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Post by xenocide on May 31, 2011 1:40:21 GMT -5
Hey all, this is a little story i have been writing in a notebook for who knows how long. Ive finally decided to type it up, so as i do im going to post it here. feel free to critique it as much as you want. just remember this: its still in a rough draft stage, so alot of smaller details (as in, the really important things that make the characters come alive) will be missing.
hope you all enjoy =)
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Post by xenocide on May 31, 2011 1:42:12 GMT -5
Characters:
Ariana (archer ranger) Drake (Trickster Rogue) Guiles (Control Wizard)
Ariana, Drake, and Guiles, three adventurers had planned a raid on the Archon fortress just outside their home base of Caldenhielm, a dwarven city set deep into the mountains. After much thought and deliberation, they set off to take the riches that must be held there.
Entering the fortress would be easy enough; there was one bridge between the city and the fortress. After that normally unguarded bridge, there where two guard houses on the path that could be avoided with only some mild hiking and some luck. Coming up to the bridge, rock formations started getting taller and taller. The bridge itself was a rope-and-wood bridge, spanning a twenty-foot chasm that dropped some six hundred feet into the mountain.
Ariana was the first to spot the Fire Archons guarding the bridge. Motioning to her allies Drake and Guiles, She hides behind a 25-foot tall rock formation to spy on the guards. The guards where positioned on the opposite side of the bridge and watched in the general direction of the group. Guile climbed carefully up a sixty-foot tall formation and gathered intelligence then sent his raven familiar to relay that information to his teammates. Ariana, noting that she could jump from the rock formation behind her across the chasm, climbs the formation and sneaks to the edge to get a good look. After explaining what she was going to do to get the Archon’s attention, she takes two steps back. Taking a deep breath and steeling herself, she pulls out two freezing arrows, breaks into a run, and jumps the chasm. Guiles, seeing she is gonna make it but will be hurt on landing, casts featherfall on her so she will land easily. As she is crossing the chasm mid-air, Ariana uses the ability Attacks on the run, slamming both archons with freezing arrows, slowing them and turning off their fire auras. Hitting the ground on her feet. She keeps running to another nearby rock location to climb up, as both the archons try and give chase.
As Ariana hits the ground, Guiles casts levitation on himself, Letting him jump off his 60 foot platform and float gently down onto the bridge. Meanwhile, Drake had dashed up behind the slower of the two archon and knocked it unconscious with his frost long sword. The first archon spins around, surprised at the two newcomers, just in time to get sprayed by a ray of frost from Guile. The archon, nearly dead, starts to teeter, but just as it straightens itself upright to attack the wizard two arrows sprout from the side of its head, killing it and knocking its body into the crevasse. The other archon, still unconscious, gets its head lopped off. Ariana climbs down from the small formation she had climbed up on and motions for the group to keep moving- it wouldn’t be long before they where found out now.
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Post by xenocide on Jun 1, 2011 12:05:27 GMT -5
After skirting the first Guardhouse and going about a mile, the trio see a sight almost too good to be true, the elementals from the second guardhouse marching towards the first! Counting 40 archons and four elemental hounds, the group waits and watches them pass. After a few short minutes the entirety of the group is by. Seizing the moment for what it is, the trio dashes as fast as they can for the guardhouse.
The house itself, a solid stone building hewn into the walls of the canyon, had but two entrances and three windows. Cut directly into the canyon side and butted up against the pathway, anyone trying to get into or out of the keep would have to pass through and would have been spotted, if it weren’t for the fact seventy percent of the occupants had just marched towards the first guardhouse.
Seeing that there are still some guards about, Guiles decides to step forward and make life simple. Uttering some unknown language quietly and making gestures with his hands, the guards nod off to sleep one by one. After the last guard falls asleep, He motions for the other two. Seeing its their turn, Ariana and Drake move silently, slaying each archon outright, one by one.
Guiles, after catching his breath, walks to the edge of the path. There, set into the mountain itself, are a pair of doors, hewn from the same stone as the mountain. This was not the front door to the keep, rather it was the back door and emergency escape if something where to attack and the caretakers of the keep be unable to defend themselves without dying. Inscribing a rune on the door and uttering some phrases, a small, blue key appears in front of the lock. Speaking another phrase, the key slides easily into the lock and a soft ‘click’ can be heard. The door swings easily open.
Ariana and Drake enter the hall beyond first, as a wizard isn’t much of a fighter if there where to be people about. Luckily, no one is in the hallway. Walking easily down the empty hall and into the next room, Drake pulls out a map and points. The location where they are is in the third floor of the keep, their target four floors down. Tracing an imaginary line through the keep, he and Ariana agree on a pathway that would be easiest to get through. Drake waves a hand over the map itself, blanking the parchment. Guiles makes a ‘humph’ noise, as to his disdain of Drake using a magic map. ‘it takes out the fun of these adventures’ he thinks to himself. Drake just smiles.
After passing through two more hallways unnoticed, the group comes up on a small room with three archon, discussing what to have for dinner. After waiting several minutes and deciding the archon have no plans on leaving, Drake decides its time to play with a new toy. Pulling out the map and showing that the group is to go left down the hallway in the room, he motions that he will lead the archon right. Placing a hand on the small pendant at his neck and muttering something under his breath, he disappears.
Waiting several seconds, they hear footsteps from the right pathway. Drake walks into the room, the archon staring at him. “Hey, I’m lost. Anyone know a way outta here?” smiling, Drake runs back down the hallway from which he had came. The three archon, unsheathing their swords, run after him. Guiles and Ariana, taking the chance to move on, rush through the room and down the other hall. After passing through two more small alcoves, they come upon a flight of stairs. Hearing footsteps, Guiles takes a breath and mutters a phrase, casting invisibility on himself and Ariana.
Ten guards rush out of the stairway and into the hall they had just came from. Whispering a small curse, Ariana pulls a magic arrow out of her quiver and notches it. At that point, a hand reaches out and places it on her arm. Startled, she levels the arrow at the person’s head. Drake, with the blunted point in his face, is all smiles.
The group, now back together, races down the stairs for two floors. To their left lies a hallway as well as straight ahead. Pulling out the map and glancing at it, Drake sees that the next stairway is only a hundred feet away. Peaking out of the stairway and into the hall, Drake Sees four guards down the hallway they have to go down.
Preparing to run again, Ariana places a hand on Drake’s shoulder. Taking the same arrow from before and re-notching it, she steps straight into the hallway and shoots the arrow at the cluster of guards.
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Post by xenocide on Jun 1, 2011 16:04:18 GMT -5
The guards dive out of the way, two hitting the floor and two pressing up against the wall. The arrow’s blunted tip strikes the wall just behind them, exploding in a cloud of smoke and gas. The archons take four steps before they fall, unconscious, on the floor. Smiling and walking forward, Ariana puts a regular bolt through each creature’s head. Drake, ever the opportunist, steps into the stairway and looks for guards. Guiles stands still and watches Ariana.
“Sleep-inducing arrows? Those are new.” He asks. “Yeah, picked ‘em up at a bazaar a month a go. Seems it was a good idea.” She says and smiles. “What? You afraid your sleep spell is second-best now?’ “Humph. Not a chance. You, my girl, can miss.” Guiles says as he walks into the stairway. Ariana just smiles and follows.
At the bottom of the stairs Drake stands, peering into the hall. He motions for both of them to stop, pulling out his map. He shows them that there are twelve guards in total, and that it’s the only entrance into the rooms they want into. Putting the map away, he motions that four are up against the far wall about seventy feet away, and the rest are sitting around the room lounging. Ariana, peering out of the open doorway, confirms this. Six in total are mages, four more are archers, and the last two swordsmen. They had chosen their guards well- anyone trying to rush down the hallway would easily be taken out before they got to the group.
Ariana motioned for the group to step back. She whispers ‘Drake and I will attack the mages at range. Guile, you Sleep the archers and swordsman, ok?”
Guile and Drake nod. Ariana slides to one side of the door, Drake the other. Guile stands at ready, waiting for the cue. On the count of three, drake jumps into the room and throws a pair of daggers the length of the hall, embedding them in the chests of two of the mages. At the same time, Ariana rolls on the floor into the room, standing upright and launching a magic arrow that splits midair and takes out two more mages with shots to the head and chest.
Guile, as their attacks hit their targets, simply walks out of the doorway and waves his hand. The remainder of the guards fall, save the two mages. Furious, the two mages cast blasts of fire at the trio. Guile throws up a shield of force as Ariana and Drake dodge out of the way. As if thinking with the same mind, Drake and Ariana both launch another projectile, slaying the remaining two mages outright.
After stepping lightly through the sleeping guards and slaying them one at a time, the trio gets to the doorway and finds it locked. Drake pulls out his thieves’ tools and begins to work, but stops and listens mid-task. “Voices from the other side. Heading this way!” he says and ducks to the side of the door and pulls out his shortsword. Ariana backs into a corner on the opposite side of the wall, and Guile does the same behind Drake.
After a few seconds, the tapping of footsteps can be heard from inside. A clink sounds, and the door swings open. A single archon steps forth, dressed in the clothes of royalty. Before asking questions all three let loose, an exploding arrow from Ariana, slashing through the archons legs from Drake, and a bolt of pure frost from Guile. The archon falls in a heap.
“Guile! That coulda been my head!” says Drake. “Well, shouldn’t have gotten in my way then.” Guile retorts. “Let’s go guys” says Ariana.
Entering the stairwell behind the door, the trio creeps around the spiral staircase. Slowly but steadily, they work their way into the room beyond. After clearing the room of its trio of guards, they take in the mounds of treasure in the room.
After a few seconds, Guile notes “You know, this is almost like the hoard of a dragon…” “I know, it’s odd, isn’t it?” Drake responds. After a few minutes of muttering incantations, Guile summons a heavy wooden chest. The trio fills the chest full of items and gold, and then he banishes the chest. Each grabs what items they can carry and head out the way they came. The archon, in a complete uproar over something at the opposite end of the keep, don’t notice the group escape. After leaving the area and rushing through the mountainside, they realize just what was happening at the other end of the keep: a nearby tribe of orcs where attacking the front, and where winning. Saying a silent prayer to the gods, they continue down the path towards the bridge. As the group enters the vicinity of the first guardhouse, they begin to see bodies. Some archon, some orc, all where dead.
“It would seem that they sent some of their forces here to draw soldiers away from the front, then had these troops lead them farther afield.” Guile notes as he walks through the guard station. “Pretty well thought out, for orcs.”
“It is rather odd… regardless, lets move” Drake retorts as he picks his way over a group of bodies.
“Sounds good to me.” Ariana says at the edge of the clearing. Following the path a little farther, they get to the bridge to find it’s been broken apart.
“Lovely.” Guile says, starting to gesture with his hands. After a few minutes, the three feel as though they are extremely light. They all easily jump the crevasse and work their way through the woods back to town.
4 hours later, at the governor’s assembly-
“Calm down, everyone!” The mayor exclaims. “Thanks to the raid that Drake, Ariana, and Guile performed, we know now we very well might have orcs living right next door. Being that THAT”S NOT A GOOD THING, we are here to decide how to deal with it. Anyone want to volunteer any ideas?”
Drake raises his hand and stands. “Sir, we could send another raiding party. Sending in a larger group. The three of us” as he says this he waves to the other two “have already been into part of the keep. We have the means to get in and out easily, so why not just get rid of them outright?”
As he sits, another man raises to a standing position. Looking at the mayor, he says “My name is Rike. I'm a mercenary. I’ll go on this mission. For a fee, of course Mr. Mayor. I have a team of mercenaries that would work for you if you want us.”
Does anyone else have any other ideas?” the mayor asks of the assembly. Seven hundred people had made their way to the assembly when they heard that orcs where living nearby.
“Anyone? If no one wishes to speak up, then lets vote on this action. All those in favor, say aye!” a chorus of ayes comes from the crowd. “all those opposed say nay.”
Complete silence responds.
“So be it. Drake, Ariana, and Guile, would you be willing to go back in?” He asks. Drake, standing, says “Sir, we are not opposed. There was a large cash of treasure in the keep. We ask that we have first dibs on any loot available in return for our services.” “so be it.” The mayor retorts, then looks at Rike. “Mister Rike, what is the fee, and how many mercenaries do you have?”
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Post by xenocide on Jun 5, 2011 15:06:45 GMT -5
Rike smiles, standing again. “There are three of us, sir. As for the payment, we wouldn’t mind doing this if we where allowed a share of the hoards in the castle. If it is as large as Mister Drake says it is, there should be more than the six of us could carry.”
“That seems fair. Then the six of you will be our initial party. You are tasked with infiltrating and-“ Drake and Rike both stop the mayor.
“Mr. Mayor,” Drake starts, “ I don’t see the need in sending more than six of us. We are more than capable of handling this. If we set out tomorrow evening, we should have enough time to prepare and yet the orcs will not have had enough time to scour the keep. You and your townspeople should figure out what they plan on doing afterwards. Until then, we can handle dispelling some orcs.”
“I agree Mr. Mayor” Rike says. “The more people you send in, the more die. While I'm a fan of battle, wasted lives are wasted lives.
After a moment, the mayor concedes. “Fine. Your lives are in your own hands. We will send troops to fortify the keep the following morning. Rout the enemy and hold it until then.” He sits back in his chair, exhausted. “If there is anyone else with emergency business to attend to regarding this topic, please present it now. No? Fair enough. We have a definite method of dealing with the orcs. Those who wish to leave my do so. Those who wish to stay and discuss how to handle the keep from that point forward, please stay.”
As the mayor continues to speak, Rike, Ariana, Drake and Guile all stand and leave. Once outside, Rike looks at the trio. “You three know the ins and outs of that place, eh?” he says. “To an extent. And we have ways of knowing where we are going.” Guile responds. “Very nice. My name as you heard, is Rike. Point me in the right direction and I’ll beat down just about anything!” He says with a laugh. “My friends will be here shortly. Mind waiting around to meet them?” “Not at all.” Ariana says, notching an arrow. Pointing it at a nearby tree, she lets it fly. With a THUD it hits the trunk and vanishes. Seconds later, it reappears in her hand, piercing an apple. She pulls out the arrow and starts to munch on the apple.
Within minutes they where joined by two females. The first, a taller, pale woman who’s skin had a tinge of green to it. She wore a simple green one-piece that split down the back. She looked almost feral, with her eyes green spheres, deep and brooding. The second, a shorter, tanned woman, had bright yellow eyes and wore a black dress that barely reached her calves and left almost nothing to the imagination. She seemed almost out of place, her dress and the way she moved from another time.
“Rike, how did the good mayor respond to our offer?” The shorter woman asked. “Exactly as we hoped, my dear Ashedin. We also have these three to join us tomorrow.” He waves his hand towards Guile, Ariana, and Drake. “They know how to maneuver in the keep, more or less.” “Good. Can we leave now?” The taller woman asks. “I’m afraid not, my dear.” Ashedin says. “Rike fails to inform you that we are setting out tomorrow afternoon to deal with the keep.” Rike practically snarls at Ashedin. “ What have I told you about reading my mind, woman?!” “Oh hush, it’s the easiest way to get anything out of you.” Ashedin replies, then turns to Guile. “Nice to meet you, Guile, Ariana and Drake. You’ve met Rike by now, I am Ashedin, and this is” “Tinshyia.” The taller one says. “Before you ask- yes I'm a shapeshifter. Now that that’s out in the open, can I leave? I’ll be in the woods if you need me.” She says and walks off. “Poor thing, hates civilization but can’t be without the company of humanoids.” Ashedin sighs. “But on to the matter at hand. You all know the way through. We are nothing to sneeze at when it comes to combat. Let us hope all goes well, and drinks will be on Rike’s tab when we come back!” she giggles again and walks off. “See you tomorrow!” “My tab! You still owe me for the last inn we stayed at!” He yells after her. “Thanks for meetin’ em. See ya t’marrow.” He says and follows ashedin, muttering about women as he walks.
Drake is the first to speak. “Well, this will be lovely. Didn’t have to pry any information out of them, now did we?” “True that, I suppose.” Ariana says. “She’s a warlock.” Guile says.
Drake and Ariana turn to look at him, surprised. “Who?” They ask in unison. “The short girl. Ashedin was her name. She’s a warlock- and a strong one too.” He half muses, as he thinks. “Is she a threat to us or the town?” Drake asks. “Well, to be honest, I don’t know. She has a lot of power. I can tell that. She’s also very good at manipulation. But how far her powers extend… and what she will do with them… I don’t rightfully know.” “Great.” Ariana says, “now we gotta watch our fronts AND our backs.” “And is that really anything new?” Drake says with a smile. “We will be fine.” “I have to agree with Ariana.” Guile says, “I don’t like this. Man, just when I thought I was gonna be able to be lazy for a while….” Ariana laughs, “Guile, you are always lazy. You just hide it well.” “Humph. See what happens you decide to jump across a cliff next time then.” He says, “I'm out for the night. I’ll meet you guys at noon to decide what we are gonna do with all this” After saying his last words, Guiles erupts in a cloud of blue smoke, teleporting away. “Well, I'm off too.” Drake says. “I know where there is a card game I want to get in on, and it’s gonna start here soon.” “Fine. May the gods watch over you.” Ariana says, and then shouts after him- “So you don’t cheat those men out of their money!!”
NOON, THE NEXT DAY-
Ariana, Guile, and Drake meet at the north gate and discuss tactics and their new comrades. They agree to see what comes of them, but to be on guard. They leave to prepare for the evening.
Sundown-
“Well, we are all here.” Guile says, looking around. They had met at the East Side of town, outside the east gate. His eyes linger momentarily on the warlock, but then keeps going. “We are to go into the keep and slay as many of the orcs as possible between now and sunup tomorrow. We figure that entering the same way we did last time will be the most effective, keeping a low profile till about midnight, then commencing our assault. That way, we can keep most of our strength and maximize the damage we do before our allies get there. Any questions?”
Everyone shakes their head, showing that they are ready to leave. “ok then, lets head-“ his sentence gets cut off as a rock, about the size of an apple, lands at his feet. After a second of looking at it, he kicks it as hard back the way it came- it exploding only seconds after he had kicked it. In the distance they see somewhere near a hundred orcs, some with bows, others with swords and shields.
“What the heck!” Ashedin says, exasperated. Drake pulls a pair of his daggers out, and Rike prepares for combat. Tinshyia, after a second of thought, takes the quarterstaff strapped to her pack and holds it out in front of her, ready to fight.
“Drake,” Guile says, “ you’re probably our fastest runner. Go let the guards know what’s happening out here.”
Sheathing his daggers, he reaches down and taps his boots. “Ight.” He says, dashing Straight at a tree. Just before slamming into it, he disappears. “Good. All we have to do is hold them until the guard gets here.” Ariana says, look at the group of orcs trudging their way. “We can do that.” Tinshyia says quietly. “Yeah.” Rike says, shrugging off his pack and tossing it halfway back to the gate. “Rike, can you force the gate closed?” Guile asks, “if you can do that for us, at least half of it, that way we can fall back to the gate if we have to.” “Who put you in command? But that’s a good idea.” Rike says, trudging back towards the gate.
The orcs where in arrow range by the time Rike gets back, and Ariana was spraying them with arrows as fast as she could.
“Time to use your magic arrows yet?” Guile asks as he starts to mutter to himself. He slowly raises and lowers his hands, causing a small cloud to form about midway between him and the orcs.
“Cloud of Daggers?” Ashedin asks “Yeah. Won’t do much, but will help out some.” Guile looks at Ariana, and mutters to himself for a second. After waving at her twice, her arms and bow begin to glow. “There. Should help you not wear out your arms before they get here.”
The orcs, ignoring the attacks from the group, continue to march forward. After several more minutes, they hit Guile’s Cloud of Daggers, but that still doesn’t seem to make a dent on them. Guiles is the first to spot why- “Dear gods, they’re undead!” he proclaims, taking a step back. “And there are A LOT. I count nearly four hundred coming this way!” he turns towards Rike. “Get to the gate and start closing it, we can’t handle this many! We will be behind you!” he turns to Ariana, who is still firing volley after volley of arrows into the oncoming foes. “Dear, that’s not going to work without some head shots. Your freezing arrows would do you better” Ariana nods mid-draw, and switches to a different type of arrows on the next shot. Her arrows now, once they hit their target, would shoot frost onto all those nearby, slowing them down.
Ashedin, in the mean time, had been incanting. With several waves of her hands, she sends out several walls of pure force to hold the enemies at bay, then starts running towards the town. Tinshyia, stashing her staff and transforming almost seamlessly into a tiger, picks up Ashedin and runs for the town as well.
Drake suddenly bursts from a nearby tree, landing beside Guile, kneeling from the force of the landing. Looking up and seeing the look on Guile’s face, he mutters the words “Shit, undead.’ And takes off towards Ariana. Ariana, deciding its time to fall back, starts running. “Next time, don’t wait until they get within arms length of you!” Drake yells, running beside her. Guiles, in the meantime, had cast a jump spell on him self, and was leaping his way back to the gates. He flies through and shouts, “Start shutting them!”
As Guile lands, he looks out the gates. Four hundred, at the minimum, zombie orcs, where headed directly for the town. Drake and Ariana, meanwhile, got through the gates just as they where shut, the bar slamming down to keep the zombies out.
“Guile! Ariana! Master Drake! Are you ok!?” The Mayor of the town comes running up to them, his face red from the effort.
“Fine, mayor. For now, at least. You saw what was going on here, right?” Guile responds. “Yes, but I am afraid I have bad news. All three gates are currently in such peril. No one will be able to get in or out of this place until we deal with this menace.” He sits down, drinking some water from a canteen.
“Guile, you’re our resident mage. What can we do in this situation?” He asks. “Well,” Guile says, “they didn’t act like your normal zombies. They still acted like orcs, all though they didn’t seem to feel pain. I watched Ariana shoot easily seventy arrows into them with no effect. My Cloud of Daggers didn’t seem to make them pause, either.” He says, the gates starting to thump loudly from the orcs outside. “I think, sir, we need to figure out what will kill one of them first. Get Ariana to the top of the gate” Guile says to Drake as he passes by. “Have her hit every location she can think of to try and kill these things. When she finds the right spot, let me know”
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