A Land Far Away

It all started with blood and a broken skull.

The bodies were piled upon the pyre. It took four hin to carry each ogre, dirty work but it had to be done. The pile of bodies itself was almost as high as the walls of Haven Hill.

The gates had fallen, explosive balls of fire knocking them off their hinges and incinerating them to ash. Half a dozen ogres lay dead outside the walls, several of them mages and four lay dead inside the warren, having scaled the walls. Soppi had asked Rat put up some barricades to slow down the advance of any more ogres, but he had ignored her, running around like a headless chicken and screaming that he had hit an ogre. His inaction was endangering the lives of the hundred and fifty hin inside the walls. "By the gods, Rat, get some gods damned barricades down here! NOW!". But still he ignored her. She was ashamed to call him a hin.

A smaller pyre of goblins burned a little way from the ogre pyre. Both pyres had been positioned away from the hill and down wind, so the foul smoke of burning bodies would not encase the warren.

Three more ogres and half a dozen goblins came in the next wave. A couple of the goblins had made it past them and into the warren, fortunately too busy chasing Rat to prove any threat to the folk, who all quickly rushed inside their burrows and barricaded their doors. Auren and Call - the elf she had just met, covered in full armour, but his size and words hinted that he was a drow - had stood guard in the ruined gateway, a two elf wall of blades, stopping the advance of the other monsters from entering as Soppi ran after the two goblins and put them down.

Soppi shook her head as she watched the pyre burn, confused by the unexpected aggression that had been played out earlier. She turned and walked back to the Temple Of The Folk.

Another wave had come, more ogres and goblins. A half dozen of each. Soppi had yelled her orders twice more at Rat before she gave up and passed the orders on to Call who carried them out immediately. Soon several hin rushed down during the lull in attacks and quickly erected a barricade to replace the gates. It was rough work, but it did not have to move, so it was sturdier than the gates had been. Soppi dimissed the workers with her thanks and sent them to their homes to lock themselves in.

And then a dozen more ogres appeared from the south. Soppi ran up the hill to get a better shot and began firing her arrows into the lumbering forms.

At the temple, Soppi got back to aiding Kelinda in administering to the injured and seeing to the dead. Both of their magic had been depleted in the work, so all that was left to them was bandaging the wounds and prayers over the dead. Those that lived would carry scars for the rest of their lives. Half a dozen hin guards dead or so severly injured it would take her most powerful healing to help them recover back to their full health. Too many for such a small community.

Soppi noticed the water elemental before she noticed the priestess. She could not reach the priestess with her spells, and Faenor had said she was invincible anyway, so Soppi had little choice but to ignore her and continue firing at the ogres. What had started as a dozen ogres grew by a steady trickle of reinforcements of ogres and goblins. How many were there now? Maybe twenty goblins and more than that many ogres. Thirty? Fifty? A hundred? Soppi could not count them all.

Their height advantage over the force was little protection against their throwing axes, and her healing magic was soon depleted on herself, her allies and the guards that had arrived to hold back the wave of monstrous humanoids. Fortunately the barricades had held, with Aurenthil behind them, keeping the ogres, goblins and their single troll ally from overrunning the warren. Fortunatly Soppi had only seen the water elemental once and didn't catch sight of it again. The priestess had bombarded them with flaming pillars, but was leaving most of the attacking to the ogres.

Soppi reached into her last quiver to fire yet another arrow into the horde, and she put her hand around nothing but air. All her arrows gone. All her magic gone. Her protections dispelled by an ogre mage. And still there was a moving sea of ogres outside the walls.

Too many.

For the second time ever, doubt in herself began to creep into her mind. Too many, too many, too many. You are out of healing, protections and arrows. You are half dead, bleeding from multiple wounds you can no longer tend to. Arim... AURENTHIL. HIS NAME IS AURENTIL. Aurenthil may be of some help, but the other two can't take a goblin between them. The hin would have been better off if they stayed in Shining Falls. By bringing them here, you have killed them all. You will not be able to stop them. They will kill you, they will kill your friends and they will kill your children. There is no hope. NO! Her anger rising to the surface, Don't they know who I am!? I AM MOTHER SOPPI WIDENBOTTLE! I have defeated an ascending god! I have laid waste to shrines and temples of Bane, Cyric, Malar, Talona and Urdlen! I destroyed a thousands year old vampire with a single spell! I have killed a dozen dragons! More like ten, and they were just hatchlings. I have killed almost a dozen dragons! I killed the ant queen! I defeated a tribe of giants! You ran away. I defeated half a tribe of giants! I have faced armies of goblins, bugbears and ogres! These ogres are nothing to me! I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED THIS DAY! You are going to die. And then her mind went calm. Maybe so, but if they want to get to my children, they will have to do so over my dead body.

Soppi put away her bow, drew Horn from its sheath, and her shield made from the carapiece of the ant queen from its straps on her back and walked calmly to stand behind the baracade. She saw Nemmer badly injured yet still valiantly fighting the ogres and looked upon him with so much pride that it brought silent tears to her eyes. Letting no emotion into her voice she ordered him to retreat to the temple and she stood there, awaiting her fate, hoping that she would at least be able to defeat two of the ogres before she was to meet Yondalla for the second time. Her head would be held high with pride.

Nemmer had earned her praise that day. He was a true hero and she was glad to have him there with her. Even now in the aftermath of the battle with his wounds wrapped up and his arm in a sling, he was helping them by going to the injured and the frightened and keeping their spirits high with his chatter. He would make a great sheriff once his father retired.

Horns blasted in the distance, Soppi was too tired to care what more the priestess - who had disappeared from the battlefield some time ago - had to send against them.

And then salvation.

Forces of dwarves and humans rushed from behind the ogres and layed into them, decimating their forces. Soppi stood her ground, not about to allow any creatures to enter the warren. But she wasn't needed.

They were saved.

This was not the end. There would be more to come, but for now the injured needed to be tended to and more graves would have to be dug to accompany the five headstones already standing behind the temple.

After the crow's call (9July06 15:30 PM Local)

A quick swipe of her left hand removed a layer of dirt from her forehead, the combine accumulation of many day's effort. Her other hand touchd gently the brow of a young hin warden, bruised from the fierce fight that was for the very life of Haven Hills. Soft rhythems and a quick pipings of tune and her warmth, healing power graced the hin.

Her thoughts, briefly vered hard when she say her friend and elder of the faith, Soppi, making her rounds, tending her flock. "Me no no her so... Holy".

She stood up on wobbly legs, sharp pains reminding her just why she retired from adventuring. The hin healer ignored the pain, looking for the next defender to render aid. "Who next want sing~song no-owie, yes?"

As Haven Hills slowly recovers, so do her heroes...

Man, i relly wish i could LOG on instead of being a off camera spectator it sounds the quite typical excitement is going on in my retirement town....

It was all over now, the warren was safe, although Soppi felt she had failed on some level.

Something the dwarven priestess, Bital, had said seemed a bit strange to Soppi. She had said the duergar Priestess was a worshipper of Ilsensine. Soppi had never heard of Ilsensine, but she had recognised the symbol of the priestess from her studies under Brother Merri long ago. She was sure the priestess was a disciple of Deep Duerra.


The evacuation preparations had been slowed after the burst of light and abandoned once Soppi returned from her investigation into the forest with the good news.

Soppi had read up on whatever she could find on Ilsensine and Deep Duerra. From what little she could discover, Ilsensine was a god of the flayers, not the greys, and that there was little love lost between the worshippers of the two gods as it was believed Deep Duerra stole the secret of the mind powers from the flayer brain god and gave it to her own. A plan began to form in Soppi's mind as she thought on what she had learned.

An alliance with flayers would be dangerous, but may have been the only thing that could defeat the Priestess, protected from both magic and physical harm as she was, perhaps the mind power of a flayer would have an effect. A conversation with some illithid living near Torhilds was brief and terse and yielded few results, but no blood was spilt. Soppi felt she needed to learn more and decided to risk the journey to Waterdeep and the undercity of shadows, Skullport.


The outcome had been unusual to say the least. Soppi was sure that Von'nes would be dead long before she reached the top of the stairs. The foes they had faced in the final chamber were powerful beyond any foe Soppi had ever seen before and she hoped more so than she would ever meet again. That she survived was surprising enough. That she survived in the manner she did... was almost beyond belief.

The trip to Waterdeep failed to bear fruit. After sneaking and fighting her way through the orcs' forces on the road, she reached the goblin infested city, but was unable to find her way down into Skullport and eventually she decided to cut her loses and return to the warren, back through the orcs.

On her arrival back in Westbridge, little over ten miles south of the warren, she came upon a grizzly sight. To the north and east of town, blockades had been overrun and the bodies of many creatures were strewn about. Ogres, orcs, giant carrion insects and duergar lay mingled with the bodies of the defenders. She saw Maeve and Laurenil around the camp fire in the centre of the village and they told her that the attack had come the night before and stopped with the dawn. Maeve asked her the fate of the warren, and Soppi started with surprise and said her goodbyes quickly before rushing north to check on her home.

At Haven Hill, Soppi was relieved to see they had not been attacked. She gave the guards orders to retreat inside the gates and lock them and to double the guard that night, then she went in to the temple and prayed to the Mother for her divine magics and her protection of the warren. Her prayers ended shortly before the darkness of early evening fell on the land and as she left to go aid the defense of Westbridge, she made sure the gate was barred behind her.


There was celebration that night and much beer and cider flowed from the taps in the Goblin's Demise, Haven Hill's inn. The folk glad that they had survived the attacks and that the conflict had passed them by this time. Again they remembered those that had been lost in the attack that had breached the gates of the hill.

She was attacked on the way to Westbridge after the sun had set. Minotaurs then goblins. And then again in Westbridge, more minotaurs and more goblins came from the north. For a time, it was only herself and Laurelin, pushing back the hordes, a sight that must have been ridiculous to watch. Finally two mounted defenders from the southern blockade trotted up the road to stand beside them in their defense.

...

A magical darkness fell, as if heralding what was about to come. The duergar came in small groups, flanked by goblins, laughing that the defenders stood no chance. As they were dispatching the duergar, one of the strangest creatures Soppi had seen attacked from the east. Like centaurs, except these things were a mix of drow and spiders.

...

Scant hours from dawn, Lauren fell from a blow to the head by a duerger and it was by Yondalla's luck only that Soppi was able to heal her wounds before she died. And then the attacks stopped. As the light of the sun arose over the horizon Soppi breathed a sigh of relief and told Lauren, curled up in a ball on the ground beside the campfire, that she would go rest in preparation for the attacks sure to come the following night. Lauren only replied with a whimper.

As she made her way to Ghaliver's Inn she was interrupted by the pounding of wardrums from the forest to the east and the yells of hordes of inhuman creatures. And she knew she would not be getting any sleep this day.


The threat had not been eliminated completely yet. The Priestess' forces largely survived, even if scattered, and they still held the Stone Keep. And there was still the concern with the lich and the book he now possessed, but that was a different problem and something to face another day.

The forces poured from the forest, Von'nes appearing out of nowhere to aid Soppi, Lauren and the defenders that all rushed to the Stone Trail. Gibberlings, goblins, some riding the giant wolves known as worgs, hobgoblins, harpies, duergar, the eight legged drow centaurs poured out in waves, hundreds of them came and were pushed back.

...

The stomping of feet resounded from the forest. And then outpoured the giants. Ettins and hill giants rushed the defenders and scattered them into small groups, fighting for their lives against the giants, defenders flying through the air as they were swatted by the monstrous clubs wielded by the invaders. But so too were the giants defeated.

...

And then things quieted down, the wardrums fell silent and no more creatures poured from the forest. Soppi was spent. She could give no more and so she went into the inn and fell asleep as soon as she hit the bed, still wearing her bloodied armour. Scant hours later she awoke with a start and began her prayers.

When she left the inn, the scene had not changed much. The dead lay all about, but it did not seem like more attacks had occured. Von'nes was talking to an injured elf who Soppi had not seen before. Night was close to falling again when Von'nes finished talking to the elf in their language due to a bolt from the duergar crossbow going through the neck of the elf. After the duergar escaped, Von'nes declared that she had been told the tree was under attack and that they must go to defend it. Soppi suggested they might be better off taking up a defensive position in Westbridge, but Von'nes was insistant and assaulted one of the soldiers in an effort to make him gather the defenders to take the fight into the forest.

The soldiers were to divert attention from the small group so they could reach the tree and so the soldiers went en mass into the forest. Soppi was ready to follow them, but was delayed by Von'nes threatening both Laurelin and Malcer, who had arrived some time while Soppi was asleep. The sounds of screaming men cried out from the forest. Soppi looked back to see those screams had not distracted Von'nes from her intimidation of the others and rushed into the forest alone to come across the defenders dispatching the last of the gibberlings that had attacked. Finally, after all the attackers were dead, Von'nes and the others caught up and they all went forward together to the point on the road where they would split company. Along the way they encountered trolls and more goblins riding worgs, along with some familiar dwarven faces, including the blue dwarf who Soppi had thought was dead. She tried to convince the badly injured dwarves to return to Father Merric in Westbridge for healing, but they would not listen to reason.

After a short time, the small group of Soppi, Von'nes, Laurelin and Malcer split from the larger force and headed north to the tree from the stone trail. They were soon met up with an elf Von'nes knew from the tree who lead them to a small force of duergar defending a stone. They dispatched the grey dwarves with some difficulty, but no losses. Von'nes translated for the elf that the Priestess was using several of these stones to bring down the tree. Her power flowed through the stones, increasing her power, but weakening her at the same time. Von'nes drew her sword to smash the stone and was about to bring her sword down when Soppi yelled at her to stop. Soppi could feel raw negatively energy flowing through the stone in amounts she had never experienced before. Any attempt to destroy the stone would cause an explosion that laid waste to a great area near the stone, killing anyone nearby.

And so they reluctantly let the stone stand and moved towards the tree, drinking potions of invisibility before encountering the main force laying siege to the giant tree and sneaking past them all and into the temporary and relative safey of the elven treehouse.

Inside, several more elves stood and told them about the priestess, about what she was doing and where she was. And how she must be stopped. Of the forces that could be spared there were only the four of them could be spared from the defense of the tree. Soppi would have felt safer in the company of Aurenthil and Bital, even Wolf. But this was the force she was stuck with, and there was no time to waste.

Together they went into the earth, and some time later two of them returned.


It was all over now, the warren was safe, although Soppi felt she had failed on some level.