Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Paka" data-source="post: 1303820" data-attributes="member: 100">The Riddle of Midnight - Varduk's Revenge Part III - Post 4The 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.    We made our camps in the boughs of great fir trees, lighting no fires for warmth.  Karhoun kept us in food, but game was scarce this far north.  Still, this snowy wasteland to them was a bountiful land compared to the Orcish homelands in the northern parts of the Kaladun Mountains.During the nights I would pretend to sleep oftentimes, listen to the fools speak.  Vorden asked his Northman friend what happened after they parted ways in Whitecliff.  Karhoun told his tale in the cold night, breath trailing out puffs of cold fog.“I went to Port Esben, to take our Legate friend to Baden’s Bluff.  I never got there.  I ran afoul of a band of Oruk, so’s not to appear to my kin.  They set me up, sent word of a runaway Channeler that I was supposed to hunt for my father.  My sister and I went to hunt the girl and were ambushed by Oruk, high Orcs, bred for nothing but battle and killing for Izrador.“I dueled their leader and he dropped me but didn’t want to kill me, in fear of my father.  They were going to take me to Steel Hill, doomed to a life of slavery in the mines.  I convinced their leader to use me and my sister.I believe my brother set me up, my Legate brother.  His Astirax led us to the Channeler but was nowhere to be found when we were captured.  I think my own brother sold me into a life of slavery.“A Shadow Prince of Bastion, Sameal, killed a Dark Dryad, a gift from the Shadow.  These Oruk are in charge of bringing Izrador’s monsters to his minions.  They wanted him to die.  So, I burned his fields in order to embarrass him, hoping the Shadow would do my work for me.”Vorden laughed.  “You were doing insurgent work on behalf of the Shadow?”Karhoun nodded, grim.Vorden gestured wildly, red robes making him all the more dramatic.  “My friend, that is fantastic!  Brillaint!”Karhoun killed the mirth when he responded, “My father wants me to bring your head to him.  I have a year to do so.”Vorden smiled.  “Are you going to do it?”Karhoun shrugged.  “Not tonight.”Two days later we were at camp when a voice rang out from the darkness.  “I could kill at least one of ya before ya found a place to hide.  Tis a good moonlit night, it is.“I reckon I’ll kill the red Elf first, don’t want no glamours put on me.”Karhoun spoke first, “We want no trouble.”“I want no parley with those who travel in company of Orcs.”I whispered, “Let me kill him.”Vorden snarled, “Shut up, Varduk.”Karhoun spoke again, hands up and out, palms up, “I am Karhoun Esben, Ironblooded who set fire to Bastion.”That made the man break cover, a sinewy bald man with deerskins on, and stone-tipped arrows.  “I heard of your handiwork.  Why traveling with the likes of this?”  He motioned to me as if I were vermin.I responded in Dornish, “Old man, I could snap your neck before you-“My Lord, the Crimson Prince commanded, “Varduk, go away from camp, secure the perimeter.”They made words while I found a good spot for the Shadow’s will.  Izrador doesn’t answer the prayers of the weak.A half-hour later I re-entered camp, after I knew without a doubt the old Wildlander had left.  We set watches and went to sleep.  I slept easily, knowing that despite my missing arm, Father Izrador would answer my prayers.</blockquote>

Verification