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
Wulf's Collected Story Hour -- FINAL UPDATE 12/25
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="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 712" data-attributes="member: 94"><p><strong>FORGE OF FURY (Part VI)</strong></p><p></p><p>Wulf carefully took the saddlebags off the mules and tied them up in the mouth of the cave with their feed bags. He rounded up the group to pass out alchemist's fire and oil, but everybody seemed a little skittish-- except the halfling, of course. The little pyromaniac grabbed two flasks of each and moved his tinderbox to his belt pouch, right next to a couple of torches he always kept handy. Wulf satisfied himself with just a couple of flasks of oil-- since Halma insisted he wouldn't stand anywhere near Wulf if he was carrying alchemist's fire. It was neat stuff, but nowhere near as useful as having a barbarian at your side.</p><p></p><p>They were surprised to find the upper caves still empty, but they moved on to the staircase nevertheless. The group crept closer to the gaping stairway and peered into the darkness. Wulf turned to the halfling. "Hear anything?"</p><p></p><p>"Sounds like... wings flapping. I think they're getting clo..."</p><p></p><p>A small swarm of leathery-winged creatures came flapping out of the darkness and swarmed over the party. Wulf saw one of the creatures land on Halma and insert a narrow tube-like mouth into his back. Almost immediately the creature flushed red as it sucked the blood out of the barbarian. Halma went white and a bit wobbly in the knees as the halfling jumped up and drew his dagger, trying to skewer the creature off the barbarian's back. "Hold still! I think I can stab it for you if you'd just hold still!"</p><p></p><p>The party watched with fascination as the halfling danced around the barbarian, trying to stab the creature on his back, when suddenly the air was split by the shrill sound of a woman screaming. Keldas turned quickly, his keen eyes trying to spot the source. "What the...?"</p><p></p><p>It was Wulf. One of the creatures had settled on his shoulder and was trying to poke its feeder tube through his armor. "Getthisfilthythingoffme! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Wulf dropped his axe and grabbed the critter with his bare hand. It struggled, squealed, and sunk its feeder tube into his hand, but Wulf quickly crushed the life out of it. He dropped the feathery abomination onto the ground as the rest of the creatures retreated back into the darkness.</p><p></p><p>The halfling had taken care of Halma and the whole group was staring at Wulf, who was busy sucking the blood off his wounded hand, mumbling. "...get that back where it belongs..."</p><p></p><p>Keldas was the first to speak. "Well, that was... different. Didn't know you were scared of anything-- let alone a little stirgy."</p><p></p><p>"Not scared... I just don't like... Well, look at HIM!" Wulf pointed at Halma, who was looking extremely pale and pekid. "No tellin' what kinds of nasty diseases these filthy vermin are spreadin' around. Just protective of my health, yer know-- don't want to end up all pasty-looking, like a namby elf. Hmph."</p><p></p><p>Wulf gathered himself and crept down the stairs ahead of the party, his eyes scanning the dark ceiling, his ears straining for the sound of flapping wings-- but it was too hard to hear over the sound of running water nearby. He grabbed the halfling and hauled him close. "Yer hear anything, tell me quick, right?"</p><p></p><p>"I don't hear anything... but something sure <em>smells</em> funny..."</p><p></p><p>Reptilian shapes seemed to melt out of the walls. Trogs. Crude javelins sought out the two scouts-- the halfling tumbled away quickly, but Wulf stood his ground and took a shot or two with grim satisfaction. He calmly pulled out his own javelins and returned fire, establishing right away that this was his enemies' surest path to defeat. They got the message and pulled out stone axes to close.</p><p></p><p>By now Wulf expected Halma to be wading in amongst them, but the big barbarian was looking even worse than before-- doubled over, clutching his stomach in nausea. Keldas looked little better. Wulf quickly drew his axe and dagger and stepped back a bit to protect his allies. Halma rallied as soon as the troglodytes were close enough to threaten him, but there was little enthusiasm behind his blows. </p><p></p><p>The situation got rapidly worse when a giant lizard was whipped up from the back ranks and sent in to attack the party. Wulf stepped up to intercept it and the halfling tumbled around behind it. The two rogues took it on together, each one stabbing it from behind as it turned to engage the other. Wulf struck a particularly telling blow and <em>Taranak</em> exploded into flame. ("NOW we're cookin!") The lizard slumped to the floor but Wulf was afraid to relax his grip on the burning axe, lest it extinguish itself.</p><p></p><p>With Keldas and Kellick to help him, Halma had finished off all the trog warriors. He was still looking pale and nauseous when the fight ended. Wulf looked over in disgust. "What's wrong with yer boy?"</p><p></p><p>"Bad smell!"</p><p></p><p>"What?" Wulf sniffed. "That? I've ATE worse than that. Pull yerself together. What do yer expect when yer farm yerself out for the local vermin. See? Take care of yerself like I do and yer'll have the fortitude to ignore a lot worse than bad smells. Hmph."</p><p></p><p>Trog tracks led over to a small stream that disappeared under the wall. After some wrangling, the halfling was persuaded to strip down and wade into the chilly water to explore beyond. The stream cut through the wall into the next cavern-- it wasn't deep, and there was a bit of air at the top. The party crossed through-- Wulf last, holding <em>Taranak</em> safely above the water.</p><p></p><p>They met very little resistance from troglodytes from that point on. With Wulf's axe adding punishing fire to his already vicious blows, and Halma able to resist any further nausea, they kept their distance and the party was able to explore the criss-crossing caverns full of streams. Wulf kept careful maps and steered the party in the right direction. Eventually they came upon a huge cavern filled with dwarven sarcophagi.</p><p></p><p>The halfling skipped out into the cavern and twirled around. "Yes! Now we're talking! Let's loot these coffins-- bound to be some more cool weapons buried with these dwarves..."He scanned the nameplates, looking for somebody who sounded important.</p><p></p><p>"How bout we don't?" Wulf stepped forward and stared the halfling down. </p><p></p><p>"What?" The halfling honestly couldn't understand what was going on.</p><p></p><p>"Yer really think I'm going to let yer loot my ancestors?"</p><p></p><p>"WHAT!?"</p><p></p><p>"I said, yer not gonna loot these. Let's move on." Wulf pointed to the sloping path that led out the other side of the cavern.</p><p></p><p>"Now just hold on a minute! I bet you'd loot a HALFLING sarcophagus, wouldn't you?"</p><p></p><p>"Yer seem to fail to grasp the purpose of a sarcophagus. They're built to honor heroes and warriors. Why would <strong>halflings</strong> have a sarchophagus? Yer don't build a sarcophagus for farmers and thieves. Just toss 'em on the nearest compost heap and be done with it."</p><p></p><p>"Well, you didn't seem to have any objection to looting that elven crypt under the Sunless Citadel."</p><p></p><p>"Ach... It's not my fault Keldas didn't speak up. Yer come from a race where bloody <em>everybody</em> fancies himself a prancin' prince, I guess yer lose respect for yer ancestors. Keldas wants to defile his own dead-- not my problem."</p><p></p><p>"Well, I say we take a VOTE on it. I say we loot these." </p><p></p><p>"Suit yerself-- but yer should know, there's a guardian watching over these crypts."</p><p></p><p>"Oh yeah? What?"</p><p></p><p>"A bloodthirsty dwarf who's just <em>looking</em> for an excuse."</p><p></p><p>Keldas stepped in to end the argument. "Let's respect the dead. Come on." He pointed the halfling to the opposite path.</p><p></p><p>"Fine!" The halfling stomped off down the path. "We're just going to WALK AWAY from probably the best treas-AAAAAH!"</p><p></p><p>The halfling was halfway down the sloping path when the wall beside him exploded. Some new kind of creature lashed out of the hole and grabbed him with four tentacles, hauling him closer where its beak shredded his armor and tore into his flesh.</p><p></p><p>The halfling struggled and tried to flick his dagger out of its wrist sheath. Halma dashed forward and slashed at the creature, but his mighty greatsword bounced off its hide. It was unharmed.</p><p></p><p>Uh oh.</p><p></p><p>The halfling gave up on his dagger and started fishing for his alchemist's fire, but the creature gave another mighty snap and dropped his bleeding, battered body onto the stones. The creature flailed about, looking for more live prey.</p><p></p><p>Wulf had the only magic weapon in the party. He dashed forward and laid <em>Taranak</em> into the creature, and was rewarded as a gash appeared across its hide-- not much, but it was something. In return the creature focused its attention on Wulf, wounding him badly. Halma saw his friend in jeopardy and dashed forward, hoping to distract the creature; Keldas prepared to cast <em>Rapid Strikes</em> on Wulf. The halfling just lay there, pouring his life's blood out onto the stones. Everybody had something more important to do than drag his body out from underfoot and bind his wounds. In moments, the halfling would be dead.</p><p></p><p>Yep. Mere... moments. Just a few... seconds... more.</p><p></p><p>"Oh for the love of..." Kellick moved forward, risking the creature's grasp as he focused all his attention on healing the little halfing's wounds. He pulled the halfling to safety and watched over him while the party finished off the worm creature.</p><p></p><p>"Yer saved his life, Kellick." Wulf frowned.</p><p></p><p>"I know." Kellick frowned too. "I just... I just couldn't let him die. Who knows? You'll see. Someday, when I lie at death's door, gasping my last breath, he'll be there to return the favor."</p><p></p><p>-------------</p><p></p><p>DM: "The crypt is full of statues of elven warriors."</p><p>Keldas: "How realistic are the statues?"</p><p>Wulf: "Not very. He said they were elven <em>warriors</em>."</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Wulf Ratbane, post: 712, member: 94"] [b]FORGE OF FURY (Part VI)[/b] Wulf carefully took the saddlebags off the mules and tied them up in the mouth of the cave with their feed bags. He rounded up the group to pass out alchemist's fire and oil, but everybody seemed a little skittish-- except the halfling, of course. The little pyromaniac grabbed two flasks of each and moved his tinderbox to his belt pouch, right next to a couple of torches he always kept handy. Wulf satisfied himself with just a couple of flasks of oil-- since Halma insisted he wouldn't stand anywhere near Wulf if he was carrying alchemist's fire. It was neat stuff, but nowhere near as useful as having a barbarian at your side. They were surprised to find the upper caves still empty, but they moved on to the staircase nevertheless. The group crept closer to the gaping stairway and peered into the darkness. Wulf turned to the halfling. "Hear anything?" "Sounds like... wings flapping. I think they're getting clo..." A small swarm of leathery-winged creatures came flapping out of the darkness and swarmed over the party. Wulf saw one of the creatures land on Halma and insert a narrow tube-like mouth into his back. Almost immediately the creature flushed red as it sucked the blood out of the barbarian. Halma went white and a bit wobbly in the knees as the halfling jumped up and drew his dagger, trying to skewer the creature off the barbarian's back. "Hold still! I think I can stab it for you if you'd just hold still!" The party watched with fascination as the halfling danced around the barbarian, trying to stab the creature on his back, when suddenly the air was split by the shrill sound of a woman screaming. Keldas turned quickly, his keen eyes trying to spot the source. "What the...?" It was Wulf. One of the creatures had settled on his shoulder and was trying to poke its feeder tube through his armor. "Getthisfilthythingoffme! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Wulf dropped his axe and grabbed the critter with his bare hand. It struggled, squealed, and sunk its feeder tube into his hand, but Wulf quickly crushed the life out of it. He dropped the feathery abomination onto the ground as the rest of the creatures retreated back into the darkness. The halfling had taken care of Halma and the whole group was staring at Wulf, who was busy sucking the blood off his wounded hand, mumbling. "...get that back where it belongs..." Keldas was the first to speak. "Well, that was... different. Didn't know you were scared of anything-- let alone a little stirgy." "Not scared... I just don't like... Well, look at HIM!" Wulf pointed at Halma, who was looking extremely pale and pekid. "No tellin' what kinds of nasty diseases these filthy vermin are spreadin' around. Just protective of my health, yer know-- don't want to end up all pasty-looking, like a namby elf. Hmph." Wulf gathered himself and crept down the stairs ahead of the party, his eyes scanning the dark ceiling, his ears straining for the sound of flapping wings-- but it was too hard to hear over the sound of running water nearby. He grabbed the halfling and hauled him close. "Yer hear anything, tell me quick, right?" "I don't hear anything... but something sure [i]smells[/i] funny..." Reptilian shapes seemed to melt out of the walls. Trogs. Crude javelins sought out the two scouts-- the halfling tumbled away quickly, but Wulf stood his ground and took a shot or two with grim satisfaction. He calmly pulled out his own javelins and returned fire, establishing right away that this was his enemies' surest path to defeat. They got the message and pulled out stone axes to close. By now Wulf expected Halma to be wading in amongst them, but the big barbarian was looking even worse than before-- doubled over, clutching his stomach in nausea. Keldas looked little better. Wulf quickly drew his axe and dagger and stepped back a bit to protect his allies. Halma rallied as soon as the troglodytes were close enough to threaten him, but there was little enthusiasm behind his blows. The situation got rapidly worse when a giant lizard was whipped up from the back ranks and sent in to attack the party. Wulf stepped up to intercept it and the halfling tumbled around behind it. The two rogues took it on together, each one stabbing it from behind as it turned to engage the other. Wulf struck a particularly telling blow and [i]Taranak[/i] exploded into flame. ("NOW we're cookin!") The lizard slumped to the floor but Wulf was afraid to relax his grip on the burning axe, lest it extinguish itself. With Keldas and Kellick to help him, Halma had finished off all the trog warriors. He was still looking pale and nauseous when the fight ended. Wulf looked over in disgust. "What's wrong with yer boy?" "Bad smell!" "What?" Wulf sniffed. "That? I've ATE worse than that. Pull yerself together. What do yer expect when yer farm yerself out for the local vermin. See? Take care of yerself like I do and yer'll have the fortitude to ignore a lot worse than bad smells. Hmph." Trog tracks led over to a small stream that disappeared under the wall. After some wrangling, the halfling was persuaded to strip down and wade into the chilly water to explore beyond. The stream cut through the wall into the next cavern-- it wasn't deep, and there was a bit of air at the top. The party crossed through-- Wulf last, holding [i]Taranak[/i] safely above the water. They met very little resistance from troglodytes from that point on. With Wulf's axe adding punishing fire to his already vicious blows, and Halma able to resist any further nausea, they kept their distance and the party was able to explore the criss-crossing caverns full of streams. Wulf kept careful maps and steered the party in the right direction. Eventually they came upon a huge cavern filled with dwarven sarcophagi. The halfling skipped out into the cavern and twirled around. "Yes! Now we're talking! Let's loot these coffins-- bound to be some more cool weapons buried with these dwarves..."He scanned the nameplates, looking for somebody who sounded important. "How bout we don't?" Wulf stepped forward and stared the halfling down. "What?" The halfling honestly couldn't understand what was going on. "Yer really think I'm going to let yer loot my ancestors?" "WHAT!?" "I said, yer not gonna loot these. Let's move on." Wulf pointed to the sloping path that led out the other side of the cavern. "Now just hold on a minute! I bet you'd loot a HALFLING sarcophagus, wouldn't you?" "Yer seem to fail to grasp the purpose of a sarcophagus. They're built to honor heroes and warriors. Why would [b]halflings[/b] have a sarchophagus? Yer don't build a sarcophagus for farmers and thieves. Just toss 'em on the nearest compost heap and be done with it." "Well, you didn't seem to have any objection to looting that elven crypt under the Sunless Citadel." "Ach... It's not my fault Keldas didn't speak up. Yer come from a race where bloody [i]everybody[/i] fancies himself a prancin' prince, I guess yer lose respect for yer ancestors. Keldas wants to defile his own dead-- not my problem." "Well, I say we take a VOTE on it. I say we loot these." "Suit yerself-- but yer should know, there's a guardian watching over these crypts." "Oh yeah? What?" "A bloodthirsty dwarf who's just [i]looking[/i] for an excuse." Keldas stepped in to end the argument. "Let's respect the dead. Come on." He pointed the halfling to the opposite path. "Fine!" The halfling stomped off down the path. "We're just going to WALK AWAY from probably the best treas-AAAAAH!" The halfling was halfway down the sloping path when the wall beside him exploded. Some new kind of creature lashed out of the hole and grabbed him with four tentacles, hauling him closer where its beak shredded his armor and tore into his flesh. The halfling struggled and tried to flick his dagger out of its wrist sheath. Halma dashed forward and slashed at the creature, but his mighty greatsword bounced off its hide. It was unharmed. Uh oh. The halfling gave up on his dagger and started fishing for his alchemist's fire, but the creature gave another mighty snap and dropped his bleeding, battered body onto the stones. The creature flailed about, looking for more live prey. Wulf had the only magic weapon in the party. He dashed forward and laid [i]Taranak[/i] into the creature, and was rewarded as a gash appeared across its hide-- not much, but it was something. In return the creature focused its attention on Wulf, wounding him badly. Halma saw his friend in jeopardy and dashed forward, hoping to distract the creature; Keldas prepared to cast [i]Rapid Strikes[/i] on Wulf. The halfling just lay there, pouring his life's blood out onto the stones. Everybody had something more important to do than drag his body out from underfoot and bind his wounds. In moments, the halfling would be dead. Yep. Mere... moments. Just a few... seconds... more. "Oh for the love of..." Kellick moved forward, risking the creature's grasp as he focused all his attention on healing the little halfing's wounds. He pulled the halfling to safety and watched over him while the party finished off the worm creature. "Yer saved his life, Kellick." Wulf frowned. "I know." Kellick frowned too. "I just... I just couldn't let him die. Who knows? You'll see. Someday, when I lie at death's door, gasping my last breath, he'll be there to return the favor." ------------- DM: "The crypt is full of statues of elven warriors." Keldas: "How realistic are the statues?" Wulf: "Not very. He said they were elven [i]warriors[/i]." [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Wulf's Collected Story Hour -- FINAL UPDATE 12/25
Top