Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paka" data-source="post: 940927" data-attributes="member: 100">Story Post #8Chapter II - As Yet UnnamedBoots, back from his Legate assigned morning errand, knocked on the stable door and Unaros ordered the Fell aside, letting the Goblin enter.“They will wait by the broken bridge, Master Legate.  I’m not sure but I think many will come to hear you.”Unaros nodded, “Excellent,” he turned to Karhoun, asleep on a hard wood floor covered with a few pieces of dirty straw, “Wake up, Karhoun, it is time to go.”Karhoun awoke in the stables and his hands shot to his leg, broken last night in a bad fall from a roof to the cobblestones of Whitecliff.  Unaros assured him, “I healed your leg last night and allowed you to sleep in..  It is time to work again, do the Shadow’s bidding.  The Shadow in the North does not reward the weak.”Karhoun wiped the sleep from his eyes and nodded, remembering Unaros’s healing, the cold touch of Izrador.  The Wildlander looked up at the Legate he served, despite his oath to take down the tower of Theros Obsidia, despite his hatred of the Shadow, he served competently and without complaint.“Unaros, I failed you.  I allowed the Elf to get away.  He killed Bolus.  I was patching up the Gnome for questioning and the Elf got up to the roof somehow.  I should have killed him and I hesitated…because of who his father is, I stayed my hand,” Karhoun explained.The Legate nodded, “I know.  Don’t do it again, Karhoun.  Izrador has no tolerance for failure, none at all.  Now rise, we have one more surprise to prepare for our Elven and Gnomish friends before we leave Whitecliff for your father’s lands.”The Northman said, “I think the staff warped his mind.  He was never this way before then.”Unaros shrugged, “It doesn’t matter.  There is no excuse.”Boots and Karhoun scouted ahead.  Karhoun found Vorden’s departing tracks and pointed them out to Olen, the mastiff inhabited by a sniffer-demon.“Olen, three people and the dried blood of a fourth dragged away.”Olin sniffed, “Elf and Gnome scent.  They’re heading to the docks, take the morning tide out, no doubt.”Karhoun looked grave, “Will we follow them?”“No, track ahead east, Wildlander, tell me what you find.  I have one more gift for our old friends.,” Unaros had a rare smile on his lips.Karhoun’s wilderness lore found traces of Goblin tracks.  He thought it was two, or three but after some looking it was impossible to count.  A horde of Goblins had come through near here recently, in such a large party that they didn’t care who found them or knew they were there.When they turned a corner, suddenly, waiting around the base of a broken bridge across a river were the Goblins.  There were hundreds of them, Karhoun through he counted seven hundred but he wasn’t entirely sure.  The most scarred, cruel and cunning waited by the lip of the broken bridge, to stand by the Shadow Legate while he addressed the horde.Unaros strode up, allowing his robes to billow, his red collar prominent on his throat, gleaming morning star on his hip.  He turned to the Goblins and their chatter stopped, no sound but the breeze.“An Elf has stolen from me.  Would you break fast on Elf this morning?”This question was met with a roar of approval that was silenced as Unaros raised his hands, the young Legate getting his first taste of his position’s power, “I will head east with my party.  The Goblin who brings me the Elf’s staff will not only get Izrador’s most sacred blessing but this,” and the Legate held up Kaza, the beaten and tied servant boy of Prince Vorden, the Night Prince.“The boy is yours to do with as you will if you bring me the staff.  Now go, go before the Gnomish ship leaves on the tide.  Make them fear your numbers and your power and the faith in the almighty Izrador!”The Goblins were already running, high on thoughts of dining on Elf and gaining a human slave to raise, abuse and stick in the stew pot.“Good luck, Night Princeling,” Unaros said, leaving Whitecliff east towards Port Esben.</blockquote>

Verification