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| SeeleyOne |
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www.seeleyone.com
Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 65
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20th of Suntide
Corvis paid our group 48 gold for our services. Not bad for a day's work. We spent the afternoon undergoing our first group training session. I think that Alex had suggested it. We practiced working together as what ugly Kern had referred to as a "cohesive group". I was not sure why we bothered, though. We had already learned to "hold the line" in some of our legendary battles. I complied, though, as maybe there is something that I did not realize before. The only one to not comply was Crespin, always eager to go off and do his own thing. He's always thinking about himself, both inside and outside of battle. Selfish Crespin. He is a glory seeker.
It is worth mentioning that Schmendrick does not like to be called Schmitch.
21st of Suntide
We left the city of Glimmering. Corvis had mentioned that we could work for him again in the future. I dunno... I don't think any of us liked our short stay in Glimmering. There are a lot of queer people here.
26th of Suntide
We arrived in a city called Knight's Bridge. We had stopped at several smaller places along the way, but I stopped paying much attention to them. To be honest, I didn't really pay attention much to this Knight's Bridge, either, noting only the name.
We went to an inn, and the others started talking to people in the common area. I didn't really care and I took my food with me up to my room while I ensure that my weapons are are all in perfect order.
When I opened up my pack, I found some strange pants that had no back, so that the wearer would have their ass showing if they were worn. I have no idea where that came from. Maybe Crespin wants me to wear them. He had been looking at me a lot lately, with some silly expression on his face. I think that he should have stayed in Glimmering with the others that are like him. Bum-looker Crespin.
Just after I had put them back into my pack, wondering what to do with them, Mort came to the door. There was some guy named Pete that was in Schmendrick's room, and he apparently wanted to speak to me. I didn't recall knowing a Pete, but he said that it was worth checking out.
I was introduced to some white-haired freak that had big, bulgy eyes to which I wondered to myself how easy they would be to shoot with arrows. I think that some of my companions saw my mind calculating on that as they smiled to themselves. At first he seemed to be surprised when he had seen me. I was not what he had imagined he was looking for, whether that was a compliment or an insult I wasn't sure. I decided to let it slide regardless. Mort assured him that I was Kess Archer.
After he was satisfied with my identity, Pete told me that he had a message for me, but he could not remember who it was from, not even the gender. The message was that I "need to go to that tomb and it is there". I tried to get more details, and all that I got was that it was Alisha's Tomb in the nearby mountains, and she was some famous archer in the past. Thinking back upon the past... nope, the only archer woman that I can think of was the Imperial archer, Korina.
It was decided that we would go to a nearby town called Bruton in search of some young boy. Apparently we were in a hurry to get there, as those that didn't have horses got them. Crespin kept his pathetic lizard, Spooner. I suggested that we go to this tomb afterwards.
Pete put some fire on our mounts and they ran a lot faster than they normally could. We got to Bruton, which would normally take the bulk of the day, in less than an hour. Mort dubbed him Flaming Pete. I admit that I found it to be impressive to travel at such a fast rate. The fire enveloped the animals, but didn't burn anything.
Bruton was very small, being home to about 400 people. It turned out that the boy was also named Pete. Pete Grimm. According to his mother, he had been missing for a couple of days, and was located in a nearby castle.
We set out to the castle. It was on top of a hill that had a path carved into the rock. It would be easy for them to defend against the ground, as there was only a limited manner in which troops could arrive.
A gigantic rock elemental stood in front of a closed portcullis. Mort told it that he wanted to speak with the master about Pete Grimm. It closed its eyes for a short time. It then reopened them and said that its master was not available. I muttered to my companions many crude things that the master was probably doing right now.
After standing there for probably 10 to 15 minutes, its eyes glowed. A blue light then surrounded the gigantic elemental, now known as the Rock. The path was not very wide. Mort, Crespin, and Vance stood in the front ranks. I stood behind Crespin. Schmendrick and Alex were at my sides.
After the battle had began, I slipped past Vance swinging my mace at it, but it dodged. I was surprised that such a large creature could dodge so well. The Rock tried to smash me with both of its hands, but I acrobatically dodged back to the "line". Something about that seemed very funny to Mort, who almost dropped his axe because he was laughing so hard.
As people would hit the Rock, blue lightning arced from it to the attacker. It only went after metal, so I didn't really care. I wear wyvern armor, not the metal that Mort insists on wearing for sentimental reasons.
Crespin charged up to it, and instead of using his swords, he punched the Rock with his gloves. Is he crazy in addition to being stupid? I sure hoped that those gloves of his were enchanted so that he wouldn't hurt his hands in the process.
Rocks began to fall from the sky. Vance and I sought shelter with Mort under Mort's massive shield. The three of us would continue to fight until the Rock was destroyed. I got in several good hits with my mace, one of them particularly nasty. I admit that it had caused me to grin wickedly.
Crespin had been thrown over the cliffside. He would rejoin us after the battle. He had broken an arm from the fall, but was otherwise not hurt.
Griswold, flying above the battle, yelled that some scary guy was coming our way. So, it seems that the master was making time to see us after all. Good choice. I hoped that he wasn't too upset that we were beating up his door guard.
After the Rock was battered into many pieces, the rocks stopped falling from the sky. Mort held the portcullis open for us and we prepared to enter the castle.
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| SeeleyOne |
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www.seeleyone.com
Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 65
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26th of Suntide (Continued)
We entered the courtyard to find that the occupants were hiding from us. Schmendrick opened a locked door with his magic, and revealed an unpopulated barracks. The doorway glowed red, so we decided not to find out why and moved on.
Another door led to a stable with two horses. They appeared to be a some plow horses, nothing worthy of our looting attention.
Schmendrick decided to make his own door by magically creating a hole in the side of the castle. It opened into a dining room, again unoccupied. We explored some more, and Schmendrick made some more holes. We went down to the level below, attempting to go towards where the boy was, but we ran into some magical barriers. We went back to the dining room.
Crespin and Vance located some stairs leading down to the next floor. All of us, except for Schmendrick and Darby went down them. Mort, Crespin, and Vance went ahead, while I went down with Alex and Griswold. The reason that we went into two groups is that the others went down when the stairs were first discovered.
The spiral stairs had a strange mist that shrouded them, but we went down anyway. I bet that I would have been afraid to do so long ago, but I wasn't afraid as I walked into the mist that seemed to try to disorient those that go into it. Not only did it do that, but visibility was limited to some 5 or 6 feet.
Alex went back to tell Schmendrick and Darby about the mist. Griswold was greeted by an arrow in the side. He replied by tossing the Concussion Blast that he had been holding on to since we met the Rock. An arrow bounced off of my armor harmlessly, and I responded with an arrow to where I believe that the attacker had fired from. It hit something that sounded harder than flesh. Most likely is that the damn bugger dodged it and the arrow stuck into the wall.
Griswold and I went into a doorway that Mort had bashed down -- he had yelled to us while we were coming down the stairs. Inside was a corridoor, filled with the same mist like the stairs and the room around it. Two enemies were on the ground, undoubtedly having met Mort's axe. Looking at the carnage I reminded myself that I am glad that I count him a friend. I'd fight at his side anytime.
I moved into the hallway and had my back to the wall in case the archers came to attack us from the doorway. My bow was on my back, and I held my sword in my left hand as opposed to the usual right. I had positioned myself well, as an arrow bounced on the wall across from me. I ran towards the door and slashed at an archer, who dodged and ran away into the mist.
I moved back to my door-sentry spot, ready to kill anyone that attempts to come that way again. I just about slashed into Alex as he ran in the doorway and dropped to the ground, attempting to sweep my legs out from under me by swinging his spear around, yelling out that he is here. Why he did that I had no idea, but he is very very lucky that I recognized him before I slashed. Why would he risk his footing like that? And why would he attempt to knock me off of mine? All that he succeeded in is looking like an ass. I think that he figured I would have my bow at the ready. Why I would bother to use a bow in this mist, and that he didn't come to that same conclusion, is a mystery.
Alex then got up, and attempted to jury rig the door closed again, bracing it shut with a javelin. After we waited for a small time, we heard Mort yell for us from down the corridoor. It was killing time...
I ran up to see that Mort had bashed open another door. I ran in, still in the mist, and hugged the wall to the right, seeking enemies. I encountered two archers and a spell caster. One of the archers dropped her bow and slashed at my face with her sword with a most pathetic level of skill. The spellcaster tossed a fireball at me, which I most skillfully dodged. Alex speared the was-archer for a minor wound as I stepped forwards and slashed at the spellcaster. She used Griswold's Blinking spell to get out of the way.
The was-archer slashed at me with her sword again, which again was met by a skillful dodge. At this point I could feel and hear another one of Griswold's massive Concussion Blasts. Alex poked the was-archer a bit with his spear and I slashed her in half. That took care of that opponent.
Another fireball went towards my face. I dodged it, saving my handsome face. I replied by tossing a knife at the spellcaster. She Blinked again, and I saw the knife veer around a person behind her, as it went around instead of striking home.
Alex and I formed a defensive line in front of Griswold, who remained in the right corner of the room. It so happened that there was a doorway behind Griswold and Alex, as an arrow hit Griswold in the back but bounced off of his armor. He still had the arrow in him from earlier, however.
The mist disappeared. My rock stopped glowing. The battle scene was illuminated by torches on their sconces on the walls. Suddenly there was an explosion in the distance, and everything went pitch black.
I set out in stealth-mode with my back to the wall and sought out some opponents to kill. Unfortunately I didn't locate any, but I did find my knife. Mort and Vance had lit some torches and provided us some much-needed light and we regrouped. Vance had taken some serious injuries in the battle, and looking at them they seemed to be claw marks.
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| SeeleyOne |
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www.seeleyone.com
Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 65
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27th of Suntide (Continued)
We wandered around the keep, using the torchlight held by Mort and Vance. We looted a library, of which Vance seemed to be the most interested. There was some rumbling and it sounded like some monster was running loose inside.
We came across some people, but we didn't kill them. We were still looking for that kid. We left the keep and located the group that had fled the keep. A horseman rode off, carrying what seemed to be the kid. Most of us took pursuit, I leading the charge with Brigand. Schmendrick had cast a spell on him, making him run faster. As soon as I got within my bow's range I shot the would-be escaping horse in the leg. I watched as my shaft went through it, causing the leg to flicker a bit, and doing no apparent harm. A damn illusion. I circled back and had the others do the same.
We arrived to find that Crespin had not joined in our pursuit. There were three soldiers that had been captured by Crespin. A fourth was being eaten by Spooner, his lizard. After interrogating them, and some clever tracking on the part of Vance, we were able to track the leader to a cave in the forest.
Inside the cave was an illusion of a man. We talked to him, and he gave us the boy after Mort promised to not return. It seemed that Mort wanted to kill him, but seemed honor bound to not do it. I would have done it for him if he so much as asked. Maybe I will later on anyway. I am tired of letting enemies live.
We traveled back, passing the castle (or is it a keep? whatever). Rather, we passed where it had once been, as it had become a massive hole in the ground. Whatever was in there had probably left.
Mort and Schmendrick a girl version of Willy that is magenta and named Willow. She seems a lot more competent than Willy, though, at least in attitude. Willy can be a real dick sometimes.
28th of Suntide
We rode off towards Knight's Bridge. It would take us longer than it had this time, as Flaming Pete was not around to make our horses run faster. We arrived in the afternoon and paid a toll to get to the other side of the Knight's Bridge.
The other side was a lot nicer of a place. People were talking about a dragon flying around, eating livestock and raiding farmers. It sounded like that was what had left the castle, not that any of us were volunteering that information. Our glances to one another confirmed that we had all come to the same conclusion.
29th of Suntide
We continued our way towards Pangoria. As we traveled we saw a lot of farms had been burnt, presumably by the dragon.
2nd of High Autumn
We arrived in the town of Montgomery. At an inn we ran into a friend of Vance's, named Timothy. He told us that there is a sort of tournament being held in Pangoria. It will start in a few days and last a week. He will travel with us to Pangoria.
3rd of High Autumn
Mort introduced us to a new member of our mercenary group, a 10-year old girl named Sarah. He must have a thing for her. Too young for me, and besides I am going to rescue Shadrii. Mort can have her.
A sad Crespin came into town. He didn't stay with us in the inn. Instead he slept with Spooner outside of the town. A dragon had eaten Spooner, and Crespin was not happy about it.
5th of High Autumn
We arrived in Pangoria. Sarah had taught me to pick pockets on the way. She is rather talented, and I wonder what other skills she can teach me. Skills that Angel was not willing to teach me as of yet. Ever since Schmendrick had assumed that I knew how to pick locks and handle traps, I had thought about learning them.
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| SeeleyOne |
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www.seeleyone.com
Joined: 6/29/2007
Posts: 65
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5th of High Autumn
We arrived to find that Pangoria was surrounded by many tents, most of which appeared to have been set up for a couple of weeks. Imperial soldiers patrolled the area in order to maintain the peace. Some of them eyed our well-armed group somewhat warily.
We got a couple of private rooms to share in an inn. Afterwards we broke off on our various errands. I wanted to find Shadrii, but I had no idea where to start. I decided to go with Mort and Sarah to visit his beloved Sentinels. We met with their leader, named Errol.
It turns out that there are three Sentinels in Pangoria (or four, if you count Mort). They are Errol, being an older man, his grandson, and some woman that I had yet to meet. The grandson was taking part in the tournaments.
I fell asleep while Mort yammered on and on with Errol. After a while I had managed to wake up, at which point I interrupted their probably-boring dialogue with some questions of my own for Errol. I talked with him about Shadrii being here, and about slavery in the area. He said that most slaves would have been sold to the Suul, and he was not sure how she would be able to be a slave here in Pangoria, as slavery is illegal.
We went back and met up with the others. Mort joined the tournament as a Sentinel, Crespin joined as Crespin Fisher of Tristen, and I joined as Kess Archer of Griswold's Irregulars. I paid 10 gold to join the archery tournament. Schmendrick paid 10 gold for me to join the swordsmanship tournament, with the stipulation that we would split the winnings equally.
At about 4:00 in the afternoon, a bell rang from the cathedral of Danica. It rang for two minutes, during which time most people stopped what they were doing, and then prayed facing towards the cathedral. Weird.
Mort and Schmendrick went off to go to Schmendrick's secret laboratory. About an hour later, Willy came to me, Vance, and Crespin in order for us to escort the boy, Pete, to Schmendrick's location.
Willy took us into the sewers. So, this is where Schmendrick's lab is? What a shit-hole! I had figured that his place might need some cleaning up, but this was a lot more than I had supposed. Willy took us to a dead-end, somehow Pete was able to walk into the wall. Vance, Crespin, and I were not able to do so. After deciding that we were no longer needed here, we left the smelly sewers and returned to the inn.
6th of High Autumn
I entered the swordsmanship contest, using my acrobatics to please the gathering crowds. Unfortunately I mis-timed a most graceful dodge and got cleaved from the air. In short, I got defeated by a better swordsman.
The archery tournament was very easy for me. I didn't even have to try very hard, knowing that I am probably the best archer here. I am probably the only one that claims Archer as a surname.
Considering my archery prowess, and my defeat in swordsmanship, my role in the Irregulars as the archer, and not primary front-line combatant, has been confirmed. I will resume my role as archer support and Mage-Duty.
Mort and Crespin did well in their swordsmanship contests. That is what I would have hoped, as they are the front-line combatants of our company. I was sure to congratulate them on their skill and impressive displays of martial prowess.
7th of High Autumn
I continued to please the crowds and awe my opponents by showing how a true master of archery uses a bow. After the archery tournaments were over for the day, only 10 of us remained.
Mort and Crespin continued to please with their individual combat styles. Mort with his shield and axe. Crespin with his dual-swords. While I had thought that I might have more finesse than Crespin with a blade, he is better skilled than I am.
8th of High Autumn
The archery tournament continued to get progressively more difficult. Still, I knew that I was better than the others, and it showed. At one point I had to laugh out loud when an opponent actually missed the target. Most of the contests are measured on both accuracy and timing. Her miss caused me to win easily. I am now one of four.
9th of High Autumn
I have not yet taken part in today's archery contest, but I saw something very sad for Griswold's Irregulars transpire today. Mort was matched against Crespin. I thought that Mort would surely win. I was so very wrong. Crespin kicked his ass most severely, not even getting a scratch in the process. I was right, Crespin is a better swordsman than I. Mort took it very hard. I believe that he was wounded in a way that will never heal, that somehow Crespin had killed their friendship in the arena.
Still, what did Mort expect? For Crespin to just let him win? From Crespin's view, I bet that he fought the only way that he knew that he could possibly defeat Mort. I think that I would have done the same, using speed and accuracy to defeat Mort's strength and resilience.
I wonder what effect this will have on the future of Griswold's Irregulars. Our two main front-line warriors are now at odds with one-another.
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