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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Spider_Jerusalem" data-source="post: 239880" data-attributes="member: 5507">Ice, Luck and HonourChapter 3: Doom’s DoomEarly Winter, Realms Date 1372…“Careful stranger, you should watch where you step.” Spits the man, the scar-side of his face twitching as he talks. Thalin quickly apologises and the man grimaces before turning back to the bar. Thalin catches his breath as he sees a quiver of black-feathered bolts at the mans side...Torious notices his companion’s nervous stance and following his gaze, finds Thalin staring at a thin man in black. The figure walks from the bar to a small table on the furthest wall from the doorway, sits down and slides a drink to another man dressed in dim red chainmail. The man looks up and says something but despite Torious’ enhanced hearing he can’t pick out the words over the general din of the tavern. The man in black says something back then nods over at Thalin, who quickly grabs his drink and makes his way over to Torious and Milo. Thalin places the mug on the table and explains to Milo and Torious about the man and his black-feathered bolts. The three adventurers decide that here is not the best place to confront the man, and he might even lead them directly to King Doom if what Thalin believes is true. Without further ado, the three companions make a swift exit up to their separate rooms, vowing to get up at first light to gather food and tents for their travels into the mountains. - - - - - - - - - -The man in black watches the halfling, the ice mage and the Tyr priest walk upstairs. He snarls and says something to the man in red, who laughs loudly. A few minutes later they both get up to leave, and with a nod to the barkeep push through the door and into the night air of Darmshall.- - - - - - - - - -The chains stretch taut in the morning light and a grey clad half-drow shouts a number of words in undercommon, hearing these, a second half-drow snarls a curse back before pulling tighter on the magical shackles that hold the hulking form of a minotaur. The dim hum of the market is shattered by the bellowing roar of the minotaur as it is herded towards a wooden enclosure at the other end of the huge trading square. Children skip and hop around the enraged minotaur, laughing as it strains to break free from the drow chains.- - - - - - - - - -Thalin and Torious look up from their breakfasts as a half dressed Milo blurs past them and into the street, heading as fast as he can towards the minotaur. The tavern occupants watch the halfling dash out then return to their business. Thalin and Torious finish their meals before heading into the market town. As the two travellers leave, a short, squat man with a small velvet cape jumps from a stool and heads after the two men.- - - - - - - - - -The minotaur roars again, but this time in defeat as it is finally manoeuvred into the holding pen. The half-drow grin triumphantly and edge into the pen to secure the chains to the sides, the minotaur strains to get at its captors but the magic of the chains holds it still. Milo pushes for a view but can’t get past a large woman who is boasting about eating minotaur flesh. Feeling sorry for the shackled beast, Milo gives up trying to push through and instead settles for the woman’s purse.Milo pushes back through the crowd, spying at once his two companions who have sat themselves on the lip of a dried up fountain. Milo presents himself with a flourish and scrambles onto the fountain. The three travellers continue to watch, then Thalin, not wanting to get distracted by the minotaur, jumps down to go and collect rations and tents for the travel into the mountains. He disappears into the crowd. Milo turns to Torious and shows him the woman’s purse and is about to say where he got it when a sharp voice floats down to them from above.“Can I interest you in items of wonderful magic power?” the small, squat man from the tavern sits cross-legged on the pinnacle of the fountain, his sharp little eyes registering every movement of the two adventurers. Torious looks up in quiet judgement but Milo stands quickly, eyes ablaze with curiosity.“What sort of items?” shouts Milo eagerly.“All sorts of course. I am Mikka Tressak, and from Halruaa to Waterdeep I find things you need,” the small man grins at Milo with wickedly pointed teeth “… things you just can’t do without.”Milo is entranced and hurries forwards as the small man nimbly jumps down and beckons Milo forwards.Torious turns his attentions away from Milo and the little man, finding instead his eyes wandering across the crowd and picking out the man in red chainmail, who now wears a dark red cloak. The man pushes through the crowd, angrily shoving anyone aside who offers resistance.- - - - - - - - - - Milo looks at the wares that Mikka lays before him, wonders of many different kinds arrayed before him, just begging to be investigated. Mikka cycles quickly through his portable shop, praising the best points of each item and giving a brief history. Milo only listens to the stories behind the strangest looking ones. A elaborate dagger that leaks blood when held, a set of silver boots that cannot be moved once a special word is shouted, a intricate mechanical spider that burns gems to make light, a glowing red ring with the power to throw fire… the list went on and on but soon Milo was overloaded with things he wanted. Milo sadly explains he hadn’t enough money even for the smallest of the items; a thin headband that Mikka says could control ants. Mikka shakes his head and mutters a curse under his breath. Milo apologises for wasting his time but thanks the trader anyways, promising he would find him when he had enough money for something.Mikka stands slowly, brushing dust from the back of his pants and rolling his items up into a small bundle that was surely too small to accommodate such a range of things. With a sigh, Milo turns his attention back to the minotaur. Mikka, seeing nobody is watching, takes a few careful steps towards the distracted Torious. Milo suddenly remembers the heavy dwarven gem and shouts to Mikka to come back, only to turn and see Mikka silently digging through Torious’ travel bag. With a yelp he jumps to his feet.“Thief!”- - - - - - - - - -Thalin walks out of the general store with all the items necessary for the trip and tries to spy his companions in the crowd, only to see them chasing an ugly little man across the fountain and into the crowd. Thalin shoulders the skin of equipment and hurries to try and catch up with Milo and Torious.- - - - - - - - - - Swivelling to see Mikka digging through his bag, Torious gives a yell and hefts himself onto the fountain, drawing his longsword, Justicar. The crowd turn suddenly as Torious flares his birth scars, sending a swash of white light across the trading square. Mikka screams and taking a running jump, leaps over the heads of nearest crowd members, his little form disappearing entirely from sight as the crowd swallow him.Milo grabs his crossbow from the ground, and thinking of the fun to be had with a chase, takes three steps before launching himself as far as he can into the crowd. Torious bellows a challenge from the heavens and dropping off of the fountain edge, runs into the crowd, shouting for them to get out of the way.- - - - - - - - - -Mikka pushes through the last of the crowd and presses himself against the pen of the minotaur. Milo jumps through moments later, only to find Mikka already climbing up the pen side, looking for another place to jump from. With a roar, Torious bursts from the crowd and sliding his longsword into the thief’s leg, barrels Mikka through the pen side fence. The two men slide to a halt directly under the monstrous form of the shackled minotaur. Milo shouts a warning to Torious as the minotaur raises a cloven hoof to crush the two men lying under him.- - - - - - - - - -Thalin, having lost Milo and Torious in the crowd had returned to the fountain and watched the chase from a better viewpoint. With the help of Dariel, who circled only meters above the thief, Thalin had watched as Torious broke through the pen fence. Without a thought, his hands blur into action and familiar words spill forth. Two icy shards streak from Thalin’s cloak and, despite the distance to the minotaur, unerringly strike the minotaur in the chest. The minotaur reels back, letting Torious and Mikka scramble to the side of the pen. With a sinking feeling, Thalin watches the icy blast from his spell seep across the minotaur’s chest and onto the shackles around its waist.- - - - - - - - - -Torious stands shakily to his feet and whirls to face Mikka.“You have been judged by Tyr! You cannot…”“Run you fool!” shouts Mikka as he clutches his leg. The minotaur swings with a heavy clawed fist but swipes only air as Mikka knocks Torious to the ground.Torious lands heavily but rolls to the side as the minotaur’s other fist crunches into the ground where he had been. Mikka jumps to his feet and grabbing Torious’ arm, limps towards the gate. The minotaur roars and charges at the retreating men, for a moment the chains hold the beast but the central shackles snaps like twigs as the minotaur thrusts forwards again. Sprinting through the gates, Torious and Mikka run into the dispersing crowd as the minotaur thunders to its freedom.- - - - - - - - - -As Thalin draws his crossbow and levels a bolt at the creature, a group of town guards sprint round the corner and drop into a two-tier crossbow formation. The minotaur bellows loudly and charges into the crowd, hurling an unfortunate woman high into the air. The beast roars again as the woman lands with a thud, but is cut short as a hail of crossbow bolts from the combined efforts of Thalin, Milo and the town guards whistle into the beast. Torious grips Mikka with his gauntleted hand, not letting the thief go despite his best efforts. The minotaur bellows and Torious quickly decides to release Mikka in order to defend the townsfolk. With a cheeky “See you later”, Mikka limps quickly down a side alley and disappears. Without further delay, Torious sprints to his left as he sees the minotaur wheeling around towards the guards. With a grim look on his face, Torious sparks a line with Justicar on the paving stones and stares at the hulking minotaur as it scrapes its hooves and readies a charge.The crowd scatters in all directions. The minotaur stands for a moment before another bolt thuds into its side, spurning it forwards. Shrugging off the bolts lodged in his hide, the minotaur turns and charges at Torious and the guards behind him. Despite bolts slamming into the charging monster, its hulking form builds momentum and lowers its head to skewer Torious on its mighty horns.With a deft dodge backwards, Torious evades the plunging horns and choosing his spot, drives Justicar into the back of the minotaur’s skull, killing it instantly. With a thunderous crash, the minotaur slides to the ground in a plume of dust. Torious places a boot on the head of the body and pulls free his longsword.The screams of the crowd die down as the guards run to casualties and reassure people they are safe. Torious picks himself up and looks for the thief, but he is nowhere to be seen. Thalin and Milo dash over to Torious to make sure he is okay. Thalin looks wearily around as the guards begin to question people about the cause of the disturbance.“Perhaps we should leave now.” Thalin says, nodding in the direction of the guards. Seeing no reason to be caught up, Thalin, Milo and Torious leave town quickly and head for the southern end of the Talagbar mountains.- - - - - - - - - -After three hours of climbing up through the cold, rocky terrain the three adventurers stop to take a break and discuss what to do once they find King Doom, as they talk, Thalin unwraps Erifeci and begins to look it over in detail. Not really sure who King Doom is and what he commands, the adventurers go on what little information they have and build a rudimentary plan to attack the lair as quietly as possible and escape with the ring, hopefully staying no longer than necessary. They agree to meet back at this spot if they are separated.Thalin cracks the staff on the ground in frustration. The staff is undetailed other than the markings of “Erifeci” on the shaft and the two ends being slightly bumped and sculpted. Thalin passes the staff to Milo for inspection. Torious cleans his armour and sword as the two talk.“Well, Erifeci means nothing on its own, is it a password or something?” says Milo, looking keenly at the staff.“I’m not sure, but the ends of the staff are different shapes. This one is a crystal and the other is a sort of a flame.” Answers back Thalin, showing the ends to Milo.Milo muses this for a moment then holding the staff in both hands, shouts“Erifeci!”No effect. But Thalin narrows his eyes and takes the staff back,“Erif…” he lets the word trail off and suddenly the staff hums to life, the flame end throbs with an intense red light and the staff grows slightly lighter. Thalin and Milo explode into conversation and decide to see what the end now does. With a smooth swing, Thalin drives the red end of the staff into the ground. With a thick whine the red light disappears and for a moment nothing happens then suddenly the mountain grass around where the staff struck glistens red, each individual blade of grass coated in a fine layer of red light. Other than the light, nothing else happens. Crouching gingerly, Milo feels a slight chill as he touches the grass, but nothing else.Thalin nods in encouragement as he hands the staff to Milo. Both now knowing the next word, they watch the crystal end in keen interest,“Eci.”As they expected, the crystal end hums into life with a sparkling blue energy. Torious looks up and walks over to mage and halfling. He stands beside Thalin.“It looks like an icicle.” Mentions Torious, now wanting to add his thoughts.Milo stares for a moment then shouts, “That’s it! Erifeci is Ice Fire backwards! There must be four code words. Torious, you’re a genius!” Torious looks confused for a moment, then accepts the halfling’s praise.With a twirl of the staff, Milo screams “Fire!” and drives the flame end into the ground. Nothing. No effect.“Wait. Discharge the Eci first, it might not be able to do everything at once.” Says Thalin hurriedly.Milo touches the staff to the ground, making sure not to touch any of the red grass. With a similar dull whine the grass is coated with a white sheen, in a small area the two grass circles overlap and the grass is layered with both colours. Not wanting to wait any further, Milo shouts “Fire!” and strikes the staff into the ground. With a whoosh the fire end is surrounded with a nimbus of red energy then a violent crackle as the staff’s power arches into the ground. Flames course over the ground, burning the mountain grass as it spirals to fill a meter wide circle. At the edge of the flames, the red circle overlaps ever so slightly and the flames are held at bay by the red light. But the heroes don’t have time to notice this slight effect as a crude arrow clatters into the pot resting over the campfire, zipping only inches from Milo’s head. A shrieking curse from the top of a nearby outcrop reveals the lone goblin scout to the three adventurers. With another shriek of panic, seeing the arrow missed, the goblin jumps backwards off the outcrop and out of view.Milo’s crossbow bolt splinters on the empty outcrop, moments too late to catch the fleeing scout. Winding back a second shot, Milo hauls his pack onto his shoulders and leaps after the goblin, followed quickly by Torious then Thalin. - - - - - - - - - -As the adventurers give chase to the goblin, a shadowy figure detaches from the nearby woods and slinks over the outcrop, pausing momentarily to wind a black-feathered bolt into sleek crossbow before disappearing over the rocky bluff.- - - - - - - - - -The goblin skids through the last of the tree line and shouts something before dashing towards the huge scar in the cliff face where a curl of smoke rises from a smouldering fire. A number of goblins look up as the scout dashes towards them and quickly grab wicked looking shortswords as he motions behind him.King Doom hears the ruckus outside of his lair, and putting his leather boots on, adjusts the metal ring on his finger and struts through a small exit and into the light outside. The barks of “intruders” and “attack” fill Doom’s ears and raising a little staff with a dead bat nailed to the top, he squeals an order to his Doomguard; a select group of slightly larger goblins in the corner. A few resist but King Doom suddenly levels his ringed finger at them and they cower to the floor, crawling to evade the pointed wrath of the goblin king. They quickly sling on their patchy platemail armour, and hefting bastard swords onto their shoulders, march into the sunlight.- - - - - - - - - -Torious reaches the clearing first, being slightly faster than Milo.“You have been judged for death goblins! Tyr will claim you now!” shouts Torious as he charges into the clearing, heading for the eight platemailed goblins who march regimentally out of the lair. Seeing King Doom behind the guards, Torious pulls to a halt and issues a challenge. Not understanding the armoured man in front of them, the Doomguard quickly circle round the pious cleric and without hesitation launch an attack from all sides. Torious disappears under a blur of armoured greenskins, his screams of judgement drowned out by the clash of steel on steel.Milo and Thalin dash from the shadows of the trees and stop to survey the scene before them. Milo wields his crossbow and seeing the strutting figure of King Doom beyond the milieu surrounding Torious, sprints forwards and placing a boot on the back of one of the Doomguard, leaps fully over the circle of goblins and lands only meters from King Doom. King Doom shakily points his ringed finger at the acrobatic halfling and opens his mouth to say something, but is cut short as Milo smoothly brings his crossbow up and levels a bolt at the goblins chest. “Sorry.” says Milo sincerely as the trigger clicks, loosing a bolt into the King, piercing his heart instantly.King Doom stands stunned for a moment, staring at the sombre halfling before dropping to his knees and folding onto the floor in a crumpled heap.Thalin twirls Shard into his familiar Ulutiun style before advancing towards the throng of goblins. Raising his arms to strike a poised goblin, a sudden searing pain strikes through his right arm as a black-feathered bolt slices neatly into the mages flesh, halting the sword strike mid air. Thalin gasps in agony and falls sideways, clutching his damaged arm and dropping Shard as he sees the scarred man from the tavern step from the trees behind him. The man sneers and quickly cocks another bolt, ready to loose it straight at the defenceless mage… To be continued in…Ice, Luck and Honour Chapter 4: The Eight Blades of Talagbar Returning to Darmshall, the heroes are determined to travel westwards but Milo must return to the frozen depths of the Talagbar mines. As villains pursue them and foes mount against them, will the heroes make it through the mines all in one piece?</blockquote>

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