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
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Defenders of Daybreak, The Early Years.
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="Sialia" data-source="post: 1942620" data-attributes="member: 1025"><p>I am alone in the midst of a vast ocean, he thought. The Defenders are in the Underdark. My parents are in Gaunt. And I do not know if any of them are alive. I have no way to find out. Not even the Outgrabe knows where I am.</p><p> </p><p>The Outgrabe was still missing with Teliaz. It had been gone for weeks. “Never Loan Anything to Anyone With an Immortal’s Sense of Time,” he added to his list of Good Tips to Remember.</p><p> </p><p>He felt empty.</p><p> </p><p>Hungry, actually, he realized.</p><p> </p><p>Really, really hungry. And thirsty. </p><p> </p><p>He wondered how long he had been sitting here watching Kelsey die. He’d grown used to the queasy plague feeling, but now he felt queasy and hungry at the same time, as if not eating were going to make him sick-up.</p><p> </p><p>He dug through Kelsey’s ration box for some biscuits, but could not bring himself to eat them. What he wanted, he realized, was a steak. A good, rare steak, and a glass of red wine. Maybe a bottle.</p><p> </p><p>Off the top of his head, Dylrath knew a dozen or more good seafood restaurants right in Oursk, but none that really knew how to prepare a steak. Steak wasn’t something Oursk excelled in. If Htarlyd were here, he could have gone anywhere in the world to find just the right place. A really good, really pink all the way through steak. Not one of those tough, leathery, overcooked jobs, but one that was truly “bleu,” as they say, really almost still cold and purple at the middle. Juicy, dripping. If only Htarlyd were here to take him from this forsaken crypt of a ship, he would walk into the finest butcher in Sigil and demand a steak so rare it had hardly breathed its last breath yet . . . Dylrath realized, with a certain sense of elation, that he was being watched, and by a very familiar person. Himself.</p><p> </p><p>He lifted his head and peered hopefully around the room. Nothing? Surely, just for a moment there, he had felt the familiar tingle of being watched by the mirror of his own soul?</p><p> </p><p>But no, nothing there. And yet, still, that familiar tingle, that sense of being watched that was Dylrath’s gift. And the soul watching him was so very like his own . . . he was sure of it. Perhaps, if Htarlyd were watching him, then it had found it’s way back at last? Perhaps it would open if he called again. One more time. Right after he got something to eat--and drink--definitely something to drink--he’d have another go at it. Maybe at last he would be whole again, and free. And not alone anymore, not ever again.</p><p> </p><p>Yeah, that. Or maybe the standard plague hallucinations were arriving at last.</p><p> </p><p>And then, a coalescence of vapor--mist--no, smoke--a roiling cloud of pale gray smoke spilled in to the room, from the very center of the room. A dim glow appeared in the middle of the smoke, and then a ring of red-violet pin-points of light, staring like eyes. Eyes hovering below a pale disk, white as the moon.</p><p> </p><p>“Outgrabe?” Dylrath whispered hesitantly. It didn’t look exactly like the Outgrabe, but the soul looking at him from its glowing eyes was the spitting image of his own. “Is that you?” </p><p> </p><p>“Can you doubt it? The new look is <em>definitely</em> me. Love it?” It spun around to show off its new splendor. No longer a wooden disk, the whole Outgrabe now seemed to be made out of bone. The wooden inlay of flames were gone, replaced by ivory inlay of . . . snakes? worms?</p><p> </p><p>“Intestines!” it announced cheerfully. “Cool, eh? I’ve been upgraded again. Look what I can do.” It practiced flaring and dimming its glowing eyes a few times, fading slowly in and out of visibility with varying amounts and shades of smoke.</p><p> </p><p>“I . . . see,” Dylrath managed. “A week. I loan you out for a week and . . .”</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, it’s not every Outgrabe gets a chance at ascending. I had to take the opportunity when it came up.” It paused to reflect on that thought. “Actually,” it qualified, “since I’m unique, every Outgrabe did, but that’s beside the point. I’m not your hobby anymore,” it added proudly. “I’m Divine Regalia now.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’re what?” said Dylrath. He blinked a few times, processing that. “You mean, Teliaz ascended--he did it? He actually did it? And you were with him when he went?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yup!” it said, with contagious enthusiasm.</p><p> </p><p>Dylrath’s elation flattened itself with a terrible sinking feeling. “He’s . . . not the new god of adventurers, is he?”</p><p> </p><p>“Nope!”</p><p> </p><p>A terrible sureness settled into Dylrath with a coldness that brought his feverish body to shivering again. “He’s the new god of undeath, isn’t he?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yup!”</p><p> </p><p>“But . . . you were supposed to keep him <em>out</em> of trouble!”</p><p> </p><p>“I did,” the Outgrabe insisted indignantly. “Halcyon never got near him.”</p><p> </p><p>“Who?”</p><p> </p><p>“And you would not believe the speed record we broke getting to the Defenders. Voooom. You should have heard the clang when we hit their tower. We were a hurricane.”</p><p> </p><p>“And . . . and . . . they . . . the Defenders . . . they let him go for the whole undead thing?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yup!”</p><p> </p><p>“And <em>Malachite</em> was ok with this?”</p><p> </p><p>“It was practically his idea. It was either Teliaz or a whole lot of choices they liked less. Most of them liked less. But Stone Bear won’t barehand Teliaz again anytime soon. Hah. Serves him right.”</p><p> </p><p>“Who? You took him to <em>our</em> Defenders, right?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yah, yah. And then Tao kicked him through a gate. Those Defenders, right?”</p><p> </p><p>That sounded about right. </p><p> </p><p>“We caught up with ‘em a few days later in Nacreous,” the Outgrabe added. “Oh, and here’s a tip I picked up you might want to add to your list: ‘Never Say “Bite Me,” to Evil Godlings,’ ok? Bad Idea. Even if you can make a horrific fireball. Fireballs aren’t necessarily fatal to god wanna-bes, ‘k?”</p><p> </p><p>“What?”</p><p> </p><p>“But it did make it a lot easier for Teliaz to finish the job, so if you bump into Nol while you’re planewalking, give him our thanks.”</p><p> </p><p>“Planewalking?” Dylrath squeaked, trying to get a grasp on what he thought he was hearing. “Where?”</p><p> </p><p>“No idea. Never heard him invoke anybody. No idea who’s got ‘im.”</p><p> </p><p>Dylrath didn’t know whether to believe the Outgrabe or not, or just what he was supposed to be believing. “If you had a head, I’d bang it upside down on the pavement.”</p><p> </p><p>“If you were a girl, I’d look up your skirts while you were doing it.”</p><p> </p><p>“You deserve to spend eternity as Teliaz’s footstool.”</p><p> </p><p>“I certainly hope so,” it crowed.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sialia, post: 1942620, member: 1025"] I am alone in the midst of a vast ocean, he thought. The Defenders are in the Underdark. My parents are in Gaunt. And I do not know if any of them are alive. I have no way to find out. Not even the Outgrabe knows where I am. The Outgrabe was still missing with Teliaz. It had been gone for weeks. “Never Loan Anything to Anyone With an Immortal’s Sense of Time,” he added to his list of Good Tips to Remember. He felt empty. Hungry, actually, he realized. Really, really hungry. And thirsty. He wondered how long he had been sitting here watching Kelsey die. He’d grown used to the queasy plague feeling, but now he felt queasy and hungry at the same time, as if not eating were going to make him sick-up. He dug through Kelsey’s ration box for some biscuits, but could not bring himself to eat them. What he wanted, he realized, was a steak. A good, rare steak, and a glass of red wine. Maybe a bottle. Off the top of his head, Dylrath knew a dozen or more good seafood restaurants right in Oursk, but none that really knew how to prepare a steak. Steak wasn’t something Oursk excelled in. If Htarlyd were here, he could have gone anywhere in the world to find just the right place. A really good, really pink all the way through steak. Not one of those tough, leathery, overcooked jobs, but one that was truly “bleu,” as they say, really almost still cold and purple at the middle. Juicy, dripping. If only Htarlyd were here to take him from this forsaken crypt of a ship, he would walk into the finest butcher in Sigil and demand a steak so rare it had hardly breathed its last breath yet . . . Dylrath realized, with a certain sense of elation, that he was being watched, and by a very familiar person. Himself. He lifted his head and peered hopefully around the room. Nothing? Surely, just for a moment there, he had felt the familiar tingle of being watched by the mirror of his own soul? But no, nothing there. And yet, still, that familiar tingle, that sense of being watched that was Dylrath’s gift. And the soul watching him was so very like his own . . . he was sure of it. Perhaps, if Htarlyd were watching him, then it had found it’s way back at last? Perhaps it would open if he called again. One more time. Right after he got something to eat--and drink--definitely something to drink--he’d have another go at it. Maybe at last he would be whole again, and free. And not alone anymore, not ever again. Yeah, that. Or maybe the standard plague hallucinations were arriving at last. And then, a coalescence of vapor--mist--no, smoke--a roiling cloud of pale gray smoke spilled in to the room, from the very center of the room. A dim glow appeared in the middle of the smoke, and then a ring of red-violet pin-points of light, staring like eyes. Eyes hovering below a pale disk, white as the moon. “Outgrabe?” Dylrath whispered hesitantly. It didn’t look exactly like the Outgrabe, but the soul looking at him from its glowing eyes was the spitting image of his own. “Is that you?” “Can you doubt it? The new look is [i]definitely[/i] me. Love it?” It spun around to show off its new splendor. No longer a wooden disk, the whole Outgrabe now seemed to be made out of bone. The wooden inlay of flames were gone, replaced by ivory inlay of . . . snakes? worms? “Intestines!” it announced cheerfully. “Cool, eh? I’ve been upgraded again. Look what I can do.” It practiced flaring and dimming its glowing eyes a few times, fading slowly in and out of visibility with varying amounts and shades of smoke. “I . . . see,” Dylrath managed. “A week. I loan you out for a week and . . .” “Hey, it’s not every Outgrabe gets a chance at ascending. I had to take the opportunity when it came up.” It paused to reflect on that thought. “Actually,” it qualified, “since I’m unique, every Outgrabe did, but that’s beside the point. I’m not your hobby anymore,” it added proudly. “I’m Divine Regalia now.” “You’re what?” said Dylrath. He blinked a few times, processing that. “You mean, Teliaz ascended--he did it? He actually did it? And you were with him when he went?” “Yup!” it said, with contagious enthusiasm. Dylrath’s elation flattened itself with a terrible sinking feeling. “He’s . . . not the new god of adventurers, is he?” “Nope!” A terrible sureness settled into Dylrath with a coldness that brought his feverish body to shivering again. “He’s the new god of undeath, isn’t he?” “Yup!” “But . . . you were supposed to keep him [i]out[/i] of trouble!” “I did,” the Outgrabe insisted indignantly. “Halcyon never got near him.” “Who?” “And you would not believe the speed record we broke getting to the Defenders. Voooom. You should have heard the clang when we hit their tower. We were a hurricane.” “And . . . and . . . they . . . the Defenders . . . they let him go for the whole undead thing?” “Yup!” “And [i]Malachite[/i] was ok with this?” “It was practically his idea. It was either Teliaz or a whole lot of choices they liked less. Most of them liked less. But Stone Bear won’t barehand Teliaz again anytime soon. Hah. Serves him right.” “Who? You took him to [i]our[/i] Defenders, right?” “Yah, yah. And then Tao kicked him through a gate. Those Defenders, right?” That sounded about right. “We caught up with ‘em a few days later in Nacreous,” the Outgrabe added. “Oh, and here’s a tip I picked up you might want to add to your list: ‘Never Say “Bite Me,” to Evil Godlings,’ ok? Bad Idea. Even if you can make a horrific fireball. Fireballs aren’t necessarily fatal to god wanna-bes, ‘k?” “What?” “But it did make it a lot easier for Teliaz to finish the job, so if you bump into Nol while you’re planewalking, give him our thanks.” “Planewalking?” Dylrath squeaked, trying to get a grasp on what he thought he was hearing. “Where?” “No idea. Never heard him invoke anybody. No idea who’s got ‘im.” Dylrath didn’t know whether to believe the Outgrabe or not, or just what he was supposed to be believing. “If you had a head, I’d bang it upside down on the pavement.” “If you were a girl, I’d look up your skirts while you were doing it.” “You deserve to spend eternity as Teliaz’s footstool.” “I certainly hope so,” it crowed. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
Defenders of Daybreak, The Early Years.
Top