Ice, Luck and Honour

[Spider_Jerusalem]

Part 4 of 4


Torious staggered back as more blows rained down from the banedead claws. His skin shredded and with very little healing power left, Torious uselessly waved Justicar in front of him. The banedead closed swiftly for the kill, and with a single claw swipe, scattered the useless sword from the priest’s hand.

Thalin shouted to warn Torious, but his words jammed in his throat as a bolt thudded into his shoulder, sprawling him sideways. Propping himself up, Thalin saw Lyle standing in the dimness behind him, his goggles glinting as he reloaded his crossbow. Without a moments thought, Thalin sprang forwards and covered the distance between them in a matter of seconds, crashing into Lyle before he could reload his weapon. Lyle shouted out as he landed, his crossbow spilling from his only hand. With a snarl of rage, he leapt at Thalin with his shortsword in his hand. Thalin countered with Shard, but the ferocity of Lyle’s attack drove him back.

- - - - - - - - - -

Milo pulled again, his small hands gripped around the hilt of the sword. Held to the wall by two unrelenting stone locks, the white-bladed sword didn’t move as the halfling pulled with all his strength. Looking back over his shoulder, Milo saw Torious sprawled backwards from the diving banedead and staggered into the unveiled chamber.
“Torious!” shouted Milo, pointing at the sword.

Torious fell heavily against the stone wall, blood running freely from wide gashes in his chainmail shirt. As Milo jumped away from the wall to hold the aasimar up, Torious saw the banedead begin to shy away, their dead skin peeling away as they got closer. Milo grabbed Torious’ hands and put them around the hilt of the locked sword.

The sudden flux of positive energy caused stars to pass before Torious' eyes. Looking down, his hands lay on the handle of a white sword. His strength somehow returned, Torious tested the locks once, then placing a foot firmly against the wall, ripped the sword from the stone locks in a cascade of granite shards.

With the sword in his hand, Torious turned and using the last of his power, healed himself, the deep cuts sealed up as if they were never created. Stepping slowly from the chamber, Torious walked determinedly towards the banedead, who shriveled away from the weapon Torious now held.

- - - - - - - - - -

“You will never defeat me mage, my steel is feared throughout the Dales”, growled Lyle as he whirled his blade around again, “Even with my one arm, you are but child’s play to my sword.”
“You have erred Lyle, this is not a sword fight.” said Thalin, Shard glancing aside Lyle's blade.
Lyle struck again, this time cutting a deep thread of blood into Thalin’s shoulder.
“Then what is this? Why are you not fighting back?” laughed Lyle as he thrust his sword at Thalin’s throat, only to hit thin air as the mage sidestepped.
“Why won’t you fight back?!?” screamed Lyle, his voice hoarse with rage.
“Because I’m concentrating.” Said Thalin as the last of his arcane words were whispered and his free sword hand completed the gestures needed.

- - - - - - - - - -

Lyle stared through his goggles for a moment as the mage stretched his hand out towards him, then, as if in a nightmare, the worthless spirits he saw so often turned their hollow eyes to him, and leapt forwards. With a shriek of absolute horror, the ghosts touched him. Their flaking dead skin clawed at his legs and stomach with sharp, black nails.

Wrenching himself away from the grasping hands, Lyle turned and ran. A terrorised scream ricocheted through the halls as Lyle saw more dead souls drift through the walls, fall from the ceiling and rise from the floor, giving chase as he sprinted back through the mines.

Thalin quickly grabbed his crossbow and paced after Lyle, intent on stopping the murderer escape a second time.

- - - - - - - - - -

Torious circled left as the banedead shrank away from the white blade, their red eyes not daring to look at the weapon.
“Now!” shouted Milo as he released a luminescent green orb from his hands.
The orb streaked towards the closest of the banedead and struck a split second before Torious landed the sword through the creatures withered skull. With a blast of white light, the banedead fractured open, its skin and bones crashing to lifeless dust as it hit the floor. Torious shook the white blade free of the black robes and turned to the remaining banedead.
“You’re next”, growled Torious, his eyes blazing with fury.

- - - - - - - - - -

Lyle skidded into the main chamber, only to look in horror as dwarven souls dropped from the web above, their wasted hands scraping through his hair as they fell. Lyle backed away as dead souls crowded the entrance, standing to halt his exit. One by one, the dead souls slowed then stopped, their dead eyes watching the man as he backed away further.

Thalin burst from the corridor to see Lyle backing away from something in the centre of the room. Without a word, Thalin raised his crossbow and fired. The bolt flew true, thudding heavily into Lyle’s chest and staggering him backwards. Not pausing to stop, Thalin dropped the crossbow and drew Shard.

Lyle stepped back, his sword clattering to the ground as blood trickled from the bolt lodged in his chest. A freezing pain arced through him as he tried to pull the bolt free, but his hands slipped again and again, his fingers slick with his own blood. Tripping backwards, Lyle felt nothing under his right foot as he stepped into the gap over the rock crusher. Balancing desperately, Lyle stretched his hand out to the watching mage as he teetered slowly backwards.
“Save me!” squealed Lyle, his face contorted in fear.

Lyle’s clutching fingers wavered within his reach, but Thalin stood still, his arms unmoving, his eyes cold.

With a last convulsion, Lyle tried to right himself but fell as he did so. Shrieking in terror, the giant fingers of the trapped golem closed around him and the grinder creaked into motion with the added weight. Thalin stood, forcing himself to watch as Lyle was dragged slowly through the teeth of the cogs. Thalin shivered as the dying man screamed in agony for the last time, and then a sickening crunch ended Lyle Blackrock’s life.

Thalin watched as the cogs run red, and then turned away. Remembering his companions, Thalin pushed past his tiredness and broke into a run. The mage darted into the darkness of the corridor, unable to see the dwarven spirits as they slowly moved forward to claim Lyle’s soul.

- - - - - - - - - -

Torious pulled the blade of Freedom’s Edge, for that is its name, from the collapsed robes of the second banedead. Dropping to his knees, Torious immediately thanked Tyr for the deliverance of such a weapon, his scars flaring with greater intensity than ever before.

- - - - - - - - - -

Thalin joined Torious and Milo and informed them of Lyle’s demise. The three heroes looked uneasily at the two dusted bodies as Dariel swooped silently into the room, having fled from the combat after the skeletons appeared. Not wanting to stay in the mines any longer, the heroes made to leave quickly, but not before Milo insisted on gathering the gems he left last time and searching the warden’s office. Taking no more time than necessary, Torious and Thalin packed their travel packs with gem bags, whilst discussing the reasons as to why banedead had been under the command of such a man as Lyle Blackrock. Milo, meanwhile, searched the office and grabbing anything he could detect as magical, stuffed it into his pockets (where Isplit began to sort through them). Thinking it better not to disturb the crushed body of Lyle, Milo caught up to his companions and guided them out of the mines, and into the dying daylight…


To be continued in…

Ice, Luck and Honour
Chapter 7: Trailblazing

The three heroes have no time to stop and rest as whilst they have been away, a maraudering force of red-robed knights have laid waste to the trading town of Darmshall and put it to the torch. Following the trail of fiery destruction, the heroes vow to put an end to the murderous plans of the man in red.

 

[Krellic]

If there's one thing worse than being eaten by a dragon, it's being beneath a dragon's contempt. Love the pocket submersible, it really has go a thousand uses, sorry thousand and one - it travels underwater...

Just when you don't want an old enemy to turn up - as if this place wasn't dangerous enough, being pursued through it is a lot of fun. If only by the readers and the RBDM!

Looking forward to the next episode.

 

[MavrickWeirdo]

Apparatus + Kwalish = Aqualish

Milo should be careful not to use that "miniaturised aqualish expands to full size, creaking in resistance for a split second before forcing open" trick to often, or the DM will plan for it.

Still, very creative play

 

[cthuluftaghn]

Goodness... you're a writing machine! Took me forever to get caught up, but I'm glad I did. Great work!

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

Milo should be careful not to use that "miniaturised aqualish expands to full size, creaking in resistance for a split second before forcing open" trick to often, or the DM will plan for it.

Well, to be honest, the remainder of the campaign is largely above ground - beyond this point I can remember Milo using the expanding trick about once or twice. Although he does take every opportunity to use the aqualish, of course. Almost every magic item you'd term as "odd" would go straight into the hands of Milo (I haven't told you what he picked up from the warden's office yet...). But all due to his players creativity - he really does keep me, as a DM, on my toes.

And yeah, Aqualish is the Apparatus, just meddled with a bit (and the market value dropped... otherwise it was insta-fortune). Milo loves it to pieces - second only to his Tap of Tymora (you'll see ) .

Goodness... you're a writing machine! Took me forever to get caught up, but I'm glad I did. Great work!

Thanks! It's good to hear you're up to speed - yeah, I guess chapter 6 was a bit big... but it really needed to be done in one go (Not sure why - it just felt wrong to break it up any further).

If there's one thing worse than being eaten by a dragon, it's being beneath a dragon's contempt

Yup. I really wasn't sure how to approach playing Klauth (though the session was superb, I remember Torious' player was 'on edge' the whole time) - it was hard getting into the frame of mind of a 700+hp Chaotic Evil Dragon who's seen everything, and burnt it down already.

Edit: Next up is the first Interlude of Ice, Luck and Honour. And hopefully you'll be pleased to learn that I'm intent on shortening the lengths of the following chapters. This should make them more bitesize to read, as I get the impression the length of the last postings (chapter 6) was a bit overwhelming.

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

Just as a quick introduction to this, these short interludes will be dispersed throughout the story, cropping up between the points where small story arcs join together, or one ends (Lyle's death) and another begins (the wonderful world of the man in red). But of course you already know what these are for, you being a Story Hour addict and all... So I'll shut up and let you read.

[Edit]Edited into past tense 18th September 2004[Edit]

Interlude number one: A Burnt Offering


The flames licked again and crawled like white snakes over the smooth stone of the mage tower. The brickwork above the first and second floor windows was black and dead, fire caressing sluggishly over the magic hardened walls.

Peeling away from the boiling spell book, a single white page snapped free as a billow of hot air tore past. Spiraling upwards, the paper banked and curled as the flames below sped its ascent. With a desperate twist, the page buffeted against the searing stone of the second story window then flapped forwards and escaped into the broiling dusk air. But too late, as a thunderous blast from inside the tower exploded outwards, collapsing the stone walls like a falling house of cards. With a blaze of light, the rising fireball consumed the page.

The magic of the mage tower died suddenly and with a rasping tear, the support beams fell, toppling the tower sideways to the stone street below. Dust, smoke and fire blossomed outwards. The cinders of the fire danced and weaved slowly upwards, curling a constellation of embers together as they blended with the flames from the surrounding houses.

A bead of sweat began to roll then stopped against the inside of the visor. Reaching his hand up, Robar pressed his gauntlet against the helm to soak the sweat into the leather padding, but the droplet stayed put, and with a grunt of annoyance, he pulled his helmet off. Roughly handing the red emblazoned helm to his squire, Robar peeled a sweat sodden gauntlet from his hand, and ran his hand through his short, dark hair. Robar let his arms fall to his sides as he watched in fascination at the slow drift and ebb of the shimmering embers that now fell like a fatal, glowing snow

The approach of a horse turned Robar’s attention from the flames. As the messenger knight came to a stop and saluted quickly, Robar wheeled his mighty red stallion, it's black hooves thumping against the ground in aggravation at being moved.

“Ser Robar. Noristour fled but The Bear made sure he did not travel far.” Informed the older knight, his dark red helmet slighty muffling his words.
“And so, where is he now?” asked Robar as he waved a dying ember away from his face.
“Ser. I… I left him to hunt for more survivors.” Said the knight, nervous as Robar sneered before he has even answered.
“You fool. Go and order The Bear to return to the body of Noristour and burn it.” Said Robar, his eyes glinting in the ember-strewn light. “His soul must feed the forge of Kossuth.”

The knight went to reply, but a scream of anguish pierced the heavy air as a half drow, wreathed in flames, bursts from the doors of a smoldering building and wavered for a moment before charging wildly up the hill toward the knights. With a sickening gargle, the half drow shouted something as he saw Robar.

“Defend me!” called Robar as he fumbled to unlatch his lance.
The half drow staggered again but stayed upright, his burning hands grasping at Robar as he stumbled closer.
“DEFEND ME!” Robar shouted, his voice wavering.

The messenger guided his horse quickly between Robar and the half drow. With a swift kick, the half drow collapsed to the floor and continued to burn as the soft black silks of his clothes exploded into a flurry of flames. The knight dismounted and drew his sword.
“No! Let him burn,” growled Robar as he regained control of his mount and slowly circled back towards the squirming half drow.
“But Ser. The man is burning! You can’t let…”
“Yes. I can,” said Robar flatly, his eyes fixed on the crackling body of the half drow.
“Ser” replied the knight stiffly, sheathing his longsword and nodding in acceptance of the orders.

The messenger mounted then quickly turned away from Robar, keen to leave the presence of the man who so many had fallen before, their souls burnt in deliverance to his fiery god. Halting at the base of the hill, the messenger glanced back and watched the red robed knight gazing at the final agonizing minutes of the smoldering figure. A drift of falling embers swirled lazily around Robar as he watched the life of the half drow crackle and boil away. Finally Robar stared up to the blazing sky above Darmshall, hoping that Kossuth would accept this burnt offering.

 

[Black Bard]

Wonderful story so far!!

I wonder what Kossuth-fanatics are up to in the Cold Lands...maybe they want to warm ir up a little??

But,what about Freedom's Edge??And Vampire???I am curious about these swords!!

 

[Malachai_rose]

wow

just started reading your story hour and I gotta tell you I am impressed the three story arcs is a really cool idea and lends itself to a epic feel that I really like. Also love the Tyrite heh, I play a cleric of Tyr in my fr game and its cool to see another players take on what it means to be a follower of the God of justice. Well great story, hope you keep it going

 

[Femerus the Gnecro]

WOW!

I decided to go ahead and read this... only fair since you're I think the sole reader of my story hour (insert shameless plug here). I didn't expect to find a story so absolutely excellent. The death of Lyle was fantastic... I had to keep from going 'Whoo hoo!' at work.

Out of curiosity, what level are these characters roughly? With the spells being all changed up (love the manifestations, btw) I'm having a hard time figuring out how powerful they really are.

Can't wait until the next update! This story hour has officially been added to my 'check for updates every day' list.

Cheers,

Femerus

 

[Spider_Jerusalem]

Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Okay then, since a few questions are being asked, it's time for a quick recap.

At this moment in time (as the heroes exit the mines - they levelled up at the end of chapter 6) are (If I remember correctly):

Torious: [Aasimar 1] Cleric 1, Fighter 1
Thalin: Wizard 3
Milo: Rogue 2, Sorcerer 1

When it came to spells like Scare (which cause the manifestations), I thought it needed some sort of reason for causing such fear... so i thought making spirits appear might justify the horror produced(plus it worked superbly on Lyle with his goggles).


Magic Item clarifications:

Freedom's Edge is a Longsword +2 which is a Bane bane (strange sounding I know). Its a powerful item, but Torious was prophecised to find it.

Vampire is a Shortsword +1 which has a modified Vampiric Touch spell cast upon it. Every time it hits, it injects the wielder with blood which heals 1d6 hps. However, because of its power, the weapon does have some rather nasty side effects... which will be revealed as the story unfolds.

Erifeci has charges (unknown number) which can be used to cast the following (all cast at the current characters level):
Fire - Burning Hands
Ice - Freezing Grip (Shocking Grasp but cold damage)
Eci - Resist Elements [Cold]
Erif - Resist Elements [Fire]

The Aqualish is the Apparatus of Kwalish. Additions are that it can be shrunk with the use of the glove, and has two wooden pincers on the front of the vehicle.

Sliverspike (the dagger holding the walls apart) is a +2 dagger that is utterly indestructible.

...There are a bunch of magic items coming up soon (some of which Milo picked up in the wardens office) and their stats will be posted as they appear. Also, if there is anything at all that I've missed just shout and I'll dig up the stats for ya...

I play a cleric of Tyr in my fr game and its cool to see another players take on what it means to be a follower of the God of justice

The story arc of Torious in itself is pretty epic - I have a feeling you'll like what is in store for him.

Thats all for now. Next update coming soon!