Figured I should tell events in a more storylike fashion like Yoink and others, but don't have much experience at this so constructive critisim appreciated
"Hello good sir, I am here to discuss serving your cause"
"Why I am flatted sir, but I have no need of your services"
All took all of Thola's strength not to groan but he could not hide the disappointment on his weathered face. This was around the 6th hamlet in a row who had been untroubled, though it felt like the six hundredth. Thola often got the impression that he had arrived late to the adventuring world in the Kingdom of Balancing as the troubles of a year ago had mostly been wiped out. Lords and ladys in the castles did not consider him skilled enough to take on the mightier foes of the land, but there was a noticeable lack of lesser creatures with which to prove his might.
This is not to say that Thola was an inexperienced adventurer; indeed he was respected by many of the smaller factions within the Kingdom of Balancing for his earlier deeds, which mostly consisted of bandit killing. His best moment was arguably the striking down of Bosa Hatredanguished the goblin who tried to ambush his party; a goblin so hated by the Kingdom of Balancing that her image was engraved on the back of all silver coins in the kingdom as both a warning to traders and a target to adventurers such as himself. His exploits had earned him the title of "the Flayed Visionary of Teeth". When he was first called the name he couldn't work out if he was being insulted or not and was nontheless slightly offended at the stupidity of the title. Now he chuckled upon hearing the name as he remembered that the pesants of this region had an penchant for silly titles, the last great hero to come from the Kingdom becoming known as Erthok Chainedmuscles the Canyons of Rushing.
He remembered Erthok, a great local hero who worked his way up from no reputation to become famous enough to make even the spoiled lords sit up and take notice. He recieved a quest from the local lord, a position many would-be adventurers perish before reaching. However, Erthok was tragically unable to complete his first quest for the lords, he and his party cut down at night by goblin ambushers from the Yor of Menacing for no reason other than that they would have been unable to best them in daylight on equal terms. It was this which inspired Thola and many others in the kingdom to rise up and adventure to take back the lands from these cowardly maggots called bandits. He had been more successful than others such as Zega Loveland who died early on in their prime, which only fueled his rage further. Thola had worshipped Erthok as an inspiration and a great monster killer, now he cursed his name for not leaving any more behind for him.
His companions were getting restless too, as money was fast running out for food, water, and accomodation to rest at nights. Thola began to regret spending the majority of the money gained from selling the loot on that two handed bronze sword, though he couldn't help but admire its beauty, decorated with spikes of hardened ash and some green gems that he did not know the name of. Still if lack of opportunities continued he would have to sell the sword to make ends meet.
"Right this is gettin' rediculous" he complained to his five other followers in a gruff, deep voice which would not sound out of place in the dwarven mountainhomes themselves. Everyone decided it was time to leave the Kingdom of Balancing to seek new areas for glory. The remaining money was used to buy a couple of wagons and horses and enough food seemingly to last a journey to the world and back. Unfortunantly Thola and his party had forgotten just how big the world was. Months past without seeing a single thing besides them, cougars and wolves, which were delt with swiftly. Occasionally Thola would pass by heavily forested areas with great trees which almost gave the impression of being alive. Thola knew of these being the great forest retreats of the elves but intensive searches turned up nothing alive or dead. This worried Thola, he had heard the rumours of the elves and dwarfs mysteriously disapearing from the world but had dismissed it as the drunk ramblings of people in the tavern. However they seemed very much to be true and whatever had made them vanish in this area could still be there if they were unlucky, this thought seemed to eat further away at his sanity.
Another problem the months without contact from other sentinent creatures led rise to another problem. When a band of kobolds attacked the party they had almost forgotten how to defend themselves from ambushes. A pikeman and a Axeman from Thola's party were brutally dispatched by the kobolds and one swordsman slashed Thola in the ankle, severing a motor nerve and crippling him whilst others closed in. Many attacks on his vital organs were deflected by the bronze breastplate and iron helm he had taken of dead bandits in his battles but all this seemed to guarantee him was a more painful death as they slowly cut open his extremities. Then out of nowhere two kobolds screamed in pain and Thola looked to see two of his party members attacking the kobolds with a bolt going straight through the third's skull before he had even the time to scream signalling the crossbowman's survival. Thola was helped up and placed on to the wagon but the situation still looked increadibly grave with Thola having what many doctors would describe as mortal wounds. Amazingly after a week or so Thola's wounds healed completely at the cost of being so heavily scarred it was near impossible to tell which way his face was when you first met him. Still that did not dim Thola mood at surviving and he openly praised his god Emmun the Cheerful Saviour for his mercy. The party looked upon this as a great omen to signal their return to civilisation and rise to heroes of this new land and continued on with increased vigour. Thola himself fashioned a crutch from some nearby trees and over time learned to use his sword and shield just as effectively as before his injury.
However fate was not to be so kind. Another wolf attack was quickly put down with Thola himself killing one whilst moving on his crutches. However Thola couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. He quickly looked around and saw that his hammerman was missing! It was then that he and his party heard splashing and screaming for help. It appeared that a wolf had knocked his hammerman into the water of a nearby lake whilst fighting; his hammerman had never been able to swim but it had never been considered an issue as they weren't fighting bandits over water. Thola remembered this bitter irony as he and his companions attempted to help the hammerman but he was to far away and Thola could only watch in horror as he drowned. Thola broke down and thought about ending it right there but his remaining two members restrained him and convinced him not to by reminding him how history would remember him if he were to do so. Thola agreed but did not even attempt to hide his melancholy mood as there was no point, the other people knew and shared this mood and they continued in silence.
Thola thought it could not get any worse than it was at the moment but he was wrong again. One night a sudden weight came crashing into the wagon knocking it over and tossing Thola's crutch far from his grasp. He looked up stunned to see two hideous creatures of the night announcing their presence and listing off the people they had killed. They were quickly upon the crossbowman and spearman killing them before they had a chance to defend themselves. Upon noticing Thola inability to stand up they let out an evil cackle and encircled him, clearly intending to torture him before his death. Thola was helpless but seeing his friends killed so quickly was overcome with rage and finally pride. He knew he was going down but vainly swung his bronze sword in the hope of getting a lucky strike. Such luck was not forthcoming and the night creatures continued to scratch and kick Thola instead of killing him there until mericfully they had enough and gored him in the head, killing him instantly.
Such ended the tragic life of Thola Dashlighting the Flayed Visionary of Teeth, whose mutilated and decomposing body was found later next to the other two dead party members by two other adventures investigating the vanishing of the elves nearby. The bodies of the other party members were not found and their deaths are only known about from the reading of Thola's diary.
OOC: Wow that was a lot longer than I expected! Hope it was worth the read. I think the reason why I never found anyone is because I took a wrong turn on the map and went through two elven kingdoms which of course have no towns. I was wondering, if I edited the raws so that the elves and dwarfs have their own towns like some have, would they be able to give me quests, as their must have be a fair amount of lairs/caves through the areas I passed, or do only humans give quests to adventurers?
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Topic: What's going on in your adventure? (Read 2135406 times)