Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Romance of Arasil
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Hjorimir" data-source="post: 7010739" data-attributes="member: 5745"><p><span style="color: #A9A9A9"><u>Friday, August 5 – THEN</u></span> </p><p></p><p><strong><p style="text-align: center">Mynn</p><p></strong></p><p>Three days had passed since the Companions had spoken with Elorah. They had set out from the Bird ‘n the Bucket early the following morning and were making exceptional time with Erevan blazing a trail through the Silverglades. </p><p></p><p>They crossed a river at an ancient, crumbling bridge that Mynn claimed was built by dwarves during the Second Age. There, they encountered a large group of orcs and a pair of ogres. They defeated the orcs at the bridge, but spent the next day trying to avoid hunting orc warbands that were trailing them. One such group, that included an ettin, caught up to the group and were likewise defeated.</p><p></p><p>On the fourth day, with orcs still prowling the forest all about them, the Companions were quietly staring at a large, ruined temple as they hid in the brush.</p><p></p><p>The crumbling building was three stories high, with various towers and balconies worked into its upper floors. It stood atop a rise in the forest. A trail, mostly overgrown, led up to a short flight of stairs that climbed to a set of large wooden doors. One of the doors was ajar.</p><p></p><p>Jaxx made a low whistling sound. “That’s certainly a thing to behold. Just abandoned here out in the middle for the forest by itself for all this time.”</p><p></p><p>“The forests of Arasil hold many secrets,” Erevan said. “And it isn’t abandoned. Orcs lair within.” The ranger paused a minute to look the place over carefully. “This way,” he said and led the Companions forward.</p><p></p><p>The Companions stood within the narthex of the temple. Hallways went both left and right and just a bit further up were also a matching set of stairways leading up to either side. The hallway ended in a set of large wooden doors that curved up to a point in the middle. The doors appeared as if they had once been artfully decorated, but time and neglect had robbed them of any beauty. A balcony was directly overhead and a round, broken stained-glass window let in just enough light to shine some reds and greens on the doors before them.</p><p></p><p>Jaxx cast <em>false life</em> as Erevan opened the doors…and all hell broke loose. </p><p></p><p>Beyond the doors was the old nave of the temple, which was both long and open. There were balconies to either side that stretched the length of the room. At the far end was a raised chancel, five feet higher than the floor of the nave and it was separated from the lower floor by a five-foot wide channel of water. A plank, slightly off center to the right, bridged the chancel to the nave, a small rug at the bottom. The light of two large bonfires provided light for the Companions…and lots of orcs who apparently knew that the Companions were coming.</p><p></p><p>An orc from the far end, standing before what could only be described is a throne-like chair of shaky design, pointed at the Companions and shouted a very intricate plan of attack, <em>“KIIIIIIIIILLLLLL!”</em></p><p></p><p>Before the orcs could react, Erevan was in the room and racing towards the far end. An orc that had been standing between where he was and where he wanted to be looked at him slack-jawed, obviously confused. The elf jumped and came down, both of his longblades before him. He pinned the orc to the floor and kept moving.</p><p></p><p>Ilvander buried an arrow into an orc within the nave with his shortbow from the door. <em>FWAP!</em> He held his ground at the doorway, “Erevan, there are too many!” he shouted at the elf’s back.</p><p></p><p>Some of the orcs within the nave started to react and surged forward. Two peeled off to cut off the ranger, but the rest piled up at the open doors. Erevan took a gash from a greataxe.</p><p></p><p>At the door, Mynn was at Ilvander’s side. With one swipe of his greataxe he disemboweled one orc and used the follow-through to gravely wound a second. “Dwarven steel!”</p><p></p><p>More orcs piled up at the door…and started coming in from the side hallways that led into the narthex at the front of the temple.</p><p></p><p>“We’re surrounded!” Vech shouted. An eye appeared above one of the flanking orcs and an <em>eldritch blast</em> sent it back into the hallway it had just exited.</p><p></p><p>Within the nave, orcs appeared on the balconies and started raining arrows at those below. One took a shot at Erevan, leaving a cut across his cheek. The others peppered the Companions standing near the doorway in the narthex.</p><p></p><p>Einar shouted, “This is bad!” and cast <em>bless</em>.</p><p></p><p>Jaxx bound up the left stairway, which led to one of the balconies in the nave. A mighty swing with his greatsword took an archer’s foot off mid-shin. It howled and grabbed its leg before teetering off the balcony into one of the bonfires below, creating a cloud of ash and cinders. “Guys, there are a lot of archers up here!” he shouted back over his shoulder.</p><p></p><p>Erevan’s eyes flickered with green light as he cast <em>hunter’s mark</em> on one of the two orcs before him. He followed up by running his magic blade through its mouth, causing it to gurgle black blood over his right hand before falling into a hump on the floor.</p><p></p><p>Ilvander pulled out his shortsword and thrust it into the orc just wounded by the dwarf’s backhand. It rocked on its heels, but stayed on its feet. The monk snapped a quick kicked at it, but missed.</p><p></p><p>There were a lot of orcs at the doors and their attacks were landing. Both dwarf and monk were starting to bleed.</p><p></p><p>Mynn responded with a roar and hewed into the pile with big swings that sent orcs to the ground, which was starting to get slippery with the blood.</p><p></p><p>The flanking orcs, now fully into the room, pressed on Vech and Einar.</p><p></p><p>“We need help back here!” Vech shouted as he burnt down the orc he had previously wounded. The eye rolled over to another. There was a press of bodies in the narthex now.</p><p></p><p>Orc archers on the left balcony focused their attacks on Jaxx and his <em>false life</em> quickly faded under the assault. The archers on the right split their attacks between Erevan and those at the door.</p><p></p><p>Jaxx continued delivering death to the archers on the balcony with him. “Erevan, pull back!”</p><p></p><p>Below, Erevan was like whirling death, killing orcs left and right as he continued to make his way to the ramp that led up to the chancel, but he was starting to slow as his blood seeped from multiple wounds. He got to the bottom of the ramp and nearly fell into a pit as the rug dropped away from his feet. (Stupid high-Dex characters!) He hopped over and got to the top to face off with the chief…who was now hiding behind his makeshift throne. The elf turned his head sideways a bit musing. The orc seemed a little cowardly to be a chief. Orcs recognize only strength.</p><p></p><p>Then the war chief struck; the real war chief that is. From the balcony at the front of the temple, near the broken window, he gave a great yawp as he leapt down into the fray, greataxe held high, descending upon the hapless warlock.</p><p></p><p>Vech screamed with the first hit of the axe and fell with the second.</p><p></p><p>The chief was massive. Nearly eight feet in height and easily four hundred pounds of pure muscle and heavy bone. “Tonight, we eat meat!” it shouted.</p><p></p><p>The remaining archers from either side were focusing on Jaxx now, who was taking an impressive number of hits and staying on his feet.</p><p></p><p>Einar quickly hit Vech with <em>healing word</em> and then threw his hands into the air, “Shael, I call upon thy servants!” A pack of spiritual wolves and raptors exploded from the priest and swarmed over the orcs. All screamed, many fell. (This is Einar’s version of <strong>Radiance of the Dawn</strong>, which is devastatingly awesome. It was looking bad up to this point. Well, it was still bad after too, but there was considerably less bad now.)</p><p></p><p>Jaxx finished off the last of the archers on the left balcony, but found himself feeling awfully exposed to the archers across the nave.</p><p></p><p>Erevan snaked out two hits with his blades into an orc’s chest, which fell from the edge of the chancel into the water below. As it fell, it struck the edge with the back of its head and slid into the brackish water.</p><p></p><p>Vech looked up at the chief towering over him and raised an arm to fend off its attack. It didn’t work. Vech returned to the world of unconsciousness.</p><p></p><p>“Erevan!” Ilvander shouted and leapt through the pile of orcs at the door and raced into the room far enough to hit the ranger with a <em>healing word</em>.</p><p></p><p>The monk was struck twice from behind as two of the orcs had given chase. He fell where he stood.</p><p></p><p>Mynn whirled on the chief. “The Ancestors command your death!” he shouted as he dropped a <em>vow of enmity</em> upon the chief. He swung is axe in a fearsome arc, and took the massive orc’s left arm off at the elbow, red light flaring in the wound. The orc howled in rage, but stayed on its feet. (Is it just me or to paladins always critical the big-bad? It certainly feels that way.)</p><p></p><p>Einar was struck up the side of his head and bless faded. He hit himself with a healing word and tried to dodge the attacks as best he could; he was pinned in a corner. “Help!” he shouted.</p><p></p><p>Back in the nave, Jaxx leapt from the balcony down the chancel below. He rolled once to break his fall and carried forward back to his feet before racing over to Erevan. He launched an orc off the side with the back of his arm. It landed face first with a sickening crunch; it lay there twitching. “Get off him!” he roared.</p><p></p><p>Surprisingly, the orc chief turned on Einar. “Soft,” it said and swung its axe twice (in one hand). Einar evaded the first swing, but there was no dodging the second. The priest slumped down, the corner holding him upright as he held pressed his hands against his stomach keeping things on the inside. He was going into shock.</p><p></p><p>Mynn swung around on the chief and buried his axe into the small of its back. <em>THUNK!</em> It felt like hitting a tree. He then lifted the handle of the axe and applied torque. Then came the sweet sound of snapping bones. The orc rag-dolled to the floor and died.</p><p></p><p>The last of the orcs were soon finished off. Miraculously, none of the Companions died.</p><p></p><p>Mynn recovered the chief’s greataxe, which was of dwarven make and enchanted to slay trolls. Its name was <em>Cinderhew</em>.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hjorimir, post: 7010739, member: 5745"] [COLOR="#A9A9A9"][U]Friday, August 5 – THEN[/U][/COLOR] [B][CENTER]Mynn[/CENTER][/B] Three days had passed since the Companions had spoken with Elorah. They had set out from the Bird ‘n the Bucket early the following morning and were making exceptional time with Erevan blazing a trail through the Silverglades. They crossed a river at an ancient, crumbling bridge that Mynn claimed was built by dwarves during the Second Age. There, they encountered a large group of orcs and a pair of ogres. They defeated the orcs at the bridge, but spent the next day trying to avoid hunting orc warbands that were trailing them. One such group, that included an ettin, caught up to the group and were likewise defeated. On the fourth day, with orcs still prowling the forest all about them, the Companions were quietly staring at a large, ruined temple as they hid in the brush. The crumbling building was three stories high, with various towers and balconies worked into its upper floors. It stood atop a rise in the forest. A trail, mostly overgrown, led up to a short flight of stairs that climbed to a set of large wooden doors. One of the doors was ajar. Jaxx made a low whistling sound. “That’s certainly a thing to behold. Just abandoned here out in the middle for the forest by itself for all this time.” “The forests of Arasil hold many secrets,” Erevan said. “And it isn’t abandoned. Orcs lair within.” The ranger paused a minute to look the place over carefully. “This way,” he said and led the Companions forward. The Companions stood within the narthex of the temple. Hallways went both left and right and just a bit further up were also a matching set of stairways leading up to either side. The hallway ended in a set of large wooden doors that curved up to a point in the middle. The doors appeared as if they had once been artfully decorated, but time and neglect had robbed them of any beauty. A balcony was directly overhead and a round, broken stained-glass window let in just enough light to shine some reds and greens on the doors before them. Jaxx cast [I]false life[/I] as Erevan opened the doors…and all hell broke loose. Beyond the doors was the old nave of the temple, which was both long and open. There were balconies to either side that stretched the length of the room. At the far end was a raised chancel, five feet higher than the floor of the nave and it was separated from the lower floor by a five-foot wide channel of water. A plank, slightly off center to the right, bridged the chancel to the nave, a small rug at the bottom. The light of two large bonfires provided light for the Companions…and lots of orcs who apparently knew that the Companions were coming. An orc from the far end, standing before what could only be described is a throne-like chair of shaky design, pointed at the Companions and shouted a very intricate plan of attack, [I]“KIIIIIIIIILLLLLL!”[/I] Before the orcs could react, Erevan was in the room and racing towards the far end. An orc that had been standing between where he was and where he wanted to be looked at him slack-jawed, obviously confused. The elf jumped and came down, both of his longblades before him. He pinned the orc to the floor and kept moving. Ilvander buried an arrow into an orc within the nave with his shortbow from the door. [I]FWAP![/I] He held his ground at the doorway, “Erevan, there are too many!” he shouted at the elf’s back. Some of the orcs within the nave started to react and surged forward. Two peeled off to cut off the ranger, but the rest piled up at the open doors. Erevan took a gash from a greataxe. At the door, Mynn was at Ilvander’s side. With one swipe of his greataxe he disemboweled one orc and used the follow-through to gravely wound a second. “Dwarven steel!” More orcs piled up at the door…and started coming in from the side hallways that led into the narthex at the front of the temple. “We’re surrounded!” Vech shouted. An eye appeared above one of the flanking orcs and an [I]eldritch blast[/I] sent it back into the hallway it had just exited. Within the nave, orcs appeared on the balconies and started raining arrows at those below. One took a shot at Erevan, leaving a cut across his cheek. The others peppered the Companions standing near the doorway in the narthex. Einar shouted, “This is bad!” and cast [I]bless[/I]. Jaxx bound up the left stairway, which led to one of the balconies in the nave. A mighty swing with his greatsword took an archer’s foot off mid-shin. It howled and grabbed its leg before teetering off the balcony into one of the bonfires below, creating a cloud of ash and cinders. “Guys, there are a lot of archers up here!” he shouted back over his shoulder. Erevan’s eyes flickered with green light as he cast [I]hunter’s mark[/I] on one of the two orcs before him. He followed up by running his magic blade through its mouth, causing it to gurgle black blood over his right hand before falling into a hump on the floor. Ilvander pulled out his shortsword and thrust it into the orc just wounded by the dwarf’s backhand. It rocked on its heels, but stayed on its feet. The monk snapped a quick kicked at it, but missed. There were a lot of orcs at the doors and their attacks were landing. Both dwarf and monk were starting to bleed. Mynn responded with a roar and hewed into the pile with big swings that sent orcs to the ground, which was starting to get slippery with the blood. The flanking orcs, now fully into the room, pressed on Vech and Einar. “We need help back here!” Vech shouted as he burnt down the orc he had previously wounded. The eye rolled over to another. There was a press of bodies in the narthex now. Orc archers on the left balcony focused their attacks on Jaxx and his [I]false life[/I] quickly faded under the assault. The archers on the right split their attacks between Erevan and those at the door. Jaxx continued delivering death to the archers on the balcony with him. “Erevan, pull back!” Below, Erevan was like whirling death, killing orcs left and right as he continued to make his way to the ramp that led up to the chancel, but he was starting to slow as his blood seeped from multiple wounds. He got to the bottom of the ramp and nearly fell into a pit as the rug dropped away from his feet. (Stupid high-Dex characters!) He hopped over and got to the top to face off with the chief…who was now hiding behind his makeshift throne. The elf turned his head sideways a bit musing. The orc seemed a little cowardly to be a chief. Orcs recognize only strength. Then the war chief struck; the real war chief that is. From the balcony at the front of the temple, near the broken window, he gave a great yawp as he leapt down into the fray, greataxe held high, descending upon the hapless warlock. Vech screamed with the first hit of the axe and fell with the second. The chief was massive. Nearly eight feet in height and easily four hundred pounds of pure muscle and heavy bone. “Tonight, we eat meat!” it shouted. The remaining archers from either side were focusing on Jaxx now, who was taking an impressive number of hits and staying on his feet. Einar quickly hit Vech with [I]healing word[/I] and then threw his hands into the air, “Shael, I call upon thy servants!” A pack of spiritual wolves and raptors exploded from the priest and swarmed over the orcs. All screamed, many fell. (This is Einar’s version of [B]Radiance of the Dawn[/B], which is devastatingly awesome. It was looking bad up to this point. Well, it was still bad after too, but there was considerably less bad now.) Jaxx finished off the last of the archers on the left balcony, but found himself feeling awfully exposed to the archers across the nave. Erevan snaked out two hits with his blades into an orc’s chest, which fell from the edge of the chancel into the water below. As it fell, it struck the edge with the back of its head and slid into the brackish water. Vech looked up at the chief towering over him and raised an arm to fend off its attack. It didn’t work. Vech returned to the world of unconsciousness. “Erevan!” Ilvander shouted and leapt through the pile of orcs at the door and raced into the room far enough to hit the ranger with a [I]healing word[/I]. The monk was struck twice from behind as two of the orcs had given chase. He fell where he stood. Mynn whirled on the chief. “The Ancestors command your death!” he shouted as he dropped a [I]vow of enmity[/I] upon the chief. He swung is axe in a fearsome arc, and took the massive orc’s left arm off at the elbow, red light flaring in the wound. The orc howled in rage, but stayed on its feet. (Is it just me or to paladins always critical the big-bad? It certainly feels that way.) Einar was struck up the side of his head and bless faded. He hit himself with a healing word and tried to dodge the attacks as best he could; he was pinned in a corner. “Help!” he shouted. Back in the nave, Jaxx leapt from the balcony down the chancel below. He rolled once to break his fall and carried forward back to his feet before racing over to Erevan. He launched an orc off the side with the back of his arm. It landed face first with a sickening crunch; it lay there twitching. “Get off him!” he roared. Surprisingly, the orc chief turned on Einar. “Soft,” it said and swung its axe twice (in one hand). Einar evaded the first swing, but there was no dodging the second. The priest slumped down, the corner holding him upright as he held pressed his hands against his stomach keeping things on the inside. He was going into shock. Mynn swung around on the chief and buried his axe into the small of its back. [I]THUNK![/I] It felt like hitting a tree. He then lifted the handle of the axe and applied torque. Then came the sweet sound of snapping bones. The orc rag-dolled to the floor and died. The last of the orcs were soon finished off. Miraculously, none of the Companions died. Mynn recovered the chief’s greataxe, which was of dwarven make and enchanted to slay trolls. Its name was [I]Cinderhew[/I]. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
The Romance of Arasil
Top