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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
The Adventures of the Knights of Spellforge Keep
- Thread starter Dr Midnight
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Dr Midnight
Explorer
I promise, sir. Are you really just staying up for the post, or were you staying up anyway?
Neverwinter Knight
First Post
Hey Doc, put it on...
Otherwise I'll have to read it for breakfast
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Edit
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OK, going to bed now. 8:30 your time is 2:30 my time - cu tomorrow
Otherwise I'll have to read it for breakfast
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Edit
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OK, going to bed now. 8:30 your time is 2:30 my time - cu tomorrow
Last edited:
Dr Midnight
Explorer
Juuuust five, ten more minutes and *ding*! Crispy fresh dragon battle, piping hot from the oven.
Dr Midnight
Explorer
The white dragon’s wings spread out and caught the wind. He glided silently just beneath the clouds and looked down on the town. He leaned his head forward and altered the pitch of his wings, and he dove down. Two hundred feet above ground he leveled out and lowered down to skim the surface. He dipped his claws into the rooftops beneath him as a pelican might dip his beak to catch a fish, and the small buildings shattered like clay, leaving a trail of devastation behind him.
“PEOPLE… OF VERBOBONC…” he roared. “YOU HAVE BEEN… CONDEMNED… BY YOUR OWN. THE KNIGHTS… OF THE SILVER QUILL… HAVE GIVEN ME PERMISSION… TO DESTROY YOU ANEW.” He landed and began bashing buildings apart with tail, claw, tooth and wing. He craned his neck to find a group of people to blast into ice. He couldn’t find any. There were no groups of people, there were no running people, there… … There were no people. Verbobonc had been evacuated.
Acessiwal threw his head back and roared a dense plume of white frost straight up into the air. It spread out and began falling around the enraged dragon in a windblown cloud.
“Now,” Vek said.
Jamison loosed a blast of lightning at the dragon. The white-hot bolt seared the air as it thundered across the four hundred foot space between Spellforge Keep and where Acessiwal sat in the town. The lightning around him, or dissipated in the air when it struck. It didn’t hurt him in the least… but it did serve to grasp his attention.
The dragon’s head whipped around to look towards Spellforge Keep. The tiny yellow eyes blazed visibly even across the snowy distance. “Uh oh,” Jamison said nervously. “I made him angry.”
Vek said “Keep to the plan. Spread out.” He patted his undead horse on the neck and the animal’s dried, half-frozen sinew made a sickening sound from the gesture… a crisp leathery GRUNCH. “Up, Tsunami.” The horse galloped up into the sky above the roof. Vek’s cape blew out behind him. He was very glad he’d had the presence of what was left of his mind to order Metus to evacuate the town when he did. This was the worst possible time for a nightmare like that to come about again.
Kizzlorn called out to Acessiwal. “We are here, dragon. The people of the town are safe. It’s us you should concern yourself with.”
“SPELLFORGE…” The dragon turned its body to face the Keep, but did not move toward it. “I THOUGHT… YOU WERE DEAD… BUT THIS WORKS WELL. I… WANTED TO THANK YOU… PERSONALLY… FOR TRAPPING ME IN YOUR PATHETIC MIRROR. YOU HAVE DONE… A MARVELOUS JOB OF REBUILDING… THE CITY. YOU MUST… HAVE WORKED… TIRELESSLY TO RE-ERECT THESE HOMES. I WILL REWARD YOUR EFFORTS… WITH MORE ICE, MORE DEATH. ”
Jo’nas looked to Kizzlorn questioningly. “Worked tirelessly to rebuild? What does he mean by that?”
“Nan-ny,” Nanny said. He’d been brought to the roof to help defend Kizz, though there was small hope of him doing any real damage to the dragon. He’d never truly recovered from the rust pool.
“WHERE IS… THE HUSBAND, SPELLFORGE? WHERE… IS THE PINK, SQUALLING… NEW BABY? ARE THEY… INSIDE? SHALL I GO IN AND FIND THEM… FOR MYSELF? I THINK SHE SHALL CRUNCH… LIKE A RABBIT BETWEEN… MY JAWS.”
Kizzlorn understood. “You’re mistaken, Acessiwal. Katya was my mother. Rafflorn was my father. The city has been slowly rebuilt over these long years.”
“YEARS?” The dragon’s voice sounded confused and almost small. “I… HOW LONG WAS I IN… THAT MIRROR?”
“Twenty years.” She relished the look of pain that crossed the beast’s face.
“TWENTY… AND… SO… SO YOU…”
“Yes, dragon. I am that baby. That pink, squalling new baby. Me. Kizzlorn Spellforge. So why don’t we test that theory, monster? Why don’t you fly over here… and we’ll SEE how well I crunch between your jaws!!!
Acessiwal roared and pumped his wings as he jumped up from the ground, flying forward. Seeing a dragon fly towards you is terrifying in the best of circumstances… and this was positively horrid. The dragon suddenly disappeared.
“He’s gone!” Orthos cried.
“He’s invisible,” Kizzlorn corrected. “Listen for the wings.” She cast a spell on herself that would allow her to see the invisible creature. She saw him in a translucent fog, heading straight for her. She cast a devastating spell against the dragon, and it dissolved at his superior resistance to spells.
“Wee Jas grants you the gift of death,” Vek said from his position atop Tsunami, high in the air. This spell also failed in penetrating the dragon’s defenses… and it was getting closer.
Acessiwal didn’t come close enough to use conventional weapons on, and no one in the group was proficient enough with dangerous ranged arms. He opened his jaws and an avalanche blast of white death shot down at them. Shade managed to cartwheel out of the way, but Kizz, Grumbar and Orthos were bathed in the freezing cold cloud. The dragon passed by overhead, unhindered, and he sailed to a point far beyond, where not even the See Invisibility spell could spot him.
“He’ll be fighting this one from the air, looks like,” Vek said. “Damn. He knows he has the advantage in the sky. Well… we came prepared. Potions!” The Knights drew a clearly labeled potion vial from each of their belts and drank the contents, then took to the skies.
Grumbar swung his sword menacingly as he swooshed through the air and falling snow. “Gonna cut me a big white steak!”
Orthos laughed and thumped the Tear of Moradin, his heavy warhammer, into his palm. “Gonna HELP YA DO IT, LAD!” They flew up and spread out, but not too far… they could be easily picked off if too far apart, but clumped together, they made a terrific target for his breath.
Jo’nas and Shade were paying too much attention to where the dragon might be. They were listening, and not looking. They didn’t realize they’d drifted close to each other, and to Vek and Tsunami, as they flew. Vek noticed them and yelled “No, spread out m…”
A high-pitched thin screaming noise, and the glowing orange ball of light shot from somewhere in the west to the three clustered knights. A fireball exploded among them, and the flame burned them cruelly. ”ICE… THEN FIRE,” the distant voice chuckled. ”SOON, I THINK ICE… AGAIN, EH?”
“Ahh, if only this dragon had the courage to face us in a REAL fight, Orthos…” Vek said. “I rather think twenty years in a looking glass has turned this white wyrm a shade of yellow!”
DO SUCH EGO TRICKS… WORK ON YOUNGER DRAGONS… SIR VEK? YOUNGER DRAGONS… GO TO THEIR GRAVES… BY FALLING PREY TO TRAPS OF ‘COURAGE’… AND I DID NOT SURVIVE TO… BE ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED… AND THIRTEEN… BY BEING STUPID.
“One thousand two hundred thirty-three, I think you mean.” Vek spoke to the others, quietly. “Everyone get ready. I’m going to cast a spell on him next time he comes by… and if it doesn’t kill him, it’ll make his location visible for just a moment.”
Shade and Grumbar readied to fly to wherever they saw him appear. Orthos, Jo’nas, and Kizzlorn began preparing spells. Jamison was struck by inspiration and changed himself into a fire giant. “Wish I’d thought of this before,” he said. “I’ll be right back!” He flew down and into the castle.
“Here he comes,” Vek said. “From the south this time. Be ready!” The dragon flew into range and into visibility with those who could see it. Vek waited until the last possible moment and cast his spell.
“HRRRAUUGHHH!!!” Acessiwal was swallowed by the Destruction spell. It didn’t kill him, but the spell is extremely dangerous even to those few who manage to survive it. He was bathed in the unholy green fires of Wee Jas for but a moment… making his location visible to the other Knights.
Shade flew forward and slashed at the monster. He cut a long gash in its wing membrane. Grumbar missed, and Kizzlorn hit it with a spell of Flesh to Stone… which had helped her to defeat the Titan of the south sea. It failed, though, and Acessiwal remained fifty tons of dragon flesh. The other spells battered him around.
He sailed onward, screaming in pain. He lashed out with his jaws and chomped down on Kizzlorn. He tore at her in the air for a moment then hurled her down with a mighty snap of his neck, and he was gone. He flapped away for another run.
Kizz flew back up to the group, feeling the wounds that those huge icy teeth had left in her torso seeping blood. She was hurt, but not badly enough to affect her casting. “Vek, how are we doing?”
Vek dared to move Tsunami in closer to her, so he wouldn’t have to speak audibly to the dragon. “Not well. He’s tearing us to pieces. A few more passes and one of us will be dead… another few and we’ll all be dead.”
“I thought ‘death comes to us all’, Vek,” she smiled nervously.
“Oh, it does… but I don’t plan to give Acessiwal the satisfaction. “Our best hope is for one of my spells to get through. That’ll end him quickly. If not, maybe we should consider a teleport…”
“Retreat?!” she glared at him. “I’ll not abandon my parents’ castle to be destroyed by their murderer.”
“Your parents left the castle, Kizzlorn,” he said. “So that you could live. Think about that.” He wheeled away and flew Tsunami back upwards.
”SPELLFORGE!” The dragon laughed from somewhere in the distance. ”“MY MEMORY IS COMING… BACK TO ME… EVEN NOW. I DO REMEMBER… IT WAS NOT YOUR GROUP… THAT CAPTURED ME IN… THE MIRROR.
“Oh?” she yelled back. “So you think the score is settled, then? Don’t consider running, dragon, I owe you more hurt than you could possibly believe. I am going to kill you, no matter how far or long you flee.”
”SPELLFORGE… WHAT DID I DO TO… INCITE SUCH WRATH IN A… SQUALLING, PINK MORSEL LIKE… YOURSELF?”
“For the murder of my parents and aunt, I will see to it that you die writhing and wailing at my feet, Acessiwal.”
A long pause. Then: ”OH.” Laughter… horrible deep rumbling laughter echoed off the distant mountains. ”OH, SPELLFORGE… THIS IS TOO MUCH JOY… YOU HAVE GIVEN ME. I’VE… JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING… ELSE.”
Kizzlorn said nothing and waited.
”YOU… DON’T EVEN KNOW… THAT I DIDN’T KILL… YOUR PARENTS.”
Kizzlorn choked and stammered for a moment, then spat out “W… what? Don’t lie to me, wyrm. My parents traveled off to find you. They never returned. You killed them.”
”THEY LEFT YOU. THEY NEVER… RETURNED... AND THEY ARE DEAD… BUT I DID NOT KILL THEM.”
“Of course you did.” Her voice sounded small, like a child’s. “If not you, then who?”
”WHY DON’T YOU… ASK YOUR FRIEND…”
Vek muttered “Oh, no…”
”JAMISON… CROW.”
“No.” Tears froze on Kizzlorn’s face as they rolled down. “No, that’s not true!”
”IT IS. ASK HIM.”
Jamison flew back up from the castle in his fire giant form, brandishing the fiery sword of Imix, which was rather too large for him to wield. “I’m back… where is he? How’re we doing? I can’t swing this, but I figure I can use it as a spear or…” he saw everyone staring at him. “What’s going on?”
”ASK HIM, SPELLFORGE... ASK YOUR FRIEND.” The dragon roared with laughter.
The sound of the teleportation spell rang through the air, signaling that the dragon had gone. No one really noticed.
NEXT: SINS
“PEOPLE… OF VERBOBONC…” he roared. “YOU HAVE BEEN… CONDEMNED… BY YOUR OWN. THE KNIGHTS… OF THE SILVER QUILL… HAVE GIVEN ME PERMISSION… TO DESTROY YOU ANEW.” He landed and began bashing buildings apart with tail, claw, tooth and wing. He craned his neck to find a group of people to blast into ice. He couldn’t find any. There were no groups of people, there were no running people, there… … There were no people. Verbobonc had been evacuated.
Acessiwal threw his head back and roared a dense plume of white frost straight up into the air. It spread out and began falling around the enraged dragon in a windblown cloud.
“Now,” Vek said.
Jamison loosed a blast of lightning at the dragon. The white-hot bolt seared the air as it thundered across the four hundred foot space between Spellforge Keep and where Acessiwal sat in the town. The lightning around him, or dissipated in the air when it struck. It didn’t hurt him in the least… but it did serve to grasp his attention.
The dragon’s head whipped around to look towards Spellforge Keep. The tiny yellow eyes blazed visibly even across the snowy distance. “Uh oh,” Jamison said nervously. “I made him angry.”
Vek said “Keep to the plan. Spread out.” He patted his undead horse on the neck and the animal’s dried, half-frozen sinew made a sickening sound from the gesture… a crisp leathery GRUNCH. “Up, Tsunami.” The horse galloped up into the sky above the roof. Vek’s cape blew out behind him. He was very glad he’d had the presence of what was left of his mind to order Metus to evacuate the town when he did. This was the worst possible time for a nightmare like that to come about again.
Kizzlorn called out to Acessiwal. “We are here, dragon. The people of the town are safe. It’s us you should concern yourself with.”
“SPELLFORGE…” The dragon turned its body to face the Keep, but did not move toward it. “I THOUGHT… YOU WERE DEAD… BUT THIS WORKS WELL. I… WANTED TO THANK YOU… PERSONALLY… FOR TRAPPING ME IN YOUR PATHETIC MIRROR. YOU HAVE DONE… A MARVELOUS JOB OF REBUILDING… THE CITY. YOU MUST… HAVE WORKED… TIRELESSLY TO RE-ERECT THESE HOMES. I WILL REWARD YOUR EFFORTS… WITH MORE ICE, MORE DEATH. ”
Jo’nas looked to Kizzlorn questioningly. “Worked tirelessly to rebuild? What does he mean by that?”
“Nan-ny,” Nanny said. He’d been brought to the roof to help defend Kizz, though there was small hope of him doing any real damage to the dragon. He’d never truly recovered from the rust pool.
“WHERE IS… THE HUSBAND, SPELLFORGE? WHERE… IS THE PINK, SQUALLING… NEW BABY? ARE THEY… INSIDE? SHALL I GO IN AND FIND THEM… FOR MYSELF? I THINK SHE SHALL CRUNCH… LIKE A RABBIT BETWEEN… MY JAWS.”
Kizzlorn understood. “You’re mistaken, Acessiwal. Katya was my mother. Rafflorn was my father. The city has been slowly rebuilt over these long years.”
“YEARS?” The dragon’s voice sounded confused and almost small. “I… HOW LONG WAS I IN… THAT MIRROR?”
“Twenty years.” She relished the look of pain that crossed the beast’s face.
“TWENTY… AND… SO… SO YOU…”
“Yes, dragon. I am that baby. That pink, squalling new baby. Me. Kizzlorn Spellforge. So why don’t we test that theory, monster? Why don’t you fly over here… and we’ll SEE how well I crunch between your jaws!!!
Acessiwal roared and pumped his wings as he jumped up from the ground, flying forward. Seeing a dragon fly towards you is terrifying in the best of circumstances… and this was positively horrid. The dragon suddenly disappeared.
“He’s gone!” Orthos cried.
“He’s invisible,” Kizzlorn corrected. “Listen for the wings.” She cast a spell on herself that would allow her to see the invisible creature. She saw him in a translucent fog, heading straight for her. She cast a devastating spell against the dragon, and it dissolved at his superior resistance to spells.
“Wee Jas grants you the gift of death,” Vek said from his position atop Tsunami, high in the air. This spell also failed in penetrating the dragon’s defenses… and it was getting closer.
Acessiwal didn’t come close enough to use conventional weapons on, and no one in the group was proficient enough with dangerous ranged arms. He opened his jaws and an avalanche blast of white death shot down at them. Shade managed to cartwheel out of the way, but Kizz, Grumbar and Orthos were bathed in the freezing cold cloud. The dragon passed by overhead, unhindered, and he sailed to a point far beyond, where not even the See Invisibility spell could spot him.
“He’ll be fighting this one from the air, looks like,” Vek said. “Damn. He knows he has the advantage in the sky. Well… we came prepared. Potions!” The Knights drew a clearly labeled potion vial from each of their belts and drank the contents, then took to the skies.
Grumbar swung his sword menacingly as he swooshed through the air and falling snow. “Gonna cut me a big white steak!”
Orthos laughed and thumped the Tear of Moradin, his heavy warhammer, into his palm. “Gonna HELP YA DO IT, LAD!” They flew up and spread out, but not too far… they could be easily picked off if too far apart, but clumped together, they made a terrific target for his breath.
Jo’nas and Shade were paying too much attention to where the dragon might be. They were listening, and not looking. They didn’t realize they’d drifted close to each other, and to Vek and Tsunami, as they flew. Vek noticed them and yelled “No, spread out m…”
A high-pitched thin screaming noise, and the glowing orange ball of light shot from somewhere in the west to the three clustered knights. A fireball exploded among them, and the flame burned them cruelly. ”ICE… THEN FIRE,” the distant voice chuckled. ”SOON, I THINK ICE… AGAIN, EH?”
“Ahh, if only this dragon had the courage to face us in a REAL fight, Orthos…” Vek said. “I rather think twenty years in a looking glass has turned this white wyrm a shade of yellow!”
DO SUCH EGO TRICKS… WORK ON YOUNGER DRAGONS… SIR VEK? YOUNGER DRAGONS… GO TO THEIR GRAVES… BY FALLING PREY TO TRAPS OF ‘COURAGE’… AND I DID NOT SURVIVE TO… BE ONE THOUSAND TWO HUNDRED… AND THIRTEEN… BY BEING STUPID.
“One thousand two hundred thirty-three, I think you mean.” Vek spoke to the others, quietly. “Everyone get ready. I’m going to cast a spell on him next time he comes by… and if it doesn’t kill him, it’ll make his location visible for just a moment.”
Shade and Grumbar readied to fly to wherever they saw him appear. Orthos, Jo’nas, and Kizzlorn began preparing spells. Jamison was struck by inspiration and changed himself into a fire giant. “Wish I’d thought of this before,” he said. “I’ll be right back!” He flew down and into the castle.
“Here he comes,” Vek said. “From the south this time. Be ready!” The dragon flew into range and into visibility with those who could see it. Vek waited until the last possible moment and cast his spell.
“HRRRAUUGHHH!!!” Acessiwal was swallowed by the Destruction spell. It didn’t kill him, but the spell is extremely dangerous even to those few who manage to survive it. He was bathed in the unholy green fires of Wee Jas for but a moment… making his location visible to the other Knights.
Shade flew forward and slashed at the monster. He cut a long gash in its wing membrane. Grumbar missed, and Kizzlorn hit it with a spell of Flesh to Stone… which had helped her to defeat the Titan of the south sea. It failed, though, and Acessiwal remained fifty tons of dragon flesh. The other spells battered him around.
He sailed onward, screaming in pain. He lashed out with his jaws and chomped down on Kizzlorn. He tore at her in the air for a moment then hurled her down with a mighty snap of his neck, and he was gone. He flapped away for another run.
Kizz flew back up to the group, feeling the wounds that those huge icy teeth had left in her torso seeping blood. She was hurt, but not badly enough to affect her casting. “Vek, how are we doing?”
Vek dared to move Tsunami in closer to her, so he wouldn’t have to speak audibly to the dragon. “Not well. He’s tearing us to pieces. A few more passes and one of us will be dead… another few and we’ll all be dead.”
“I thought ‘death comes to us all’, Vek,” she smiled nervously.
“Oh, it does… but I don’t plan to give Acessiwal the satisfaction. “Our best hope is for one of my spells to get through. That’ll end him quickly. If not, maybe we should consider a teleport…”
“Retreat?!” she glared at him. “I’ll not abandon my parents’ castle to be destroyed by their murderer.”
“Your parents left the castle, Kizzlorn,” he said. “So that you could live. Think about that.” He wheeled away and flew Tsunami back upwards.
”SPELLFORGE!” The dragon laughed from somewhere in the distance. ”“MY MEMORY IS COMING… BACK TO ME… EVEN NOW. I DO REMEMBER… IT WAS NOT YOUR GROUP… THAT CAPTURED ME IN… THE MIRROR.
“Oh?” she yelled back. “So you think the score is settled, then? Don’t consider running, dragon, I owe you more hurt than you could possibly believe. I am going to kill you, no matter how far or long you flee.”
”SPELLFORGE… WHAT DID I DO TO… INCITE SUCH WRATH IN A… SQUALLING, PINK MORSEL LIKE… YOURSELF?”
“For the murder of my parents and aunt, I will see to it that you die writhing and wailing at my feet, Acessiwal.”
A long pause. Then: ”OH.” Laughter… horrible deep rumbling laughter echoed off the distant mountains. ”OH, SPELLFORGE… THIS IS TOO MUCH JOY… YOU HAVE GIVEN ME. I’VE… JUST REMEMBERED SOMETHING… ELSE.”
Kizzlorn said nothing and waited.
”YOU… DON’T EVEN KNOW… THAT I DIDN’T KILL… YOUR PARENTS.”
Kizzlorn choked and stammered for a moment, then spat out “W… what? Don’t lie to me, wyrm. My parents traveled off to find you. They never returned. You killed them.”
”THEY LEFT YOU. THEY NEVER… RETURNED... AND THEY ARE DEAD… BUT I DID NOT KILL THEM.”
“Of course you did.” Her voice sounded small, like a child’s. “If not you, then who?”
”WHY DON’T YOU… ASK YOUR FRIEND…”
Vek muttered “Oh, no…”
”JAMISON… CROW.”
“No.” Tears froze on Kizzlorn’s face as they rolled down. “No, that’s not true!”
”IT IS. ASK HIM.”
Jamison flew back up from the castle in his fire giant form, brandishing the fiery sword of Imix, which was rather too large for him to wield. “I’m back… where is he? How’re we doing? I can’t swing this, but I figure I can use it as a spear or…” he saw everyone staring at him. “What’s going on?”
”ASK HIM, SPELLFORGE... ASK YOUR FRIEND.” The dragon roared with laughter.
The sound of the teleportation spell rang through the air, signaling that the dragon had gone. No one really noticed.
NEXT: SINS
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