D&D Day 13: Split the Party 1

The heroes chose their quests and mercenaries and split the party.

Searching for Orphans 
Thorry the Reckless and Vanielle chose talked to Soren the dwarven swordmage and drank   with him until they stopped. The elf assassin drank more than she should have. The tiefling tried to purchase cheaper, lower quality ale, but Soren was not fooled.

They returned to the Bahren forest and were greeted by mind controlled elves. Like zombies they attacked the party however they were able to dispel the magic by weakening and then talking to them.

A shifter ranger named Dawn helped the heroes after they freed her from the spell. Unlike with the elves it took longer for her to be brainwashed by the orphan taker. The tigress was unable to remember what monster did it.

After fighting elves, brainwashed eladrin attacked them. Again they worked together to weaken and free the ensorcelled fey from the corrupting magic.

Orcs of the Mountain
Torion and Hadarai recruited the bookworm eladrin sorceress, Elisia. Together the three of them climbed the Pass of Elgoz in order to fight the orcs that were raiding merchants and travelers that passed through.

They survived the first assault by the bloodspear clan, a powerful tribe of orcs and ogres that charged the party. After he was saved, Barsul, goliath shaman aided the party with healing.

Meet the Mercs: Dawn

Dawn is a razorclaw shifter seeker from the primal circle.  She was part of an adventuring company exploring the woods of Duskhome when her group was captured by a controlled elves and the powerful hag that dominated them.  The hag, unable to brainwash her party killed them.  Dawn, being primal in nature, was able to be taken over by the hag's magic, though it took considerably longer than the elves.

The young lycanthrope is not very good at diplomatic matters and tends to be serious.  She prefers a more direct approach in situations, and is first to take the blame for failure.  Her major goals include protecting and spreading nature, and she greatly dislikes the feel of civilization.

Meet the Mercs: Barsul

Barsul is a Goliath Shaman from the Sarinam Mountain Range.  He speaks with the spirits of the earth and works in protecting it from the destruction of others.  Not one for direct combat, he prefers to heal others and shield them.  He prefers the mountain landscapes rather than towns or lower environments.  Knowing that he cannot protect nature by himself he becomes a mercenary.

While on an assignment to defeat the orcs robbing merchants along the Pass of Elgoz, Barsul was abandoned by his ill-prepared and inexperienced adventurer group.  He continued with the quest without support unable to retreat when he learned the orc tribe was breaking the land.  He joined the heroes in order to protect the pass and rid the area of the orcs.

Horror: The Girl Through the Glass

A girl stands in the darkness of a room that resembles a normal bedroom. She is in her teens with blonde hair and blue eyes dressed in a simple blue gown soiled with sweat and dirt. Because the room is dark you can only barely see a bed, a desk and a dresser. There are no windows or doors into the room, but two large panes of glass that make up the walls.

Through the first wall opposite the bed you can see only darkness. However as you stare at the other glass pane you can see through to scientific equipment and a man dressed in a lab coat sitting in a chair observing the girl. Beside him is a nurse or assistant standing and waiting for anything the scientist or doctor might require.

The girl stands in front of the second pane of glass and looks directly at the scientist but to her it only reflects her own image. Suddenly a voice comes over the intercom. It is the doctor talking.

"Please tell me about yourself," he says.

Story 1: Chapter 2

Here is Chapter 2 of the current story I am writing. While it might be separated into more than one chapter and revised, the overall feel should be the same. Enjoy.

Chapter 2

The dragon was not made of gold. He simply enjoyed bathing in it. He would use his dragon breath to burn the treasures he had gathered and stored in his cave within the Firebreath Mountains and when the gold had melted he would roll in it until it covered his entire body. The wood and gems would often be burned or destroyed out right, but he did not care about things like that. Only the gold was important.

                He craned his sinuous neck and glanced at his body. Some of the golden skin was flaking off. When he would fly off in search of food pieces of the gold would fall, or when foolish heroes would try to slay him, they would slice off portions of his self-made armor. He would need to find replacement treasure in order to fill in the gaps.

                Should he fly around the farmstead of Calias and wait for a traveling band of heroes or merchants? Perhaps he should strike at one of the smaller towns—inns and bars often accommodated returning heroes rich with claimed treasure. The last option he considered was attacking a castle that belonged to a powerful lord or evil mage but he quickly put it out of his mind. It would surely be filled with traps, powerful beasts or knights. While he knew he would prevail against such paltry defenses, it seemed hardly worth his time and effort.

                Aurion, the powerful golden dragon of the Firebreath Mountains decided that he would fly over one of the outlying human towns and try to get lucky. As he glanced outside one of the natural windows of his cave he saw a fluttering of red fabric in the distance. It seemed to be moving closer towards the mountains and straight for him.

Intermission

Sorry for the delay in getting more posts out. I had some personal business to take care of, nothing serious but definitely time consuming.
This included jury duty, though I was not picked for the trial. It also included family visiting which while not completely a hindrance to my writing, definitely is a distraction. A good distraction though.

Now that there are less distractions in my life, I will continue to support this site and write more.

Please enjoy my thoughts.

Story 1: Interweave

This is a story that will be weaved within the current story. A little bit of this secondary story should be added to each chapter. However what follows includes a large portion of it. Please enjoy and feel free to tell me what you think.

Story 1
Interweave

Flames burst from his hands and swirled around him. It coiled and flew outward like a sinuous dragon’s neck, pierced through each of his enemies as swiftly as a fork stabbed into a cheesecake. It was beautiful and as long as he held onto the magic he could feel himself slowly fade away into the dark recesses of his mind. He succumbed to the allure of power, felt the tiny image of his soul begin to minimize until all he saw was the brilliant snake flames like serpents wading through grass burning the humans to blackened ash. The power of his magic overwhelmed him, flooded into his heart and embraced him in its warmth. 

“Nasaral, stop casting your magic. They’re all dead.” 

The flame mage heard the soft, creamy voice in his ears. It broke him free from his magic’s grasp, kept him away from its deadly allure for another moment. The voice had a different beauty than his magic, something gentle and sensuous and in no way dangerous. It belonged to the woman in front of him. It belonged to a woman that loved him as a younger brother. For an instant he wanted that emotion to be more, but stopped himself. Her heart belonged to someone else.

Nasaral looked at the woman in front of him. His cheeks became warm and he felt a faster tempo against his ribcage. The rogue picked up her daggers, placed them in the hidden folds of her clothes and folded her arms. Her soulful eyes pierced into his being, drawing out all the good feelings he thought about. A wind blew through her shock of black hair, and the woman combed through her mane with a gloved hand. She’d look more beautiful if she had longer hair, Nasaral thought.

“I heard you, Allieah. Sometimes it’s hard to stop.” The dragon flames winked out leaving ash and thin tendrils of smoke in the air.

“Don’t worry. We’ll make sure you remember. Maybe a knock on the brain will wake you up.” He felt a tap on his head and turned. Behind Nasaral was a very tall elf wearing bright white robes. His pointed ears stabbed through long blond hair and drew attention away from his blue irises. 

“That’s enough playing you three. If you have not forgotten we have an important mission we are trying to accomplish here.” Rohr was stern but he was right.

“What is wrong with a little levity, my love?” Allieah placed her hand on Rohr’s shoulder.

“These cultists are enemies ordained by the Council of Light. We were sent here to eliminate them before they enact their ritual. There is not time for playing.”

Story 1: Chapter 1 Revised

Here is an excerpt of Chapter 1 of the story I am currently working on. Please enjoy and remember that it is just a draft.

Story 1

Chapter1

            “The first step in any good recipe is gathering the ingredients.”

The door to the tavern flew open as Salla Frindane entered the Moon’s Coin. The building had a sign of a silver piece cut in the shape of a moon. Probably to suggest how cheap their drinks are, Salla thought. The female swordswoman quickly glared at all the tavern customers causing them to quickly turn away and resume their business.  Salla usually did make an entrance, but she never liked the attention.  I have to remain calm there is a prospective buyer for my services. Then again, maybe he will see the fire and spirit that I bring and consider me a better candidate. 

            Salla took out the note from her belt pouch and read it over again. It said to look for a man in red robes at the Moon’s Coin. The note also said that only female adventurers need apply. Well, if the man wanted to try anything suspicious, Salla would be ready with a dagger through his hand. Maybe he’s just one of those eccentric types, or maybe he thinks that women mercenaries were cheaper than men. But for four hundred gold pieces she would ignore these mild details and just keep up her guard.

            She saw the red robed man sitting at a table in the corner of the inn. He was eating a steak and some bread with cheese and talking to a young woman dressed in simple leathers. She’s probably my competition. The swordswoman hurried over and sat in the unoccupied seat.   

            “Look, you shouldn’t hire this girl. It looks like she can barely hold a sword. Now, I’ve been a skilled mercenary for five years now, trained since birth by my parents.” Salla blurted before she could think.

            The red robed man turned to her and stopped his conversation with the other woman. He had black hair and piercing green eyes that evaluated her in a few seconds. “How rude of you to interrupt my conversation,” he said, “but I like your initiative.  There’s more than one spot available for this adventure. Relax and I will get to you in a minute.”

            Salla blushed, but whether from her rash behavior or the man’s compliment she did not know. She waved to the bar keep for a local ale and a small serving of ham and bread. The journey to this small town had taken a long time and she had not had anything to eat since morning. A serving girl, a young blonde with pigtails, placed the food in front of her and took a few coppers. Quietly, she ate her meal and listened to the conversation.

            “So you’re a rogue from Calias. Do you have any special skills?”  The man asked. 

            The woman from Calias looked younger than Salla, her blond hair was shorter and her complexion was much darker. She paused for a second and thought about his question. She pulled out a dagger and threw it at the dartboard on the far side of the room. It stabbed into the bull’s-eye and startled the dart players there. 

            “Great, but I’ve met many rogues who could hit targets like that.” In an instant the young woman pulled more daggers from secret pockets in her sleeves, and threw two more of her long knives touching the first dagger. Salla was impressed by her speed and accuracy.

            “I can also pick most locks and can use a bow just as well,” the woman answered. 

            “Very well. You are hired, Miss Arana Shevian. You’ll be the rogue for my group. Here is 20 gold up front for any expenses that you will require.”

            “Make it 30 gold, and we have a deal.” Arana reached her hand out.

            The red robed man narrowed his eyes and sighed. “Women,” he muttered. “Okay, the deal is agreed upon,” he added a handful of coins into a brown pouch and handed it to Arana. “We start tomorrow around midafternoon. I’ve also rented a room at the Fancy Cloud Inn for you and this woman if she joins as well. ”

D&D Day 12: Run Away!

The party made its escape from Lord Bastar's castle. As they passed through the rooms, they encountered guards and Thorry the Reckless used his bluffing and diplomacy to confuse them and to make them fight the devils. Eventually they did their best to fight a few of the devils with the aid of the guards and mages of Lord Bastar's security forces.

A treasure appeared in front of the heroes and Thorry the Reckless chose the Songbow of Lullabies as his reward. The heroes left the keep with hordes of devils overrunning the castle.

The heroes traveled to Merchaise, a major trading port on the western side of the Sarinam mountain range where they spent a month recovering from the previous adventure. Vanielle traveled to the Mercenaries Guild and learned about the process of hiring mercenaries. Thorry the Reckless bartered with a shopkeeper. Torion visited the tavern where he drank against a strange dwarf in robes and passed out in the process. Hadarai visited the library where a little girl altered his current magical gift.

The heroes decided to split up and handle a few quests on the tavern's quest board. Torion and Hadarai hired the Sorceress Elisia to clear the Pass of Elgoz of bandit orcs. Vanielle and Thorry the Reckless hired the Swordmage Soren to find the missing orphans of Merchaise.