Really? So you guys want Logaine to be eaten? T-T And I worked so hard on making him. Thanks guys. XD But Jade I cannot wait to read the next part of the story. Amazing.
yeah well we figured that your characters hair was too red for us so we chose to let the malebranche eat you.
P.S. You can thank Jade for it, she came up with the idea!
Drow retreats to the shadows with series of back flips and rolls without rolling acrobacy and disappears.
Jade frustratingly slammed shut the spyglass a little bit louder than she would have preferred, sheepishly dropped to the forest floor without so much as a rustle from the leaves on the ground and started walking away from the camp.
[I can't believe that fool of an elf tried to take on eight shades, one of which has the rest of them quaking in their shadowy wisps and four war-devils, solo...] she thought as each of her steps carried her a bit further away from the living nightmare she had just observed. [A "powerful force" indeed, there's no way I can take them all on and hope to possibly live... two... with my eyes closed, three... with one hand tied behind my back, four... for sure with no problems, five... eh may be, six... okay may be not, but there are eight, eight with at least two spell casters and not to mention the little matter of 4 infernal devils!]
Jade sighed a huge sigh, rolled her gold-flecked green eyes, dropped to her knees and whipped off her cloak. [Are you crazy? What are you doing?] the voices in her head started to attack her as she laid the cloak down on the forest floor and unbuckled the large black leather pouch she had on her belt just to the left of the small of her back. She waved a delicate hand over the golden sigil of House Korianthil on the flap of the pouch and whispered, "pahntar." With the command to "open," the sigil began to glow and Jade reached impossibly deep into the confines of her magical bag of holding to retrieve her "work clothes." [You can't possibly win!] She retrieved piece after piece of jet black chimera leather armor: boots, vambraces, greaves... [What do you really owe this crazy elf and his human lover?] She finished up with the taking of a leather headpiece out of the bag that was also a half mask in the front to protect her identity as well as her head. [These devils EAT elves!] Jade stared into the empty eye sockets of the leather helm and silenced all of the voices in her head with a simple whispered, "I gave my word..."
Soon a full set of enchanted chimera leather armor replaced the light travelling clothes that had previously adorned the lithe form of the elven rogue. An identical enchanted glassteel shortsword soon joined Forya on the cloak freshly retrieved from the magical bag of holding. "Evening Hyarya, " Jade whispered reverently as she unsheathed the second blade and admired the fine diamond like edge of the blade. As she admired the fine elven craftsmanship of the guard, grip and pommel, an inkling of a plan started forming in Jade's mind and a little smile came to her lips.
"Time to start this insanity, " she declared as she strapped both blades across her back and Rakka on to her right boot. Jade did not bother to retrieve much else of her "trade tools" from her magic bag as she normally would for a job that required a much more subtle touch. No, she was preparing for war and, after stashing all of her discarded clothes back into the bag, Jade pulled dagger after throwing knife out and stashed them all over her body. Each deadly blade was in easy reach for use when the need arose.
The last step in her preparation was the taking out of a small brown leather pouch. Jade untied the leather pouch strings and dumped the contents into her right hand. An ornate silver and moonstone ring fell into her palm and the moonlight. The ring seemed to faintly glow as if gaining strength from the radiance of its distant larger cousin.
[You were right, Captain Ebonheart, ] Jade thought as she slipped off the transparent crystal band from the ring finger on her right hand and replaced it with the moonstone ring. The magical band shrank down to fit her delicate digit. [I am going to need your gift sooner rather than later after all...] She looked herself over one last time to make sure she was ready for war and was pleased with her state of readiness.
[How does one hide in shadows from living shadows?] Jade thought wryly as she started back towards the camp moving as swiftly and silently as a hunting owl in flight.
[...]
She knew the only reason she was on "sentry duty" was purely for the dark pleasure that Mordekai took in torturing both her body and her mind. Although her body was severely fatigued from the near constant combat the shade contingent had been engaged in for over two weeks, Moriera found the task at hand to be a very welcomed respite for her weary tormented mind. She purposefully adjusted the hood of her Netherese robe as she reached the northeast corner of the perimeter of the camp and tried hard to just look straight ahead... and not listen... and not breathe...
[How long has it been?] she asked trying to distract herself as she finished the first quarter of the perimeter around the camp. [Over thirty long years, ] Moriera answered herself, [since I became a shade...]
[...]
Before the Spellplague, Moriera (who went by a very different name back then) had everything she had ever wanted. She was a proud member of one of the most powerful sun elf noble houses on Evermeet, married to a wonderful warwizard of a husband and mother to two of the most beautiful twin-born elven sons ever. She was also one of the finest archers and scouts on Evermeet which ultimately drew the attention of the royal court.
It seemed like a simple enough mission she was tasked with. Bring honor to the noble house by taking a royal missive to the green elf colony in the Forest of Tethyr to establish a trade relationship between them and the moon elf stronghold of Evereska and return immediately to Evermeet. The Spellplague, however changed all that and Moriera ended up returning to a familiar island yet devoid of everything and anything she remembered and loved save the lush green forests and sparkling brooks. Every elven structure and inhabitant of the island had simply vanished without a trace, leaving her feeling utterly empty and alone.
A dejected Moriera eventually made it back to the mainland where she wandered Faerun aimlessly for over sixty years doing odd jobs and hiring out her unmatched archery skills to survive. She did reach Evereska, the moon elf stronghold, at one point but her stay lasted less than a few days. Deep inside of her, she harbored a dull and throbbing hatred of the moon elven royal court that had ordered her away from her family on their "simple" mission. Moriera blamed them for the loss of her most precious family and she grew to hate all moon elves greatly beyond the simple prejudices that most sun elves held against their moon elf cousins.
Her travels ultimately led her to the great desert of Anauroch, where she served as a caravan guard. On route to the Dalelands, her caravan was decimated by forces from the Netherese and she would have been sold into slavery had it not been for the efforts of an arrogant and powerful shade magelord by the name of Mordekai. He was quite impressed with her archery skills and offered her a position under him to serve the Netherese lords. He offered her the chance to belong to something "special" and to become part of his "family." It was a sickeningly sweet offer that Moriera had ached for for such a long time and accepted immediately.
She work up several days later to the sound of someone screaming and slowly realized, to her horror, it was her that was screaming in her tiny room in the Shade Enclave in Netheril. The process in becoming a shade had been incredibly painful. Even more excruciating than the physical pain was the mental and spiritual anquish Moriera suffered. She had willing given up a piece of her elven soul in order to infuse herself with a shard of shadow essence. However, as she watched the bronze skin of her hands turn into the dark ashen grey pallor of a shade, Moriera felt incredibly cold as all of her elven soul seemed to drain out her. To this day she refused to look in any mirror as she was deathly afraid of who would be looking back at her.
There was only one thing that brought Moriera the smallest iota of comfort in the thirty years of her existence as a shade. This thing was the only reminder of her fled elven soul, was the only tie to her all but forgotten elven heritage. This talisman of her's she held every day and night in the palms of her two little grey hands, her brightly polished cherry wood shortbow.
[...]
Moriera had just completed her first lap of the camp's perimeter when she saw the sparkling of something in the moonlight off in the distance towards the southwest of the camp. Not wanting to end her greatly coveted solitude from the rest of the contingent on a possible false alarm, she nocked an arrow on her shortbow and shadow stepped from tree shadow to tree shadow towards the direction of the sparkle. Moriera soon found herself in a particularly thick grove of birch trees with their naked branches extending like giant white forks stabbing the heavens. A thick carpet of discarded leaves blanketed the forest floor with a particularly large pile of leaves at the base of each tree. Moriera silently maneuvered around the trees and after a while found herself in the middle of the grove of birch trees. What she saw in the center of the grove took her breath away...
There in the center of the grove stood the tallest, whitest birch tree Moriera had ever seen before. However, the focus of the elven shade's gaze was the hilt and partially exposed blade of the finest sword she had ever laid her eyes upon. The sword was embedded in the great birch tree approximately four feet off of the ground and judging by the length of the blade, which protruded from the back side of the tree, it was the most exquisite of shortswords. As Moriera drew closer she concluded the sword was definitely of elven make. [Incredibly fine glassteel blade and simply beautiful golden filigree of intertwined ivy on the cross-guard, grip and pommel. The source of the sparkle in the moonlight, ] she reverently observed as she drew even closer to the embedded blade.
Moriera felt a stirring deep within her as she circled the tree and looked at the fine shortsword from all angles. [It must be a divine gift from the Seldarine... A reminder that they haven't abandoned me as I did them...] she thought dreamily.
"I must have you..." she quietly declared to the sword and looked down at the fine shortbow in her left hand. [Oh what a joy it will be to be able to own two fabulous elven treasures!] she thought gleefully as she returned the jet black arrow in her right hand back into the quiver on her back, grasped the cold, smooth hilt of the sword and pulled for all her worth. However the sword refused to budge as it was too deeply embedded into the tree. It was as if the great tree was testing her resolve, daring her to try and earn the prize.
"You will not deny me my prize!" Moriera declared to the tree through gritted teeth as she dropped her shortbow to the ground, grabbed the gilded hilt with both hands, planted one of her booted feet on the trunk of the tree, and pulled as if her life depended on it. So engrossed was she in her obsession with the sword that Moriera completely failed to notice that the pile of leaves behind her had started to quietly shift.
SCREECH!
The shortsword finally pulled free from the trunk of the great white birch tree with a bone chilling scrape that sent shivers down her spine or were those shivers of elation? Moriera fell back a good three feet before she regained her balance and slowly raised her open palms up to her eye level and with them rose the beautiful shortsword. Time seemed to stand still as she poured over every detail of the fabulous sword. Moriera saw a translucent reflection of a pair of elven eyes in the blade and, by the time she realized they were gold-flecked green like those of a moon elf and neither the gold-fleck amber of a sun elf nor the dull ashen gray of an elven shade, she felt the keen bite of a dagger being inserted into her back.
Strong arms grasped and lowered her on to her knees as the venom on the dagger surged throughout Moriera's body. She felt the assassin's hot breath upon her right ear as she was pulled closer to the assailant behind her. The world was already beginning to fade as the poison continued to do its work.
"I should gut your helpless body right here and right now simply because of the abomination you have become" the assassin angrily hissed into Moriera's ear, "but then I won't be any better than your cursed Netherese masters. The wound is not mortal and neither is the poison, but know this..." Moriera felt a quick stab of pain on her right hand and looked down. The would-be "assassin" had touched the tip of a wand on to the back of her right hand and left behind a glowing green rune. She did not recognize the rune and watched as it slowly faded away. "You have have been marked, shade. If you attempt to seek me out for revenge, I will know and all your shadow powers will be useless against me. Seek me out and I will happily and mercilessly send you screaming to whatever pit of despair you shades call an afterlife..."
That was the last thing she hear before the "assassin" laid her down upon the leaf covered ground. The last thing Moriera horrifyingly saw was the "assassin" walking three feet away from her and picking up something brightly polished and tinged dark red as a numbing darkness claimed her...
[...]
"Nice bow, " Jade stated simply as she brushed the dirt off of the shortbow and tested the pull of the string. She walked back to the unconscious form of the elven shade, picked up Hyarya off of the ground, lovingly dusted her shortsword off, sheathed it on her back and removed the quiver of arrows from the shade's back. "And a girl is going to need this as well..." Jade added as she began to unbutton the shade's black and threadbare Netherese robe.
Jade promptly donned the Netherese robe, pulled the hood up over her head, held her disgust in check and strapped the quiver of arrows across her body. She scooped up the shortbow off of the ground, hastily headed in a northwesterly direction and abandoned all attempts at subtly and stealth as she noisily crashed through the underbrush.
"Time to invite some more guests to our party" she said with a wicked grin...
(to be continued...)
[ooc/ I know I promised only one more chapter, but it was growing a bit long... One more chapter after this... may be... :-) /ooc]
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
1
iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited October 2012
Awesome!
I'd love to read in-story how she embedded that sword into the tree that way!
Really? So you guys want Logaine to be eaten? T-T And I worked so hard on making him. Thanks guys. XD But Jade I cannot wait to read the next part of the story. Amazing.
yeah well we figured that your characters hair was too red for us so we chose to let the malebranche eat you.
P.S. You can thank Jade for it, she came up with the idea!
Drow retreats to the shadows with series of back flips and rolls without rolling acrobacy and disappears.
Yummy yummy roasted Logaine DOES taste like chicken! b:sin
Chapter 6 coming soon and possibly 7 as well, from the looks of it.
Hope you guys are enjoying the ride!
JS
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
Dogretch finished tying up the red-haired elf's legs to the gigantic spit with a piece of flame-resistant infernal rope, nodded to his minor malebranche brother and grabbed one end of the tree trunk as the other minor malebranche grabbed the other end.
{Ready? One... two... THREE!} Dogretch called out in Supernal as as they hoisted their "elf kabob" on to the support logs which flanked their huge pile of firewood. Logaine groaned in unconscious protest as they dropped him and the log into place. Gravity took hold of Logaine and he smoothly swung downwards towards the pile of firewood where he hung face-down lashed to the tree trunk spit with infernal ropes at his feet, mid-section and shoulders. The three minor malebranche backed up a step or two to admire their handiwork. They unconsciously flapped their wings, jumped randomly about and rubbed their clawed, scaly hands in hungry anticipation as the greater malebranche approached the huge wood pile.
Bloodhorn, the greater malebranche, grinned evilly, raised a gigantic clawed hand before him, and called forth a miniscule amount of his considerable infernal essence. A small ball of fire erupted in the palm of his right hand and he cocked his massive arm back. He was ready to toss the fireball into the woodpile when he heard a strange sound emanating from the northwest. As the sound grew louder and louder he turned towards the three minor malebranche who each shrugged in bewilderment.
[...]
With the ears of a human being a tad bit inferior to the enchanted senses of a devil, it took a few more seconds before the sound drew Mordekai's attention away from the freshly roasted rabbit he was in the process of devouring. He wiped his greasy fingers on his robe and stood up, as did most of the other shades and cupped his left ear with his hand towards what he thought was the direction the sound was coming from. As the seconds ticked by, the sound grew louder and closer. Soon, Modekai was able to discern that it sounded distinctly like a long and steady scream.
"I didn't think there were any banshees in these cursed woods..." Mordekai quietly mumbled as the screaming paused for a split second and continued anew growing stronger as the source drew ever closer. The assembled shades drew their weapons as Mordekai conjured a ball of flame into his right hand. They were able to make out the sound now as the continuous terror-filled screaming of a woman.
As screams just about filled their ears, a diminutive hooded-robed figure burst into the clearing. The Netherese sigil was clearly visible in the moonlight on the black robes the figure wore along with a brightly polished cherry wood shortbow that the figure brandished.
"30..." the robed figure mumbled in between gasps of air, bent over and rested her two hands upon her knees.
"ELF!!! WHAT IS THE NAME OF SHAR ARE YOU DOING?!!!" Mordekai screamed as he approached and stood before the slim robed figure. "I should feed YOU to..." he stared to bellow but was silenced by an upraised index finger on the raised left hand from the robe figure as if she were asking for another moment or two to catch her breath. The other shades gathered behind their war leader and looked at each other in silent confusion.
Ever so slightly, the figure gasping for breath slipped a fragile glass vial into her right hand.
Mordekai was absolutely fuming by now and Netherese sigil on his robes blazed brighter than even the large campfire behind him. He was about to yell again at the robed figure bent over before him when suddenly the figure burst into action.
"If you plan to cook me, you're going to need some of THIS! " Jade shouted as she broke the vial and, with a sweeping motion of her right arm, threw its contents into Mordekai's face!
Mordekai instantly toppled backwards to the ground clawing at his face which was turning redder by the second. He was sneezing, choking and crying uncontrollably as the other shades just stood there in utter shock that the small wisp of an elven shade had actually attacked their war leader.
Jade immediately stood up, threw the shortbow away, ripped off the vile Netherese robes and sprinted towards the campfire. She leaped over the writhing form of Mordekai and dusted off the rest of the red powder from her hands as she neared the campfire. [Any weapon or spell would have probably been stopped by the mage's personal warding spells, ] the elven rogue mused as she drew Forya and Hyarya [Nice to know that magic resistance and stoneskin are no defense against plain old red chili powder] she thought. "21... " she whispered with a smile.
The shades rushed to Mordekai's side but he angrily shook off every grasping attempt to help him to his feet.
"Kill her... kill her! KILL HER!!!" he repeated bellowed as he crawled blindly on his hands and knees towards the direction he thought his tent was in. "War-devils!" he screamed, "help me now!"
[...]
Bloodhorn watched the ensuing chaos from his remote corner of the clearing with his massive arms folded across his chest and a huge grin. He sequentially pointed to two of the minor malebranche devils, who blinked over to the fallen mage and carried him the rest of the way to his tent. Bloodhorn particularly hated serving this pathetic excuse for a mage and, while he was magically compelled to serve, he made no move unless specifically called upon. Even with all the wanton death and destruction the last few weeks, he was insanely bored. He continued to watch the chaos before him with dark glee. [Now THIS was entertaining...]
[...]
Jade swiftly dodged to the right and batted away a spear that a human female shade had thrown at her. She immediately followed up with a tumble to the left as a double-bladed battle axe swept over her, narrowly missing by a few stray inches. She came to a sliding stop out of her tumble and crouched down low. She then sheathed her two shortswords, crossed her arms across her chest and rested her hands on pauldrons of her shoulder armor. In the corner of her left eye, she saw the tiefling male shade angrily charging towards her with a huge maul. In the corner of her right eye, she saw another human female shade run screamingly towards her brandishing twin longswords. At the last second, Jade's crossed arms flung out wide as she somersaulted backwards and out of the path of the two shades as they crashed into each other beneath her, quite dead from the dagger each had fully caught in their respective throats.
As she ran back towards the campfire flicking daggers left and right at the pursuing shades, the electrum ring on her left hand suddenly gave off a small flash as she felt a tingle of magic wash over her. Jade looked over to the left and saw a tiefling female shade sneering at her from a distance away. That evil smile quickly faded when she realized the elven rogue was still moving freely. "Hold?" Jade sneered back at her and responded with a flick of her left wrist that embedded a dagger into the tielfling shade's leg as she clumsily tried to dodge. "11..." Jade mumbled as she turned back to the rest of the shades.
With the initial shock and surprise of the moment passed, the shades quickly organized and surrounded Jade as she stood with her back towards the large campfire.
"What did you do with elf?" one of the female shades called out to the elven rogue as she tightened her grip on her broadsword.
"She's taking a nice nap..." Jade replied with a wink. "4..." she added slyly.
"Enough talk!" the wounded tiefling cleric shouted. "I want her..." she started to shout as the ground started trembling.
The world literally exploded behind the shades as numerous hunks of tree, rock, and dirt flew by and showered the ground all round them. Some of the shades scattered to the left or right to avoid the falling debris but most just dove to the ground in sheer panic.
"1!" Jade gleefully shouted as she dashed away from the distracted shades, ran around the campfire and headed towards the northeast corner of the clearing only slightly slowing down to scoop up the corners of the gear laden cloak laid out on ground.
[...]
~KILL THE DARK ROBED ONE! KILL THE DARK ROBED ONE! KILL THE DARK ROBED ONE!~ Bonecrusher repeatedly screamed out in Jotunhaug (the dialect of hillgiants) to his five 11 foot tall tribesman running behind him as he crashed through the thick wall of trees and entered a large clearing in the forest.
It was quite easy to see why he was so angry as he painfully sported a jet black arrow embedded in his right earlobe like some macabre earring that was matched by an identical arrow even more painfully embedded in his left forearm. A quick survey of the rest of the hillgiants resulted in a similar tally as they were literally and quite painfully bristled with jet black arrows. Curious enough was the fact that most, if not all, of the arrow hits were relegated to points on their bodies that elicited the most pain but the least amount of true mortal damage.
Bonecrusher hesitated for a moment as a look of confusion washed over the angry visage of the towering 15 foot tall hillgiant as he saw several dark robed figures scrambling around in front of him. Numerical dilemmas seldom held the attention of hillgiants for very long and Bonecrusher was no exception to this.
~KILL THE DARK ROBED ONES! KILL THE DARK ROBED ONES! KILL THE DARK ROBED ONES!~ Bonecrusher screamed out to his tribesmen as he began to stomp on the shades in front of him with his barefeet and swat at them with his humongous wooden warclub.
[...]
"Oh, that's got to hurt!" Jade commented as she looked over her left shoulder at the sight of a shade flying forty feet in the air and landing in a bloody heap after being slammed by a warclub. She heaved the cloak-wrapped pile of gear over her right shoulder and continued to run towards the northeast corner of the clearing.
It wasn't long before Jade spotted the huge spit and wood pile and headed towards them. She skidded to a stop approximately 50 feet from the wood pile as the greater malebranche suddenly appeared before her! Behind the larger malebranche, she was able to spot the other three minor malebranche taking defensive positions behind the large one. Jade was also able to make out a battered and bruised but still very much alive Logaine lashed onto the gigantic spit. She noted that he was tied to the log with three lengths of rope: one at his feet, one at his mid-section and one at the top of his shoulders. [There's no way this is going to work with him attached to that heavy tree trunk like that...] she gloomily thought.
A loud sickening sound drew Jade's attention back to the huge malebranche that stood only a few yards from her. She realized it was the war-devil laughing and soon he started clapping his scaly clawed hands together.
"Bravo! What a performance!" the massive war-devil applauded her in common, "it has been such a long time since I was able to bear witness to such an amazing display of wonderfully planned chaos!" "I suppose you will be wanting the elf now?" the war-devil asked with a flick of his clawed thumb towards Logaine.
Jade shifted the cloak of gear off of her shoulder, held it in front of her and shrugged. "I suppose if you insist..." she replied nonchalantly. "I propose a trade, " she called out as she tossed the cloak full of gear at the left-most minor war-devil who stood right before the large spit and wood pile. The minor malebranche dodged to the right as the bundled cloak sailed through the air and landed next to the wood pile with a loud metallic "clink."
"How about you keep that bag of wonderful magical trinkets and I get the puny and scrawny elf who could hardly be enough of a meal for even one much less all four of you, " Jade bargained with a huge smile that showed off her dimples in the pale moonlight.
"Counteroffer, " the massive war-devil stated as he drew a wicked looking longsword from his belt and a heavy metallic shield off his back. "How about I keep the bag of trinkets and roast both you and the puny, scrawny elf for our slightly delayed dinner?" he evilly grinned back at the elven rogue. One of the minor malebranche behind the larger one drew a wicked looking shortsword, while the other two brandished two equally evil looking tridents.
"Well now..." Jade replied dangerously as she drew Forya and Hyarya and dropped into a crouched fighting stance.
"Then, I guess it's time to dance with the devils in the pale moonlight..." she declared as she skillfully twirled both glassteel shortswords a few times in her hands before she charged straight at the greater malebranche!
(to be continued...)
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
Yummy yummy roasted Logaine DOES taste like chicken! b:sin
Chapter 6 coming soon and possibly 7 as well, from the looks of it.
Hope you guys are enjoying the ride!
JS
What, he tastes like chicken? I hope malebranches leave some to me
(That "Nice bow" reminded me about Davy Jones saying "Nice sword")
Keep it up! Waiting for the last chapter (whoever knows how many chapters Jade is going to make...)
I'd love to read in-story how she embedded that sword into the tree that way!
Thanks! I can't believe the story has gone 6 chapters strong so far with part 7 swimming in my head right now.
As for the sword trick, a lady never tells, but it wasn't too hard when she accomplished that feat, it was like magic... b:victory
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
With a look of grim determination, Jade charged straight at the 7 foot tall greater malebranche with her two enchanted glassteel shortswords leading the way like two miniature lances. She watched as the huge war-devil readied his shield to meet her charge while the three minor war-devils blinked away; no doubt to reposition themselves to surround her. Right before her blades hit the surface of the shield, she noticed the angle of the moonlight off of the shield start to shift to the right. Realizing she was about to be cleaved in half, Jade suddenly leaped straight into the air and barely avoided the devastating cross-body slash of the wicked looking longsword. She landed squarely upon the upraised war-devil's shield, springboarded off of it, performed an aerial somersault and lightly landed directly behind the greater malebranche. With her back to the back of the war-devil , Jade quickly pivoted to her left and blindly slashed high with Hyarya and low with Forya. She fully expected to contact the devil's shield with Hyarya but expected to hamstring the war-devil with Forya.
Jade was extremely confused when both her shortswords bounced off something solid and the ring of metal filled her ears. Her eyes caught up with her blades a split second later and she saw an upraised black metallic trident had successfully blocked her double slash attack. The evil looking trident was attached to one of the minor war-devils who had blinked in to switch places with the greater war-devil as soon as Jade had him in a compromising position. She was beginning to understand their game when she heard the scrape of clawed feet in the dirt behind her and dove to the left just another trident lanced through the air right where her back used to be. Jade rolled on the ground, landed back on her feet in a crouch and immediately crossed her blades above her head as she spotted a slight shimmer in the air in front of her. The ring of metal upon glassteel entered her ears rewardingly as she looked up at the wicked edge of the black metal shortsword caught in between her blades that could have easily split her head wide open.
Jade pushed back on the shortsword wielding war-devil and performed a dizzying routine of feints, spinning blades and high and low attacks. Completely flustered, the minor malebranche slashed a little too eagerly on his next strike and Jade was able to pivot under the clumsy attack like she did with Paragon. She popped right back up after the blade passed harmlessly over her and completed her rotation again but this time she was looking to kill and not subdue. She saw her opportunity and viciously slashed at the exposed neck of the war-devil. The ringing of glassteel upon metal filled the air again and it was not music to Jade's ears this time as Forya bounced off another black metal trident. She backed up a step and began another stream of lightning fast slashes at the newly arrived war-devil but each attack was expertly repulsed by a spinning block or slash of the devil's trident. Her shortswords were simply no match for the reach of the trident and even when Jade came even close to landing a blow, her opponent would simply blink away and be replaced with a freshly rested opponent. She knew the devils were just toying with her and trying to tire her out. Jade knew this was a fight she simply wasn't going to win...
Which, was actually just fine with Jade as she had never planned to win this fight anyway...
[Well... you can't blame a girl for trying even if the odds were stacked against me, but Plan B it is!] Jade thought as she smiled for the first time since engaging the war-devils.
She looked back towards Logaine and the woodpile and was not surprised when she saw the huge malebranche casually leaning against the spit and happily watching her engage his subordinates. Jade pointed Hyarya at him, smiled slyly and charged at him again. This time she filled the air with a primal, trilling elven war cry that even temporarily distracted the hillgiants nearby from their business of shade stomping.
Bloodhorn took this as a personal challenge, threw down his gigantic shield, gripped his infernal longsword with two huge clawed hands and viciously swung at the elf as she drew close to him. He fully expected the elf to try to vault over him again and positioned his swing a little high to try to catch her on the rise of her expected jump. But was severely disappointed and frustrated when his mighty swing once again slashed only empty air.
At last possible moment, Jade dropped down to her knees, leaned her back almost parallel to the ground and slid well beneath the mighty slash of the huge war-devil. As she slid in between the giant spit and the greater malebranche, Jade struck outward with Hyarya and severed the strands of infernal rope that lashed Logaines legs to the tree trunk.
"Strike one..." she mumbled as she sprung back up on her feet. Jade spotted more movement in her peripheral vision near her and tumbled to her right as two tridents this time violently crisscrossed the spot where she was just standing a moment ago.
Jade popped back up a few feet away, sheathed her two shortswords, seemingly drew a slim throwing knife out of thin air with her left hand and grandiously showed it Bloodhorn who promptly burst out in mocking laughter.
"Not impressed?" she asked feigning a hurt look. "How about these?" she yelled as she flicked her left hand and fanned the single throwing blade into eight. She also gave her right hand a quick flick and fanned out another eight throwing knives. Jade then proceeded to pump her two arms as fast as possible and filled the air in between her and the devils with extremely sharp flying metal!
Bloodhorn raised his infernal longsword and, except for the last two that were aimed so badly that they missed him by an extremely large margin, easily swatted all of the throwing knives out of the air that were flying towards him. He soon realized it was all a wasted effort as he observed the other knives bouncing off of his subordinate war-devils who weren't as skilled in missile deflection as he was. Apparently, the knives were not enchanted and thus were useless again the war-devils. What Bloodhorn failed to notice was that the two "most poorly aimed" knives had squarely hit and cleanly severed the strands of infernal ropes that bound Logaine's upper shoulders to the tree trunk of a spit.
"Strike two..." Jade whispered as she danced back away from the devils and out of reach of their infernal weapons. "Time for the last..." she started to mumble to herself when suddenly she heard...
"ELF!" a blood curdling scream erupted behind Jade and caused her heart to drop into the pit of her stomach. Without even a split second of hesitation, Jade desperately tumbled forward towards the devils as the world suddenly exploded around her into a storm of hellish flames. Her instinctive dodge had saved her from being instantaneously incinerated by the fireball but the concussive force of the spell still threw her a good distance away as she landed in a smoking heap 20 feet away from the center of the blast. Jade painfully rolled on to her back, looked through the residual flames and smoke and saw a familiar and apparently extremely angry form approach her.
Mordekai had returned!
"THE CURSED ELVEN WENCH IS MINE!!!" Mordekai bellowed when he saw the war-devils, with his one good right eye, approach the prone body of the elf that had so horrendously wounded him. His entire face was still incredibly red and puffy and his left eye had completely swollen shut. Mordekai repeatedly sneezed and coughed which only added to the layers of tears, mucus, and saliva that coated the lower half of his face. He might have looked greatly comical to Jade if not for the visage of absolute venomous hatred he wore as he stared straight at her.
"Marfedelom cha'sid!" Mordekai shouted as he gestured wildly towards Jade. Tendrils of eldritch and cerulean magic erupted from his hands and streaked towards the prone elf. The glowing blue tendrils completely wrapped the elven rogue up and lifted her high into the air.
Jade felt the ground fall away from her and she struggled with every ounce of strength she had left but to no avail against the iron vice-like grip of the magical tendrils. She suddenly felt the tendril around her throat start to tighten. Her eyes began to bulge in fear and she started choking and gasping for breath. Jade's body went limp as the world started to fade to black. She was being strangled to death and there was nothing she could do about it.
Mordekai grinned evilly as he saw the slim figure suspended in the air in front of him. It appropriately reminded him of those that were condemned to dance at the end of a hangman's rope. But, Mordekai stopped smiling all of sudden. As much as he wanted to kill his humiliator, the silent death offered by a simple hanging, even an arcane one, just was not satisfying enough for his lust for a dramatic demise for his assailant. He waved his clenched right fist towards the huge spit and wood pile and the glowing blue tendril wrapped figure sailed over in that direction accordingly.
"Wait, master!" Bloodhorn shouted as he watched Mordekai brutally slam Jade's body into the gigantic tree trunk of a spit, "that's what she wants!" The war-devil watched her body slid off of the top of the log and fall face up onto the pile of wood below.
Mordekai heard the malebranche but was well beyond reasoning and wasn't about to listen to anyone, especially a subordinate, as his revenge was so close at hand.
"Garmth di ixen!" he shouted as he gestured wildly and gathered all of the infernal power he could into his spell. Only the most spectacular and devastating of fireballs was going to satisfy him, as a glowing orb of raw elemental fire appeared in his hands. Mordekai stared at the fiery manifestation of his venomous hatred and cackled with maniacal glee. He dramatically cocked his arms to the right of him, never taking his eye off of the living ball of flame and prepared to launch...
[...]
Jade woke up with an incredibly painful start with the taste of blood in her mouth and stared straight into the bruised unconscious face of Logaine. She realized instantly where she was, lifted her head and watched Mordekai as he prepared for her fiery demise.
A smile painfully broke out across Jade's bruised, swollen and cracked lips. In one fluid motion, she grabbed the cloak bag of gear below her legs with her booted feet, flipped it up to her empty left hand, drew Rakka from her right boot with her right hand and slashed upwards at the final strands of infernal rope that held Logaine to the massive wooden spit.
"Strike three!" she triumphantly called out as Logaine's body started to drop. The not so small and scrawny elf landed on top of her and nearly knocked the breath out of Jade.
"I'm out!" she managed to choke out as she lashed her right arm around Logaine's body. [Silverpath, Port Llast!] she thought and the moonstone ring she wore on her right hand suddenly flashed just as Mordekai's immense fireball exploded and incinerated everything in a 20 foot radius.
[...]
"I seriously need a new line of work." Jade mused as she unceremoniously shoved an unconscious Logaine off of her and stared into the night sky. She could tell that dawn was only a few hours away and that she had better get going or try to explain her presence in the town. Jade propped herself up on one elbow and was rewarded with a massive amount of shooting pain throughout her body.
"Oh yeah, nice to be alive..." she wryly whispered to herself as she reached into a belt pouch located on her left hip. Jade retrieved a metal flask and a large platinum ring.
"Thank you, Captain Ebonheart..." she whispered reverently as she removed the moonstone ring from her right hand, closed her eyes and kissed it, "wherever you are." She replaced the moonstone ring of teleportation with her platinum ring of regeneration, placed it on her right hand, eagerly gulped down the healing potion contained in the metal flask and laid back down on the ground as she felt the healing warmth brought about by the potion spread throughout her pain wracked body.
Once Jade was feeling better, she got up on her hands and knees and kneeled over Logaine. She inspected his wounds, removed some bandages from her belt pouch, poured the rest of the healing potion on them and proceeded to wrap up the festering shoulder wound on Logaine. When she was done playing nurse, Jade pulled Logaine's cloak bag of gear up next to her and started rummaging through it. "I don't suppose you have anything of use in here that we can trade for yet another horse, do you?" she asked while looking at the unconscious form of Logaine. Not really expecting an answer, she turned her attention back to the pile when she felt something hard and small in a pouch attached to a rather old and worn-out belt.
Jade raised up a small figurine before her eyes and deeply inspected it. It appeared to be of a tiny silvery hunting cat, birthed in black flames. "I don't suppose you are what I think you are, are you?" she smiled as she felt the familiar tingle of magic in the back of her head.
[...]
"Miss Aleria..."
"Miss Aleria.."
"Miss Aleria."
"Miss Aleria!" Paragon called out.
"Hm? Huh? What?" Aleria finally managed to stammer as she came out of her depressed musings.
"Miss Aleria, "Paragon repeated as he steered the cantering horse he rode closer to Aleria's wagon. "Your wagon is drifting again, straighten her out or risk breaking a wheel in the rough brush, " he pointed off to the side of the road and rode off while shaking his head.
"Yeah, okay..." Aleria replied with little to no energy in her voice as she just stared straight ahead again.
The grumbling of her stomach told her it was probably close to mid-day and although she was famished from missing morning feast, she found she had absolutely no desire to eat. Aleria had spent most of the early morning scouring the nearby countryside for any signs of either Logaine or the cloaked stranger but found none. She sadly returned to the caravan and hastily packed up her wagon as the rest of caravan indeed did not care to suffer any delays due to her or the rogue elven caravan guard that she insisted that they wait for. She miserably chose to leave with the caravan as it would be incredibly unwise to travel the High Road alone.
Aleria contemplated leaving the caravan to search for Logaine for nearly the hundredth time when she suddenly heard the loud reverberating growl of a huge hunting cat rising above the sounds of her wagon passing over the rough ground. She apprehensively leaned out, looked down the right side of her wagon and nearly fell out of the wagon as she saw the cloaked stranger speeding up to her on Logaine's magical cat steed with Logaine's body bouncing up and down behind the magical steed's saddle. Aleria pulled up hard on the reins and her wagon came to screeching halt as she jumped off and ran towards the magical steed. She passed by many aggravated merchants who were quite angry about the sudden and unexpected stop but paid no attention them.
The cloak stranger rode up quickly in front of Aleria, reared the magical cat up once to stop the animal's progress and dismounted. The stranger drew a slim dagger from his belt which immediately tensed up the crowd of merchants and caravan guards gathered behind the woman with the auburn hair. He walked around to the back of the magical steed and cut the ropes that bound Logaine's body which he eased off of the beast and presented it to Aleria.
"I believe you lost this, " the stranger simply stated.
"Is he..." Aleria started to ask but stopped fearing the answer.
"He's wounded and very weak, but very much alive, " the stranger answered and proceeded to carry Logaine to Aleria's wagon. Aleria wordlessly followed and continued to stare at the unconscious face of Logaine as the stranger laid him down in the wagon. The stranger returned to the magical steed removed a bundled up cloak from the saddle and dismissed the magical cat steed which promptly shifted back into its figurine form. This the stranger picked up, dropped into the cloak "bag" and dropped the "bag" inside the wagon next to the still unconscious form of Logaine.
"You may have Suaco, he's already saddled and ready for you..." Aleria mumbled softly unable to take her eyes off of the elven warrior.
The stranger grunted and grabbed the reins of the brown and already saddled riding horse that was tethered to the end of the wagon.
Aleria finally turned to thank the stranger but only saw a cloud of dust as the stranger had already taken off down road towards Neverwinter.
"Thank you, " she mouthed as she started to check Logaine's bandages.
Logaine awoke with a start, sitting up straight then grasping his arm as it groaned in pain. He blinked through it before looking around. He was in a wagon, his arm bandaged and his gear next to him. He pulled his tabard and armlets on before peaking out of the wagon and blinked. Several miles off was a town, not just any town, Neverwinter City. He wondered how he got back to the Caravan, and he even asked a few people. They just said a cloaked stranger had placed him in the wagon and left. He sighed.
"great, now I owe someone and I do not even know who they are. Thanks gods. Your killing me all the more." He muttered sarcastically as he armed and cloaked himself, summoning his nightmarish mount and rode to the city, intending to find an Inn and some Ale to drink.
The following night, all was calm and tranquil in the large forest clearing. The hillgiants had since long returned to the comfort of their mountain side camp and Mordekai had gathered up the remnants of his shade contingent and had already left with his war-devils to try and meet up with the rest of the Netherese forces.
A slim diminutive shadow flitted from tree to tree until it came upon the tree line of the clearing. Reflected in the moonlight was a dark red tinged outline in the dirt vaguely forming the shape of a shortbow. As the moon passed behind a cloud and darkness settled across the clearing, little grey hands began to dig into the dirt. A sudden gasp of joy resounded in the forest and was suddenly gone leaving behind a long crescent shaped hole in the ground as the crescent shaped moon peeked out from behind the cloud...
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
Marvelous work Jade!
(Shame that malebranches didn't eat Logaine)
Thanks! Too bad about the malebrache indeed but there is always next time! Muwahaha!
JS
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
Thanks! Too bad about the malebrache indeed but there is always next time! Muwahaha!
JS
that doesn't sound very elvish...but then again, you people are not elves, you're treehuggers!
Just like drows are weaponhuggers but at least we hug weapons!
that doesn't sound very elvish...but then again, you people are not elves, you're treehuggers!
Just like drows are weaponhuggers but at least we hug weapons!
And spiderhuggers! don't forget the spiders especially with Halloween coming soon!
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
that doesn't sound very elvish...but then again, you people are not elves, you're treehuggers!
Just like drows are weaponhuggers but at least we hug weapons!
yes but their weapons ... whips, handcuffs and leather heels...
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
0
iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited October 2012
Great work Jade!
(and the only forum post where its readers need to come up with a safe word!)
Thanks! The grammar may not have been perfect and the story-telling rudimentary but I still can't believe all that came out of my delusional, herbal/prescription drug fueled brain. Then again, from that description, may be I can. Time to go on a bad acid trip to write the spookey halloween story/module/adventure or in my case a bad ginseng or st. john's wort trip b:victory
(and the only forum post where its readers need to come up with a safe word!)
Hehe, I know... I seem to bring out the best 50 shades of gray in people...
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
Nice, Endingdawn! Hope you liked your story, probably not quite what you expected but hopefully a thrilling roller coaster ride of a tale!
JS
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade! Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
And spiderhuggers! don't forget the spiders especially with Halloween coming soon!
No no no. Drows don't hug spiders. Those who follow Lolth lick spiders' eight legs!
(its worser than hugging)
I am inactive and I know it
0
marenorMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited October 2012
I thoroughly enjoyed reading the story. It was wonderfully written.
I am now wondering if scheduling my vacation would create a temporal distortion providing the time for your muse to create the impetus and for you to complete another story. Which would be something else I eagerly await.
Sorry, cross-threaded, quirky humour should probably be left undone.
Comments
yeah well we figured that your characters hair was too red for us so we chose to let the malebranche eat you.
P.S. You can thank Jade for it, she came up with the idea!
Drow retreats to the shadows with series of back flips and rolls without rolling acrobacy and disappears.
[I can't believe that fool of an elf tried to take on eight shades, one of which has the rest of them quaking in their shadowy wisps and four war-devils, solo...] she thought as each of her steps carried her a bit further away from the living nightmare she had just observed. [A "powerful force" indeed, there's no way I can take them all on and hope to possibly live... two... with my eyes closed, three... with one hand tied behind my back, four... for sure with no problems, five... eh may be, six... okay may be not, but there are eight, eight with at least two spell casters and not to mention the little matter of 4 infernal devils!]
Jade sighed a huge sigh, rolled her gold-flecked green eyes, dropped to her knees and whipped off her cloak. [Are you crazy? What are you doing?] the voices in her head started to attack her as she laid the cloak down on the forest floor and unbuckled the large black leather pouch she had on her belt just to the left of the small of her back. She waved a delicate hand over the golden sigil of House Korianthil on the flap of the pouch and whispered, "pahntar." With the command to "open," the sigil began to glow and Jade reached impossibly deep into the confines of her magical bag of holding to retrieve her "work clothes." [You can't possibly win!] She retrieved piece after piece of jet black chimera leather armor: boots, vambraces, greaves... [What do you really owe this crazy elf and his human lover?] She finished up with the taking of a leather headpiece out of the bag that was also a half mask in the front to protect her identity as well as her head. [These devils EAT elves!] Jade stared into the empty eye sockets of the leather helm and silenced all of the voices in her head with a simple whispered, "I gave my word..."
Soon a full set of enchanted chimera leather armor replaced the light travelling clothes that had previously adorned the lithe form of the elven rogue. An identical enchanted glassteel shortsword soon joined Forya on the cloak freshly retrieved from the magical bag of holding. "Evening Hyarya, " Jade whispered reverently as she unsheathed the second blade and admired the fine diamond like edge of the blade. As she admired the fine elven craftsmanship of the guard, grip and pommel, an inkling of a plan started forming in Jade's mind and a little smile came to her lips.
"Time to start this insanity, " she declared as she strapped both blades across her back and Rakka on to her right boot. Jade did not bother to retrieve much else of her "trade tools" from her magic bag as she normally would for a job that required a much more subtle touch. No, she was preparing for war and, after stashing all of her discarded clothes back into the bag, Jade pulled dagger after throwing knife out and stashed them all over her body. Each deadly blade was in easy reach for use when the need arose.
The last step in her preparation was the taking out of a small brown leather pouch. Jade untied the leather pouch strings and dumped the contents into her right hand. An ornate silver and moonstone ring fell into her palm and the moonlight. The ring seemed to faintly glow as if gaining strength from the radiance of its distant larger cousin.
[You were right, Captain Ebonheart, ] Jade thought as she slipped off the transparent crystal band from the ring finger on her right hand and replaced it with the moonstone ring. The magical band shrank down to fit her delicate digit. [I am going to need your gift sooner rather than later after all...] She looked herself over one last time to make sure she was ready for war and was pleased with her state of readiness.
[How does one hide in shadows from living shadows?] Jade thought wryly as she started back towards the camp moving as swiftly and silently as a hunting owl in flight.
[...]
She knew the only reason she was on "sentry duty" was purely for the dark pleasure that Mordekai took in torturing both her body and her mind. Although her body was severely fatigued from the near constant combat the shade contingent had been engaged in for over two weeks, Moriera found the task at hand to be a very welcomed respite for her weary tormented mind. She purposefully adjusted the hood of her Netherese robe as she reached the northeast corner of the perimeter of the camp and tried hard to just look straight ahead... and not listen... and not breathe...
[How long has it been?] she asked trying to distract herself as she finished the first quarter of the perimeter around the camp. [Over thirty long years, ] Moriera answered herself, [since I became a shade...]
[...]
Before the Spellplague, Moriera (who went by a very different name back then) had everything she had ever wanted. She was a proud member of one of the most powerful sun elf noble houses on Evermeet, married to a wonderful warwizard of a husband and mother to two of the most beautiful twin-born elven sons ever. She was also one of the finest archers and scouts on Evermeet which ultimately drew the attention of the royal court.
It seemed like a simple enough mission she was tasked with. Bring honor to the noble house by taking a royal missive to the green elf colony in the Forest of Tethyr to establish a trade relationship between them and the moon elf stronghold of Evereska and return immediately to Evermeet. The Spellplague, however changed all that and Moriera ended up returning to a familiar island yet devoid of everything and anything she remembered and loved save the lush green forests and sparkling brooks. Every elven structure and inhabitant of the island had simply vanished without a trace, leaving her feeling utterly empty and alone.
A dejected Moriera eventually made it back to the mainland where she wandered Faerun aimlessly for over sixty years doing odd jobs and hiring out her unmatched archery skills to survive. She did reach Evereska, the moon elf stronghold, at one point but her stay lasted less than a few days. Deep inside of her, she harbored a dull and throbbing hatred of the moon elven royal court that had ordered her away from her family on their "simple" mission. Moriera blamed them for the loss of her most precious family and she grew to hate all moon elves greatly beyond the simple prejudices that most sun elves held against their moon elf cousins.
Her travels ultimately led her to the great desert of Anauroch, where she served as a caravan guard. On route to the Dalelands, her caravan was decimated by forces from the Netherese and she would have been sold into slavery had it not been for the efforts of an arrogant and powerful shade magelord by the name of Mordekai. He was quite impressed with her archery skills and offered her a position under him to serve the Netherese lords. He offered her the chance to belong to something "special" and to become part of his "family." It was a sickeningly sweet offer that Moriera had ached for for such a long time and accepted immediately.
She work up several days later to the sound of someone screaming and slowly realized, to her horror, it was her that was screaming in her tiny room in the Shade Enclave in Netheril. The process in becoming a shade had been incredibly painful. Even more excruciating than the physical pain was the mental and spiritual anquish Moriera suffered. She had willing given up a piece of her elven soul in order to infuse herself with a shard of shadow essence. However, as she watched the bronze skin of her hands turn into the dark ashen grey pallor of a shade, Moriera felt incredibly cold as all of her elven soul seemed to drain out her. To this day she refused to look in any mirror as she was deathly afraid of who would be looking back at her.
There was only one thing that brought Moriera the smallest iota of comfort in the thirty years of her existence as a shade. This thing was the only reminder of her fled elven soul, was the only tie to her all but forgotten elven heritage. This talisman of her's she held every day and night in the palms of her two little grey hands, her brightly polished cherry wood shortbow.
[...]
Moriera had just completed her first lap of the camp's perimeter when she saw the sparkling of something in the moonlight off in the distance towards the southwest of the camp. Not wanting to end her greatly coveted solitude from the rest of the contingent on a possible false alarm, she nocked an arrow on her shortbow and shadow stepped from tree shadow to tree shadow towards the direction of the sparkle. Moriera soon found herself in a particularly thick grove of birch trees with their naked branches extending like giant white forks stabbing the heavens. A thick carpet of discarded leaves blanketed the forest floor with a particularly large pile of leaves at the base of each tree. Moriera silently maneuvered around the trees and after a while found herself in the middle of the grove of birch trees. What she saw in the center of the grove took her breath away...
There in the center of the grove stood the tallest, whitest birch tree Moriera had ever seen before. However, the focus of the elven shade's gaze was the hilt and partially exposed blade of the finest sword she had ever laid her eyes upon. The sword was embedded in the great birch tree approximately four feet off of the ground and judging by the length of the blade, which protruded from the back side of the tree, it was the most exquisite of shortswords. As Moriera drew closer she concluded the sword was definitely of elven make. [Incredibly fine glassteel blade and simply beautiful golden filigree of intertwined ivy on the cross-guard, grip and pommel. The source of the sparkle in the moonlight, ] she reverently observed as she drew even closer to the embedded blade.
Moriera felt a stirring deep within her as she circled the tree and looked at the fine shortsword from all angles. [It must be a divine gift from the Seldarine... A reminder that they haven't abandoned me as I did them...] she thought dreamily.
"I must have you..." she quietly declared to the sword and looked down at the fine shortbow in her left hand. [Oh what a joy it will be to be able to own two fabulous elven treasures!] she thought gleefully as she returned the jet black arrow in her right hand back into the quiver on her back, grasped the cold, smooth hilt of the sword and pulled for all her worth. However the sword refused to budge as it was too deeply embedded into the tree. It was as if the great tree was testing her resolve, daring her to try and earn the prize.
"You will not deny me my prize!" Moriera declared to the tree through gritted teeth as she dropped her shortbow to the ground, grabbed the gilded hilt with both hands, planted one of her booted feet on the trunk of the tree, and pulled as if her life depended on it. So engrossed was she in her obsession with the sword that Moriera completely failed to notice that the pile of leaves behind her had started to quietly shift.
SCREECH!
The shortsword finally pulled free from the trunk of the great white birch tree with a bone chilling scrape that sent shivers down her spine or were those shivers of elation? Moriera fell back a good three feet before she regained her balance and slowly raised her open palms up to her eye level and with them rose the beautiful shortsword. Time seemed to stand still as she poured over every detail of the fabulous sword. Moriera saw a translucent reflection of a pair of elven eyes in the blade and, by the time she realized they were gold-flecked green like those of a moon elf and neither the gold-fleck amber of a sun elf nor the dull ashen gray of an elven shade, she felt the keen bite of a dagger being inserted into her back.
Strong arms grasped and lowered her on to her knees as the venom on the dagger surged throughout Moriera's body. She felt the assassin's hot breath upon her right ear as she was pulled closer to the assailant behind her. The world was already beginning to fade as the poison continued to do its work.
"I should gut your helpless body right here and right now simply because of the abomination you have become" the assassin angrily hissed into Moriera's ear, "but then I won't be any better than your cursed Netherese masters. The wound is not mortal and neither is the poison, but know this..." Moriera felt a quick stab of pain on her right hand and looked down. The would-be "assassin" had touched the tip of a wand on to the back of her right hand and left behind a glowing green rune. She did not recognize the rune and watched as it slowly faded away. "You have have been marked, shade. If you attempt to seek me out for revenge, I will know and all your shadow powers will be useless against me. Seek me out and I will happily and mercilessly send you screaming to whatever pit of despair you shades call an afterlife..."
That was the last thing she hear before the "assassin" laid her down upon the leaf covered ground. The last thing Moriera horrifyingly saw was the "assassin" walking three feet away from her and picking up something brightly polished and tinged dark red as a numbing darkness claimed her...
[...]
"Nice bow, " Jade stated simply as she brushed the dirt off of the shortbow and tested the pull of the string. She walked back to the unconscious form of the elven shade, picked up Hyarya off of the ground, lovingly dusted her shortsword off, sheathed it on her back and removed the quiver of arrows from the shade's back. "And a girl is going to need this as well..." Jade added as she began to unbutton the shade's black and threadbare Netherese robe.
Jade promptly donned the Netherese robe, pulled the hood up over her head, held her disgust in check and strapped the quiver of arrows across her body. She scooped up the shortbow off of the ground, hastily headed in a northwesterly direction and abandoned all attempts at subtly and stealth as she noisily crashed through the underbrush.
"Time to invite some more guests to our party" she said with a wicked grin...
(to be continued...)
[ooc/ I know I promised only one more chapter, but it was growing a bit long... One more chapter after this... may be... :-) /ooc]
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
I'd love to read in-story how she embedded that sword into the tree that way!
Yummy yummy roasted Logaine DOES taste like chicken! b:sin
Chapter 6 coming soon and possibly 7 as well, from the looks of it.
Hope you guys are enjoying the ride!
JS
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
{Ready? One... two... THREE!} Dogretch called out in Supernal as as they hoisted their "elf kabob" on to the support logs which flanked their huge pile of firewood. Logaine groaned in unconscious protest as they dropped him and the log into place. Gravity took hold of Logaine and he smoothly swung downwards towards the pile of firewood where he hung face-down lashed to the tree trunk spit with infernal ropes at his feet, mid-section and shoulders. The three minor malebranche backed up a step or two to admire their handiwork. They unconsciously flapped their wings, jumped randomly about and rubbed their clawed, scaly hands in hungry anticipation as the greater malebranche approached the huge wood pile.
Bloodhorn, the greater malebranche, grinned evilly, raised a gigantic clawed hand before him, and called forth a miniscule amount of his considerable infernal essence. A small ball of fire erupted in the palm of his right hand and he cocked his massive arm back. He was ready to toss the fireball into the woodpile when he heard a strange sound emanating from the northwest. As the sound grew louder and louder he turned towards the three minor malebranche who each shrugged in bewilderment.
[...]
With the ears of a human being a tad bit inferior to the enchanted senses of a devil, it took a few more seconds before the sound drew Mordekai's attention away from the freshly roasted rabbit he was in the process of devouring. He wiped his greasy fingers on his robe and stood up, as did most of the other shades and cupped his left ear with his hand towards what he thought was the direction the sound was coming from. As the seconds ticked by, the sound grew louder and closer. Soon, Modekai was able to discern that it sounded distinctly like a long and steady scream.
"I didn't think there were any banshees in these cursed woods..." Mordekai quietly mumbled as the screaming paused for a split second and continued anew growing stronger as the source drew ever closer. The assembled shades drew their weapons as Mordekai conjured a ball of flame into his right hand. They were able to make out the sound now as the continuous terror-filled screaming of a woman.
As screams just about filled their ears, a diminutive hooded-robed figure burst into the clearing. The Netherese sigil was clearly visible in the moonlight on the black robes the figure wore along with a brightly polished cherry wood shortbow that the figure brandished.
"30..." the robed figure mumbled in between gasps of air, bent over and rested her two hands upon her knees.
"ELF!!! WHAT IS THE NAME OF SHAR ARE YOU DOING?!!!" Mordekai screamed as he approached and stood before the slim robed figure. "I should feed YOU to..." he stared to bellow but was silenced by an upraised index finger on the raised left hand from the robe figure as if she were asking for another moment or two to catch her breath. The other shades gathered behind their war leader and looked at each other in silent confusion.
Ever so slightly, the figure gasping for breath slipped a fragile glass vial into her right hand.
Mordekai was absolutely fuming by now and Netherese sigil on his robes blazed brighter than even the large campfire behind him. He was about to yell again at the robed figure bent over before him when suddenly the figure burst into action.
"If you plan to cook me, you're going to need some of THIS! " Jade shouted as she broke the vial and, with a sweeping motion of her right arm, threw its contents into Mordekai's face!
Mordekai instantly toppled backwards to the ground clawing at his face which was turning redder by the second. He was sneezing, choking and crying uncontrollably as the other shades just stood there in utter shock that the small wisp of an elven shade had actually attacked their war leader.
Jade immediately stood up, threw the shortbow away, ripped off the vile Netherese robes and sprinted towards the campfire. She leaped over the writhing form of Mordekai and dusted off the rest of the red powder from her hands as she neared the campfire. [Any weapon or spell would have probably been stopped by the mage's personal warding spells, ] the elven rogue mused as she drew Forya and Hyarya [Nice to know that magic resistance and stoneskin are no defense against plain old red chili powder] she thought. "21... " she whispered with a smile.
The shades rushed to Mordekai's side but he angrily shook off every grasping attempt to help him to his feet.
"Kill her... kill her! KILL HER!!!" he repeated bellowed as he crawled blindly on his hands and knees towards the direction he thought his tent was in. "War-devils!" he screamed, "help me now!"
[...]
Bloodhorn watched the ensuing chaos from his remote corner of the clearing with his massive arms folded across his chest and a huge grin. He sequentially pointed to two of the minor malebranche devils, who blinked over to the fallen mage and carried him the rest of the way to his tent. Bloodhorn particularly hated serving this pathetic excuse for a mage and, while he was magically compelled to serve, he made no move unless specifically called upon. Even with all the wanton death and destruction the last few weeks, he was insanely bored. He continued to watch the chaos before him with dark glee. [Now THIS was entertaining...]
[...]
Jade swiftly dodged to the right and batted away a spear that a human female shade had thrown at her. She immediately followed up with a tumble to the left as a double-bladed battle axe swept over her, narrowly missing by a few stray inches. She came to a sliding stop out of her tumble and crouched down low. She then sheathed her two shortswords, crossed her arms across her chest and rested her hands on pauldrons of her shoulder armor. In the corner of her left eye, she saw the tiefling male shade angrily charging towards her with a huge maul. In the corner of her right eye, she saw another human female shade run screamingly towards her brandishing twin longswords. At the last second, Jade's crossed arms flung out wide as she somersaulted backwards and out of the path of the two shades as they crashed into each other beneath her, quite dead from the dagger each had fully caught in their respective throats.
As she ran back towards the campfire flicking daggers left and right at the pursuing shades, the electrum ring on her left hand suddenly gave off a small flash as she felt a tingle of magic wash over her. Jade looked over to the left and saw a tiefling female shade sneering at her from a distance away. That evil smile quickly faded when she realized the elven rogue was still moving freely. "Hold?" Jade sneered back at her and responded with a flick of her left wrist that embedded a dagger into the tielfling shade's leg as she clumsily tried to dodge. "11..." Jade mumbled as she turned back to the rest of the shades.
With the initial shock and surprise of the moment passed, the shades quickly organized and surrounded Jade as she stood with her back towards the large campfire.
"What did you do with elf?" one of the female shades called out to the elven rogue as she tightened her grip on her broadsword.
"She's taking a nice nap..." Jade replied with a wink. "4..." she added slyly.
"Enough talk!" the wounded tiefling cleric shouted. "I want her..." she started to shout as the ground started trembling.
BOOM......... BOOM...... BOOM...... BOOM... BOOM... BOOM... BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
KABOOM!!!
The world literally exploded behind the shades as numerous hunks of tree, rock, and dirt flew by and showered the ground all round them. Some of the shades scattered to the left or right to avoid the falling debris but most just dove to the ground in sheer panic.
"1!" Jade gleefully shouted as she dashed away from the distracted shades, ran around the campfire and headed towards the northeast corner of the clearing only slightly slowing down to scoop up the corners of the gear laden cloak laid out on ground.
[...]
~KILL THE DARK ROBED ONE! KILL THE DARK ROBED ONE! KILL THE DARK ROBED ONE!~ Bonecrusher repeatedly screamed out in Jotunhaug (the dialect of hillgiants) to his five 11 foot tall tribesman running behind him as he crashed through the thick wall of trees and entered a large clearing in the forest.
It was quite easy to see why he was so angry as he painfully sported a jet black arrow embedded in his right earlobe like some macabre earring that was matched by an identical arrow even more painfully embedded in his left forearm. A quick survey of the rest of the hillgiants resulted in a similar tally as they were literally and quite painfully bristled with jet black arrows. Curious enough was the fact that most, if not all, of the arrow hits were relegated to points on their bodies that elicited the most pain but the least amount of true mortal damage.
Bonecrusher hesitated for a moment as a look of confusion washed over the angry visage of the towering 15 foot tall hillgiant as he saw several dark robed figures scrambling around in front of him. Numerical dilemmas seldom held the attention of hillgiants for very long and Bonecrusher was no exception to this.
~KILL THE DARK ROBED ONES! KILL THE DARK ROBED ONES! KILL THE DARK ROBED ONES!~ Bonecrusher screamed out to his tribesmen as he began to stomp on the shades in front of him with his barefeet and swat at them with his humongous wooden warclub.
[...]
"Oh, that's got to hurt!" Jade commented as she looked over her left shoulder at the sight of a shade flying forty feet in the air and landing in a bloody heap after being slammed by a warclub. She heaved the cloak-wrapped pile of gear over her right shoulder and continued to run towards the northeast corner of the clearing.
It wasn't long before Jade spotted the huge spit and wood pile and headed towards them. She skidded to a stop approximately 50 feet from the wood pile as the greater malebranche suddenly appeared before her! Behind the larger malebranche, she was able to spot the other three minor malebranche taking defensive positions behind the large one. Jade was also able to make out a battered and bruised but still very much alive Logaine lashed onto the gigantic spit. She noted that he was tied to the log with three lengths of rope: one at his feet, one at his mid-section and one at the top of his shoulders. [There's no way this is going to work with him attached to that heavy tree trunk like that...] she gloomily thought.
A loud sickening sound drew Jade's attention back to the huge malebranche that stood only a few yards from her. She realized it was the war-devil laughing and soon he started clapping his scaly clawed hands together.
"Bravo! What a performance!" the massive war-devil applauded her in common, "it has been such a long time since I was able to bear witness to such an amazing display of wonderfully planned chaos!" "I suppose you will be wanting the elf now?" the war-devil asked with a flick of his clawed thumb towards Logaine.
Jade shifted the cloak of gear off of her shoulder, held it in front of her and shrugged. "I suppose if you insist..." she replied nonchalantly. "I propose a trade, " she called out as she tossed the cloak full of gear at the left-most minor war-devil who stood right before the large spit and wood pile. The minor malebranche dodged to the right as the bundled cloak sailed through the air and landed next to the wood pile with a loud metallic "clink."
"How about you keep that bag of wonderful magical trinkets and I get the puny and scrawny elf who could hardly be enough of a meal for even one much less all four of you, " Jade bargained with a huge smile that showed off her dimples in the pale moonlight.
"Counteroffer, " the massive war-devil stated as he drew a wicked looking longsword from his belt and a heavy metallic shield off his back. "How about I keep the bag of trinkets and roast both you and the puny, scrawny elf for our slightly delayed dinner?" he evilly grinned back at the elven rogue. One of the minor malebranche behind the larger one drew a wicked looking shortsword, while the other two brandished two equally evil looking tridents.
"Well now..." Jade replied dangerously as she drew Forya and Hyarya and dropped into a crouched fighting stance.
"Then, I guess it's time to dance with the devils in the pale moonlight..." she declared as she skillfully twirled both glassteel shortswords a few times in her hands before she charged straight at the greater malebranche!
(to be continued...)
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
What, he tastes like chicken? I hope malebranches leave some to me
(That "Nice bow" reminded me about Davy Jones saying "Nice sword")
Keep it up! Waiting for the last chapter (whoever knows how many chapters Jade is going to make...)
Thanks! I can't believe the story has gone 6 chapters strong so far with part 7 swimming in my head right now.
As for the sword trick, a lady never tells, but it wasn't too hard when she accomplished that feat, it was like magic... b:victory
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
Neverwinter Thieves Guild
Jade was extremely confused when both her shortswords bounced off something solid and the ring of metal filled her ears. Her eyes caught up with her blades a split second later and she saw an upraised black metallic trident had successfully blocked her double slash attack. The evil looking trident was attached to one of the minor war-devils who had blinked in to switch places with the greater war-devil as soon as Jade had him in a compromising position. She was beginning to understand their game when she heard the scrape of clawed feet in the dirt behind her and dove to the left just another trident lanced through the air right where her back used to be. Jade rolled on the ground, landed back on her feet in a crouch and immediately crossed her blades above her head as she spotted a slight shimmer in the air in front of her. The ring of metal upon glassteel entered her ears rewardingly as she looked up at the wicked edge of the black metal shortsword caught in between her blades that could have easily split her head wide open.
Jade pushed back on the shortsword wielding war-devil and performed a dizzying routine of feints, spinning blades and high and low attacks. Completely flustered, the minor malebranche slashed a little too eagerly on his next strike and Jade was able to pivot under the clumsy attack like she did with Paragon. She popped right back up after the blade passed harmlessly over her and completed her rotation again but this time she was looking to kill and not subdue. She saw her opportunity and viciously slashed at the exposed neck of the war-devil. The ringing of glassteel upon metal filled the air again and it was not music to Jade's ears this time as Forya bounced off another black metal trident. She backed up a step and began another stream of lightning fast slashes at the newly arrived war-devil but each attack was expertly repulsed by a spinning block or slash of the devil's trident. Her shortswords were simply no match for the reach of the trident and even when Jade came even close to landing a blow, her opponent would simply blink away and be replaced with a freshly rested opponent. She knew the devils were just toying with her and trying to tire her out. Jade knew this was a fight she simply wasn't going to win...
Which, was actually just fine with Jade as she had never planned to win this fight anyway...
[Well... you can't blame a girl for trying even if the odds were stacked against me, but Plan B it is!] Jade thought as she smiled for the first time since engaging the war-devils.
She looked back towards Logaine and the woodpile and was not surprised when she saw the huge malebranche casually leaning against the spit and happily watching her engage his subordinates. Jade pointed Hyarya at him, smiled slyly and charged at him again. This time she filled the air with a primal, trilling elven war cry that even temporarily distracted the hillgiants nearby from their business of shade stomping.
Bloodhorn took this as a personal challenge, threw down his gigantic shield, gripped his infernal longsword with two huge clawed hands and viciously swung at the elf as she drew close to him. He fully expected the elf to try to vault over him again and positioned his swing a little high to try to catch her on the rise of her expected jump. But was severely disappointed and frustrated when his mighty swing once again slashed only empty air.
At last possible moment, Jade dropped down to her knees, leaned her back almost parallel to the ground and slid well beneath the mighty slash of the huge war-devil. As she slid in between the giant spit and the greater malebranche, Jade struck outward with Hyarya and severed the strands of infernal rope that lashed Logaines legs to the tree trunk.
"Strike one..." she mumbled as she sprung back up on her feet. Jade spotted more movement in her peripheral vision near her and tumbled to her right as two tridents this time violently crisscrossed the spot where she was just standing a moment ago.
Jade popped back up a few feet away, sheathed her two shortswords, seemingly drew a slim throwing knife out of thin air with her left hand and grandiously showed it Bloodhorn who promptly burst out in mocking laughter.
"Not impressed?" she asked feigning a hurt look. "How about these?" she yelled as she flicked her left hand and fanned the single throwing blade into eight. She also gave her right hand a quick flick and fanned out another eight throwing knives. Jade then proceeded to pump her two arms as fast as possible and filled the air in between her and the devils with extremely sharp flying metal!
Bloodhorn raised his infernal longsword and, except for the last two that were aimed so badly that they missed him by an extremely large margin, easily swatted all of the throwing knives out of the air that were flying towards him. He soon realized it was all a wasted effort as he observed the other knives bouncing off of his subordinate war-devils who weren't as skilled in missile deflection as he was. Apparently, the knives were not enchanted and thus were useless again the war-devils. What Bloodhorn failed to notice was that the two "most poorly aimed" knives had squarely hit and cleanly severed the strands of infernal ropes that bound Logaine's upper shoulders to the tree trunk of a spit.
"Strike two..." Jade whispered as she danced back away from the devils and out of reach of their infernal weapons. "Time for the last..." she started to mumble to herself when suddenly she heard...
"ELF!" a blood curdling scream erupted behind Jade and caused her heart to drop into the pit of her stomach. Without even a split second of hesitation, Jade desperately tumbled forward towards the devils as the world suddenly exploded around her into a storm of hellish flames. Her instinctive dodge had saved her from being instantaneously incinerated by the fireball but the concussive force of the spell still threw her a good distance away as she landed in a smoking heap 20 feet away from the center of the blast. Jade painfully rolled on to her back, looked through the residual flames and smoke and saw a familiar and apparently extremely angry form approach her.
Mordekai had returned!
"THE CURSED ELVEN WENCH IS MINE!!!" Mordekai bellowed when he saw the war-devils, with his one good right eye, approach the prone body of the elf that had so horrendously wounded him. His entire face was still incredibly red and puffy and his left eye had completely swollen shut. Mordekai repeatedly sneezed and coughed which only added to the layers of tears, mucus, and saliva that coated the lower half of his face. He might have looked greatly comical to Jade if not for the visage of absolute venomous hatred he wore as he stared straight at her.
"Marfedelom cha'sid!" Mordekai shouted as he gestured wildly towards Jade. Tendrils of eldritch and cerulean magic erupted from his hands and streaked towards the prone elf. The glowing blue tendrils completely wrapped the elven rogue up and lifted her high into the air.
Jade felt the ground fall away from her and she struggled with every ounce of strength she had left but to no avail against the iron vice-like grip of the magical tendrils. She suddenly felt the tendril around her throat start to tighten. Her eyes began to bulge in fear and she started choking and gasping for breath. Jade's body went limp as the world started to fade to black. She was being strangled to death and there was nothing she could do about it.
Mordekai grinned evilly as he saw the slim figure suspended in the air in front of him. It appropriately reminded him of those that were condemned to dance at the end of a hangman's rope. But, Mordekai stopped smiling all of sudden. As much as he wanted to kill his humiliator, the silent death offered by a simple hanging, even an arcane one, just was not satisfying enough for his lust for a dramatic demise for his assailant. He waved his clenched right fist towards the huge spit and wood pile and the glowing blue tendril wrapped figure sailed over in that direction accordingly.
"Wait, master!" Bloodhorn shouted as he watched Mordekai brutally slam Jade's body into the gigantic tree trunk of a spit, "that's what she wants!" The war-devil watched her body slid off of the top of the log and fall face up onto the pile of wood below.
Mordekai heard the malebranche but was well beyond reasoning and wasn't about to listen to anyone, especially a subordinate, as his revenge was so close at hand.
"Garmth di ixen!" he shouted as he gestured wildly and gathered all of the infernal power he could into his spell. Only the most spectacular and devastating of fireballs was going to satisfy him, as a glowing orb of raw elemental fire appeared in his hands. Mordekai stared at the fiery manifestation of his venomous hatred and cackled with maniacal glee. He dramatically cocked his arms to the right of him, never taking his eye off of the living ball of flame and prepared to launch...
[...]
Jade woke up with an incredibly painful start with the taste of blood in her mouth and stared straight into the bruised unconscious face of Logaine. She realized instantly where she was, lifted her head and watched Mordekai as he prepared for her fiery demise.
A smile painfully broke out across Jade's bruised, swollen and cracked lips. In one fluid motion, she grabbed the cloak bag of gear below her legs with her booted feet, flipped it up to her empty left hand, drew Rakka from her right boot with her right hand and slashed upwards at the final strands of infernal rope that held Logaine to the massive wooden spit.
"Strike three!" she triumphantly called out as Logaine's body started to drop. The not so small and scrawny elf landed on top of her and nearly knocked the breath out of Jade.
"I'm out!" she managed to choke out as she lashed her right arm around Logaine's body. [Silverpath, Port Llast!] she thought and the moonstone ring she wore on her right hand suddenly flashed just as Mordekai's immense fireball exploded and incinerated everything in a 20 foot radius.
[...]
"I seriously need a new line of work." Jade mused as she unceremoniously shoved an unconscious Logaine off of her and stared into the night sky. She could tell that dawn was only a few hours away and that she had better get going or try to explain her presence in the town. Jade propped herself up on one elbow and was rewarded with a massive amount of shooting pain throughout her body.
"Oh yeah, nice to be alive..." she wryly whispered to herself as she reached into a belt pouch located on her left hip. Jade retrieved a metal flask and a large platinum ring.
"Thank you, Captain Ebonheart..." she whispered reverently as she removed the moonstone ring from her right hand, closed her eyes and kissed it, "wherever you are." She replaced the moonstone ring of teleportation with her platinum ring of regeneration, placed it on her right hand, eagerly gulped down the healing potion contained in the metal flask and laid back down on the ground as she felt the healing warmth brought about by the potion spread throughout her pain wracked body.
Once Jade was feeling better, she got up on her hands and knees and kneeled over Logaine. She inspected his wounds, removed some bandages from her belt pouch, poured the rest of the healing potion on them and proceeded to wrap up the festering shoulder wound on Logaine. When she was done playing nurse, Jade pulled Logaine's cloak bag of gear up next to her and started rummaging through it. "I don't suppose you have anything of use in here that we can trade for yet another horse, do you?" she asked while looking at the unconscious form of Logaine. Not really expecting an answer, she turned her attention back to the pile when she felt something hard and small in a pouch attached to a rather old and worn-out belt.
Jade raised up a small figurine before her eyes and deeply inspected it. It appeared to be of a tiny silvery hunting cat, birthed in black flames. "I don't suppose you are what I think you are, are you?" she smiled as she felt the familiar tingle of magic in the back of her head.
[...]
"Miss Aleria..."
"Miss Aleria.."
"Miss Aleria."
"Miss Aleria!" Paragon called out.
"Hm? Huh? What?" Aleria finally managed to stammer as she came out of her depressed musings.
"Miss Aleria, "Paragon repeated as he steered the cantering horse he rode closer to Aleria's wagon. "Your wagon is drifting again, straighten her out or risk breaking a wheel in the rough brush, " he pointed off to the side of the road and rode off while shaking his head.
"Yeah, okay..." Aleria replied with little to no energy in her voice as she just stared straight ahead again.
The grumbling of her stomach told her it was probably close to mid-day and although she was famished from missing morning feast, she found she had absolutely no desire to eat. Aleria had spent most of the early morning scouring the nearby countryside for any signs of either Logaine or the cloaked stranger but found none. She sadly returned to the caravan and hastily packed up her wagon as the rest of caravan indeed did not care to suffer any delays due to her or the rogue elven caravan guard that she insisted that they wait for. She miserably chose to leave with the caravan as it would be incredibly unwise to travel the High Road alone.
Aleria contemplated leaving the caravan to search for Logaine for nearly the hundredth time when she suddenly heard the loud reverberating growl of a huge hunting cat rising above the sounds of her wagon passing over the rough ground. She apprehensively leaned out, looked down the right side of her wagon and nearly fell out of the wagon as she saw the cloaked stranger speeding up to her on Logaine's magical cat steed with Logaine's body bouncing up and down behind the magical steed's saddle. Aleria pulled up hard on the reins and her wagon came to screeching halt as she jumped off and ran towards the magical steed. She passed by many aggravated merchants who were quite angry about the sudden and unexpected stop but paid no attention them.
The cloak stranger rode up quickly in front of Aleria, reared the magical cat up once to stop the animal's progress and dismounted. The stranger drew a slim dagger from his belt which immediately tensed up the crowd of merchants and caravan guards gathered behind the woman with the auburn hair. He walked around to the back of the magical steed and cut the ropes that bound Logaine's body which he eased off of the beast and presented it to Aleria.
"I believe you lost this, " the stranger simply stated.
"Is he..." Aleria started to ask but stopped fearing the answer.
"He's wounded and very weak, but very much alive, " the stranger answered and proceeded to carry Logaine to Aleria's wagon. Aleria wordlessly followed and continued to stare at the unconscious face of Logaine as the stranger laid him down in the wagon. The stranger returned to the magical steed removed a bundled up cloak from the saddle and dismissed the magical cat steed which promptly shifted back into its figurine form. This the stranger picked up, dropped into the cloak "bag" and dropped the "bag" inside the wagon next to the still unconscious form of Logaine.
"You may have Suaco, he's already saddled and ready for you..." Aleria mumbled softly unable to take her eyes off of the elven warrior.
The stranger grunted and grabbed the reins of the brown and already saddled riding horse that was tethered to the end of the wagon.
Aleria finally turned to thank the stranger but only saw a cloud of dust as the stranger had already taken off down road towards Neverwinter.
"Thank you, " she mouthed as she started to check Logaine's bandages.
[...]
(The End...?)
The following night, all was calm and tranquil in the large forest clearing. The hillgiants had since long returned to the comfort of their mountain side camp and Mordekai had gathered up the remnants of his shade contingent and had already left with his war-devils to try and meet up with the rest of the Netherese forces.
A slim diminutive shadow flitted from tree to tree until it came upon the tree line of the clearing. Reflected in the moonlight was a dark red tinged outline in the dirt vaguely forming the shape of a shortbow. As the moon passed behind a cloud and darkness settled across the clearing, little grey hands began to dig into the dirt. A sudden gasp of joy resounded in the forest and was suddenly gone leaving behind a long crescent shaped hole in the ground as the crescent shaped moon peeked out from behind the cloud...
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
(Shame that malebranches didn't eat Logaine)
Thanks! Too bad about the malebrache indeed but there is always next time! Muwahaha!
JS
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
that doesn't sound very elvish...but then again, you people are not elves, you're treehuggers!
Just like drows are weaponhuggers but at least we hug weapons!
And spiderhuggers! don't forget the spiders especially with Halloween coming soon!
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
yes but their weapons ... whips, handcuffs and leather heels...
*does her best George Takei* "Oh, my...."
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
(and the only forum post where its readers need to come up with a safe word!)
Thanks! The grammar may not have been perfect and the story-telling rudimentary but I still can't believe all that came out of my delusional, herbal/prescription drug fueled brain. Then again, from that description, may be I can. Time to go on a bad acid trip to write the spookey halloween story/module/adventure or in my case a bad ginseng or st. john's wort trip b:victory
Hehe, I know... I seem to bring out the best 50 shades of gray in people...
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
Nice, Endingdawn! Hope you liked your story, probably not quite what you expected but hopefully a thrilling roller coaster ride of a tale!
JS
This city promises death for the meek, glory for the bold, danger for all, and riches for Jade!
Elven Trickster Rogue: Two-bladed elf, tons of stabby stabby and that sort of thing...
| R. A. Salvatore | My Minions | Forgotten Realms Wiki | Elven Translator |
True...and also those small crossbows...and the swords...
No no no. Drows don't hug spiders. Those who follow Lolth lick spiders' eight legs!
(its worser than hugging)
I am now wondering if scheduling my vacation would create a temporal distortion providing the time for your muse to create the impetus and for you to complete another story. Which would be something else I eagerly await.
Sorry, cross-threaded, quirky humour should probably be left undone.
Neverwinter Thieves Guild