spider. </p><p></p><p>Dae seeing the halfling’s boldness, rushed down the incline, and leapt the last quarter of the way down, he rolled for a moment in the snow, and then raised his bastard in a swing, hacking a rear leg completely off, causing the creature to lose balance and stumble. Malstrom stumbled back trying to avoid being crushed as he swung his greataxe into the hard underbelly of the demon spider to no avail. Tuk crawled forward using his spear for leverage, only to slide forward right in front of the massive demon spider, as t slammed its mandibles into Tuk. Tuk screamed in pain as it tossed him aside, his life’s blood staining the snow red, his breathing was light, but for the moment the halfling was alive, but dying.</p><p></p><p>Dae spun his blades the bastard ripping through the underbelly as the steelblooded warrior, carved a path of destruction, causing the creature to try and turn to face this new threat. But the missing leg was hampering its movement, as the combined might of Dae and Corine brought the creature down, in a fury of arrows and blades. Dae finished the deed, by hacking its head off, spilling burning fiery blood guts across the snow-covered floor. Malstrom stumbled away from the creature, as Corine rushed down the incline, and placed her hands on the diminutive halfling, a slight glow coming to her hands, as she channeled magic power into Tuk, sealing his wounds. Now she would have to let time do its work, he would heal, it would just take.</p><p></p><p>The heroes had won the day, but knew that they still had many leagues yet to travel. Behind were the orcs, and ahead, an uncertain destiny, but this minor victory at least for the moment seemed sweet, they had succeeded where surely many others had failed.</p><p></p><p>Somewhere an Old Man smiled.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tokiwong, post: 1099406, member: 961"] [b]The Accursed Forest[/b] It was raining, it was cold, and three days passed, for the motley band of insurgents. One could even dare to call them heroes, for they did what few had the strength or courage to do, they fought against the Shadow, the One God. They knew fear, but continued to fight, because the alternative for them, was far worse. The cold stinging rain, made the ground slick with mud, and the journey made the travelers weary as they huddled from the fury and dark power of the elements. Corine shivered as she kept her cloak, close about her, Semmarin following closely behind, his sharp eyes watching the surroundings as the party sloshed through the rain slicked darkness. The moon overhead was yellow, and looked sick in tone, it’s light blocked by the frequent and thick gray clouds, passing overhead. As the troupe broke through the tree line they found a desolate and deserted hamlet, it was quiet, even as the rain pounded against them. There was no life here, corpses littered the fields, the animals were thin, before they died, suffering from hunger before they died, or perhaps something else. Cobwebs dangled from the homes, and small spiders flitted through the shadows, as the parties split up to more thoroughly investigate the small hamlet. The rain was constant, and the smell of the decaying corpses was even more so, many of them wrapped in blankets of silk-like spider webs. Corine fought to keep her wits as she and Tuk stepped inside of a low-roofed hovel, the interior was filthy, dust, mud, and cobwebs seemed to fill every nook and cranny. Tuk crouched low, ducking the maze of webs present inside, the small hovel. Corine shivered, she knew that the party was close to the Forest of Danath, the Accursed Forest. It was a place of evil, and these unfortunate serfs must have tried to eke out an existence far from the talons of the Shadow, and instead, encountered a foul evil of a different sort. There was crash, and a scream. Tuk squealed, as Corine, drew out her longsword, and rushed back out the door towards the sounds of fighting. By the time she had arrived, Malstrom, was bleeding from a stab wound, in his side. Both Semmarin and Dae, had their blades drawn, and a corpse lay on the ground its head separated from its body. Corine could recognize the scent of death, this hamlet was a breeding ground for the fell. The party spread out and began gathering the corpses, it was nasty work but it had to be done. It was methodical, swift, and thorough, after a half-hours time, a pile of headless bodies sat in the center of the hamlet. Corine would have preferred a fire, but the rain did not allow them the choice. They had picked the hamlet clean of anything useful, which was not much, but then that was expected. The party conferred in a small hovel out of the rain, although the roof was leaky, and in need of repairs. But it was cover, that spared them from the stinging cold rain. Malstrom spoke in a low rumble, “So we cross the forest, how far must we travel to cross it?” Corine replied flatly, folding her arms across her chest, “We will be in the forest for three days at best, if not more due to the weather.” Tuk shivered, “This place is scary, can we not go around?” Corine shakes her head, “No, it will take much longer to go around then to just move forward, and press on. This forest may be known as the Accursed Forest, but it is not impossible to cross, not by a long shot.” Malstrom nodded his Speaker Stone translating her words for him, “I agree, we have a mission to accomplish.” Corine turned to Dae, “And what about you?” Dae nodded, speaking in Erenlander, “I am not afraid, we go forward.” Tuk groaned, “I hate this idea, but I am not afraid, not so much. Are you sure we couldn’t-“ “We are going through Tuk, and that is final,” Malstrom spoke forcefully. Semmarin watched, and a placed a reassuring hand on Tuk’s shoulder, “Do not worry,” he spoke in the halfling tongue, “we are all in this together, we will survive.” Corine stood, seeing the decision had been made, and the party proceeded to enter the Accursed Forest. The trees were pale, and many had thin sheets of spider webbing layered upon them. The deeper they forayed into the forest, the thicker the cobwebs became, although they could hear the rain overhead, very little seemed to pierce the veil above them, thin trickles of droplets fell from above but nothing like the downpour they had previously encountered. But in the darkness sounded a great and powerful war horn, the troop froze, recognizing its terrible blare. An orcish war horn, in all its glory was echoed by another, the orcs were still behind them, and the Accursed Forest laid ahead, and all around them. Corine quickened her pace, following Malstrom who was at home in the darkness, although he could only see black, white and gray, it was enough to tell that the webs were getting thicker, he tightened his grip on the shaft of his greataxe, as the rest of the party followed his path. Everyone felt the same emotion, fear. [b]*****************************************[/b] Garnak stood proudly on the rise overlooking the Accursed Forest, he heard the second blare of the war horn off to the west of his position, meaning his other forces were moving into position. He loathed entering the forest, but if the ruse were to work, they would have to press, he did not like playing the bait, but there were greater gains at stake. Garnak turned and looked to the female orc, she was a priest mother, and despite his rank, he had to defer to her wisdom, despite her actual lack of intelligence or wit. It was something Garnak was becoming more, and more annoyed with, the apparent stupidity of his race, but he brushed it aside, such thoughts were tantamount to heresy. Vuna spoke, “We have them boxed in; give the order to press forward, Garnak, the tribe grows hungry for victory.” Garnak paused, “That is the Accursed Forest, it may not be wise to press directly through it, if anything the demon spider will finish them off before they ever get across. We could skirt the edges, and encamp here and draw them into a well placed trap,” he replied making sure to keep his tone even and not patronizing. Vuna thought for a moment, “We follow, the One God’s will. Do not tell me you grow soft, Garnak, Izrador does not honor the weak.” Garnak scowled, and turned, [i]she is as stupid as she is beautiful, manipulative little…[/i] Garnak turned to his brethren and roared, “Stand my brothers; we have the Lord’s work to do. We hunt till dawn, we will not stop until we have their heads. We know not fear, and we know not pain, stand and blow the horn, Visk, we have a hunt to finish!” The orcs stood and roared to the heavens above, the roar mixed with the sounding of the war horns made for a terrible symphony or rage. [b]******************************************[/b] Corine slashed her blade at the oncoming spider, it was nearly as large a dog, its spindly legs skittering across the moist ground trying to flank her. Dae laid still, his body limp with poison as another black spider loomed over the Dorn. Tuk tried to ward it away with his spear, but his aim was shaky, and he stumbled trying not to get too close to the abnormally large spider. Malstrom swung his greataxe, and cracked a spider wide open, bringing the massive blade into a second spider, with a resounding crack, spilling its internals to the floor. Semmarin swung his shortsword, keeping another at bay, as Corine swung her blade taking a spider’s leg, she finished it with a piercing blow through its bulbous abdomen, leaving it a dying convulsing mess. Malstrom turned to the spider trying to drag Dae off to fee, and smashed its head with a well place blow, Tuk following up with a jab from his spear, stabbing it in the side, adding more insult to its injuries. There was a delicate stillness to the air, as Corine drew ragged breaths, spider venom was coursing through her veins, but not to the same extent as Dae. Semmarin crouched near the poisoned warrior and examined his injuries, and checked his breathing and pulse, “He will live, the poison is not fatal, but he will need much time to rest.” “Time that we don’t have,” Corine replied, as she relayed the information to Malstrom via the Speaker’s Stone. Tuk glanced around warily, “Perhaps we should camp, and wait for him to get better?” “That could take days,” Semmarin replied to the halfling, “I can help him, but I will need to gather, some roots, to make a salve, the rest of you wait here, keep him safe.” Semmarin crept through the forest alone in the darkness, his eyes keen, still could see quite well, even with the waning moonlight. He was wary being alone, in this forest of webs and spiders, but they could not wait for the Dorn to rest and heal, it would simply take too long. Luckily the elfling found what he needed, and worked his way back to his newfound allies quietly, he sat down and set to work on the salve. With that task completed, he applied it to Dae, and then Corine, even with the salve, recovery would still take several hours before the Dorn was back up on his feet. The party rested, even as the sounds of the orc war horns grew closer, they rested. They had no choice, by the time dawn approached, Dae could move, though his muscles were stiff, and nowhere near where he should be, but his muscles could at least shift and move. The war horns sounded once more, and the resolve was steeled, and the party pressed on. The scuttling of spiders both large and small did not deter them, for even greater loomed behind them. There was no way in telling just how many hunting parties were following, but the multiple sounds of horns, alerted them to the effort involved in trying to find them. Malstrom took the point, the horns sounded less, as the breaking of dawn came upon the party, it was now time to press the advantage and put some distance between the following orcs. The rain was thick, and slick, and pounded the canopy of webs, and branches above the party, by midday the ice-cold rain, had turned to almost unnatural snowstorm, buffeting the Accursed Forest like a demon. But the party pressed, huddling in their clothes for warmth, all but the Dorn felt the numbing touch of the cold. The freeze that gnawed at their muscles, and threatened to eat to the bone, coursed through the heroes, as they braved the storm. The forest gave them no reprieve, and the infrequent blasts of the horn, kept the urgency of their situation in their minds. That was when Malstrom fell. The party had reached a sharp gully, and the mighty dworg warrior slid on the ice, and fell down the steep incline into the floor of the gully, nearly sixty feet down. He groaned from the pain, but the dworg was made of iron it seemed, as he rose to his feet, the snow and ice, obscuring his vision, as he tried to get his bearings. Semmarin shouted loudly, “Malstrom, can you hear me?!” hoping that the Speaker’s Stone was still intact. Malstrom heard the call, and turned toward the voice, “Semmarin? Semmarin where are you?” he called his voice nearly a roar. Semmarin squinted, and tried to make out Malstrom in the snow flurry, instead he caught sight of something both huge and horrid. Across the gully, he spied a massive spider the size of a house, with long spindly legs, and a mirror black chitin all across its massive horrid body. The eyes gave off the eerie glow of hell fire, and burned with malice, and something Semmarin could think of as evil. It shot out a web across the gully, forming a roof over the gully, and then scuttled downward towards Malstrom. Malstrom shouted again, “Semmarin, can you hear me, I can’t see you!” he stumbled about, holding his greataxe, trying not to freeze, as he felt or for a better word did not feel, the cold of falling snow flakes. He looked up, and saw a scintillating roof of snow flakes caught in the massive web above him. Malstrom turned quickly, as the demon spider slammed its mandibles into the dworg, causing him to sail through the air, and land on his back. The massive warrior rolled to his feet, and brought his weapon to the ready. Semmarin turned to his allies, “Malstrom needs our help, that thing will kill him!” Corine nodded taking careful aim with her longbow, and loosed an arrow into the air, it sailed straight and true, on any lesser creature it would have been mortal but this thing was a corrupted creature. Its skin was harder then stone, and the arrow left a slight gash, but did not pierce the chitin. Semmarin drew his shortbow and fired an arrow, it flew straight and true, but it glanced off the chitin, leaving not even a scratch. Tuk watched, his knees shaking, threatening to collapse at any moment, as the demon spider ripped into Malstrom once again, drawing more red-black blood, causing the dworg to stumble, but maintain his mettle, the punishment was terrible, but somehow the mighty warrior stood. He retaliated with a mighty swing of his greataxe, and was rewarded with a glancing strike off its stone-like chitin. Dae drew his own longbow, and fired an arrow, and it struck true, cracking the chitin, causing a fiery red liquid to spray outward with a sizzle. The creature scuttled forward trying to push Malstrom back, but the warrior ducked and rolled underneath it, out of harms way for the moment, as he tried to hack into its underbelly, but the chitin was proving much stronger then he had anticipated. Both Semmarin and Corine continued to rain arrows down on the nigh-unstoppable demon spider, as another blast of the orcish war horns sounded, they were closer now. Tuk in a surprising move of boldness charged forward and leapt through the air, and slammed his spear into the bulbous abdomen of the demon spider, sadly his strike did little harm, but the spearhead was lodged into the stone chitin, and allowed the halfling to ride atop the thrashing creature. Semmarin smirked, “Tuk the Spider Rider,” he shook his head, as he let another arrow fly towards the demon spider. Dae seeing the halfling’s boldness, rushed down the incline, and leapt the last quarter of the way down, he rolled for a moment in the snow, and then raised his bastard in a swing, hacking a rear leg completely off, causing the creature to lose balance and stumble. Malstrom stumbled back trying to avoid being crushed as he swung his greataxe into the hard underbelly of the demon spider to no avail. Tuk crawled forward using his spear for leverage, only to slide forward right in front of the massive demon spider, as t slammed its mandibles into Tuk. Tuk screamed in pain as it tossed him aside, his life’s blood staining the snow red, his breathing was light, but for the moment the halfling was alive, but dying. Dae spun his blades the bastard ripping through the underbelly as the steelblooded warrior, carved a path of destruction, causing the creature to try and turn to face this new threat. But the missing leg was hampering its movement, as the combined might of Dae and Corine brought the creature down, in a fury of arrows and blades. Dae finished the deed, by hacking its head off, spilling burning fiery blood guts across the snow-covered floor. Malstrom stumbled away from the creature, as Corine rushed down the incline, and placed her hands on the diminutive halfling, a slight glow coming to her hands, as she channeled magic power into Tuk, sealing his wounds. Now she would have to let time do its work, he would heal, it would just take. The heroes had won the day, but knew that they still had many leagues yet to travel. Behind were the orcs, and ahead, an uncertain destiny, but this minor victory at least for the moment seemed sweet, they had succeeded where surely many others had failed. Somewhere an Old Man smiled. [/QUOTE]
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The Journey across Midnight (Updated 07SEP03)
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