Castle Landsview - Chapter 2
Ghosts! Ever since Jensu and I had dealt with that little problem in the cemetery outside Cross’ Peak, I’d not been too fond of ghosts. Orc ghosts at that! I wasn’t sure what they were doing here, but did not plan on stopping to ask questions. I wondered briefly if this was what Nethervoid had been so obsessed with the last few weeks. All thoughts of that went to the back of my mind however, as one of the sentries noticed me.
Roaring he raised a crossbow and fired but I had already begun to move. I leaped forward and rolled on the ground as the bolt passed harmlessly over head. Finishing the roll I launched myself toward the orc, completing a second roll in mid air, driving my feet hard into its chest, and then rebounding. The orc remained on his feet, though he did look a bit stunned. Feigning fear I turned and ran back along the corridor. I heard the sound of another bolt being released, but I’d been counting on that. Shifting my weight slightly to the left, I dropped my arm to my side just as the bolt came in, narrowly missing me. Pinning the shaft to my side with my arm, I allowed myself to twist and fall forward into a dead heap on the ground. I lay there motionless for several moments, and I could hear the orc approaching. His footsteps stopped and although my eyes were closed, I knew he stood directly over me. He grunted with satisfaction and then I opened my eyes and smiled up at him. The look on his face changed first from confusion, to surprise, and finally to fear as I pointed to my right. He turned and found himself staring down a side corridor directly into the smiling faces of my allies. His chest suddenly sprouted a half dozen arrows and bolts before his entire body was consumed in a magical blue flame.
“Oh for the love of the Warbringer! I didn’t even get a chance to stab at ‘em!” bellowed the Paladin in the group. I smiled and stood up, wiping some very nasty dirt off of myself.
“For but a moment, I though we had truly lost you,” said Nethervoid, picking a stick out of my collar.
“Serves you right for not knowing me better by now,” I replied with a smile. “It will take more than a lone Orc to fell me. Ghost or not.”
Nethervoid chuckled, “What did you see?”
I scratched at my chin, thinking. “That was just a sentry,” I said, giving myself time to work out a plan. There were a lot of orcs in that room. No matter how we did it, this was going to be painful.
“I think that once we’re in, we will be fine. That entry way will be a challenge though. They’ve erected defenses to hold back an assault, and orcs a plenty to make us pay dearly for the foothold. Tis a big room however, longer than it is wide. If we do it right we can take the front ere the others know we are even at their doorstep.” I grimaced.
“What bothers you? It sounds like a good plan.”
“Aye, but there be no way to sneak up on them. We’ll have to fight the whole front of that room at once. A good eight to ten orcs.”
Nethervoid simply nodded, then turned to speak with the others. She returned a few moments later carrying a small crystal that pulsed a mage’s blue color.
“I doubt not your prowess, nor that of our companions,” she said, not looking at me, “but with so many foes, I am sure to work some healing prayers.”
“Aye,” I said softly.
“And once I do,“ she continued, “at least one of those orcs will know me for the healer I am. You can’t distract them all.”
“Aye, the thought had occurred to me,” I replied.
She looked at me then. Looked directly into my eyes, and I saw the truth in here. She knew she would fall this day.
Twilight Hope, Crux of the North - Chapter 1
Chapter 1: A Dirty Page, A Child’s Tale
A woman in leathers holds a book in one hand and a map in the other. She looks up from the map and down the road, trees on either side and wind in her hair. She turns back toward the others.
“It’s not much further. We must rest the horses and resupply.”
She turns her attention back to the tattered book as the others ride by. One man stops on his horse and looks back. “Come. The horses need water.” She nods, looking seemingly through him.
They ride on down the path towards Adyinn’s Watch, the only bastion of order on the northern coast. That place the orcs landed and rushed over the hills. And this, the very path they tread down so long ago.
“I’ll water the horses.” Agawa takes the horses, leading them away down toward the creek.
I sat then on a stone fallen from the wall of the watch. The history of this place felt so thick. The book in my hands weighed enormously then. I could smell the sweat of the Orcs still. I opened the book and read again those pieces that remained of the passage:
“And the twin sons of Gulgrethor, Ashiji and Razranu, they took Landsview, the Stone of the North, and smashed it on the backs of its people. … Two of the sons of Lord Gulgrethor chopped down the people of the villages and burned everything in their path on the way to Landsview. … Twin devil sons rode to Landsview, the first to pay the price of their evil ways. Landsview was shaken to its foundations, and cracked at its cornerstone, it was emptied of life.
First to pay the price.
First to tell the tale.
Of the Sons and Lord, Gulgrethor.
Look in the dark.
Look in the deep.
For the Sons and Lord, Gulgrethor.”
The Twilight Hope. That’s what the passage referred to. A rumor of a myth, something I had heard about back during my teachings in Khal.
It was my master who I had first heard it from. During one of his teachings of the history of battles, he was finishing up a particularly long series of lectures on the Gulgrethor Orc invasions of Thestra. He muttered ‘The Twilight Hope’, and he sat there for a minute lost in his own thoughts, but neglected to share with us what he was thinking.
After the class had been dismissed, I asked him what he was talking about. About The Twilight Hope. He didn’t tell me much, only that he heard a story once about something the Orcs left behind in their wake of destruction that could restore northern Thestra to its former peace and glory. He said to forget about it. A fool’s hope.
I pressed him, but he couldn’t tell me any more than that.
The very next day, I started the long journey to finding out what The Twilight Hope was. And you can understand my lack of surprise when nobody could answer my questions: I asked teachers, scholars, the priests, and even the Mayor himself.
When the learned couldn’t answer my questions, they showed me books that might tell. None of the ones in Khal could tell me. Nor the ones in New Targanor. For weeks I scoured any place that had a book to be looked at.
And then I was surprised when I found a book in Lakeview. A book passed down a generation, and stuffed into a trunk, never to have been read since. I poured over the text, and found the passage which spoke of The Twilight Hope…but which here in the North is called The Crux. It’s a kid’s story, apparently.
The Sage Orachar here in Adyinn’s Watch says the child’s tale tells of the two bracelets worn by the Twin Sons, and the power the bracelets hold over the wicked. And another of a torque of some sort. I have found it! The Twilight Hope! The Crux! From a dusty page in a book and from a child’s tale, The Twilight Hope, Crux of the North is bound in these trinkets.
… In the dark. In the deep.
“The horses are ready.”
I looked up. Agawa was there with the reins to Sugar, my horse. A strong hand on the reigns. He didn’t yet believe what I had told him, but he would soon see.
“Let’s head out then. … To Landsview.”
Castle Landsview - Chapter 1
We had been traveling for several days, stopping for the nights at impromptu camps along the road. We were all tired and the horses needed to be watered. Our supply situation didn’t look so great either. As we passed the remains of Castle Landsview Nethervoid pointed out that there was an outpost ahead that we could stop at.
When we reached the outpost, I saw to our mounts while the rest of the party spoke to the local militia. I got the horses watered and fed, and picked up some supplies before rejoining the others. They were already getting ready to head out again. It seems the local militia had asked us to investigate some reports of trouble at the ruins we passed earlier. Since they were just down the road, we had agreed to take a look.
As we started down the road I wondered how anything much could be happening there. The ruins I saw were fairly small and not much more than a few crumbled walls. More than likely all the fuss was being caused by local ruffians using the ruins the ambush travelers.
When the ruins came into sight at the bottom of the hill, Nethervoid called for us to stop. We moved off the road and began to prepare ourselves for a possible confrontation. While my friends busied themselves casting various magical wards and enhancements, I knelt on the ground, closed my eyes, and focused my energies inward. Some of the most powerful energies in all of Telon come from the very center of our being. This energy, known as Jin, could only be harnessed by those few like myself that devoted their lives to learning mastery over both body and min. as the energies built within, I directed them outward hardening my skin and coating my hands and feet in a magical flame that would increased the strength of my attacks. I stood up, grabbed the sword strapped to my back and the flames spread to cover the blade as well.
As we approached the ruins they seemed just as unimpressive as they had at first glance earlier that day. Once we were within the ruins however, Nethervoid noticed a partially concealed set of stairs leading down to tunnels underground. Rhywadd pulled a torch from his satchel and we proceeded down. The corridors were dark, and cold, and seemed to suck the heat away from the torch.
We moved forward cautiously, myself in the front, all my senses alert for trouble. We rounded the corner and I caught sight of movement ahead of us. Quickly I held up my hand, signalling my party to stop, and dropped into a crouch. Peering ahead into the darkness I saw what appeared to be a large foyer with hastily built bulwarks at our end. What I saw in that room however sent a chill down my spine. Wandering amongst the erected defenses were the ghosts of Orc soldiers!
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