Struggle and Strife- A scarred lands storyhour

[Lars Frehse]

The bat and the dream- part 5 of 5

"Then I should waste no time", the Baron said, and afte he excused himself for a moment, he went off to call together all his knights and guards.

Before Niklas could show his surprise about the Baron's reaction, Torn said:" He knows now that he is not in Durrover anymore.

"We asked him to remember his last winter and many other things, and eventually it turned out that he didn't even remember the last night, either. Looks like this place is locked in an eternal noon. Yet, the people never really actively think or wonder about it. They have just proceeded living and working for all those years without noticing the strangeness of it all. Looks like the magic of the place never made them realize it. Or maybe their rigid minds didn't allow them to notice that what can not be according to their views...

"Now, if he does the convincing, his soldiers should accept his world view simply if he tells them to. It really turns out to our advantage that all those Corean worshippers are so obedient to their superiors.".

Before either Niklas or Jan could comment on this, they noticed a commotion, and soon all twelve man at arms were lining up in the courtyard. Those twelve were the complete local military force, and even though mercenaries had doubled their number at the time of the attack, it was again clear why they never had a chance against the assault of the Dragoons. All in all, their had been more dragoons than villagers back then, and most of the soldiers probably don't even remember the place anymore. It had been just one more point on the map to conquer, pillage and loot during an insignificant campaign twelve years ago...

Now after Torn rammed a stick into the packed earth of the courtyard, which was casting merely a short shadow in the noon's sun, the Baron started speaking to his men. At the beginning, he ordered them to keep an eye on the stick and it's shadow, and to memorize the position of the shadow.

And then he explained to the soldiers what he had been told himself, and again, he listed all those inexplicable peculiarities to his men. They listened to his explanations, while the stick's shadow didn't move an inch, and as they started to understand, small details of the castle started to disappear. Colorful windows were gone, a family sword strapped to their sides and many other items that had only remained as long as someone had believed in them.

Again, their discipline proved to be immensly valuable. They heard the world-shattering news, and even when the Baron explained to them that they were dead, each of the twelve men and women kept their rigid positions. Their training was stronger than even the worst shock.

When the Baron was finished, and after he had ordered his soldiers to be at ease, they started to talk excitedly to each other. Then Jan raised his hand, and the sunlight that was reflected in the polished steel of his gauntlet caught their attention again.

"There is good news, however", the Paladin said. "All those who are still in this realm are followers of Corean, since the curse of the fiendish priest of Chardun was only directed at them. That means that once we have lead you away from this realm of trickery and illusion, you will be able to reap the rewards of your lives lived honorably on the side of Corean himself!".

Now, the insecurity and shock was substitued by general joy and excitement. As the prospect of paradise lifted the spirits of the men and women, Jan's friends were once again reminded just how easy it was for him to make people trust him.

They left the castle behind, after the soldiers had reminded each other that there was no need to take anything with them, since nothing was real after all. Then, suddenly, the path disappeared right in front of the small troop, and another vortex appeared. This time, it was several feet in diameter, and there were several bolts of chaotic energy shooting out of it.

Frantically, they ran away from the growing vortex, struggling as the land and the very matter of reality was pulled from under them like a rug. Consequently, they hardly got ahead, and for a short moment, reality around them turned into a nightmare in which everyone was running at full speed but not moving ahead an inch, and then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the vortex was gone, leaving another large circular patch of grey gooey material behind.

Now, with the immediate danger gone, they all ran down the hill to the village. There, they spread out, gathering each and every villager in the villagesquare which was dominated by a large, ancient oaktree.
Fortunately, no further vortexes appeared at that time, and after a while all onehundredfifty souls, men, women and children were looking at them, wondering why they had been summoned like that. There was a murmur over the crowd, since no one was able to remember how long it had been since they had been gathered together like this the last time.

When the Baron greeted them loudly, there was a short murmur of approval, and then the crowd fell silen. Like he had told the soldiers before, he now adressed the villagers and with a lot of determination and patience, he explained to them what had happened. Like Jan's moral authority had ultimately convinced the Baron, and the Baron's authority in turn had enabled him to convince the soldiers, the truth was now dawning on the villagers as well. Trusting their lord came easily to them, and it was as natural to them as breathing.

Again, things were disappearing, like they had done on the courtyard, as more and more of the villagers were convinced of the truth and let go of what they had considered the truth just hours ago. But then, there was an uproar, as the smith stepped ahead. He was agitated, and he was pointing a meaty indexfinger at the friends:" Don't listen to them!

"They had tried to fool me and my wife before, and I don't know how they had convinced the Baron, but whatever they are trying to achieve, it can only be foul!"

"But father", Jan said, his hands outstretched:"Don't you remember how you came to us in the castle, that fatal night before the Dragoons attacked? You had tried to cheer us up as you handed us over to Ben and Trepat, and you gave me this".

Jan pulled out the amulet which he had worn as a charm ever since that day, and now his father looked stunned. Then, his mother stepped ahead, the two kids at her side, and after she had looked at the amulet, she looked up into her adopted son's eyes. Nobody spoke a word, and then, she let go of the children and stepped up to embrace Jan and Niklas while tears were running down his cheeks.

The children, left behind, faded away and disappeared and then the smith stepped ahead as well, embraced his true children, and apologized over and over while tears were running down into his beard as well and his voice was choked down with sobs.

Now, that the illusion of the village and it's fields was no longer mantained, everything around them disappeared and they standing in what seemed to be an endless grey plain under a grey sky. After a short exchange, all of the heroes concentrated like they had done when the ducks had appeared, only that this time they all concentrated on one thing: A gate to the realm of Corean.

They all had their eyes closed, and soon they heard the villagers around them praying to Corean, faintly they heard the roaring of a chaos vortex, but soon the roar was substitued by angelic music. They opened their eyes, and there, in the middle of the grey nothing, there was a gilden gate through which a light was streaming, and it was bright enough that they were forced avert their eyes.

Looking up, they noticed that the villagers seemed to have no problems looking directly into the light, and since all their faces were enflamed by ecstatic joy, they even seemed to be seeing wonderful things as they walked through it.

The Paleks were the last to go. Shortly before the gate, they turned around once again, and thanked Ben and Trepat for having taken care of them in the time of danger. Then, they hugged their children one last time, and finally turned around. After leaving through the gate, it closed and then disappeared.

Now, the five friends were left behind in the grey nothing, which was rapidly falling apart around them. The villager's presence had given the dreamsphere the stability to float slowly towards the dream core, but now it was falling straight towards it, becoming one with the stuff that all dreams were made of.

Vortexes appeared everywhere, and every dreamer concentrated on waking up. First, Niklas and Ben jerked out of sleep in the communal sleeping room that they had rented. They felt like they had been asleep for an eternity, and there was the innkeeper and a Tanil priest in the room as well.

"At last you were awake!", the innkeeper said:"You still owe us money for all the days..:"

Niklas brushed her aside as he ran for a pitcher of water while Ben jumped on top of Jan and started slapping the Paladin. As the innkeeper rambled on, Jan, Trepat and Torn were shook in their sleep, moaning with pain, and a bleeding slash appeared on the halforc's cheek. In this chaos, they succeeded in waking up all their friends but Torn. Meanwhile, curious patrons were standing in the doorway, and as more spectators arrived, those who had arrived early were pushed into the room.

Eventually, though, Torn woke up too, and Ben cured his wounds. They talked to the patrons and found out that they had been asleep for over a week. So they payed the excited innkeeper their dues and then, finally realizing that they were hungry like they hadn't eaten in a week, which they hadn't, they settled down to several courses of dinner.

Still, they tired early, and as each of them went to bed, both Niklas and Jan looked to their doorways, unaware that they were both thinking the same: Never again would they dream of their father bursting through the door of their sleeping quarters, knowing that he was indeed in a better place now.

 

[Lars Frehse]

Again it is time for a little spoiler warning.

The next updates will be about "The Serpent and the Scepter" by Sword and Sorcery, continuing the Serpent Amphora Cycle. So:


- - - S P O I L E R - - -

 

[Lars Frehse]

Southwards- part 1

Kelemis Durn was looking better than he had a month earlier, after his resurrections. Still, every time he smiled it looked as if it would take him a lot of effore to do so and there was the faint hint of his muscles turning to fat.

After weeks of waiting, in which Torn had become a full fledged member of the scaled ones and memorized a list of contact people in most major cities of Ghelspad, they were finally informed that the Vigilantes had succeeded in unveiling the secrets of the tome, and so they were once again summoned into the sunroom in the Hall of Command.

He told them that their worst fear had been confirmed: With the proper rituals, the servants of the Witch Queen could indeed access and use the power contained in the Amphora. He paused, and once he was certain that they all understood the terrible implications, he continued:" Unfortunately, the book doesn't tell us how to destroy the damned thing. The only thing it does is mentioning a ritual powerful enough to destroy a god-created artifact."

"This means that the priesthood of Chardun might hold this secret, and by far the nearest man who might have the answer we require is Archfiend Fiarun at Castle Durn in Lageni. That means you would have to take a long journey through hostile territory but given the threat that the Serpent Amphora poses as long as it exists, it has to be done.".

"Of course we would be honored to work for you again", Niklas said, "but why do you trust us with this mission?".

"Isn't that obvious?", the commander of the Vigilantes answered:" Unfortuntely I have to be wary even of my own men and women. You, however, have repeatedly been in the position to gain posession of the Amphora. Yet, you never once did that, but instead brought it here and later even risked your own life protecting it, and even saving my life. You are the only ones who have proven to me that you are absolutely trustworthy."

They talked a little longer. Kelemis didn't know how they should approach the archfiend- but surely he would remember that all divine people should remain united against the titans and help them, no matter what other differences they had, wouldn't he? And yes, he knew that they came from the country that had been raped by Lageni over and over again, and if he could think of better people to send, he would do so, but they were the ones he would trust with such a mission.

On the next morning, the five friends were back on their horses and horserat, riding southwest through Vesh towards Denev's Aquifer. Days went by as they rode past fields and orchards, and every night they arrived at some village where they could stay in an inn. Here, far away from the scars and taint of the Titanswar, they could almost forget about the bad state their world was in.

One afternoon, as they reached a small village in the heartlands which looked just like any other they had passed through on their journey, a bearded, suntanned farmer stepped into their way. There was a kid next to him, who seemed to be the farmer's son. He was wringing his widebrimmed hat in his hands, obviously uncomfortable to approach what he considered a knight and his retinue:" Good sir knight, I am sorry that I stop you like this, but there is something I have to ask you.".

Jan nodded and getured for the farmer to continue, who gestured towards Swift Jane and then burst out:" Are those animals dangerous? And is this one tame? What are they?"

Seeing that it was about his mount, Ben leaned forward in his saddle, resting his body on the pommel and said:" This is called horserat, and, yes, even though this one is tame, they are indeed fierce creatures, so you should better not mess with it.".

"Thank you", the farmer answered:" You see, eight days ago, we found the terribly mutilated body of an old, lonely farmer in his field. It looked like giant creatures had torn parts out of his body. We were worried whether a werewolf or another spawn of Belsameth had killed him, since even though we have a small shrine in her honor here in our village, we have hardly made any sacrifices for her. So, we killed a lamb in her name and burnt precious incense, and since nothing bad has happened again, we felt safe again.

"However, last evening my son here told me that he had seen creatures just like the one here. At first we didn't believe him, thinking he must have imagined it, but now that I see them with my own eyes, I am afraid that those "horserats" as you call them might strike again. Could you plese help us? The nearest soldiers are days from here.".

"Give us a second to discuss this, please", Trepat said, and they went back to the shade of the tree, and as some villagers, who had been fed the details by the farmer watched them, they huddled together.

"Do you think what I am thinking?", he said, once he was certain that no one was listening to him.

Niklas and Torn nodded while Ben began brushing Swift Jane's fur. Jan said:" Yes, those people are lucky that there are no werewolves here but merely horserats!"

Torn shook his head:" I don't think that that is what Trepat meant. And apart from that, for farmers like those people here, it doesn't make that much of a difference: Whether they are attacked by werewolves or horserat, the effect is the same: they get killed.

"Anyway, when we brought the Serpent Amphora to Lave last year, we were attacked by Slitheren here in the heartlands. Then we found their horserats and after Ben had chosen one for himself- Swift Jane over there, he had released the others. I would bet that those are the same horserats that killed the farmer.".

Ben nodded:" I had thought that once they are set free they would stay away from humans... Unless they have children to feed and defend of course!".

"Alright then", Niklas said, "let's go to the farm then and see if we can take care of the mess we created!"

 

[Nightfall]

Figures they should have killed the rest. But oh well.

 

[Talix]

Nice tie-in with previous events!

Still enjoying your story.

 

[Lars Frehse]

Glad to hear it!

Incidentally, I have updated my storyhour in the download section: http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/news...wdownload&cid=4


It now includes all chapters up to the end of the Serpent in the Fold. The whole text is slightly over 170 pages and in Rich Text Format.

And now, back to the scheduled update!

 

[Lars Frehse]

Southwards- part 2

The farm itself was a small wooden house that needed a new coat of paint which was dwarved by a giant barn which was easily four stories high and as big as any mansion in Mithril. They arrived there on Septimo's cart, and he told them that the farmer who had been killed had lived there alone, since his father had only died last year and since he had been busy, he had had no time to find a wife and start a family himself.

"At least", Septimo said with his booming voice, his initial shyness gone, as they approached the buildings on a small road that cut through wheat fields left and right:" this means that he left no widow or orphans behind."

"Could you stop, please?", Trepat asked, and after the farmer had pulled the reins, he jumped down. There, in the cracked mud of a dried out irrigation ditch, he saw several paw-prints. He thrust his hand into the mud, and seeing that it was still wet under the dried out surface, he concluded that the paw prints were most likely not older than a few hours.

He told his friends, who all jumped down from the cart as well, and now Ben sniffed the air. He was wearing the wolf-skull that they had taken from the Cultists. It maginified his sense of smell manyfold, and now, he scented the smell of wolf-rats coming from the barn.

"They are in there", he said, and cautiously they walked up to the hill-sized structure. There was a huge set of double doors in it's front, big enough to allow a cart with stacks of hay to drive in and out, and in one of the huge gates, there was a smaller, mansized door. This door was standing ajar, and the friends had to strain their eyes to make out details in the dark interior while they were still being bathed by the gleaming afternoon sun in the open yard.

When they were done casting their preparating spells, protecting Niklas with an armor of invisible energy and creating a shield of force in front of Torn, Ben said: " And remember: If there are horserat-welps, don't kill them. The villagers could possibly tame them."

Torn walked in first. The only light in here was the one solid shaft that was falling through the doorway in his back. Particles of dust were dancing excitedly in it, freshly disturbed by the disturbance caused by the movement of the massive half orc and the air smelled of dry hay and rats.

To his left and right, he was flanked by stacks of hay, and now he saw there were more stacks of hay ahead of him, towering as high as the roof of the barn towards the end of the structure. Seeing no imminent danger, he turned to wave in his friends, as suddenly, from the stacks at his sides, two large creatures dropped at him, catching him unaware.

The horserats were at him, and for as they pounced on him, attempting to bury him beneath him, he almost fainted from the overpowering smell coming out of their mouths, which were far open, ready to bury the mighty rodent teeth into his flesh. But he managed to fend them off and move farther into the barn, giving his friends an opening to come in and help.

A fierce battle ensued and from within the depths of the barn, the other three rats approached and joined the battle. Ultimately, however, their size and wild fierceness was no match for the well trained and coordinated heroes. By now, they were so used to fighting at each other’s side that they were able to intuitively know what the others would do and act accordingly.

After a while, the barn was dead again, and the four humanoids and Ben in his giantspiderform stood infront of the dead corpses of the horserats. They were wounded where the giant rodents had hit them with tooth or claw, but it was nothing that couldn’t be healed by Jan and Ben.

Once cured, they searched the barn, and sure enough, there was a tunnel leading into a huge stack of hay. There, in utter darkness, protected by the hay like a natural cave was protected by the motherrock, there was a hollow portion, just high enough for Ben to stand in, and there, about the size of wolf-puppiess, there were eight horserat babies, their eyes still closed. Ben made soothing noises and soon they were crawling towards him as good as they could, inhaling the strange, unknown smell.

Ben picked one up, cradling it in his arm while making cooing noises, and then brought it outside. There, he handed it to Trepat who brought it out to the cart where he covered the puppie with straw, and soon they had loaded all of them onto the cart.

Back in the village, after having gotten some goat milk to nurse the helpless horserat babies, he talked to the local teamster, who was also experienced at breeding rats. After talking about the intricacies of raising and taming horserats, the man was pretty certain that he could tame those orphaned horserats as well. After all, they could turn out to be very useful for the village: Not only were they powerful beasts of burden, who, like rats could feed on anything, they were even powerful enough to be used to defend the village.

For three days, Ben instructed the teamster and the local villagers, and in this time, they were treated like royal guests- after all, the villagers were unaware that the horserat plague had been brought upon them by their very guests, and they only saw their selfless protectors in them.

Then, when Ben was sure that the puppies would be fine and grow into domesticated horserats, they moved on to Denev’s Aquifer, where they got a boat from local vigilantes. The rangers promised to make sure that their mounts would be returned to lave, with the exception of the horserat, which just about fit into the boat with themand from which Ben wouldn’t part at no cost.The crossing of the lake itself merely took them a few days- although they weren’t used to handling a boat themselves, the weather was pleasant with a steady, slight breeze in their back, letting them get ahead easily, if a bit clumsily.

The weather was still warm and sunny when they reached the village of Trela, and they were welcomed by a lot of the villagers. Some of the people of Trela still remembered how they had fought the Asaathi over a year ago, but most of them recognized them because of the now legendary elder rod duel, in which both Jan and Torn broke down at the same moment, resulting in the first time ever that there had been a tie in the final match of this contest.

Amidst good cheer they met the new village priestess and the new village wizard (after all, the old ones had been killed by the party a year before) and after a night in which the villagers many stories of their adventures up north, they restocked their provisions and took their little boat to the Eni, sailing on south.

Once on the river, the pleasant landscape was substituted by the hostile and depressing badlands of the bloodsteppes to their right and the majestic, and just as hostile, Kelders to their left. Their good cheer left them during the day, and around noon, Trepat noticed what appeared to be a small crows among the peaks of the kelders, which almost looked as if they were slowly moving south, paralell to the course of their own little boat.

He pointed it out to his friends, and Ben told them, what the elf was already thinking: „I have never heard of flocks of crows flying betwen such high mountains- after all, there should hardly be enough food for them. And the way they slowly move southwards with us is highly unusual as well... This is definetly not natural“.

 

[Nightfall]

Yep the crows are mighty odd... But wait until they see what happens near Durm. Now that's disturbing!

 

[Lars Frehse]

Southwards- part 3

The crows stayed with them as they sailed down the Eni. At nights, they didn't dare going ashore and stayed on their boat instead, and at that time they sometimes saw strange eyes among the rocks of the blood steppes looking back at them, and they were weary of every distorted shadow, of which they were many.

The days weren't any more pleasant. While a cloud of crows moved south with them, always staying far out of range of their bows or any of their spells, the shores looked even more hostile than imagination made them look at night. The wheather changed to a steady drizzle and a constant wind down the Eni made them shiver, even though it was the month of Hedrot, which was usually known for it's scorching heat.

On the third day, as they had left half of their river journey behind, they were attacked by a pair of Cathedral beetles. The pony-sized pests hovered over the river, as they sprayed the boat and everyone in it with an acid which they sprayed out of their behinds and then attacked with their scythe like mandibles. The friends killed the beasts, and it turned out to be the only time they were attackes on the trip down the river Eni.

Eventually, the Kelders retreated from their left and the land opened up to pleasant fields. They had reached Lageni, and at last there were signs of civilizations again: first, there was a bleak fortress over which the banners of the Black Dragoons were proudly flying in the wind, and then they saw farms, fishermen, windmills and other indications that they had reached Lageni.

They went ashore in small backwater called Kulomi and payed an old crone to keep an eye on their boat while they were gone. The village was too small to get any horses there, and the villagers were too poor to maintain any store that the friends could have needed to replace some equipment that got damaged during the attack of the Cathedralbeetles.

From the moment they set foot on Lageni soil, they noticed that they were eyed suspiciously. None of them, not even the humans, looked like the locals, who were mostly olive skinned and slender, and Trepat and Ben were looked upon with open fear and hatred by a lot of the locals, while Torn, to his surprise, wasn't being payed any special attention to at all- if anything, he seemed to be the one who received the least resentment of all of them.

For Torn, this was a completely new experience. Ever since he was a kid, he remembered vendors eyeing him suspiciously when he was glancing at their wares, women speeding up in alleys, when he went on a stroll at night, and millions of other occasions in which prejudice and fear towards his species formed the behavior of ordinary people towards him, Torn. Since he had never experienced anything else, he eventually started noticing all the little slights he was exposed to in his daily life, but now, the roles were reversed: now his friends were the unwanted, those who could not be trusted, and he was treated with indifference. And for him, indifference was all he had ever wanted.

In fact, within the Calastian empire, foreigners and non humans were all treated with mistrust. Dwarves and elves were considered not much better than titanspawn, and halflings were viewed as a failed experiment by some demented titans, and they should best be used as slaves. On top of all that, the people of Lageni considered everybody from Durrover a grumpy buffoon and a dwarf in human form, and since it was obvious that Niklas was a Durroverian, he was hit by the full force of the local's spite. Jan was treated little better, since his fair skin, blue eyes and red beard clearly showed that he was a foreigner, so that he too was treated like a subhuman form of life, even though he hid his holy symbol of Corean, knowing that he would achieve little by openly displaying it.

This left Torn. Fortunately for him, King Virduk of Calastia had realized early on that if he gave a home to the half orcs within his realm, he could easily gain fierce warriors who would be bound to him by the bonds of gratitude and obedience. So, as the decades went by, the people of all parts of the empire got used to the sight of well fed and well armed halforcs. For Torn that meant that this time, it wasn't him who raised suspicions, but his friends.

Since they had no horses, they had to walk to Durm, and seeing no reason to stay in Kulomi any moment longer then necessary, they left on the same day on which they had arrived. The dusty road was flanked by fields on both sides, and it meandered eastwards, around small hills and ponds.

As far as the weather and the crops were concerned, it looked just like in Durrover, but soon, they noticed differences. The peasants were often haggard, as if they didn't get to eat much of their own harvest and they lived in small structures. Every now and then, they saw splendid mansions owned by the noblemen- whereas the peasants were much poorer here than at home, the noblemen seemed to live a much richer life in contrast.

They camped on the road side and got going again by the first light of morning- they didn't want to attract too much attention to their attention here, and walked on. The march was rather dull. The rainclouds had disappeared in their back with the Eni and they were now bathed in sunlight.

As the shadows they threw ahead of them grew longer and longer, and they reached yet another hill to climb, their dull boredom was suddenly interrupted. There, on the road up on the hill, there was a man staggering towards them and constantly glancing over his shoulder as if he were running from something.

As he came down, the heroes saw that he had been badly treated: his face was battered and bruised and his body was covered in minor wounds. Jan ran forward, intent on helping the man, and suddenly he saw something that made him almost stop dead in his tracks: the tattered rags the man was wearing had clearly once been the uniform of a Lageni soldier!

Now, seeing help coming, the man limped forward a few steps, while he was grinning madly and waving at the fiends, but then his tortured body didn’t stand it anymore, and he collapsed.

Immediately, Jan was over him, and channeling the healing powers that Madriel lent to the followers of Corean, he healed the man. As some of his wounds closed, he started awake and rasped: „Quickly! You’ve got to get off the road! If they see you with me...“

Jan, surprised by the urgency of his patient, was about to ask who the strange man was talking about, as the answer was presented to him. Hearing hooves, he glanced up and saw twenty soldiers on war horses coming over the hill. Recognizing the black plate mail, Jan instantly saw that they were lead by a broad shouldered man with a shaven beard and an arrogant smirk who was wearing the black plate mail of the Black Dragoons.

Still resting the fugitive’s head in his lap, Jan looked up as the Black Dragoon rode right up to him, until he was towering over him. Still smirking, the Dragoon said: „My name is Colonel Gihjan. The man you have here is a wanted fugitive from Duke Traviak’s justice. May I assume that you have stopped him here with the intent of turning him over?“

 

[Nightfall]

And now they get to see some of the "vaunted" justice of Duke Travik. The guy that could teach Virduk a few things and probably scare the piss out of most Blackguards.