Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Varrus the Ethical
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Adam wrote:
RocEter wrote: a man whom is mostly responsible for defeating an army of goblins at the Battle of the Bell.
Cormac, drawing more arrows, looks dubiously over his shoulder at the bard. "Aye, sure, he did it all by his lonesome..." he mutters as he lines up another shot towards the maggots.

"Let's go and deal with this crone. I've a feelin' if she dies, this all stops."
Roald holds his sword at the ready.

"Agreed. Let's be done with this witch."
"Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it."

George R.R. Martin.
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Safana steps back to Filbert, and touches his hand lightly. She then focuses for a moment, gaxing at the hill again with faintly glowing eyes.

"I will try to direct you, but if you aim for the middle of the hilltop i suspect we will not be far out!"
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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THE HOUR OF DOOM


FILBERT clasps hands with the circle of volunteers. A pool of shadow spreads from the halfling's feet, growing and stretching upward. In a moment, it engulfs them and they vanish into thin air.

GUNNAR, seeing all the others have failed to stop the faltering militia from pulling back, mounts his black warhorse , tides along the wavering line of spears while roaring like a madman. And then he turns to charge Elf Hill!

His men run after him.

Erin Hunter mounts her horse and rides to join the attack.
Seeing the Count's daughter racing into danger without them, and steeled by Gunnar's example, the militiamen march forward, firing arrows and throwing rocks at the nearest of the maggots.

Gunnar thunders into the vile swarm massed at the base of the hill. His axemen, lumberjacks of Ghonallison, hew the monsters with great double handed blows.
But the demonic larvae seem unafraid of anything (save Safana's sorcerers flames, and she has disappeared into Shadow). The horrid worms bite Gunnar's horse on its belly, wrap around the arms and legs of men, all the while gnawing and babbling insane blasphemies.


Dom's men shove a wagon into the maggot mass and set it aflame.

Boarhort joins the fray, pulping the creatures with his hammer.

But they keep coming...

ATOP ELF HILL

(Filbert and his companions have raced through a dark mirror of the landscape, hardly slowing to look about, and clambered up into a black cloud across the Shadow twin of Elf Hill.)

When the darkness lessens enough to see, they stand in the edge of the great stone circle. Two robed figures stand nearby, chanting with lifted arms.
Renn and Filbert shake off the disorientation if the transit through Shadow, and creep forward with daggers drawn.

But THE CRONE and her companion, a deathly pale elfmaid, jump clear just in time to avoid the blades.
The others stagger into combat.

Dead men emerge from among the stones.

In the semi darkness, with shrieks rising from rifts in the earth, the heroes cannot coordinate tactics. It's as much as they can hope for to tell friend from foe.
The elf woman lifts her right hand and black flames engulf it." Die, mortals." She attacks Roald, shaking off blows of the others as if her skin were made of solid stone. Swords bounce off her. She shoves Roald against an upright stone." I will take your heart."
More dead men climb up from a hole in the hill and attack the heroes.

SAFANA sends fire arrows leaping from her fingers, missiles that zig zag around Cormac to strike the Crone in the chest.

"NO! My wedding day! Damn you, Pirates!"
The old woman seizes a brass bowl from a niche in the menhir nearest her. She tosses the liquid contents into the middle of the melee.
Cormac notices what the others have missed. A chalk circle in the space atop the hill, within the ring of standing stones. It's trampled now, partly effaced.
As the red spray from the Crone's bowl splatters into the broken circle, the rumblings from below increase.
Most of the combatants stumble and fall.
The Crone keeps her feet.
So does Roald, standing across the hilltop circle from her.

The old witch smiles.
"The Duke's wedding guest comes."

The hill splits open.
Standing stones topple.
Filbert slides into the widening crack in the ground, but Cormac seizes him and pulls him up.

TERMELAN sees it first.
Goat horns. But bigger than any natural ram's ornaments, and mounted on a bloated, rotting head that combines human and bestial features. The stinking, hairy beast rises from the pit under Elf Hill. It laughs, shaking its rolls of rancid blubber, cracking its whiplike tail, and leaps up.
When the ogre-sized demon lands on massive hooves, the impact throws down the remaining standing stones.

"Sacrifices!"
The Crone waves her arms at her enemies.

The creature turns and breathes a green cloud over them all. Everyone (of the Tuor party) but Roald falls violently ill.
The elf woman who had attacked Roald gags, reeling away down the hillside. The dead men attacking the heroes seem unaffected. They claw at Cormac, Filbert, and the rest, dragging them towards the central pit. Choking on vomit, weeping, the Halfling and his human allies try to break free, to pull away before they are thrown down into whatever abyss lies under the Hill.


The great demon smiles at Roald, revealing black, ulcerated gums studded with yellow teeth.
"ROALD. YOU HAVE SENT SOME PRETTY MORSELS TO MY TABLE. "
It reaches for the warrior. But even as it stretches out a huge hand, its substance flickers like a candle in a draught.
"ANOTHER TIME."

It whips its tail around the Crone.
She screams.
"Wait, please!"

"LOVELY." The demon grabs her, lifts the hag in his arms, presses her to its flabby chest.
"AHHHHHHHH..." It lowers its head to kiss the shrieking witch. Something stirs in the hairy tangle between the goat-ogre's legs.

And then clouds of stinking black smoke obscure everything atop the Elf Hill.

...



BATTLE'S END

Thunder rolls over the battleground.
Rain falls.

Filbert and his friends slide down the muddy ruin of Elf Hill.


The militia gives a great shout and charges into the roiling swarm of maggots with spears and cudgels.
Gunnar and his men hack at the monsters, and kick them into ditches and crevices. Dom's men roll push a small cart full of torches and firewood atop a heap of the monsters and then set it ablaze.

Most of the living larval things sink into the ground, moaning like drowning men.

The thunder peals again.
A ball of lightning as big as a house falls from the clouds and lands atop the low heap of earth and fallen stones that was Elf Hill.

Bolts arc out from the lighting sphere, melting stones like wax and scorching the slain maggots into ash.
One arc hits the burning cart, sending the flames there higher as even the wheels burn.


The rain keeps falling.
Last edited by ewancummins on Tue Mar 15, 2016 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Termelan is still coming down from the latest adrelaline rush, the third or fourth in the short time since they stepped out of the Archmage's tower to drop in the middle of infernal muggots, defend the line, rush up in the hill through Filbert's world of shadows, drop in the middle of a fiendish summon, fight an infernal witch and a horde of undead and by the time the situation was hopeless... see her own pride destroy her and carry the day, only to have a huge bolt of magic, leaping out of his stories to claim everything.

He suddenly feels the rain falling on his face. He sees the mud around his boots and armor. He realizes that against all reason and probabilities he survived the ordeal. He looks around. Safana is also alive.

Termelan falls in the mad with the rain falling on his face and laughs like a madman.
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Domenica watches, fearing for her life and those of the others. When the goat thing emerges from the ground she stares, until that green gas makes her and everyone

else lose their lunch. When it disappears with the Crone, she can't help herself "What the hell was that ..... that ,,,, thing??? And it took the Crone, goddammit!"

She pause "Well upon further thought, I don't think trying to take her from that thing is advisable," and laughs uncontrollably for the better part of a minute, eyes wet.

Turning to her men. "Well done, boys. That sure helped slow down the maggots. Let's make our way to Lady Erin Hunter. I am unsure, but I feel we will be returning to

the Inn." She walks in the direction of the hill and Lady Erin's last known location.
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Termelan, muddied and wet stands up, seeks the other bard and whispers something to her
VIEW CONTENT:
"Madame, let's give these men some entertainment. I picked up a song, a jolly one, that is very common in festivities and holidays around here. The men would know it and join in the fun.
I'm not sure how my voice will hold up after the whole thing, so if you agree to lend your voice to the endeavor..."
And Termelan starts singing, loudly, amidst the rain, a nice merry tune that believes is common in these parts, inviting others to join.
Last edited by alhoon on Tue Mar 15, 2016 5:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Elf Hill

Roald tries to sweep away the smoke with his arm, trying very, very hard not to think about the... thing the Crone summoned. The monster that spoke his name and reached out...

He shook his head, dispelling the line of thought.

"This is not how I expected this day to go."

Through the smoke, Roald tries to find his companions.
"Most men would rather deny a hard truth than face it."

George R.R. Martin.
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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No one joins Termelan's merry song. The Elvish bard regards him with a wistful expression, and shakes her head.

Maybe later, her look seems to say, when the beer flows freely and the horrors are not so fresh for his audience...

The exhausted, mud spattered men trudge across the field and drag their injured friends toward the healers.

The Bard of the Sielwode walks away from TERMELAN, going over the field alone. She lifts her high, clear voice in an Elvish dirge.
Though the Elevesnemiere men have suffered only light loses and though perhaps none speaks Elvish, several of them begin sobbing.
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Praying and thanking all halfling and human deities he knows Filbert stands up. He looks around what once was Elf Hill and checks if his companions are so lucky as him to survive. Then gets close to Cormac:

"You saved me up there, thank you."

Even if he doesn't know if this is a good idea since the place is way tainted he tries to look into shadow not to cross just to see if it looks at least a bit better now that the Crone and whatever this demon is are gone. But before doing so asks Safana:

"Lady Safana, do you know what has happened here?"
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

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Termelan doesn't mind at all that many seem to prefer the elven sorrowful song. While he keeps singing, happy to be alive, in the back of his mind he makes a mental note of how nice the elf sings and whether it is more appropriate to be somber after a battle, even victorious. He remembered a saying "Nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won" but in his place, victory against an infernal mage at such small life lost is cause for celebration.


Shaking these thoughts, he would try find Safana and dance with her in the rain.
Last edited by alhoon on Tue Mar 15, 2016 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Birthright 3 Chapter 6

Post by ewancummins »

LIGHTNING FALLS AGAIN, AND YET AGAIN, BLASTING ELF HILL INTO DEEPER RUIN.


END OF CHAPTER
Delight is to him- a far, far upward, and inward delight- who against the proud gods and commodores of this earth, ever stands forth his own inexorable self.

-from Moby Dick (Hermann Melville)
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