The Tale of Count Orin
Herick of Dalm |
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| Background: | Background:
Greetings Good Sir or Lady, My name is Orin Herick, a Count of noble birth within the city of Dalm. Dalm is a small city on the far eastern shores of these far lands. It is little known on this continent, for it is a fair journey to the next sign of establishment, however it is well known across the seas. My story begins not long ago in a more pleasanter time. Word had been travelling quite often now from concerned families describing horrific acts of war from the western lands. As an assistant scribe under Orain Merimen, one of the finest penman's of the land, I learned of many of these tales first hand, as I wrote and read many of these letters. The stories soon became reality, as first there were stories of the occasional farm being razed, creatures lurking in the forest by night and soon by day as well, caravans destroyed and looted, and worse. The government began training the people as a militia as a precursor to what they expected to turn into a war. Soon I found myself before the governing body of Dalm. A notice had come from the far lands to the west, a plea of help for all to unify together to defeat Poneru, the force behind the attacks. I was asked to represent Dalm as their ambassador, along with a select few. We left Dalm shortly after, heading to the new city to lend aid to this calling. Shortly before we would have arrived, we were attacked, while I survived, along with my yeoman Patrick, I can not say the same for the others. I'm uncertain as to their fate, as my horse was injured and fled after sustaining an arrow injury. It fled too far for our own good before dying from its wound. Patrick and I arrived a day before I was due to sign up for service with the new government. The city, if you could call it that, had no sense of permanency to it at all, and looked more like a refuge camp then an actual city. The next day brought more aggravation. While waiting in a long line with hundreds of unwashed bodies, I was informed that I required some sort of letter to serve on the senate. Since I did not have such a letter, I had to settle to degrading myself to serving in the military ranks, and convince these people I'm more worthy of a better position. In order to serve in the military they required us to perform various tests of physical competence. The first test required me to lower myself to wrestling a brawny human by the title of Bayor of Stonefork. I suppose one could best describe Bayor as boastful, strong, and a cheater. The rules of the contest clearly stated no hitting one's opponent, and he did just that, thus disqualifying him. The second contest was a test of sure footedness. A young, reckless, flashy human by the name of Rune pushed his way to the front of the line to go first. He tried to casually walk across the rope first, landing flat on his butt for his efforts. He tried again, and managed to slip once more, almost keeping his footing before falling once more. Out of the tokens needed to continue the tests, he was unable to try again. I stepped up to the step and walked across the rope with an elegance and grace befitting a man of my station. Once I got to the other side, I even offered the human Rune a hand up to his feet. The third contest was an archery contest. Using a crossbow, bow, or sling, you had to knock an apple off a stump. My first shot went astray as the crossbow had a slight rightward pull to it, so it cost me one of my 3 tokens, but my second shot pierced the apple clean without knocking it from its perch as I adjusted for the pull in the crossbow. After the 3 physical contests were completed we had to choose between 1 of 4 senators. An elderly man, an elven woman, a halfling, and a human women. I decided while standing before the woman would be ideal, I would be better served appealing to the wisdom of my elders and chose the elderly man. The man, Senator Karnel, spoke with the dwarf in front of me, a man by the name of Newvert of Heavyrock. I would best describe Newvert as very, very, short tempered, as he refused to cross the rope, growling the whole time, and go so upset he couldn't hit the apple, that he ran over and crushed it to a pulp. When it was my turn, I stepped forward, introducing myself to the senator. We spoke but briefly of my home of Dalm, before he asked me to bring him Boffer's pear in exchange for my three tokens. Session 2: The Journey Begins. I approached Boffer, the gnome Senator Karnel had asked me to get a pear from, introducing myself to him after he beat down somebody who tried to get his pear. I told him that I was instructed to see him regarding trading the tokens for a pear. He told me that the pear was his and nobody had gotten it yet. So another challenge awaited me once again. As sought to start dialogue with the gnome on how I might get the pear, a large half-orc who was standing behind me, interrupted impatient to get his chance to take the pear from Boffer. Seeing this as an opportunity to get the pear, I allowed the half-orc to approach Boffer, while I walked towards the wagon. As soon as the half-orc made his move as I expected him to, I went for the pear from behind Boffer. Boffer noticed my move and countered before I could get the pear. Regrettably, still bewinded from the wrestling match with Bayor, his blow proved to be the breaking point of my system, knocking me out cold. I awoke a little later to the gentle touch of a woman's hands on my cheek. Her eyes filled with compassion and love unseen in many of the others. Her voice was sweet, like honey as she asked if I was ok. I replied that I would be well soon enough, then sought the honor of the name of the lady whose eyes I gazed into. She gave her name as Keeri, and mentioned that she had watched me come from Boffer's field. She asked me if I was coming in the morning, which made no sense to me until she told me of an envoy leaving the city in the morning for the Dwarven mountain of Sheerbull. I told her of my plans of joining the senate, and how I could not, so I would be interested in aiding the envoy. I volunteered aloud for all to hear, that I would serve for the envoy. I didn't do it for the pay which was horrible, but for the honor of serving a noble cause such as this. An elven woman with a sleeveless shirt and twigs also volunteered along my side, as she offered me a small smile. Her name was Valyandriel Amakiir of Opalbrook, a village I had never heard of before or seen on any maps that I was familiar with. I registered for the envoy service then stopped at a merchant cart to purchase some Bousa for myself and Patrick. The elven woman Valyandriel came up in line behind me and introduced herself to me. Being in kind spirits I purchased a meal for her as I noticed Keeri pass the cart, stopping to sniff the air and digging in her pouch for a coin. When she could not find one, turning dejected, I stopped her, purchasing a Bousa for her as well to repay her earlier kindness. We sat in a small clearing and spoke of Valyandriel's home of Opalbrook a little, while Keeri ate her bousa with surprising speed. It appears that Opalbrook was destroyed quite a while ago, and she had been travelling with her pet hawk as her only companionship since coming here. She claimed that a divine vision had led her to this place, but did not speak more of it, as she left to mediate. I was left alone with Keeri, who grew uncomfortable. She thanked me for the meal, and just before getting up, I asked her if I'd at least see her in the morning if not for the journey. She told me she was a healer, and had asked her to join the group. She grew even more uncomfortable as she nearly ran off as I bid her good night. Night passed to dreams of Keeri atop a ship mast, wind whipping through her golden hair, as she smiled down at me laughing happily. Morning brought some interesting information however. In a conversation inadvertently overheard, I heard Boffer, and Senator Seldec speak of some uncertainty that the dwarves would join their cause, and that they were bringing a child with them on the journey. I spoke with Boffer briefly about something which had troubled me, before then went to assemble with the envoy. Seldec spoke to the crowd then, of a good journey, welcoming dwarves, and unification into a new age for Oikumen, my thoughts wandered to Seldec's previous conversation with Boffer and mine with Keeri. I was concerned that there was a second truth not being told to the masses, one that would lead these people to danger, and an uncertain goal. My thoughts and the cheers of the people were interrupted by Seldec silencing the crowd, as a hawk screeched in protest. I approached Valyandriel, seeking a smile to wipe the concern from my mind, and was twice blessed to find her in the company of Keeri as well. Valyandriel extended an offer to join Keeri and her in a group, which I accepted with Keeri's blessings. Valyandriel then pulled Keeri away to talk to her of something, as Bayor of Stone Fork and Rune approached me asking of my well being. Rune made a joke of asking if I was going to remain on my feet today, which I replied to with "If Bayor allows me to remain on them." We spoke of the dangers ahead and who would be sent out first to deal with it, when Valyandriel returned and looked us over, and asked if we are all to be together. It would seem as if fate would have us together for we spent the beginning of that journey together, as we took our first break the healers were assigned to stay close to the wagon, so we joined Keeri there as we walked. We traveled for a bit longer as Boffer joined us to speak with me about his challenge when suddenly... Fire erupted throughout the convoy as the ground shook and split. A huge rocky creature emerged lifting up the wagon above it as it did, hurling it towards us and knocking us to our feet. Seldec turned on the creature shooting bolts of magic at it to little effect before the creature stomped him with a huge rocky foot. A small army of orcs then came charging from over a hill towards our caravan, easily out-numbering 35 member envoy by nearly 3 to 1 odds. They rolled into us with vengeance as I moved to protect Keeri from harm, and Boffer protected the elven child Dawn from the rock creature who now was focused on him. The 2 orcs focused on me hit me twice with their clubs, compounding my burn injuries into a near life or death situation. Keeri ran off into the direction of Boffer, as I tried vainly to regain ground my attention focused almost solely on my own defense, with Valyandriel coming up behind me. The ground shook again as the creature lifted up the wagon again hurling it into the air while advancing on Boffer. The world blacked out as the wagon landed on me and the others trapping us underneath, and knocking most of us out in the process. Session 3: A love lost, a child gone. I awoke to darkness, the cacophony of death singing out around me. After a moment of adjustment, I found myself underneath the wagon with Bayor, Rune, and Valyandriel. A familiar voice called out from beyond the wagon, as I asked if Valyandriel and Keeri were safe. "Orin... Valyandriel... ORIN!!!" It was Keeri's. "Is anyone there!?! Oh agony... Can anyone hea... Auuggghhh!!!!". Bayor, Rune and I raced to lift the wagon up in order to rescue Keeri before it was too late, but the wagon would not yield to our combined strength. I invoked a simple light sonnet to give us some light inside of the wagon to work with, then worked on trying to revive Valyandriel and Patrick to help lift off the wagon, as Bayor offered some harsh words to my "tricks". After reviving the others, I instructed everybody to carefully work to get a good grip on the wagon and lift as a team to get us out of here. The plan worked, though the sight which lay out before us is too gruesome to put into words. Littered around the blood-stained field were bodies, rarely intact. A horrid massacre. I looked for Keeri among the dead, in hopes that her healer's heart had survived by some miracle of the gods. I spotted her cloak among the dead and raced towards it, and tripped. What I tripped over was not some body, or stone, but Keeri's disembodied head, a look of horror mixed with sorrow washed over her face, the tears stained in place on her dirty cheeks. Never had I felt such sorrow as that moment, when I held her lifeless head in my hands, returning it to her body, as I shut her eyes and placed her hands on her heart. I vowed then to Keeri, an oath that I would avenge her death, or die trying. I don't know how or why my thoughts turned to that elven child who marched along with us happliy atop the wagon, but suddenly it did as I asked if anybody had found her yet. Bayor replied with a coldness "Wasn't that her head you were looking at?", words which stung at my heart like poisoned needles. I lashed back at him instinctively whatever insult came to my mind, then walked among the dead looking for the child. Bayor and Rune managed to find somebody living in a mound of corpses by the remains of the earth creature. A halfling had survived the slaughter, trapped underneath the mound of dead piled atop him. He grabbed hold of Rune's leg, as Rune passed by. We dug the halfling out, and found it to be Boffer, or at least the upper half of Boffer, who grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in close... too close. He spoke in first in his native tounge that the girl had been taken, then to tell his brother that he would wait for him, then "find the orcs... find them..." as his breath left his body, never to return. I organized the beginnings of a rescue, directing Bayor and Rune to find supplies, and giving Valyandriel time to find her pet, as I searched out the orcs' trail. As I found a trail, Bayor and Rune had decided to desecrate the dead, looting them of anything their arms could carry. As Valyandriel's bird returned to her, we set off in chase of the orcs in hopes of catching up to them before any harm came to the elf child. We travelled the fields slowly, Bayor's greed and wearing of two layers of armor slowed us quite a bit. I tried to pound some sense into his thick skull, but it was an experience akin to moving a stubborn mule. We reached the top of a hill, as we viewed the orcs reaching the edge of a forest far below. We waited there until the orcs entered the forest so as not to be seen, as Bayor finally came to his sense and removed the hide armor which was slowing him down. We headed down the hill with renewed speed stopping to deal with a narrow ravine some 40 to 70 feet deep littered with a few orc corpses. After taking the lead and jumping the ravine, the others followed suit. Valyandriel almost fell in after landing, but I steadied her, as we then headed into the forest. The trail of orcs was not hard to follow at all, a wide swath of destruction. Time was not on our side, as the last rays of sunlight were just beginning to give way to darkness. Another hour or so and only Valyandriel would be able to see with any certainty, which was not good. We stopped at a spring to get some fresh water and continued until Bayor spotted something. He snuck up to it, he pulled off his bow and shot an arrow into the ground. Then a pair of voices piped up from behind us "Do not move or you are dead.", followed by "Just kill them now."... Session 4: Horse people of the wood. The unpleasantness of the day continues as our only chance of catching up with the orcs has been foiled by a bunch of half naked humans hell bent on killing us. They arranged quite a nice little ambush hiding in the brush and behind trees, and discussed how they wished to go about killing us. When they told us to turn around it was shocking to see that they had the bodies of horses where there should be legs. Rune, of course, lacking any sort of common sense or intelligence asked "are you guys like magic monsters or something?" which prompted them to tighten their bow strings and me to insert my elbow into his ribcage. They asked us what we were doing in the forest, but obviously didn't want to hear from either Rune or I, as they told us not to talk, as they instead told Bayor to speak instead. Bayor explained to the horse people that we were not part of the orc army and that we were simply trying to rescue the elven child Dawn from them. They then began sniffing Valyandriel and Bayor, then mentioned that something called a Greal would have us soon if they let us go, but since we travelled with Valya lover of trees they wouldn't kill us or let us die. They decided to take us to a nearby clearing, as the male centaur spoke with Bayor about why we are here in the wood. Once in the clearing, we were told not to leave it and that two centaurs would remain nearby to guard us. We set up watches and laid down for the night, Rune waking me up compaining of hearing wierd screechy sounds in the middle of the night. I think I said something about it being nature or Plume or something then went back to sleep. I was already packed and ready to go, as was Valyandriel as Bayor and Rune slowly woke up. I tried to goad them into packing faster, but common folk seem much lazier then I gave them credit. The male centaur was quite chatty, asking questions that we had already answered twice already, as he lead us through the woods. I asked him a question about how best to approach and got some friction from him before he suggested following the forest to the foot of the bear, which is a mountain chain, then to follow that to the lair of the orcs. We arrived at the edge of the forest later that day, and the centaurs were kind enough to heal our wounds. As we followed the woods, our talks turned to centaurs and man and how they came to be. I don't think Valyandriel was amused by the conversation too much, and I had actually caught Valyandriel in error on the deities primarly devoted to the wood, which I found odd, since she is a follower of the ways of the wood. As we travelled along however, Valyandriel pointed out that the centaurs were still following us, though I could not see them myself. She felt paranoid that they were up to something, though I wasn't too sure myself what their intentions were myself. As we came to a large hill, we observed in the distance, a large bear-shaped mountain, and a small orc hunched down by a hole trying to grab at something. I suggested we take the orc alive to try to interrogate it and find out more about the army. Rune snuck down the hill to try to capture it, and poured a little pepper into his hands to try to blind the creature, as he jumped on his back and bounced off the other side. Bayor charged down hill slamming the orc with his shield, snapping its arm and killing it with one blow. We left the orc, following the foot of the bear to the entrance to a large cave. Bayor started to approach the entrance, while I slowly made my way closer to the entrance from its north side trying to remain under cover, when we heard the sound of roaring. All at once, dozens of screaming orcs came pouring out of the cave's entrance... |