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CERAMIC D.M. Final Judgements In- New Champion!
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<blockquote data-quote="Sniktch" data-source="post: 782192" data-attributes="member: 7704"><p><strong>Final Round - Sniktch vs Speaker</strong></p><p></p><p>The giant arrived just after midnight. My family and I slumbered peacefully in our beds when the earth began to shake to its thunderous footfalls. I jumped out of bed and threw open the shutters, and beheld a mammoth figure silhouetted by the moonlight. It strode purposefully towards the farmhouse, the floors and the walls of the house shaking more violently with each approaching step.</p><p></p><p>I heard screams from the house, and the voice of mother as she tried to soothe the little ones. Soon I saw father run out into the yard, brandishing an old sword and a torch. He yelled at the giant, demanding that it leave, but the brute only laughed, a deep but feminine laugh. With surprising swiftness, it suddenly leaned forward and swatted father with a huge hand, and he flew off into the night without a sound. The giant shook with laughter again, the waves of sound breaking over the house like thunder, and began its steady march toward the structure.</p><p></p><p>It was my quick thinking that saved me then. I finally tore myself away from the scene in the window and ran downstairs. I could still hear the wails of my younger siblings and the comforting tones of my mother, but they seemed distant and unreal somehow. Nothing seemed real except for the looming footsteps of the giant. It was very close now; I would not be able to get away from the house in time, so I ran to the kitchen and climbed into the heavy iron cauldron, curling into a fetal position with my arms held above my head.</p><p></p><p>A crash echoed through the air then, accompanied by the terrible screaming of the wooden timbers as the house died. My arms were struck by falling dust and chunks of debris and the air grew stale as the building was crushed down on top of me and I took only short gasps of air so that I would not suffocate. Eventually the clamor died down and was replaced once more by booming footfalls that gradually receded into the distance. </p><p></p><p>When at last I felt it safe enough I dug my way free from the rubble and collapsed in the fields, weeping and crying until I passed out from shock and exhaustion. The next morning I rose and beheld the full extent of the ruin the giant left in its wake. (pic 5) I dug hopelessly at the rubble near the bedrooms, crying out to my mother and siblings, but knowing in my heart that it was unlikely anyone else had survived. My worst fears were confirmed hours later when I found their crushed bodies. </p><p></p><p>Again I was gripped by the sensation that none of this was real, that I was living in a nightmare and would awake soon. In a daze I wandered the fields until I found the body of my father laying where it had fallen, his head twisted at an unnatural angle and his chest caved in. I wanted to weep again, to rail against cruel fate and shake my fist against the heavens, but I knew that it would accomplish nothing. Instead I gathered up his sword, though it had done him little good, and removed a silver ring decorated with flowing foreign script from his right hand, placing it upon my own. The ring was a family heirloom and would probably turn out to be more useful than the dulled and pitted sword. </p><p></p><p>I spent the rest of the day dragging father’s body back to the remains of the house and salvaging the few supplies that survived its destruction. As night fell I placed my father’s body in the wreckage with the rest of my family and set the timbers ablaze. I turned and walked away from the funeral pyre, praying for my family’s souls and swearing vengeance against the giant. Its tracks were easy to follow and I walked until sleep overtook me, falling to the trail and sleeping on the ground where I lay.</p><p></p><p>I don’t know how long I trailed the giant in this dreamlike state, waking each day and walking mile after mile, stopping only to eat, relieve myself, and sleep. A fever took me and I raved incoherently to the phantoms of my family, lost in wild hallucinations and oblivious to the actual world around me. Perhaps the rest of my story is just a fever dream, but I am not convinced.</p><p></p><p>When I regained my senses I was in a broken land. The ground was stony and cracked by lack of moisture, barren of life save for a few scraggly plants that dotted the ground. It seemed the same in every direction, just parched and broken earth stretching out to the horizon. I wandered aimlessly through this desert and presently came across a dark skinned man kneeling on the ground and gathering the sickly plants. (pic 1) He smiled and waved me near as soon as he spotted me, and somehow I knew that he had been waiting for me.</p><p></p><p>I halted before him. “Hello,” I greeted. “What are you doing out here?”</p><p></p><p>He shrugged. “Waiting for you, I believe. Why are you in this forsaken land?”</p><p></p><p>“If you are waiting for me then you must know that already,” I said, confused.</p><p></p><p>“Ah, but I can not be sure you are the one I am waiting for unless I know why you have come.”</p><p></p><p>That made sense to me, but I hesitated a moment longer before blurting out, “I follow a wicked giant. She slaughtered my family and destroyed my home and I have sworn to kill her. </p><p></p><p>“I seem to have lost the trail,” I finished, frowning.</p><p></p><p>He nodded, “Then you are the one I was expecting. Follow me.” He pulled one last plant free from the earth and started walking away. I fell in behind him and we walked in silence until we reached a stone house built in the middle of the broken plain. We entered the house together and he pointed to several cushions scattered on the floor. I sat and watched as he built a fire and placed a pot of water over it to boil. Next he lay the plants upon a broad, flat stone and began to crush them with a fist-sized rock, scraping the pulp and juices into the pot. As he worked he began to speak.</p><p></p><p>“This land was not always the shattered plain you find yourself in now. Long ago it was a fertile and beautiful place. My people lived in happiness upon the natural wealth of the land... until the giant came.</p><p></p><p>“The giant lives in a vast and plentiful realm herself, but in her greed she would take what she does not own, and destroy what she could not take. Thus it was with our land. My people would never serve her, nor would they agree to abandon their lands to her, so she used her magical powers to keep the rain from our soil. Our rivers and lakes dried up, the plants died, and the animals fled. Soon the people left as well, until only I remained. It has been twenty years and not a drop of rain has fallen since the giant cursed us.</p><p></p><p>“I stubbornly refused to flee, swearing my own oath of vengeance against the giant. I dreamed that one day another would come after the giant, someone with the strength and ability to gain entry to her fortress, but who would need a weapon capable of slaying her.”</p><p></p><p>The concoction in the pot had by this time boiled down to a thick liquid that he poured into an empty bottle. He corked the bottle securely and handed it to me, continuing, “This is that weapon. If you can get the giant to consume this potion she will at long last pay for her crimes.”</p><p></p><p>I spent the night with the strange man in his home before setting out again. His final instructions repeated in my head as I fell into step, “Head north from here until you find yourself in a lush and fertile land again. Find the river and follow it to a tall rock spire towering over the landscape. Climb to the very top and you will find a circular depression; stand in it and speak a certain word and you will be instantly transported to the giant’s fortress.” He leaned forward and whispered the word to me then, forcing me to repeat it until he was sure that I had it right, then he wished me luck in my quest and sent me on my way.</p><p></p><p>I was taken by delirium once more as I traveled northward and again I lost track of the passage of time. It seemed like weeks passed by and yet I know that it could only have been a couple of days, but eventually I felt the air change and noticed more and more plantlife eking out an existence in the rocky plain. Soon after I found the river the old man had spoken of and in the distance I saw the natural rock tower. However, a settlement lay between my goal and me, and as I drew closer and closer I saw that it was a village of trolls.</p><p></p><p>Luckily I had not forgotten about my father’s ring or its powers. I concentrated upon activating it and felt my skin tingle as it changed color and shade to blend me perfectly into my surroundings. I crept slowly through the village this way, hugging the walls and inching my way to the other side. (pic 2) In this way I made it through the village and had started to climb the spire long before the trolls detected my presence. The sight of half a dozen trolls charging towards me howling blood curdling cries spurred me into action and I climbed as I had never climbed before, easily beating the enraged trolls to the summit. (pic 4)</p><p></p><p>I found the depression the man had described and stood within, speaking the word he had made me memorize so carefully. Instantly I felt a gut wrenching sensation and the world blurred before my eyes as my world was turned inside out. I awoke several moments later and found myself at the top of an immense staircase, directly in front of two gigantic wooden doors. I wriggled under the crack beneath the doors and found myself within a palace of epic proportions, everything as you would expect to find it within a normal castle but built for occupants forty feet tall.</p><p></p><p>I wandered through this vast place until I heard the sounds of its occupant. Making sure to activate the magical ring again, I rounded a corner and beheld a cavernous dining hall. A colossal golden-haired woman wearing a horned helmet sat in one of the huge chairs placed around the table, noisily feasting upon the remains of some large beast and washing her meal down with a flagon of ale.</p><p></p><p>I moved to the other end of the table and started ascending its leg. My progress felt agonizingly slow, but I eventually achieved the tabletop before the giant had finished her meal. Carefully maintaining my disguise and dodging from cover to cover, I gradually drew close to the brute. With one last burst of speed I ran to her mug and hid behind it, retrieving the bottle the old man had given me and unstopping it. Murmuring a quick prayer that the giant would not notice the tiny bottle in her drink, I threw the bottle and watched as it disappeared over the lip of the flagon.</p><p></p><p>I threw myself flat and crawled behind a gigantic salt shaker then as the giant reached down and picked up the mug of ale. I watched with growing satisfaction as she tilted her head back and drank long and deep from the cup. If the old man had been correct, she had just drank more than enough to complete the task.</p><p></p><p>The giant placed the mug back upon the table and let out a deep, satisfied belch. Suddenly, a strange expression came over her and she tilted her head far to the side, sinking her teeth deep into her own shoulder and tearing free a great chunk of flesh! Blood ran freely from the wound and from her mouth, but she chewed with relish, a strange tittering laugh escaping her lips. (pic 3) After she swallowed she brought her other arm to her mouth, this time biting off a large portion of her wrist and severing several important blood vessels. She continued to laugh louder and louder with each following bite, until she finally slumped in her chair and ceased moving.</p><p></p><p>I stayed in my hiding place, rooted to the spot with sick fascination as the giant tore herself apart before my eyes. A great weight lifted from me as I watched her movements cease and came to the realization that my enemy was dead. I spent the next few days exploring the rest of the castle. The giant had a large number of slaves and I informed them of their newly won freedom, and in turn they led me to the treasure hoard the brute had collected over the years. </p><p></p><p>I selected a few choice pieces to keep for myself and let the freed slaves keep the rest in exchange for directions back to the broken plain. I bid them farewell and departed soon after, making my way over the next few weeks back to the desolate land where I had met my strange benefactor. A heavy rain was falling on the earth and the first signs of plant life were bursting through the tortured ground, and I knew that the news I brought with me had already been delivered.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sniktch, post: 782192, member: 7704"] [b]Final Round - Sniktch vs Speaker[/b] The giant arrived just after midnight. My family and I slumbered peacefully in our beds when the earth began to shake to its thunderous footfalls. I jumped out of bed and threw open the shutters, and beheld a mammoth figure silhouetted by the moonlight. It strode purposefully towards the farmhouse, the floors and the walls of the house shaking more violently with each approaching step. I heard screams from the house, and the voice of mother as she tried to soothe the little ones. Soon I saw father run out into the yard, brandishing an old sword and a torch. He yelled at the giant, demanding that it leave, but the brute only laughed, a deep but feminine laugh. With surprising swiftness, it suddenly leaned forward and swatted father with a huge hand, and he flew off into the night without a sound. The giant shook with laughter again, the waves of sound breaking over the house like thunder, and began its steady march toward the structure. It was my quick thinking that saved me then. I finally tore myself away from the scene in the window and ran downstairs. I could still hear the wails of my younger siblings and the comforting tones of my mother, but they seemed distant and unreal somehow. Nothing seemed real except for the looming footsteps of the giant. It was very close now; I would not be able to get away from the house in time, so I ran to the kitchen and climbed into the heavy iron cauldron, curling into a fetal position with my arms held above my head. A crash echoed through the air then, accompanied by the terrible screaming of the wooden timbers as the house died. My arms were struck by falling dust and chunks of debris and the air grew stale as the building was crushed down on top of me and I took only short gasps of air so that I would not suffocate. Eventually the clamor died down and was replaced once more by booming footfalls that gradually receded into the distance. When at last I felt it safe enough I dug my way free from the rubble and collapsed in the fields, weeping and crying until I passed out from shock and exhaustion. The next morning I rose and beheld the full extent of the ruin the giant left in its wake. (pic 5) I dug hopelessly at the rubble near the bedrooms, crying out to my mother and siblings, but knowing in my heart that it was unlikely anyone else had survived. My worst fears were confirmed hours later when I found their crushed bodies. Again I was gripped by the sensation that none of this was real, that I was living in a nightmare and would awake soon. In a daze I wandered the fields until I found the body of my father laying where it had fallen, his head twisted at an unnatural angle and his chest caved in. I wanted to weep again, to rail against cruel fate and shake my fist against the heavens, but I knew that it would accomplish nothing. Instead I gathered up his sword, though it had done him little good, and removed a silver ring decorated with flowing foreign script from his right hand, placing it upon my own. The ring was a family heirloom and would probably turn out to be more useful than the dulled and pitted sword. I spent the rest of the day dragging father’s body back to the remains of the house and salvaging the few supplies that survived its destruction. As night fell I placed my father’s body in the wreckage with the rest of my family and set the timbers ablaze. I turned and walked away from the funeral pyre, praying for my family’s souls and swearing vengeance against the giant. Its tracks were easy to follow and I walked until sleep overtook me, falling to the trail and sleeping on the ground where I lay. I don’t know how long I trailed the giant in this dreamlike state, waking each day and walking mile after mile, stopping only to eat, relieve myself, and sleep. A fever took me and I raved incoherently to the phantoms of my family, lost in wild hallucinations and oblivious to the actual world around me. Perhaps the rest of my story is just a fever dream, but I am not convinced. When I regained my senses I was in a broken land. The ground was stony and cracked by lack of moisture, barren of life save for a few scraggly plants that dotted the ground. It seemed the same in every direction, just parched and broken earth stretching out to the horizon. I wandered aimlessly through this desert and presently came across a dark skinned man kneeling on the ground and gathering the sickly plants. (pic 1) He smiled and waved me near as soon as he spotted me, and somehow I knew that he had been waiting for me. I halted before him. “Hello,” I greeted. “What are you doing out here?” He shrugged. “Waiting for you, I believe. Why are you in this forsaken land?” “If you are waiting for me then you must know that already,” I said, confused. “Ah, but I can not be sure you are the one I am waiting for unless I know why you have come.” That made sense to me, but I hesitated a moment longer before blurting out, “I follow a wicked giant. She slaughtered my family and destroyed my home and I have sworn to kill her. “I seem to have lost the trail,” I finished, frowning. He nodded, “Then you are the one I was expecting. Follow me.” He pulled one last plant free from the earth and started walking away. I fell in behind him and we walked in silence until we reached a stone house built in the middle of the broken plain. We entered the house together and he pointed to several cushions scattered on the floor. I sat and watched as he built a fire and placed a pot of water over it to boil. Next he lay the plants upon a broad, flat stone and began to crush them with a fist-sized rock, scraping the pulp and juices into the pot. As he worked he began to speak. “This land was not always the shattered plain you find yourself in now. Long ago it was a fertile and beautiful place. My people lived in happiness upon the natural wealth of the land... until the giant came. “The giant lives in a vast and plentiful realm herself, but in her greed she would take what she does not own, and destroy what she could not take. Thus it was with our land. My people would never serve her, nor would they agree to abandon their lands to her, so she used her magical powers to keep the rain from our soil. Our rivers and lakes dried up, the plants died, and the animals fled. Soon the people left as well, until only I remained. It has been twenty years and not a drop of rain has fallen since the giant cursed us. “I stubbornly refused to flee, swearing my own oath of vengeance against the giant. I dreamed that one day another would come after the giant, someone with the strength and ability to gain entry to her fortress, but who would need a weapon capable of slaying her.” The concoction in the pot had by this time boiled down to a thick liquid that he poured into an empty bottle. He corked the bottle securely and handed it to me, continuing, “This is that weapon. If you can get the giant to consume this potion she will at long last pay for her crimes.” I spent the night with the strange man in his home before setting out again. His final instructions repeated in my head as I fell into step, “Head north from here until you find yourself in a lush and fertile land again. Find the river and follow it to a tall rock spire towering over the landscape. Climb to the very top and you will find a circular depression; stand in it and speak a certain word and you will be instantly transported to the giant’s fortress.” He leaned forward and whispered the word to me then, forcing me to repeat it until he was sure that I had it right, then he wished me luck in my quest and sent me on my way. I was taken by delirium once more as I traveled northward and again I lost track of the passage of time. It seemed like weeks passed by and yet I know that it could only have been a couple of days, but eventually I felt the air change and noticed more and more plantlife eking out an existence in the rocky plain. Soon after I found the river the old man had spoken of and in the distance I saw the natural rock tower. However, a settlement lay between my goal and me, and as I drew closer and closer I saw that it was a village of trolls. Luckily I had not forgotten about my father’s ring or its powers. I concentrated upon activating it and felt my skin tingle as it changed color and shade to blend me perfectly into my surroundings. I crept slowly through the village this way, hugging the walls and inching my way to the other side. (pic 2) In this way I made it through the village and had started to climb the spire long before the trolls detected my presence. The sight of half a dozen trolls charging towards me howling blood curdling cries spurred me into action and I climbed as I had never climbed before, easily beating the enraged trolls to the summit. (pic 4) I found the depression the man had described and stood within, speaking the word he had made me memorize so carefully. Instantly I felt a gut wrenching sensation and the world blurred before my eyes as my world was turned inside out. I awoke several moments later and found myself at the top of an immense staircase, directly in front of two gigantic wooden doors. I wriggled under the crack beneath the doors and found myself within a palace of epic proportions, everything as you would expect to find it within a normal castle but built for occupants forty feet tall. I wandered through this vast place until I heard the sounds of its occupant. Making sure to activate the magical ring again, I rounded a corner and beheld a cavernous dining hall. A colossal golden-haired woman wearing a horned helmet sat in one of the huge chairs placed around the table, noisily feasting upon the remains of some large beast and washing her meal down with a flagon of ale. I moved to the other end of the table and started ascending its leg. My progress felt agonizingly slow, but I eventually achieved the tabletop before the giant had finished her meal. Carefully maintaining my disguise and dodging from cover to cover, I gradually drew close to the brute. With one last burst of speed I ran to her mug and hid behind it, retrieving the bottle the old man had given me and unstopping it. Murmuring a quick prayer that the giant would not notice the tiny bottle in her drink, I threw the bottle and watched as it disappeared over the lip of the flagon. I threw myself flat and crawled behind a gigantic salt shaker then as the giant reached down and picked up the mug of ale. I watched with growing satisfaction as she tilted her head back and drank long and deep from the cup. If the old man had been correct, she had just drank more than enough to complete the task. The giant placed the mug back upon the table and let out a deep, satisfied belch. Suddenly, a strange expression came over her and she tilted her head far to the side, sinking her teeth deep into her own shoulder and tearing free a great chunk of flesh! Blood ran freely from the wound and from her mouth, but she chewed with relish, a strange tittering laugh escaping her lips. (pic 3) After she swallowed she brought her other arm to her mouth, this time biting off a large portion of her wrist and severing several important blood vessels. She continued to laugh louder and louder with each following bite, until she finally slumped in her chair and ceased moving. I stayed in my hiding place, rooted to the spot with sick fascination as the giant tore herself apart before my eyes. A great weight lifted from me as I watched her movements cease and came to the realization that my enemy was dead. I spent the next few days exploring the rest of the castle. The giant had a large number of slaves and I informed them of their newly won freedom, and in turn they led me to the treasure hoard the brute had collected over the years. I selected a few choice pieces to keep for myself and let the freed slaves keep the rest in exchange for directions back to the broken plain. I bid them farewell and departed soon after, making my way over the next few weeks back to the desolate land where I had met my strange benefactor. A heavy rain was falling on the earth and the first signs of plant life were bursting through the tortured ground, and I knew that the news I brought with me had already been delivered. [/QUOTE]
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