# seasong's Light Against the Dark III (Sep 29th)



## seasong (May 19, 2003)

Light Against the Dark I and (PDF version)
Light Against the Dark II (PDF version coming soon)

The Character Sheets
The Website

In brief summary:

Our heroes, Bellos, Greppa and Merideth, are citizens of the city-state Theralis, devoted to bringing their home through the developing crises safely and well. Although Theralis has begun to turn the tide against the orcs, there are disturbing hints that that the battles fought so far were merely the side effects of a greater war... one between the gods themselves.

In investigating the causes of the war, Greppa has encountered and spoken with a fiend... a lost God consigned to the infernal realms a thousand years or more ago, during the last major upheaval among the gods. He has decided to investigate the allegations of the fiend, and determine for himself what his goddess Allas is not telling him. Merideth has agreed, and Bellos, though wary of the fiend, continues to accompany the two.

We join them as they leave Tuoma, a northern city-state (and the locus of trade between The North and the southern city-states) to head east... into the very heart of orc expansion.

For more details, see Part I and Part II!

Our heroes:

Bellos the Brewer: Taller than either of the other two, but still something of a midget beside the real warriors of Aglaonis and Theralis both, Bellos is a slender, athletic man with dark, curly locks, a tan, unshaven face, and dark, dangerous blue eyes. A thick, meat cleaver-like iron sword (common to the Aglaonis region) lays across his back, a thick leather belt holds his tunic tight, and winged sandals adorn his feet. He wears steel bracers, and a white cloak of a long-forgotten militant Order of Allas. He bears a birthmark in the shape of Allas' symbol upon his neck.

Greppa of Tartwater: A fragile-looking ellini barely topping five feet, Greppa looks to be seventeen years of age, but in truth he is an arcanist of near-legendary calibre, already the equal of any Theralese arcanist save two. He has caramel skin, auburn hair, and dark, intense eyes. He bears the same birthmark as Bellos, but placed on his upper right chest, just below the collarbone. He is dressed in a dark, ankle-length tunic (held by a thick leather belt), a finely stitched coat, steel bracers, and a white silk cloak. He bears no weapons save a knife.

Merideth of Southbottom: A slender, pale woman with short, black hair and wide, dark eyes, Merideth has blossomed into a powerful and attractive mindworker whose servant background is rarely suspected. She bears the same birthmark as the other two, but on her left calf. Merideth wears a practical knee-length tunic (held by a thick leather belt) and coat, both dark brown, steel bracers, and the white silk cloak and clasp of Allas. She carries a single spear, made by a long-forgotten militant Order of Allas, and wears an even more ancient circlet upon her brow from the buried military of Kithios.


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## seasong (May 19, 2003)

*Good People*

_They're just tribesfolk_, Bellos reminded himself. A staunch Aglaonese citizen, he lacked any real love of the tribes, although he respected their valor in combat. Greppa and Merideth, however, seemed to be half orc themselves. They had been running to Chatham's ward drum for days now, stopping at practically every tribal camp they had come across and spending a day just... hanging around.

Socializing - it wasn't what Bellos liked best, by a long stretch. He preferred clean wilderness, solitude, or crushing battle. He did not prefer consorting with enemy fiends, lollygagging with tribals, or watching Greppa summon Uripedas just to groom and chat. And yet... _The things I do for Allas_, and he shook his head and continued to watch.

He understood, essentially, what was going on. They needed supplies kept light, and trading with tribals for meat along the way was a good idea. It was the fact that trading seemed to take all day, while Greppa shared drinks with shamans and Merideth practically hung on Chatham's arm, and while Chatham swapped constant stories with the current tribals... that was what grated the most.

He smiled when he needed to. He played dumb. He watched. And then Merideth took him aside... "You think we are wasting our time." It was not a question.

He sighed, "Look, Merideth, we spend a day with every tribe we come across. What am I supposed to think? That we are rushing?"

"You're the expert about the wild. How far have we come?"

Warily, he looked at her, "I'm not sure, perhaps.." his eyes widened. He looked at the stars. He thought back over the past week of running. Quietly, almost in awe, "Four hundred miles. At a minimum."

"Without Chatham, and without stopping for the tribes, how far would we have gotten?"

"Perhaps half that."

"So we go at Chatham's pace, agreed?"

Stiffly, his eyes narrowed at her tone, "Agreed. You could have just said that."

"You did not hear anyone when it was said the first time, a week ago. I decided it would be better if you heard it from yourself, instead of us." She paused, then looked at him warmly, "I know you don't always agree with us. I can sense your frustration. But until you give your opinion, there is no way for Greppa to accomodate it."

"Does Greppa accomodate your opinions?"

Merideth just grinned, then, mischievously, "He doesn't get much choice. I can have very loud opinions." Then, satisfied that she had averted as much ill will as she could between the two men, she nodded and wandered off to hang on Chatham's arm.

Bellos continued to sit where he was. And think.


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## Nail (May 20, 2003)

Good summary and descriptions.  Excellent interlude. 

They certainly do have lots of thick leather belts between them, don't they?


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## Talix (May 20, 2003)

Yay new thread!  

I'm definitely sensing that this new group isn't quite as bonded together as the old one - and with very good reason (less time together, different backgrounds, etc.).  Poor Bellos seems left out a lot of the time paired with a couple of spellcasters.  I know you described his sling-shots as bone-crushing, but did they really make that much of a difference?

Not that I'm dissing on Bellos' player, mind you - I just worry about how long this grouping can last!  

In the meantime, though, excellent storytelling as usual, seasong; thanks!


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## TwoSix (May 29, 2003)

Bump!


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## Serpenteye (May 30, 2003)

Bump


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## Indigo Veil (May 30, 2003)

Just a quick note to faithful readers. 

Not sure why seasong hasn't mentioned this, but (unless there is one today) there likely won't be an update this weekend either, because he and one of his players are going to an anime convention in Dallas.

Have a safe trip, guys. Good luck in the dealers' rooms--hard to leave those places with your wallet still intact. ^^;;


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 4, 2003)

<realizes it's her turn to bring this thread back to page 1, and does so with a small _bump_ of her hip>

C'mon, seasong...the last update was on the 19th of May, and I _know_ that unlike other people (me, for example), you don't _actually_ take that long to scribble out an update. ^_^ 

Don't make me break out the pom poms. I look stupid with pom poms. ^^;;


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## seasong (Jun 4, 2003)

I'm still around. Personal stuff + work stuff + other stuff = no updates for way too long. There will also be no update this week, but I'm setting aside Saturday to try to catch up again.

Anyways, I apologize for the period of absence. The fastest way to kill a following is to not update for a while, and I'll do my best to make it up to those of y'all who hung around.


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## Capellan (Jun 4, 2003)

seasong said:
			
		

> *Anyways, I apologize for the period of absence. The fastest way to kill a following is to not update for a while, and I'll do my best to make it up to those of y'all who hung around. *




Will there be abject apologies and pleas for forgiveness?  Those are always fun! 

He said, blithely ignoring how long it has been since his own SHs were updated. 

I suspect there are still quite a few of us lurking out here 


edit: their <> there and plees <> pleas


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## seasong (Jun 4, 2003)

Capellan said:
			
		

> Will there be abject apologies and plees for forgiveness?  Those are always fun!



Heh. No, I keep my eyes forward, on the _road_... the people lying squished on the road behind me are an unfortunate distraction from the business of driving.







> I suspect there are still quite a few of us lurking out here



I hope so . And if not, maybe I can lure 'em back.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 4, 2003)

_the people lying squished on the road behind me are an unfortunate distraction from the business of driving._

Ah-HAHAHAHAHAHAA! Fifty points per pedestrian hit, doubled if you leave a trail of blood in your wake!  <---- an inadequate emoticon. I need something that shows a real belly laugh. ^_^

_And if not, maybe I can lure 'em back._

Yeppers. We have faith in you, Tomma-chan. =^.^= <giggle> Eh. Tomasu-kun. Er. Shiisongu-san. Bleh. ^^;;;


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## dave_o (Jun 4, 2003)

Indigo, you remind me so much of my girlfriend it's frightening.

She's an animeSPAZfangirl, too.


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## seasong (Jun 5, 2003)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> Yeppers. We have faith in you, Tomma-chan. =^.^= <giggle> Eh. Tomasu-kun. Er. Shiisongu-san. Bleh. ^^;;;



So which is it, am I a chan, san or kun?


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 5, 2003)

Dave said:

_Indigo, you remind me so much of my girlfriend it's frightening._

<grins, and wiggles an' waggles her fingers around, and speaks with a cheesy sound effects voice> SpOooOooOOoky....

_She's an animeSPAZfangirl, too. _

Nyah.  You're just jealous because...uhm...because anime kicks butt all over the place. and besides. I've not watched any anime in over a year. (though I *am* going to an anime con in Jersey next week. Whoo!)

and I *do* actually know some stuff about Japanese language and culture that I don't get from anime. I actually started taking classes so that it would help me get over my reluctance to learn my native Chinese, but it hasn't really worked. Frighteningly enough, seasong's Queen of Shadows campaign has sparked more desire to (re-)learn Chinese than learning Japanese has given me thus far.

Thomas said:

_So which is it, am I a chan, san or kun? _

Ha. I guess...you're like my brother, so I might as well just go with "-chan." "'Nii-chan!"<acts like Sakura Kinomoto and stomps a hamster slippered foot on yours> 

Mmmm. no better way to start a morning than with a resounding foot stomp. ^_^


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## Nail (Jun 5, 2003)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> *Mmmm. no better way to start a morning than with a resounding foot stomp. ^_^ *



And then follow it up with "Yee-haw!", right?

Texans.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 5, 2003)

Nail said:

_And then follow it up with "Yee-haw!", right?_

<laugh> I guess I deserve that one, as I have that in the "location" section of my description thingee over in the left column there. Funny that I'm now being poked at with my own jab at Texans. ^^;;; (because I meant the 'yeehaw' in the location thing sarcastically. ^_^  y'know, in case it wasn't clear.)

_Texans._

Only temporarily. I do intend to move back to New York at some point. <smile> It'll always be home, and I miss it lots. Thomas is Texan. <sticks her nose haughtily up in the air> I'm not. ^_^

<drops her own hijack of the thread (because it's lasted a while already ^^;; ), so that later readers might not be so confused when the updates return>

Sorry for talking about nothing for so long, Tomma-chan. ^.^ What can I say? I'm good at that. ^^;; But I'll stop now. ^_^


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## Nail (Jun 9, 2003)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> *(because I meant the 'yeehaw' in the location thing sarcastically. ^_^  y'know, in case it wasn't clear.)*



It was.  

...and I'm workin' on that ironic thing.  Better keep at it, I guess.

Come on, Seasong!  Go, story-hour-author, Go!  <insert Speed Racer theme song>


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## seasong (Jun 11, 2003)

A quick recap, for the long pause in between. Bellos sent a missive to Thelanna about his concerns for Greppa's wavering loyalty to Allas (and in the process taught the Allas priesthood Greppa's idea for using lantern archons for mail); Greppa sent a missive to Captain Agina explaining his misgivings about Allas, given the facts; and everyone left Tuoma for the east, to find the Buhkenahk tribe that (according to Belial) was driving the whole "invading orcs" thing.

The following is a variety of impressions of the travel, and tidbits, so I can get caught up. I will add more impressions as I go, but here's two that I wanted to get out so I could continue.

*Travelling East*

*Culture*

Greppa and Merideth, the only ones who had spent much time enslaved to the Bunahken, rapidly revised their opinion of orcs... yet again. Accustomed to thinking of the tribes as crude brutes, the level of sophistication surprised them both (it surprised Bellos, too, but he hadn't thought himself an expert). As they passed from tribe to tribe, sometimes fighting, sometimes visiting, they slowly uncovered the richness of orc culture.

Slavery, for example, was vastly different than they had inferred from the backwater Bunahken. When tribesfolk of an opposing tribe were captured, they were treated as prizes, and while a great hero may be given a vaguely degrading job, it was in some ways more akin to inter-fraternity rivalry with an opportunity to make fun. And every month or two a pair of tribes would hold Slave Days, where they would meet, swap or ransom captured foes, trade, and feast.

In many cases, a member of a tribe who had difficulty fitting in, or did not think well for himself or herself, would volunteer to be traded for a great hero. The capturing tribe gained a less restive slave, the opposed tribe regained their hero, and the volunteer gained a life that was no harder than the nomadic tribal life... and required little to no decision making. Nor was slavery seen as permanent - many slaves who were not traded for would eventually join their "host" tribe, when they had proven themselves sufficiently, taking the rite of adulthood and becoming a full member of the tribe.

Stories were another place that showed the orc culture well. Each night, around the various fires, orcs would take turns recounting stories of their ancestors, or of the world before civilization. Sometimes a new tale would be added to the mix, when an orc had achieved something particularly great... and it was evident that these smaller tales were the source of the ancestral tales, generations later. Bellos, Greppa and Merideth all (at the prompting of Chatham) shared some of their own stories, and were rewarded with good cheer and orc laughter.

More intriguing to Merideth was the methods of trade among orcs. Within one's tribe, no actual trading occurred - one gave gifts to one's fellows, and then they owed one. Trading, it was said, was for _unehkashun_ (those who dwell in one place) such as Theralis... and it implied that one had no friends to give you what you needed. She rapidly acquired a vast and weighty interest in gift giving, and by the time they neared the Buhkenahk tribe, had healed hundreds of orcs as gifts to their tribes.

Greppa, at the height of _unehkashun_ pride, traded _earth's skin_ and _earth's strength_ to hunters in return for safe passage, meat from their hunts, and guides in areas unfamiliar to Chatham.

Bellos continued to observe, and remained quiet.

*Hydra March*

Hydras became thick and overpopulated as they travelled east. Most were on the move west, and while the group easily avoided them, it was difficult to go more than a few days without seeing one. Most seemed to be starving - their hunting grounds emptied by orc bellies, they moved west to find new hunting grounds.

The youths, no friend to hydras, found some bitter sympathy for them anyway, particularly when they passed a waterhole where a hydra lay on its side by a water hole, one head lolled into the water and its ribs still and cold.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 11, 2003)

<claps her hands> YAY! We both have updates today! ^__^

Poor hydras. <hugs one and gives it some water>

Out of curiosity, did any orcs think it strange that Bellos' companions returned orc favors, while he sat and did nothing? What did *he* trade for food?

I rather don't like Bellos, and I hope he dies.  ^^;;; He's this irritating fly that you continually swat at, but can't kill, for some reason. (there, I posted it, thomas.  <hopes she doesn't get pummeled> but, hank, don't you agree?)


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jun 11, 2003)

Yep, but the post that reveals Greppa's true feelings about Bellos is coming after Seasong gets to "the conversation."


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## Caliber (Jun 11, 2003)

Whohoo! Seasong has returned!


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## seasong (Jun 13, 2003)

*Hidden Depths*

Greppa bounced and jostled uncomfortably across Chatham's back. He'd exhausted himself at the last tribe, summoning earth spirits until he'd collapsed, so that their hunters could capture a hydra. It had been a swifter death than starvation for the hydra, and it had helped prevent starvation of the tribe... and he'd discovered that hydra liver was about the best liver one could hope for, and that hydra steak was invigorating.

But that didn't change the fact that he'd then run with Chatham and the others after two hours sleep, or that he'd drunk too much of the chunky beer along with far too much red meat, prior to his impromptu, two-hour nap. And when he'd finally collapsed again and vomited up several partially digested hydra bits, Chatham had carefully picked him up, fashioned a pappoose of vines, and slung him into place so he could rest.

If you could call it resting. Still, Greppa didn't complain - Chatham's back was a very comforting, if not comfortable, place to be.

Bellos signalled for a stop, and Chatham obediently slowed to a halt, "What is it, my wiry friend? Have you sussed a flavor in the air my nose has missed?"

"No, I had a thought."

"Ah, an even rarer breed of creature than those I normally hunt!"

Bellos grinned, "Well, it was just this - I can probably carry Greppa fairly easily, and you could probably carry Merideth. Neither of 'em are tired, but I'd be willing to bet we could cover ground better."

"Your idea has merit, indeed..."

Merideth interrupted, "Hey! I'm not a sack of grain! I can run!"

"It is true that your dimensions bear no resemblance to that of a sack, and while it is true that you can run, it is also true that your woods-minded friend and I have both had to maintain a slower pace for even your long legs."

Merideth, complimented and insulted in the same breath, was momentarily stunned. And Greppa, though he would have dearly preferred to remain with Chatham, was not about to argue that he needed to run anytime soon. They continued on, Merideth and Greppa both in orc-made papooses.

As night neared, Chatham nodded to Bellos and both split off a bit to find a likely camping spot. Bellos, however, had no such immediate intent. Instead, he found a good spot, set Greppa down, and faced him.

"We need to talk."

Greppa raised an eyebrow.

"About the fiend you are consorting with."

Greppa's insides went cold.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jun 13, 2003)

*swift correction*

My insides did not go cold. They contracted beacuse I was not feeling well and left alone and undefended with someone I didn't trust.  I was/am wary of Bellos. There was some guilt also because I had not shared with him because I didn't think he'd understand...and I was right.


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## Nail (Jun 13, 2003)

*Re: swift correction*



			
				Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> *My insides did not go cold. They contracted beacuse I was not feeling well and left alone and undefended with someone I didn't trust.  *



Sounds like a case of "cold insides" to me.....


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jun 13, 2003)

*LOL!!*

It does doesn't it? I'm just hypersensitive where Bellos is concerned. I will cease my ranting until I can do a decent in-character post.


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## Nail (Jun 13, 2003)

*Re: LOL!!*



			
				Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> * I will cease my ranting until I can do a decent in-character post. *



Which would be much appreciated.

Merideth may get my red-blooded-american-male schtick going (irony included at no extra charge!), but Greppa is my favorite character.


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## seasong (Jun 17, 2003)

I'm hoping to have the Buhkenahk up sometime today, but it depends on how much work comes across my desk. I'm skipping some stuff that has less impact later so I can catch up, sorry .

*The End Begins. Friends?*

It was a short discussion, but an intense one. Greppa yelled at Bellos. Bellos yelled at Greppa. They stomped around each other, glaring. Somewhere in the muddle, Greppa explained what Belial had told him, and of his own doubts about Allas, and Bellos explained how it hurt him that Greppa and Merideth refused to include him, and asked why they hadn't simply told him about Belial.

At the end of it, they both felt somewhat exhausted, but also cleaner. Except, perhaps, for Bellos, who had still not mentioned his letter to Thelanna.

Greppa, slumped on a log, looked across at Bellos, "So... I'm sorry. I'll work harder to include you. I'll... I'll be more open about information." The tiny _ellini_ was pretty convincingly authentic, despite the nagging thoughts of Bellos being Aglaonese rather than Theralese.

Bellos nodded back, "Thank you. I appreciate that. So, I guess we should catch up to the others, eh?"

"Eh" And Greppa grinned. There were still some things being held back, on both sides, but... the wild man from Aglaonis had begun to turn into a friend.


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## Talix (Jun 18, 2003)

Yay, the group is starting to come together!    Now maybe they won't betray each other right away when it really matters.  

And yay for Seasong being back!


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## seasong (Jun 18, 2003)

A bit of mythology. I've been wanting to post this somewhere for ages now... GLEE! 

*The Broken Knuckle*

The oldest, largest, and most powerful tribe in the world, the Buhkenahk (literally, "broken knuckle") are named for the force with which they strike their foes. They are mentioned in the chronologies of Kithios as a band of barbarian raiders who occasionally harried the eastmost borders of that great empire, and were studied _even then_ as a link to the distant past, when the orc tribes ran freely over the land. They have always dwelled near Uggrahd (literally, "up there"), their sacred mountain, and they have always been the rod against which all other tribes eventually found their measure.

According to the Wauggraht, an oral chronicle of Buhkenahk history (literally "the words from up there"), the Buhkenahk were born from the third of three orc brothers, each with the same mother but different fathers.

The first father was a god, and his son became a mighty wizard who could wander the planes at will and command eldritch energies. He was frightful to behold when he raged, and controlled the heavens and the earth at his will. But he grew away from his people, and eventually never returned from his trips into the outer planes.

The second father was a dragon, and his son became a powerful protector of nature. He had but to hold out his hand, and creatures of the natural world would put their heads to the ground for the honor to be eaten by his tribe. He was well loved by his people for a long time, but when his people displeased the dragon, his heart hardened against them, and he went to live with the dragon, becoming more and more attuned to wild, and less to his people. It is said that he was the first _koboldi_.

The third was born to a simple orc hunter, but his blood mingled in his mother's womb with that of the other two, and he was born as strong as a full grown hunter. He knew enough of the gods to reject them. He knew enough of nature to be a skilled hunter. But most importantly, he held the orc people in his heart, and taught them that their connection to their ancestors and their family was their greatest strength.

When he was a youth, he slew a man of stone who had conquered the land. Calling upon his ancestors, he struck with such force that his own hand shattered with the enemy's hardened flesh. It was then that the name Buhkenahk was first uttered, in admiration for his sacrifice to win freedom and success for his people. The tribe took the name up from then on, and has kept it ever since.

When he was an adult, he built a mighty tower to hold the bones of his tribes' ancestors, and asked that each orc bring a stone for each of their family who had died, that there might be something to cover their bones. Each year, when tribesfolk had died, stones or dirt were brought, until the tower was buried beneath a hill of stone and tears. And still he continued the tradition. For two hundred years, he built Uggrahd, until at last, the ancestors climbed down from the peak, now above the clouds themselves, and asked him to stop. "It is high enough", they said, "for we would prefer to not be too close to the gods."

When he was an old orc, he taught a few members of his tribe how to speak with the ancestors, that their wisdom would never be forgotten.

And when he was on his deathbed, he got up, so that his people would never have to care for him in his dottage or bury him in death, and climbed Uggrahd unaided, to die there among his ancestors. Ever since, it has been the rite of adulthood to climb Uggrahd and speak with one's ancestors. A gift and a price are always exacted, and these things set the motion of one's life forevermore.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jun 18, 2003)

*Last season on "Light Against the Dark"*

I tend to look at games like they are television series on a young network like Fox or UPN. Each arc is a season and each game is an episode. Since we've started playing again, I thought I'd share my little daydream of how the game is progressing. 

The threads, LAD 1 and 2 were seasons one and two. Part of season 2 extended into LAD3.  The end of season 2 was pre-empted by a new reality show called "REALITY!" and the posts that are being put up now are those pre-empted episodes. The third season has already started filming and here is the trailer. 


*Music starts* 
Montage of scenes:

 Merideth launching into the sky, cloak flapping behind her.

Bellos flitting among trees and along the surface of the swamp. 

Greppa surrounded by a horde of hyperactive glowing sunhawks. 

Narrator "With the destruction of their world  looming,"

Cut scene to a sea of orcs and giant wolves, backed by a lightning swept sky.

Narrator "The heroes are forced to look to others," 

Flash shot of Thelanna, followed by a glimpse of Belial.

Narrator, "To find their way.  They have to follow a path."

Cut scene to a phalanx of spinning and swooping sunhawks closing on a dark storm cloud led by several writhing worm-like clouds.

Narrator "One they thought they would never come to,"

Another long scene montage

A shot of a walled town followed by a downward shot of a cloud rolling through the streets and people siffening in rictus and dropping in their tracks.

A shot of Greppa and Merideth looking very angry, standing over some one.

A shot of Bellos watching a people work a mine that looks like a deep gash in the earth. 

Narrator "In order to succeed,"

A close 3/4 shot of Amalan landing in the middle of a town square.

Narrator "They will have to learn the whole picture."
*The music builds to a crescendo*

Rapid flash montage of Thelanna, Agina, Phitios, Olga, Akeros and rapid passes several people who have not been introduced to the audience. The flash montage ends with a lingering shot of a woman's silhouette surrounded by a smoky orange-red field.

*Music stops*

Narrator, "Light against the Dark" season premiere coming soon on the WB.


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## seasong (Jun 18, 2003)

You're a worse tease than me.


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## Greybar (Jun 18, 2003)

I *figured* something musta been going on over here, but my subscription failed for some reason.  gotta figure that out.

Great stuff. I love Uggrahd and can only hope that our heroes will need to go there.

I'm curious how it felt from the player and GM side to go from the incredibly close-knit group to the new composition.  I really like the fact that the roleplaying has kept the "replacement" character from suddenly and mysteriously becoming everyone's best friend.  That potentially derails some momentum on the plotline I suppose, but adds a lot of depth.



> Flash shot of Thelanna, followed by a glimpse of Belial.



Can you do that, even on UPN or Fox?  

Greppa - We had great visuals (in our heads) for the movie trailer of a game a friend of mine was running, so I know what you mean.  (Elara - great stuff - no Story Hour but a nice Live Journal, actually a couple live journals from a couple PC points of view but that's the main one).

John


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## seasong (Jun 18, 2003)

Greybar said:
			
		

> I *figured* something musta been going on over here, but my subscription failed for some reason.  gotta figure that out.
> 
> Great stuff. I love Uggrahd and can only hope that our heroes will need to go there.



Oh yes.



> I'm curious how it felt from the player and GM side to go from the incredibly close-knit group to the new composition.  I really like the fact that the roleplaying has kept the "replacement" character from suddenly and mysteriously becoming everyone's best friend.  That potentially derails some momentum on the plotline I suppose, but adds a lot of depth.



Oddly enough, we were very recently discussing this. Not with _Light Against the Dark_ specifically, but just in general. I've run campaigns that go the gamut from "loosely affiliated, selfish bastards" to "grew up together, then joined the Marines together". The discussion was about preferences..

Personally, I prefer tight knit groups. I also enjoy driving a few wedges between them (like Greppa's growing mistrust of Allas, or Merideth's secrets), but I like the idea that the group is tight enough to survive such rigors, and potentially grow even closer. And I'm quite good at building that kind of group, but...

My players often like to play worldly rakes with few cares and no close ties. Selfishness, hedonism, avarice and spite are often motivating factors in their characters, and the result is a looser "alliance" rather than a tight bond. They also enjoy the tight knit group, but they don't want an intense campaign every time they play .

So we compromise. Prior to _Light Against the Dark_ and the _Shadowrun_ campaign I'm starting up, we've had a number of very loose groups, so these two are pretty tight. I'm also running a London gothic steampunk campaign that is somewhere in the middle .


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## Greybar (Jun 18, 2003)

The risk with the loose groups is that you hit a major plot point or risk and suddenly the group shatters and the campaign ends.

"What, you meant that I'm gonna have to risk my neck in the Temple of Really Bad Things, and the only thanks I'm gonna get is from the God of Ugly Orphaned Children?  Nope, I'm outta here."

John


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## seasong (Jun 19, 2003)

ENWorld keeps logging me out. I just lost a bunch of words, and it will take a while for me to redo them.

I'm a bit frustrated, but the post should still go up sometime today.


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## Caliber (Jun 19, 2003)

Weirdness. I didn't get any mail from my subscribed threads for two days and then I get a reply email from ALL of them today.  

The history of the Broken Knuckle tribe drips coolness.


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## seasong (Jun 19, 2003)

_Well, this is a second writing of the original, due to server dodginess. I don't think it's quite as good as the first go through, but it will have to do._

*Uggrahd*

Theralis was situated in the midst of a vast mountain range, and her children understood well the effects of the atmosphere on far off sights. Mountains in the distance would fade to blueness until they disappeared in the faint fog that pervaded all of creation. But when they topped a rise and Uggrahd could be seen, a shade of violet-tinted blue against the haze of distance, they did not quite believe what they saw.

The mountain, named simply "up there" in orc, earned her name and defied the senses. She towered among the lesser mountains surrounding it, like a matronly orc among her children, until her tip, a mile further away through the atmosphere than her base, faded from view.

All paused, though for different reasons, as she came into view.

-----

Greppa reflected on the events bringing him here, and the self-confessed fiend that had provided the tantalizing hints that led him to this place. Belial had provided a map, and a mission, with his stingy bits of truth. The map showed where to find a book mentioning Belial, and the mountain they now saw.

The mission was more complicated.

According to Belial, the gods were preparing for war, and they had selected servants among mortalkind to wage it. Greppa was one, and Merideth, Bellos, and even Athan had been among those serving Allas... but there were others, serving other gods. Which meant Peladas, Xeras... perhaps even Dianas or Hethas.

The orcs had a phrase which Greppa had learned from Olgah: "When gods fight, mortals die". It was a harsh invective, usually followed by spitting, and it neatly explained the orc view of any gods other than their own trusted ancestors. And what Belial had said made a terrible kind of sense - it explained why the orcs had been moving so much, it explained why Allas was so active in Theralis again, it explained... what Athan had said in the dream, after he'd died. That something big was coming.

So here he was, hundreds of miles from home, travelling into the heart of an orc tribe that even the Breaking Cat tribe feared like the gates of hell itself, to find out what god was pushing the orcs like Allas was pushing Theralis.

If it wasn't Allas herself. Greppa thought back bitterly to Thelanna. _She_ probably had known all of this already. Knew that Theralis was a pawn in the coming divine war. And had said nothing.

He grimaced, and continued marching.

-----

Bellos stopped walking completely. He believed, sincerely, that nothing could match the beauty of raw nature, and Uggrahd made him weep inside. That he was among friends and taking this moment to experience the raw terror and exhiliration of simply _seeing_ such a monument of the natural world only made it sharper.

And for a moment, his doubts about his comrades vanished. His fear of entering the Buhkenahk territories misted into nothingness beside his desire to admire it with the People who lived in the shadow of such beauty. And the niggling guilt of not telling Greppa about his message to Thelanna even disappeared for a moment before its majesty.

When he finally jerked himself into motion, it was only to see what it looked like from one ridge, or two ridges, closer.

-----

Merideth's mind was elsewhere. Something was following them, something that danced at the very edge of her range. Something with no thoughts to read, only intent.

The intent was why she wasn't warning the others yet. It was wholly protective, and very patient. She hoped it was simply a cautious animal protecting its children (and indeed, suspected it was, despite its clever choice of range), but she kept an eye out in case that changed.

As they topped the ridge, she looked behind her, scanning the downward slope to catch it, but there was nothing there. When the others continued downslope she followed, and missed the mountain entirely.

-----

A night later, as they settled in for camp, two dozen orcs materialized from the darkening woods. Camouflaged too cleverly to see until they were in motion, they stepped from tree and brush as silently as snakes, and their leader, a massive brute bearing a spear tipped with the claw of a giant armorcat, stepped closer. "Who are you, and why do you enter the land of the Broken Knuckle?"

Greppa, momentarily stunned by the warband's sudden appearance, recovered and began to explain. They wanted to see the glory of the mountain. They wished to speak with a shaman. They wished to ask a private question of the orc ancestors.

And quietly, very quietly, in the depths of their hearts, the group hoped the answer would suffice.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 19, 2003)

Quick question.  what were Chatham's thoughts? Wasn't he with them? What did the Broken Knuckle folks think of an orc not of their tribe going into their lands, and bringing humans with him?


Hank said:
_A shot of Greppa and Merideth looking very angry, standing over some one._

You mean Bellos, right?  <refrains from cheering upon the realization that Bellos is marching closer toward the possibility of death>


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## Capellan (Jun 19, 2003)

seasong said:
			
		

> *ENWorld keeps logging me out. I just lost a bunch of words, and it will take a while for me to redo them.*




Ouch.  This is why I have taken to writing updates in a word processor, then copy/pasting, rather than typing it directly.  It saves a lot of frustration


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## seasong (Jun 19, 2003)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> Quick question.  what were Chatham's thoughts? Wasn't he with them? What did the Broken Knuckle folks think of an orc not of their tribe going into their lands, and bringing humans with him?



Chatham's thoughts may be covered later. Suffice it to say that this was reasonably painful for him, but also good.



> Hank said:
> _A shot of Greppa and Merideth looking very angry, standing over some one._
> 
> You mean Bellos, right?  <refrains from cheering upon the realization that Bellos is marching closer toward the possibility of death>



Nope, it wasn't Bellos.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 20, 2003)

*completely off topic...*

I'm not really into D&D, so I've never seen this, though this link might have already been around the block a few times. Anyway, here's a linkie to find out your stats in D&D terms. I figured this would be a good place to share it, anyway.

http://blanchard.virtualave.net/war/dndstats.html 

Mine were:

Str: 9
Int: 13
Wis: 13
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Chr: 17

Is that good? What scale is this on? Like, 9 out of...what, 50?

Also, I think it's lying on the charisma part...;; (I think I'm more intelligent than I am charismatic.) Either that, or it's taking into consideration the stereotype of the typical gamer. Bleh. (It's also funny how they spelled "intelligence" and "grammar" incorrectly in that section. ^^;; )


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## seasong (Jun 20, 2003)

That will make an interesting thread, but please don't get everyone posting their stats in this thread. The test looks reasonably well done, compared to most of its ilk.

The scale is 3 to 18. Ignore intelligence - it's based on two very faulty metrics - but the others look decently accurate.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 20, 2003)

Oops, sorry. =^.^=;;;;


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jun 20, 2003)

Actually, Chatham did not come with us into Broken Knuckle territory. He was scared. We went in by outselves and had to meet him in 3 to 4 weeks or he would leave without us.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 20, 2003)

Wow. See, I think that might've been cool to mention. Thanks, Hank. 

That says somethign about Chatham, and it definitely says something about the Broken Knuckle orcs. Since he doesn't have any tribal loyalties, I didn't think there was much that Chatham would be scared of. Again, wow.


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## seasong (Jun 20, 2003)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> That says somethign about Chatham, and it definitely says something about the Broken Knuckle orcs. Since he doesn't have any tribal loyalties, I didn't think there was much that Chatham would be scared of. Again, wow.



Like I said - Chatham's feelings will be explored soon .


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jun 20, 2003)

Chatham has never actually fought anything, at least when he's with us. He is off to the side somewhere, or just not there when the fireworks commence. I'll refrain from speculating about his feelings because I think those thoughts would probably not be fair since I can't read Seasong's brain when he's playing him.


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## Nail (Jun 20, 2003)

Capellan said:
			
		

> *
> 
> Ouch.  This is why I have taken to writing updates in a word processor, then copy/pasting, rather than typing it directly.  It saves a lot of frustration  *



Yep.  That's the only way to do it.


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## Serpenteye (Jun 25, 2003)

bump


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## Nail (Jun 25, 2003)

bump too


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## seasong (Jun 26, 2003)

Greppa, could you help me out here? I'm trying to remember the order of shaman/leader encounters. I've got most of them written up, but out of order. As best as I can remember:

2 dozen orcs; sub-warband; they had the male shaman apprentice w/them
taken to warband leader, who had female shaman with him
she said she's get y'all in to see someone important for favor
y'all did favor, saw the spell stuff
favor issue
met "important person"
then met Big Female Shaman
BFS got you in to see chief

Let me know if I got that right. I know I've got the details right, but the overall sequence is escaping me.


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 26, 2003)

*Re: Hrm.*

<secret>

<gets all conspiratorial> Hank, I looked, I saw, and now I agree. It's happening again. It sounds mean, but I think this is going to be cut short, too, except for what pride will force along. (this is why you need to do your own.) You remember what we were talking about yesterday evening, at Chuy's? About what you said you'd do? I'd do it, except that I know I'm weak.

Anyway, hurry up and provide Tomma-chan with details so he can hurry up and update already.

Then you can come climb (or hike) with me on Sunday mornings. (Yes, it *is*fun!) ... ... or maybe I can just move to Seattle. <laugh>

</secret>

Yay. An update after a long week of nothing. ^^;;

(sorry if this sounds vaguely testy. Was hit by a pickup truck yesterday, and the IRS is stupid.)


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## seasong (Jun 26, 2003)

*Re: Re: Hrm.*



			
				Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> ...Was hit by a pickup truck yesterday...



Are you okay?


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## Indigo Veil (Jun 26, 2003)

Okay-ness: <laugh> Yeah...else I think I'd be nursing quite a few smashed up appendages, and I'd have to type using the old pencil-in-the-mouth method. (I don't know how that's an "old" method...I've never heard of anyone doing that. I think I saw it in a cartoon once. LOL)

I'm fine...hugely irritated (because insurance companies are stupid too), but just fine. It was a minor accident, but thanks for asking. ^_^


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## seasong (Jun 26, 2003)

Greppa, we're also talking about you in the forum for our Shadowrun campaign. I'd like to hear your thoughts.


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## Talix (Jun 27, 2003)

Over-aweing natural landscapes are cool.  

It will be interesting to be in the land of some truely competent orcs, and compare to what they've seen so far.


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## seasong (Jun 27, 2003)

Okay, I hate to do this, but I've reached the point where writing this is a chore .

Part of it is that I am so far behind, that the prospect of writing up the conversations and whatnot is like a huge, black wall. Part of it is just that being behind in the writing, has caused the quality of the game to suffer, because part of me is thinking "I'm getting even further ahead of myself".

We're not going to totally abandon y'all, but Greppa's player has agreed to take over the recording of events. I'm going to try to get together with him this weekend to pound out the details of what is needed to catch up, and then he'll start writing from there.

I will continue to write here, but it will be mostly just _vignettes_ and _academia_. I'll also be making snarky comments about Greppa's point of view, and possibly adding bits and pieces for Merideth and Bellos.

Y'all, I am really sorry. I managed a good six months, but falling behind in the last two months really killed my enthusiasm for writing this stuff up... and I don't want my lagging here to kill the campaign as well.

And just in case it needs to be said: this has nothing to do with the audience. It's entirely to do with me having a really hard month a while back, not getting anything done here, and then having to catch up.


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## Caliber (Jun 27, 2003)

No problems Seasong. I know what its like to be faced with a seemingly insurrmountable amount of story you have to catch up with. Note the last updated part of my signature.


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## Greybar (Jun 29, 2003)

No problem Seasong, do it as you see it.

There are advantages to having the player do it as well.  You won't have to worry about accidentally tipping the hand as GM.

I'm looking forward to both narrative and exposition.

John


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## seasong (Jun 30, 2003)

*Vignette: Chatham*


> *A few years ago:*
> "Hello." The voice came from above, and had a deep, rich timbre to it. They looked up until they saw him - a leonine humanoid, wearing tanned leather pants, a copper torc around his bull-like neck, and a hide vest. Under one arm was tucked a three foot wardrum, and an orc spear lay across his back. Orcs look fairly close to human, save for their slightly brutish features and unusual (7 foot plus) size, but this one was positively gorgeous.
> 
> As he gracefully slipped to the ground from his loft, looking like nothing so much as a boneless cat, he grinned at the three heroes, "You must be they who I was sent to guide. My name, if you will, is Chatham, and I would love to know yours."



Chatham was always a mystery to those who met him. At home in wilderness and city, he is a beautiful orc who lacks even a basic tribe. His loyalty seems to lie only with silver, and his words drip like honey, sweet but providing no sustenance. He carries a spear, but none have seen him fight.

In Old Orc, Chatham means Empty Bowl.

The root 'thahm' is the rune for possession, bowl, hunger and fullness, depending on its context. 'Ehna' ("chew" or "contemplate") evolved from it in the context of 'hethehn' (from 'heth', "to work over" and 'thehn', "food"). But at its root, it means bowl, and all of the promise and pain that can come with it.

'Cha' or 'cho' (it is used both ways) is a rarely used term, because it means not only a lack, but also the fulfillment of emptiness. It is a vessel for enlightenment, empty of preconception, but it is also deep loss and painful hunger.

Chatham named himself when his tribe died. His sister, before that time, was Ohltegahs ("river's root" or "wellspring"), and she was as beautiful as he, born of an uncommonly good combination. Both were tall and gracile for orcs, but still possessed of the bones for daily survival. Blessed with balanced, expressive faces and a gift of voice and rhythm, they became war drummers and story tellers together...

Then the Buhkenahk came.

...

Young and supple, the orc youth slunk through the tree shadows, as silent as any predator of the forest. Although young, he had already spent a lifetime learning to hunt and fight, much like his prey, the warband that had captured his sister.

Slavery was common, even expected among orcs, but the warband that had attacked the youth's home had been cruel and monstrous, killing elders and taking only the young and the women. He'd heard of them, the Broken Knuckle orcs. Once, it was said, they had been a proud people, but then a strong young chieftain had come to power, bearing the mark of lightning upon his right hand, and the new chieftain was _ugoht_ (roughly, "not good in the head" or "scrambled brainpan"). With his rise to power, the warbands were encouraged to believe they strode like titans among the weak, and that other tribes were merely cattle.

The Buhkenahk had always been strong, but now they used that strength carelessly. All tribes have gone through periods of bad leadership, and youthful leaders are often prone to cruelty and acts of arbitrary power... but not all tribes were Broken Knuckle.

The youth paused, pressed tight against the roots of an ancient oak. Before him, they had paused for the night, the only time orcs rested from running. They had killed any who could not serve them, and then left with those who could, and had run since, so they had not had time to think up cruelties or degradations for their victims. And if the youth had anything to say about it, they never would. He snuck around them and loped ahead of their camp, looking for a trap to lay.

He was neither shaman nor warrior, only a young drummer and occasional hunter, but he had often exasperated his elders with his fiendish cleverness and way with words. He planned to use both today, or die trying.

Eventually, he found what he was looking for. A groundmouth, laying quietly as it passively scented the air for meat. The youth prepared the path he intended to lead it down, then got as close as he dared, and then inched just a bit more in...

It attacked, grabbing for him, and he leapt back. Had he not known it would, it would have had a meal, but he was more prepared than it knew. Still, prey was prey. It lurched along the ground, moving slowly after him and he tempted it as much as he could without getting caught. Eventually, he led it to the crevice he'd seen, and jumped across it. It followed, then stopped at the crevice and waited.

The youth began lighting the armful of dry wood and boar's fat he'd set aside. When he had a reasonable fire going, he grabbed it up, ignoring the pain, and sprinted past the groundmouth.

Groundmouths can heal from almost anything except their own digestive juices, but fire _hurts_. It made a half-hearted attempt to grab the heat source running by, but intended to settle down and wait for easier prey....

Burning pain ignited in the groundmouth's side. The youth had sprinted back in with the fire and dumped it right next to the creature's core. It sprang back, lashing him with its vines, and he bellowed as he slammed into it from the side, shoving it the rest of the way into the crevice, then focused on surviving its attempts to drag him in with it.

...

The warband leader was a big man, and he had risen to prominence only recently, under the auspices of the new chieftain. The tribal chief had the casual cruelty of the young, and had perhaps come to power too early, but this orc was not complaining... no, not when it gave him such opportunity to indulge himself.

As he was now. He'd decided on a game of chance for the newly captured slaves, in which they danced for his amusement and the ones who amused him best were given their meal. He'd enjoyed watching them struggle between dignity and hunger, and then capitulating and treating him like a handsome young buck.

He was still congratulating himself when a youth from some foreign tribe came tripping over his own feet, running straight through the camp. One fist, and the youth sprawled, tumbling up against a tree.

After a moment's look, he decided it was worth not killing - the youth was handsome enough to fetch a price, but more importantly, looked burned and beaten and wet. That wasn't a common combination, and the leader was intrigued.

And after ten minutes of questioning the honey-tongued boy, even more intrigued. Apparently, the youth had found a treasure cache, and been beaten up by a pair of orcs seeking it for themselves. That made sense to the leader, perfect sense, and what made even more sense was that he outnumber the two orcs by more than they'd outnumbered the boy.

He gathered up the camp. Time was of the essence - no use in having the treasure walk out on four legs when it could do so at his leisure, after all!

Shortly thereafter, as the groundmouth surprised orcs _not_ prepared for it, the youth got weapons into the hands of the slaves, and the remaining members of the warband found themselves stabbed in the back.

...

The story spread, and eight warbands of the Buhkenahk decided that Broken Knuckle pride was not served by a story circulating about how a single boy had destroyed one of their warbands. They let no member of the tribe live _except_ the youth who had done it. And when they slaughtered his sister like they might cattle, he finally broke, and began to weep in front of his enemies. They laughed, and finished destroying his tribe.

A year later, his tribe gone and nothing left to lose, he destroyed each of the warbands, one by one. The last few knew he was coming, and wondered what form he might take when he came.

For one, he was a stampede of hydras, driven mad by ancient drumming patterns he'd learned from his ancestors. For another, he was simply death, poisoning their water with the sting of the wyvern and then slipping among them as their strength drained and slitting their throats. For each one, he found a way to kill them. He did not care how long it took, or how personally dangerous it was. They died, and he began work on the next, never repeating himself lest they find the warning adequate.

When they were all dead, he left into the wilderness and drummed his grief for days. Then, emptied of passion, he gradually found life again. His sister spoke to him through the beats of the drum. His tribe spoke to him in the wind and the trees. He was no shaman, but he felt their presence, and he began to find his own way again.

Chatham was born.


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## seasong (Jun 30, 2003)

_*Warning: Theralese Gods aren't always nice, and some of the stuff they do is downright rotten. This covers one of those rotten things. I mean it - this is a Grecian story, skip it if you think that might make you queasy.*_

*Academia: Gorgonae*

You've probably forgotten Ogalos. He's a somewhat obscure god of deep currents, and father of monsters (based at least partly on Phorkys of Grecian myth). Anyway, he fathered the Hydras on Ophalas, a shoreside fawn that he ensorcelled into bearing his child and then later into believing the child was beautiful.

Nasty customer, and Ophalas (who died a year after Hydras' birth) was neither the first nor the last poor girl he fathered a child on. One of the more famous ones was Kethas... his twin sister.

Born to the living sea itself when the world was young and primal, and before the Old Gods were cast down, Ogalos and Kethas were powerful gods of the deeps. Ogalos was the currents and the power they carried, and Kethas was the great sea serpent that thrashed among them.

Kethas was the terrifying force of the sea before Peladas (the goddess of elemental water in the modern age) fought her and choked her with a net of seaweed, and buried her in the deepest trenches. It is said that earthquakes are caused by the tortures Peladas visits upon Kethas even today.

But before even that happened, and indeed, before Peladas was even born to the _protogenoi_, Kethas bore triplet sisters to her twin brother. As the story is said to go, Kethas (in a murderous rage) sought out her brother while he slept, to bite him and slay him with her venom, that she might steal his power. But he woke at the last second, and they struggled mightily for a year and a day, as he sought to choke the life from her, and she sought to envenom his spirit.

Finally, he overpowered the deadly serpent-goddess, and as she slipped into unconsciousness, raped her. From that terrible union, three sisters burst from her flesh, combining the worst aspects of their father's ugliness and their mother's venom.

Euryale. Medusas. Sthenno. Known collectively as the Gorgones, each had the face of a crone, with a pair of tusks drawing the mouth down and splitting their lips, a ridge of viper-like horns jutting from their brow and cheekbones, a nest of vipers instead of hair, and eyes that were glazed white and seemed rotted and split like an ancient grape.

When they were born, they attempted to kill Kethas, and she named* them each for the pain they caused her. Euryale (matricide) was named such because she shot an arrow into Kethas' stomach, and so attempted to kill motherhood. Medusas (hatred) was named such because she shot an arrow into Kethas breast, and attempted to kill the heart. And Sthenno (woe) was so named because she did not shoot her arrow at all, but instead approached her mother as if in love and then stabbed her in the eye with the arrow, and so brought tears from the Lidless Goddess.

For her nature, Euryale became a demigod of barren woman. Unable to bear children of her own, she became the force that inflicted wasting illnesses and impotence and wilting crops. Her face caused all before her to wither and become infertile.

For her nature, Medusas became coldest hatred. Her heart turned to stone, and her gaze turned all who saw her into matching marble.

And Sthenno became the demigod of betrayed trust, the worst venom of the heart. Her gaze did nothing... immediately. But she possessed the power to apear as other than she was, and she killed without remorse.

* Note: these are not the actual Greek translations. Those are also cool, but these _gorgones_ are different from the Greek ones.

So where is this going...?

*Belosphendonê, daughter of Sthenno and Hethas*

Before the Old Gods had been cast down, and when Hethas was a young and beautiful goddess, Medusas directed her hate at the pretty thing. To her surprise, Hethas merely laughed lightly as she turned to stone, saying, "Look at me! I am beautiful marble! I am a caryatid among columns, and yet unbound!"

For Hethas loved the earth and stone, and found no fault in joining it. Nor could her spirit be bound, for even as stone she lived with passion.

Medusas approached her sister, Euryale, and said to her, "My sister, have you seen the new goddess?"

"I have."

"Is she not beautiful? And lively?"

"She is."

"Do you suppose... do you suppose her children will be beautiful as well?"

And so Euryale approached Hethas, saying, "It is said that you will bear a beautiful child."

And Hethas laughed, replying, "I shall! Her face shall be like the moon, and her aura as radiant as the sun!"

And Euryale glared at her, "Your child will be twisted and ugly, a mishapen thing deserving only a pitiless death. I say it and it must be so, that any child you bear will be withered with age before it leaves your womb!"

Buth Hethas only laughed lightly, saying, "Your curses can not touch me, Euryale, for my child shall be born of your blood, but be beautiful anyway!"

And Euryale and Medusas slunk off to consider this. And finally they resolved to speak to Sthenno, though they loathed to ask her anything, lest she exact too high a price. But in this, Sthenno had already known, and intended to act anyway. "Dearest sisters," she purred with honeyed tongue, "I shall provide her with our blood. I shall give her a child to bear. And the child will be beautiful, and fair, and lovely. Her face will be like the moon, and her aura as radiant as the sun. And then, as Hethas basks in the child's beauty, I will kill it, and stab it deep. It will bleed in her arms, and still be so beautiful as it dies."

Sthenno smiled, "I shall do this. You shall see."

And so Sthenno put on beautiful clothes, and covered her face in glamours, and wore a hood to conceal her serpents, and she approached Hethas as one who did not know her.

"Oh! You are as beautiful as any I have ever seen! Pray, tell me your name, that I might taste it upon my own lips for my remaining days!"

Hethas, as vain as any young goddess, laughed and impetuously kissed the _gorgone_ on the lips for the compliment. "I thank you, for my day is brighter for that, but why do you conceal yourself so? You seem very nearly as pretty as I!"

"No, fair goddess, I am as hideous as the worst monsters of the deep. None could love me if I showed myself."

"Then I shall love you, whatever you look like!"

And Sthenno showed herself, and Hethas smiled, surprising the _gorgone_... for she had thought to trick Hethas, and force her to keep her word, but here Hethas smiled at her, delicate lips parted in open affection.

"See? You are not so hideous. You combine the beauty of a woman with the beauty of a serpent - both sinuous grace and slender-limbed power. If you seem aged, you also seem wise."

"I am considered ugly among all the gods. How can you say that?"

"My father raped a goat. Am I to think you less attractive than that? No, you are beautiful, though it is not the common beauty of the garden, nor the simpering prettiness of most goddesses."

Sthenno looked Hethas in the eyes, "Even if my form is pleasing, I can not be trusted. I am venomous."

And at that, Hethas smiled and kissed her crone-like visage, "Then one day you shall give me a daughter who will watch over the souls of the dead, and then you shall kill me instead of her, so that your venom may be sated."

And thus it was, and when Hethas was slain, her daughter, named Belosphendonê, went into the depths of the earth to restore her, and Sthenno, heart-broken, wept into the earth and hid away in the depths of the sea. And Hethas came to rule the underworld, and Belosphendonê came to guard it and built her home at the seat of Akeros, the river of pain.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 1, 2003)

*Post Update*

I've gotten about 9 pages written this weekend. I've sent the file to Seasong for fact checking. Even after I get it back, I need to rework a few things, so y'all won't think it was written by a poleaxed yak. It'll still be a few more days. So hopefully the academic stuff will keep you occupied while I find time to whip out a few more pages.


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## seasong (Jul 1, 2003)

I updated (completed) the Chatham story three posts up. It's about twice as long as I expected, but I think it works pretty well.


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## Talix (Jul 2, 2003)

Don't worry, seasong, it's cool that you'll still add the side stuff occasionally, and I look forward to continuing to read the story, even if it is from another viewpoint.  

I'm eager to see what you can do, Greppa.


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## seasong (Jul 3, 2003)

Man I've wanted to say this for a while...

_Where's our update!?_


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 4, 2003)

*The Season Premiere*

_Having moved from the artistic respectability of PBS. L. A. T. D. premieres in its new slot on the WB right after "Smallville."  Series themesong (for this week at least) is "Frozen" by Madonna_

I hate orcs. I don't think it's a racist thing to say. We have orcs in Theralis and they are very good people, good citizens. But when you take people out of the boundaries of good civilized life, all sorts of aberrations and oddities crop up. For example, the irritatingly exasperating habit of appearing out of the middle of nowhere. 

Shortly after crossing into Broken Knuckle territory, a scouting band materialized out of the forest. We had no idea they were there or how long they were watching. They were hideous, their skins daubed in black mud and decorated with leaves and bark. The leader advanced with his spear, tipped with a giant armor cat claw, leveled.

"Why are you here?" The scout group leader demanded in Eastern orcish.

I found my voice and replied in my most urbane orc, "I'm sorry, I don't understand."

He didn't miss a beat and said in Western orc, "Why are you here?"

Great. He's bilingual.

"We're here to witness the greatness of the Broken Knuckle Clan, and partake of the wisdom of your ancestors by climbing Uggrahd to speak with them," I replied.

Several beats passed and then he said "Come with us."

It would have been a bad form to do a victory dance, so I nodded and we followed. 

The next few hours were very painful. No torture was involved, but we had to run at an orcish pace from where we entered their territory to where their warband was camped.

Instead of being immediately bound like slaves, we were ushered into a tent and told to wait there. 

Merideth finally spoke after we were left alone, "This is going well so far."

Bellos eyed her doubtfully, "How so. We're stuck here."

She tapped her nose absently while she spoke, "Well, we're waiting in a tent to speak with someone. Greppa and I have been slaves before and they aren't treated anything like this. It usually involves lots of rope, tears, and gnashing of teeth."

"We only have the teeth gnashing now," I said clutching my cramping side.

Merideth laughed, Bellos didn't. "So what is the plan," Bellos asked.

The smiles vanished, wiped by that rag of thought. "Appeal to their pride," I started. "There will undoubtedly be tests of some sort. We have to be as honest in our intentions as we possibly can."

"And our intentions are?" Bellos asked.

Despite our earlier talk, I still didn't trust him. He was a foreigner whose city had not met the wave of Clan Breaking Cat or the Tattered Tribes. He was thrust on us by a Goddess whose motives are questionable. He doesn't understand that I will do what I must to preserve Theralis. So I kept it simple. 

"Our intention is to get to the mountain. Nothing more nothing less. The answers we need are there."

Merideth nodded. Bellos nodded and I turned my attention to not losing my breakfast because of our run.

Several hours later, we were escorted from the tent and brought before a tall, powerful woman. Surprisingly, she was given the deference reserved for a warband leader. It was the first time we'd ever seen a woman commanding a warband.

She was seven-and-a-half feet tall and loaded with muscle. Which meant she was tremendously attractive for an orc. Her face was brutishly handsome and her black hair was pulled back severely from her face, caught up in intricate braiding. She regarded us carefully, watching us for several minutes before addressing us.

"My scout leader said that you want to climb the mountain," she began.

I nodded, "yes."

"Why?"

I tried to think of some thing to say, but nothing came up, breakfast's effort not withstanding. So I temporized and said to her what I said to the scout leader,"Word of the strength and wisdom of the ancestors of the Broken Knuckle Clan has spread wide and we seek to meet that wisdom."

She looked like she wanted to say something else, but she was thoughtful and did not ask more questions. "Stay here and rest," she said. "A shaman will come to speak with you."

She left and we heard the drums begin. We didn't know what the rhythms meant, but in a candlemark or so, a young man clad in the trappings of a shaman stepped into our tent, accompanied by the warband leader. Suspicion and arrogance clung about his face, clearly he thought he had more important things to do.

He said sat down and said "So you want to climb our mountain?"

We all nodded.

"You will probably die."

We shrugged.

"Horribly."

We shrugged.

"What do you have to trade?" 

Merideth glanced at me, nodding her head firmly. We had only one thing to offer outside of Merideth's healing which she firmly believed in concealing. Shamanic healing seemed to be painful and not always welcome. Merideth wanted to keep it that way.

I said to the young shaman, "I can increase the durability and strength of a hunting party for a day."

He looked skeptical, but the warband leader said, "Can you demonstrate this ability?"

I nodded firmly.

We left the tent and walked to a clear area in the camp. With about 10 spears pressed against various sensitive spots on my body, and I cast Earth's Skin and Earth's Strength into the warband leader.

Her face went slack with pleasure as she felt the power surge through her. She picked up the closest orc and pressed him above her head. She looked fierce and exultant. He looked like he wanted to get married.

Emboldened, she told several tribe members to throw daggers at her. They complied and marveled (as did she) as the vicious little things bounced off or embedded shallowly in her skin.

She grinned, showing fierce white teeth. She gathered herself with astonishing speed and looked meaningfully at the shaman, who looked as if someone had peed in his beer and expected him to drink it.

"I think that we can arrange something for such a trade," The warband leader said.

The young shaman nodded curtly and walked away a bit. He chanted loudly and raised his staff to the air. Then he was silent, listening to something unseen.

He returned to where we were waiting. He was mad.

"Come with me," He snipped.

I didn't know orcs could be snippy until that moment. 

The warband leader nodded respectfully. Her eyes, however, were exultant. She must have achieved some sort of social coup because several of the warband members (especially the one she lifted over her head) watched her with increased admiration.

Oblivious to the intricacies of the exchange, we followed the young shaman to a nearby copse of trees. He called out in a dialect of orc we could not follow. It wasn't eastern or western orc.

Four wolves, bigger than the horses used to pull freight wagons in Theralis, emerged from the trees. The young shaman started to chant, launching into an intricate dance, tracing sigils and circles in the air.

Bellos's eyes narrowed.

"Is that what I think it is?" He asked.

The words had an orcish tint and the circle was facing the sky instead of outward, but the sigils confirmed it. The shaman was casting arcane magic. Arcanist magic.

How in the hell did the Broken Knuckle orcs get arcane magic? Maybe Hurath was still alive? I raced along that line of (highly emotional) reasoning thinking, "he could have taught them arcane magic in exchange for freedom. Unless he's under some sort of compulsion. Even then, he would need to be rescued."

I turned my attention back to the shaman. After completing the casting, he laid hands on each of the wolves. Winded, he swung onto the back of one of the wolves and beckoned us to do the same.

I climbed on, grabbing a handful of fur to hold onto, hoping I wasn't hurting it.

In a few moments I didn't care if I ripped out a patch of hair. As a group,the animals loped into the sky. I could feel the wolf trembling as it ran diffidently through the air. It did not like to fly apparently, but it obediently followed the lead wolf ridden by the shaman.

Bellos was grinning. He was enjoying himself.

Merideth looked troubled. I was with her. The giant wolves were bad enough, but augmented by arcane magic the possibilities were worse.

We were now traveling north. I just held on. It was one thing to fly under one's own power but this...this was just unnatural.

After about an half an hour of flying, we landed but we didn't stop. The wolves sped up.  No longer hampered by a fear of flying, they ran, pushing our surroundings to a blur. By dusk, we arrived at another warband camp and halted.

Apparently rested by our journey, the young shaman hopped off his wolf jerking his head in a direction to follow. I slid painfully from back of my wolf, jumping up and down for several moments to restore feeling to my nether-regions. I could see Merideth cheating. Okay she wasn't cheating but she was using her healing to mitigate the discomfort and bloody Bellos seemed fine. 

I know it was irrational, but for a moment I really didn't like that man.

We were ushered into the presence of an ancient female shaman. Her hair was wild and yellowed with age, and she regarded us distantly as the young shaman related to her the events in the warband camp.

The distance faded as he told her about the warleader and what she could do under the influence of my spells.

"You," she said, locking eyes with me, "My name is Gruhaa." She paused collecting her words, "My warband will be fighting a war against one of the northern tribes soon. These abilities you can bestow would be very useful. Would you be willing to accompany us and use your abilities on as many as you are able?"

[[Gruhaa means roughly, "the good now".]]

I thought for several moments remembering how long our summer battles usually last, "How long will the campaign last?"

"It will be a long campaign," she said. "At least two weeks."

Huh? I couldn't keep the surprise out of my face, "Who will you be fighting?"

"One of the northern orc tribes. They are strong and will be troublesome, which is why it will take so long," she replied.

"So, if I use my spells on your troops, you'll let us climb the mountain?"

"And give you safe passage to the heart of the Broken Knuckle people,"
she finished.

Merideth grabbed my hand and started to squeeze the life out of it.

"Um, I need to discuss this with my companions."

She nodded, "Of course," and stepped from the tent taking the young shaman
with her.

As soon as they were out of earshot...

"I don't want to do this," Merideth said her pale face stony. "I don't want
to help them kill other people."

"Bellos," I asked, "how do you feel about this?"

"I don't," he said. "They're orcs."

Merideth looked a little shocked but I spoke before she could launch into a heroic speech, "They aren't our people. They are not Theralis. We don't have to actually fight and we will stay well behind the front lines." I held her shoulders. "I'm sorry Merideth."

She started yelling at me. She knew I was going to do it so she decided that I needed all of the guilt she would build up. 

***

The first shock of making war with the Broken Knuckle Clan was how they utilized their magic. 

Gruhaa told me to use Earth's Skin and Earth's Strength on the giant wolves. I didn't understand at first. There were far more people in the warband, and they themselves were outnumbered by the tribe they faced. Then she raised her voice to the forest.

A roiling thundercloud accompanied the warbands of the Broken Knuckle tribe casting an impressive tableau with the old growth forest. The Shamaness intensified her chanting, ending with a piercing howl.

The forest shivered and hundreds of giant wolves streamed from between the trees. From above, it must have looked as if the the forest was hemorrhaging canines. I started augmenting them as they came to me. I don't know how many I did before I felt my grip on consciousness slip.

The Shamaness caught me. "That's enough," she said, "Your guard will take you back to the camp to rest. Come back when you are rested."

Bellos, not having any obvious magical talents, was content to pass himself off as the physical security for the two physically slight spell casters. It also gave him a certain amount of freedom since he wasn't being pursued by other orcs trying to get a favor from him

"You know that language the shaman's speak when they cast their spells?" Bellos said. "It's old orc. They say its the only language the Ancestors truly understand"

"Old orc?"

"Yep," he finished. "I think we should get Merideth and come back to the rear of the front. If things go bad before you've recovered I can carry you."

"What's on your mind?"

His face became thoughtful, "If these are the orc's we'll eventually face, we have a chance to see them fight."

Despite the contrary nature my fatigue brought, I couldn't find any holes in his reasoning. Not that I was trying. I wondered what the boogieman of orcdom had to bring to its adversaries.

Merideth was already close to the front, having arranged small deals for healing among the infantry. In the process she managed to find out a lot and provided a narration as we watched the battle begin.

It wasn't pretty, it was beautiful, in a bone breaking, blood flowing kind of way.

The second shock of Broken Knuckle combat hit. The wolves weren't the first line of attack. There were three ranks of orcs in front of them.

"The first rank is composed of the weakest warriors," Merideth supplied. "They're a sacrificial line used to open up the enemy front." She smiled weakly, "They were the ones who most desperately wanted healing. I told them I'd help if they made it back this far."

I nodded and watched, as the first rank met the unknown tribe. Broken Knuckle's opponents were good, not as good as Breaking Cat, but good nonetheless. They met the first two ranks and held fast. However, the third rank was composed of shamen and their guards. The casters unleashed freezing and flaying spirits into the enemy ranks like Breaking Cat's spirit workers did to us not so long ago.

Under the two pronged attack, the front rank of the unnamed tribe collapsed. However, the unnamed tribe had a surprise of their own. A giant, boulder in hand, charged forward from the rear of the unnamed orcs lines.

Gruhaa's voice rang out, harsh and guttural.

The storm cloud answered. It rippled and convulsed, vomiting an immense, coruscating lash of lightning. The battlefield grew a second sun as the column of skyfire enveloped the giant. The glow departed leaving a caramelized corpse frozen in a final plea for mercy.

The unknown orc's lines broke. 

Then the wolves attacked.

That was the first day. The entire war took about a week. And then we watched as the survivors were roped into slave lines. Merideth and I's nerve wavered as we relived our earlier capture, but we borrowed Bellos' indifference to the suffering of the unnamed tribe and focused on getting to Uggrahd.


***************************************************

The slave march took a week to reach the center of Broken Knuckle territory. Two days before we arrived, Gruhaa called us to her tent.

"Your aid was instrumental in making this a short war. We'd like you to partake of the spoils. You may choose slaves from the captured for yourself."

My skin tightened, but Merideth replied first, "I'm sorry, but we can't."

The Shamaness looked genuinely surprised, "but why not?"

I found my voice, "We have traveled a very long way and slaves would only slow us down. We'd have to watch them and break them and we must move quickly."

"Are you sure?" She asked.

I nodded. All of a sudden, I felt better. I felt the right worlds come. 

"This is a great honor," I began, "But we cannot accept. It is thanks enough that we be allowed to scale Uggrahd and meet the ancestors."

She looked troubled but she dismissed us.

Two days later and we were at the heart of Broken Knuckle territory. There wasn't a sky at the seat of Broken Knuckly power, there was only Uggrahd. The mountain became the horizon and it's presence loomed heavily. In theory it's presence should be comforting, but for me it was gauche. A monument to the strength and egotism of its people. It was another of those irrational feelings. The mountain was truly magnificent.

Merideth was speechless. Having missed the sight on the way in, she'd become increasingly introverted as we neared the base of the spire.

Bellos looked thoughtful, but he didn't say much.

Once we arrived, the slaves were taken to some sort of bazaar where representatives from several warbands who did not participate in the fighting began perusing the new crop. It was strange and it confirmed something that the outlying tribes told us.

Slaves weren't concentrated among the bands who captured them. They were scattered among the warbands. Eventually they stopped thinking of themselves as whatever they were when they captured. They were all Broken Knuckle. It was disturbingly similar to what we were planning for Theralis.

We were ushered into a pavilion-sized tent. There was a small audience already there. We saw the young shaman who introduced us to the Old Shamaness. He spared us a glance and then ducked out. We settled into our seats and waited to see what would come next.

The tent flap parted and Olgah walked into the tent. She was older, and her face was much harsher than we remembered, but she was unbowed by time. The shock didn't have time to register. She locked eyes with us, smiled and retreated behind the flap.

At least I knew where they got arcane magic. But I didn't have time to dwell on it because the Chief of the Broken Knuckle orcs entered the room with Olgah at his side. He was over 8 ft. tall and clad metal clothing cobbled together from other suits and jury rigged into a covering for his immense body. His face was huge and expressive, a tableau for his numerous scars and the look of bemused contempt he directed at us. In his hand was a huge spear as long as he was, topped with a two-foot long steel spear head with a metal feather big as the spear head itself jutting away from the where the head met the staff.

"So these are the ones who wish to climb Uggrahd." He looked over each of us. "It is not an easy task and you will probably die horribly. Are you sure this is what you want?"

We nodded firmly.

"So be it. As our custom, if you wish to climb the mountain you may, but you will have no help from anyone."

"We understand," I said. "Thank you."

He laughed condescendingly and left the tent. Olgah spared us a glance and followed him.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 4, 2003)

*Aawww*

That doesn't look like much of an update at all.


 


Must work harder.


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## Caliber (Jul 4, 2003)

Thats right! 

*cracks whip* 

Get writing!

Actually I really liked the update. Yay!


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## seasong (Jul 4, 2003)

It's a fine update - my usual updates were between 500 and 2,000 words, and this is 3,000. So I'm not sure why you don't think it looks like much .

So when's the next one? This weekend, maybe?


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## F5 (Jul 4, 2003)

Nothing wrong with your update at all, Greppa, especially for a first one.  Good job, and keep 'em coming.

I like the change in tone from 3rd to 1st person.  That way, when Seasong tosses in bits of Academia or Vignettes, they'll stand out more from the narrative.  

When (if?) the Broken Knuckles go head-to-head with the Threalese, it will NOT be pretty...


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## seasong (Jul 4, 2003)

Side note: This setting haiku thread caught my eye . Here's my haiku:

Above or below?
Gods war with mortal nations,
Light Against the Dark.

Heh .


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 5, 2003)

*The next update*

Thanks for the good words. 

The next update will be up in about 15 minutes.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 5, 2003)

*Trouble in Paradise*

_Trouble in Paradise_

We'd made it. We were in the middle of Broken Knuckle territory and we were going to climb Uggrahd and find out if our own gods were complicit in our suffering.  And, despite all the travel and angst, we knew weren't close to the end of the quest.

We were escorted to a tent for the night. The guards who escorted us nodded respectfully and took up sentry positions outside of the tent. The three of us carefully looked at our supplies and started redistributing them. Basically, my things were divided between Bellos and Merideth because a starving cat was stronger than I.

Having gotten the bulk of things taken care of, we set out our warmest clothing and were preparing for bed. The tent opened and we snapped to alertness. 

A stooped figure stepped out of the shadow of the doorway and into the warm glow of the lamplight.

"I apologize for interrupting."

Our sight fell on the oldest orc we've ever seen. If Olgah was old, then this person was absolutely ancient. His age was riven is his features, yet he moved easily, if not too quickly and his eyes shone with a desperate uncertainty.

Merideth and I had enough orc in us to reflexively bow before him. He was a very old orc and that was hideously rare (considering the ins and outs of orc life). What was more surprising was that his head was bowed, giving a distinct deference to us.

"I apologize for interrupting," he said again.

Merideth found our manners, "Elder please come in. Our fire is yours."

He nodded still unsure. 

Merideth rose and took the situation in hand and helped the oldster to a clear place to sit. 

Before him, Olgah had been the oldest tribal orc we'd ever met. Like her, this person was a shaman, or at least wore the trappings of a shaman. Curiosity ate at me, but I let him and Merideth exchange pleasantries until he was ready to talk.

He started slowly, "Merideth says you intend to climb Uggrahd."

"Yes senior," I replied carefully.

Bellos, slightly baffled by our excessive politeness, nodded. 

"If you would have me, I would like to accompany you," He said. "I'm too old to climb by myself, but if I join your group, I think I can make it to council with the ancestors."

He kept his eyes averted the entire time he spoke.

"You're a shaman," Bellos said carefully. "I thought you always had access to the ancestors."

He shook his head, a great sadness bowing his words, "Ever since the chief came to power we speak less and less to the ancestors. It was once a rite of adulthood to climb Uggrahd and be blessed by the ancestors' wisdom. Now we don't send our children to the mountain. They are sent to war and if they return they are considered adults. The new generation of shamans decry the ways of the tribe and embrace Olgah's new way. I am one of the few living Broken Knuckle who has climbed Uggrahd. Now no one goes to the mountain. The ancestors are treated more like legends and we stray without their guidance."

The request shocked us, the reason shocked us even more. We didn't/couldn't say anything for several moments.

A shuddering breath escaped him, "I know, I am old." He sighed. "If you do not want me, perhaps my apprentice could go with you."

"Elder," I said, "we would be honored to have you accompany us."

He was still talking about him being old and us wanting someone younger. I had to scamper to him.

"Elder, we would be honored if you would accompany us."

His shoulders seemed to regain some lift, "Truly?"

Bellos looked like he was about to object, but Merideth scowled at him so blackly that the words died.

"Truly. Everyone thinks we're going to die anyway, we'd only be enriched by your presence," I said. 

He was almost breathless with appreciation, "I, I must go get ready. I'll make the necessary preparations and meet you in the morning at the ceremony."

We nodded and he rose to leave.

"Elder," Bellos said. "What should we call you?"

"Oh, my name is Ffutkuhg."

We bid him farewell. 

Bellos, however, wasn't ready to get to sleep.

"What was that all about?" He asked, "Why are we taking him along?"

"He's been there already," I said. "Plus, he has a vested interest in getting to the mountain. If he could have gotten to the top of the mountain alone, he would have."

"What's more telling," Merideth added,"is that someone of his stature couldn't get anyone to come with him to visit their own ancestors."

Bellos was silent at that, "It's a schism. The chieftain, isn't so much a chief as some sort of warlord."

We all nodded, thinking. "And he's managed to separate his people from their native 'gods,'" I said. "Putting them on a different path."

We decided not to ponder what it all meant. However it did bear out some of what Belial told us. 

We bedded down. We'd be up at dawn and needed to be fully rested. Bellos snuffed the light and the tent was silent. Then Bellos laughed.

"What's so funny?" Merideth asked, sleep creeping about her voice.

Bellos kept laughing but he managed to get himself under control, "I thought about Ffutkuhg and I realized," he laughed again, "what his name means."

He was still too amused to talk coherently, so we waited.

Finally Bellos finished,"His name means 'gambles with death.'"

Merideth started cursing.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 5, 2003)

*More Trouble in Paradise*

_The credits roll revealing the new theme song "Holding Out For a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler_ 


The next morning, we were the guests of honor at a thrown together ceremony presided over by the Broken Knuckle chief and his chief advisor, Olgah. The tent was packed with spectators. Gruhaa was there, but we didn't see Ffutkuhg. 

Gruhaa's face was carefully devoid of real emotion. She laughed at the appropriate times when the chief made a joke, and responded with suitable fervor when he proclaimed the glory of his Bukenahk.

He was making his final speech before releasing us to travel to the base of the mountain, when Ffutkuhg entered accompanied by the young shaman we met at the very first warband. He waited for the giant orc to finish listening to himself talk before gathering the group's attention.

"I have spoken with our honored travelers," he began "And they agreed to allow me to join them on their quest to speak with our ancestors."

Whispers raced through the crowd and the chief laughed, "Ffutkuhg, you are not allowed to render help to them."

"I am joining them not aiding them," Ffutkuhg replied picking his words carefully. "They said last night that I could."

The chief looked at us. The tent was silent. Tension sluiced into the space.

"Is this true?" The chief asked. "Did you say that this old man could join your party?"

"Yes," I said evenly. Although I was very irritated with the chief's disrespect of the old shaman, I worked to keep it out of the voice.

"Really?" he said looking over my shoulders at Merideth and Bellos.

They both said yes.

The Chief's amused look dimmed, "If you want to throw your life away, then so be it Ffutkuhg."

The old man nodded and strode over to us. 

Gruhaa stepped out of the crowd. The silence deepened. 

She got to me and pressed something into my hand and turned to the crowd, "This one was owed a great debt by me. I am repaying it now so that he would not perish with with my debt on his spirit."

She turned to the chief, "This is not aid. It is a favor repaid"

I looked at what she pressed into my hand. A medicine bag hung by a worn leather thong. Dangling by the bag was a metal charm shaped like the head of a wolf. I wrapped it around my wrist and she returned to the crowd. 

I spared a glance at Olgah, who had suddenly found the knuckles of her left hand very interesting.

Something had happened here and I did not want to stick around to try to understand what.

We exchanged empty pleasantries with the Chief, who mouthed some faux ritual words and sent us on our way. We left the village at a hustle, escorted by an honor guard,  acutely aware of the destructive force looming behind us. 

************************************************************************************

The guards left us when we got to the base of the mountain. We immediately started climbing, twinging involuntarily at the thought of imaginary spears sticking into our vulnerable backs. But we weren't assassinated and in a matter of hours we were above the tree line and scaling the increasingly steep and increasingly rocky face. In another few hours we were facing a nearly vertical face. 

Ffutkuhg guided us around the mountain and we came to a crevice right below the cloud layer. We crawled through it and upward into a rock chimney. When we reached the top of the chimney, we were above the clouds and could not see any land at all.

The winds screamed and whistled as they scoured the surface of the mountain. The wind shear swept the rock clean of snow and pitted its surface. There were occasional large outcroppings and we planned stop there to rest but we had to get started.

We tied ourselves to each other and begin to climb. The situation was complicated because I couldn't cast spells. The clouds marked a point where we passed into the elemental plane of air and my ability to access other planes was severely impaired. I could get some of my simplest spells off, but it took the effort equivalent to my most powerful effects. I was also terribly tired from the climb. Eventually I knew that I would start to hold everyone back.

It happened sooner than I expected. I missed a hand hold and I fell. The rope broke and I plummeted 50 feet to a rocky ledge and wedged myself between two big rocks. Luckily Merideth's power was not affected by the plane shift and she was able to fix me up.

I fell one more time so we tried a new pattern. I Dimension Door'd to the next ledge and tied off our back up rope. While the other's climbed up, I rested. It seemed like we had a good system and it kept us going for a few hours until we reached the next large rocky ledge. 

"We need to stop and rest," I said. 

Merideth and Bellos nodded assent.

"We can't," Ffutkuhg said, "We didn't bring enough food and water to take our time. If we rest too often eventually we will be too tired to continue and we will freeze."

Merideth and Bellos looked at me.

"I'll be right back," I said.

I walked away a ways and (after a whole bunch of tries) cast my newest spell Small Favors.

The circle I traced lit up and Uripedas' face filled the frame.

"Fight?" he asked.

"No," I smiled. "I need your help. I need to borrow your wings."

(Small Favors lets the caster borrow one supernatural ability from a magical creature. The caster gets the ability for several days, but they must agree to perform a task for the creature. The task must be done, think of it as a geas.)

The golden sun eagle pondered, "Remember the lightning bird we fought outside of the northern city?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, I heard that there are a bunch of 'em who've figured out how to stay on the material plane permanently. I heard they are doing something bad. They need to be stopped. Will you do it?"

That didn't sound too bad. Find some lightning elementals shaped like birds and put them down. Compared to this, it should be like finding wine at the Olympiad.

"Yes, I will do it."

"When you get to the spot, summon me and we can fight them together!"

The circle vanished and the area around me was illuminated by 14 foot brilliant wings protruding from my back. I also had a general idea of where Uripedas wanted me to go. 

I walked back to the others and jabbed a thumb at the wings, "Do you think these will help?"

We started climbing and put the wings to good use.

The winds were too strong to fly, but I could cover Merideth and Bellos with the them. I shielded them from the wind and kept them warm and they carried me between them. Ffutkuhg was surprisingly strong and he followed us, ready to anchor if someone fell. And eventually, we reached the summit.

And then we found ourselves climbing down the mountain. We had vague recollections of what transpired at the home of the ancestors. Later, when resting on a ledge, we talked about it. The conversation left us shaken. Things were not good among the court of the ancestors. A Celestial was in their midst sewing mischief. Although the memory was fuzzy, the image was unmistakable, we'd seen it on too many temples. It was Xeras, the Queen of the Gods.

However, not all of the ancestors were pleased with how their children were being led astray. They counseled with us and sent us down the mountain, bearers of gifts that would hopefully help us to save both of our people. 

The descent was fast partially because we were fully rested from our time with the Ancestors. I was also stronger than an ox. Not only could I climb by myself, but I wasn't getting tired. I could also freely support my weight only with my hands and could find purchase on any piece of wall my fingers could hold. 

It was miraculous. The others didn't comment and we approached the cloud layer in silence, except for the continual muttering of Ffutkuhg who seemed especially affected by the encounter.

We stopped on a huge ledge surrounded by clouds and only then did I consider the ramifications of what we saw. Xeras, the ruler of the gods, was behind the orc exodus. She had taken a direct hand in the Broken Knuckle and forged them into things out of our own nightmares. 

We needed to get back to Chatham. We only had a day or so before he left. At this point we needed to get the old shaman home. 

"Ffutkuhg, what will happen when you get home?" I asked.

He grinned wryly, "I don't know, I'm not going home. The ancestors said I need to go west."

I answered his grin with a wan smile of my own, "Well, since we're headed that way do you want to come with us?"

"I'd be honored to," he replied.

I half expected Bellos to object, but he just nodded his assent. Since the summit, he looked strange like he'd been cheated of something. Merideth, eyes far far off, nodded absently.

"We have to descend the mountain at night," Ffutkuhg said in rushed tones. "They will have the mountain surrounded waiting to welcome us. If we descend at night, we will have a better opportunity to slip past them."

I considered it for several moments. 

"Why descend at all?" I began. "Once we get below the clouds, I can use magic and fly us to the edge of Broken Knuckle territory."

"It wouldn't be fast enough," Bellos said. "You'd get tired eventually."

"Maybe if I had to cast it for all of us, But I'd only need it for Merideth and Ffutkuhg. Also, we won't be relying on the spell's speed. With Uripedas' wings we can travel two to three times as fast because I can tow you."

Bellos and Merideth looked skeptical, but when the sun started to go down we went down the chimney and waited in the mouth of the crevice until the sun went dark. While we waited, I cast Earth's skin and Earth's strength into the group. Then we fashioned the rope into a makeshift harness and tied the old shaman, and Merideth to me. A third tow line for Bellos to hold onto drifted behind my wings. With a few more minutes remaining, I recast Earth's strength on myself, hoping to get the maximum enhancement from the earth elemental within me. 

When the sky blackened, we emerged. Quickly, we determined where south was and I grabbed Merideth and Ffutkuhg by the arms and readied my self.

"Um, Greppa," Merideth interrupted,"I didn't see you cast Fly."

I smiled at her.

"Well, aren't you going too?"

My smile broadened into a feral grin. Merideth started cursing, cursing softly, but cursing, even deviating into orcish cursing.

"Well?" Bellos said. "We need to get going."

I nodded, "Hold on."

A single wing beat had us airborne. I was strong. Incredibly strong, and it wasn't the wings. I looked behind me to make sure Bellos was still with me and then I began to push into the flying equivalent of a hustle. For the first time since I set foot outside of Theralis, I didn't feel like an invalid. I was carrying my own weight...and Merideth's and Ffutkuhg's too and it wasn't slowing me down. More importantly, it wasn't going to go away. I said a small prayer of thanks to the ancestors and sped through the night sky.


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## Greybar (Jul 6, 2003)

Very nice, Greppa!

So it's not merely a two-way stuggle with the gods, since we now also have Xeras involved?

I like the fuzziness of what happened at the summit.  I'm curious how that was actually done in-game.

John


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## seasong (Jul 6, 2003)

As will be seen soon enough, _many_ gods are involved. The Bukkenahk ancestors (influenced by Xeras), Hethas (whose game plan is still unknown), Belial and whoever his "crew" is, Allas...

And can anyone truly believe that Dianas has no interest in the outcome of her chosen city-state? Or that the divine battle shaping up will leave the other gods uninvolved?

There were some revelations later on in the campaign, about who's doing what to whom, and if Greppa doesn't cover those in the story, I may write something up on it.

-----

*Up There:* In-game, I described a great deal more than what Greppa posted . However, I also described it as a very hazy experience, and I left a lot of details out to help remind them of that. Here's some of what they recalled over the half hour as they climbed down...

Somehow, the mountain reached into another plane, one where the orc ancestors dwelled and watched their people. There was good hunting, good wars without cost in human life, brotherhood and sisterhood among all orcs of the Broken Knuckle.

And there were factions.

In the distance, some hazy, indistinct distance that was near the horizon and yet visible to all, thunderclouds rose and roiled like the clouds surrounding Uggrahd. The young adventurers only have a vague recollection of it, but they were certain somehow that it was Xeras.

Many of the ancestral spirits had flocked to that ancient cloud for the power it offered, and it was these spirits who had offered up a Child to lead the orcs in Xeras' sway.

Others disapproved, and refused to deal with any god, however tempting the offer. It was these who greeted those who conquered Uggrahd.

"Why did you climb?" The voices were insistent but fuzzily heard, like a multitude through padded walls.

"What do you seek?"

"What are your goals?"

Each of the heroes answered in their own way, but the essence of their answer was the same with each: To find out what was really happening; to save their people from the divine war; to reduce the cost in lives.

It satisfied the Bukkenahk. They had but two more questions. The first, "Will you help us?" and when that was agreed upon, "What gift can we grant you?"

Greppa wished for the power to save his people. In Old Orc, the word is synonymous with strength, and carries with it images and associations of heroes, ancient orc battlegrounds, and the divinely inspired orc warriors who flung back entire warbands with their bare hands. He was granted the strength of those legendary orc heroes, the physical might to bear up under the burdens of his people.

Merideth wished to become the hero she knew she could be. She wished almost silently, communing and trying to project her vision of herself, ten years from now. A warrior-healer. A leader among her people. Tall. Strong. Swift. And as she poured her heart and dreams out before the orc ancestors, her secret desires... they granted it. She had acheived half of it - they gifted her the other half, and she became as much a warrior as she was a healer. With it, they blessed her spear and gave her an orc warrior's charm.

Bellos had always loved the wilderness, even above his own people, and his wish was for the natural world. He wished to be able to protect and cherish it, and he wished for it as his ally. And in return, he promised to devote himself to helping those who needed him. They gifted him with a deeper connection to it, and they bound his soul to the terrain. He became somewhat a dragon, sensing the living earth's distress, but able to call upon its resources at need.

Ffutkuhg humbled himself before ancestors he had not seen since he was a young adult, and begged simply for guidance. And into his eyes they poured a cup of their tears, and washed away the fears preventing his Sight. As his fears melted, he looked at the time to come, and saw many things, and he knew that he was not needed among his people. Age and wisdom could not help his people now, only force. And force was to be found elsewhere.


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## Serpenteye (Jul 6, 2003)

I like it.


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## J. Anson (Jul 6, 2003)

_Awesome._


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 6, 2003)

*Dang it Seasong!*

Dang it Seasong, you weren't supposed to blab about what the wishes were. Greppa didn't find out what the others had in game until several days later. We were too busy running to chat. 

P.S. I think it went pretty well since that scene is almost three months old.


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## seasong (Jul 6, 2003)

Well, Greppa can still look surprised .

You asked me to write about the time up on the mountain, because you weren't going to, and you didn't mention keeping anything mum.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 6, 2003)

**pout**

If I had your steel trap memory I would write it down, but since I'm working with Ziplock there's bound to be leakage.


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## seasong (Jul 6, 2003)

Incidentally, some notes on Uggrahd itself.

I wanted a really big mountain, so I made it a flat 10 miles high, with the first three miles being the usual 30-60 degree slopes a person might expect to see, and the remainder sloping sharply upward into something closer to an approximation of a slowly narrowing pillar punching upward through the sky. The upper third of the mountain is near-vertical, narrowing by a few feet every 5-10 yards, with occasional ledges and cracks to rest on and in.

Careful climbing is about half a mile per hour, and is exhausting work. An hour of climbing can utterly exhaust the uninitiated, and while the climbing group consisted of life-hardened people, they were still prone to wearing out.

Walking and scrambling up to the part where it got hard took half of the day, and the remainder of the first day was spent learning how to climb Uggrahd - they didn't even get half way up.

The second day, after careful camping and watches on one of the larger ledges they'd found, they made better time. Although exhaustion and dizziness had set in only a few hours into the climb, they'd reached the upper third ofUggrahd, and climbed a total of 3 miles into the atmosphere.

Looking from that height, more than a mile above the next tallest mountain in the area, must have been really thrilling for most of them, and especially Bellos. And they likely took a good long while looking at it, because if they stopped looking at it, they had to consider that the hardest part was yet to come.

The hardest part took them all of a day, and several rest stops, just to hit the cloud layer. Here, Xeras' suspected influence was most evident, as occasional lightning flashes would roll through the thunderhead clouds surrounding Uggrahd.

Looking down, the rest of the world became hazy and indistinct, seen through a sea of fog. It was at this point that they discovered the natural chimney.

Brief geekdom note: I like transformative stages, afterlife imagery, etc., particularly in an event as innately spiritual as climbing Uggrahd was meant to be. Tunnels (and caves, and going down into either to seek wisdom) is a time-honored tradition, especially done right. I tried .

Climbing up through the chimney, it became pitch black, and out of slight paranoia, Greppa wouldn't use his Allas-touched light spells. He wasn't sure he wanted her to know what he was doing.

So they climbed in the dark, amidst stone more ancient than their entire civilization. Perhaps they imagined a heartbeat at the center of the mountain. Perhaps they heard nothing.

After too long in the dark, a crack of light was visible ahead. And, long minutes later, had grown into an opening.

When they stepped out, there was only a little ways left to climb, perhaps a half-hour's worth... and the land was invisible, hidden by a vast, strange landscape of dark clouds.

They climbed to the top.


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## F5 (Jul 7, 2003)

> *Tunnels (and caves, and going down into either to seek wisdom) is a time-honored tradition, especially done right. I tried .*




Climbing mountains to seek wisdom is another time-honored tradition.  I grok where you're going with this.  Very cool.  Very Joseph Campbell.

Will we get to see updated character sheets for the newly-transformed heroes, or will we have to wait for it in-story?  I'm curious as to what the ancestors did for them, specifically.


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## seasong (Jul 7, 2003)

Re: Newly transformed heroes: I'm working on an update for the Rogue's Gallery thread. It will include the _supa-wish_ effects, although they can primarily be translated as a +3 ECL, so that I can throw really nasty stuff like ... well, I'll leave any spoilers to Greppa.

Re: Climbing mountains: . Uggrahd was a kind of turning point for the campaign. For one thing, it was _confirmation_ of the hints dropped by Belial, shaking the faith of the Chosen of Allas. It was also a reasonably powerful _foreshadowing_ - the PCs _know_ the struggle that is coming now, and they also know that they can't stop it, only strive to come out on top.

Before this, there didn't seem to be any rush, other than to get back to Theralis before the next Summer War - now, they're racing to pay off debts* and get back to Theralis so decisions can be made. Since it was a kind of marker of the story, I made the wish granted by the orc ancestors something which simply _couldn't_ be achieved in the game system normally - it was a unique event, something to prepare them for the hard struggle ahead of them.

I'm starting to lecture now, so I'll shut up (except for the footnote ).

* Clever, clever Greppa had traded with Uripedas, a servant of Allas, for wings. Uripedas had asked in return that Greppa take care of some lightning birds that Uripedas had heard were doing bad things in the mortal world. Uripedas is unquestionably loyal to Greppa at this point, but from what source did he hear about this lightning bird?

Of course, Greppa agreed to this _before_ he discovered that Xeras (lightning goddess!) was behind the orcs, or that Allas and Xeras were in some kind of divine grudge match. The fact that he needed to get back to Theralis _as fast as possible_, and the fact that he was having to detour first on behalf of this promise made in ignorance, did not escape him...

Although he didn't really put it together until much later .


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## Indigo Veil (Jul 7, 2003)

Nice updates, Hank. More, please. ^_^ <holds up a bowl of tofu-based ice cream as a bribe>


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 7, 2003)

*Working...*

I'm working on the next update, but it may be slow. I have games tonight and tomorrow. It may be slow, but it will be fat.


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## seasong (Jul 8, 2003)

Just a quick note that Greppa may not have time for an update until around Thursday or so.


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## Raphael (Jul 8, 2003)

Fun:
 Bukkenahk = hammer
 Theralis = anvil

orc tribes caught between the two = ouch!

Now the party has a glimpse of just who is wielding that hammer.  So what are they gonna do about it?  They promised the orc ancesters to help free the Bukkenahk from the chains of Xera... how do they think they're gonna do that? *chuckle*

And +3 ECL -- I know where I'm spending my next vacation.  

I've gotta say this sounds like a fun campaign.  How long has it been running?


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## seasong (Jul 8, 2003)

Raphael said:
			
		

> Now the party has a glimpse of just who is wielding that hammer.  So what are they gonna do about it?  They promised the orc ancesters to help free the Bukkenahk from the chains of Xera... how do they think they're gonna do that? *chuckle*



I think it runs something along the lines of "Kick Xeras in the tail end. Repeat." How well that will work is another question entirely.



> And +3 ECL -- I know where I'm spending my next vacation.



Heh . Well, that's not the normal result, which is usually just an ordinary level-9 _wish_. This was a narrative event 



> I've gotta say this sounds like a fun campaign.  How long has it been running?



Since early Nov '02, so about 8 months.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 13, 2003)

*The Update is In.*

I have another 2000 to 3000 or so words in the kitty, so there should be much readage this week.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 14, 2003)

I remember being a toddler, if you think I am small now, then I was head-high to a vine sprout.

Back then, I was very impressed with the concept of running. Everything seemed to blur by when I pumped my little legs. The big world became much smaller because I could get places so much faster. Unfortunately I had sisters and they quickly showed me I wasn't fast. The older I got, the (relatively) slower I got. Eventually, I stopped running for joy at all. I ran because I had to. I was running from the Bukenahk now. 

We had flown all night and all day with no obvious sign of pursuit. We wasted a few more hours trying to locate where we parted with Chatham. I kept my eyes and ears open, straining for any sign. Not that I expected to see anything, it was still the proper thing to do. 

We also had Merideth and we listened carefully for her to a
voice a warning from her psychic abilities. I think I was muttering prayers to all the gods (except Xeras and Allas), and  I hurt all over when we finally touched down. 

"You're alive!" Chatham beamed proudly as we descended into the forest. 

"Chatham," I said catching my breath. "This is Ffutkuhg, he's a political refugee and will be coming with us."

Chatham's eyes widened momentarily as he took in the wizened old orc, then he replied with cinnamon charm, "I am Chatham. I welcome your presence honored elder."

Ffutkuhg grinned, eyes young and bright.

"We need to get moving," I said, "They're probably behind us."

Chatham regarded me critically, "You look like you're about to fall over." He ignored the huge wings on my back. I guess he was used to strange things happen around us. 

I did feel like I was about to fall over, but I didn't have time to rest, "We need to get going.

Merideth started rummaging around the packs and produced a blanket. "We can fashion this into a little sling and you can ride in it strapped to Chatham's back."

I was too tired to argue. And once we got going, Chatham's warm, broad back was awwwwfully comfortable. The beats of the drum lured me to sleep. 

Eventually, I was rested and took up my own load. In a prurient sense I could have just stayed with Chatham for the whole trip, but Uripedas' wings started to cramp, so I needed to run so they could stretch. 

Expecting to be at the end of the group, I started running when the group started. I felt Chatham's eldritch drumming take me away from my body which started running. I felt my body reach its usual limits and then...nothing, no extra strain, or shortness of
breath. I let myself get carried away and I ran and kept running. I found myself stumbling to a stop. I looked around and I was alone. 

"Whoa."

The others caught up soon afterward. 

"Seems like I don't have to carry you any more," Chatham said. 

We started running again, but this time I held back and we ran continuing for several days until we hit a swampy patch. That's when we realized something was different about Bellos. 

We slogged our way through the swamp. Sure, we could have flown but it didn't occur to me, or anyone else, besides wing assisted jumping was fun. We were also too busy  watching Bellos. 

He was flitting across the surface of the water. Well, at least it looked like he was flitting over the surface of the water. He always seemed to find the right place to put his feet, a root, a dry slice of land a branch especially close to the water, something. He always found the best place to put his feet. He was dry and most of the group was soaked and muddy.

"Alright! Hold It!" Merideth yelled, up to her chest in swamp muck. "I want to know what everyone wished for NOW!"

A quick march to the edge of the swamp (and change of tunic later), we stopped under the shade to talk. Merideth was impatient and glared at each of us, waiting for the other to start. For some reason, we were all reluctant to talk about the experience. Personally, and I know it was not rational, but I felt
that if I spoke of it, it would be as if it had never happened and I would be weak and slow again. 

An irritable amount of time later, I finally went first. "Well, I'm strong," I said. 

"How strong?" The question seemed to come from everyone, but I only shrugged, "I don't know."

"Okay, we'll test it," Chatham said. 

We got down on a stump and arm wrestled. Remarkably, at least to me, I was more concerned with beating him than prolonging the wrestling. We clasped hands, braced, and boom. It was over.

His eyes narrowed, "Lets try that again."

This time, I drew it out. Prurient interest not withstanding, it was fun watching Chatham try to stop the inexorable fall of my fist. He even threw fair play to the winds and tried to use both hands to put me down.

"Alright," He said archly. "Lets try something else."

We stood up, grasped fists and braced ourselves. Then we pulled. It still wasn't a challenge. I pulled him to me. 

He had one more test. We clasped hands and he braced his other arm on my shoulder. He told me to pull. And I pulled. I pulled him into a complete handstand.

After getting his feet on the ground, I was declared "pretty strong" and then we turned to Merideth.

"What?" she said.

"Well?" 

"Oh. Welllll, I've always seen my self a certain way," Merideth began softly, digging absently into the muddy ground with a sandaled foot. She straightened a little and gave us all a small smile, "Let's just say I've achieved my full potential."

Which of course meant absolutely nothing to any of us. Our dear Merideth spent a lot of time daydreaming, and she didn't share any of these with us. 

Bellos voiced our collective "Huh? I don't get it."

"Well," she continued slightly miffed, "I am warrior-healer now."

We all nodded, but it wasn't enough for me.

"Show me," I said.

Merideth frowned at me...hard.

"What?" I said, "Do some warrorin' for us."

Merideth continued to frown at me and I stuck my tongue out at her unfazed.

She grinned and launched into an orc spear dance. Her strength and agility was remarkable and her spear work reminded me fondly of Athan after we returned from captivity with the Bonahken. 

We applauded her performance with genuine appreciation. Then we turned to Bellos. Surprisingly, he was hesitant about coming forward, well at least I thought it was hesitancy, he was really trying to put it into words and it was still confusing.

"I, I've always enjoyed being in the wilderness," he began. "I don't necessarily care for the civilization except for the comforts it provides. I asked the ancestors to increase my connection to the wilderness. I can use that connection to do things like dragons
do."

"Whaaaaaat?" Merideth squawked.

"Mmmhmm," he nodded. 

"So what can you do?" I asked.

"I don't know," he replied, "I'm still getting a handle on it."

We turned to Ffutkuhg, "Well what did you ask for?"

The old shaman's face grew serious, "I asked for guidance and wisdom to help my people."

Hrm, I thought that could be really good, or really bad. But then again, the ancestors grapes were over the press too. 

So with that done, we renewed our flight from the east. Then, a small pack of giant wolves caught up with us.  They harried us along, even engaging us in skirmishes.  We kept moving, thinking that the Bukenahk were right behind them. Of course all of the distracting attacks was just setting us up for the ambush Olgah's four-footed thugs had arranged. 

How fast can those damn things move?


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## seasong (Jul 14, 2003)

Just a quick spelling note .  Bone Ache is _bunahken_.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 19, 2003)

*The Weekend Update*

Eventually, we took wing. These wolves didn't have any shamen nearby to support them and they could not follow us into the sky.   

Bellos and I prepared to rain hell into the furry blot on the forest floor. But once we were airborne, the wolves melted away back into the forest. 

We stayed aloft for the rest of the day and when we landed, we started running, Chatham's beat propelling us west and north to the area where Uripedas said the lightening elementals were causing trouble. 

"We did not escape them you know," Ffutkuhg said as we ran along unimpeded. "It was a token effort at best."

"What do you mean?" Bellos asked.

"That was nothing for Olgah," He said. "I have seen her do things far far worse. If she wanted to catch us, we'd be talking to her right now."

Merideth and I looked at each other. Olgah must still like us. 

***********************************************************************************

"Okay Uripedas, where is it?" 

We expected carnage similar to the destruction wrought by the depredations of the lightning bird that was summoned in Tuoma. The woods and land were pristine and the town sat behind its high wooden walls undisturbed in its bucolic isolation. With no trouble in sight, we gathered several miles from the town to confer with what sent us here.

Uripedas wasn't moved by the picture of peace, "It's here. I don't know where, but its here."

He wasn't any help, "Fine, we'll go into the city."

Chatham and Ffutkuhg elected to remain behind. Orcs weren't loved in the north and they did not want to provoke any excessive festivities involving pointy things. 

Strolling leisurely to the town gates, I halted mid-step. Magic was here. Magic strong as the stuff Kithios used. I let Merideth and Bellos move in front of me while I invoked my magical senses. I approached the city hesitantly.

The spell pattern resolved well before we hit the gates. I'd read about it somewhere before. It was a powerful enchantment, a spell that was beyond even Kryiotes. When the spell is triggered, four giant air elementals are summoned, forming a protective dome of immensely powerful winds over the city. I wasn't too sure about how it would do against magic, but non-magical projectiles would be hedged out. It was powerful magic that took a whole lotta grapes to squeeze out. 

I told Bellos and Merideth about the spell before we entered the city. The skyline was dominated by two huge arcanist towers. Steel was in use everywhere, especially on the guards, and there were a lot of guards. Their weapons were steel and they even wore steel armor. Everyone in the town carried a steel sword or knife. Some well dressed members were wearing weapons of something else. It looked like steel, but it was a duller color, like tarnished silver with a patina of jagged lines along the surface. 

"What is that metal?" Bellos asked.

"I don't know, but I want some," I replied. "Let's see if we can buy some and see what we could find out about the lightning birds."

We ambled into the first blacksmith shop we came upon. We did not have to feign wonder and at the sight of the walls full of shiny weapons and bits and pieces of armor. 

Prior to entering we decided that Merideth should talk with the shop keeper.

"Why me?" She had asked.

"Because you can be incredibly vapid when you want to be and it would let him underestimate you and maybe reveal something," I replied.

"What?" she asked.

I replied, "It's true and you know it."

She punched me in the arm.

Once we got to the shop, she turned up the flutterhead act and immediately struck up a conversation that covered a million things and said absolutely nothing. Eventually, she got around to asking about the lightning birds. He replied hurriedly that he nothing like that was around here. Then she started asking about the strange metal. 

The shopkeeper said the town has a mine that everyone has a share in and it produced iron ore as well as the ore for the dingy patina metal. When prompted why,He told her it was stronger and lighter than steel. 

"Can I get armor made from it?" I blurted.

"No," he replied. "We only make armor for the city guard."

"Then how about a weapon?"

"No."

"A knife?"

"No."

"A sample?"

"No."

Thoroughly plussed, we left the town.

"That was damned useless," I groused when we got back to Chatham and Ffutkuhg.

"No it wasn't," Merideth said thoughtfully, "They are hiding something."

I nodded, but Bellos looked distracted. Now that I thought about it, he was looking a bit out of sorts while we walked through the town. 

"Bellos," I prompted, "Are you okay?"

"No," He said unsteadily. "You stay here. I'm going to go scout the area." Then he stepped into a tree and vanished. We stared at the tree for several moments.

Bellos was gone for bit, reappearing from a different tree. His face was troubled and his eyes wet. "I found them he said. They are at the mine several miles from here. Here's a sample." He tossed a bit of ore to me. It was the same off-silver color with the jagged line pattern.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked. "Why are you upset?"

Bellos half scowled in thought, "I found their mine. The lightning birds are bathing the rock with lightning which turns it into that metal."

"They're controlling them then?" 

"No," He replied. "They are working of their own free will. The smaller ones doing the work are under the control of a big one. That must be the one Uripedas was talking about."

"Okay," I nodded. "You still haven't explained why you look so...hurt."

He paused for several moments, "Because of my enhanced connection to nature, I sort of feel it when the earth is injured. Their mine...their mine is a huge gash in the earth. I can't believe the dragon of this area has not dealt with it."

The new "caring" Bellos was weird.

"Well," I said, "We know where they are, so we'll go stop the lightning elementals."

Bellos cleared his throat and then looked very, very guilty.

"Bellos, did you do something precipitous?" I asked.

Bellos nodded.

"How precipitous?"

"I let them see me take the sample and let them follow me in this direction before tree-stepping here."

"So they're coming?"

He pointed at the sky where an angry looking storm cloud with snaking tendrils was heading this way.

I preferred at least a little planning but now I had to improvise. I cast Stone Skin on Merideth, Bellos, and I. Ffutkuhg and Chatham pulled further into the forest. I prepared to cast Fly on Merideth (I still had my wings) but Merideth launched into the air under her own power. Bellos and I followed. 

As we closed, the tendrils resolved into chains of smaller lightning birds flying in close formation. I summoned Uripedas and we climbed banking into towards the armada.

"He's here he's here!" the sun eagle called. "If we get rid of him the others will go."

The small elementals had started to vector in on our position. 

"Go with him," Bellos said. "You and Merideth take out the big one and I'll handle these."

Not wanting to take the time to argue, however before we split up, Merideth touched each of us and suddenly the world looked very odd.

"You are seeing slightly into the future," Merideth said. "You can see what will a happen a moment before it does. It should help us out."

Merideth and I followed Uripedas towards the big cloud. As we approached, I saw a flicker of something that looked like hellish fire. That was all the warning I had (which was better than nothing) to avoid the column of lightning that blasted down from the cloud. And I do mean column, it was as large as the strike Gruhaa called on that poor giant a few weeks ago. I managed to avoid the brunt of it, and the Kithian membrane and Stone Skin absorbed the rest. My skin still sizzled and smoked. 

I felt Merideth's touch and the char and blisters receded, leaving me pristine. We had to hurry, even with Merideth's healing, another strike may not be survivable.

Uripedas had already moved into action."You wait here while I flush him out," He said and dove into the cloud.

Merideth and I hovered almost motionless, watching, waiting and ready. 

The cloud lit up with sunlight and the elemental emerged, four wings flapping madly, its neck caught in Uripedas' beak. I grabbed Merideth's hand and Dimension Door'd us onto the creatures back. It would have been funny if we weren't so desperate. Uripedas kept the head away from us while we sank Inflicts and Sunbolts into the creature's back. Then the creature dove and Uripedas followed, flapping his wings to increase the speed. Merideth and I fell back, whipped off the back by the sudden increase in velocity. Uripedas didn't let go, his beak firmly set towards the ground. We dove after them, but they were out of reach. I prepared to cast another Dimension Door when Uripedas' voice drifted up to me.

"Unsummon me!" He said.

"What?

"Unsummon me, unsummon me, unsummon me , unsummon me!"

They were getting awfully close to the ground.

"Oh." 

I ended the spell and Uripedas disappeared moments before the lightning elemental crashed horrifically into the earth. 

I cast the summoning and Uripedas appeared beside me grinning, "I knew I could depend on you!"

It was a quick battle after that. The monster never left the ground and soon it was dead and the sky cleared. On the creature's dun-colored carcass, Uripedas found a single red feather. When we pulled it free, the creature's form faded away.

"It's a feather from a Celestial," the sun eagle supplied, "It's what let it stay here without being summoned."

"Can you tell what Celestial it came from? Would it do the same for you?"

"No and Maybe," he replied. 

I placed the feather against his breast and it merged seamlessly, forming a shock of red in his golden plumage. He waved his wings in the air and gave a fierce raptor scream.

"I'm all here!" He said excitedly.

"What do you mean?" Merideth asked.

"When I summon him," I said eyeing the giant happily capering bird, "I can only bring through so much of him. Now, thanks to the feather, he here at full power."

I stepped up to him and rubbed his neck, "And I don't have to summon him. He's here all the time."

A strange look crossed his face, and he let out another scream. The air began to fill with sunhawks. They looked like Uripedas did when I first summoned him so long ago. The air was alive with the chatter of hyperactive sunhawks.

"Alright you guys!" The huge sun eagle barked, "Go scout!"

They all looked at me. 

"Whatta ya looking at him for?" He shouted with comic indignation. "Go scout!"

Reluctantly the sunhawks flapped off. 

"Who're they?" I asked trying to stay calm.

"They're my buddies," He replied with characteristic enthusiasm. "Since I'm all here I can call them now."

I was processing everything when Bellos came swooping in. He looked a little scorched but none the worse for wear. Merideth healed him with a touch as he filled us in.

"There are more of those things coming," he said.

"More big ones?" I asked, my voice snaking higher. 

"No," He replied, "just the smaller ones."

"The arcanists in the town must be summoning them," I mused. "Uripedas, you and your buddies go take care of those things. We'll take a stroll into town and stop this nonsense."

"They are gathering soldiers at the mine," Bellos added. "You two go to the town. I'll deal with what's happening at the mine."

We nodded. Bellos stepped into a tree and the rest of us took too the air again. Another storm cloud had begun to form. Uripedas and his posse, flitting about and glowing like overactive embers, tore away from our group, closing on the advancing cloud.  We went to find out who was inviting more guests to the party.

By the time we arrived, the wind wall had been triggered, surrounding the town in a dome of whistling wind. Merideth and I closed and I took her hand. I felt her tense, preparing for a bumpy ride through the barrier. I traced the sigils for Dimension Door and we slipped into the astral plane and emerged unharmed on the other side of the shredding winds. 

We were greeted by a hail of crossbow bolts, followed by spears. Between the stoneskin and the Kithian sheath they couldn't touch us. Our attention focused on the two figures on top of one of the towers in the throes of summoning. 

"What do you want to do?" Merideth asked. It was a valid question. If we were assaulting orcs, I'd just toss a fireball into their laps, but I wanted to talk to the spellcasters and that required them being alive.

"I think I can manage it." I began the spell carefully. It was something I conceived when we decided to capture tribe members who attacked us. I felt the spell complete and a yellow-green cloud burst above the top of the tower. The noxious vapors drifted down, engulfing the two casters. We watched their silhouettes spasm and collapse. The cloud continued to drift down seeping into the street. 

Merideth and I lit on the roof. I firmly resisted an urge to go ransack their library, we were already trampling over a sovereign town and I did not want to add "bandit" to my colorful resume. There were two arcanists, one old and one young. We decided to wake up the young one, on the off chance he'd be weaker than his friend. We were wrong. The bastard twitched his fingers and disappeared as soon as he was awake. 

Cursing vociferously, I woke up the other guy and stood on his hands while Merideth held a spear to his throat. 

We questioned him, but he claimed to not know anything about some sort of lightning elemental conspiracy. He said they had a deal with the big elemental to help manufacture the strange ore. The elementals also gave them the enchantments for the wind wall. 

"Look," I said finally. "You're being used. The gods are at war and you've been dragged into this somehow and it's not for good."

The old arcanist nodded his head stiffly, "Indeed. But I'm sorry if I don't believe you."

"Ask your own elemental," I answered, "Summon a small one." I called coruscating sun streaks to my fingers but did not release them, "Don't try anything creative."

Merideth's hand crackled with green lightning, casting a shadow on his face and he nodded. Slowly, he traced the circle and a tiny serpent-like bird appeared.

"Hello," I purred.

The elemental would not speak, except to mewl pitifully, and it took some, ah,  persuasion. The creature believed it was ultimately safe because it couldn't be killed on this plane. I countered that Uripedas and the other sunhawks would come find it on its home plane and kill it permanently if it didn't talk. Could Uripedas have done it? I don't know but the elemental seemed to believe it. It's tongue loosened, telling us how the large elemental was actually the mastermind of a plot to turn this town into the seat of it's personal kingdom on the Material Plane. The metal wasn't a transmutation, it was an exchange with some sort of celestial metal. He said the relationship was a mutual exchange and the people of the town were willing participants. 

The creature's duration expired and it vanished and I turned to the man on the ground. "Look," I began with more conviction than I felt, "Something bigger than you is happening. You should not be meddling. We killed the master lighting elemental and if we have to we'll come back and kill it again and you too." I remembered what Bellos said about the mine. "I don't know where the guardian of your land is, but you should shape up that mine. It is a blotch on the earth. If your guardian does not make you clean it up, then our guardian will." I didn't exactly say we had a dragon with us, especially since I was talking about Bellos, but I wanted his imagination to run with what I said. "Tell your leaders what I said. Do you understand me?"

He nodded.

I gave him another hard look, then Merideth and I flew away, flanked by Uripedas and the hawks. 

"He didn't believe you," Merideth said.

"I hope not," I groused. "Then he'll give me a chance to kill him."

"Aren't we bloodthirsty?" She asked raising an eyebrow. 

"I'm just irritated. These bastards are mucking around with something they don't understand they're going along with it because they think it makes them powerful."

"Do we understand what's going on?" Merideth asked. "I mean, do you know why Uripedas was directed to bring us here?"

I didn't. I trusted Uripedas, but he wasn't the brightest star in the heavens and he also got information from Allas. I didn't trust Allas at all. "Lets go back to camp," I said. I prepared to Dimension Door us through the wall when Merideth seized my attention.

"Greppa,"

"What?"

She pointed at the town. At the base of the tower, the dead air cloud had spread into the city and people lay unconscious and it washed through the streets. The spell was still going, claiming the consciousness of anyone it swept over.

"What?" I asked again.

She looked like she wanted to smack me and I rolled my eyes. "Oh alright." I released the spell and it dissipated.

Then she smacked me. 

We reconvened at camp where Bellos gave us some unfortunate news.

"I haven't been able to locate the dragon who's supposed to be supervising this area," He said. "I'd like to take two days to see what's going on."

I thought about the time we had. It was still winter and we had some time until summer. However two days shouldn't be that big of a delay.

"Sure," I replied. "We can keep an eye on the village."

Actually, we didn't keep an eye on village, Uripedas and his cohorts did. We agonized over the purpose of our side trip to the village. We scared them terribly all and completely shattered their sense of security because we had a nebulous information of "badness" in the area. We didn't have a concrete reason, but I had a theory. Xeras was setting these poor people up. 

Only a few hours later, Bellos returned and he wasn't alone. He stepped out of a tree. Amalan, who appeared out of nowhere, was with him.


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## Talix (Jul 21, 2003)

Woohoo!  Love the new perspective, you're doing a great job, Greppa!  

I'm glad that the wishes were more fully explained, I'm eager to see the crunchy bits of what actually happened in game terms.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 23, 2003)

*sorry for any typos*

We were running again, our interference in the affairs of the town of Jarrol having ended with Amalan's arrival. 

Bellos had went looking for the dragon of this land and could not find it. Somehow, with his new connection to nature, Bellos sent a "message" through the wilderness. It wasn't directed to anyone in particular. It was just a cry for help. Amalan heard the alert. 

"Thank you for what you've done here," The Dragon said sending the message directly to our minds. "Return to Theralis and when I return, you will each be awarded additional lands in your name in the valley." He fixed each of us with a large eye, "Thank you." Then he hulked off, fading into the forest. A group of his Kobolds remained with us.

Several heartbeats later, we turned to Bellos, "What's going on?"

One of the Kobolds stepped forward, "Your knowledge of the situation is very limited. Allow me to elucidate. There was a somewhat powerful arcanist in the town and he sought to grow his home into a bona-fide city-state. He summoned the Greater Lightning Elemental and they struck an accord. The Celestial creatures would provide the means for greatness and he had to kill the dragon of this land. The dragon who dwelt here was one of the oldest dragons and he was very powerful. Unfortunately, he also liked do sleep a lot. The arcanist gathered a powerful troop of mercenaries and with grave loss of lives, managed to slay the dragon while he slept."

It took us several moments to re-assemble something resembling composure. "So, what's going to happen next?" I asked.

The kobold smiled a toothy reptilian grin. "It should be starting just about now."

It clapped its hands near its feet and brought them out and together above its head. An illusion globe appeared showing the center of the town in the area at the base of the arcanist towers. People were still lying the streets from the cloud of dead air I'd set off a day earlier. Amalan materialized in the middle of the town square and roared. The people who were unconscious awoke instantly. 

The fearsome dragon's words were terrible,"Did you believe that your crime could pass beneath our notice stupid humans? The Compact was for what you needed. You wanted more and now you will have nothing."

The people present in the image started screaming and groveling. There was no sign of the spellcasters who were so valiantly defending the city earlier. The people there were mostly crying, "It wasn't me! It was the leaders!"

The dragon blew a disdainful gout of smoke, "Is that so then? Alright. You will collect all of your leaders who were involved with the conspiracy and set them out in in front of the mine for me. You have one day to do this. If this is done, you will be allowed to leave before I destroy this town and its mine. If you fail, I will destroy you as well as this town, no matter how far you run."

We left the area soon after that. 

That night we gathered by the fire, waiting for sleep to take us. The end of the events surrounding the town of Jarrol had left me questioning the wisdom of allowing Bellos to run about "playing dragon." The people of that city had been doubly screwed over. 

It was a guess, but I believed Xeras had been grooming that town for conquest by the Bukenahk. With an endless supply of that metal and skilled metal smiths in their service, the orc's ability to wage war would be increased several times over. The wind wall, while very impressive, would have been very useless against the Shaman-Arcanists of the Broken Knuckle. They would have been crushed easily. It was a hunch, but the right one, it all fit together too easily. Xeras and Allas had all the subtlety of a sunny day.

As I was drifting off to sleep, a shadow appeared on the edge of the firelight. We were at battle-alertness in a blink, but the figure did not a make any sudden movements, or have any weapons present. 

"Come into the light," I called. He advanced slowly. He was wearing a long black Theralis style tunic. His hair was a mass of dark curls and his face was beautiful, almost celestial, with a dead-white pallor. 

"Hello stranger," Chatham said with typical aplomb, "What brings you into the wilderness tonight?"

He smiled and looked at me, "Hethas has told me that you are going to die. I am supposed to keep it from happening."

"Oh great," I exclaimed, "Now Hethas is involved."

"I am called by Hethas," he replied, "You will be killed when you return to Theralis. I will stop them."

What do you say to something like that, "What does Hethas have to do with the conflict between the gods?"

"I am called by her, but I am not bound by her," He said. "I set my own goals. However in this thing, she asked this of me and I will do it."

I thought I felt something wiggle loose in my brain. It was probably an errant piece of sanity. "Alright then. So you are not here to cause mischief?"

He shook his head.

"Then come, sit, talk," I said gesturing to a spot by the fire. 

"Oh no," he said with sibilant smoothness. "I can keep a better eye on you from out here." He turned back to the forest and disappeared. 

"Oh just great!" I said, losing my temper. "Allas, Xeras, and now Hethas!"

                 *************

Theralis was only a few days away and we soon found ourselves in the foothills outside of the Theralis valley with a dread standing over us. Someone was going to try to kill me and we busied our selves with the useless task of watching out for the killer. Uripedas and his army of sunhawks scouted ahead while Bellos checked things out on the ground. I kept stoneskin active constantly. Anyone intent on killing me was going to have to work for it. 

We reached to he outskirts of the city and dismay sliced over us. Signs of recent fighting pervaded the area and guard patrols, usually only present in the summer, were out in force. The rest of us took cover in the woods, while Bellos scouted. While he was gone, I decided to send Uripedas to find Agina and let her know we were here. Uripedas returned before Bellos.

"We found her," he said excitedly. "She said you should wait here."

Bellos returned several minutes later saying that he didn't see anything unusual in the city, but a group of troops was headed in our direction. 

I turned to Chatham and Ffutkuhg, "I don't know if you want to go into the city. A mixed tribe has settled in a valley not far from here. I'm sure you'd be welcome there while we make arrangements to talk to the council."

"No," the old orc responded, "We will all go into the city deal with what may come."

I nodded and we turned to await the arrival of the troops. 

The soldiers turned out to be a corps of Theralis Elite led by Agina. 

"We received your letter," she said with no preamble. "Come with me."

We set out at a military hustle, but did not head for the city. I thought it was unusual, but I trusted Agina. Hell, it was why I sent the letter to her.

"Why are the patrols out in the winter?" I asked trying to get up to speed. 

Agina snorted, "They changed the rules. Another tribe attacked while you were out. They had armorcats with them but they were not Breaking Cat. They waged a skirmish campaign but we fended them off."

"Anything else?" I prompted.

"Wait 'till we get where we're going," Agina said. And we jogged along until we reached Phitios' tower. 

Phitios' country abode wasn't so much a tower, but more like the ossified stump of a tremendous tree. 

White tunicked guards patrolled its perimeter. I was jumpy at this point. Akeros wasn't visible, but, as we found out a few times on the last leg of the journey home. He could be seen when he wanted to. He just chose not to be seen most of the time. 

We were escorted to a windowless circular room at the heart of the tower, finely  appointed with chaises, couches, bowls of fruit and bottles of chilled wine. 

With another detachment of guards inside, Phitios lounged on a couch sipping a from a cup beaded with droplets of water. He was very calm and smiled warmly when we entered.

"Please, relax you've caused quite a stir," He said. 

Everyone took to a seat while the servants offered food and watered wine.

"We got your message a month ago and were waiting for you to get back." Phitios said. "We've been busy here, even with the winter campaign, we've been making lots of preparations." He paused and looked into an empty corner, "Hello Akeros. It's nice to see you again."

The tall pale man appeared from a shadow smiling. "Phitios," he said in greeting, "Perceptive as always."

Phitios turned back to me, "So, can you tell me what you saw."

I told him and Agina every thing...except about me possibly getting a chance to shag Belial. If I didn't tell Merideth, there was no way I was going to tell Phitios, Agina and a room full of guards.  

After several long moments of contemplation, Phitios asked, "Do you think that mine is still there?"

I just looked at him. Didn't he hear what I said? The gods are going to war and he's worried about a fool's-gold mine.

"It should be, although it won't be open," I replied. "The ore wasn't natural anyway."

Phitios had stopped listening after I said "It should be." "Chatham," he said, "How many people can run with you?"

Chatham thought about it for a few moments and gave him a fairly large number. 

Phitios eyes began to cloud with thought, "I'd like for you, all of you, to stay here for at least a week while we sort things out," he said. He was my commanding officer and member of the council so I agreed.  In a way, I was glad to have finally sloshed all of this business into the council's hands. All of this business with the gods was in the hands of people who made the decisions. Okay, I kept telling myself that, but I knew I was involved up to my neck.  

A day later, Agina informed us that Thelanna was coming to Phitios tower to speak with us. Great, another complication I didn't need. 

The next day, accompanied by a contingent of guards, I met with the Therali High Priestess of Allas in an isolated alcove off from the large center room. 

Now, don't get me wrong. I did not dislike Thelanna, I didn't trust her. Being in an enclosed space, with my death coming at any moment, with no where to run (Teleport and Dimension Door not withstanding) left me feeling more than a bit nervous. So nervous, I could barely engage her in conversation.

We spoke in Celestial. No I don't know the language, but Thelanna did and through her I understood. She said it was to keep the conversation away from those who would not understand. 

She spoke of the conflict between the gods. She said that Theralis must prevail and in order for us to prevail we must spread out. Expansion was supposed to be our best hope for beating Broken Knuckle and Xeras. And the best way to ensure our victory is if Allas is with us. She said if the people of Theralis choose Allas over Dianas as the patron god, Allas will provide military support while Dianas would only supply blessings. 

I nodded and asked for more details, but she remained vague. Then the skin on my neck tightened. Almost casually, Thelanna said she heard I was having a crisis of faith. 

"And who told you this?" I asked genuinely surprised.

"A passing Celestial," She said.

"Which one?" I asked. I wanted to have a slow, torturous conversation with it. 

"It doesn't matter. What matters is that I am here if you wish to talk about your feelings."

I paused pondering for several minutes. I wasn't good at confiding, not when a Chosen of the Goddess of Death, pops up to tell me that someone in Theralis is waiting to kill me. In the end, like her or dislike her, Thelanna was not going to be the receptacle for my doubts. 

"So," I finally said, "what we want is the best for Theralis?"

Thelanna nodded, "Yes."

What I thought was "I need to find out what is best for Theralis." What I said was "Okay."


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## seasong (Jul 23, 2003)

Greppa, I'm glad you warned me about the dialogue .

Just so's y'all know, Amalan was much fiercer and well-spoken before 4-5 weeks passed without record 



> Bellos had went looking for the dragon of this land and could not find it. Somehow, with his new connection to nature, Bellos sent a "message" through the wilderness. It wasn't directed to anyone in particular. It was just a cry for help. Amalan heard the alert.



Just a quick comment, since I don't think this was ever explained to anyone but Bellos: there is a feat that allows attunement/sensitivity to the land, and by sending faint ripples through the "green pond of life", allows communication with others who are nearby and similarly sensitive.

Bellos wasn't communicating, however. He was splashing wildly.

When Amalan went looking for the hatchling dragon he'd not been warned about, you can imagine his surprise to find a scrawny Aglaonese citizen, with a terrible story of a dragon murdered, a land ravaged, and a tiny band of heroes trying to stop it all.



> "Thank you for what you've done here,"



Note: from _Greppa's_ point of view, he gave a pretty exact quote. It covers the _important_ parts of the dragon's little thank-you speech, after all, which you'll notice is 70% additional lands .

Here's a fairly exact quote, from my planning notes. I think I may have changed a few bits on the fly, though.

"THAT A DRAGON DIED IS TRAGEDY, BUT DO NOT THINK I AM BLIND TO YOUR HEROISM." A breathy pause, then, "FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE TODAY, I THANK YOU. RETURN TO YOUR LANDS. REJOICE. FOR I SEE FIT TO REWARD HEROISM, AND EXTEND THE COMPACT WITH YOUR PEOPLE. THE VALLEYS TO THE SOUTH AND WEST OF LITTLE LAKE SHALL BE YOURS, AND IN YOUR NAME." Another pause, as the dragon stares hard in the direction of the mining shaft, then nods and repeats, "THANK YOU." He leaves, fading into the forest.

Okay, looking at that, I _know_ I changed a few bits . I dropped the "rejoice", cuz I was looking at the players, who were looking at me, and they didn't look like the word would resonate with them right at that moment . And I think I reworded "I see fit to reward heroism", although I'll be damned if I can remember how.

(As for how I had that planned - Amalan was going to show up whether Bellos went and got him or not; it was just a matter of whether or not the PCs were on his good side or not, so I had two speeches prepped)



> The fearsome dragon's words were terrible,"Did you believe that your crime could pass beneath our notice stupid humans? The Compact was for what you needed. You wanted more and now you will have nothing."



"Stupid humans"... did I actually say that? Gah!

Although, I am pretty sure he said "and now you will have only death."



> "Come into the light," I called. He advanced slowly. He was wearing a long black Theralis style tunic. His hair was a mass of dark curls and his face was beautiful, almost celestial, with a dead-white pallor.



Note: when Greppa says "celestial", he isn't talking about in the way that a Theralis citizen would use it - by that standard, Athan was more celestial, and this fellow was more fiendish. But in the more modern sense,in that he had an angelic, almost guileless expression, he did.

Also, Greppa described him very prettily, but neglected to mention his name (even though he refers to the name later in this post, with no preamble or linkage ): it's Akeros.

And here's another description of him...

_"His skin as pale as ivory, his eyes darkest blue, his nails blackest talons. He was beautiful. He ripped apart the final initiate himself, following the ritual he'd watched for three days, and finally spoke. 'I require clothing. And weapons.'. Akeros had returned."_

*And one more thing...* Thelanna was a lot sneakier than presented here . Greppa and Merideth both fell for it hook, line and sinker until Bellos put things in perspective several minutes later. Of course, it's his diary, so that's to be expected 

(Greppa's PLAYER didn't fall for it, but he did an admirable job of having his character fall for it; writing it this way later is just icing on the cake for me )


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## seasong (Jul 23, 2003)

By the way, I didn't say it, and I meant to:

Nice post! I'm liking the redheaded point of view .

And don't take my comments as criticism - they are, at most, an explanation of the GM's point of view for comparison and contrast .


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## Caliber (Jul 23, 2003)

Very nice. I like the player/DM PoV comparison. It helps give an idea of what really goes on at the table more than most story hours do (or possibly can)

Did Greppa have any suspicions on who was trying to off 'im?


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## seasong (Jul 23, 2003)

Caliber said:
			
		

> Did Greppa have any suspicions on who was trying to off 'im?



He had more suspicions than I had NPCs .


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 23, 2003)

seasong said:
			
		

> *He had more suspicions than I had NPCs . *




(And because I'm a tease) The culprit came completely out of left field. Seasong got me.


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## seasong (Jul 23, 2003)

Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> (And because I'm a tease) The culprit came completely out of left field. Seasong got me.



The look on your face was all the reward I needed .

If you're still around, I'm likely to have some time tomorrow morning for an Academia. I've been thinking about a few things, but anything you (or anyone else for that matter) would like to see in particular?

I was considering an overview of the fiends involved with Lucces (the one cast down by Allas; and also Allas' mother), or possibly some bits and pieces about The North... or a half dozen other things I've said to Greppa in passing . Any preferences?


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## J. Anson (Jul 23, 2003)

seasong said:
			
		

> I was considering an overview of the fiends involved with Lucces (the one cast down by Allas; and also Allas' mother), or possibly some bits and pieces about The North... or a half dozen other things I've said to Greppa in passing . Any preferences?




I'd be interested in discussion of the fiends...


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 23, 2003)

*Hrm....*

Talix wanted crunchy bits about the wishes. The fiend info would be nice too.

P.S. Seasong, can you update the dateline for the new post? Thanx!


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 24, 2003)

*Newest Update!*

"Well, that was interesting," Bellos said as we congregated in my room after our individual talks with Thelanna.

Merideth and I nodded. We had been troubled by Thelanna's announcement. Primarily, because we believed that it was true. The looming reality that we had to become, more or less, what we'd been fighting for the last 10 years did not go down well. We didn't see any other option. However Bellos had a different view.

"I think that if I were a local, I'd be consumed with patriotic resolve after Thelanna's speech," Bellos began. "But I'm not and this doesn't sit right with me."

"What did she tell you?" I asked. 

"Basically, she said that Theralis and Allas were the only hope for defeating the Bukenahk and survival of the war of the Gods." He paused a few moments, "She said Aglionis could be a part of this willingly or otherwise." He shook his head ruefully, "She must have thought I was more loyal to Allas than Aglionis."

Well, there it was. Merideth kept silent. 

I began to speak but stopped. This was so awkward. We needed to take control of the situation. Allas had already used us several times without giving us a choice or even an explanation and it had to stop. We had to do this as a partnership. 

Whoo boy, am I blasphemous or what? 

"I think if Belial had not spilled the beer, and we hadn't gone to Uggrahd, we would still be in the dark about the scope of the situation," I finally said. 

Bellos nodded, deep in thought, "I'm tired of being used."

I agreed but didn't say anything because I was lost in thought. I was on a short timeframe. After meeting with Thelanna, I talked with Agina, who was strangely unsurprised at Thelanna's statements. She said that the council was aware that Allas wanted to supplant Dianas and they were going to hold a meeting regarding the issue tomorrow to see what must be done.

"I don't know what to say Bellos," I started. "But, we don't have to do things the way Allas wants us to. Allies are more welcome than slaves."

Bellos considered it for a few moments, "I'm going home." He paced about the space, picking up speed while the thought took hold. "They need to be made aware of the situation so they can 
make plans, so we can meet as allies not enemies."

Yes! I exhulted inwardly. 

I walked over to Bellos and hugged him. Merideth did too. He hugged us and it all became terribly sentimental after that. We watched him leave the room. He'd sneak out the tower and be home in a couple of tree hops. 

Thelanna had stressed that it was up to the people of Theralis to choose their patron deity. So we were going to make sure that they choose properly. 

"We need to go to the Temple of Allas," I told Merideth, my resolve hardening. "We need to find out exactly what Allas is bringing to the table. Akeros!"

The Chosen of Hethas emerged from a shadow, "Yes?"

"We're on the move," I said. "I thought you'd like to come along."

He smiled and stood next to me and Merideth. I traced the teleport sigil and we materialized in the open square of the Kept of Allas. Armed men wearing the white cloaks we retrieved from the lost temple so long ago milled through the area. Well, they were milling. When we appeared they were turning to see what was happening.

Sure I was in a room full of armed men, sure someone in Allas' Celestial court was whispering up my tunic, but I'll be damned if I let someone push something on our people that wasn't in our best interest. "Take us to Thelanna," I said. And they did. 

She was in the garden when we found her. "Hello children," She smiled.

"Hello," we said with a short bow.

"I have unfortunate news," I continued. "Bellos has returned to Aglionis."

Her face fell. "That is unfortunate. I had hoped he would have stood with us." She regarded us for several moments, "Is that the only reason you came?"

"We talked to Agina," I continued, "and the council will be meeting tomorrow to consider elevating Allas over Dianas."

Thelanna nodded intently, "Go on."

"They need to know exactly what Allas is willing to bring to the table. They want to make an informed decision."

"I understand," she said seriously. "I will find out tomorrow morning at sunrise when I commune with Allas."

We nodded and teleported back to my room at Phitios' tower. I was already drawing the black feather from it's safe space in my things. 

"We need to talk to Belial."


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## seasong (Jul 24, 2003)

The following covers some stuff that hasn't been revealed yet in the story hour, but which is now known to the PCs (well, some of it they may not remember, or may not have been explicit, but the characters would know ).

This will be a continuing series. I'm covering Luccas here, and I will be covering Hsethmah (and maybe Corvidae) next.

(Hsethmah, god of spiders; Corvidae, goddess of ravens & death in battle)

*Academia: And in the darkness bind them...*

*Luccas (The Red)*



> From an earlier post...
> _Luccas the Red, cast down by Allas to bring about a purer light, one suited to beasts and people, rather than the reddish glow of a sun suited only to reptiles and creatures of darkness._
> 
> And also...
> _Goddess of the Red Night. Blood. Crawling beasts and verminous insects. Fertility, secrets... she seemed to have a hand in all sorts of pies, until Allas and Phastas bound her up and tossed her in the Pit._



Luccas is an ancient goddess from a more primal epoch, whose portfolio is blood and passion. When she was ascendant, the sun was said to be deep crimson, well suited to bats, wolves and serpents, and that her red light gave the world a dull warmth it lacks today. She is a goddess of carnal lusts, sacrificial blood-letting, messy birth and messy death. She is bestial and beautiful.

When she birthed Allas, she did so knowing that the world needed light other than her own. She dimmed her own light, and retreated into the night as a crimson moon, that Allas' beautiful brilliance could peel back layers of darkness in the world. The goddess of mortal inspiration was to herald the new age Luccas and the other gods intended.

Allas, of course, rebelled against her unfashionably primal parents, organized the new gods, and kicked all the old gods into the infernal realms. Luccas, though weakened, retained much of her power through the agency of Dianas, one of the only Old Gods who survived into the new age (mostly by being pliable). She kept this power largely hidden (Allas certainly didn't know), and She and Dianas were carefully (secretly) allied down through the centuries.

(Note: did you never wonder why wine so often resembles blood? Or wonder how Dianas gave a fertility spell to Athanna the Drunk's parents?)

Enough ancient history.

Luccas is the goddess of blood. Although she seems to have her fingers in a lot of pies, this is primarily because of the extensiveness of a portfolio dealing with the liquid of life. Although she fulfilled the role of sun goddess (and later moon goddess) for a while, she is not well suited to it, and knows this. Her light is dull and dim, and pulses almost imperceptibly. Like a womb, it is comforting in a weird sort of way, but it does not foster the advancement of civilization nor any other thing beyond the dull NOW.

Certain animals, well suited to her red light, have come under her portfolio by proxy, and she holds some dominion over wolves, rodents, serpents and bats. She is also a goddess of venoms, an agent of the blood, and thus has some dominion over venomous animals of all sorts.

She also has associations to both night and day, and the secrets kept by both.

She is also the patron goddess of drunkeness, healing, birthing (and the womb itself), lust (and other passions carried by the blood), vampires, blood oozes, and similar such things.


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## seasong (Jul 25, 2003)

*Academia: And in the darkness bind them...*

*Hsethmah (sometimes spelled Hhsethmah)*

Little is known of this ancient god, save that His name lies on the tongues of spiders, and that Allas cast Him into the Infernal Realms by Allas when He unwisely bit Her ankle. And even that little tidbit is largely lost to time - now He is just an obscure demigod mentioned in passing among musty tomes that few read, and the source of blame for myths of giant spiders that few in living memory can even claim to have seen.

The God of Spiders is not a very _big_ god, you see.

Still, He is a loyal ally of Luccas as they are allied in matters of venom, and within the scope of his arachnid kingdom, He is powerful enough for his own purposes. His fell subjects have dominated several layers of the Inferno, casting vast swaths of the realm in silken death and shadowed tapestry mazes, and while He is not entirely happy about being Infernal, it is adequate.

*Origins:* Long ago, an evil god who wished to destroy the world was shattered into a million pieces, and those pieces flew and crawled and burrowed into the dark places of the world to await the day that they would be strong enough to return. And though the many gods hunted them, could not reach into the places they had hidden. And Gaia, who could feel them crawling about within her earth flesh, cried out for aid, but none could help Her.

Hsethmah then spoke to the Gods. At the time, Hsethmah was a fat, bloated, hairy dwarf. He was unwanted, but He was the son of a god now long gone and forgotten, so they tolerated Him. He knew this, and sought a niche for Himself, one that would not earn Him beatings. There were only six gods who He spoke to, and He spoke thus, "Let those most perceptive among You give Me one eye each; and let those swiftest among you give me one leg. For I am the smallest among us all, and I believe I could fit into one of those cracks, but I lack Your wisdom and speed to spot and capture and kill. Give these things to Me, and I shall hunt out every one of the Enemy."

The gods were proud, and none would admit to being less perceptive or swift than any other. And so to prove it thus, they each gave him a leg and eye each. And when Hsethmah had attached these things to himself, He wrapped his powerful, dwarfish arms around himself and began to squeeze, shrinking himself so long as his arms were tight, and He set upon a lonely quest to hunt all of the pieces of the Enemy.

And this is why spiders hunt vermin.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Jul 25, 2003)

Ooooooo! Nice post Seasong. 

Okay everyone, I'm about to reach a point in the Story Hour where there will be a " 'hol 'lotta fightin." Do you want me to: go into more detail on the fights; keep things as they are now; or gloss over the combat, focusing on its ramifications?

I'm trying to get an idea of what you'd like to see.


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## J. Anson (Jul 25, 2003)

Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> *I'm trying to get an idea of what you'd like to see. *




Gory detail of when... I mean, gory detail of whatever happens ^^;;;


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## Indigo Veil (Jul 29, 2003)

Nice academia, seasong!

Hurry! On to Corvidae! (she's SOoOoOOoOoOo cool...)

For fights: I'd like enough detail to bring some flavor to it, but I'd appreciate it if you would just choose defining moments to be detailed about...and then get good an' gory. ^_^

(I think I sat in on that whole lotta fightin' session, and good god, was there a whole lotta fightin'. ;; )


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## F5 (Jul 30, 2003)

*Hsethmah*

I really love the details of your pantheon, Seasong.  From his origin story, Hsethmah sounds like kind of a Trickster god, yes?  A little bit Anansii, a little bit rock n' roll?

I'd be surprised if he doesn't turn out to be closely involved in what's going on.  Hsethmah is the Infernal god of Spiders, who is allied with Luccas.  Luccas was cast down into the pit by her daughter, Allas.  And what was one of our heroes' first adventures together?  They explored a ruined temple of Allas, inhabited by...wait for it... giant infernal spiders!  It all comes full circle.

Greppa, I can't wait to get to the "whole lotta fightin" part.  My vote is to focus on the ramifications of the fighting, but don't gloss over the fighting, either.  We all love reading about y'all kickin' butt!


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## seasong (Aug 4, 2003)

*Academia: And in the darkness bind them...*

*Corvidae*

Once, the _corvos_ goddess was the goddess of war. Her flocks watched over battles and carried those slain across the river Akeros, which (though few know this) predates even Hethas. Her messengers carried word from one end of a battle field to another, or provided knowledge of the present to those who knew how to listen. Those who praised Her in battle drew upon Her agility and guile to find paths to the soft flanks and underbellies of their enemy.

She spoke prophecies through the tongue of the raven, guided the blind through darkness, carried heroes to their rewards, blessed the subtle and healed the weak. She brought honor, skill and sagacity to civilization. She took the eyes of the dead in price, and gave them new sight when they arrived beyond Akeros.

She was good. She was just.

She was Luccas' eldest daughter, and when Luccas fell into the Infernal Pit, She followed of Her own will, and bequeathed the realms of the dead only to "that god who has died of their own will, to share mortality with mortals and prove their worth." (Hethas would later fulfill this obligation by asking Sthenno to kill Her rather than Her daughter)

It is said, in some circles, that Athos (god of martial skill and wisdom) still consorts with Corvidae and seeks Her advice. And though she no longer speaks prophecy through the tongue of ravens, it is said that there are those small groups who remember her and coax wisdom from sacred _corvos_ nonetheless.


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## seasong (Aug 4, 2003)

*Re: Hsethmah*



			
				F5 said:
			
		

> I really love the details of your pantheon, Seasong.  From his origin story, Hsethmah sounds like kind of a Trickster god, yes?  A little bit Anansii, a little bit rock n' roll?



Just a bit . He's also modelled on a lot of self-sacrificing, underestimated gods in various mythologies - the unsung hero archetype. He has a bizarre portfolio of powers (wrapping his arms around himself to shrink? uses the legs of six gods to run? wtf? ), performs a dirty job no one wants, and is almost never seen directly.



> I'd be surprised if he doesn't turn out to be closely involved in what's going on.  Hsethmah is the Infernal god of Spiders, who is allied with Luccas.  Luccas was cast down into the pit by her daughter, Allas.  And what was one of our heroes' first adventures together?  They explored a ruined temple of Allas, inhabited by...wait for it... giant infernal spiders!  It all comes full circle.



I was waiting for Greppa to comment on this, but he's been busy writin', so it's up to me: If only you knew how close to the bone this is .

*Note on whole lotta fighting:* Honestly, I'd prefer some of it was glossed over. The most important battles were, I think, the Kyriotes' Grand Scene battle (you know the one ), the Tuoma Battle, and the itty bitty little thing with the Bukkenahk. Most of the rest can probably be glossed without impacting the story too much.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Aug 8, 2003)

*It was the time of..................*

*Sorry this took so long. I was going to breeze through this part, but it's an important part of the narrative, a moment of RP that should not be lost. The fightin' will start next post.* 

Merideth shook her head at my pronouncement, "No."

It was my turn to look incredulous, "What do you mean 'no?'"

Here is where I must say something about Merideth, she's always been closer than a sister to me. We talk about boys, pal around at the Olympics staring at boys, killing orcs and being generally as close as a man and a woman could be without marriage. If I liked girls, I'd have asked her to marry me a long time ago, but since we're friends I sometimes forget that she's a girl. At that moment, she looked very vulnerable, her eyes wide and afraid. 

"I don't want to talk to Belial," she said in a small, almost imperceptible voice.

I stared at her hard, "Why?"

"When I see him...when I look at him," she stopped. She swallowed and started again, "I can't think when I see him. I look at him all of my thoughts are blown away on a wind of desire. It scares me."

Damn, I thought I had a strong reaction to Belial.

"Merideth," I started, feeling myself slipping from "Greppa of Tartwarter" into "Greppa of Theralis," hero of innumerable battles, ersatz scion of Allas. Here, I could make decisions that made me sick later, but they were decisions that need to be made. Theralis was being squeezed and we needed to take a position now. Allas and Dianas were going to butt heads and we needed to have all the options on the table. "Merideth, don't think, just stay with me. You can do this."

Pensively biting her lip, she nodded and I lit Belial's feather.

Belial appeared, artfully arranged on the bed. He was wearing the loin cloth again with bits of pitted iron adorning his neck and wrists. He was a walking wet dream, I needed him to give me insight into what was becoming a nightmare. 

Merideth's hand slipped into mine. She was trembling. "Belial," I began, "Allas is moving to become the patron deity of Theralis. She is offering us military support. Not just blessings, but support by her Host. We are having a council meeting to discuss and we have to know what you and your people have to offer."

Belial stood, detaching himself from the bed with liquid grace. Surprisingly, I found that I still wanted him, but it was an aggressive feeling, unfamiliar and heady. I also found that I could think through this feeling, everything felt sharp edged and I felt the parts of myself that romanticized the potential of a tumble with Belial pushed firmly aside. 

He looked at me, smooth assurance absent from his face, "Do not try to deceive us,"  we will tell you everything we have to bring, but it will be everything. Do not use us to get more from Allas."

Now that was an interesting statement. Merideth and I caught each other's eyes. Her full intelligence shown through. Belial wasn't so attractive when a deadline loomed. While he wasn't frightened, something weighed on him. 

I turned back to him, "Well? Who are you representing?"

The Fiend turned, spreading his wings, "Come with me." He enveloped us, cradling with his powerful arms. The room spun away into darkness and then there was light, a thick, warm, red light that caressed as it illuminated. We were on the summit of a mountain. The sky was a smoky red and black clouds seemed to flit and worm about in it. Merideth's eyes were big, but her body was tensed, ready. I looked at my hands. I was glowing with a dull brightness. The touch of Allas showed even here. I turned to Belial expectantly. He shouted a phrase in Infernal. The black clouds roving across the sanguine heavens surged and began to head towards us. With growing trepidation the mass of darkness grew, resolving into a particulate mass of screaming, flapping birds.

The cloud advanced and enveloped us, two-foot long ravens blurring past and through us. Part of the animate mass coalesced into a tall, white skinned celestial. She wore a simple white tunic and her feet were caught in wrapped sandals made of black leather. Her head was converged with a black thatch of hair and her eyes were a void, devoid of white and her shoulders were draped with a floor length cloak of feathers. 

"Are these they of which you spoke Belial?" She asked with a strangely clipped hiss. 

He nodded, "Yes they are. They wish to see what you bring to the bargaining table."

She nodded and fixed us with a steely void, "Do not seek to betray us," she said. 

With uncharacteristic directness, I replied, "No lies are here. We need to know so that our people may make the proper choice. It does not lay with me. I will take it to them and they will decide. I am Greppa."

Merideth did not say anything, she watched the god with wide eyes.

"This is Merideth," I supplied.

The feather cloaked goddess nodded, "I am Corvidae, Goddess of Ravens. I will bring my power to the battlefield, and," she said gesturing to other clouds of darkness flitting through the red sky, "My children."

My mind supplied images of huge ravens feasting on orc flesh and I found my self smiling. 

"What do you want in exchange?" I asked.

"Worship and a Temple, nothing more," she responded.

I produced a piece of parchment and wrote down what she said. 

Merideth finally spoke up, "How does one go about becoming a priest of yours?"

Corvidae smiled, "If we have a bargain, we will discuss it."

Merideth smiled at the goddess, who dispersed into a cloud of black birds and rejoined her children in the sky. Belial enveloped us with his wings and we felt ourselves falling, flying into the blackness at the base of the mountains. We stopped at a cave and Belial led us through the mouth. Spiders of varying sizes lined the walls and a Hellhunter, affixed with the same strange mark as the hunter we found in Hurath's tower, skittered out of the blackness towards us.

"Stop!" Belial commanded.

"Thissss one we know," It said, pointing a foreleg in my direction.

"This is the one who will help secure our release," Belial said.

I kept myself tucked behind the fiend. Merideth, Athan and I had killed a whole lot of spiders (and more than a few hellhunters) early in our careers and these guys seemed to hold a grudge.

"They attacked ussssss," it said.

"Hey!," I piped up," You attacked us when we returned home. We just took back our home."

It started to advance and I tensed then it stopped, "Hsethmah said that we will be allies." Then it added, "For now." 

I narrowed my eyes, "If we do this, it will be forever." The Hellhunter did not respond. 

Belial smoothed things over with, what I now know, is a priest of Hsethmah. Hsethmah pledged the aid of spiders great and small. He asked for a temple also, he also asked for the dark, deserted, crevices and other places in Theralis and the wilderness around for his children. As long as they didn't alter the environment, it was fine with me.

I scribbled more notes on my parchment.

We took to the air again. The mountains yawned beneath us, jagged teeth of a mouth hungry for something. Our souls maybe? Belial maneuvered deftly between the stone incisors bringing us alight at the entrance of a grand palace of reddish marble. A woman clad in a full, strapless floor length blood red tunic awaited in the doorway. 

Corvidae was impressive, this woman was thought rending. Her face was a perfect piece of art, everything sizable enough to make an impression, but not so much to take away from the tableau of the entire picture. Her eyes were a blood black, caught on chalk sclera, her lips were full, supple and inflamed and her black hair was caught up, away from her bare shoulders.  

Belial bowed deeply, we followed his lead. His voice throbbed with respect as he said, "This is Luccas. Or I should say an avatar of Luccas."

The avatar smiled at Belial with overwhelming condescension, "Thank you for bringing them." She said to us, "Come with me."

We followed her into the palace noticeably, Belial remained behind. We followed her through the cavernous structure winding up at a throne, upon which sat the more perfect model upon which the avatar was based. We stood before Luccas. 

We left her presence shaken. It wasn't a difficult bargaining session, but there were two things she would not bend on: Allas could not be worshiped in Theralis. The second was something far more personal. I had to be her high priest. I had never seen myself as a priest, however if Theralis did not choose Allas, we were going to need a source of sunlight so I said yes. Not to mention, we needed the infernal Host, she had to bring to bear. 

"We wish to ascend from the Pit," She said. "By helping you, we will garner the worship, the power, necessary to take back our place in the heavens."

We found Belial waiting for us as the Avatar escorted us out. Some spiteful parting remarks passed between the two and Belial wrapped us in his wings and returned us to...

My summoning chamber in my Tower. "Why are we here?" I asked. 

"A servant of Allas is at Phitios' Tower," He said and then he vanished. 

"So now they're following us," I muttered.

I didn't know where Akeros was, but I didn't want to start the rest of my little plan without him. However, if Allas was tracking our movements, we couldn't stay in one place, too long.

"Let's go," I said, starting to cast Stoneskin and Earth's strength on each of us. "We need to get to the Temple of Dianas."

It's surprisingly easy to get around Theralis without being followed. The city is the pinnacle of southern architecture. We saw what Aglionis and Tuoma were doing and improved. Not only were there streets but there were walkways above the streets stretching across connective arches above the earth. It was possible to cross the entire city without touching earth. Shrouded in dun brown cloaks, Merideth and I slipped through the air above. We didn't see anyone follow. Merideth couldn't sense anyone. However, the sun was shining brightly. We knew at least someone was keeping an eye out.

Not surprisingly, we arrived at the temple of Dianas and the Councilor Menelaos was present, personally supervising a donation of fine wines from his vineyards in Tartwater. We prevailed upon him to gain us immediate access to the high priest.

He smiled with placid familiarity, "Such a rush?" He asked calmly, "It's only the afternoon."

I spoke directly, "I don't think we have much time." Merideth kept her eyes on our surroundings. Akeros wasn't here as far as we were aware, so it was up to us to make sure I stayed alive. I didn't want to die, but I wanted to be sure that Theralis made the right decision, gods didn't matter. The freedom and endurance of our people mattered. I explained to him what Allas wanted, and then I told him the possibilities offered by the Gods of the Pit. Luccas was clear about one thing, if Allas was worshiped in Theralis, she would not help. However with Corvidae, Hsethmah, Luccas and Dianas, it seemed that we had a better chance against Xeras and her Bukenahk.

I had hoped to get a list of what Dianas would provide. Allas would have to match everything in order to gain the worship of Theralis. If we were going to choose our gods, we'd choose he gods what will give us the most. 

The high priest of was a small man, with small beady black eyes half sitting up on his couch. His hair was sparse and his tunic spotted with wine. He was also sopping drunk and dozing fitfully. Menelaos gestured for us to sit while the priest roused himself. "Oh, it you," he said disappointedly. "Finally."

Puzzled, I asked, "What do you mean 'finally?'"

He fixed me with those rapidly sobering beady eyes and I remembered. Dianas was a goddess of prophecy. "How much do you know?"

"Everything," he replied with sage sadness. 

My heart swelled, "So?"

The priest reclined onto the couch, "It doesn't matter who the people of Theralis chooses, Dianas will be neutral."

"What?" I exclaimed, "But, but, Theralis is Dianas' city. How can she be neutral?"

He fixed me with those beady, sober eyes,"This is something you can never tell. Even to our priests, this knowledge is a great Mystery known to few." He paused and took a deep breath. "Dianas is an old God. Older than Allas, older than the first war of the Gods. Dianas is old but she is not strong. Allas, when she was but a child, hurled a spear through the thigh of her mother Luccas. Not for a real reason, Allas was only throwing a tantrum. Luccas seized her by the head and hurled her from the highest tower of her home and buried her beneath the paving stones of the courtyard. Allas was buried for years and when she arose and with the aid of the younger gods, made war against Luccas and the other old gods. It was she who pierced the heart of her mother and bound her to the pit and took her power. Dianas removed herself from the conflict, allying in name with Allas and the younger gods and eventually relinquishing her eminence to the younger generation. If Allas were to tell Dianas to depart Theralis, she would." He stopped while the statements settled in. 

"There's a council meeting tomorrow," I started. 

"Yes," The priest responded,"The general of Allas' celestial army is here. He will address the Council in the morning. If you are going to do something, you should do it now." 

I was speechless. Allas was a step before me. I had to take time to think. Time, though wasn't a luxury we had, wasn't a luxury I had. I turned to Menelaos, "Councilor, can you direct me to the house of Balthas?"

He looked thoughtful for several moments,"I'll escort you...after the wine has been delivered."

***

Balthas' home was located outside of the city. Menelaos escorted us through the streets with irritating casualness. Didn't we explain it clear enough? Someone is going to kill me. Allas wants to take over Theralis. Xeras and the Bukenahk want to take over everything. Three fallen gods want to join with us against everybody. Who knew what the other gods were up to, we needed to hurry before something takes it out of our hands. 

Menelaos was a council member, one of the City-State's leaders. I was just a soldier, a citizen doing his duty. Merideth and I followed along in his wake, and a crowd began to form around us. He was a popular councilmember and very visible. He often stopped to chat with merchants wine while we walked. It took me a while to realize it, but I finally had time to think. 

Allas said she would offer us military support. However, that support had not been quantified and up until now her support has consisted of sunlight on the battlefield. We found the sunstone. We powered the sunstone with our strength. She sends us visions, we set out to make it happen. She wants to be the sole god in Theralis. Xeras has the Bukenahk and backing by the Bukenahk's ancestors. We could have the full resources of three gods. They may not be as powerful as they were, but they will do whatever it takes for us and them to win. Even if Dianas doesn't fight for us, she will still be the patron of Theralis. If she doesn't leave, we'll have her blessings. Four gods versus one god. The figures, I thought, were basic. 

I shook my head. I wanted to give the lists of what they were willing to commit to Balthas I even scribbled out a quick copy while Menelaos was bemoaning the affairs of northern wine country. Merideth just looked bored, so I brought her into my thinking. I expected some push-back from her regarding where Allas figured. She however, was in complete agreement.

Her eyes narrowed when I asked her to explain, "It's just, it's just that I'm tired of being used."

And that's what it came down to. Will the people of Theralis choose their destiny or will a fickle goddess with a penchant for matricide guide us? 

I looked up from my thoughts and we were there. Balthas' home was less a house, and more a compound with buildings and even a small vineyard. It was bustling with servants and functionaries. One particularly obnoxious fellow, showering Menelaos with obsequious greetings, took us in hand. When he heard that we wanted to speak with Balthas, he began babbling about protocol and that we weren't presentable. A lot of talking and negotiating later, Merideth and I were escorted into a windowless interior room. 

We walked slowly, this was the perfect spot for us to be filled with crossbow bolts. 
Merideth slipped a callused hand into mine and whispered, "Stay close to me. If anything happens, stay close to me."

I looked at her, her dark eyes were fierce and she let me feel her certainty and support. I felt another part of me fall off. It wasn't exactly the right time, but I finally realized that our innocence was gone. If we lived, we'd be wading in death for the foreseeable future. I felt the part of me that was Greppa of Tartwater go into a place where kids put things when they grew up and Greppa of Theralis stood in the gap. I held Merideth's hand. It was a rope over Akeros and hopefully it would always be there.   

The room was as comfortable looking as the chamber in Phitios' tower but there weren't any elite guards circling the walls. The Grand General of Theralis, Balthas, was alone, sitting calmly in a chair.  "Come in," She said in a strong basso-alto. "We have much to discuss."

We started with smalltalk, but it quickly swelled into a discussion of the war between the gods. Allas had been very busy. 

"Shortly after you left for the Bukenahk, Allas sent the general of her Celestial army to us and we have been in council with Thelanna ever since. Then we got your letter." She paused, "What do you think?"

I started from what she knew and spoke of what Corvidae, Luccas, and Hsethmah had to offer. 

She nodded and repeated, "What do you think?"

I felt myself turn inward, Allas was making moves even as we were seeking the truth. Why didn't she tell us this before? Because of her, we've lost what were supposed to be the finest years of our lives. We lost Athan. We lost neighbors, friends and family. And now She wants us to trust our future on a nebulous pledge of military support when there has been no sign of such support. She is just one god. The final shreds of sanity fell away. Taking its place was fanatical resolution.

"Theralis should plot its own course. The gods have not been forthright with us and we are paying with blood and have not had any return on the investment. If we are going to plot our own future, we need the best for Theralis." I said.

"So you believe Allas is not the best for Theralis?" She asked.

I found my self nodding in vigorous agreement, "Allas has been using us. Unless she is willing to match what Luccas, Corvidae and Hsethmah are bringing to the table, we should abandon her. I have reached my limit. Since we are being forced to fight, we fight for Theralis." 

Balthas was still, statuelike, "Merideth?" she said, "Do you feel you feel the same way?"

She squeezed my hand reassuringly and nodded briefly, "Yes!"

The Grand General rose and embraced us. The room started growing perceptibly brighter. We turned as one towards the source of the swelling brightness. Balthas removed herself from the room as the, luminescence expanded to blazing brightness and then contracted into a glowing corporeal form. 

Merideth hissed and crushed my hand in a fearful grip.

My skin tightened and my suddenly dry mouth weakly gasped, "Athan."

_"God, God, GODS!"_ My thoughts wailed.  _ "NO!"_


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## Greybar (Aug 8, 2003)

Oh, Beautifully done!

I can't help but think that with all of the minor gods and avatars around, have the heroes given much consideration to the possibility that their will is being tampered with in this decision making?

john


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## seasong (Aug 8, 2003)

*Re: It was the time of..................*



			
				Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> "Worship and a Temple, nothing more," she responded.



Technically, She _requested_ a shrine, but Merideth _built_ a temple .



> Belial smoothed things over with, what I now know, is a priest of Hsethmah. Hsethmah pledged the aid of spiders great and small. He asked for a temple also, he also asked for the dark, deserted, crevices and other places in Theralis and the wilderness around for his children. As long as they didn't alter the environment, it was fine with me.



Hsethmah didn't actually ask for a temple:

"I ask that my children be given the dark places, the cracks and shadows of your world, that they  be respected, and that the darkness is given to me to watch over."

In non-divinese, He was essentially asking for dominion (within the Theralis region) over the dark places of earth and stone. This is an age-old compact between Hsethmah and the people in the past, when the people would give him those places he needed to hunt the Dark, and in return he fed upon those things that plagued the people.

This compact has a powerful impact on the war with the orcs, oddly enough.



> We left her presence shaken. It wasn't a difficult bargaining session, but there were two things she would not bend on: Allas could not be worshiped in Theralis. The second was something far more personal. I had to be her high priest. I had never seen myself as a priest, however if Theralis did not choose Allas, we were going to need a source of sunlight so I said yes. Not to mention, we needed the infernal Host, she had to bring to bear.
> 
> "We wish to ascend from the Pit," She said. "By helping you, we will garner the worship, the power, necessary to take back our place in the heavens."



I loved roleplaying this out. Aside form Greppa looking shaken and disturbed, playing Luccas gave me the excuse to leaven my voice with barely contained passion, and to look the players in the eye and say in a dramatic voice, "On this I shall not bend" and "I will not bargain with a traitor".

*A few other notes*

When I introduced Corvidae, I deliberately catered to much of what Merideth wanted. She was beautiful and serene, and standing in a heroic pose while Her million-raven posse blew by like a hurricane. Her entrance was dramatic, Her eyes were fierce and black, and She radiated as much _presence_ as I could muster. Plus, with the hints of what She was goddess of (war, wisdom, prophecy), it was like pounding the keyboard of Merideth's buttons. On top of that, gods are just Awe inspiring, and you know Merideth wanted a piece of that.

After they'd met Corvidae, I don't think Allas was really an issue for Merideth anymore.

Regarding Dianas: The priests initial words were actually "Those who stand in Her [Allas'] path have a history of losing." It was as close to complicity as the priest was willing to get (essentially, if you win, we'll support you, but there's no way we're risking it otherwise).


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## J. Anson (Aug 8, 2003)

*Re: It was the time of..................*



> _Originally posted by Greppa of Tartwater _Balthas removed herself from the room as the luminescence expanded to blazing brightness and then contracted into a glowing corporeal form.




"So, you really don't want to worship Allas, right? OK, here's the general of Her army..."

Yikes.


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## seasong (Aug 8, 2003)

Balthas is, and always has been, a very _tough_ general. She has her reasons for this, as Greppa later discovers.


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## F5 (Aug 8, 2003)

Athan's back, and his timing is impeccable...

This is gonna get UGLY, innit?


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## seasong (Aug 8, 2003)

F5 said:
			
		

> Athan's back, and his timing is impeccable...
> 
> This is gonna get UGLY, innit?



I don't want to spoil whatever approach Greppa is taking in the writing, but I can tell you this much without spoiling anything: I've been planning this moment with unholy glee for quite some time.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Aug 9, 2003)

*It was the year of...change.*

"Hello Athan," I said with an inner peace that surprised me. "You're looking well."

He smiled sadly, "It's good to see you too Merideth, Greppa." 

"Now that you're here," I said sounding business-like, "we can sit down and talk." He didn't seem real, but he was here, so strong, so touchable, an adolescent crush brought back to life, gloriously accentuated with the power of a god. 

He slumped slightly, telegraphing his mood, "I do not want to hurt you."

"What do you mean?" I said, "We can talk about this. We only want what's best for..."

He cut me off. "I DON'T want to hurt you Greppa!"

_ The beautiful body riddled with orc spears _

I roared,"You don't HAVE to!" 

Tears in his eyes said, _ "But I do." _ 

Damn me! I'm so stupid! I didn't see this coming. "You don't have to hurt anybody."

He shook his head and drew a spear from the quiver at his back.

Color seemed to drain from the scene and suddenly we were moving painfully slow.
Merideth and I moved together, heading for the nearest exit. I formed the spell in my mind, _ Teleport, _ but our escape was interrupted by the spear protruding from my chest. Merideth screamed abruptly. Her hand went limp. I spared a glance and saw Merideth, unconscious, two spears sticking from her back. Athan was riddled with crossbow bolts. However, his focus was still on us.

Maintaining my grip on Merideth, who was dead weight at this point, I leapt from the room, rebounded from the wall and into the hall. The strength of an orc hero (coupled with Earth's Strength) was more than sufficient to carry me away. I re-initiated the Teleport spell. Athan teleported into the hall before us. The spell was taking an agonizing amount of time to complete. The servant of Allas slowly drew another spear. This shaft was shining, a sliver of light. He flung it directly towards my face, however, the spell completed and we were gone. 

I wanted to teleport into one of the Kithian storehouses we found under the highway, but Athan's glowing spear screwed up the magic pattern. We arrived underground...somewhere. Darkness engulfed us. I willed myself to glow, not knowing what will happen. Light illuminated the darkness, a pinkish red light.

Under the illumination, Merideth looked shockingly pale. She was bleeding profusely, but she just needed time for her to heal her self. I was bleeding myself, so I conjured a small finger of flame to cauterize my wounds, well tried to conjure. The spell took far more effort than a cantrip should. I shook my head, somehow, we teleported into another plane. I didn't know which plane, but any plane that wasn't my home plane was bad. 

I got the finger going and seared my wounds shut. I turned to Merideth and tapped her face, "Okay Merideth, wake up you're safe, we're okay." She didn't move. I put my face to her nose and felt no air. I put my ear to her chest and felt no pulse. It didn't help that the spear was slicked with cardiac tissue.

_ No _

"Get up Merideth!" I said feebly rocking her body back and forth. 

She didn't move.

"Just make yourself better." I was rocking her gently, like I was a little boy trying to get his mother to wake up. "Don't leave me by myself."

_ I don't want to be by myself! _


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## Serpenteye (Aug 9, 2003)

*Re: It was the year of...change.*



			
				Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> *
> "Just make yourself better." I was rocking her gently, like I was a little boy trying to get his mother to wake up. "Don't leave me by myself."
> *






---

And then they were rescued by the Eye Tyrants? Right?


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## seasong (Aug 10, 2003)

Note: Athan actually offered away out- he started the conversation with "Greppa, don't do this. I don't want to hurt you." and "Come back to Allas."

Those who defy Allas receive no quarter, as the high priest of Dianas indicated earlier, but Her servants sometimes waver in the face of duty.

-

Eye tyrants: Afraid not, although that pseudo-alliance will come in handy later.

Note on Athan: The only thing that saved Greppa was that Athan decided that Merideth was more likely to survive a single spear shot, and that Greppa would probably bite it after one. Greppa proved to be surprisingly tough, however, and used his orc-granted strength to good effect when fleeing .

For those keeping score, Merideth took over 100 points of damage from the two spears.


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## Greybar (Aug 10, 2003)

So I guess there really wasn't much chance of bluffing their way through that, hmm.

I'm not following one bit though.  The general left, but there were soldiers left who shot all of those crossbow bolts into Athan?  I guess the heroes should be glad that the common folk held up in the face of a celestial, instead of just fleeing or standing in awe.

(Okay, granted none of the bolts probably penetrated DR, but still it was a noble effort)



> For those keeping score, Merideth took over 100 points of damage from the two spears.




Yipe.  Was that your version of "smite"?

john


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## seasong (Aug 10, 2003)

Greybar said:
			
		

> I'm not following one bit though.  The general left, but there were soldiers left who shot all of those crossbow bolts into Athan?



There were hidden soldiers around the area. Balthas is never without her guards, and this was at least partially a test of whether Allas would be willing to discuss the matter, or if she would simply attack.

That she sacrificed Greppa and Merideth to find this out was unfortunate, but war is hell.



> Yipe.  Was that your version of "smite"?



1d8 spear, +15 bonus from STR, +2 weapon focus, +1 close shot, +1d6 divine for the second hit. For the first hit, drop the divine, multiply by three for a critical hit, and add a divine 3d8 burst. Then roll good.

Athan was a fricking combat monster _before_ he got the Scion of Allas package deal .


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## seasong (Aug 13, 2003)

This one's a little different - written with GM Voice instead of Setting Voice. So it's not really about anything specific, but rather just the general approach I've tried to take with things up to this point.

*Monsters: Divine Servants*

When I was originally working on the idea for Theralis, I knew that I wanted the gods to be accessible. I wanted divine events to be part and parcel to the adventurer's life, and for the gods and their servants to feel like a natural part of the setting.

Thelanna, high priestess of Allas in the city, speaks to the higher celestial servants of the Sun Goddess on a daily basis. She has friends in the celestial hierarchy, and more than a few rivals. In the same way that Greppa has certain lantern archons that he has become familiar with, so too has she spent time developing relationships with particular Devas and other such beings, and even the occasional direct Audience with Allas Herself.

Hydras are the manifest result of deific lust, giant spiders are the literal drops of blood from an ancient dwarf-god now bound in the infernal pit, the grape-mashing ceremony at the Olympiad pleased Dianas enough that wine-related trade has been strong the past several years. The PCs can look out their window and see the fruits of the gods' presence in the world. They can look at their war and know that the gods have a powerful hand in it.

So I needed to think about the divine servants.

I wanted to represent the gods as being BIG, these immense forces, a kind of cultural tide that shoved mortals hither and thither. You can't do that with a _Deities & Demigods_ style stat block for the god's avatar. You need a whole support network of shock troops, diplomats, advisors-to-mortals, social engineers, prayer-answerers, and so on.

For 4+ months of weekly games, Greppa was summoning lantern archons, little puffballs of light, to help him in innumerable ways. They teleported vast distances to pass messages, or to bring wine or equipment from home, they translated ancient languages, and spoke with an earth elemental on his behalf. They connected Greppa with Allas.

It wasn't until he summoned one to translate texts lost to Theralis, searching for information about things Allas had hidden, and the cute little puffball asked "What are you doing?" that Greppa saw, for the first time, the _leash_ that Allas had slipped upon him. And he began to wonder if he could even trust his loyal friend Uripedas... because Uripedas was a creature of Allas, a celestial sunhawk that occasioned to serve in Her armies when She called. And I did similar things everywhere. The priests of Allas in each city they went to were in touch with the others, and had a servant or two on hand who aided them in each thing.

For another example, Xeras' presence was felt in the lightning birds at the mining colony, and one of Her most powerful servants sits with the orc ancestors. Lesser servants of Xeras fight alongside the Broken Knuckle warbands, and ball lightning-like lantern archons maintain communication over vast distances for the Broken Knuckle army... and keep warband leaders in line over those same distances. If Xeras were to remove Her influence, the Bukkenahk would likely collapse, and so, bit by bit, they move in the direction She wants.

There is a reason that Theralis does not allow priests to be on the Council, or advance beyond Captain in the military!

Okay, I'm getting carried away with specifics . The point is that I decided the best way to represent a *god* was through the presence and activity of His/Her servants, both mortal and celestial. When one thinks about Microsoft, for example, one doesn't think of what Bill Gates is doing with his day, but the cumulative effect of the actions of all of the employees. So I went for a similar feel in Theralis.

For purposes of figuring out how I wanted to structure it, however, I went for a somewhat anarchic approach. The gods of primitive cultures are often portrayed as (essentially) highly admired bullies. So as I thought about celestials, I treated them as members of a gang. A very large gang .

Lantern archons, in some form or another, were part of every gang. They were the brats and kid brothers, who ran messages, checked mail, and did a hundred other minor little jobs. The ability to teleport without error and speak/read any language, combined with the low intelligence, made them the perfect day-to-day operatives.

Xeras' lantern archons look like ball lightning; Allas' lanterns look like puffballs of light; Luccas' lanterns look like reddish puffballs; Corvidae's lanterns look like shadowy, intangible ravens; Dianas' lanterns look like tiny pixies in grape leaves. But they all have the same stats and purpose.

Above that level, however, I wanted the gods to be unique. So I stopped worrying about whether the creature was in the Celestial section of the MM I or not.

Example: Xeras has a servant that looks like a 9-ft tall, handsome human dressed in flowing robes. His hands and eyes crackle with lightning, and he can transform into lightning instantly and streak away through the sky to some other place. The stat block? A troll who does electrical damage with its claws instead of normal damage, and has some celestial-like abilities (such as teleport) and a prettier face.

Example: Luccas has servants who are associated with Her wolf aspects. They are humanoid, but with the massive heads of black-furred wolves. They are awesome hunters and pack-fighters, and savage Her foes for Her. Hound archons, redescribed and modified slightly for the Infernal Pit.

Example: Allas has a servant of light that looks like a six-armed, chalk-skinned woman with glowing blue eyes and the lower body of a glowing serpent. If you're thinking a re-described marilith (with holy abilities instead of unholy), you've got the idea .

In general, I've tried to make sure that there are servants who can:
0) Come down to Mortal Land (at great cost) and kick SERIOUS butt.
1) Work with leaders of state, persuade people, etc.
2) Lead armies of #4.
3) Heroes who lead the charge / shock troops.
4) Grunt troops.
5) Aides to priests / advisors on religious authority.
6) Espionage and fostering discontent.
7) Lantern archons.

-seasong


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## Indigo Veil (Aug 14, 2003)

Two quick bits, because I'm bored, and because I'll forget if I don't do it now:

1) _. . . this woman was thought rending. Her face was a perfect piece of art, everything sizable enough to make an impression, but not so much to take away from the tableau of the entire picture. Her eyes were a blood black, caught on chalk sclera, her lips were full, supple and inflamed and her black hair was caught up, away from her bare shoulders. _

<whimpers a little as she melts into a puddle of goo> Man, you ought to be so glad, Hank, that I'm not participating in this campaign. ^_^ I'd have given everything to this woman, whether or not it was for Theralis' good. ^^;;;;

2) _Allas has a servant of light that looks like a six-armed, chalk-skinned woman with glowing blue eyes and the lower body of a glowing serpent. If you're thinking a re-described marilith (with holy abilities instead of unholy), you've got the idea. _

I hope I'm not spoiling anything by revealing this, but I happened to sit in on the session during which Greppa & Co. met with this creature of light.

Predictably, much fighting ensued.

During the encounter, Hank (Greppa's player) breathed softly, "My _god_, that thing's just...a _monster_."

To which I replied, of course, "Well, duh. It's not in the 'Monster Manual' for nothing, you know."

Anyway. Hank told me to post my comment, and so I am. ^_^

There, Hank, I posted. Now it's your turn to follow orders. Update! ^,^;;


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## seasong (Aug 14, 2003)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> <whimpers a little as she melts into a puddle of goo> Man, you ought to be so glad, Hank, that I'm not participating in this campaign. ^_^ I'd have given everything to this woman, whether or not it was for Theralis' good. ^^;;;;



She's not a woman. She's a God. 



> I hope I'm not spoiling anything by revealing this, but I happened to sit in on the session during which Greppa & Co. met with this creature of light.



Spoilsport .



> Predictably, much fighting ensued.
> 
> During the encounter, Hank (Greppa's player) breathed softly, "My _god_, that thing's just...a _monster_."
> 
> To which I replied, of course, "Well, duh. It's not in the 'Monster Manual' for nothing, you know."



Bah. That was an easy fight - the Servant of Allas had practically no prep-time at all. Wait until the next time, when she does.


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## F5 (Aug 14, 2003)

Again, I'm impressed with how throughly thought-out Theralis is.  I've always thought it made sense to plot out exaclty what kinds of creatures serve a particular god, and how they do it.  Never got around to it in any campaign I was running, but it makes sense.  It's the sort of thing I would expect to see fleshed out in detail in a sourcebook like Dieties & Demigods.

Any chance we can see a more comprehensive list of the specific roles monsters play in the gods' armies?  I'd be curious to see it if you've got something written up already you can share; if not, don't worry about it.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Aug 14, 2003)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> <whimpers a little as she melts into a puddle of goo> Man, you ought to be so glad, Hank, that I'm not participating in this campaign. ^_^ I'd have given everything to this woman, whether or not it was for Theralis' good. ^^;;;;




LOL!! Now I'm worried about how Friday's one shot is going to turn out. You left us behind last time...obstensibly to get help ;P



> There, Hank, I posted. Now it's your turn to follow orders. Update! ^,^;;




I'm werkin' on it. 

;P


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## seasong (Aug 14, 2003)

F5 said:
			
		

> Again, I'm impressed with how throughly thought-out Theralis is.  I've always thought it made sense to plot out exaclty what kinds of creatures serve a particular god, and how they do it.  Never got around to it in any campaign I was running, but it makes sense.  It's the sort of thing I would expect to see fleshed out in detail in a sourcebook like Dieties & Demigods.



Yeah, I was pretty disappointed in D&Dg. I'm a world builder at heart, though, so my standards for _certain aspects_ of source books is pretty high.



> Any chance we can see a more comprehensive list of the specific roles monsters play in the gods' armies?  I'd be curious to see it if you've got something written up already you can share; if not, don't worry about it.



Much will be revealed as the campaign progresses into the higher levels, when the PCs start having to deal with such things even more directly. When Greppa gets _gate_, we'll finally be seeing the other planes, and dealing with the politics there first hand.

-seasong


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Aug 18, 2003)

Hey guys, I wanted to apolozize for the lack of updatage. I've let myself get too bogged under with stuff (4 games a week and a once weekly night class). I will be caught up hopefully before we hit another another Aria point.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Aug 25, 2003)

*NEW UPDATE*

*It was a time of change.* 


I think I lost track of how long I sat in my sanguine light gently rocking Merideth, hoping that her wounds would spontaneously close, she would sit up and hit me for being silly. But she didn't get up. 

Eventually I began to pull myself together. I lost people before to the machinations of the Gods. It'll probably keep on happening. Retrieving Belial's feather, I ignited it and watched it burn fitfully, but he didn't appear.

"Belial!" I yelled, anger simmering, "Belial!"

"I'm here," a disembodied voice returned.

I looked around, "Where? We need to get us back to Theralis." 

"I'm outside at the mouth of the Nekromanteia," he supplied.

"Why can't you just come down?"

"You are in Hethas' realm. I cannot travel there," He said.

Oh that's just bloody great, I thought. 

"Merideth's...not alive. Can you do something to help her?" I asked. 

There was silence for several moments, "There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry." Then he was gone. 

I pulled the spears out of her body and started looking for a way out. Above me, from the darkness, Akeros emerged. "Hethas be praised!" he exclaimed. "I've searched far and wide, but I did not think that I would find you here."

Akeros was knelt next to me by Merideth's body, "I was supposed to do this to you, but since you had to go and survive. I'll give it to her." He touched her lightly and stood. "I have fulfilled my purpose!" He called to the ceiling. He glanced in my direction, smirked and vanished into the darkness. 

Merideth sat up, fully healed. I rushed to the floor beside her. Her eyes were clear. 

"Was I dead?" She asked. 

I nodded, "Yeah."

Her eyes hardened, "Athan is so dead."

I just hugged her.

***

Since, being on another plane denies me the use of the balance of my spells, I armed my self with one of the spears Athan put through Merideth. She took the other and we began to trek upward. We traveled in silence. 

I wanted to ask her about what it was like being dead. Allas apparently came to claim Athan. Did someone come for her? Was she...happy? Now that she was back, I wasn't sure if she should be...resurrections happen only when the Gods are involved and altruism isn't one of their strong points. However, I was glad she was back and if she wasn't up to talking I wasn't going to force her. 

Near a gap in the roof of a cave several hours walk from where we entered, we came upon clumps of mostly whole skeletons. In this area, I found a bronze short sword. Sparing the effort, I took a glance at with with Detect Magic. While the spell was active I also looked at the skeletons and something caught my attention. In the left eye socket, was a tiger's eye opal that shown with esper magics. The sword also emanated magic. I scooped up the sword and reached for the opal. 

"Hay," Merideth said. "Do you think you should be doing that?"

I stopped, "Doing what?"

She looked meaningfully at the skeleton, "That."

I jabbed my fingers into the space, fracturing the bone and pulled out the opal, "What good is it doing him?" 

Merideth rolled her eyes and continued onward. She led because with her esper abilities functional, she was the functional protector of the group. We eventually came to a wall. Merideth's eyes glazed as she sent her mind to explore the rock.

"It's a dead end," she said finally. We doubled back and stopped at the large crack in the ceiling. A quick check later she said, "This is the way, lets go."

We emerged in a spacious cavern. The ceiling was vast and vaulted and along one if the walls, the skeleton of a giant cat sat embedded in the walls. Merideth and I sat down to rest, but soon afterward, she sent her mind out to scout. I went about the room looking things over, pausing by the skeleton. It wasn't any sort of animal I recognized. I thought it looked rather pathetic all imprisoned in stone like that. 

Merideth joined me at the wall, "This section is only 8 feet thick" we can get out through here. I nodded and turned to put some distance between myself and the wall. Blasting away at the wall was bound to get messy. "Um, Greppa," Merideth asked.

I turned, "Mmmm?"

She was backing away cautiously, "I think it moved."

I looked past her and indeed, the skeleton was moving slowly grinding out a shower of stones and dust as it worked its way loose. It looked like we weren't going to have to blow our way through 8 feet of stone. All we had to do was wait until it pulled enough of itself out for us to crawl through and we can destroy it while it was still encased in stone. 

We watched its head tear free, empty sockets glowing a dim red. It was a sight. The bone flowed and moved like flesh. It pulled its head free and roared. The sound was deafening forcing Merideth and I to cover our ears. Through our fingers, a sibilant voice whispered the secrets of life beyond Akeros, and death's meaning of life. The roaring sibilance held us, smothering any impulse to run away, draining our strength, squashing our will. It tore itself away from the rest of the wall, turning slowly to advance in our direction. That snapped us out of our stupor.

"What do we do?" Merideth asked. 

"Run for the bloody hole!" I yelled dashing for the hole we used to enter the cave. 

We dropped about 10 feet before getting wedged in a crook in the shaft.

"What's it doing?" I asked Merideth. 

"It's pawing around the hole. It'd be cute if he wasn't so scary. So what are we going to do?"

"You're the one with all of your skills intact. It's your turn to be the hero, go up and kill it Miss Warrior Healer."

"Nuh unh!"

Some "hero" she was. I was thinking of a suitable retort when I felt something grasp my ankle. "Merideth....?" I whispered

"What?" She snapped.

"We have more playmates," 

She looked down, following my finger. A line of skeletons snaked back along the passage, at the front and currently in possession of my ankle was the very corpse from whom I relieved the tiger's eye eyeball. 

"Do something!" 

She did something all right and engulfed me and the closet skeletons in a shower of telekinetic knives. They HURT, but the skeletons shattered under the assault. 

"What?" She said responding to the withering glare I sent in her direction.

Rolling my eyes, I began to cast, I don't know if it was the pain or the irritation, but I remembered that Hethas was also the goddess of elemental Earth. I took a chance and cast Wall of Shale across the base of the tunnel sealing it off. 

"Why didn't you do that before?" 

"You be quiet." I started casting again, Small Favors this time. I needed an Earth Elemental and the only one I know was in the remnants of the Kithian highway. Unfortunately, I didn't understand its language. I used Allas' lantern Archons to communicate with it. I already had Luccas' light, I wonder what else I had access to. I summoned a lantern Archon, noticing the subtle changes in the spell that indicated that my memory of the spell had been altered.

A small translucent raven appeared in the small space. 

"How may I help you?" It asked.

I was expecting a little red puff ball but I wasn't going to look a gift bird in the mouth, "I need you to talk with an earth elemental for me." 

"What do you want from it?" It asked.

That was a switch, "Um, I need it's ability to meld with stone."

It nodded and then began to talk. It wasn't the kind of exchange by exchange translation I was used to. The little bird actually seemed to be negotiating for me. After several minutes, it turned to me, "It says that things are afoot in the world. You have not been sending Archons like you did before. It is willing to grant your request, but in return, you must find a way to free it or move it so that it can be more involved with the affairs of the 'children of Kithios."

The skeleton kitty roared. 

The spell needed to summon an elemental of that power was beyond me, but maybe Kyriotes could come up with something so I told it to tell the elemental "yes."

There was a final exchange and then the portal winked out. My skin began to harden, taking on a rocky texture. Stone Skin and Earth's Strength only caused the most cosmetic changes, but this, this was something else. 

"Do you need anything else?" The raven asked.

"No, thank you," I replied.

It smiled and then vanished. 

I pulled Merideth to me and encased her in a cocoon of stone. I didn't know how I did it, it just came naturally, I flowed over Merideth and then we both sank into the walls of the cave and into the depths of Hethas' realm. I had a general direction in mind...up. However I had a definite path, so I flowed up to the floor of the cave and spared a peek. The big bone kitty sniffed and pawed at the spot in the rock we occupied. It couldn't get through the rock but it knew where we were. I didn't tarry, although a healer could hold her breath for a long time, I didn't want to push things. I pushed into the hallway beyond the ruined wall where the cat was entombed. The damn thing followed us for a ways, and then I felt it. We were through the dimensional barrier. I kept moving, keeping an eye on the cat. I don't think I'd even seen anything that big, outside of Uripedas, act so cute. Scary, but cute.

About 100 feet beyond the transition point, the cat stopped sniffing the air. If it had ears, they would have perked up. Then it bolted down the hall. A minute or so later, I heard screams. Merideth started squirming around, wanting to be let out. I surfaced and watched her stretch to her feet and then she bolted down the hall, brandishing her spear. I followed her into a charnel scene of body parts clothed in the remnants of black robes. 

I felt stabbing pains of guilt as we pushed into a run. Merideth, her earlier recitence for battle gone, led. I raised shields and defenses and started to fret. I didn't know that many attack spells that weren't area effects. Not that I had much experience fighting giant skeletons (actually I'd never fought any of the living impaired) but it looked very tough. We arrived in a large cavern in time to see the tiger swipe its huge claws across the abdomen of some poor schmuck, clad in the robes of a priest of Hethas. 

Merideth sprinted forward to engage it, I moved to flank firing a seldom used force spell called "Greater Thrust." I thought it up a long time ago for use in close in combat and after my loss at the last Olympiad in the ray competition, I worked on quickening it to fire it at a moment's thought. I had no intention of using it in combat because, compared to fireball, it wasn't as effective against orcs. 

In this case it was surprisingly effective. I fired two bolts into the side of the creature. It screamed and wheeled towards me. Emboldened, I hit it again while Merideth sprayed its vulnerable side with kinetic knives. The bones crumbled to a heap. Merideth went to heal the priest while I went to see if any more skeletons were coming. A few had been making their way down the hall from the chamber, but they had crumbled to small piles of bones. Satisfied I went back to Merideth.

The Priest was very pale, but the gashes in his abdomen were gone. Merideth was already gone administering to those who were still alive. 

"Sorry about that thing," I said kneeling by him, "It followed us out."

His eyes were still a bit shocky, "You came from below."

I nodded, "Yeah."

"Hethas said you would come," He stopped and looked at the carnage in the area. "Why is this happening to us. Things, omens have been happening so much death, so much. Why does Hethas test us?"

Oooo boy, this was a bit of a sticky situation so I considered my words carefully, "The gods are preparing for war," I began. "Xeras and Allas have already began making preparations. Xeras controls the Bukenahk orc tribe which has be gaining power and driving the weaker tribes in our direction. I do not know what Hethas' stake is, but I trust it will be for the best."

The priest nodded, "Thank you for this information. We must prepare ourselves." 

I nodded, clasped his hand and headed for the opening of the cave. Merideth was already there admiring the architecture. The opening of the Nekromanteia was carved into a an ornate bas relief like a temple had been swallowed into the earth and only it's face remained visible. 

When I joined her, Belial shimmered into view, "Ready to go?"

We almost said yes, but we realized that we were still wearing the cloaks we had found in the Temple of Allas so long ago. Instead of their usual snowy white, they were now black. Apparently Allas felt that she was making some sort of statement with the color change. Personally, attempting to murder us was statement enough.

Merideth had taken off her cloak and tossed it to the ground. I did the same, but I also kicked dirt on it for verisimilitude.

I turned to Belial, "Let's go."


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## seasong (Aug 25, 2003)

Aw, Akeros said a few more words than that - you asked him what he was doing here, for one... 

(For those not following this from earlier, Akeros had said that someone was going to try to kill Greppa; and that if Akeros was there, Greppa's life line would not end - when Athan killed Merideth, Akeros gave that lifeline from Hethas to her instead of Greppa. It was a very angsty moment )

-seasong


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## seasong (Aug 25, 2003)

Just a note that I've got an overview of the gods cooking. It's taking me a while, since most of my notes are on napkins - little things I thought of while I was out camping with no power supply for a computer .

The intent is a Who's Who of the divine powers involved in this little tiff, plus a few others.

-seasong


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Sep 6, 2003)

*New Post!*

Belial wrapped us in his arms and vaulted high into the air. The Nekromantiea became a tiny anthill as Belial's inhuman speed carried us home. 

I noticed that Belial was being very quiet. It seemed to me that since we'd effectively thrown in with their side, there was a whole lot more to be said. His face was somewhat pensive, very unsure.

"What's happening at home?" I asked him flatly.

He was silent for a while. The wind whipped his hair, making him look like a beautiful statue cast from the reddest bronze one could find. I still admired that face, as well as the body attached to it, but Athan was back, which meant Allas was also making her move.

"What's happening at home?" I asked him again.

He pointed with his chin, "Look for yourself."

Unbelievably, the spires of Theralis framed themselves along the horizon. I never felt so glad to see home, however, something was wrong with the picture. 

Half of the city was illuminated with a bright golden light and the other part glowed with the blood red illumination of Luccas. Clouds of darkness surged through the skies, crossing from one side to the city to the other. Periodically multicolored lights streaked through the sky, striking indiscernible targets with a flashy release of energy. 

"What's happening?" I asked with growing horror, "Why aren't the full forces of Luccas, Hsethmah, and Corvidae here?"

"The mortals are fighting," He replied. "There are those among you who still follow Allas. They fight for Allas and she heard their prayers and sent her troops. Without you present to seal the bargain, the others have given gifts to those among your people who have individually given their worship, but they had to wait for you, to protect the city."

Great, I thought, turning towards the rapidly approaching city. Then I had a sudden thought and I summoned Uripedas. 

A large shape split from the surging clouds of blackness over the city. The spot quickly resolved itself into a giant black hawk. 

"Uripedas..." I whispered. Something in Allas' makeup must make her prone to these blunt demi-poetic flourishes. Uripedas was once a blazing, eagle with feathers of gold. He now resembled a fierce black hunting animal, magnificent in its aerial grace. His greeting spoiled the grand image.

"HelloGreppa!I'mgladtoseethatyou'reallright!Seelookatme!Don'tIlookgood?WhenthishappenedtomemybuddiesturnedonmeandIhadtokillthem,butwhentheyweregonenewbuddiescameandnowI'mhappy!"

Despite his fearsome new appearance, he was the same old hyperactive bird "I'm sorry your friends were stupid," I said grinning. "I think it's time to take back our city."

Uripedas perked up, "Fight?"

"I grinned so hard, I felt the wind on my canines, "Uh huh. Fight!"

I felt Belial's arm release me and I fell the rest of the way onto Uripedas' back. I grabbed handfuls of feathers and yelled, "Show me the city." 

The great hawk wheeled, leaving Merideth with Belial and headed for the edge of the city, "You're gonna wanna see this." I looked down and saw orcs battling at the edge of the city. However, they weren't' fighting Theralis troops. They were fighting celestial servants of Allas.

Cursing under my breath, I commanded Uripedas to take me into the city, where I was greeted by more chaos. Clouds of Sunhawks and Ravens surged across the skies while Devas and other creatures rode on the backs of sun eagles. 

This was insane. I can't believe Allas would pull this crap when orcs were going to attack. Is she that confident? I did not say what I was thinking, but Allas was just plain stupid. Who gives a damn if she is a God. 

We veered towards Kyriotes' tower and arrived to find it surrounded by Devas on the backs of golden eagles. The tower itself was sheathed in a shimmering dome of force. The celestials were pelting at its surface with golden blasts of energy. I raised my hands and once again I realized that my words weren't my own. A five foot wide column of inky black energy rippled from my hand and blindsided the deva nearest me. 
The attack group stopped momentarily as their focus switched to me. "Keep them busy," I whispered to Uripedas adding, "Don't get killed." Before casting Dimension Door and teleporting into the other side of the force dome. 

Kyriotes was a conjuring specialist and I expecting him to have a spell that could hedge out celestials, but a side effect of the spell was unexpected. I appeared on the other side writhing in pain. And, standing above me was Kyriotes. His apprentices were gathered about him has he continually summoned creatures with a calm smooth efficiency. They, in turn were, surrounded by a bevy of various types of monsters. 

"Hello, Greppa," he said with genuine surprise. "I'm glad to see that the reports of your demise were exaggerated."

I managed to lever myself to my feet, "Where's Phitios?" I asked.

"He's under siege in his tower," the arcanist responded.

"And Athan?"

"I don't know," he replied

I turned to him, "I take it you're getting ready for an assault?"

"Yes, Once I secure my tower, I plan to extend into the streets one block at a time. The creatures I'm currently summoning are specially resistant to magic and hopefully they will be able to stop the devas." 

I nodded and prepared myself to teleport out, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. 

"Greppa," Kyriotes said with an uncharacteristic sincerity, "I understand, you can create walls of rock. Do you think you can put a dome over my tower? It would make taking back this area of the city easier and I can move into the rest of the city faster."

I looked at him for and suddenly we had a moment of understanding. He didn't see me as a little kid hanging at his hem trying to talk magic. I was a colleague, not yet an equal, but definitely someone who could be turned to for a certain level of competency. It was a strange moment and until now I didn't realize how good receiving his approval made me feel. I nodded, turned to the outside of the force dome and gestured. Four walls of shale erupted from the ground clawing at the air like grasping earthen fingers. The fingers met and the stone dome sealed.  

Kyriotes nodded and went back to summoning. I flew to the roof and, still possessing the power of the Kithian earth elemental, passed through the stone wall and into the air. The sky was chaotic. Devas and their mounts tried to draw a bead on Uripedas while swarms sunhawks nipped at its feathers. Uripedas wheeled and spun, making them work for every bit of distance. They started to converge on him, coming from all sides and the sunhawks were able to find purchase.

"No," I whispered, starting to head in their direction. Then Merideth descended from above spraying the attackers with fans of kinetic daggers. She touched Uripedas as she settled onto his back and his wounds sealed shut. He let out a fierce war cry and he and Merideth, broke from the mass.

I whispered a small prayer and said under my breath, "Take care of each other."

****

The scene at Phitios' tower was only slightly less hellish than the scene of the orcs massacring Eastpass so long ago. Theralis troops, battled celestial and the Outsiders attempted to breach the stone tower. Supporting the ground troops, were two Devas on golden eagles. They were attacking the tower, however, my presence caused them to change their tactics. 

They bore down on me, hurling spears of violet colored energy. I managed to evade most of them, but two caught me. When each hit, I was seized by a terrible pressure. My body felt squeezed, not as if being crushed, but being pushed, through the fabric of reality, out of existence. My Will flared pushing back the effect, however, in evading the attacks, I smashed into the stone roof of the tower. 

The Devas pressed their attack, diving for my position. However, the roof was stone, and with a thought, I passed through it and landed hard on the floor at someone's feet. I rolled over and came face to face with the brave healer who flew out onto the battlefield with me during the last war.  Her eyes widened momentarily and I felt her hands on me and I was completely healed. 

I stood, but before I could ask about Phitios, Athan appeared in the room. He caught me by surprise before, this time I had a special surprise for him. He drew a glowing spear from his back and released it. It sunk deep into my chest as the final syllables escaped my mouth. I started to fall, but I was grinning at the surprise that crossed Athan's features as the Dismissal took effect and he was ripped from our plane. 

"Gotcha," I murmured. Then I blacked out.


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## F5 (Sep 7, 2003)

Yikes.  One hit from Athan and Greppa went down?  What ARE those glowing spears he's using on you, anyway?  Or is it just that post-celestial Athan is a total combat monster?

At any rate, there are worse places to fall down unconcious than at the feet of a friendly healer...

Great update.  Thanks, Greppa.


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## Caliber (Sep 7, 2003)

Greppa might have super-strength from the Orc Ancestors, but he probably doesn't have the HP. And Athan ALWAYS was a combat monster. 

Sorry for being so quiet recently! Real life is killing me! But great story!


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Sep 8, 2003)

*What he hit me with...*

Some fairly nasty stuff was going down in that fight. The Devas who were over Phitios' tower were using a variant of Prismatic Spray Seasong dreamed up. Basicly, they could select a color and imbue it in a spear. 

They were using the violet ray which would have sent me to another plane...probably one that was very uncomfortable. 

The particular bit of nastiness Athan hit me with was a variant of Smite. Before dying, Athan was a combat monster, "Celestial" Athan is an absolute monstrosity. Seasong won't give me his full stats, but he did say that his strength was around 40. I was packing a DR of 20 as well as full hit points and he dropped me to -3 in one shot.  That one encounter completely altered my spell list.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Sep 8, 2003)

*New New Post*

* Transitions *

In my time, I've taken many things for granted. One of them, was living with one of the most powerful Healers in Theralis. Since leaving orc captivity, I've never awakened injured or ill. It gives me a sense of immortality when I think about it. 

I was feeling all too mortal when I woke up. Before light hit my eyes, I felt myself tense at the unfamiliar sensation, "what?"

The question pulled me completely awake. Uripedas hove over me, his black feathered bulk eclipsing the ceiling. 

Uripedas smiled down at me and spoke to someone, "He's awake."

The bed shifted and Merideth was looking at me. She closed her eyes for a moment and smiled, "Glad to see you're awake."

"What's been happening?" I said weakly trying to sit up. Pain wormed its way through my chest and ribs. "I'm still injured," grabbing at my chest, and inflicting more pain. "Why haven't I been healed?"

"I couldn't heal your wound," Merideth replied firmly pressing me back to the bed. "The healer who was there with you tried as soon as you'd gotten rid of Athan. She said he hit you with some sort of glowing power. I tried when I arrived, but I couldn't do anything either. We bound your wounds and brought you here."

"How long have I been asleep?" 

"Three days."

"THREE Days?" I exclaimed, "What's happening? Is Allas still attacking the city? What about the orcs?"

Merideth's face darkened, "Allas' forces vanished right after you defeated Athan."

"Even the one's fighting the Orcs?" I asked

"Especially the one's fighting the orcs," She replied bitterly. "She also took away the light. The sun hasn't been seen for three days."

"What about Luccas and the others?" I asked.

"They said they were dealing with you. They told Phitios that they would only complete the deal with you," Merideth replied.

"Where are the orcs?"

"Occupying the outer areas of the city."

"WhaAAAAAT?" No one has EVER occupied part of the city before. I gritted my teeth and pushed back the covers.

"You aren't fully recovered," Merideth said moving to push me back.

I caught her hand and said evenly, "My recovery can wait. Bring me my things."

They brought me my tunic, sandals, bracers and belt and choker, all of my defensive items. My short sword and spear was noticeably absent. I fidgeted around until I found Belial's feather, "Let's go."

I strode out of the room...well, more hobbled out of it. I never realized how important chest and abdominal muscles were in walking. I had to stop often. I should have flown, but that felt like cheating. 

They'd put me in the center most chamber of an unfamiliar compound. There weren't any windows for as far as I could see. The only light being provided by oil lamps and candles. My leaders seem to a lot more paranoid than I gave them credit for. 

When I got out of bed I imagined a fairly short walk, but this was more like an olympic foot trace. I pulled back on the pace and just walked. It wouldn't improve anyone's faith if I reached my destination and passed out. So I just walked. 

Sometime during this painful stroll, Phitios appeared at our side. 

"Do whatever you have to do," He said. "We need sunlight. Just don't give too much away." And he proceeded to tell me what "too much" was. I listened for a few moments as he detailed some fairly distasteful situations. Eventually, I tuned him out. I'd already negotiated with them and I think we had a very good deal. I surreptitiously rummaged around my pockets and found the parchments right where I left them. Phitios was nervous, then again dealing with the celestials should make anyone nervous. Phitios just didn't like having control over a situation. 

We emerged in the council chambers. The gallery area was packed with people and each of the councilors sat listlessly conferring with a stream of people. The din was distinctly distasteful in my current state. I was escorted to a large chair in the center of the room. Now I was distinctly uncomfortable. 

I took a deep centering breath...and almost passed out from the pain. Giving up on being comfortable, I pulled Belial's feather from its home in my robe and lit it. 

Belial appeared, in all his delicious majesty. His face was stern and formal and his appearance silenced the room. Everyone faced me. I held their futures in my hands. 

"Let's get started Belial," I said a little more grumpily than I intended.

He looked over at me and smiled. I must've looked pretty pathetic, all pale and wan. If I ever saw Athan again, I was going to do something worse than dismiss him...maybe banish him to the plane of shadow. 

Belial nodded and the room darkened momentarily as a horde of ravens appeared and coalesced into the form of the Goddess Corvidae. She smiled at me and we began to talk. It was all very casual, but was I "negotiated for" was exactly what we agreed upon when we'd met before. If anything, it was theater. The banter began to fade, when I gave Merideth a very meaningful look. 

"What?" Her expression said, then the meaning dawned upon her. "Um, no she stammered. Not here...not now."

I gave her what I hoped was a stern look, "This is what you wanted," I hissed, "Just do it."

Corvidae tilted her head and said with a slight smile, "What is this?"

Put on the spot, Merideth stepped forward, "As I asked when we first met, how does one become a priest of you?"

"Is this something that you want?" Corvidae asked.

Merideth nodded firmly.

"Are you sure?"

"Since the first day I met you," Merideth replied. 

Corvidae beckoned and Merideth descended her place behind my chair and knelt before her. "For your faith," the goddess intoned, "and your openness and honesty. I gather you into my service."  She removed her ever present cloak of black feathers and laid it across Merideth's shoulders. She touched my friend's head in silent benediction and vanished. When Merideth stood and faced the crowd, she did so through eyes that were dark as night. 

Hsethmah's presentation wasn't nearly as flashy. A hellhunter appeared. We exchanged brief pleasantries including an exchange of responsibilities. 

"We will see to things immediately," It responded. It turned to go and paused, "Do you want them dead or alive?" 

I thought about it, remembering our "labor management" program and replied, "Alive."

"They will be waiting for you in the morning," it said then it vanished. 

Then the star of our program made her appearance. Luccas' servant appeared resplendent her crimson edged beauty. I felt myself smiling as she resolved and the crowd gasped. She approached my chair. I would have stood and bowed if I didn't know that I would fall over.

"Mother of Light," I intoned. 

"Greppa," she said with distant warmth. And with that we began to chat. She affirmed her responsibilities and I publicly accepted mine. Any thought of ascending in the city's hierarchy were now gone. Priests weren't allowed to rise above the rank of Captain. In order to help my people, I have become a priest of Luccas. It was a bitter moment, but I've become used to sacrifice. Once we finished our banter. I looked to the windows and the darkness that filled them.

She got the hint, and we finished the deal. A warm red glow seeped into the room, intensifying into a bright pink light every bit as intense as the yellow light that Allas once provided. 

"Let there be light," her rich voice intoned triumphantly, and then she was gone.


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## Indigo Veil (Sep 12, 2003)

Hello, all. ^_^ 

Hank, Greppa's player, has allowed me to hijack this thread for a moment to inform you guys about another game the two of us are participating in. 

A little background, and some warning: this new game, "Nailed to the Sky," is one of experimental horror (read: -not- kid friendly), since seasong drew his inspiration for the campaign from a book about the history of torture and executions. (Mmm, taystee...^_~)

A (very) few of you are familiar with "Queen of Shadows"--also not kid or granny friendly--which had rampant lesbianism, an intimate torture scene or two, and some minor BDSM, with aspects of those power dynamics running throughout the entire campaign. Those elements will be much more immediate in "Nailed to the Sky," and the campaign promises be a lot more intense.

Caveat number two: "Nailed to the Sky" isn't your typical "dungeon crawling, you-meet-some-random-dwarf-or-cleric in-some-bar-somewhere, and-you-decide-to-go-a'venturing" type of game. (If that's what you're looking for, this new campaign most probably won't be to your liking. )

I figure that if you've continued to read this Theralis storyhour after seasong gave up on writing it, you either (1) like the way seasong builds his worlds, and want to continue seeing the PCs interact with their volatile surroundings, or (2) there's something about the way Hank plays and portrays Greppa that keeps you coming back for more, as seasong slips sidebars in only occasionally.

In "Nailed to the Sky," Hank and I play ourselves, and I will be writing the story hour for it (at least until Hank catches up with "Light Against the Dark"). In my experience, seasong's worlds rarely disappoint, and this setting is volatile in the truest sense of the word. If the campaign _does_ disappoint, it's probably because my own meager skills as a writer failed _it_. ^,^;

If you're interested, you can catch it here: http://pub21.ezboard.com/fseasongsmusefrm20.

Thanks for reading. ^_^

</hijack>


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## seasong (Sep 29, 2003)

_Okay, Greppa, I'm posting some quick Aria-time style summaries here. You can fill them out or start where I catch you up to, but I need this reference as much as the readers need material._ 

*Summary of Events to Catch Greppa Up*

With the Light of Luccas on our side, the battle with the enemy went far better. The battle field was no longer darkest night punctuated by flashes of lightning and summoning circles, and the enemy no longer amorphous shapes in the shadows.

Still, it was hard to push Theralese soldiers back into that gap. Morale had been thoroughly broken, and it seemed unlikely that this battle would end well.

Until the spiders came. True to his word, Hsethmah's legions of eight legged warriors poured from the cracks and dark places, and swarmed into the orc army. It ended swiftly after that, and the next morning was spent cutting orcs from webbing and putting them to work in Theralese grape fields.

Although armed guards were present, it swiftly became apparent that orcs were accustomed to slavery - that they had, in fact, built their culture around it in some ways, and the heroes, no longer so young, confirmed this for the Council.

With labor freed from the vine, the ranks of the military were swiftly swollen, and remaining orc invaders were harshly dealt with. Ravens would spy on the orcs at vast distances, spiders would creep into their camps in the night (leaving little but webbed slaves in the morning, save for a few dragged off for a snack), and the Theralese Shield Wall would beat the enemy into submission in the light of a ruddish sun.

The heroes, meanwhile, had many things to take care of. Amalan came and provided land in their name, as promised, and granting land to newly formed families, wealthy merchants, vineyard investors and others took a great deal of the heroes' time. By the end of a whirlwind two years, there was a small but thriving community on the southwest slopes of Theralis that had previously been virgin forest, and the first grape vines were beginning to crawl their way along trellises.

It was also the home to the first temples to Luccas and Corvidae, and Greppa and Merideth, in particular, found much of their time taken up by the routines of priesthood.

_More to come - gotta check some order-of-events with Greppa_


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Sep 29, 2003)

Okie dokie, what's up?


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## seasong (Sep 29, 2003)

Check the _Seasong's Muse_ thread - I'm constructing an outline there to work from here.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Sep 29, 2003)

seasong said:
			
		

> Check the _Seasong's Muse_ thread - I'm constructing an outline there to work from here.




I'm done.


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## Inez Hull (Oct 26, 2003)

Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> Okie dokie, what's up?




Yeah, long time no postage leaves longtime readers no happy.


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## GreyShadow (Dec 14, 2003)

Yo Seasong & Greppa,

What happened to the storyhour?


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## Talix (Feb 10, 2004)

Yeah, like bump and stuff!  

I was *extremely* relieved when you brought Meridith back - she is definitely one of the main enjoyments of this storyhour.  

It's great how the changeover to a new allegence has occurred; I can't wait to see Greppa and Meridith in their new clerical roles!  

(crosses his fingers that lavish praise will at least get a response)


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Feb 11, 2004)

**



			
				Talix said:
			
		

> Yeah, like bump and stuff!
> 
> I was *extremely* relieved when you brought Meridith back - she is definitely one of the main enjoyments of this storyhour.
> 
> ...




Okie dokie, I will try to have something up tonight...I don't know how much because a whole lot has happened. I may do it in a journal format.


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 11, 2004)

Could you at least summarize where things are now? Is everyone still alive? I take it Greppa hasn't died...? I know Athan was going through characters... 

Dammit, I saw the thread had jumped and hoped there was actually a post here


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Feb 12, 2004)

*Update: 2/12/04*

_ THE LONG VIEW _

The temple sanctum's lamps guttered in the darkness. Illumination was mostly provided by Luccas' sacred pool and the ever present lantern archons. I rectified that, lighting the room to a daylight/like hot pink with a small application of Luccas' power. Darkness wasn't really an issue for me anymore. I was at home in the darkness or in Luccas' holy daylight, but tonight I wanted light to warm the room, to feel on my skin.

The faceless sarcophagus of dark pitted red metal rested in its alcove, a fresh cloak of black feathers adorning its lid and base. I stood a the foot studying it. It was my most valuable possession and I've checked on it almost every day for the last 5 years. 

I started, craning my ears towards a random sound. The Olympiad's celebrations were raucous even here in Gru Gahk and the sound of their revelry in the outer rooms of the temple filtered in here.  We as a people were celebrating; ourselves and our gods it was only right that we relax and be joyful. 

I stopped that line of thought. I couldn't afford to feel safe. 

"Look where it got you," I said to the metal coffin. 

A couple of incantations  later, a small group of vampire bats were nesting in the eaves of the room, watching waiting for a intruder to make an appearance, no matter how sudden. Allas and Xeras were sneaky and decietful and not above doing anything underhanded. The war with the Broken Knuckle orcs proved that.

____________________________________________________

20 years ago, Theralis had been going through changes, very drastic changes. 

The Council was awash in change. Teoma, the gateway to the "true north" had petitioned us for protection. They had heard of the successes we had had against the Horde and asked us to come in an "advisory" capacity. 

That "advisory" capacity became "last line of defense." 

Technologicly and magickly, Teoma was more advanced than the Theralis valleys. However when it came to the military application of that technology, they could have been running around the battlefield naked with green switches for weapons.

The orcs would sweep out of the forest, usually lead by a "heavy cavalry" of several hundred giant wolves supported by mounted shamans. Instead of setting up a line of defense outside the city, the Teomans would retreat behind their high, impressive walls and summoned air elementals to enshroud the city and their mages would rain down fireballs and other energy area attack magics.

It worked fine against the early waves of orcs. They had tougher and tougher fights as the more advanced tribes moved into new territory. Their sense of security was broken when they started to encounter the probing fingers of the gorgons of orc-kind, the Broken Knuckle tribe. 

They barely survived their first skirmishes and with a bitter taste in their mouths, they turned to the closest community who had successes repelling the stronger tribes. Those "hicks" down south...us.

We arrived with much fanfare and we looked very impressive. Prior to coming to Teoma, with Kyriotes help, I was able to persuade the Kithian Earth Elemental who guarded the remnants of the Imperial road to come north to use its strength to protect the new location of the Empire. In addition to bringing itself it also gave up its treasure-trove of ancient relics:force-field belts, enchanted swords, and most importantly, sandals of flight.

Officially I was a Captain in the Theralis army. Because of the insane Mobility I commanded via Uripedas, General Agina ordered that all the men in my command be equipped with sandals of flight. We descended into the city clad in our snow white tunics and brandishing our steel spears and heavy shields like something out of a romantic epic. Politicians were also with us, but they didn't fly. They teleported in with the support mages.

We endured several days of pleasantries before the alarm sounded. We'd spent those days talking tactics with the locals and established expectations. The number of arcanists were stunning, I figured that with them at our backs we should easily demolish the invaders.

The Theralis troops were at the walls waiting when the alarm sounded. What we found was troubling. All of the Teoman infantry were at the walls. No effort was being made to stop them before they hit the infantry line at the city walls. The giant snow white and gray wolves seemed to blur as they sped from the tree line. The Wind Wall was painfully slow as the elementals moved into position. My Eye, the artifact I took from the realm of the dead gave me my answer. The wolves, ALL of them, were under a Haste effect. Also, there were thousands of them instead if a few hundred. 

I lapsed into cursing in orc. I sent an apprentice to get the Teoman arcanists up to the front lines. If they waited for the wind wall, the wolves would be in the city and Teoma would be a lost cause. With my elevation to captain, I had Uripedas fixed up with a new saddle. One a seat for me and two apprentices who would provide additional aid support for my spellcasting. I commanded them to their stations as Uripedas ensorcled himself with an Expeditious Charge spell (he wouldn't cast anything called Expedtious retreat). The soldiers took to the sky and my sergents went to earth to form the shield wall. I commanded the mage corp to bring the Teoman mages ,who were waiting for the wind wall to come, to the outer walls of the city so they could actually see their targets.

Out of the forest's panoply, a storm giant emerged brandishing a large bow. 

"He's mine," smiled Merideth, who transformed into a raven and streaked away, claws crackling with the emerald energies of a Harm effect.

Urepidas was airborne soon afterward, but I was absolutely lost for what to do. Thousands upon thousands of enlarged wolves poured from the trees. A few scattered fireballs and lightning bolts landed in their midsts but they were unfazed, protected against the most common effects used by the mages. Realizing the futility of trying to energy-ball them into submission, I commanded Urepidas to fly to the edge of the battle field closest to the city.

Up until now, I was never desparate enough to "overload" a spell. Most of the time such a casting would fail, but even if it succeeded the drain would rapidly reduce my endurance on the field. 

While I was wasiting time thinking, the wolves were coming and my men were still forming the shield wall while the Teoman troops looked ready to bolt. I needed to give them time, so I committed myself, praying to Luccas to help me. 

Several years ago, I invented a spell, Screaming Blizzard, a cone effect that was a produced a combination of sonic and cold damage. I applied my meta-arcanist disciplines to Widen the effect...twice and for good measure I Empowered it. (The DC was miserable but it was possible with a good roll under the skill/feat based system Seasong developed. However it HURT a lot because the drain resistance DC was much higher also.) A 60 foot cone became a 240 foot cone. Urepidas swept from the sky, his midnight form a blur as the howling mass of power cut accross the front ranks of the lupines. 

The charge slowed amidst howls of pain and confusion. Winded, I commanded my companion to do another run, and another, and another, until my orc-born strenth was at it's nadir. However, I did my job, the charge broke. My final sweep was accompanied by a fusilade of force and cold balls from the Theralis mages who had gotten the bulk of the Teoman mages into place. I joined their assault, raining force-spheres into the retreating ranks.

An unnaturally loud scream tore my attention from the battlefield to the Storm Giant who was wreathed in an aura of green lightening as Merideth's Harm effect siphoned off his precious life energies. I laughed for the first time that day watching the huge creatue bat fearfully at the circling crow as she delivered the finishing blow.

The wolves regrouped with the orc infantry and came charging out of the forests, but much more cautiously. However we repelled them. Teoma thought it went well. They were crushed when we told them it was only a scouting party. Merideth and I had seen the Broken Knuckle make war. The shamanic support was not present and there were only a few thousand fighters and wolves. They weren't the main force, not by a longshot. 

Teoma moved they should become a protectorate of Theralis. However, after a short religious skirmish with Allas' people, we annexed Teoma and with our sister city Aglionis, the Empire of Kithios was reborn. 

We moved quickly after that, sending military units into the ruined cities of the original Kithian empire. The idea of using the military to excavate the ruins was a reaction, something Theralis as a whole should have been doing since war started with the fleeing orc tribes so long ago. Traditionally, grave crawling had been left to arcane spellcasters and whatever groups of "adventurers" they could cobble together with promises of access to magic and hidden wealth. 

At the time, Kyriotes was the undisputed master of delving into the wrecked pieces of the past. To most people, the ruins were reminders of the arrogance of our forefathers, those who slayed the dragon that kept and protected their land and paid for it in blood when the dragon's death curse commanded the ground to swallow up the offending occupants. For Kyriotes, they were keys to personal power and prominence, for him and his "school" of magic. He studiously excluded arcanists who were not former pupils and typically took with him around 12 fighers and a retinue to handle his baggage train. My and Merideth's surprise had been genuine when he, with uncharastic humility, asked if we would join him on one such expedition. 

Of course we said yes.


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 12, 2004)

Got lost, have questions/comments:

1. Coffin? Bet it's Merideth.
2. Kithios earth elemental stuff look like high tech? forcefields, lightsabres, boot jets? Yes? No?
3. Mixed tense verbs, couldn't figure out action in Gate to the True North.
4. Uripedas too cute. "Expeditious charge" = perfect.
5. Like to know system stuff, but keep it separated? (refer to spell DC parenthetical)
6. Empire of Kithios was reborn? More detail on that? Came out of left field, yo.
7. Kyriotes: didn't he diss Merideth? AND Greppa? Why say yes?
8. Very excited. Caught up to this very late, reached end, noticed date, almost cried. Glad to see some signs of life. Hope they don't falter again.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Feb 12, 2004)

> 2. Kithios earth elemental stuff look like high tech? forcefields, lightsabres, boot jets?




Nope, they are extremely high quality magic items. Not Artifacts, but they are essentially "ancient magic technology."  The belts are force-effects that provide damage resistance. Not damage reduction, although Seasong's website will explain the crunchy stuff. The earth elemental was mentioned in one of the earlier posts and should be in the archives. It is a huge earth elemental, essentially a Level 9 summoning, we ran into several years ago. The Ancient Kithians used them to guard the Kithian highway system. 




> 3. Mixed tense verbs, couldn't figure out action in Gate to the True North



Teoma is the "Gateway to the True North" as St Louis is the "Gateway to the Mississippi." There are many more established city states many months travel north of the Theralis valleys. Teoma is the closest to Theralis being about a month's walk away. Greppa's unit was sent because they all had unlimited use 3.0 Fly items. We could cover a lot of ground. Once my mage corps had been in Teoma, we could teleport in politicians and support staff. 



> 5. Like to know system stuff, but keep it separated? (refer to spell DC parenthetical)




I think that I will repost the URL for seasong's LAtD crunchy stuff, so, if interested, readers can do the calculations.

http://seasong.home.texas.net/sh/index.html

Check the magic and feats section to get the appropriate stuff. 



> 6. Empire of Kithios was reborn? More detail on that? Came out of left field, yo.




Kithios was mentioned in previous posts. Check the archives. If they aren't active anymore, I'll do a quick fill in. 



> 7. Kyriotes: didn't he diss Merideth? AND Greppa? Why say yes?
> 
> 8. Very excited. Caught up to this very late, reached end, noticed date, almost cried. Glad to see some signs of life. Hope they don't falter again.




I will work to get caught up since I have a body of games to draw on, it should be somewhat regular. However, it is a lot of stuff and development so events and actions that are unclear or illogical will gain more clarity as the story is related.


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 12, 2004)

Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> Nope, they are extremely high quality magic items.



My bad.



			
				Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> Teoma is the "Gateway to the True North" as St Louis is the "Gateway to the Mississippi." There are many more established city states many months travel north of the Theralis valleys. Teoma is the closest to Theralis being about a month's walk away. Greppa's unit was sent because they all had unlimited use 3.0 Fly items. We could cover a lot of ground. Once my mage corps had been in Teoma, we could teleport in politicians and support staff.



This is why I like this SH. Big political background, but very provincial feel.

However, question was about action, not location.



			
				Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> I think that I will repost the URL for seasong's LAtD crunchy stuff, so, if interested, readers can do the calculations.
> 
> http://seasong.home.texas.net/sh/index.html



  
Seen rules/site before. Never noticed that Theralis just a sub-directory!

What else am I missing?



			
				Greppa of Tartwater said:
			
		

> Kithios was mentioned in previous posts. Check the archives. If they aren't active anymore, I'll do a quick fill in.



Know what Kithios is: don't understand "rising again". Are they a new enemy? Or an ally?

Sorry to bombard you with questions - came onto scene late, never got chance to bombard Seasong


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## Indigo Veil (Feb 12, 2004)

tauton_ikhnos said:
			
		

> Seen rules/site before. Never noticed that Theralis just a sub-directory!
> 
> What else am I missing?




Seasong's active campaigns live on Ezboard at http://pub21.ezboard.com/bseasongsmuse. Lotsa background information on various settings, but few of them are written in narrative form. (Mostly the board just serves as a way for seasong's players to communicate between sessions, but you'll find background info, character ideas/introductory stories, and player schemes, if you're into that sort of thing. ). Light Against the Dark is the only campaign that has, to my knowledge, been posted here.

...but since it seems like you've already been through the archives, you might have already looked at Ezboard. If you haven't yet, I hope the link helps you find what you're looking for.


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 12, 2004)

Indigo Veil said:
			
		

> Seasong's active campaigns live on Ezboard at http://pub21.ezboard.com/bseasongsmuse.



Cool. No, hadn't seen it - came late, like I said, skipped most of the non-world OOC stuff.

Hate ezBoard, though. Ugh.


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 13, 2004)

First, I apologize. I levelled two critiques (3 and 5), and honestly, that's not fair - you have a life, you're not making money, and it's pure generousity that brings these bits of text to life here. So I'm sorry.



			
				tauton_ikhnos said:
			
		

> 1. Coffin? Bet it's Merideth.
> 2. Kithios earth elemental stuff look like high tech? forcefields, lightsabres, boot jets? Yes? No?
> 3. Mixed tense verbs, couldn't figure out action in Gate to the True North.
> 4. Uripedas too cute. "Expeditious charge" = perfect.
> ...



Okay, read this in morning, not so clear. Sorry.

1. I'm just guessing, don't need confirmation. I think the coffin is going to be Merideth. She's the only _current_ character idealistic enough for Greppa's line, "see what it got you". Whoever it is, I'm antsy, but I can wait as long as I know story is continuing .

2. Force fields aren't something I'm accustomed to seeing in D&D. You mentioned them only briefly, and if Kithios was an advanced, ancient, lost empire, it was feasible that we were seeing high tech or something. I misread - like I said, my bad.

3. Gate to the North, I understood that you fought orcs, but then I had problems following the action. Specifically, I got lost around this paragraph:


> The Theralis troops were at the walls waiting when the alarm sounded. What we found was troubling. All of the Teoman infantry were at the walls. No effort was being made to stop them before they hit the infantry line at the city walls. The giant snow white and gray wolves seemed to blur as they sped from the tree line. The Wind Wall was painfully slow as the elementals moved into position. My Eye, the artifact I took from the realm of the dead gave me my answer. The wolves, ALL of them, were under a Haste effect. Also, there were thousands of them instead if a few hundred.



I felt like I was reading a French Art War Film, which may have been your intent. I remember that the battle Athan showed up in was a very confusing panoply as well.

Anyway, it looks like, "they fought orcs, they won, the orcs were only a scouting party" was the only important bits. If wind walls that move or the inexplicable Eye become important, I suppose they'll be explained at some point, and if the details of where things were and when becomes important, I'm sure you'll re-explore it in more detail at that point.

4. Just a compliment. Expeditious charge is perfect 

5. I understood the system stuff. I've read that portion of the site. I was commenting that having it in parentheses in the middle of the story broke my immersion. I know it is a D&D site, though, so stupid of me to comment.

6. Your writing tends to float from one bit to the next, dropping tantalizing details without giving the whole picture immediately. You mentioned litany of political events (who Theralis annexed and allied with) and then "Kithios returned", I assumed it was also a new bit. So, to make question clearer: is it a subtle reference to Theralis as the new Empire? Or has Kithios really returned?

7. My understanding seems off - the Kyriotes I read about seemed to be a total ***. Here, Greppa and Merideth, who both got dissed by him, seem to respect him? Eh, you don't want to answer, you won't answer 

8. Again, compliment. Sorry if it came off sounding bad.


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## Indigo Veil (Feb 13, 2004)

Something I should have mentioned before, I guess. The only campaign that's written in narrative form on seasong's Ezboard is Queen of Shadows. I wrote most of that, and the beginning's a little rough (seasong started out writing it before I took it over, and as the campaign progressed, I switched styles). It's also NOT D&D (the only campaign that's D&D related is this one; he had an idea for another, but it hasn't started yet), has very little fighting, and the log is very, very long (over 196,000) and needs editing (haven't edited it yet because I'm lazy and busy with other things besides), BUT it -is- complete, and remains the only campaign on Ezboard to be so. ^^;;

You're welcome to read it if you wish, but if you're really into game mechanics or D&D related settings, it's probably not going to be to your liking. ^_^


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 13, 2004)

Really into game mechanics and D&D related settings. Does not make me uncultured barbarian .

Will read some this weekend, thanks!


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## Indigo Veil (Feb 13, 2004)

tauton_ikhnos said:
			
		

> Really into game mechanics and D&D related settings. Does not make me uncultured barbarian .
> 
> Will read some this weekend, thanks!




<laugh> I didn't mean to imply any such thing.  I just don't usually recommend the campaign here, because it doesn't tend to be the thing people here are into...which is fine, and doesn't mean that anyone is uncultured, be they barbarians or not. ^_~

If you do plan to read it, however, I'd like to suggest starting on the page I made for the campaign (link is in my sig), because the stuff on the ezboard is a little out of order chronologically (seasong and I began this campaign while I was on vacation in New York, when ezboard was more an experiment in communication than anything else, so we posted responses to each other in different threads), and I tried to set up the web page to help that a little. Feel free to shoot me emails with questions or comments if you feel so inclined. ^_^

Thanks for your interest. I hope you enjoy it!


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Feb 13, 2004)

tauton ikhnos, and other readers I should have a new post up Saturday afternoon...depending on what bad things my GM does to my psyche tonight. I'll have the correct clarifications up too.


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## Talix (Feb 15, 2004)

Yay, it's back!    Thanks for the update.  I agree it was a little jumpy (as in jumps around timeline, etc.), but I completely understand trying to catch up when you have a huge backlog.  I'm currently pretty delinquint in my player journal for my game as well.


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## Indigo Veil (Feb 17, 2004)

Since I'm one of Greppa's player's friends, I'll say it so that you guys (the nice audience members who have so kindly followed this story hour so far) don't have to. 

Hank! Get to work! Don't make these nice people get all excited about promised updates after a long hiatus just to dash their hopes again! You said Saturday, and it's already Tuesday. Update! <cracks a whip>






Hee. =^,^=


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 20, 2004)

One bump for hope.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Feb 24, 2004)

*Discovering Fame*

_ Sorry it took so long, but I do have a nice long post _

I drew myself out of the reverie and walked to the glowing pool of swirling blood. Offerings of food and wine lined the edges of the portal. At my thought, tall, featureless humanoids of the rich blood rose from the pool and began carting the offerings into the portal to Luccas' dimension. 

The blood-golems cleared the foodstuffs efficiently, disappearing entirely once done. 

I murmured the prayers and blessings the Mother of Light placed in my heart. Completing my duty, I returned to the sarcophagus, resuming my one sided reverie.

_________________________________________
20 Years ago...

When I think about it, Merideth, Athan and I were 15 when we joined the army for our year of mandatory service. The orcs started attacking and it never stopped. We grew up wading through fire and blood, but in our devotion to duty and adventure, we never grew up, it seemed we were perpetually children, running about the countryside doing the bidding of our leaders and our gods. Even when Athan died, the adventure continued, we did as we wee told despite what was happening to Theralis, we never noticed we were growing up. Other people did. One of them was Kyriotes.

It was a gradual process. I think it started when Allas attacked Theralis City. Agina, Phitios and the other council members knew we were patriots, willing to continually risk our lives for State and God. I think Kyriotes...I think Kyriotes, for the first time saw there were other people in Theralis as powerful as he was. 

The Battle of Theralis was the beginning. However, the Siege of the Nekromanteia confirmed it. 

Before the Annexation of Teoma, Merideth, Urepidas, myself and 20 of my troops made what was to be a largely ceremonial visit to the Temple of Hethas at the Nekromanteia, a system of caves that led directly into the Elemental Plane of Earth and the Realm of the Dead. Merideth and I had arrived there while fleeing from an Allas empowered Athan. 

Since Allas' betrayal, we were collecting allies and building our forces. Already, several of the orc tribes fleeing before the Broken Knuckle orcs, had joined with us. Even mighty Armorcat eventually settled in one of the unoccupied valleys bringing their considerable forces into line with ours. Theralis itself had changed. We did not kill everyone we enslaved them, putting them to work in the vineyards. Paradoxically, slavery was an intrinsic part of orc culture. What we were doing, our opponents thought was logical. Many of the tribes we defeated earlier offered to trade slaves with us. Taking back the soldiers we caught and replacing them with more docile tribe members who were more suited to fieldwork. What was thought of as a dangerous experiment turned our to be a cultural turning point and the people of Theralis were free to pursue warfare full time. 

The Fallen pantheon was on our side, but we had to wonder about the allegiances of the other Gods. We knew where Xeras and Allas stood. We were so far from the sea that Pelodis' position did not matter. The wild card was Hethas. The Goddess of Earth and the Dead had been an ally on many occasions. We had not heard anything about orcs attacking Her people, however we thought that since we were trying to foster good will, we decided to fly North and discuss an alliance with Hethas and Theralis. After a brief discussion with Luccas and Corvidae, who didn't care, we headed out.

It was a short trip and we were greeted by a formal assemblage of priests and Temple soldiers. 

"Welcome back!" The High Priest said, "Hethas told us 'They who Emerged' would return. Welcome back." 

I stared at him for a moment and recognition dawned. The last time I saw him, he was under the paw of the skeleton tiger that pursued Merideth and I from the Realm of the Dead. Not thinking, I exclaimed, "You!"

"Yes," he beamed broadly. "Those who Hethas touches are often brought together."

He reached out and touched the spot on my chest where Athan's spear had wounded me at the battle of Theralis. There wasn't a scar there, but the wide eyes and grinning mouth of the order of Hethas. He smiled at me meaningfully and I understood. Although I was starting to wonder how many Gods could have their fingers in my life. 

Then we settled in. There was a lot going on in the World and despite, or rather, because it was the High Temple of Hethas, not many people came here. The orc tribes, while not worshippers of Gods, did fear them. However, as we discovered with Clan Armorcat and Broken Knuckle, there were always exceptions to conventional wisdom when it came down to orcs.

Merideth did most of the talking and negotiation. Vampires and lycanthropes were part of Luccas domain, but Corvidae was a Goddess of Death. Not over the afterlife, that was Hethas, but over those that died in battle. Her Ravens delivered the fallen to their just rewards. Corvidae and Hethas were "sisters." Not by parentage, but by Death. 

I ordered my troops to mingle with the temple soldiers, while I talked with the "general" who ran things. While not very involved with Xeras' shenanigans, the priests of the death goddess have had...trying periods. Accidents, particularly monsters escaping from the Underworld, have considerably thinned their numbers, however those who had survived had become quite powerful. Hethas had been preparing her people, as Allas and Xeras had before. In spite of what we learned, the trip turned out to be quite uneventful. Merideth concluded negotiations and sent a shadow raven to Theralis. It only took an hour for the thrall of Corvidae to return with the Council's reply. From now on, a platoon of Theralis troops would constantly be on station near the temple. If the tribes attacked, the holdings of Hethas would be protected. 

That done, I wanted to go home. I had lots of research to get back too. That's when one of my advanced scouts barged into my tent. 

"There are orcs nearby," he said breathlessly, "a whole tribe of them."

"Which tribe?" I asked, while I stood and started to grab my gear.

"Moonshadow," he replied.

"How far away?" 

"Three Days."
__________________________________________________ _______________

A flurry of archons and ravens later, we found out that troops from Theralis were already on their way, not because of any spectacular bit of prognostication, but the Council wanted to make sure that we had the troops were in place before something happened. Making promises to a God, regardless of mitigating circumstances, was not something one would want to renege on. They had started marching a day or so after my troops flew out of the city. Unfortunately, they wouldn't be here for another week.

"Two days," I said flatly. "We have to hold out two days before the troops arrive."

The High Priest was calm, "I told you Hethas will provide." 

We walked to the mouth of the cave. During this visit we had not ventured into the Nekromanteia itself. We stayed in the temple and support areas that were built around it. This time however, we marched straight into its maw. What we found made me smile.

We saw skeletons, ranks upon ranks of skeletons and at the head of the undead column the reconstituted giant skeleton tiger that Merideth and I fought shortly after we made our escape from Celestial Athan into Hethas' realm. Merideth looked on all of this with some distaste, but she didn't say anything. We were in a tough spot and it wasn't time for any sort of moralizing. 

My initial glee at seeing my horde of undead troopers died off quickly. While numerous, they were not very agile and trained orc fighters would eat them alive, pardon the pun. 

A few more scouts returned with actual numbers of the orc we would be facing. It was a relatively small tribe, but it was a full tribe with an unusual complement of shamans in addition to the other troops. Even without worrying about the shamans, we did not have enough men to even hold them at bay, so, I fell back on dirty tricks.

Now Merideth did start to berate me (it had been building up all this time and it needed an outlet), "What do you think you're going to do?"

"Well, venoms and poisons do fall under Luccas' purview," I mused.

"No!" Merideth replied.

I rolled my eyes, "How about traps?" 

She thought about it, trying to find something un-Theralis in it, "No, that should be okay. Just because we're being attacked by savages doesn't mean we should act like savages."

We worked feverishly over the next two days. The place was surprisingly defendable. The cave was part of a mountain and only a single hillside allowed access. The orcs would have to stage a frontal assault. My sergeant and Merideth coordinated the construction of defensive areas and retreat points. If the outer areas fell, we would retreat to the Nekromanteia itself. I had earth elementals going almost constantly digging a hazard-field of pits connected by underground tunnels. The pits were 30-40 feet deep, it was the hope that the fall would kill whoever fell in. Hope wasn't good enough.

I wanted to put troops in the pits, but there was a problem with them breathing. The pits were deep and were not open to air. With great care the elementals had tunneled under the surface so that the ground still looked solid. A couple of people could even run over it, but when a bunch of people cross, down they go. 

To increase the kill rate, I asked the High Priest of Hethas, to order the bulk of the skeleton troopers into the pits. 

Merideth was skeptical, but she didn't have any alternatives.

And on the third day, the sun came up and...nothing happened for several hours. Then the sky started getting dark. 



__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ _______________________

I drew on Luccas' power and bathed the hills in warm pink daylight. We turned to the sky with a collective gasp. The moon was moving, or rather it looked like it was moving. 

"It's noon!" one of the priests replied, "and an eclispe is not . 

I didn't reply. Merideth and I sent out the ravens as the sky faded to darkness. "Kill the shamans," was our command. 

Then it was quiet for long while. Half of them returned but they had found and killed four of what they considered the most powerful of the Moonshadow spirit workers. 

By then, the sky was night-dark, with a white haloed dark spot where the sun should have been. At full dark, beneath a starless sky, the first volley of thrown spears began. 

We were waiting though, Merideth erected walls of Telekinetic force around occupied areas of the battlefield, leaving space at the bottom for men to run through. I followed suit on the opposite side, followed up with repeat castings of Daylight to illuminate the battle field. The spears stopped. I leaped astride Uripedas and joined the shield wall as we advanced to the gap the force walls left. As we advanced, shimmering beams lanced out and struck each wall, which vanished immediately. Uripedas wheeled upward to get a better view as the first assault wave of orcs emerged from the trees. 

Driven by anger I bade Uripedas to dive, force balls twirling off of my fingers. The spheres hit and I was rewarded by the gratifying yelps of pain. However, I couldn't see it. I couldn't see anything. We were in an area of absolute blackness, this was beyond darkness. I could hear the battle, feel the wind on my face but I was blind. Alarmed, I willed Uripedas to fly upward. Vertigo, sudden and intense, flooded us, sending my breakfast over my precious saddle. Then he hit something. I held fast to my saddle as he struggled and squawked against something, then I felt something leathery, warm and moist envelop me and I tumbled to the ground.

Teeth grated against my stoneskinned flesh struggling to find purchase while muscular flaps of skin held my arms and smothered me. Even with my orc-strength, I couldn't get free. However I had prepared for this a long time ago. I took a simple spell, Lesser Shadow Killer and Mastered it. I could cast it under any circumstance, except unconsciousness. When I became a Chosen of Allas, the shadows became burning beams of light. With Luccas as my Goddess, the shadows returned, but as ebon blades of blackness. Instead of being drawn from the Plane of Shadow, they came from me through Her. Silently, furiously, I unleashed barrage upon barrage, upon barrage on the mouth of the creature holding me. 

It struggled, franticly tightening its jaws and chew me into a more manageable state of capture. The struggling became thrashing, which suddenly stopped. 

I pushed my way out of the sticky thing only to be confronted by the same stygian darkness. I couldn't see anything, but I could hear the battle and I could hear high pitched screams of terror and cries for help in a strange orcish dialect. They had found my pits. 

I Needed to do something other than grope around. There were only a couple of creatures in my repertoire that could function in total darkness. I summoned the Stone Snakes of Kyriotes followed by Blood Elementals which were oozes drawn directly from Luccas' domain. 

As they spread out to fight, I partially summoned a single ooze, "Brother," I began quickly, "I have need of your Sight."

The ooze, as far as oozes could, contemplated and then replied, "I wish to join in this battle. In exchange for my eyeless sight, I will require a small bit of your life to sustain me in this battle."

We spoke quickly and I discovered that "a small bit" was a relatively small amount of my vitality. I gladly exchanged and the battlefield resolved itself into view in grim black and white. I looked down and took a step back. A leathery shape lay sprawled on the ground. It was featureless, not that I could see that well processing the ooze's method of seeing. 

I saw Uripedas lying unmoving under an undulating layer of the strange leathery creatures. I ran to him, sending barrage, upon barrage of small blades into the creatures covering my friend. I drew my sword and with actual leverage, I was able to pull the creatures off, spitefully cutting them up. 

"C'mon Bird," I grimaced, "be...all...right." I put my face against his blood-matted feathers. He was still, so still. I realized I had never seen him not be moving or fidgeting and it scared me. "GET UP!"

The great bulk shivered. His head came up and he uttered a feeble squawk. 

I summoned a small group of archons, "Kill anything that comes near him that isn't in a Theralis or temple uniform."

Then I took off searching for Merideth. Logically, I should have just flown, but I was mad. I cast spell after spell, my Will easily channeling the low-level effects. I focused on the things that dealt damage directly, they were far more satisfying as I implacably half stalked, half ran across the battlefield. I found Merideth. She was imprisoned under a dome of force and could not get out. One beam of scintillating force later, she was free and her face was a dark cloud of murderous anger. Merideth hated being helpless. She looked at me, her esper senses clearly compensating for the lack of light, "thanks." 

She started to rise into the sky when I caught her hand, "Dispel the darkness, then help Uripedas...I can't get him to move."

She started to retort sharply, then she looked it me, watching the tears running through the blood, feathers and muck. She nodded and rose into the sky. 

I followed and Merideth flew over to Uripedas. A few moments later, the darkness peeled back over a large section of the battle field. The Theralis troops had gathered behind their shield wall and there were several leathery bundles were people were being snacked upon by the strange creatures, several of which were flying at me. I faced them eldrich forces gathering around my hands. As they closed, a familiar vertigo hit me. Unable to concentrate, I ran, flying towards the pit area. 

Moments later a fireball and then another fire ball exploded in their midst, frying them to cinders and Uripedas, screaming defiantly flew through the ashes Merideth, astride his saddle. 

We were doing surprising well, the pits, battlements and shield wall were keeping things under control while the summoned monsters were crippling the infantry that were getting through. We did not know where the remaining shaman were, but I was hoping that getting rid of their precious darkness would bring them into view. 

Until then, I summoned Air Elementals which, along with newly summoned stone serpents supplemented the shield wall and drove more orcs towards the field of pits. 

Then the rays started flying, peppering me. I felt a variety of strange sensations pull across my mind before I shook them off. 

Merideth was already at work "Find them!" She hissed, transforming into a raven crackling with life draining emerald lightning and flying with her covey of shadow ravens. I sent Uripedas to support the ground troops and I teleported to the ground. Flying along the ground and picking off any shaman stupid enough to shoot at me. 

"Greppa," Merideth's voice impatiently whispered into my mind, "Get over here."

A short moment later I was standing beside Merideth looking at a tall white-haired orc clad in black and white furs and strange skins. He was standing under a shimmering dome of force. 

Merideth was tapping on her chin impatiently with a finger, "I can't get him out." She said tersely.

"Is he that important?" I asked, keeping close watch on his face. 

She nodded, "He's the most powerful shaman out here, but apparently he can't teleport. He's stuck there."

"Really?"

"Really," she said stamping a sandled foot. "Tell Sergeant Arkos, to start to regroup," I said. 

"What about him?" Merideth replied. 

"Does that shield of his extend under the ground?"

Merideth's eyes defocused for a moment. "Why, no it doesn't" she said with genuine surprise. 

Smiling viciously, I summoned a small horde of glistening Blood Elementals. The shaman's face was defiant, confident in his protection.

Then the oozes seeped into the earth. 

The triumphant look began to fade. It became worry when the when the ground beneath his feat began bleeding. Hastily he cast a spell, disrupting one of my creatures, but the rest swarmed, drowning him. 

"That's that," I said then I flew back to the front line.


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 25, 2004)

Comments and thoughts, hopefully better written than usual 

1. Really like the fact that mass battles have names, like Siege of Necromanteia. It makes it feel real and historical.

2. Wow. Hethas went from "evil god of necro" to "possible ally"! Not that I doubted her! Seasong's aborted Game of Death showed, Hethas more CN than CE.

3. Awwww.. I remember when Merideth was squawking little girl who wanted to be warrior princess healer. Now she's Death's diplomat. 

4. Sorry, system question... Moonshadow orcs employ advanced cloakers, don't they? That + darkness looks _nasty_.

5. 'Nother system question... Greppa summoned blood oozes? Related to ooze lords in any way? Or just new critter? Love the ooze through ground method . Poor shaman leader.

6. From this







> Then the rays started flying, peppering me. I felt a variety of strange sensations pull across my mind before I shook them off.



I confer that Greppa is still the munchkin of Will saves? Heh heh.


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## Greppa of Tartwater (Feb 25, 2004)

tauton_ikhnos said:
			
		

> Comments and thoughts, hopefully better written than usual
> 
> 1. Really like the fact that mass battles have names, like Siege of Necromanteia. It makes it feel real and historical.
> 
> ...






> 4. Sorry, system question... Moonshadow orcs employ advanced cloakers, don't they? That + darkness looks _nasty_.




It was _ horrible _. I didn't even know what was happening when it all hit. What was worse, I couldn't counter the Darkeness with Daylight because the orcs were using a variant of Deeper Darkness. I still haven't read the MM entry for cloakers (I tend to throw out the book when dealing with Seasong's monsters, they always tend to be somewhat...different). All I knew is that they got the surprise on me and took advantage of my weak save. I would have been meat if it wasn't for stoneskin. 



> 5. 'Nother system question... Greppa summoned blood oozes? Related to ooze lords in any way? Or just new critter? Love the ooze through ground method . Poor shaman leader.




He initally based it on the Choker and added ooze qualities, but in the description, it became it's own creature. I think it was a CR3 or 4 creature and Greppa was using a 5th or 6th level empowered summoning spell to bring them in by the bushel. 



> 6. From thisI confer that Greppa is still the munchkin of Will saves? Heh heh.




Oh yeah! =)


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## tauton_ikhnos (Feb 25, 2004)

Choker w/ooze qualities... nasty. Almost makes up for cloakers in Deeper Darkness .


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## Talix (Feb 27, 2004)

Woot!  Exciting battle!    Glad Merideth was able to save the bird - that would have been a sad loss...

The new spells and abilities continue to impress and entertain me - great work!


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