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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paka" data-source="post: 1295735" data-attributes="member: 100">The Riddle of Midnight - Varduk's Revenge Part II Post 3Only two hours later they arrived over the ridge.  Our scout, no, their scout made his way to the second hill, surveying the land.  They walked right past where Karhoun had buried himself in the snow and overlooked the Elves, perched in the fir trees.The trees were swaying gently in the wind, almost seeming to twist at the bough.  If my former friends had been astute they would have noticed the way the trees didn’t move with the steady northern winds while javelins lay hidden in their branches.    The first volley of javelins hit the five Orcs with terrible force.  Three died immediately, almost before their bodies even hit the snowy ground.  The remaining two Orcs used the corpses as cover, keeping their heads down while they took stock of the ambush.  The spear-Elf took aim; one of the remaining Orcs had his wife-to-be on his back, tied up like a calf at feast-time.Baau fired his bow after taking some careful aim.  The tree was swaying, the Orc shifted, the wind from the north blew and the arrow flew.  Baau must have been holding his breath, praying that his own arrow wouldn’t be the one that killed his love after all they had been through, her being kidnapped by some Demon and him following her all this way to the Northlands.The arrow found the Orc’s face, an audible metal ping was heard as the arrowhead hit the back of the dead bastard’s helm.  He slumped to the ground.The last orc was the chief who took my arm.  Karhoun had already begun to make slow, silent progress from his hideehole when the chief broke and ran.  He ran around the hill with the cache at the top.  When he turned the corner I was there, waiting, knife in hand.  His eyes became large and he swung at me.  I deflected the blow and sunk my dagger into his chest.  Together we fell into the snow.Karhoun’s bastard sword struck the back of the chief’s head, human blade finishing him with a half-blade thrust.In the cold and the snow a Northman killed my foe.  Were I a whole Orc I would have killed Karhoun for such a thing but my stump was still raw and my left hand was dumb with a Vardatch, unsure as a Halfling with steel.My heart was eased in that I was the last thing he ever saw before the Northman’s steel, bastard sword in a half-sword grip, was thrust through the back of his skull.We piled the dead beneath the trees, allowing the firs to drink their blood.  The trees were still now; they dropped their javelins to the ground.  Having served my god in the butcher’s block that is called the Erethor I’ve never felt comfortable among trees.  I always thought it was the Elves’ arrows and magic that was to be feared but now I knew better.  The trees themselves wanted Orcs dead.  I would never walk with comfort in the shade of trees again.Baau took off the Elven maiden’s hood to find that it wasn’t his wife to be but his love’s sister Laeli.  Apparently Laeli left their sunny bay to find her sister but it was impossible to find out too much more.  She had been battered and used beyond words.  I should know.  The girl had left little markers near where my former warband had tied her up.  Apparently there a Sea Elf way of piling stones that tells passersby that a storm is on its way.  She left markings of a storm, her storm, all across the northlands.  This was how Baau tracked her, how he knew it was one of his people in the clutches of the Orcs.The Northman and the Scarlet Prince didn’t believe me that this party was to hunt a dragon, the Worm of the Fortress Wall.  I explained, “We failed in a hunt for a Channeler in Baden’s Bluff and so the Legates sentenced us to hunt the dragon.  It is a death sentence but a glorious death.  If our chief hadn’t been inept, would have never happened.  That is why I challenged him and why he was so harsh in his reprisal.  If he didn’t put my down hard he would have been met with a different challenger every step of the way.”Karhoun asked, “Why didn’t you run away once you were out of Baden’s Bluff, find a way to run?”I responded, “Legates told us to kill a dragon.  Legates get their law from Father Izrador.  To disobey them is to disobey the Shadow in the North.”We piled the bodies under the trees that threw javelins for us.  Karhoun lopped off the heads, hands and feet to avoid creating Fell.Baau saved his fellow Sea Elf, maiden sister to his true love.  Fool.Karhoun got to hunt the Shadow, something he seemed to enjoy.  Dangerous.Vorden Qell, the Scarlet Prince and my lord, communed with trees and turned them to bloodletting.  Powerful, but a gut instinct, something deep inside me cannot stop being disgusted at taking orders from an Elf.  I got my revenge, saw those who crippled me, made me less of a useful tool to father Izrador die and bleed.We camped that night a few miles west of the cache.  They were all deathly afraid of the road, scared of gaining the attention of a Legate.  The Scarlet Prince wanted to work a spell on the cache’s stone that bore the sigil of the Shadow.  We made a cold camp and were awakened in the night by Laeli’s screaming.  I wondered how long before Baau would call me out, looking for my blood on his spear in vengeance for what I had done with his love’s sister before I was in service to the Scarlet Prince.The Elves didn’t sleep so much as meditate.  When the sun rose, we moved back toward the northern road to Karhoun’s keep.  But first we stopped again at the weapons cache and Vorden Qell stood before the stone with the One God’s sigil upon it and began to cast powerful magicks.When he was done the Shadow’s sigil was gone and some other symbol was there.  Karhoun revered this sigil, said it was his House, the Esben family crest.  They reasoned that this cache was once a burial mound for his family.  The Northman did his petty rituals to his ancestors, leaving tiny clay figures that represented something important to him.We traveled at an easy pace towards the road to Karhoun Keep, Karhoun’s Road, which led to the Fortress Wall.  The girl was slowing us down but they seemed to have great mercy for her.  We camped in under boughs of a great fir tree, not unlike the ones that threw spears in our battle.  My sleep was uneasy, filled with nightmares of axes and blood.</blockquote>

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