"Firesword has been stolen!" Someone's voice echoed through the halls of Lancelords, the Mountainhome of The Earthen Furnaces. Firesword the Release of Shadowruler was a legendary artifact created in a madness that had then been forgotten. Its creator, or rather the vessel for the creator had never been the same after that.
And now his daughter was looking for him. She knew that he had probably taken the legendary pick from the throne room. And he had probably gone down the shaft to the Slade.
Doren Firearmor the Neverpregnant Slaughter was an acclaimed fighter. She had fought in the many ambushes and sieges the goblins and elves put forth. She got her title after a group of elves managed to pin her down, giving her grievous wounds that left her barren, but not before she mortally injured them all.
Doren took the stairs down to the shaft, and found Melbil Churchmines sitting on top of the Slade. It was a unique feature in the mountain range. A featureless but impossibly smooth cube of stone that the King had dubbed Slade. No pick, not of steel or adamantine, could make a dent in it.
"Hello daughter." Melbil said. "I'm going to give you your sword now." He said.
"Dad." Doren sat down next to him, but didn't dare to touch Firesword which he held in his hands. "You got to come up. No matter the tool, nothing will work on this stone. Come up with me. I'm sure that the King will forgive your madness.
"I see the sword with your name on it. It's down there." Mebil looked at her, then stood up. "The sword the gods have given you. And they gave me this to help me get it to you."
Firesword was an adamantine pick despite its name. Its handle head was encrusted with the orange bone of a forgotten beast Doren had killed. The leather wrapped around the handle was beak dog that had killed a hunter and a handful of wardogs. But the tip was encrusted with tiny speckles. Only those with good eyes for gems or knew of Firesword's construction knew that those speckles were what remained of one of the largest clear diamond that the civilization had found.
Before Doren could act, Melbil swung his pick at the roof of the slade cube.
And she saw the Slade crack. She knew that diamond was strong, but she had never imagined that diamond broken up and coated on adamantine was strong enough to crack the slade. She backed up, her heart racing in excitement. They were opening the cube, they were going to see how it was on the inside.
Melbil swung the pick again and again, and soon enough there was a hole in the slade. Firesword showed no wear or cracks, as most legendary tools did. The hole became of sufficient size after few swings with the pick.
"Let us go down daughter. Let's go find your sword." Melbil said and dropped down the hole. Doren dropped down after him. Even if there wasn't a sword down there, it was still untouched by dwarves.
And then the smell hit her. It was a strange smell of rot. She knew it, she had seen the goblins summon undead wrecks of trolls that had fallen in the battlefield. Zombies. At least they were easy.
Doren was ahead of her father, checking every room and every corner in the cube. She killed the shambling wrecks of creatures she knew the names of and creatures that were unknown to her. They looked ancient to the point where she wondered if the cube was created before there had been a time.
And on the bottommost floor, she saw the sword. It was a great sword. No dwarf in the whole mountain could have made such a fine sword. She knew of adamantine swords there were called masterpiece swords, but the sword in front of her put them all into shame.
And edched on the blade of the sword was the name Ziriltosid, Firearmor. Her father had been right all the time. She dropped her unnamed fine steel sword and picked up the Her Sword.
The ground shook. She knew it was no usual earthquake, nor a volcano erupting. The shacking was unnatural, her attuned dwarven senses told her that much. Then the screaming started. It wasn't any real scream as it was. It was unnatural, and seemed to come from inside her own head. Her elation was soon replaced by the guarded posture of a soldier that knew that she was going to be in battle soon.
Melbil dropped Firestarter down a hole that had formed where the sword had been. "I've done what the gods have asked me of!" He called down to the hole. "Now release me from my duty!" The moment he released the last word a large clawed hand seized him and dragged him down the hole. He never made a sound.
Doren stood there with Her Sword ready. The moment something reared its ugly head, or whatever it was, she slashed at it. It went through it like an axe through cheese. Then she ran.
A good soldier knew when to fight, and when to run. She needed help. The demons had been released from its prison.
It was a fierce fight. Doren saw many of her friends and family fall. Her fellow soldiers, her acquaintances, those she disliked. But anywhere she struck, she killed. No one seemed to ask where the sword came from, they only seemed to be happy that someone could kill the demonic hordes coming. But there was no glorious victory, no last stance, nothing to be proud of. She lost count of who many she had killed. Some had looked like shapeless blobs, some looked like the gods they worship, one had taken the form of her mother. Though the last one had gone screaming and dissolving into something that resembled something the furnace operator had made from a cinnabar stone before he had died from Dust.
Doren and handful of survivors got out. She had warriors and their dependents by her side. They knew that the demons had taken the tunnels to the other mountain halls. The whole mountain was fallen.
'Go north' She heard someone whisper like those demons had screamed into her mind. She looked around but saw nothing.
"We will go north!" She called to the survivors, holding up Her Sword. "The Beak of Prophecies mountain is infested! The Humans have told us of a mountainrange called The Tooth of Clouds! That is where we go. We shall settle there, make a new name for ourselves, warn the others of the hordes to the south. We shall be the The Gate of North, Inodirol!"
I wanted once to make a community game. Finals and all that got in my way. I actually got one more test left of the finals. This is what the intro would have basically been like. Sorry about the horrendous English and grammar. English is not my first language, and not my second.
Maybe I could continue this story. I dunno just yet. Been a while since I thought about it aside from writing this.
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Topic: Story - Inodirol, The Gate of North (Read 1050 times)