# The Dread Legion Advances...(Updated 08/02/2005)



## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 23, 2004)

A potter's field is where we found ourselves.

A mere two hundred of us.

Barely more than a handful compared to the old days.

The Legion Standard, the proud golden hawk of the Emperor was covered in a thick glaze of clay.  Nothing more common than that grey green muck.  Nothing more capable of sucking the warmth right out of a man and we were covered in it too.

Smoke from the direction of the docks rose into the air.  The docks had been our destination and our salvation until that smoke had appeared.  It signaled that the commoners had overwhelmed our last ship which had held in place at anchor, valiently holding out to carry us away.  Carry us off of the moonlet of Sarpa and home to the Imperial capital.  The column of thick oily black rose upwards, towering like a collosus in the air; the final exclamation point at the end of nine hundred years of unbroken Imperial rule.

"THE LEGION WILL HALT!"

Our Officer, likely the last Officer, and a young one at that; barked the command and strode down the line like an old hand.

"DRESS THE LINE!"

We turned to face them at last.  Five thousand of the victorious rabble which had followed along behind us half the afternoon; organized themselves with pike in the front ranks and an assortment of common soldiers armed with everything from spears and swords to farming impliments in the back ranks.

How far we had fallen.  To face common soldiers who would dare face us in  leather and brandishing pitchforks.

The smoking ruin of the walls surrounding Sarpa provided us with a scenic backdrop from where we stood in the midst of that field not worth a handful of silver.

Before our orderly withdrawal towards the docks to the last of the ships we'd provided the victors with a final courtesy in setting a blaze in the center of the city.  Our Sorcerer had left behind a present or two of his own.

They would not be forgetting us any time soon in Sarpa.

Time passed.

The occasional bolt from a rebel crossbow or bullet from a rebel musket whistled by or found its mark.  Rarely did they penetrate armor to marry themselves into flesh.  

I remembered to breath, relax a little.  To notice the little things.

The few spots where the green grass growing long and fine had not been trodden into the clay.

The passing of a flight of birds.

I thought about my son.  Nearly six years old now in the Imperial city and  what a fine man he would grow to become.  Grow without me there to guide him.

"PREPARE!"

I had fought in battles before, of course.  Killed before, but never received -the- order.

It was of course, the ultimate duty of every sworn brother in the Legion.

There were many who had come through the issue of the final order and had survived and yet for every single one that survived there was something missing.  Something was absent behind their eyes.

It was not a moment that I had looked forward to and I had even hoped to finish my ten year in the Seventh without ever drawing the final order.

Yet here; inevitably, the time had come.  The likelyhood that I would survive; that I would pass through it to hold my son again was more than remote.

Yet I would not dishonor him by failing in my duty.

I held the ensorcelled gladius, the symbol of our oath in my right hand and my long spear in my left.  I could see our foemen through the narrow visor of my helm.  The throng surged forward and backward like the beating of waves against rocks.  They rebel was caught between the desire to rush at us and stop us from our intended act and fleeing the field.

Fleeing would have been the wiser choice.  Many chose unwisely.

"THE ORDER IS GIVEN!"

Time slowed down for me.

I pressed the sharp blade of the gladius into a joint in the side of my armor and felt warmth running down inside, down my leg.  Warmth and pain like a cutting cramp.  Some men fell to a knee in the act, I managed to stand.

As I stood I felt the ensorcelled blade take my last life's breath, draining every ounce of worldly warmth from my flesh...and I knew...

I knew the secret of the power of the Legion.

"the DREAD legion...shall advansssssss...."

Witnesses reported that at noon the young Imperial Officer gave the final command for the last of the Seventh Dread Legion to advance meeting the valiant freedom fighters of our beloved Sarpa head on.

The battle raged for almost four hours and at the end all of the remaining Imperial troops were destroyed.  Three thousand heroes would join them in the clay of the potters field.

From that day forth it was named The Field of Sorrow and it became a shunned and a haunted, lonely place where few dared to wander after dark.

This is the end of the tale of the Seventh Dread Legion and the beginning of the Tale of Timus the son of Varis the Legionaire.


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## Paka (Sep 23, 2004)

Nice start.

As the officer would say, "THIS ENWORLDER SHALL READ!"


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## Arrgh! Mark! (Sep 23, 2004)

Dred legion? Shouldn't it be Dread Legion? Thats far cooler.

And doesn't remind me of Invadors.


Five dollars to the man who gets THAT one.

But other than that, it looks excellent . I'm in to read the second installment alright.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 23, 2004)

*whooops*

Serves me right for jotting this down off the cuff so late at night.

I'll give it an editing pass and try not to make such obvious errors in the text the next time.

Thank god my wife edits my material for print. 

Thanks for the comments and support!  It feels great to stretch the writing muscles in public for once.


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## ledded (Sep 24, 2004)

Oh, very nice start.


I really like what you've done so far, the feel, the perspective of it.  I'm looking forward to much more.  

Color me subscribed.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 24, 2004)

There's an old statue, one of the old cast ones in bronze gone green like it's been turned to Jade stone.  It seems to loiter alone like it just happens to enjoy being off by itself with it's thoughts; far off down at the old end of the grand stone pier here at home.  My home, The City of Doors, capital of the Dominion and home of the Empress.

I think it must be an old image of Artovan.  Artovan the Terrible, Artovan the Wicked.  Artovan the God Emperor of the Known Universe.  It makes a certain amount of sense that a right nasty old bugger like Artovan would find an out of the way spot to be alone with his thoughts.  

I spend most of my time alone.  That's alright though because people just...  Well they just seem to make a damn lot of noise just to hear themselves talking without really saying....anything.

That's my spot.  Out there, right on the edge of the world.  I didn't much like sitting with my feet dangling off the edge of the crumbled old stone pier like that when I was younger and with my Father.  Not even when he promised to hold my hand.  He was such a big man.  Huge.  Like a giant he towered over me and over everything in my world.  Strong.  Godlike.  I'd hold my head up to look proud like him walking alongside holding onto his hand.  Him dressed in his polished golden armor.  Lions snarling on his shoulders.  Zebra skin scabbard and rose wood handled thrusting sword.  A Gladius, is what he called it though he never let me touch it or showed it to me like he showed me every other scar and medal and weapon he'd carried with him to war.

"Now steady son."

He'd say.

"Must be brave.  Must learn to have the heart of a tiger."

His words helped and before long I was able to sit next to him and dangle my feet off the side.  Looking out from the pier.  Into nothing.

Into the yawning mouth of vast empty that was the Empyrean.  It was an awesome thing to behold.  Nothing but open sky all the way from the edge of the floating moonlet upon which sat the Imperial capital to the horizon where a massive field of floating debris called Artovan's curtain cast the daylight all around into a dusky amber hue.  Filtering all through dust into a half light even at mid-day. The Umbral Empyrean is our ocean of sky.  No other moonlet below like in some places and certainly no solid ground below the clouds like in story books about the land where the Sorcerors dwelled before they journeyed here.  Before they built the first teleportation portals that eventually gave the City of Doors it's name.    

I come here to think and to make my plans for the future.

Father left the last time and he promised me that he'd bring me back my own Dak to train and to ride and fly like the boys of other Fathers in the Legion.

But...

Father never did come back.  He promised that he would but I expect that he didn't count on things changing so quickly out there in the provinces.  Dark times.  Dark times for the Empire.

Dark times for Timus son of the Legionnaire.

None of Father's friends made it back either.  Hundreds of sons and daughters too were left without Father to come home.  That was almost fifteen years ago now.

I expect most of the other children of dead Legionnaires have found their own quiet spots to sit and wait and plan for the future.

Plan for the day when accounts will be settled with those living in the provinces or what they now call the Free Provinces as though attaching the title of Free to their name will somehow make it stick.

Today.

Today...Today.

Today is my last day as Timus.  Tomorrow I climb the steps of the Order of Sorcery and take my oath to the Sixteenth Dread Legion and become a sworn brother like my Father before me.


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## Piratecat (Sep 24, 2004)

I like. Nice writing.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 24, 2004)

Thanks PirateCat!  I like reading your material too.  Also like the L. man's stuff.  Waves.


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## Eosin the Red (Sep 25, 2004)

That is one heck of a story!

The character is great and you really bring the setting to life.


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## Spider_Jerusalem (Sep 25, 2004)

That edge-of-the-world image is stuck in my head...


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 26, 2004)

*The Dread Legion Advances...*





The wind snapping the tattered window coverings of the window to my Father's old room, brought me to my senses.  It was early in the morning and the weak glow of light filtering through the ever present atmospheric dust cast the room into rust colored shadows around me.

I pulled myself up and swung both feet out of bed to stand and walk to the window.  I leaned outward, a strong naked torso half visible out of the narrow stone window of the room and gazed out over the capital.

The brisk air helped to clear cobwebs from my head and bring me to my senses.  I leaned a broad bare back against the cold, gritty stone railing of the window and looked back into the shadows of my Father's room.  So many of our things were still here.  So many of my Father's old things.  This would be the last morning I would see or smell or touch any of them.  By the middle of the day all this would be packed off and sold to raise a little more silver and maybe a few gold to carry in my pocket to my first post.  

I shivered.  The room already seemed foriegn and I felt like a ghost looking into it.  My bare, dark brown skin ran with goose bumps in the draft and I turned to look back out to look out one final time from the view of Father's window.

The city was shrugging off the hang over of the previous evening and seemed to be slowly opening one eye and mouthing the foul smelling yawn of an alley drunkard as it stirred.

The usual light stench of trash heaps, rotten produce and fish gut rose up beneath the stronger aroma of the morning market.  The smell of fresh cut flowers covered everything below, like the perfume of a Gray District whore.
Sickly sweet and meant to hide the lack of bathing.  Many years ago the Emperor had decreed a law mandating the placement of the flower stalls setting them up throughout the city in abundance.  It did not matter that many of the flower sellers did not sell their wares for they served to freshen the air and anyway they were manned by the lowest of the Elf slaves.

"Well Father."  I said, reaching for my clothing.

"Well room...my Mother whoever you might have been for I never knew you.."

I felt the need to say something in the moment.  To draw comfort from the sound of my own voice.  The slate of the stone floor felt familiar and cool beneath my bare feet and as I sat on the edge of the enormous dark wood four poster I began pulling on my best leggings, jerkin and doublet.

"Room..you've been a good room.  Thank you proud ghost of my heroic Father for watching over your son and keeping all of our things safe in this place."

"Thank you for providing for me.  For the gift of your Legion pay that has raised and fed and paid for lessons and training over all of these years..."

The room was quiet of course.  No ghost of Father appeared to extend a blessing from the beyond.  Not that I had expected anything of the sort.  Father was too proud for such theatricals even from beyond the grave.

I let out a long slow breath and pushed my hands, large strong hands, powerful; everyone said they were like Father's, up through the heavy coiled hair that was black coppery gold in a shower down the back of my neck.  The hair would be gone by the end of the day as well.

I pulled on my boots and buttoned them up the side.  I paused for the barest second and then strode forth, not bothering to close the heavy wood and iron door behind me.  Farinis the Landlord was responsible for looking after both me and my Father's belongings and would be lumbering up the narrow stone stairwell muttering about the festering gout that plagued his knee to sort out what remained for the Halfling rummage sellers.

The soles of my boots struck cobblestones and suddenly the entire known world was spread out before me.  I turned up the hill and though the streets were familiar and I had stalked them on ten thousand different mornings, somehow -I- was no longer familiar.  Somehow the world had changed and felt new as though the decision to set off this morning had altered everything; not only my immediate future but it was as if I had slid sideways into another place altogether.  

Up long twisting stone steps I strode, up winding mazes of narrow streets where I passed a stooped chimney sweep dousing the street lamps in the morning's half darkness with a tall wooden pole and iron snuffing cap. Onward and ever upward my breathe showing in wisps of the cold and damp.  Walking until the muscles of my legs began to complain and cramp with the effort.  Street after street, league after league the City of Doors continued to unfold beneath my feet.  Three hours later, I stopped to stretch my tired muscles and there on the streets above me I began to make out the golden light reflected off of tall polished domes of brass crowned with a hundred snapping banners.  The Halls of the Order of Sorcery where I would meet Officer Sorrow who was my sponsor and The Commander of Souls, the Commanding Officer in charge of the Sixteenth Dread Legion, my new home.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 27, 2004)

*The Dread Legion Advances...*

The broad cultivated green that filled the expansive courtyard of the Order of Sorcery was already buzzing with the activity of other Legion recruits.  Forty or fifty of us were clustered together at the far end of the green from where I stood watching, over at the foot of the broad and tall polished white marble steps leading upwards to the doors of the Order Library.

Behind them a fountain spattered and sprayed throwing flecks of silver upwards into the air around a white column that rose upwards in a spire one hundred and fifty feet over the green.  The column was capped with a statue of Artovan, one arm grasping a scepter and the other reaching outwards and upwards as if seizing the entire world in his grip.

Now the statue was a symbolic gesture of his absolute power, but for nine centuries it was a true gesture of his absolute rule over the four realms of the known world; before his unexplained vanishing act fifteen years ago.

Three weeks ago the Eastern Garrison had raised the flag of the Spinward Guard, the only large cavalry unit within the Legions.  Father had once commented to me when I had gone on and on for a particularly long time about how much I loved the Daks and wanted to fly; "Well if you enlist", he said casually, "Then wait for the call about a week after they raise the flag of the Spinward Guard over the Eastern Garrison."  "It means they are getting prepared to organize the Spinward Guard for an important duty and the flag is a signal calling Officers back from around the city to the garrison to prepare."  "The Legions always recruit directly into their ranks a few weeks before they march."  "Don't be infantry like your old man, son.  Join the cavalry."

It was advise I had not forgotten.  The sixteenth Legion was the only Legion with it's own large cavalry.  They used them for scouting, raiding and of course in battle.  Only the Officers rode the large and impressive Shard Dragons into battle, most cavalry rode on the backs of the smaller Daks.  Which suited me just fine.  

I crossed over the green to join the rest of the recruits.  Calls went out for recruits into the city about once a month on the average and I could have joined a year earlier.  Father's advice stuck with me though and I still longed to go soaring out into the sky on the back of one of those quick winged, agile reptiles.

I found a small empty spot on the grass surrounded by the rest of the recruits, a mixture of males and females.  Most were Human or Half-orc, and a few of the lesser races; Dwarves, a Halfling here and there, a few Maenad's, there was even a Dromite.  Aside from myself there were eight other Xeph.  By Imperial decree only a Human, Half-Orc or Xeph could hold Imperial Citizenship by right.  The only way to receive any benefit or protection under law for the lesser races was to pull a ten year in the Legion or in The Imperial Fleet.  Even then they were not full citizens but the protection of military law and their status in retirement provided them with the protection necessary to pursue a serious career, own a shop or do other sorts of activities within the Empire.

The ranks of the Legions were almost never thin from lack of recruits.

I noticed that two larger young men and a young woman, all probably three or four years our seniors stood nearby resplendent in their black and red uniforms.  Young petty Officers probably recently recruits into the Black Fleet, the Imperial Navy.  Outside of the Empire the Black Fleet and the Dread Legion relied on one another to achieve victory for the Dominion and for the Empress.  I wondered if this was truly possible, so notorious were the Officer Corp's of both entrenched in fighting over resources and in competition for Imperial favors.  

The smallest of the three Humans put his fists to his hips and addressed us.

"Fall in you maggots!  You miserable slug bellys!"

Most of the recruits jumped at the loud commands and began to file into ranks.  This was a mistake.  The Dread Legion did not take orders from The Fleet.

I stood where I was.  I noticed that the Dromite ignored the command as well.

"You there!  Insect!  Fall in or I'll make an example out of you!"

The trio began to stride over to the Dromite.  The Dromite was alone and an easier target for bullying than I was.  I stepped in the blond Petty Officer's way so he was forced to deal with me first.

He pulled up short and then kept onward coming to a stop barely a foot in front of me so he could lean in and bawl commands into my face as though he were a ranking Officer.  I noticed that he kept his right hand back behind him under his cloak.  The Fleet Officers poisoned their blades.  I would have to be cautious.

"Get in line!  Fall in when your betters give you an order cretin!"

I said nothing but prepared myself for the blow or thrust.  He was a Fleet Officer in uniform even though he was only a Petty Officer and had more rights than I did as the mere son of a dead Legionnaire.  He had no right to order me to do anything though.  Not in this context at any rate.

"Looks like we've found our example."  commented a dark haired, thin, soft spoken human male.  The companion of the shouting Fleet Officer.

The female just gave a nod.  She did not look to be particularly happy to be dragged along into this demonstration. 

The Officer's baton snapped out lightning fast to try and catch me in the temple.  I'd been attacked.  Perhaps just to make a cruel point and not really to injure me seriously but attacked all the same.  

Father had made it clear to me how things worked inside of the Brotherhood.

"There are only two things that they respect within the Legion.  Discipline and the ability to meet out death to a foe."

My own dagger was already palmed when the blow came sailing in.  I ducked just enough to let it pass over head and in a blur buried my own blade up to the hilt.

"Urp."

The young Officer, gray in the face and stricken collapsed backwards into the arms of his friends.  

With a snarl the Officer's male companion pulled his rapier only to double over and collapse in a heap next to his companion.  The Dromite's own oddly curved throwing weapon buried in his belly.

The female just stood there for a moment looking disgusted.  

"Pathetic."

Was her comment and she strode off.

"That will be quite enough for the morning."

A calm and authoritative voice called out from the top of the stairs.  There stood Officer Sorrow, his golden armor gleaming.  Palm resting on the pommel of his sword and Officer's baton flipping in the other hand.

"The recruits shall assemble."  

He pointed his silver shafted Officer's Baton first at me and then at the Dromite.  "You and you.  Come with me."


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## Paka (Sep 27, 2004)

Edward Kann@StoryART said:
			
		

> He pointed his silver shafted Officer's Baton first at me and then at the Dromite.  "You and you.  Come with me."




Cool.

What system are you using?

How many players?


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 27, 2004)

*What system are we using?*

We use the d20 system but in my own campaign setting of course.  We have eight players but usually only four of them are at the table any given week.

 

This is just the kick off story of how the characters came together from the first few game sessions.

So not everyone's characters are listed here.

Edward


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 28, 2004)

*The Dread Legion Advances...*

The Dromite and I followed on the heals of Officer Sorrow who tred silently despite the breastplate and heavy armor.  There was a mystery there in that silence.  Very clearly Officer Sorrow employed a variety of subtle magic that silenced his movements selectively.

We passed into the library and down a broad marble hall lined upon either side with sculpted shelves of stone that spanned from the ground all the way up, up to the ceiling far overhead.  A series of balconies allowed the Sorcerers and their assistants to gain access to the thousands, no; to the hundreds of thousands of books stored just in this one hallway.

Five stone balconies tiered the hall on either side positioned one above the other with tall narrow ladders of polished rose wood gilt with brass fittings that rolled along the floor to allow a reader to climb four, five, seven as many as eight shelves up the stacks before reaching the bottom of the next balcony overhead.

Officer Sorrow turned and set his palm onto the pommel of his thrusting sword.  Instantly I could hear the swish of his cloak and the step of his boot in the hall.  So the magic was on all the time unless Officer Sorrow placed his hand upon the sword.  Interesting.

"You two, are in quite a lot of trouble and you haven't even sworn the oath of brotherhood."

The Dromite and I looked at one another.  The Dromite let out a low buzz that might have been a sigh.  Neither one of us said anything.  What could we say?  It was likely that Officer Sorrow had seen everything.

"The higher ranking officers in the Fleet will be looking to settle scores with the two of you I'm afraid.  That makes having you enter the roles of the Sixteenth quite impossible.  That is.  Not if you expect to live beyond the next moon."

"But...I've GOT to join the Legion."  

"Yeszzzz, what is there left for us if we are not to be allowed to swear the oath?"

Officer Sorrow raised a hand.  

"I said you couldn't swear to the Sixteenth.  There are other Legions.  There are even other posts that you likely are not aware of in the least."

He turned and snatched a book out of the shelves at random and tucked it under his arm, striding silently again up the hall and deeper into the library.  The Dromite and I followed.  Officer Sorrow taking a book for us was a sign that we were indeed going to be sworn.  An Officer of the Legion would choose a book at random, open it and we would take the oath and point at the book with our gladius.  The magic of the gladius would choose a name for us out of the book that would be our name within the Legion.  After that point our old name and our past would no longer matter and we would be another brother in arms.  

Officer Sorrow halted abruptly and pressed his hands against several stones set into the wall opening a concealed passage.  We entered and then followed him down a very narrow and increasingly dank set of stone stairs down below the library and even deeper.  I sensed that we were entering into the passages beneath the palace and the Order of Sorcery.  There were stories about these passages, none of them good ones.  They were said to extend for many miles and contain an entire variety of dangers and secrets best left alone.

Officer Sorrow snatched up a torch and strode into the darkness leading us after a time to a small iron and wood door upon which he knocked.  The door opened and a stooped, old veteran with his left eye in a scar that had been stapled closed by a field surgeon long ago allowed us entry.  Officer Sorrow gestured at some tottering wooden chairs and we sat.

"I have two new volunteers for you."

The grundgy old man gave a nod and walked slowly around us.  He reached out a yellow'd age spotted hand and grasped my chin with amazing strength for such an old timer, turning my head this way and that to have a look at me.  He did the same with the Dromite.

"They'd be better off if you just killed em now...they'd suffer less."  

The old man coughed as he spoke and rummaged in a nearby cabinet for a kettle.  He began going about the process of making himself some tea.

"I know for a fact that you need more men."

"Men?  You promise me men and you deliver this...my grandmother could kill these two puppies without even breaking a sweat..."

"Your grandmother could probably strangle half of the Black Fleet without much effort..am I right?"  Officer Sorrow countered.

The old man cackled, banging the tea kettle down on the stove.

He turned and became serious.  Both men fell silent looking at us.  The Dromite and I sat very still wondering if we were going to see daylight again.

The old man turned and opened a shabby looking wooden crate, withdrawing two wrapped gladius from within.  They were both very old but the detail on their blades when drawn was striking.  I had never seen the blade of a Legion gladius before.  It was covered in so many glowing vermillion runes that the steel below was all but tracing and edge.

The old man placed the twin swords on the table with pommels facing us.  

"Pick them up if you mean to take the oath."

We did so.  I immediately felt a hum and tingle in my hand that travelled up my arm and into my head.  It set my teeth on edge.

Officer Sorrow did not remove his gladius to perform the oath instead the old man did so.  His gladius sparkled and sent motes of bloody light into the surrounding darkness of the chamber as he set it's edge across the edge of both my gladius and the Dromite's at the same time.

"Do you swear to serve the Dominion and the will of the one upon the Ivory Throne with your living and with your dying both now and in the world after for all time until the age ends or your soul expire and pass into the beyond."

The old man's words hung in the air.  Something warned me that this was not the sort of oath to swear to without more thought.  Yet, what was I going to do.  If I refused now they would simply cut my throat.  

"I so swear."  We both spoke together.

There was a throbbing pain in my hand as the gladius began to grow hot.  Now was the time to receive my name and finish the oath.  Officer Sorrow placed the book on the table.  It was up to us to open it to a random place under the magical guidance of the blade to find our names.  When I reached for the book Officer Sorrow slammed his hand down on the cover refusing to allow me in a gesture to receive my Legion name.

I felt pain and disorientation growing.

"Welcome to the First Dread Legion...Nameless."


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## Angcuru (Sep 28, 2004)

Nice writing.  When Officer Sorrow slammed that book shut I winced. "This does not look good for Mr. Nameless."


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 29, 2004)

Thanks.  All the encouragement here and there is really appreciated very much.  

Yep gathering all the characters into the ranks of the Nameless was fun.

A mixture of line storytelling and a more open ended style.  I was pretty much up for whatever the players threw at me as far as starting points.  I was a little surprised to see someone wanted to play a bugman though.


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## Rackhir (Sep 29, 2004)

This is terrific! I love the writing style and tone of the posts! I think this has the potential to be right up there with the top story hours like Sepulchrave's. You've managed to capture the essence of what I always loved about the Black Company books, but with what looks to be a unique and very creative world. Plus you seem to be updating more than once every 3 months!


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 29, 2004)

*The Dread Legion Advances...*

Wow.  Thanks a million Rakhir.  That is high praise indeed!  The encouragement definately keeps me excited to keep submitting the daily updates.  They are short but regular. 

Ed

Update 09-29-04

The Dromite and I watched the moonlet of the City of Doors slowly dwindle as we sat on the deck of the Rigger Ship, The Poison Arrow.  Our right hands were wrapped in bandages having suffered the crisping of angry spell fire channeled out of the gladius during Officer Sorrow's intercession on our oath.

I recalled Officer Sorrow's words as the old man put healing salve and bandages on our smoldering flesh.  My throat still felt raw from screaming and I was sore like I had been beaten in the streets by a gang of Noz addicts.

"Keep still while your wound is tended and listen well to my words."  He began.

"The Nameless are the eyes and the ears of the Legion.  They are the fist inside of the velvet glove that enforces order between the Legion and the Black Fleet when palace politics spiral out of all proportion."

Officer Sorrow leaned against the wall and toyed with the pommel of his sword as he spoke.

"Within the Free Provinces we have a need for eyes and ears.  The enchantment of the Gladius is such that any named Brother in the Legion can be identified immediately by a Guild Wizard or ranking priest of the Order of the Inquisition."

"Because the Order of Sorcery, being the first and most important magical Order within the world has, as you know, existed at the center of the Dominion from before its inception to the present day the rebels in the Free Provinces have got it into their heads that all born of Sorcerous blood are infernal and allied with the Empress."

"The Inquisition has been spilling blood into the streets of the cities in the Free Provinces.  Their agents root out any possible "Imperialist" and most especially search out the secret chapter houses of the Order of Sorcery wherever and whenever they can."

"These Guild Wizards are mostly former lower members of the Order of Sorcery who have betrayed their own Order and who have created a new one where simple unblooded Wizardry, the magic of the under classes, is supposedly supreme.  What it amounts to is treachery, pure and simple and a group of vile villains who have taken advantage of the ignorance of the masses in the Provinces and their current hatred of the Dominion to further their own goals."

I winced and risked a question of my own.

"But the first Legion...it is supposed to be.."

"Destroyed?  Yes, the members of the First Legion were destroyed at the Battle of Argos in the Realm of the Hinterlands during the second century of the Age of Artovan."

"Artovan himself secretly rebuilt the first Legion to serve as the secret watchmen of the Empire, who were known only by him, who answered only to him...."

Silence hung in the air for a moment.

"As they still answer only to him, today."

That got our attention.  Our eyes grew wide and the Dromite and I stared at one another in disbelief.  No one had seen Artovan, the immortal, self proclaimed God Emperor of the Known Universe of nine centuries for many years.  He had simply vanished and left the entire Dominion in chaos and civil war.  By now most people agreed that he had either ascended into the higher planes and become an actual God like they claimed in the temples of the Imperial Cult or his time had run out.

Nine centuries is a long time even for one of the most skilled Sorcerers in history to cheat death through magic.  The last centuries had taken their toll and Artovan had long ago stopped receiving visitors and courtiers at his court unless he summoned them specifically for a private audience.  The magics that had long held off the advance of age, weakness and death had begun to mutate Artovan into something else, something no longer human.

Eight years ago the worst of the civil war in the immediate moonlets of The Dominion had come to an end with the appointment of Artovan's daughter, the First Empress, to the Ivory Throne.  Civil War continued out in the three other realms long the territory of The Dominion.  So far the Empire had failed to reign in these territories in The Provinces, Cantons or Hinterlands of the Dominion.

I looked up at the enormous balloon under which our rigger ship hung suspended, swaying and creaking in the wind.  The elemental enchantment on the ship's keel imparted the open sky with the properties of water to allow the ship to tack and turn like it was a smaller vessel sailing over the waters of a sea.  The keel rune altered the air into water in the space immediately surrounding the prow and center line of the vessel.  As we rocked and creaked and nosed our way into the Umbral Empyrean, the prow of The Poison Arrow rose and fell throwing up a light shower of spray and leaving a trail of fog and mist behind the ship as we sailed into the open sky away from my home.

Neither the Dromite or I had said a word to one another in the first hours on board ship.  We were on our way to train.  But where?

Artovan.  I could not get my mind around the notion that he still ruled and watched The Dominion but from deeper in the shadows.  Artovan who had raised the entire civilization of the Halfling folk to ashes for daring to resist being brought into the fold of the Dominion.  An entire race picked up scattered and laws set in place making it a death sentence for any of them to set foot on their home moonlets.

Artovan, who after the Third Elf War had cast forth a spell that had insured the slavery of every being of elf blood for the first two centuries of life.  Not only that but within the confines of the four realms all Elves were forced to serve a human master or suffer a lingering and painful destruction from the weave of his magic.  For six centuries the elves had known this slavery.

I watched the birds trailing in a flock behind the ship hoping to snatch up some left overs and sent up a silent prayer to Father to keep me from ever having to stand before Artovan personally.


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## Rackhir (Sep 29, 2004)

You're welcome. Just keep up the good work. 

That does remind me of one of the other things I liked about your story hour. Enslaved Elves! No bloody full of them self, long haired, arrogant, pointy eared, Opera FANS!


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## ledded (Sep 29, 2004)

Daaaaaammmmmmmnnnnn.

This is getting good.

I *love* that airship and the surrounding text describing its methods.

Very, very cool.  I will be around, waiting for more of this yummy goodness.


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## Angcuru (Sep 30, 2004)

Wow, very creative idea with the ships.  I also like the absence of elves.  Sure, they're cool and all, but only in small doses.  Here, we not only see very little of elves, but when we do, I expect it'll be in a brothel or somesuch.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Sep 30, 2004)

*The Dread Legion Advances...*

"Zzzzz...what do think will become of usszzz?"  The Dromite nudged me back to the present with his elbow.

"I'm not sure.  I'd never heard of the Nameless before.  What do you think it means?"

"Nothing good for usszzz, of that I am certain."  The Dromite shifted around on it's haunches the sunlight throwing rainbows of dark blue and purple over it's rigid chitonous skin.

I stretched my legs out and leaned against a wooden railing, wincing and trying to ignore the unsteady rocking as The Poison Arrow gathered momentum slipping higher towards a thick bank of cloud.

"Before this, my name was Timus.  What was yours?"

"Scout."  The name seemed more of a title than a personal name.  Maybe Dromite didn't name themselves in the same way that the Xeph or Humans did.

A pair of Humans, a male and a female emerged from below decks and stretched.  They were not Rigger crew and they were not Fleet.  The male was thin, medium in build with thick black hair and a scrubby goatee.  His face was long and deeply lined.  The heavy black eyebrows over dark eyes nearly met in the middle.  In a word I would describe him as striking in appearance but rather homely.  The female was short in stature for a Human, the height of a Elf female.  Her hair was chopped short and her bare arms and legs were covered in spiral markings that gave her the appearance of one associated with one of the Noble Households in the Provinces but that was impossible here in the Dominion.  Wasn't it?  Nothing much seemed impossible today.

The pair spied us and made their way over.  Scout and I regarded them cautiously but stayed seated.  The last thing we wanted was a repeat of the earlier scenario that had landed us into this trouble.  

The female sat on the deck and the male leaned against a spar.  

"Relax friends."  The male introduced them.  "Officer Sorrow told us that there would be a Xeph and a Dromite joining us on our journey to train.  Have you decided on your alias yet?  Mine is Candle and this is.."

"Spiral."  The female's voice was quiet but held a certain intensity that caught my attention.  "Part of being Nameless is that you aren't held to the magic of the naming ceremony so you can introduce yourself under any name you like.  Other Brothers are forced by the magic to speak only their true Legion name.  That is how they get caught.  They are unable to lie about their identity when pressed."

"Let me see your hand."  I asked the female.

She held out her right hand which still held an angry red tone to the flesh of the palm.  "It has been more than a month since we swore the oath."

"We have not had time to conzzzzider such thingzzz."  

"Well we only have four or five days before we reach the moons of Sepulcher."  Candle smirked.  "I think I can come up with a few names."

"I am a Scout, call me Scout."  Chirped the Dromite.

Wonderful, I thought to myself, the Dromite's lack of imagination has him facing the same odds as a sworn Brother.

"Thiszzz one."  Added the Dromite.  "Should be called Froszzt.  Ice muszzt flow in his veinzz.  Don't be fooled by him, he is a cold blooded killer."

"Hazzzz hazzzz hazzz."  Apparently Scout had just made, for him, a world class jest at my expense.

Candle and Spiral looked amused.  "Very well.  Nice to meet you Scout and Frost."


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## Argent Silvermage (Oct 1, 2004)

WOW great start. i'll be reading.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Oct 1, 2004)

*The Dread Legion Advances...*

The Poison Arrow passed into deep towering formations of clouds that engulfed us and cast the world into a fog.  The cold damp hung on the canvas and ropes making them heavy with moisture and the vessel a little less swift, a little more lubberly in her gait.

Our helmsman and Captain turned out to be an independent merchant, which explained the absence of Fleet personnel on board.  He looked like a Human when I approached him but corrected me almost immediately when I tried to make small talk.

“So…can you tell me a little about where we are going?”  I leaned against the railing on the raised aft deck.  The Captain stood at the ship’s wheel and took readings off of a tall complex looking device, a collection of gears, metal disks, clockwork and a tall silver filled tube set with numerals.

The Captain grunted and continued to take his readings.

“Not interested in talking to me?  You only speak to other Humans?  A Xeph not good enough for you?”

“Elan.”

“What?”

“I am not any more Human than you are.  I am Elan.”  The Captain peered at me through thick white bangs that fell over his eyes.  The wind tossed his rather impressive mane of hair about him.  His eyes were an old color, a sort of amber golden color.

“What’s an Elan?”

“You don’t know?  I thought all Xeph would know.  Is this your first time to Sepulcher?”

I answered with a nod feeling uncomfortable that my lack of knowledge about my own people would become the topic of conversations.  I had only meant to draw the Captain into small talk to pass the time.

The Captain stood and gestured with his hand.  Strangely the wheel held to its course as though invisible hands guided it.  He stepped over to me and offered a hand.

I shook hands with him.  

“I am Victor.”  The Elan gestured with long pale hands at the device next to the ship’s wheel.  “Have you ever seen one of these before?”

I shook me head.  This was my first time on a Rigger ship of this size.  The first time I had left the city in my entire life.

“This….is called the Ship’s Vein.  If the Poison Arrow had a heart then this would be it.”
Victor gestured to the ribbons tied to the top of the Ship’s Vein.  “As you know all of the moonlets travel in orbits around the great permanent storms found at the center of each of the four realms.  What you might not know is that weather and wind always pass outwards from these central storms…”

“You are talking about the Gods Eyes.”  I stepped closer gaining interest.

“Yes, exactly right.  Wind and storms move out from the central storm eye or Gods Eyes as they are known in The Dominion in a counter clockwise direction.  These ribbons, the flags on the Poison Arrow, they easily show with a glance the direction of the wind.  Facing into the wind we call the direction Windward and facing down from the wind we call…”

“Haven.”  That much I knew.

“Why do we call the downwind direction Haven?”

I shrugged.

“Because all ports are constructed on the downwind side of any great moonlet.  You see that the sheer cliff face on the trailing edge of a moonlet provides a natural windbreak for Rigger Ships that arrive in port.  Vessels docked on the Haven side are less likely to face troubles from storms or high winds.”

Victor tapped a compass set in the top of the Ship’s Vein with his finger.  “You know what a compass is I hope…”

I answered with a nod.  

“Good.  So you know the compass needle points at the closest God’s Eye.  The great storms create an invisible force.  It is like a magical force but it is not magical.  This force pulls the compass needle to point towards the God’s Eye and since the God’s Eye is at the center of each orbiting system of moonlets we know…”

“You know when you are sailing deeper into a system of moonlets, or a realm.”

“Exactly, and that direction is called?”

I shrugged.  I was no sailor.

“Core.  It is called sailing into the Core or traveling Coreward.”

“What about sailing out of a system with the God’s Eye behind us?”

Again I was a blank.  Victor looked disappointed.

“That is sailing Spinward.  Remember Spinward is out of a system and Coreward is into a system.  So the four directions we now know are?”

“Windward..Haven..Core and Spinward?”

“Yes, perfect.”

Victor tapped the tall glass tube filled with silver liquid.  “This tube of liquid changes depending on the pressure of the surrounding atmosphere.  When we sail lower the liquid climbs higher into the tube.  When we go upward the liquid goes lower in the tube.  The markings here, they measure where we are high or low in the Empyrean.  That is important as well if you intend to find your way from place to place.”

“What’s this?”  I pointed at a glass that had the appearance of a spyglass but was attached to an odd ruler like device.

“That is for taking readings.”

“Readings?  I don’t understand.”

“You can find your position using a map, the compass, the silver, and this.  You find a star, not just any star, but certain stars or the moon or the position of the sun and you can work out where you are on one of these.”  He tapped his finger on one of the etched metal discs.

“What is that?”

“This?  It’s a chart…you know, a map.  You see the moonlets move in their course the same position, at the same time, year after year.  Some take less than a year to orbit all the way around the God’s Eye, some take two or three years to go all the way around.  The fact is that we know exactly how long it takes to go around once and where each moonlet is depending on the…”

“Depending on the time..and the date.”

“Yes…”

“So what your telling me is that this device with the gears inside is basically a mechanical calendar and clock…like they have in the Fleet offices?”

“Yes, exactly like those and you see these discs each have a map etched on them.  I set the maps in correctly and using the Ship’s Vein…”

“You can find your way anywhere you like.”

“Well, almost.  Some places are quite a bit easier than others to find.  If you sail outside of one of the more well traveled charts you take your chances.  Some regions have not been explored or mapped very accurately.  Not like the Empyrean within one of the four realms.”

I stretched and looked out over the deck of the ship to spy Scout, Spiral and Candle clustered together talking on the central deck.

“Do you know what is to become of us then?”

“Not really.  I try to not pay very close attention to matters that involve The Dominion.  No offense.  Officer Sorrow doesn’t pay me to know too much about what goes on.”

I sighed and gave a nod.

“Don’t be too horribly sad young master.  I’m sure that you and your friends will be alright.  One thing I do know is that the Dominion doesn’t pay good money to sail perfectly useful individuals such as yourselves off without having something quite special in mind for you.”

“Yes, exactly, that is what worries me.”  I answered.

Victor laughed. It was a good solid hearty chuckle.  “Good point lad.  Good point.”


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## Polynike (Oct 1, 2004)

Hail the Emperor and Long Live the Legion
You have a new recruit for the Frist Dread, what masterful writing you capture the atmoshpere perfectly


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## Angcuru (Oct 1, 2004)

“That is sailing *Spinward*."

"Wind and storms move out from the *central storm eye* or *Gods Eyes*"

Seems like someone's no stranger to Larry Niven's  _Ringworld_.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Oct 2, 2004)

Thanks!  Laughs, actually I've never read Ringworld.  I know, I know, it's a little like saying someone has never read Tolkein.  I've meant too.  I've heard about the books to be sure but just never got around to reading them.

Spinward actually came out of my niece putting cheerio's on our old LP turn table and watching them shoot off across the carpet.  What a mess.  She happened to be over several years ago when I was working on the setting for the kids summer camp adventures and I was trying to come up with names for the cardinal directions.

Tossing the cheerio's off the spinning turn table made me think of something be launched Spinward..and it seemed like a good analogy for sailing out system at the time.

Since North, South, East and West don't work in this environment very well.

Now I know I need to read them for sure.

Ed


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## Angcuru (Oct 2, 2004)

You will read them right now!      Just as I would read an update if there were one.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Oct 5, 2004)

*The Dread Legion Advances...*

We were drawing close to Sepulcher.  Victor had shown me the prior evening that we were now only a day or so distant according to his clockwork machine and the disc maps.

I was enjoying a lazy musing moment in my hammock when something landed heavily on my chest.  I opened one eye and saw that Scout had tossed one of my boots onto me.

"Wake up sleepy.  There is something ahead of us."

I rubbed tired eyes and swung bare feet out of the hammock, pulling one boots, closing up my leather hauberk and landing on the deck with a grunt.  I pulled on my sword belt and squinted my eyes against the bright morning light on deck as I tromped up out of the birth below.

Scout was at the railing along with Candle and Spiral.  I strode over and stretched rubbing the sleep out of my arms and shoulders and letting the snap of the cold wind pull me awake more fully.

Only a league or so off from The Poison Arrow another Rigger Ship hung suspended in the open sky.  A long greasy black finger of smoke drifted off of its central deck leaving a black scar across the horizon like an old wound.

Something large was suspended in a great net below the other ship.  Whatever it was looked still, dead.  Not cargo.  More likely some enormous creature.  The sky surrounding the Rigger Ship was filled with spiraling birds.

Victor came up behind us, joining us at the railing.

"Hunters.  Those are Hunters out for Windsail.  They use nets and harpoons the capture and kill the great beasts and then butcher them, boil down the flesh for the oil that it produces and harvest the beasts bones for spars up in the windage.  Nothing is as light, strong and of good length as the bones of a Windsail."

We drew closer, watching the vessel.  Half a league. Closer still.  Now only a few hundred yards off.

"Why are they letting the birds at their prize?"  Scout buzzed curiously and pointed.

"They wouldn't."  Victor's hands tightened on the railing and his eyes scanned the horizon in all directions.  "Something is amiss."

The other ship was called The Dancing Girl.  Her deck, spars and sails hung unattended.  With the exception of hundreds of birds and the great racket they threw into the air there was no sign of any movement on board.  It was clear now that she was drifting.   No sailor manned her wheel.  

The ship was flying the gold and silver flags of the Free City of Measure and the flag of The Dominion.  While an independent merchant she still declared herself a loyal vessel of the Empire.

"We should board her and discover what became of her crew.  Perhaps they were attacked and there are wounded that require attention?"  Candle looked thoughtful and drummed his fingers on his hips.

"Very well."  Victor agreed.  "We'll set alongside and allow you to board.  Be cautious.  Hunters are not the sort to give up a catch without a fight, much less their vessel.  If they abandoned her, they must have had good and desperate reasons..."

We set about the task of preparing ourselves to board.  Readied weapons, armor, and any other equipment we might require.  Candle, it turned out, was armed only with a light dueling sword.  He had studied for a time as a apprentice at the Order of Sorcery and was a spellcaster.  This impressed us all quite a lot.  Spellcasters of any sort were rare these days.  

Spiral was donned scarlet studded leather armor and armed herself with a sword and a pair of wheellock pistols.  I oggled her.  Mainly for the pistols.  They must have cost her a small fortune.  

Scout was armed only with his throwing blades.

I had my gladius, a short sword strapped behind my back and a pair of thrusting daggers.  I supposed that circumstances being what they were that I would be in front.  

"Join the cavalry."  Father had told me.  

Here I was.  Infantry and poorly armed at that.


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## Rackhir (Oct 5, 2004)

> "Join the cavalry." Father had told me.
> 
> Here I was. Infantry and poorly armed at that.




Love that line. Keep up the good work!


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## ledded (Oct 5, 2004)

Wow.

It just keeps getting better and better.

Keep it up, man.  I'm eager for the next installment.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Oct 5, 2004)

You might have noticed that my posts have slowed down over the last few days.  I will be trying to post in the late evenings and will go back over the previous days posts to do editing when I can.

My beautiful wife Valerie is due to deliver our twin boys any day now.  She is at home resting and as the soon to be Daddy I am very busy juggling taking care of her and working on the writing for our books.

Unfortunately that places The Dread Legion Advances in a back seat.

I should be able to keep posting with some regularity until the boys come along and then I might very well vanish for four or five days while we sort out delivery and bringing them home.   

Very busy here.  Very excited to be a new Daddy as well.

Waves

Edward


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## Angcuru (Oct 5, 2004)

Congrats!  And update!   

Heck, if I were you, I probably couldn't even look at a computer for all the worrying and doting I'd be doing.


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## Rackhir (Oct 6, 2004)

Hey, nobody expects you to keep up this kind of pace in posting. Congrats on the kids. It's always a rare and special thing when gaming geeks manage to reproduce. Just remember to raise them according to the true faith. So which sect do you belong to 3.5, 3.0, second ed, original ad&d, or the precursor D&D boxed set?


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Oct 6, 2004)

*The Dread Legion Advances...*

The Poison Arrow drew slowly alongside the drifting ghost ship.  A flight of white birds, beaks dripping with bits of torn flesh off of the dead Windsail rose upwards in a spiraling squaking cloud overhead.  The birds called down their insults as a trio of barechested crewmen fastened hooked lines to the other vessel and secured a boarding plank in place.

Beyond the crying of the gulls, the creak of timbers and the flap of unattended sails in the cool wind not a thing stirred on board the deck of the Dancing Girl.  Victor stood by with one of the two swivel gun crews, they stood ready, silent as well, waiting.  Hands holding the heavy iron business end of the small rail cannon in place.  Each was aimed at the empty deck of the Dancing Girl.  Aimed where I would soon be standing.

Spiral tapped me gently on the shoulder and whispered in my ear.

"If I tap you like that make sure you close your eyes Frost."

"Close my eyes?"  "What for?"

"Just do it..and here put these in your ears."

Spiral thrust two balls of torn cloth and muslin into my hands.  I imagined it had to do with something that Candle had in mind.  Not happy.  _Not happy at all with how this is developing_, I thought to myself.

I stuck the bits of rag into my ears enough to keep them in place.  I could still hear but not as well.  I readied my weapons, a thrusting dagger in my left hand and my Gladius in my right.

Stepped to the edge of the deck and swallowed before planting my boot onto the boarding plank.

The thing about boarding planks...well, it's just a plank of wood about a foot and a half wide and thick enough to not break when you cross it, but if you are heavy like me it does bend a bit.  For several seconds you are just out there, standing on a little bit of wood over...over nothing.  Over a planet sized drop through multiple layers of cloud into a void of nothing.

The blowing wind didn't help matters.  For all my best efforts my knees shook when I took my first step out onto the plank.  I swallowed.  No good getting stuck out here.

I pushed forward and with three determined strides found myself standing on the deck of the Dancing Girl.

My feet slipped as soon as they touched the deck.  The planks were thick with blood, not all of it had dried.  Thick swaths of ichor left trails of red and dried black over the deck where the crew had been slain and down into the hold.

Slain by what?  Dragged by what?

Spiral joined me and I took another three steps out towards the center of the deck.  A large black pot burned low on a dying fire.  The fire was constructed in a sort of dutch oven right out on the center of the main deck.  The stench was bad on the Poison Arrow as we came near but here the thick smell of boiled fat and murder was so strong that it clawed at the back of my throat.  I felt my stomach turn over once warning me that it was becoming increasing unhappy with the situation.

"steady" 

Candle had joined us as had Scout.  Scout stooped and sniffed at the deck and then scuttled forward to crouch next to me.

"zzz..something is still here..below us...below the deck...I believe we interrupt its eating...I believe it knows we are here..."

I gave a nod.  Together we cautiously crossed the swaying deck.  My footing was still not solid on the planks that were covered in the thickest mess.  Of course the worst of it was gathered right in front of the closed hatch leading to the deck below.

Scout scuttled quietly to the opposite side and readied one of his throwing blades.  I swallowed and tried my best to ignore the gore beneath my boots although some of it was starting to soak through and make my feet feel cold and uncomfortable.

I glanced over at Candle.  His hands were twitching and glowing a sickly violet.  Little worms of purple crawled around his fingers, little sparks of glowing energy.

"get ready to open it...on three."  He said quietly.

With a nod I reached down for the latch.

"one...."

"two...."

KEEEEEERRRRRRRRASSSSSSSSHHHHHH!

Something wicked fast and mad as the hounds of Hel boiled out of the lower deck blowing the hatchway ten, maybe twelve feet up into the air off of its hinges and over the side of the ship like it was so much tissue paper.

I got a brief look at a mouth full of more teeth than I'd seen in my top three nightmares combined and something vaguely manshaped but muscled like a beast and coated in the blood and gore of its victims.

"GREAT FIRES OF NIMROD! BARGHEST! BARGHEST!"

Candle was clearly helping by pointing out the correct name of the creature that was about to make lunch out of me.

"Pleased to meet you..I'm Frost."  My voice had a sound that was surprisingly calm to my ears.  I caught the beast under the chin with the thrusting point of my dagger and buried the Gladius where I hoped to find its heart.

Unfortunately the creature was a LOT faster than I gave it credit for and my Gladius missed the heart just grazing a smoldering gash across the creatures shoulder.

Vicious beady eyes narrowed and those teeth seemed to multiply.  I realized I was about to loose my left arm at the elbow.

I felt a solid tap on my back shoulder and remembered to close my eyes.

"BLOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMM!"

For a moment I thought that perhaps the entire ship had just exploded and I felt the world go topsy turvy.  My footing had finally failed and I was blinking and sitting on my bottom gasping for air.

My ears were ringing and I thought that they might be bleeding.  I looked up to see Spiral standing over me in a cloud of thick gray smoke.  Her face was smudged with soot like she'd been cleaning a chimney.  In her right hand smoked one of her two matchlock pistols.

A large bloody fur covered hole was rent in the side of the Barghast.  Incredibly the creature, while looking stunned and blinking, half blinded like I was from the smoke and flash was still standing.

It took a dizzy step up from the hold.

Spirals other arm raised.  

BLADOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!

I'd never seen one of the powder guns fired close up before.  A ten foot tongue of spark, smoke and sulpher hit the Barghast in the face and set me to squinting and coughing as I struggled to regain my feet.

The pistol ball, a lead ball the size of my thumb flattened out when it struck the Barghest in the skull and neatly peeled off most of the creatures face from the nose back to the ear.

I just managed to get out of the way of the beast as it fell with a heavy thud, fur smoldering at Spiral's feet.

"Zzzzzz...look out..there's more!"

Scout hurled one of his throwing blades into the darkness of the hold below and up came a bellowing wail.  

Out of the hold boiled two more of the beasts.  This just kept getting better and better.  Like banging on a hornets nest with a stick for fun.

Spiral dropped her two matchlocks.  I realized now that they were tied to her belt by lengths of fine chain so she would not easily loose them.  Her hand dropped to her sword and Candle finally began to finish his incantation.

The fight was on.


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## ledded (Oct 6, 2004)

Edward Kann@StoryART said:
			
		

> You might have noticed that my posts have slowed down over the last few days. I will be trying to post in the late evenings and will go back over the previous days posts to do editing when I can.
> 
> My beautiful wife Valerie is due to deliver our twin boys any day now. She is at home resting and as the soon to be Daddy I am very busy juggling taking care of her and working on the writing for our books.
> 
> ...



Another nice update there.

And I know how you feel, I have twin girls who are almost 4, along with a 6 year old boy.  I hope things go well with your wife, I'm sure she is probably just about fed up with the whole thing by now .  

Congrats, and luck to you both.

Now I hope you have already developed the talent of not sleeping for more than 40 minutes at the time, because if not you will get plenty of practice soon.


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## Eosin the Red (Oct 7, 2004)

As usual - fantastic stuff.

Is Frost your PC or another PC or an NPC.


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## Polynike (Oct 7, 2004)

nice update


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## threshel (Oct 8, 2004)

Great stuff, and congrats!

J


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Oct 9, 2004)

Thanks guys.  You are all great!  So encouraging.

Well Valerie is having some minor complications that will keep me at her side a good portion of each day.  I will need to shove all my writing for my books into the later evening hours for the next ten days.  Some time in that ten days the Dr's assure us that the twins will come.

Not sure how often I will be able to be on but I will try to post two or three updates in that time.

Thanks for the encouragement!

Ed


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## Angcuru (Oct 10, 2004)

Me likee update!  Me likee update!


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## Eosin the Red (Oct 11, 2004)

I will put a word in with the man bout your little critters. My wife had numberous - and a few of them serious complications but things worked out very well for us. Twins are never easy, so I hope this is just a minor speed bump for you two. Tell your wife that we are rooting for her.


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## Rackhir (Oct 15, 2004)

Spoiler



First Bump?


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## Angcuru (Oct 31, 2004)

Umm, can we expect some sort of update soon?  Even a teaser?  No pressure, you must be quite busy with the missus.  Plus, I have im prisoned this SH in my sig, there is no escape!


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## jerichothebard (Oct 31, 2004)

Valerie gave birth to the twins this last week - four weeks early.  I expect all of them are busy and exhausted at the moment!  You should hear from Ed soon, though I do also know that as a consequence of the early birth, release dates on Rocketship Empires 1936 and the Tale of Girl have been pushed back a bit.

More information is available at our web site.


jtb


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## Rackhir (Nov 1, 2004)

jerichothebard said:
			
		

> Valerie gave birth to the twins this last week - four weeks early.  I expect all of them are busy and exhausted at the moment!  You should hear from Ed soon, though I do also know that as a consequence of the early birth, release dates on Rocketship Empires 1936 and the Tale of Girl have been pushed back a bit.
> 
> More information is available at our web site.
> 
> ...




Well I'm glad to hear that the birth went okay. Unfortunately it probably also means we won't see an update for 6 months due to the babies _*Sleep Depravation *EX-Ability_ (Functions similarly to the Night Hag ability, preventing the 8hrs sleep necessary to regain spells and heal).


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## ledded (Nov 8, 2004)

Just a little bump hoping that all is going well with the new additions Ed.


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## Rackhir (Dec 30, 2004)

Holiday bump for a promising new-ish story hour. Give it a read if you haven't before. Currently on hiatus due to spawning. Hopefully, will restart in another 2-3 months once baby starts to actually sleep for more than 15 min at a time.

Any news on the prodgeny? Is it male/female/elf? Does it have five fingers and five toes on it's hands and feet as well as the 3-4 sucker tentacles normal for a Deep One? etc....


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## jerichothebard (Dec 30, 2004)

Rackhir said:
			
		

> Holiday bump for a promising new-ish story hour. Give it a read if you haven't before. Currently on hiatus due to spawning. Hopefully, will restart in another 2-3 months once baby starts to actually sleep for more than 15 min at a time.
> 
> Any news on the prodgeny? Is it male/female/elf? Does it have five fingers and five toes on it's hands and feet as well as the 3-4 sucker tentacles normal for a Deep One? etc....




Two males, neither yet exhibiting demi-human traits.  appropriate numbers of toes, fingers, tentacles...  Or so Ed tells me, I haven't yet seen them...

Also note that there is an update on the home page of our web site...

jtb


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## Son_of_Thunder (May 3, 2005)

bumping cause I want updates and hope everythings ok.


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## the Jester (May 3, 2005)

Wow, I just discovered this story hour and it's GREAT!!!  

Hope things are good with the children- take care, and I hope to see an update sometime after things settle down a lil!


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## Rackhir (May 4, 2005)

the Jester said:
			
		

> Wow, I just discovered this story hour and it's GREAT!!!
> 
> Hope things are good with the children- take care, and I hope to see an update sometime after things settle down a lil!




So how was it that you found the story hour?


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## Son_of_Thunder (May 6, 2005)

*Bump*

Bump until Ed says no.


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## the Jester (May 6, 2005)

Rackhir said:
			
		

> So how was it that you found the story hour?




Link in someone's sig. 

Also, I randomly cruise the forum for cool titles sometimes.


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## Son_of_Thunder (May 10, 2005)

*Bump*

Ed, are you out there?


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## Son_of_Thunder (Jun 14, 2005)

bump


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## Tamlyn (Jul 5, 2005)

I'll post a quick bump. I just stumbled across this and am very hungry for more.


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## Rackhir (Jul 5, 2005)

Well, they did finally get their Rocketship Empires Product out, just over two months ago. Perhaps we should go to their website listed above and nag them about an update. They should finally have had a chance to make their saves vs. the babies _*Sleep Depravation *EX-Ability _as well.


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## the Jester (Jul 6, 2005)

I too would like to see more of this one.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Aug 3, 2005)

*Back in the saddle...*

Hi guys,

Sorry to vanish off the face of the earth for so damn long.  Babys and everything.

Quick non-story update and then back to trying to get you some more story installments.

My two RPG book lines ROcketship Empires and Tale of Girl were floating around in "offer" from publishers land while I wrangled babys.  

In the mean time I went ahead and kept forging ahead with novels for the setting along with working on some comic book ideas / graphic novel ideas and scripts with some of my art friends.

We packaged everything up and took it down to San Diego's comic's convention this year...sat through a hell of a lot of portfolio reviews and pitches and finally got some serious attention.

So the long and the short of it is that I've been picked up =)  And you will see this story hour ultimately published in a more polished and finished fantasy novel format in the not so distant future.

Both game book lines, both comic book lines for Rocketship Empires and Tale of Girl, my novels etc...have been snapped up for publication. =)  Which is exciting.  Within the next twelve months they are cracking the whips on me to get screen play formats for both out there too as there seems to be some interest in pushing them into the hands of movie studios.

Anyway.  All very exciting and nice pay off for more than a year of more than full time blood sweat and tears into creating the game books and the comic book scripts, etc...

Look for updates to this story hour soon!

Ten thousand thank you's to the people who bumped this along.  I was frankly amazed to find it floating so close to the top after being gone so bloody long.

Ed


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## Rackhir (Aug 3, 2005)

Great! Glad to see you around again. Even better that you've been having great success. Just remember, especially if you will be dealing with Hollywood, don't believe it until the check has cleared. I have a friend who's been trying to make his way in Hollywood for over 10 years and if I had a dime for everytime he's said "We're THIS close to signing a deal." I'd be a wealthy man. 

Er, while this isn't exactly in our interest, but if this is going to be published as a novel, that might affect what you can post here. I'm not up on copyright law, but you probably should add some sort of basic copyright notice to your posts. Preferably along with some sort of humorous comment about why you are doing it.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Aug 3, 2005)

Good point.  However I won't be spinning the story in exactly this same fashion.  Close but far enough off  that i'm not really too concerned about plastering copyright all over everything.


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## Edward Kann@StoryART (Aug 3, 2005)

*Update 08/02/05*

...the fight was on...

The Barghest's gaze swept over me as they boiled upwards out of the darkness of the ship's hold.  In the baleful yellow glow of those eyes my determination began to wane.  A wave of despair struck me like a physical blow and I felt the flickering candle flame of hope waver, suffocated down to a barely smoldering glow within my breast.

My guard dropped a fraction of an inch as the pair of demons leapt into the air, maws filled with rows of slavering, razor sharp teeth gaping impossibly wide.

KRRRZZZZAKKKATHOOOOM!!!!

Candle's lightning bolt flashed from his hands, burning a zig zagging line of flame up the wooden deck of the ship and caught the Barghest on my left squarely in the flank.  The momentum of the hound's deadly leap at my throat was intercepted by the bolt and the Barghest abruptly changed course, flying end over end in a high arc through the air...

...and over the side of the ship...

At the same moment, Scout, with a furious insect buzz bowled into me squarely in the right side.  Throwing me bodily onto the deck and out of harms way but vanishing under a furious ball of snarling, howling, slavering teeth and claws.  

The pair slid over the bloody deck to impact against the wall of the cabins and aft castle behind us.  

Incredibly, Scout still struggled under the weight of the demon.  His insect body was bloody and seeping from a half dozen wounds but his tough carapace seemed to have saved him, at least momentarily, where I would have been finished by the jaws of the beast.

"ZZZzzzzz...Do..Zomething...Anyzing!"

Spiral, launched into action.  Dancing up next to the slavering, biting Barghest and driving the point of her rapier deep into its shoulder.  Incredibly the weapon bit into flesh instead of bouncing harmlessly off.  The Barghest snarled at her and dropped Scout with a loud howl when she grasped the hilt of her rapier and gave the triangle shaped blade a vicious twist.

I staggered to my feet, covered in blood from the deck and rushed the demon with a bellow,  hacking at the demon like a man possessed.  The Barghast, although wounded remained lightning quick and only one of my many blows glanced against it, the enchanted edge of the Legion Gladius tearing a steaming gash through its muzzle.

"Grahhhh...Fools...I will call others of the host to my aid...you can not win...cough...cough...cough...weeeze..."

My eyes flew open in surprise as the beast spat gutteral speach at me despite his wounds.  I had no idea that such creatures carried within them a wicked intelligence capable of speech as well as Sorcery...

The last threats and the spell the Barghest intended to unleash died on its last, gasping breathe.

There beneath the slumping form of the slain demon trembled Scout, both hands grasping one of his throwing blades, covered in his own blood and the black blood of the beast over him.  The demon bled from a half dozen wounds where Scout had stabbed upwards again, and again and again into the underbelly and chest of the creature.

Scout offered us a feeble smile.

"At leazt it zmellz better dan Frozzt..."

With a groan Scout passed mercifully into unconsciousness.  Spiral and I pulled the dead Barghast off of him and shoved it over the side of the ship.  

There did not appear to be more of them on board, at least no more rose out of the hold to attack us...


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## Rackhir (Aug 3, 2005)

Ah, at last one of my favorite story hours back. Twice as nice, since so few of my favorites have been updating.


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## ledded (Aug 3, 2005)

Welcome back Ed!

Great update, and even better news about all your hard work apparently coming to fruition.  Glad to see that it appears to possibly be paying off, you've got some real gold with that.


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## Rackhir (Dec 13, 2005)

If the Edward had been here in the past 3 months I'd ask for an update, but we seem to be in the dark ages of story hours and I seem to have killed off the last two story hours I took an interest in. Oh well... time to change the sig I guess.


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## Land Outcast (Feb 4, 2007)

This great SH deserves a bump even if it won't get any updates ever again, at least it ended in what could be the end of a chapter... *sigh*


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