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 LIVE! 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
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
ENW Short Story Smackdown Summer 07 (Winner Announced)
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="FreeXenon" data-source="post: 3677070" data-attributes="member: 6228"><p><strong>Ascension</strong></p><p></p><p>ENW Short Story Smackdown Summer '07</p><p>Round 1, Match 3 -- FickleGM vs FreeXenon</p><p></p><p>This is going to be painful. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite3" alt=":(" title="Frown :(" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":(" /> Good Luck FickleGM! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /> </p><p></p><p><span style="color: DarkOrange"><strong>Ascension</strong></span></p><p>[sblock]<em>'And the answer was right in front of me the whole time.'</em> Anton thinks to himself as he looks at the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30080" target="_blank">mural</a> in the lobby of his uncle's office building. '<em>How could I have been so blind. He is so arrogant.</em>' as he continues his internal monologue. '<em>I am, now, not surprised that he has not removed this archaic art as most everyone else has - vying instead for holographic banners and art.</em>'</p><p></p><p>The mural depicted the villagers of our great, great, great, great grandparent's hometown to meet the priest who came as <em>'angels'</em> descended from the sky to supposedly consecrate the horrible burning of his great, great, great, great grandparents alive for crimes against the church which included witchcraft and heresy. That's what the history books say. Just below the mural were supposedly the last condemning words of the priest "By the flame of the righteous, I consecrate thee."</p><p></p><p>Our family history paints a slightly different image. The local priest desired Anton's great, great, great, great grandmother, Dorus', recipe for her spiced kelp balls and she would not acquiesce a treasured family secret. Her rebuffing naturally earned the priest's ire and then he condemned the pair to death for it. An annoying part of their family history, but that year marked the beginning of their family's success and rise to riches. Shortly after Anton's great, great, great, great grandparents' immolation the spiced kelp balls started to sell like wild-fire and the money started to rolling in. The family has been rolling-in-the-spiced-green ever since.</p><p></p><p>This building has been in Anton's family for a little over 2000 years and has had quite the history of violence, war, and disaster but yet it still remains standing in one form or another. Part of the building has been burned down to the ground in a freak candle fire. It has been bombarded by cannon fire during a civil war. It has been the home of human and halfling sacrificing religious sect that killed their members in a group pixie juice suicide. The family has kept this as their seat of power in spite of the many problems that it has had. Someone in the family has always owned it either personally or by a business that they controlled.</p><p></p><p>Anton is abruptly brought out of his thoughts as his shoulder is not so gently shoved forward. Behind him looms the <em><a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30079" target="_blank">chimpanzee brothers</a></em> who look like two very tall, strong, dark haired, West Virginia, back-hill, inbred hillbillies with large ears, slightly protruding forehead, large mouth, and wild eyes that scream '<em>I am my own Grandpa.</em>'. If you know what I mean? The not so bright and not so occasionally drooling half-ogre brothers that are errand boys for my uncle have bent sent to bring to Anton at his whim. His uncle is comforted in knowing that he receives a tax break for their full time employment.</p><p></p><p>The brothers shoved Anton from his thoughts about the mural and into the magic suppressing elevator a few feet away . Once they were inside the simian brothers looked at him and then at each other, furled their brows, and then grunted in unison. Brother number 1's big hands mashed the controls for the elevator and they started to ascend to the top floor. Brother number 2 snapped out his stun baton and played with it menacingly behind Anton. He could hear the its quiet hum as well as the smell the ozone in its wake. He felt very naked without the charge pistol that they confiscated from him during his impressment.</p><p></p><p>Anton tapped his left arm a few times trying readjust the servos back into place. His cybernetic arm has been recently damage in a '<em>misunderstanding</em>' and he need to have it adjusted. The arm suffers from occasional spasms or ticks that have caused him to break a few peoples noses. It is the strangest thing. The random ion pulses discharging has not helped his case either.</p><p></p><p>Anton's uncle is the current patriarch of the Seven Swords family and all of its estates. It is hard not to admire and loathe his rich and successful uncle. He has never met the man and as far as he has heard no one can remember seeing or meeting him either. As it is often said the rich are often eccentric, especially with our family. It is hard to argue when their leadership is so profitable.</p><p></p><p>The Elven Clan of the Seven Swords was very keen to keep their bloodline pure and looked unkindly upon the genetic stain that Anton was. The family was above having Anton killed or neglected outright as he is literally the red headed half-elven step child of this family. It is difficult to find a place in the various businesses that his family owns or is involved in so he am usually moved from place to place and business to business as problems occur due to his bastard origin.</p><p></p><p>As the elevator came to a stop and doors opened Anton looked quickly back trying to hide a smirk as he remembered that he broke brother number one's arm as he left an elevator once. Brother number one squinted his eyes, grunted, and shoved the half-elf from the elevator and into the foyer.</p><p></p><p>The foyer room's walls and ceiling was composed of a dark and shiny blue marble. It was an immaculately clean room that contained a small stand with the <a href="http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30082" target="_blank">Xcentar 2000 Bionetic Verifier</a> and <strong>the</strong> door. The X2BV appears more like a 4-person game controller because the manufacturer's original chassis was destroyed in a freak fire storm at their factory and they conveniently found a rather strange and convenient replacement in the game controller that the owner's son used for his virtual science simulations.</p><p></p><p>The X2BV is made for high capacity bionetic security points identifying 4 people at a time via a hemoscan, thermoscan, as well as a electro-resonant brain scan. The three of them approached the device and grabbed a hold of the handle and spoke out their names. Following the slight prick into their palms and the line of light that passed over their bodies quickly the light on the top of Anton's handle lit up green and the other two lit up red.</p><p></p><p>The chimpanzee brothers scowled and walked their seemingly simian gait back to the elevator, mashed the buttons, and then disappeared as the doors closed and the elevator descended. As they left Anton began to feel really anxious and alone. He had never met the head of the family and he really had no weapons with himself. '<em>You never can be too careful.</em>' He had no idea what to expect, but assumed that it had something to do with his snooping around their family's history and private archives, as well as asking meaningless questions about a long lost past. '<em>Perhaps, my moment of reckoning had come.</em>' he thought to himself as he tried to suppress a smile.</p><p></p><p>Once the the elevator had left this floor the light above the door that led to where the patriarch lay turned green. He could hear the heavy '<em>chunk[/]' of presumably metal locks opening. The double doors quietly slid open little bit so that a dim light could be seen emanating from with in. Quiet sounds of microfans and, most likely, the glow of computer monitors seeped from the room beyond. Anton stood their and tried to slow his breathing and to keep his pulse from racing as this could be the moment when all is righted.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Anton walked slowly forward while nervously running his left hand through his hair. He used his right hand to open the doors and look into the room to try to assess the situation. Whether he should run or whether he should get ready for <strong>the</strong> showdown.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The half-elf walked slowly into the darkened room and he looked at the sole occupant in the room a woman not too much older than him - 24. She had long brown hair with delicate pale skin. Her eyes were wide, confident, and full of concern and fear as she sat in a bed with the covers pulled up to her bent knees. Anton was shocked. '<em>This is no patriarch. But everything made sense in light of it.</em>'</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The window was open behind her and the curtains were laying still with no breeze coming in. There was not a lot of light here as it was night time and the only light that was available was from the picture of the family crest on the wall screen behind him. His keen partially-elven eyes allowed him to see well enough and he stared at her. She stared at him as did her black cat who sat quietly at the foot of the bed and indifferently looked at him and then looked away at something obviously more interesting. The darkly wooded bed was contrasted by the statue of three scowling bulldogs' heads with wide eyes that was made out of a light marble at the foot of the bed.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>It was an all together surreal moment and it is nothing like he would have imagined. He expected to find a man here, his <em>uncle</em> who bore the family secret, but instead, he found the family secret. He imagined an epic battle to the death with thunder, lightening, storms of acid and hell-wrent flames. But there is only this. This moment looking at each other. Rather anticlimactic after a few years of searching for the truth, and for the right of ascension.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Anton cleared his throat and began to speak in an ancient tongue that has long been forgotten. "<span style="color: yellowgreen">In the name of the fathers of Auld I command you, Dorus Seven Swords, heir to the patriarchy and secrets of the Seven Swords of the Fathers, and to the fabled recipe of the Spicey Kelp Balls to abdicate you throne at the head of Family.</span>"</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>At that moment a great wind blew the curtains opened and it started to rain. Thunder and lightening ripped across the sky as the flash wrent the magics in the room. The cat bore the antlers of a hell-bound servant and the three dog-headed statue at the foot of the betrayed something more insidious - a Beyhound with swirling red enthralling eyes that beckon you to doze and relax. Its greenish skinned tentacles and toothy maw lashed out from under the bed and poised to strike.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>'<span style="color: yellowgreen">This was more like it.</span>" he thought as he readied the appropriate spell and incantation to take his place as the head of the family. The Beyhound's eyes called his attention and assaulted his will. The hellbound cat glowered at me with a vicious and uncaring indifference while its horns pulsed and throbbed with electricity that lanced out toward Anton seeking his flesh.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The electricity arched to him and found itself drained by latent protective magical field that emanated from his cybernetic arm. Anton smiled and pulled out a black sapphire the size of a human fist and presented it as he continued "<span style="color: yellowgreen">In the name of the Elders and the heirs of the Seven Swords I command you to relinquish.</span>" The Beyhounds tentacles lashed out to him but he was not there, at least not physically there to extradimensional creatures as they were.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The wind howled and blew hard and lightening struck not too far away outside. The woman smiled and said "<span style="color: yellowgreen">Thank you, my love. I am ready.</span>" The black sapphire flashed and the room was empty of all creatures save himself. He could still smell the aroma of her perfume on the now still air. His heart sank.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The room was quiet and the tousled bed was wet from rain coming in from the open window. He could still see the impression on the bed from where the woman sat. He whispered to himself "<span style="color: yellowgreen">By the flame of the righteous, I consecrate thee.</span>" He sighed in sadness and a longing that no one else could ever understand, but this is necessary for the family line to continue appropriately. The surface of the Black Sapphire was warm to the touch and seemed to flare at small moments like flame was trying to free itself from within.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The mural at the entrance to the building fade slowly away and all that remained the phrase '<em>By the flame of the righteous, I consecrate thee.</em>' below was a clean blank wall. [/sblock]</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FreeXenon, post: 3677070, member: 6228"] [b]Ascension[/b] ENW Short Story Smackdown Summer '07 Round 1, Match 3 -- FickleGM vs FreeXenon This is going to be painful. :( Good Luck FickleGM! ;) [COLOR=DarkOrange][B]Ascension[/B][/COLOR] [sblock][i]'And the answer was right in front of me the whole time.'[/i] Anton thinks to himself as he looks at the [url=http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30080]mural[/url] in the lobby of his uncle's office building. '[i]How could I have been so blind. He is so arrogant.[/i]' as he continues his internal monologue. '[i]I am, now, not surprised that he has not removed this archaic art as most everyone else has - vying instead for holographic banners and art.[/i]' The mural depicted the villagers of our great, great, great, great grandparent's hometown to meet the priest who came as [i]'angels'[/i] descended from the sky to supposedly consecrate the horrible burning of his great, great, great, great grandparents alive for crimes against the church which included witchcraft and heresy. That's what the history books say. Just below the mural were supposedly the last condemning words of the priest "By the flame of the righteous, I consecrate thee." Our family history paints a slightly different image. The local priest desired Anton's great, great, great, great grandmother, Dorus', recipe for her spiced kelp balls and she would not acquiesce a treasured family secret. Her rebuffing naturally earned the priest's ire and then he condemned the pair to death for it. An annoying part of their family history, but that year marked the beginning of their family's success and rise to riches. Shortly after Anton's great, great, great, great grandparents' immolation the spiced kelp balls started to sell like wild-fire and the money started to rolling in. The family has been rolling-in-the-spiced-green ever since. This building has been in Anton's family for a little over 2000 years and has had quite the history of violence, war, and disaster but yet it still remains standing in one form or another. Part of the building has been burned down to the ground in a freak candle fire. It has been bombarded by cannon fire during a civil war. It has been the home of human and halfling sacrificing religious sect that killed their members in a group pixie juice suicide. The family has kept this as their seat of power in spite of the many problems that it has had. Someone in the family has always owned it either personally or by a business that they controlled. Anton is abruptly brought out of his thoughts as his shoulder is not so gently shoved forward. Behind him looms the [i][url=http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30079]chimpanzee brothers[/url][/i] who look like two very tall, strong, dark haired, West Virginia, back-hill, inbred hillbillies with large ears, slightly protruding forehead, large mouth, and wild eyes that scream '[i]I am my own Grandpa.[/i]'. If you know what I mean? The not so bright and not so occasionally drooling half-ogre brothers that are errand boys for my uncle have bent sent to bring to Anton at his whim. His uncle is comforted in knowing that he receives a tax break for their full time employment. The brothers shoved Anton from his thoughts about the mural and into the magic suppressing elevator a few feet away . Once they were inside the simian brothers looked at him and then at each other, furled their brows, and then grunted in unison. Brother number 1's big hands mashed the controls for the elevator and they started to ascend to the top floor. Brother number 2 snapped out his stun baton and played with it menacingly behind Anton. He could hear the its quiet hum as well as the smell the ozone in its wake. He felt very naked without the charge pistol that they confiscated from him during his impressment. Anton tapped his left arm a few times trying readjust the servos back into place. His cybernetic arm has been recently damage in a '[i]misunderstanding[/i]' and he need to have it adjusted. The arm suffers from occasional spasms or ticks that have caused him to break a few peoples noses. It is the strangest thing. The random ion pulses discharging has not helped his case either. Anton's uncle is the current patriarch of the Seven Swords family and all of its estates. It is hard not to admire and loathe his rich and successful uncle. He has never met the man and as far as he has heard no one can remember seeing or meeting him either. As it is often said the rich are often eccentric, especially with our family. It is hard to argue when their leadership is so profitable. The Elven Clan of the Seven Swords was very keen to keep their bloodline pure and looked unkindly upon the genetic stain that Anton was. The family was above having Anton killed or neglected outright as he is literally the red headed half-elven step child of this family. It is difficult to find a place in the various businesses that his family owns or is involved in so he am usually moved from place to place and business to business as problems occur due to his bastard origin. As the elevator came to a stop and doors opened Anton looked quickly back trying to hide a smirk as he remembered that he broke brother number one's arm as he left an elevator once. Brother number one squinted his eyes, grunted, and shoved the half-elf from the elevator and into the foyer. The foyer room's walls and ceiling was composed of a dark and shiny blue marble. It was an immaculately clean room that contained a small stand with the [url=http://www.enworld.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=30082]Xcentar 2000 Bionetic Verifier[/url] and [b]the[/b] door. The X2BV appears more like a 4-person game controller because the manufacturer's original chassis was destroyed in a freak fire storm at their factory and they conveniently found a rather strange and convenient replacement in the game controller that the owner's son used for his virtual science simulations. The X2BV is made for high capacity bionetic security points identifying 4 people at a time via a hemoscan, thermoscan, as well as a electro-resonant brain scan. The three of them approached the device and grabbed a hold of the handle and spoke out their names. Following the slight prick into their palms and the line of light that passed over their bodies quickly the light on the top of Anton's handle lit up green and the other two lit up red. The chimpanzee brothers scowled and walked their seemingly simian gait back to the elevator, mashed the buttons, and then disappeared as the doors closed and the elevator descended. As they left Anton began to feel really anxious and alone. He had never met the head of the family and he really had no weapons with himself. '[i]You never can be too careful.[/i]' He had no idea what to expect, but assumed that it had something to do with his snooping around their family's history and private archives, as well as asking meaningless questions about a long lost past. '[i]Perhaps, my moment of reckoning had come.[/i]' he thought to himself as he tried to suppress a smile. Once the the elevator had left this floor the light above the door that led to where the patriarch lay turned green. He could hear the heavy '[i]chunk[/]' of presumably metal locks opening. The double doors quietly slid open little bit so that a dim light could be seen emanating from with in. Quiet sounds of microfans and, most likely, the glow of computer monitors seeped from the room beyond. Anton stood their and tried to slow his breathing and to keep his pulse from racing as this could be the moment when all is righted. Anton walked slowly forward while nervously running his left hand through his hair. He used his right hand to open the doors and look into the room to try to assess the situation. Whether he should run or whether he should get ready for [b]the[/b] showdown. The half-elf walked slowly into the darkened room and he looked at the sole occupant in the room a woman not too much older than him - 24. She had long brown hair with delicate pale skin. Her eyes were wide, confident, and full of concern and fear as she sat in a bed with the covers pulled up to her bent knees. Anton was shocked. '[i]This is no patriarch. But everything made sense in light of it.[/i]' The window was open behind her and the curtains were laying still with no breeze coming in. There was not a lot of light here as it was night time and the only light that was available was from the picture of the family crest on the wall screen behind him. His keen partially-elven eyes allowed him to see well enough and he stared at her. She stared at him as did her black cat who sat quietly at the foot of the bed and indifferently looked at him and then looked away at something obviously more interesting. The darkly wooded bed was contrasted by the statue of three scowling bulldogs' heads with wide eyes that was made out of a light marble at the foot of the bed. It was an all together surreal moment and it is nothing like he would have imagined. He expected to find a man here, his [i]uncle[/i] who bore the family secret, but instead, he found the family secret. He imagined an epic battle to the death with thunder, lightening, storms of acid and hell-wrent flames. But there is only this. This moment looking at each other. Rather anticlimactic after a few years of searching for the truth, and for the right of ascension. Anton cleared his throat and began to speak in an ancient tongue that has long been forgotten. "[color=yellowgreen]In the name of the fathers of Auld I command you, Dorus Seven Swords, heir to the patriarchy and secrets of the Seven Swords of the Fathers, and to the fabled recipe of the Spicey Kelp Balls to abdicate you throne at the head of Family.[/color]" At that moment a great wind blew the curtains opened and it started to rain. Thunder and lightening ripped across the sky as the flash wrent the magics in the room. The cat bore the antlers of a hell-bound servant and the three dog-headed statue at the foot of the betrayed something more insidious - a Beyhound with swirling red enthralling eyes that beckon you to doze and relax. Its greenish skinned tentacles and toothy maw lashed out from under the bed and poised to strike. '[color=yellowgreen]This was more like it.[/color]" he thought as he readied the appropriate spell and incantation to take his place as the head of the family. The Beyhound's eyes called his attention and assaulted his will. The hellbound cat glowered at me with a vicious and uncaring indifference while its horns pulsed and throbbed with electricity that lanced out toward Anton seeking his flesh. The electricity arched to him and found itself drained by latent protective magical field that emanated from his cybernetic arm. Anton smiled and pulled out a black sapphire the size of a human fist and presented it as he continued "[color=yellowgreen]In the name of the Elders and the heirs of the Seven Swords I command you to relinquish.[/color]" The Beyhounds tentacles lashed out to him but he was not there, at least not physically there to extradimensional creatures as they were. The wind howled and blew hard and lightening struck not too far away outside. The woman smiled and said "[color=yellowgreen]Thank you, my love. I am ready.[/color]" The black sapphire flashed and the room was empty of all creatures save himself. He could still smell the aroma of her perfume on the now still air. His heart sank. The room was quiet and the tousled bed was wet from rain coming in from the open window. He could still see the impression on the bed from where the woman sat. He whispered to himself "[color=yellowgreen]By the flame of the righteous, I consecrate thee.[/color]" He sighed in sadness and a longing that no one else could ever understand, but this is necessary for the family line to continue appropriately. The surface of the Black Sapphire was warm to the touch and seemed to flare at small moments like flame was trying to free itself from within. The mural at the entrance to the building fade slowly away and all that remained the phrase '[i]By the flame of the righteous, I consecrate thee.[/i]' below was a clean blank wall. [/sblock][/i] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
ENW Short Story Smackdown Summer 07 (Winner Announced)
Top