Chapter 1: First battle
It was raining, as it had been doing so for quite some time. The proud warrior did not remember how long ago it was since he last spent so much time being cold from the wet drops falling from the sky. By his totem, the winter cat, he longed for the dry, biting cold of the northern lands.
Cahn looked left over his shoulder where the warrior Akii, claiming to be yet undefeated in battle, was looking over his weapon and shield for the coming battle. Cahn sneered slightly, as he thought of the prancing attitude and greed Akii had shown when he first talked to the pair from the north. In Cahns eyes, the warrior had little honor, even though the Lord of Battles had shown him his favor when Hrafn had challenged him to a duel over his ability. “I wont back down on my word” he thought and went back to watch down the hill, where a group of bandits had gathered. They had no honor. Thus they would fall this day. Cahn felt the spirit of the Snow Tiger fill him. Soon it would be unleashed…
From their right two familiar shapes appeared from the underbrush. It was Hrafn and Eveathan, who had been off checking the terrain around the small camp. They appeared to be arguing softly as they approached.
”We should merely charge in and slay the dogs where they stand!” growled the young Hrafn. His totemic tattoos of the Black Lion made him look sinister in shadowless dreary landscape the rain made of the otherwise grand vista.
Eveathan, the battle priest, who claimed he reveres to the red lady, the daughter and bride to be of the Foehammer, shook his head in the same way you instruct a young child. “To do so would be foolish. We could easily gain the upper hand if we split in two, advancing in a half circle from here, and there,” he pointed down the hill to the right, where they came from. Cahn shut them out and listened to the crouching tiger in his head, letting its spirit fill his limbs with warmth.
”We should do as Eve says,” Akii continued. “The easiest way to victory is the way with as little loss as possible.” Eveathan nodded somberly but Hrafn looked to Cahn with doubt and budding anger building in his dark eyes. Cahn nodded once and said silently, “It is better to fight an enemy with the upper hand and live to tell about it rather than acting rashly. If you are too wounded to celebrate your victory, did you really win?”
Properly chastened, Hrafn fell silent, his cheeks turning red with shame and anger. “So be it, then!” he snarled and turned on his heel, almost knocking Eveathan over as he started down the hill, gripping his great-axe tightly.
”Poor Hrafn” Cahn thought, “To discover ones heritage after ones tribe turned away from it so long ago. Now he has to learn it all when he is too old and weakened by the Black Lions tribes new ways.” Cahn spat on the ground and wiped the water from his eyebrows. He checked that his topknot was properly tight so it wouldn’t get in the way in the coming battle and nudged Akii. “It is time”, he murmured.
Akii nodded and pulled out his horn and let out a mighty hoot. The bandits looked up and scrambled for their weapons in disarray as Akii drew his sword and charged down the hill alongside Cahn, though he was soon outrun by the barbarian, who moved swiftly, belying his hulking stature.
The bandits grinned as the warriors approached. “Only two, we take them easy,” they thought. The bandit’s leader started to cast a spell as the pair approached, but his castings abruptly ended as a throwing axe impacted his shoulder with a sickening thud. As the wizard turned around, befuddled and shocked, a bolt pierced his chest, blood spluttered down his arm which hung limply at his side as he stared at piece of wood jutting out from his chest in horror and confusion.
Cahn winced again as he saw the throwing axe. He must teach Hrafn to stop using such cowardly weapons. The honor of the fight was in seeing the enemies spirit slip from his eyes. Not by throwing weapons at them, cowardly from a distance.
He then joined Hrafn and Akii in a mighty bellow of anger and defiance to glory as they crashed into the bandits in an explosion of blood and violence. His sword cleaved one bandits head clean off, but he lost his balance slightly and couldn’t force his mighty and now bloodied blade to continue thru his next foe who saw an opening and stabbed his short sword into his side. The pain was nothing, but he felt blood well out from the wound, and he saw the satisfied grin on his enemies face, as yet another bandit joined in where his former foe was felled.
To his side, Akii was showing expert swordsmanship as he fenced with a bandit, sword and shield style. He was soon to be outnumbered as rugged, dirty men moved around to flank him. For the time being, however, he held his own.
On the other side, Hrafn finished off the Wizard with his great-axe. In a mighty bellow of strength he jumped over the bleeding limp figure and engaged the next foe. Suddenly he noted Cahn take two more hits from the jabbing bandits and go down in a heap! “Cahn!” He bellowed and ran to engage the fallen mighty warrior’s assailants.
As he brought his axe to bear on the surprised bandits, he saw Eveathan circle around the battle, clasping his holy symbol and chanting loudly in the name of the Red Knight, aiming to reach Cahn.
Hrafn was then overcome by his rage, and remembered nothing more, but awoke slowly, as the red hue slowly seeped away from his field of vision. He saw his hands, in front of him, bloodied and clenching his great-axe fiercely. His eyes widened as he perceived his stylized tattoos on his hands in the form of a great cats clawed paw, move and clench slightly, as if stretching after a long sleep.
He looked in wonder, breathing heavily with exhaustion, over to Cahn who was silently going through the dead bandits bloodied and mutilated bodies. Cahn looked back, and there was reckoning in his eyes, as he saw what Hrafn had experienced. Cahn went back to his messy job, smiling. “There is hope even for one of the fallen tribe”, he thought, “The spirit of the totem may yet live again in this young mans limbs.”
Akii talked loudly and proudly of the party’s performance as Eveathan bandaged a deep cut in his arm. The only wound he carried from the battle.
Cahn nodded silently and looked up as the rain clouds did their best to wash away the blood spilt in the glorious battle. He pulled in some fresh air, and closed his eyes. Perhaps there was glory to be found so far south of his tribe’s lands as well. Perhaps...
Chapter 2: The roofdweller in woman clothes
Eviathan was in sour mood. He was not sure about their current direction. The barbaric Cahn and Hrafn claimed to be able to find their way in the wildest of lands, but Eviathan was not so sure of their bold claim. Many times he felt as if he walked past the same hill twice, even though from a different angle. When he brought this point up the two only glared menacingly and told in so many words to keep his mind on his own business.
Akii was not much support either, besides talking in big words over their prowess; Akii often used plural, but Eviathan suspected that he only really meant himself and the others skill as an extension of his own. Fair enough, he was a mighty warrior. He carried his heavy amour and thick shield with ease, and his arm was swift with the long blade he carried. Together with the lightly armored totemic warriors with their huge weapons, they made a terrible impact on any foe they had met.
But Eviathan knew, that without him, they would most probably only be half as capable as they were already. The three warriors were surely brave and strong enough, but they had no understanding of the more philosophical points of war, strategy and planning.
In the beginning the others had scoffed when he started discussing different tactics and angles of approach, but as they had realized that their effectiveness, their mocking tone had changed to more of a respectful teasing. In fact, their efficiency had made stories fly over the land; stories of two chanting savages filled with rage, led in charges by a red-armoured man with mighty war-horn.
As the stories flew about the land, the bandits had reduced their activities and were now hard to find. Thus they traveled south to find more prospective ‘jobs’. Akii had heard talk in a tavern whilst they were drowning their sorrows at lack of battle, that the land of Cormyr had huge problems with green skins, orcs and goblins and paid good gold for their heads. So now they were making their way south to the City of Arabel. Eviathan was excited about seeing the mighty and legendary city.
The sun was setting as he and Akii strode along the narrow path in the light underbrush, the sun painting the late summer forest in magnificent colors. He jumped suddenly as Hrafn stood in their path. He would never get used to the short-tempered barbarians facial tattoos. They made him look inhuman in way that he felt eerily thankful that he was on the friendly side of the huge axe he seldom carried anywhere but in his hands.
“Come”, he said and turned around. “You will be pleased to know that you will feast on venison this night.” He concluded smugly.
“Finally a meal worthy of a warrior!” Akii stated loudly and smacked his lips. Eviathan nodded and thought of the dry rations in his pack as his mouth started to water as the prospect of fresh meat came apparent. Eagerly he strode forward with renewed vigor.
As they entered the clearing, they saw Cahn hulking figure leaning over the carcass of a deer, his immense sword lying just next to his deftly working hands. He was carefully skinning the body with a curved bone-hilted knife, humming softly in an off key tribal hymn.
As they set up camp, the sweet smell of cooking venison made all their stomachs grumble. Eviathan felt his mode lift as he sunk his teeth in the young deer’s hindflesh and started to eat. Hrafn and Cahn tore in on the meal savagely, breaking bones and sucking marrow, smacking their lips. To everyone’s surprise, Cahn pulled up a bottle of Ale from his thinning backpack.
Suddenly they heard twigs break as someone, something was making its way through the underbrush. It was now almost completely dark, and the fading fire painted the small clearing red. The four feasting warriors around fire quickly dropped their meal and ales, and in a massive noise of clanking metal, jumped up and drew their weapons, instantly ready for the coming battle!
They jumped a bit when they noticed that the stalker emerging from the underbrush into the clearing was in fact a man. A lost merchant most probably, considering his fine clothing and loose skin.
Cahn and Hrafn spread out left and right on Eviathans silent command and Akii took a step forward, narrowing his eyes. “Who are you? Speak quickly and truthfully or I will sewer your head from your flabby neck this instant!” Akii growled in his most charming way.
The finely dressed man gulped nervously as he saw the three hulking figures with drawn weapons and Eviathan in the background swiftly cocking his crossbow and placing a bolt upon the track before securing the latch and training on the frightened man.
The fat man licked his lips nervously, seemingly arguing with himself if he should scramble back into the underbrush, but after but a few seconds he seemed to nod to himself and smiled winningly as he started talking. “I come alone with no ill intention, mighty warriors, seeking refuge this dark night. Surely you can spare a spot at your fire, and perhaps a little food for a few coins, hmm?”
Hrafn and Cahn scowled as the stared at the man suspiciously, but Akii who was taking the man’s more vital parts in, his purse, smiled and welcomed him to the fire. Well there the man started telling his tale of why he was out in the middle of the forest all alone. The finely dressed man introduced himself as Banyen, a trader of very fine goods. For some reason untold, his guard had abandoned him with the excuse that the contract only took them ‘this far’ from the original position and that they were ‘out of their territory’.
Harfn and Cahn started grumbling about dishonor and punishment. But Banyen just shook his head and argued that he needed to reach his destination, Suzail as soon as possible and he would pay well for protection on his way there. Cahn and Hrafn were not so sure about the proposal however. Could a fat man dressed in women’s clothing (silk) really be up to anything honorific? Eviathan and Akii argoued back that they wold never earn a name for themselves if they put down everyone without directly honorific intents. “Besides we need the gold as well!” Akii argued forcefully.
“Fine!” Harfn snarled. “But after he is finished with his food he sleeps over there and not among us! I don’t trust him. Why should his guard have left him if he was anything but a dishonorable man?” Eviathan shook his head but didn’t argue with Hrafn. They had won the dispute already.
Chapter 3: What? Did you burn the loot?
They made started out early the next day. Aki and Cahn to the front, Eviathan walked with the merchant and Hrafn took the rearguard, constantly eyeing Banyen suspiciously as well as the cliffs on either side, as they entered a hilly landscape.
They didn’t have to walk far, only an hour or two, before they were stopped by a lone man on the road. He was scarred and unshaven, with toothy grin and black eyes. “Ey there, fellas. Have yer seen a fat flabby merchant around ere? We ave business with im ye see!”
Cahn glared at the filthy man suspiciously as Akii silently took a flanking position, crossing his arms, staring at the man with a dangerous gleam in his eye.
“Ah, you have the man I seek in your group!” The filthy man started smugly.
“You cannot have him.” Cahn retorted growling.
“Surely we can come to an understanding. He is worth a bit to the people I work for you see. I may be willing to share it with you, see?”
Cahn face turned dark as he answered back in angry words. Meanwhile, Harfn scanned the hills wondering why they had stopped to talk to the obvious crook. What was that? Something moving up on the hill… A toothy scowl under small dark eyes in a furry face… A hobgoblin! And there, another one! Both wielding cowardly crossbows! He quickly turned to Eviathan and told him quietly what he had seen. Eviathan directed Hrafn towards the Hobgoblin in the rear, signaling that he would try to handle the one on the hill on his own.
“You cannot have him. I pledged him protection and will never go back on my word!” Cahn told the highway-men’s leader. Akii took this as the signal and yelled out his anger at the filthy man as he drew his sword.
Suddenly they all exploded into action. Cahn drew his sword and struck at the leader in a powerful arc! The filthy man yelped, barely dodging the furious savage’s attack, jumping almost right into Akii’s mercy, who quickly starts cutting flesh away from the surprised would be assassin.
In the rear, Hrafn let out a mighty bellow and charged the crossbow-wielding hobgoblin furiously. Eviathan aims his crossbow at the hobgoblin up the hill and lets loose the bolt. The bolt flies slightly high and alerts the hobgoblin that he is spotted. The hobgoblin quickly stands up, aims and lets his bolt fly as well, aiming for Banyen who yelps pitifully when the bolt sinks deep into his soft flesh.
Hrafns target seems so surprised at the quick charge that he stands motionless in as the huge axe falls on him as he sits crouching beside a small tree. Blood splashes as the hobgoblin cries out in pain, his voice sounding inhuman, squeaking like a spitted pig.
As Hrafn pulls the axe out of the carcass of the vile creature, he notices a second figure emerging from behind the cliff just next to the tree where the hobgoblin was hiding. He tries desperately to pull out his axe in time to get his axe ready to meet the leering mans charge, but alas, the axe is buried too deep in the body, and the bandit easily skewers the struggling barbarian. He falls to the ground slowly, unwilling to realize that his body is failing him.
Laughing, the bandit now moves in on Eviathan, who lets his crossbow fall to the ground, readying his mace and shield. Soon they are engaged in a match for their lives, but with the hobgoblin on the hill with his crossbow, and bandit with his sword, he is deftly outflanked, loosing ground all the time. Suddenly an arrow hits him solidly in his arm. A burning sensation seeps through the wound, and saps his strength, slowing him. “Poison” he thinks, cursing his arms as he struggles to keep moving quick enough not to be taken by the leering bandit.
Suddenly, Eviathan hears the dying-scream of the bandit’s leader. “Just a few more seconds…” he thinks as he fights the bandit stoicly, “a few more seconds and Akii and Cahn will aid me!” But the bandit fighting Eviathan, had his eyes set on the flabby man, hiding in a didge at the edge side of the road and at hearing the dying screams of his leader, knew he hadn’t much time left, found an opening in Eviathans struggling fighting style, and struck him down, hard and mercilessly.
As Eviathan fell to the ground, his vision fading, he saw Akii come charging, screaming furiously, looking terrible as a demon of blood, bleeding severely from many wounds. In his mad charge he cuts the bandit down before he can finish of Banyen, severing his head from his body in a mighty swing. He then quickly kneels down beside the fallen priest, searching for a potion in his belt and pours it down his throat.
In the meantime, Cahn quickly charges up the hill, where the last remaining hobgoblin does his best to transform the pudgy tradesmen into a pincushion. The hobgoblin deftly dodges Canhns initial charge, and manages to let loose a last bolt. He then starts to flee for his life, but Cahn quickly stabs out with his sword, skewering the unarmored crossbowman on his long blade. As the dying creature slides down his blade, gurgling softly with blood pouring out of hos fanged mouth, Cahn quickly pulls it out and cleaves the skull of the beast in a mighty overhead cleave.
The battle is won.
But Banyen is dead, with many poisoned arrows sticking out of his obese body. And Hrafn is quickly enriching the soil with the last of his lifeblood. Thankfully, Eviathan still have the favor of the Red Knight, his matron nad lady and lays his healing hands on Harfn, praying for his lady, to aid this brave warrior.
The others look on with satisfaction as Hrafns deep stab wound closes, and he slowly opens his eyes. He quickly look around, then awerts his eyes in shame. “I failed you,” he says slowly. “Nonsense!” Cahn blurts out. “You felled your enemy but were overpowered by sheer numbers. You are not at fault.” Hrafn seems to gather himself at Cahns supporting words, but seems a bit insecure of himself as he glares at his axe, still stuck in the body of the hobgoblin.
After they gathered the bodies from the battle and put them on a bonfire, the group sets out south yet again. Akii seems to be counting things in a leather bag. “What did you find?” He asks as he puts down a cupper necklace in the bag smiling with shining eyes.
Cahn and Harfn who had been gathering bodies shrugs, and states that they would not use anything left by from such filthy and dishonorable men. Akii’s eyes widens as he can’t understand how such ignorance for wealth can exist in the warriors.
Arguing they make their way south.
Chapter 4: The Elf and the Lion
Hrafn leaned wearily on one of the crumbling columns. He could see the guards with the flaming swords march by the entrance to the cursed temple in ruins. He spat on the ground and turned to the broken figure lying on the ground.
"This is as far as I go, fallen one", Hrafn murmurs as he leans over, yet again checking the
Gruesome wounds in the chest and neck of the rude and unfriendly elf, caused by the very axe he now carried on his back. "No matter what the others say, I will go no nearer the house of Tyr." He spat the name out with disdain. He knew it was to no use since there was no one there to hear him, but it felt good none the less.
The elf called Leaf didnt reply. Hrafn didnt like him. He had been rude and had questioned Hrafns bravery, sending the strong barbarian into fits of anger on more than one occasion. Yet again, here he did lie, dead in the attack on the Hobgoblins that hadnt really turned out the way the group had predicted.
Hrafn shook his idea out of his head and turned to leave. "I will tell the others where I left you, so they can take you to their abbot, elf. We shall see if the blind good can find some mercy for your sorry existence in his rotten heart!"
Even though Hrafn had carried the body many miles, the others had had problems keeping up, and got left behind as Hrafn had strode purposefully to the position close to the hills south of the smelly gathering of houses the roof dwellers called Arabel.
"He had died in battle" Hrafn thought. "I am sure his witch fey gods will be happy to see him. He really did have a way with..." Hrafn stopped, suddenly remembering Leaf's disdain for his own culture. Hrafn never really listened to the Elf, aloof and leery as he was, but he had the strong feeling that the gods of his race wouldnt be so welcoming at all.
Hrafn turns around slowly and looks again on the pitiful corpse lying on the ground. The barbarian felt a tug he felt many times, before battle, or when his honor was questioned. His heart knew what he must do. Silently he drew his knife, and stepped back to the corpse and leaned down over him.
"As you died gloriously in battle, I will guide you to a place where such deeds are hallowed and honored." Hrafn started singing silently on a hymn, the lost priest had taught him as he was taught the secrets of his ancestry. He let the knife circle over the elf's face, trying to find the pattern. The spirit of his totem. He didnt find it. It wasnt there.
He let the dagger move down over the elfs small frame, over the heart, and shoulders. Still nothing. Then, over Leaf's right hand, the hand that released his arrows, his hand that dealt death to his enemies, he felt the tug in his heart again.
Hrafn didnt hesitate. He picked up the hand with his left hand and started carving in the now lifeless flesh. Singing louder, he continued, making the pattern clearer, deeper.
Afterwards, it didn't take that long after all, Hrafn felt drained. More so than after lugging the corpse all the way from the cursed ghost town.
"Let the Lion guide you Elf" Hrafn murmurs as he sheaths his knife, gathers his things and leaves. The elf lying under the sky, in the fading light of the setting sun, his eyes open, stares with an empty gaze on the clouds with his right hand lying over his heart, cut with a stylized great lions paw cicatrizationed on the back of the hand.
Chapter 5: A spy in the town
Arim, the Elf glared at Hrafns broad back as they strode from the gates of Daggerford town. The flamboyant had yet again landed the Elf in trouble he didn’t want nor needed. However, Dorn, the Captain of the Wayfarers had brought the young barbarian with the tribal tattoos on and he was thusly stuck with him.
“Thylor cestal.” Arim mutters as the three continues out in the rain of the fateful night. There are fires burning in the distance. Probably more farms burning at the torches of the orchish horde that had swept down from the mountains.
Dorn talked comfortably to the young warrior. He seemed more civilized than the Black Lion he had walked with since two tendays. “Not so strange after all” he thought. “Dorn had not left his tribe in protest to seek the ways of old as Hrafn has. Hrafn is more likely to go against ‘soft southerner’ ethics just to prove a point rather than accept the culture around him.”
As he had today when they spotted that half-orc in the city. Arim remembered just how swiftly Hrafn had made that huge axe of his appear in his hands. There had off course been some trouble with the Guards afterwards as Hrafn had seen the half-breed as a spy of the enemy and proposed on killing the creature right then and there. The guards of daggerford had thought differently on the matter and gathered all involved in the city Jail.
The guards had after a warning of not causing any more trouble, let the barbarians and the elf go, but had kept the half-orc for questioning. Maybe Hrafn’s violent manner had saved the town an ambush from giving the Orcs valuable intelligence; perhaps he had robbed them of a pair of able hands in the towns defense. Now they would never know.
The party continued in silence to the coming battle…
Totem cats and lust for gold
Totem cats and lust for gold
Last edited by Joos on Mon Apr 18, 2005 12:22 pm, edited 4 times in total.
... anyway keep those stories coming its fun to read..