seasong's Light Against The Dark (FEB 06)

[seasong]

The Broken Temple

Merideth woke first, a look of sheer excitement on her face. For the first few moments, she couldn't even speak... it was more of a delighted squeal, as the sunlight faded into the predawn night.

"IT'S A QUEST! FROM ALLAS! A QUEST! ATHAN! GREPPA! WAKE UP! A QUEST! I HAD A DREAM!"

The two boys woke up quickly, but harshly, and neither was particularly happy to be up. The sun had not risen. The crows were not crowing. But Merideth was up, and audible throughout the entire third floor of the tower.

Greppa initially denied having had the dream. And privately, he was a bit put out by it - he was intent on searching the mountains for Hurath, "just to be sure". But Athan admitted it easily (if without excitement), and Merideth was convinced that her path to heroism lay before her.

So they discussed the dream. Merideth was convinced that the river canyon connecting the southernmost Theralese valley to the rest was the first stanza; Greppa remained unconvinced (and suggested that some of the orc-dominated mountains might have a river that was "more asleep than resting"), but agreed that it would not take much time to check. Greppa also remained firm that the "scurry, crawl and cowl" referred to the orcs who were "once defeated" by the dragon... but again, gave way to Merideth's desire to check the southern canyon river first.

Athan just hefted his spears, checked their points, and waited for the two mage types to work out the details.

They left, Merideth humming the song gently to herself, Greppa and Athan moderately caught up in the excitement of doing something that adventurers do... and above, the sun shone bright and clear on their path.

 

[seasong]

The Broken Temple

To three 17-18 year olds, recently out of Service and orc enslavement, the walk downriver was actively fun. It took a few days, at their easy pace, to get to the canyon, and they took a few swims, raced a few miles, stopped at a few farms and spent Hurath's coin on goat's cheese and wine, and laughed and swapped stories with the locals.

It was the best few days they'd had in a long, long time.

They reached the canyon by evening, and decided to camp until dawn before hiking along its narrow paths. Dawn came quickly, and, full of energy, the trio began marching along the riverside, occasionally swimming when the steep cliff sides plunged too directly into the water, at other times clambering along trails put there by some thoughtful warden. The river was normally traversed only by boat, but no one wanted to buy a boat they wouldn't keep after.

By noon, roughly a third of the way through the canyon, they came to Glass Trout, an extremely deep, tiny lake where the river slowed to an invisible crawl. The cliffs here plunged directly into the water, and disappeared into shadow deep beneath the surface, and Athan, Merideth and Greppa gave themselves a thrill considering what monsters might lurk in those depths.

Merideth quietly quoted part of the song...

"Halfway down, a third back up,
There is a tree, a ball, a cup,"

"Halfway down, a third up, isn't that the same as a third down?"

Some quick figuring, and the boys agreed with her, so she continued, "Well, we're a third down the canyon river, and it seems like it's sleeping... so maybe we should take a good look here?"

So they racked brains and eyes, swimming slowly about in the chilly water and looking at the cliff-like sides of the lake.

"I don't think any trees..." Athan trailed off.

Greppa wasn't looking for trees, however. He was looking for anything that looked like a tree. And he spotted a crack in the cliff wall that might, if you screwed up your eyes and imagined very hard, vaguely resemble a tree with very few branches and a slight case of rot.

He swam toward it, and Merideth, when she saw where he was headed, noticed something else... "Hey, Greppa, look at the top of the crack. That's not a solid cliff!"

Indeed it was not. Instead, there was a short cliff wall, and then, well behind it, and blending almost perfectly, was the remainder of the cliff.

The crack itself turned out to be barely wide enough for a tall child... Merideth could almost fit, if she crawled, and Athan wouldn't have fit if the gods themselves decreed that he must.

Greppa groused, but finally crept through, making his way somewhat noisely through the crumbly crevice. As he neared the top, natural caution overtook, and he remained as hidden as he peeked out of the other side.

On the other side, in a small natural micro-valley, was the twisted tree, and the wooden sphere chained to a boulder. They were considerably larger than in the dream, and the wooden ball seemed as wide as Greppa was tall.

He quickly scrambled back through to tell the others, and they discussed getting Athan through. Ultimately, they decided to head back to civilization, to get rope.

 

[Indigo Veil]

Hey, all. My name's Christina, and this is my first post to EN World. (Yay.) Aside from being an EN World newbie, I'm also one of Seasong's players in his "New Avengers" campaign. Hi. *waves*

Seasong asked me to read this little story hour, and--though I played no part in its creation, and contribute nothing to its evolution--I'm really glad he asked me to. Thomas, I gobbled up your story hour in two sittings (somewhat impressive, as I've the attention span of a gnat), and I continue to check back regularly to nibble at your tasty narrative morsels throughout the day when work gets boring. ^_^ S'good stuff--fills my brain right up, and makes me feel all warm 'n fuzzy inside. Mmm, yummy: war, death and dying. Nuthin' else like 'em. =^.^=

I have a few comments, though. I agree with incognito; we need to hear more about Captain Agina. Give Captain Agina more lines! *shakes a raised fist rather impotently at the Heavens in a weak threat* But perhaps I've a slightly biased opinion--she's one of those unattainable mentor types, after all, and I seem to have an incorrigible fondness for frighteningly competent women. *laugh* Along the same lines, I'd like to see more of Olgah, the Orcish shaman. She was so delightfully portrayed in that little vignette...

Anyway, I guess I'm writing to offer you gentle nudges toward frequent updates. ^_^ Oh, and also to poke slight fun at Hank, or snownoir. Just so everyone knows, his sig file is slightly inaccurate:

Thomas Weigel: "Pick a number
between one and ten."

Players: "Wahhh! I don't want to! "

Replace the word "players" with "Hank," and it'll be a little more on target. He's the *only* one who agonizes over rolls like that. *laugh* The rest of us don't whine about it nearly as much.

 

[Occam's Nail File]

Bring on da Snark! (not Snarf)

Well, since Chris posted, I can't be shown up. I'm Lindsey, another of the New Avengers bunch. I haven't read the -entire- story hour yet, but once again I must question Thomas's self assessments. This is the guy who for years told me he doesn't write fiction because it is "bad" when he does so. Perhaps that isn't classical fiction, but it makes a nice yarn.

Then again, that's what this Story Hour is about innit? Nice yarns.

I think I'll finish there now that Chris made me forget what I was gonna say for the third time.

 

[seasong]

Good to hear from the both of you .

Christina: We'll hear from Olgah again, for sure. Captain Agina, we'll see about - it depends on how effectively Athan, Greppa and Merideth are at dodging her. But Olgah will occasionally be getting her own vignette.

Lindsey: Story Hour doesn't have to have a beginning, middle and end. It doesn't need a point. And honestly, it doesn't have to meet the standards of fiction. I write it extemperaneously, with only occasional editting for factual errors or glaring bad writing, and the most forward planning I do is to see if I can find stopping points that are cliff hangers (don't always succeed, of course).

Completely off thread: the "New Avengers" campaign is a superhero soap opera, where, in addition to destroying Threats to Mankind on an annual basis, our overpowered heroes must contend with:

* bad mother-daughter relationships
* unrequited romances
* being a widower
* reading bedtime stories to the Hulk
* being seen by the public as the "team's Barbie Doll"
* this burning question: is the good looking son of Colossus gay?
* just to name a few

It's a fun romp through tangled relationships and about one "campaign" per 4 sessions (we've done Invasion Of The Pod People, Orpheus Into Hell, and Mutant Hating Robots thus far). I really would have liked to do a Story Hour about it, but when I sat down at computer, all of the tangled relationships got hopelessly muddled. Maybe our next campaign .

 

[seasong]

I editted the last update, and replaced the text-image with a sketch of the cliff side. It took me about 15 minutes to whip up in Corel PhotoPaint, using nothing fancy.

Anyway, I've gotta go catch the bus to work, so I'll see y'all later!

 

[seasong]

The Broken Temple

It took the trio the rest of the day to hike back upriver to buy a rope, so they waited until morning to hike downriver. Despite some nervousness on Merideth's part, the crack was still present when they arrived at noon.

Greppa skinnied through the crevice once more, then climbed up to the top of the miniwall. Not sure how to tie a proper knot, he wrapped it around a projection, looped it through itself a few times, then lay down on top of the rope and held on to be sure.

Once in the little dip in the cliff wall, they looked at the scene.

The tree was as twisted up and tortured looking as the dream had promised, and seemed mostly (if not wholly) dead. About thirty feet away, a 5' diameter wooden sphere with a slick, textured surface was chained to a rocky outcropping. The chain was thick iron, and deeply pitted with rust.

There was no cup, and the would-be heroes pondered the situation, brows furrowed.

Greppa, on a hunch, finally walked over to the tree and climbed up on the lower roots. Sure enough, the coiling shape of the trunk created a nearly hemispherical hollow, that looked like it might fit the ball. He grinned and repeated his find to the other two.

Athan grinned back, "So all we've got to do is rip that ball off the boulder?"

Merideth and Greppa both nodded solemnly. Any excuse to see Athan flex, after all. Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a show. Athan heaved, grunted and heaved again, but didn't manage to break the chain or pull it free. Merideth and Greppa helped, and it still wouldn't pull free.

Having tested the limits of their ability to pull it by normal means, Greppa decided this was a fine time to field-test earth's strength, and he cast it on Athan. Athan's tan deepened into an earthy brown, and his eyes changed to resemble yellow agates. He let out a brief sigh of pleasure as he felt the strength in his limbs increase, and then he hauled on the ball one more time.

Nothing.

Finally, he had built up enough frustration, and with a primal yell, raged against the chain, jerking this way and that, calling upon his deeper reserves...

It broke in two like thin twine.

Athan, still breathing hard and wild-eyed, heaved the ball up on his shoulders, clambered up the roots, and dumped the ball in the cup. For good measure, Greppa beside him knocked three times.

Neither noticed when the iron chain fell off the ball at the knocks.

What they did notice was the transformation the tree was undergoing, and they scrambled off as quickly as they could. The tree pushed itself outward and upward, uncoiling like a bullwhip in slow motion. The roots fattened, swayed, and plunged deeper into the earth, and the ground shook with their force. The trunk also fattened, and the tree swiftly straightened into a wide, ancient oak.

When it was done, two of the roots nearest shore and formed an archway, revealing a darkly shadowed cave beneath the tree... and the crack that Greppa had squeezed through behind them had split open into a tiny lake inlet.

Merideth peered into the depths of the cave, her hand shading her eyes, and then looked at the mostly-used torches they'd kept from the tower... "We're going to need more torches."

 

[incognito]

Merideth peered into the depths of the cave, her hand shading her eyes, and then looked at the mostly-used torches they'd kept from the tower... "We're going to need more torches."

This is becoming our heroes mantra, right? Perhaps after a few more darkness mishaps, they can call themselves "Heroes of the Torch" or something similar.

Some good updates seasong - especially the ecomony, which I typically over look, just to keeps things sufficently fantasy-esque. Although, when I destroy the world on thier asses, they are going to have some fun with water and rations...heh.

I love the fact that players from you other games are posting in this thread! And I agree with the two of them, that if you'd stop whining about how tough it is to write good fiction, and agaonizing over word count, etc, etc, you could easily put out some good works of fiction.

I know, I am a former editor IRL

Lesse...I don'y have to much in the way of questions, except to wonder how you worked the STR check for the ball and chain scene: was a minimum STR needed, rather than a STR check?

 

[seasong]

This is becoming our heroes mantra, right? Perhaps after a few more darkness mishaps, they can call themselves "Heroes of the Torch" or something similar.

Heh heh. Especially since they just hiked back to town to get rope. I don't think Merideth would stand for anything less than "Light Against The Dark" or "Heroes of the Flame" or something equally heroic sounding.

Some good updates seasong - especially the ecomony, which I typically over look, just to keeps things sufficently fantasy-esque.

The three big culture builders for me: money, mythology, and might. I eat this stuff up.

I love the fact that players from you other games are posting in this thread! And I agree with the two of them, that if you'd stop whining about how tough it is to write good fiction, and agaonizing over word count, etc, etc, you could easily put out some good works of fiction.

Bah! No one understands my pain!

Seriously, Story Hour is different for me. I'm still working out the reasons why, but I think part of it is (a) the actual plotting is semi-extemperaneous, and the writing is just interpretation, and (b) I can 'see' my audience.

Lesse...I don'y have to much in the way of questions, except to wonder how you worked the STR check for the ball and chain scene: was a minimum STR needed, rather than a STR check?

Pretty standard: the extra-thick chain needed a 26 on the roll, Athan +3, bonus from help +2, total is not enough even on a 20 (and they kept rolling 5 or less); the bonus from rage ability +2, bonus from earth's strength +2, and Athan finally rolled a 20, for a total of 29.

Since there are no rules for how to add STR to others that I could find, I just added up the light encumbrance numbers, which shifted Athan's STR from 16 to 20, and used the new bonus.

 

[Caliber]

Very cool seasong!

And thanks for the new picture, cause to be honest, the other was damn near meaingless to me. Maybe I'm just blind though.

Light Against the Darkness huh? Nifty!