ACT 1
Prologue: Seeteechlin the Kobold in the Lair of the Ettin
Seeteechlin had never seen more glitter in his entire short life. The caverns, dim as they were even with his inborn ability to see in the dark, shined like a thousand suns. And it was all because of the gems, the glorious multitude of gems that lay before him. With a squeal, the fat amber-furred kobold tore his pack from his back and dumped out the dozens of eggs that lay inside, waiting to be eaten or thrown as necessary, and set to gathering whatever he could fit in his bag.
All sense of stealth was lost as he tore through the winding halls, ducking beneath low-hanging arches and scrambling over sharp stalagmites wrought of quartzite. By the time the creature spotted him, Seeteechlin wore an amulet of tin, a crown of purple wood, and a bracelet of raw silver. In one hand he bore a figurine depicting a dwarf, carved from some bright red ore he had never seen before. As Seeteechlin quaked, gazing up at the two-headed beast before him, the amulet clanked against the bracelet on his thick wrist and the gems which had been stuffed into his backpack rattled noisily.
Seeteechlin's yellow eyes gazed into the deep fern-green eyes of one of the Ettin's head for all of a moment, and then Seeteechlin turned tail and ran...directly into a dead-end. With a short shout, the kobold spun and flung himself around a corner just as the Ettin swung one massive hand down where he had been standing a moment before. And then Seeteechlin was off again, down another corridor. He only back-tracked a moment, to stuff a bone figure depicting kobolds into his bag.
It was not until he was tired, panting and out-of-breath that Seeteechlin realized he had been running away from the surface. Before him was a great lake, and behind him the thunderous pounding of an Ettin on his heels. Swallowing, the Kobold dropped to a crouch, gripped his copper razor tightly, and prepared for the worst.
Maitu tore around the corner, lashing out with a powerful punch that knocked Seeteechlin to his knees and tore the breath from his lungs. Gasping for air, the novice thief scurried between his aggressor's legs and down the passage from which he came, blindly turning corners as the scratchy voices of the Ettin's two heads bellowed behind him.
When Seeteechlin reached the surface once more, he was met by the stars and a yawn. While he had originally come to that place in search of a place to sleep, even he, with his decided lack of intelligence, knew that he could not stay any longer and so, with a fearful glance to the darkness behind him, set off into the night.
"Halt in the name of the Honesty of Beer!" a squeaky voice rang out in the still dawn air. Bleary-eyed, Seeteechlin turned north to see, not a dwarf, but a lone kobold armed with a rusty copper chopper. His eyes grew wide and then, shaking himself awake as best he could, he raised his copper razor, snarled, and charged.
Seeteechlin never made it to the other kobold, an unarmed female dashed out from behind a glumprong, tackling him to the ground. Whining in pain, Seeteechlin stabbed out, driving his razor into her abdomen. Blood spilled down to stain his vulture feather tunic, and the koboldess released her hold on his leg to add vomit to the mixture. Squeezing his eyes shut, Seeteechlin lashed out again and again until he was able to shove her off of him, scrambling away from a flash of copper just in the nick of time.
The wrestler staggered to her feet, retching and clutching at her bleeding stomach. Growling, the axebold raised his chopper and charged, tackling Seeteechlin to the ground once more. The thief's leg roared with pain at the knee, and then went numb. A moment later, darkness overtook him.
Feel free to suggest the race and preferred fighting style of the first adventurer that this story will actually follow. It's going to be a peasant either way.
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Topic: The World of Griffins - A Story (Read 630 times)