The StormWatch Chronicles
As seen through the eyes of Drano Battlehammer
Part 7
Update: 14/04/1998 to drano
September 5th, 596
Well, ladies and gentlemen. Where should I begin? With such a long weekend
there seems to be so much to
tell. I'd better fill my mug for this one . . . . . . I suppose the beginning
will do just fine.
I arrived in the Town of Ravenholt just after my companions Delahr and Borax.
The evening was warm,
but not unpleasant. As I entered the cabin, I overheard Sir Victdar of Eastwyck
state, "This is a great night
for fighting!" Little did I know at the time that this was actually foreshadowing
in the greatest sense of the
word. Cynesra, Chastity, Daereth, Squire Gabriel, and Sir Nork were all in attendance,
as well as Adrian
"War-Dog" and his companion `Rystrel (please forgive if my spelling
leaves much to be desired). We knew
others of our group would not be arriving until the 'morrow, if at all. Among
those were Bishop, Tempus,
and Koryon. We prepared ourselves quickly in order to arrive at Duke Andros'
welcoming speech. We
needed to be on time this weekend, more so than others, because the noble's
tournament was to take place
and the King himself would be coming to town.
Opening ceremonies were grand, with many nobles I'd never even heard of presenting
themselves to the
Duke. The King wasn't due to arrive until Saturday, but his advisor was there,
and stated the King was
donating a prize boar to Ravenholt for a grand feast. We were to sing a war-song
for him at the Duke's
request, but that wouldn't be until Sunday. After the initial presentation of
nobles, we began patrolling the
fields of Ravenholt. Sure enough, as if due to the high concentration of heroes
in one place, temporal rifts
began opening. From them, creatures similar to humans came. Though they resembled
humans in general
appearance and speech, they had claws extending from their hands. It was with
these claws that they
attacked travelers, and their touch on naked flesh caused a foul rotting of
the offended area. Fortunately,
my present powers of healing allow me to cure disease and purify the blood.
If we could manage to fight
them without them getting through our armor and magical protections, we would
be fine. Unfortunately, to
our horror, we found that the felled creatures could regenerate only to come
attack us again. Burning the
bodies seemed to work on some. Others seemed more resistant. I felt assured
of safety, though, knowing I
traveled with some of the finest swords in the duchy.
It wasn't until later, that I realized how fine those swords were. Gabriel,
Borax, and I were patrolling the
field. Gabriel was muttering something about finding "something to sharpen
his blade on", when they
appeared out of the darkness. Eight of the rotten creatures quickly surrounded
us and with evil grins began
to attack. . . .
I'd never known exactly what the "Dance of Death" was until this
moment. The three of us were completely
surrounded and their claws rained viscous, venom-coated harm upon us. I held
my shield in front of me and
bashed skulls to the left and right. My arm raised and fell like the hammer
I wield, and I felt a blow behind
me. I spun quickly, ready to bash an offender, and felt a pressure against my
back as Gabriel and I pivoted
upon each other. He turned to fight my enemies and I spun to give battle to
Borax's. I felt another thump
behind me and back-pedaled a step into Borax, who used me to spin about and
face the enemies I'd just
turned from while I met the grimaces of those he'd just left. This went on for
many long minutes with
Borax and I frantically swinging at dark shapes milling about us while trying
not to hit each other. Gabriel
felled creature after creature but they kept coming incessantly. Just when I
thought we'd never see the end
of them, Daereth and Delahr arrived on the scene having heard the sounds of
battle from afar. With the
group now a competent quintet, the Dance was over and we stood gasping for breath.
I bled from many
wounds and felt a plague coursing through my veins. Quickly, I called upon Mother
Earth to heal me, and
halted the potentially fatal disease in its tracks. Next, I summoned forth her
power to heal the many
lacerations upon myself. Feeling better, we decided it might be wise to continue
on in slightly larger force.
We went to the cabin to get others of our group, but had to wait a few moments
until they were ready for
travel. Cynesra, War-Dog, `Rystrel, and I sat upon our porch, chatting pleasantly.
Comments arose of a
mysterious figure known as the "Dark Master." Apparently, it was some
joke to ask another if they were the
Dark Master, then command them to "drop their shield." I don't get
it, but the reactions from various people
were amusing enough. Soon, Sir Grimm came up the path in front of our cabin
with a small entourage
behind him. Cynesra cheerily called out, "Are you the Dark Master?"
He responded, with a sideways grin,
"Noooo. . . ." What Cynesra failed to notice, however, was that part
of the entourage consisted of Duke
Andros, who did not find this as amusing as the rest of us. He stopped and demanded
we all remove our
gloves, so our hands could be inspected for claws or some such nonsense. Then
he chastised us about
accosting nobles with such comments and bade us do it no more. [Cynesra's Note:
Sorry, Your Grace. Silly
Hour hit early. :]
With that reprimand, many of our group turned in for the night. Gabriel, Northstar,
Daereth, and I took the
field with various members of Arkham and Capulus, including the good Baron Alaric
himself. We began a
fight with the nasty, regenerating, disease-ridden creatures that lasted well
over three hours. Finally, at
dawn, we finished the last of them and retired to our cabin to nurse our wounds
and share a mug 'o ale. The
ale went down well, as we thanked each other for mutual protection and companionship.
We finally saw the
insides of our eyelids as the first rays of sun came over the hills of Ravenholt.
Ours was not a long rest, however, and by the time the sun had climbed a quarter-way
into the sky, we were
up and off to see the nobles tournament. The baronies of Eastwyck, Capulus,
Dragonshire, and Westmarch
were in attendance and we cheered them on, loudly. Then, with a sudden silence,
the King came out of his
pavilion and greeted the people of Ravenholt. Taking a seat at one end of the
arena, the king was joined by
the Duke and Duchess, as well as various other influential nobles. These would
be the judges for the
tournament.
The nobles began with a presentation of their colors, then a race to accumulate
items from a list given by
the judges. We helped the barony of Eastwyck, as we keep their company often
and they allow us to stay
with them when in Ravenholt. They did well over the course of the afternoon
and placed high in the
treasure hunt. We enjoyed a pleasant afternoon in the sun. Chastity made a fine
concoction of wine, which I
fear may be too strong for irregular drinkers. She then invited Gabriel and
myself to share the bottle with
her, so we went for a walk in the fields and had a grand time until, with a
sudden cry, Gabriel freaked out!
As a wild elf, and member of the Wolf Clan, Gabriel has strong ties to the
spirit of the wood. He began
pacing back and forth, like his four-footed friends of the forest, and I will
swear he actually grew fangs! He
paced for a short time, snarling and spitting, before he suddenly took off toward
the woods. I ran after him,
not understanding what was going on, but not wishing harm to come to my friend
and traveling companion.
Come to think of it, there was also a fear that he might harm casual passers-by
as well. He really seemed to
have regressed into an animal-like being more than an elf. After a harried chase,
he finally slowed and
turned to me saying, "Ehawk! I need Ehawk NOW!!!". Just then, Johann,
the spell-caster from Anvil,
showed up and bade me search for Ehawk the Forest Lord, as he would be the only
one who would know
how to handle Gabriel and whatever was causing him to become bestial. I searched
high and low, and
finally found him emerging from the "friendly woods." He stated that
the "Blight" was about and causing
this effect on Gabriel as well as other wild elves of the wolf clan. I needed
to bring Gabriel to him and
summon StormWatch to help stop the "Blight."
We quickly amassed a group of some fifty people, from all different walks of
life, and followed Ehawk into
the woods to seal the cursed earth that was the Blight. It was here that I met
Ezariah, the Lord Magistrate of
Ravenholt, and a gypsy. He said he'd heard of me . . . (hmm . . . I'll have
to keep my voice lower in the
tavern. . . .) He accompanied our team into the woods, prepared to battle the
Blight in protection of the
town. The preparations we made, however, did not quite prepare me for what I
saw. The earth, itself, was
torn asunder and from it boiled a blackness so foul, no life near it lived.
This Blight also seemed sentient
and pulsed with a black heart that throbbed as we approached and attempted to
perform the ritual that
would seal the earth and cure the forest. The ritual was a long, arduous process
that required eight wild
elves of the wolf clan to insert seven coins into the earth, one at a time.
While this was going on, Ehawk
would enter the circle formed by the eight elves, and insert himself directly
into the Blight. This would
upset the Blight and it would defend itself by bringing forth creatures made
of wood to attack and attempt
to interrupt the ritual. The more coins in the earth, the tougher the creatures
would become. The coins were
made of King's Silver, which as all dwarves know, holds great magical power.
The big "catch" to this, was
that the eight elves could not be touched while the ritual was happening, as
it would break their
concentration. That, and Gabriel was the last to put the coins into the earth,
meaning that the defenders
would be trying their utmost to stop him. . . .
We set about defending the ritual participants, and did rather well for a time.
The tree-creatures came at us
with limbs swinging and emitting poisonous spores. At one point, I turned to
see how things were in the
circle, and realized that the woman defending Baron Northridge (one of the eight)
had moved to comfort
Ehawk, who lay in the pool of roiling chaos bleeding from multiple wounds. This
left the Baron with no
protection from the random poison spores and tree-creatures except for one Emerald
the Sarr. She lay in
front of the Baron, between him and the pool and absorbed the random chaos that
occasionally flew from
the pool. I quickly entered the circle and used my proficiency in the healing
arts to maintain a constant
vigilance over the Baron.
My shield was in front of us, soaking up much of the harmful chaos until suddenly,
Malace -- a healer from
Eastwyck -- was hit by a poisonous spore that affected his mind and caused him
to go berserk! He ran into
the circle and threw death magics at Ehawk and Jatrina in the pit. Baron Alaric
showed up quickly, but the
damage was already done. The pool spit the two dead bodies some fifty feet into
the air before they came
back to the earth with a sickening thud. Malace was quickly subdued and a young
she-elf named Calico
jumped into the pit to apparently offer her life-energies to the ritual. The
pool then spewed forth chaos,
harming all in the circle. I saw all go black for an instant . . . then light
suddenly returned thanks to the
good Baron Alaric's healing powers. I quickly checked Baron Northridge and healed
him.
Looking to my left, I saw that Chastity had been required elsewhere in the
circle, and Gabriel lay face-
down in the forest earth -- apparently dying. I quickly reached over and summoned
earth magic to heal him.
He blinked rapidly, then came to his knees. Chastity came back from wherever
she had gone and attended
to the rest of his wounds.
Baron Northridge had placed the last of his coins into the earth when the pool
surged and once again
emitted chaos. I saw the earth rushing up to meet me . . . then the sky as one
of Baron Alaric's squires
smiled weakly down at me. She helped me to my knees and examined the Baron again.
He now had blood
running from his chin, as the forces within the Blight pulled at his wolfish
side. He pawed at the earth and
drooled -- almost an animal, himself -- and I healed him again. Emerald was
now in front of me, snarling
something in the tongue of Sarr. So I carefully reached out and examined her.
The chaos had apparently
wounded her to the point that a scratch from a twig would have felled her. She
was going on some inner
strength, I knew -- something beyond natural limits. I quickly called forth
the power to heal her as well, and
the glassy look in her eyes cleared somewhat.
There was no time for thanks, though, as the pool's defenses were at their
summit. Gabriel had begun
inserting his coins into the earth and shadowy dragon figures swarmed those
outside the circle. I was hit by
a stray spell, but my magical shield protected me from its effects. Finally,
Gabriel finished the last coin, but
the pool only seemed angrier. It was then that I saw, to my horror, Gabriel
dragging himself towards the
pool. Someone screamed, and I quickly reached out and grabbed him. He was resisting
me, but was too
weak to pull away. A person next to us said, "He's OK! Let him go!",
but he only tried to crawl into the
pool again. I grabbed him once more, but Calico looked to me and said, "Let
him go, he has to enter the
chaos to end all this." Reluctantly, I released him. Sadly, I watched as
one of the great heroes of Ravenholt
fell into the pit and was engulfed by the earth. In an eye-blink, there was
nothing left except the now-healed
earth, and a bunch of tired, stunned folk from the town called Ravenholt.
Chastity and I were next to each other, perhaps the last to make contact with
Gabriel Wolvestride. She
looked at me in disbelief, with a tear in her eye, and asked simply, "He's
gone?" I didn't know what to say.
I'd seen many die in my time, but I'm sure she hadn't. The poor girl had just
married Gabriel one short
month ago. I felt despondent, but couldn't quite believe it myself, so I suggested
we head quickly to the
Healer's Guild, a place where spirits go that have not accomplished all they
could in their lifetime. Here,
they are resurrected, their spirits given life anew. We raced to town and the
Guild, but of Gabriel's spirit,
there was no sign. A mad dash to the other magic circle in town begot similar
success. Hope had all but left
Chastity's young eyes entirely. It was then that it dawned on us . . . YES .
. . . We saw E-Hawk and Jatrina
as we dashed from the woods! They must have come up somewhere! AHA!! The Unicorn
Pool! -- the pool
of life!
We were just about to run for the Unicorn Pool, when the Duke himself, stopped
us in our tracks. "You will
go nowhere!" he said in a commanding tone. "First you will rest for
three minutes, then you may continue
on your way!" Apparently, he saw the anguished look on our faces, for he
quickly walked away on "other
business" and purposely disappeared behind a ridge of trees, allowing us
to continue our search.
Gabriel was indeed found in the Unicorn Pool, much to our joy. We celebrated
with a feast, enjoying
steaks, chickens, ale, and something called a "sheesh-ka-bob." Mind
you, I have no idea who this "Bob" is,
but the tasty snack on a stick hit the spot! The ale poured freely and we rejoiced
in the reunion of Gabriel
and Chastity, short though their parting had been.
That evening, Koryon showed up in town, but seemed weary from his travels and
went fast to sleep. The
rest of us went to the great hall to enjoy the entertainment portion of the
tournament. The nobles all put on
fine shows, mostly in the form of skits poking fun at one individual or another.
Of particular mention, the
barony of Westmarch poked fun at dark elves, the barony of Eastwyck, and the
Duke and Duchess,
themselves. I've never met such comical stone elves! Their race always seemed
somewhat . . . "anal" to me.
The preparations for their skit included a wall of force between themselves
and the audience. The jests at
dark elves poked fun at their extremely high sense of honor. I was not aware
of this, but it appears that dark
elves would kill themselves for having forgotten to flush the loo. The Baroness
Ganthe was made fun of in
regards to her clean toes. Apparently, they are suckled by all her court as
well as certain, celestial-casting
warriors from other teams. . . . Finally, the Duke and Duchess were the butt
of a jest regarding their
inability to sire any children -- a touchy topic, I would suppose. They seemed
to take it for what it was,
though, all good fun.
Eastwyck sang a song poking fun at many of the powerful, dark figures that
plague Ravenholt and the
surrounding duchies. Among them, the mysterious Dark Master, Warlord Sagramore,
and . . . Northstar?
Odd item, there. Capulus did a skit depicting the rigors of becoming a knight.
The large, dangerous-
looking, pillow-weapon was good for a chuckle. Dragonshire's depiction of commoners
of Ravenholt was
funny, but in poor taste, I think. It showed the commoners as being slow speaking,
and dim-witted, though
in truth, I've found many of them as bright, if not more so than some people
of rank.
After that delightful presentation, we were called on a mission to acquire
a magic stone from a ruined
stronghold. Its power would help form something greater in the future, I heard.
We went with members of
Anvil into the ruins and quickly fought our way through a few guardians. Then,
across a lava-filled chasm,
we saw the stone. A few planks had been set across the lava, but looked for
the most part, unsafe. Also,
across the chasm stood those who had come before us -- long-dead adventurers.
Johann was with us, and
threw a well-placed wall of force up on the far side of the chasm, allowing
us to cross most of the way
undeterred. Then, with a flash, he dropped the wall, and our brave warriors,
Marsan, Gabriel, Nork and
Delahr took the undead swiftly down. By the time I had crossed, there was only
healing spells needed. We
grabbed the stone, searched the area, found some small treasure, and left. Back
at the tavern, we counted
our "take" and found it meager for the danger involved.
We split up after that, I found myself with Chastity, Borax, Koryon, War-Dog,
'Rystrel, and Malace of
Eastwyck. Chastity expressed a desire to travel with Baron Northridge, so I
told Borax I'd be back in a
moment -- I was escorting Chastity to Baron Northridge's entourage. We quickly
found them and, knowing
Chastity, the Baron agreed to allow her to travel with him. I'm not sure he
remembered me from earlier that
day, at the Blight, but I thought it prudent to not bring the experience up
again. He asked if I would join
him as well, but I suggested that I was tired and perhaps other members of StormWatch
would join him. He
agreed and followed us to the cabin where we'd left Borax and the others, but
they were gone! I decided at
that point to join them, as no one else from our team would be there, and I'd
feel terrible if something
happened to Chastity. Not that the Baron and his men are incompetent, mind you.
Fortunately, Gabriel
decided to join us as well.
After some time, our patrol found the town fairly secure, so we took a break.
In a short time though, as is
the way in Ravenholt, a fight broke out between creatures and townsfolk. We
were joined by Cynesra as
we quickly went to the battle and put an end to it. We continued patrolling
the town, with the Baron
offering passing folk a "Fatty" -- whatever that is. He was heard
to say, "Come here! We're gonna give you
a fatty!". Must need to be a Baron to understand. . . .
We came back to the cabin after patrolling, for a drink and some pleasant company.
As soon as I walked
through the door, though, I was accosted by Koryon demanding where I'd been!
"Where I've been?!" I
roared. "Where were you when Chastity and I came back earlier? We'd only
been gone a few moments,
we'd told Borax we'd be right back, and when we got there, you were gone!!!!"
This seemed to shut his
trap, and he headed out of the room in a huff. I took the rest of the time that
evening to relax and meet a
fellow dwarf, Brendel Poundstone. An interesting history, that one . . . but
a story for another time.
The next morning was the combat and spell-casting segment of the tourney. We
watched in awe as Baron
Northridge proceeded to enter only himself in the physical combat portion of
the event. Even more amazing
was watching the other nobles nobly fight him one-on-one. You see, a team in
this segment may have up to
three people on a side. This meant that the Baron would have to battle teams
of three by himself.
Unbelievably, he beat the team of Eastwyck, one after the other. Then, in a
show of bad form, Dragonshire
utilized all three of their fighters simultaneously! The battle was fast and
furious, but in the end, after the
dust had settled, Baron Derrick Northridge of Westmarch stood above his three
foes, the victor! As it came
out, he won the combat portion single-handedly! The crowd roared its approval
as the Baron proudly
claimed his first-place ribbon.
The casting part of the tourney was equally exciting as both words and spells
flew. The action was fast and
furious, and in the end, Eastwyck had won from the prowess of Malice and a Sarr
named Story. It was then
that we were requested by the Duke to perform a war-song for the King. The song
had so impressed him at
the commoner's tournament, earlier this year, that he bade us repeat it now.
Brought to us by Rystrel and
Adrian War-Dog, the song tells the tale of the great fight, and why we do it.
We were dressed in our best,
honored that the King would have commoners perform before him. And perform,
we did. Our voices rolled
across the arena and through the fields, and the din of the crowd of gathered
commoners and nobles alike
died when the first words were sung. Not a sound, but our voices were heard
for the entirety of the
performance. As the last chord rang out, only the sounds of the nearby woodland
creatures, rejoicing in the
melody, could be heard. We knelt and the King rose. He spoke then, and these
words will stay forever in
my heart. "I am impressed. This song, in my opinion, embodies the very
heart of all that this town stands
for! Thank you, StormWatch." With that, we turned beaming, and among the
praises of even the nobles, we
strode proudly from the arena.
While waiting nearby to hear the results of the puzzle portion of the tourney,
I was tapped on the shoulder
by Garth, a barbarian warrior from team Anvil. He bade me hurry, for my presence
was requested. I ran
with him to meet with Seneschal Serrek, Gabriel, and Nork, as well as two others
whom I do not know. We
would be escorting Serrek and the two strangers to the Oracle. The two strangers
had offered to serve the
town by asking their questions in the name of Ravenholt. You see, the Oracle
only answers two questions
of any one person in that person's lifetime. For their services, they would
be paid ten gold coins each; a
healthy sum.
We arrived at the entrance to the Oracle in short order. The cave was dark
and foreboding, but we were
undaunted. Crossing a suspended bridge, Gabriel and Nork cleared our way to
solid ground. Therein, I cast
a light spell and we proceeded deeper into the cave. Through a crawl space into
a chamber, we went. Then,
we stopped, as we heard guardians in the adjacent chamber before us. A classic
confrontation ensued with
Gabriel's and Nork's shields blocking the hallway, their swords cleaving the
guardians into pieces. Garth's
polearm rained bloody terror down upon the enemy from between the two shields,
and Serrek and I stood
directly behind them with healing spells at the ready. The guardians never really
stood a chance.
In the next room was a candle, already lit, powered by magic. We found another
on the body of one of the
guardians and lit it, revealing a secret door. Through the door, we went, into
a small room of death. Therein
was a gallows and beyond, a glowing skull. The strangers asked their questions,
but it wasn't enough. One
more question had to be asked. I stepped forward, not having any questions to
ask of my own, and asked
one for the town. Serrek was pleased and bade the other question I asked be
personal. Gabriel suggested we
find Koryon's daughter. With that, I strode forward and discovered where Koryon's
daughter would be just
one month from now. He would be so pleased!
We left far more easily than we came, I taking the gallows with me. We arrived
back in town and found
Cynesra had been delivered an invitation to tea from a death knight. We assembled
five others to go with
her. A more powerful group has seldom been seen in one room, I gather. Gabriel,
Nork, Daereth, Cynesra,
and Viscount Daramor, Head of the Mage's Guild. Cynesra turned and asked me
to accompany them on this
trip. My jaw hit the floor, to be requested to accompany this band of heroes
was an honor beyond honors!
We prepared ourselves, waiting for the minion of the death knight to come for
us...
As it turned out, Tristemere, a powerful healer, ended up in my place, and
the mission was successful. All
arrived back safely, with not a blow dealt. The trip had made most of the members
of the team very testy,
though. Arguments were breaking out over foolish things, and "moody"
does not begin to describe the
feeling in the air. Nork called us together for a team meeting which ended up
in a story-telling session. Out
in the field under the night sky, we shared a part of ourselves that most others
do not know. In the telling,
we gave each other a part of ourselves that will, I believe, make us precious
to each other. I learned much
about the people I call friends and wouldn't trade them for all the gold in
the earth.
I thanked the bottom of my mug for such great favors, and wondered what else
could possibly happen?! I
should have shut my mouth, for I'm told we're off in the morning to recover
a magical chalice from some
dark master or something . . . hmmm . . . methinks this requires more grog.
. .