Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tom Cashel" data-source="post: 393441" data-attributes="member: 321">The DOOR from EVERYWHERE, part 3Ghiv Templeborn: The Ambush and the FearKole Kellbrot, the Irritant Minstrel, was the first to enter the protective circle of wagons after the orc attack.  Ghiv knew the caravaners would be suspicious, but Kole quaffed a potion he claimed would make him “irresistable.”  Buffoon, Ghiv thought, get yourself killed.Everything went downhill from there, starting with the maniacal axe murderer Huesst.  As soon as they heard Kole shouting for help, and the ring of clashing swords, Ghiv turned to the stinking barbarian to bid him hold his ground–the fool was already charging headlong toward the caravan!Ghiv followed–later she could not guess why–casting a spell of flight to glide to the battlefield.The caravaners were swarming like hornets; the orcs had battered the nest and now Ghiv and her impetuous companions would feel the stings.By the time Ghiv flew into range, Kole was on the rocky ground choking on his own blood.  Huesst was roaring, completely blinded by his own battle-rage, swinging his greataxe at the dwarves and humans surrounding him.  He managed to hack one of the dwarves nearly in half, but then succumbed to his own wounds and crumpled.Ghiv dropped a bolt of lightning and a ball of fire upon the combatants, but they were far more organized than she gave them credit for.  A red-haired warrior shouted commands, and longbows flung arrows toward her.  By the time she realized that escape was a rapidly disappearing option, a bolt struck her skull–glancing off but dropping a black unconsciousness over her like a hood.When she awoke, Ghiv found a ring of angry faces staring hard upon her: the red-haired warrior, his sons, the wife of the fallen dwarf, a fire genasi whose hair swirled around her with seeming life of its own.  Their eyes burned her anger away, shriveled it into a tiny black ball of hate, and all that was left for Ghiv was one sorry substitute: fear.“Please,” Ghiv croaked through dry, blood-caked lips, “please don’t kill me.”“The barbarian and the silver-tongued demon are buried in shallow graves,” Runold Rolf said, “but you shall live.  Only so you can tell us where the orcs went.  Where are our children?”“I don’t know,” Ghiv said. “Please, I don’t know of those orcs.”Rolf turned to the gnome Gerbo Aruvor. “Is this truth?”Gerbo nodded. “As far as I can tell...yes.”  There was regret in his voice.The fire genasi spoke up. “We’ll wait for the others to return before we decide what to do with this–” she spat “–vermin.”Rolf agreed.  “Gag her.  Tonight we bury our dead.”Gagged and tied in the dark, Ghiv felt bilious anger burning in her gut.  But that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.</blockquote>

Verification