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Post by spifomie on Nov 12, 2013 22:33:11 GMT
Explorers from towns often visit one another, or stumble upon the holds and towns of the main races. When they do such, stories are often exchanged by firelight of life back in their respective homelands and towns. The storyteller weaves the tale of horror, comedy, glory, or something stranger to pass the time as they rest for the night before setting out once more into the wilderness. Sometimes fictional legends, sometime factual recent events. Often time the truth is warped into exaggeration by the storyteller for greater laughs or gasps of amazement.
This thread is for that purpose, and to allow a themed meta-discussion/distribution of recent events and world building legends. However, to keep things RP centric on the actual game and not on this thread, ONLY things that have been stated/done/seen in the actual server can be related to upon this board.
Assuming that the moderator and the general community is alright with this Idea, I will begin with a few examples:
A tale from the Human town of Southbridge tells of a local militiamen who, when ordered to gather wool, slaughtered the entire pen of sheep with his sword and took the bloody wool from their still warm corpses...
Have you heard the legend of the "War of the White Rose?" The story goes that the Empire, and the Republic of (Insert name Nova, I forget) once engaged in a two decade long war over a misunderstanding of the color of a important Rose. To this day, both sides claim that it was the other that called the rose red.
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Post by Arbiter Galerattle on Nov 13, 2013 0:26:15 GMT
Constable Galerattle wearily sidles through the door to his small abode above the Southbridge port, exhausted by the many happenings of the past few days. Peeling off his iron cuirass, he rummages through the drawer at the foot of his cot for the daily event journal he keeps for this settlement. Collapsing into his chair, he tiredly writes down a date and begins doggedly transcribing the most recent events in Southbridge
The Prince of the Republic and his lot brought more conflict into this town. Apparently, the two members of the young lordling's entourage that he originally came to this land to search for managed to anger some elves. Why the leader of The Republic keeps such troublesome subjects in his employment is beyond me.
The two subjects the prince was looking for, one Tyr Stagborn and Captain Xanatos, had managed to find an Elven town. They then proceeded to attempt to buy one of their women, and piss on their holy shrine (I pray they were not employed as diplomats) before returning to the area around Southbridge. Our village was informed of this by an elf warrior with a horde of wolves and a glowing blade that came to our town looking to execute them. The Elders, in their wisdom, decided to mediate the situation by attempting to gather the two groups and sort this out like civilized folk via a trial.
With the help of the elven warrior, Prince Nova, and the less depraved members of Nova's entourage, we managed to track Tyr and Xanatos to the basement of a building in the outskirts of Southbridge. There, The Elders, backed by the town militia and myself, managed to talk down the rather frightened and dangerous pair. Our intent was to bring them all to a secure place and solve this situation.
However, as soon as we left the basement, that damned Captain Xanatos began ranting about it being the day that "you almost caught Captain Xanatos" and took off sprinting, despite the fact that we made it clear that runners meet the sword. The elf ran him down, however, and slew him before we managed to do the job ourselves. She also beheaded him and cut the heart out of his corpse. I made a note that day to avoid violent conflicts with elves.
Tyr was furious at his friend's idiocy, and upset that it caused his death. Thankfully, he was also a much more sensible sort, and came quietly to our holding cells, where he is currently awaiting trial for his actions. The Elf's bloodlust seems to be sated for the time being, and I assume she is waiting to state her case as to what she believes the outcome should be regarding Tyr. Her actions in the killing of Xanatos were ruled as acceptable (if unfortunate) by The Elders, as the Captain brought his death upon himself by attempting to run from the laws of the Empire.
With a tired sigh, Galerattle closes the journal and slides into his cot. He finally allows the exhaustion to overtake him and falls asleep muttering about drunken pirates, foreign princes, and barbaric elves.
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Post by wolfwing on Nov 13, 2013 1:09:22 GMT
One of Parnel Silverhammer's tales of adventure, which is keeps copies of at the dwarf fortress. I don't want to give away all his books, though.
The Turian Isles
By Parnel Silverhammer
The Turian Isles are islands in the east, past the Man-Lands, located in the center of the Sultan Sea. The islands vary from 10~ cubic miles to only a few feet across. This book will cover my experience with the Turian Isles, starting with the smallest island, Xyvux, to the largest island Vyzu. The smallest notable island in the Turian isles is Xyvux, it is completely sand and ash soil. I believe it was the location of a volcanic eruption about 100 years ago.
There are remnants of primitive civilization. Turian folk tales tell of ancient enemies, the Banu, inhabiting these islands, but after an act of their God, Pronktugu, they were wiped out. We can assume this was just the volcano becoming extremely active once more. As such, the Banu to the island. Recently, the Turian people had planted new vegetation. Moving on to the next largest island, slightly larger, Gortonk. Gortonk is mostly thick jungle, with colorful vegetation and diverse wildlife.
The island was over run by ocelots severely limiting my research. It seems like it would be a very interesting place to research, but the ocelots, uncharacteristically, where very aggressive. Whilst passing by on my boat, the all stared intently, almost threateningly among the tree tops.
Needless to say, it was very unnerving. As such I had to avoid Gortunk for my own safety. The next, similarly sized island, Porkun, had similar anomalous traits. This island, though just as beautiful from the outside, was covered in aggressive wolves.
Again, I had to avoid the island for my own safety. At this time, I had not even discovered the indigenous people of the island, but they would soon explain to me their theory. Which leads me to the final island, Vyzu. Vyzu is similar to the other islands in terrain, but is inhabited by a primitive society of men. Upon first landing on the island, I was relieved to find it clean of hostility like the last two. I was wrong to think so, unfortunately. Cutting through the thick vines, I made my way
Into the islands depths. My feet were suddenly whipped into the air, and I suddenly found myself hanging upside down from a tree. The fall would have easily killed me, and the ride up may have broken a leg. So I had no choice but to stay put, hoping The hunters would come quick to claim the false quarry. I was in luck, in only 10 minutes men in war paint and waist cloths came and retrieved me. At the same time, my colleague who I previously asked to stay on the boat came stumbling through the brush, as you could imagine, I was quite afraid of my companion and I being the main course for primitive cannibals.
But I was caught off guard by what happened next. The dark skinned "primitives" reaches out a courteous hand,and my companion shook it inquisitively. The one who extended his hand smiled a polite but yellow smile, he said clearly and with authority "Welcome to the Turian people's land, who do I have the pleasure of meeting?". Imagine my surprise! Indigenous people of unknown isles were so proper and seemingly appropriate. They led us back to their village, which was composed of well fed people who lodged in long houses and mud shacks. They introduced us to their leader, who was just as courteous.
They apparently smuggled books of human civilization from across the ocean,written by human philosophers and aristocrats. All their people were well educated and fluent in common. This was evident by the wall of books that occupied the chieftain's hut. My first question for the chieftain was the obvious inconsistency with their education and their living condition. He explained to me fluently and precisely: "Larger society perverts the means to achieve human progress, eventually favoring production over sagacity and real human progress. Further more, the machinations of a larger society require the homogenization of power, and therefore corruption and evil run rampant".
I was taken back by his explanation, but was able to studder out the contradiction in his words. He was chieftain, after all. He explained he was a chieftain by tradition and an ambassador by tradition. After more stimulating conversation, he was willing to show me more of his people's accomplishments. He allowed me to
read his people's ancient works (though not so-very-ancient as they were only 100 years old) such as tales of their Gods punishing their enemies with volcanoes. They had also mastered Genetic Modification using alchemy, something not even modern
societies have achieved.
I have vowed not to speak of it further, but they were able to create potent poisons and medicine with this method. Not to gloat by any means, but they welcomed my stories of the outside world and my travels. I lived with the Turians for another 6 months. My companion and I learned much about the indigenous plants, animals, and information about geology, astronomy, and metallurgy.
Unfortunately, I was bound by honor not to speak the methods, not because it was a secret
but because, as the chief put it "It gets quite lonely on these islands, and no one would visit us if you published a book with all our culture!". Since then, the Turians set up various tourist traps in order to fund their research. Mostly their research involving the two smaller islands: Gortonk and Porkun. Not even the Turians know why the Ocelots and Wolves deter visitors from their respective islands. The Turians do have a theory, though.
It is possible two immortal Shamans stuck in the old ways preside there. The Turians have said the islands are thick with magic energy after all, and it is a place of great power. It would be an interesting expedition, however, I am an explorer, not a warrior. Who knows what great powers could be lurking on these dangerous islands, to this day I still don't know. I would encourage all would be adventurers to visit the Turian Isles, if you can find them in the mist, but if you are a tourist, I would exclusively visit Vyzu or Xyvux. Stay
clear of Gortonk and Porkun!
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venusorrels
Kobold
From Central Time Zone (-6 GMT)
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Post by venusorrels on Nov 15, 2013 2:56:15 GMT
Gaffer 'round lil 'boldies and I tell you storee of da Nife-eer Boldiekillah. Grundi you stop dat, leef Runtak scales alones.
Alrite bolds. So da Nife-eer Boldiekillah rides on ugly, nasty horsee fing made of shinies. It run faster den boldies even so you can no run 'way! Nife-eers follows you and follows you until you fink you gon crazees! Dats when you heers it. She blow on dis fing and it make a biiiig roar an den you know dat da Sunmuver can't helps you. Dat sound of deddy bolds. Still not scared? You should be, Doofdun! Cuz den horsee ride rite up next to yous and den da Nife-eer hitchu wiff a big ole pointy stick and cutchu's deeps and make lots of ouchies! Den you fink you deddy bold. But you not deddy bold yet! Nife-eer takes you and cut yous beaty heart out! Den you deddy bold! After dat she takes you body and frows it over her shinies horsee and takes it back to her warrun and she cookschu up and eatschu!
So remembah lil boldies! You no leave warrun alone! No go to bed, its dark out and Nife-eer is out dere!
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Post by spifomie on Nov 15, 2013 5:20:11 GMT
Gaffer 'round lil 'boldies and I tell you storee of da Nife-eer Boldiekillah. Grundi you stop dat, leef Runtak scales alones. Alrite bolds. So da Nife-eer Boldiekillah rides on ugly, nasty horsee fing made of shinies. It run faster den boldies even so you can no run 'way! Nife-eers follows you and follows you until you fink you gon crazees! Dats when you heers it. She blow on dis fing and it make a biiiig roar an den you know dat da Sunmuver can't helps you. Dat sound of deddy bolds. Still not scared? You should be, Doofdun! Cuz den horsee ride rite up next to yous and den da Nife-eer hitchu wiff a big ole pointy stick and cutchu's deeps and make lots of ouchies! Den you fink you deddy bold. But you not deddy bold yet! Nife-eer takes you and cut yous beaty heart out! Den you deddy bold! After dat she takes you body and frows it over her shinies horsee and takes it back to her warrun and she cookschu up and eatschu! So remembah lil boldies! You no leave warrun alone! No go to bed, its dark out and Nife-eer is out dere! This story clearly gets the gold star. |
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venusorrels
Kobold
From Central Time Zone (-6 GMT)
Posts: 0
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Post by venusorrels on Nov 22, 2013 10:11:59 GMT
Dinki awoke abruptly. The heat around him was all encompassing, the normally invigorating warmth was painful to endure. The ground.. it was different, this was not dirt nor stone, and that wretched STENCH. The horrible odor of sulfur and decay overloaded the kobold's senses, making focusing on anything difficult. He pushed himself to sit up straight and take stock of his situation and thats when he started to look around.
Dinki had never seen a place like this in his life, fire lit up the entire landscape before him, burning on some sort of strange dark soil. Molten rock poured from great gashes in the cavernous ceiling, pooling at the bottom of the foul place in a great lake of flame. Hideous and monstrous creatures littered the landscape, things long dead but neither man nor beast, but a cruel, twisted distortion of the two with blades of solid gold. They dotted about, seemingly wandering without aim. Black, charred bones of unknown origin, animated to walk this hellish landscape yet again stood vigil on castles of black stone. Living flame flew about the caves, wherever they landed immediately sprang into flames.
Horrified, Dinki tried to take stock of what he had. His leathers, the shiny breastplate he had been gifted, a blade of gems, and his trusty bow, Deddy Maker. He was running low on food and had to find a way out of this place, quickly. He attempted to stick to his basic underground navigation, up and out, but the landscape twisted and turned making this incredibly difficult. There was also the matter of legions of beastmen roaming about. Perhaps there was another way out of this place. Dinki decided to attempt to infiltrate the castle of black brick on the horizon, maybe there was something there.
Dodging the beastmen proved easier than Dinki initially thought and those that did spot him were made short work of by Deddy Maker. At the entrance to the black citadel there stood the ashen skeletons with swords of blackened iron. Dinki found a perch on the alien dirt and took out the skeletons with Deddy Maker. With the guards disposed of, he ran to the entrance and only began to walk once inside. The halls were winding impossibly, surely four right turns meant he was travelling in a circle. He turned around and behind him, a wall of dirt. No. That can't be right. He had just come from that way. This plays was changing. The halls were shifting. Dinki started to panic. Theres no way out.. how will I get home.. HOW? He managed to compose himself, no, there had to be a way. Theres always a way. Up and out, Dinki, up and out.
He kept following the path that was set out before him and before long he stood on the battlements, very close to the ceiling of the cavern... Maybe.. Maybe he could just dig out.. Up and out, Dinki, up and out.. His claws dug deep into the dirt covering the ceiling, kobolds were built to tunnel and Dinki was always pretty good at it. Digging, keep digging Dinki, we're going to make it. He turned around, he could barely see the glimmers of flames behind him. How much further did he have to dig? Was this really the way out? Maybe.. maybe hes just chasing a delusion, maybe there really is no other way.
Keep digging. You're almost there.
Whats that? A voice? Was that me? Was that my thoughts? No, that wasn't me. Maybe someone on the other side? Maybe. Sunmuver? Darkshiny Dagon? Whats happening?
His claws bit into the earth once more, and this time his hand fell through to emptiness on the other side. Yes! I've done it! Dinki did it! He pulled himself from the vile ground and stood... in nothing.. Just a blank endless plain as far as the eye could see. Maybe.. There had to be someone here. Dinki ran a few steps before slowing to a stop. No. Theres nothing here. Nothing at all. He turned around to go back to search on the other side of his tunnel but there was something there.
Something was facing away from him, its flesh as dark as the night sky with limbs impossibly long. Longer than its own body. Dinki was immediately on edge, scared, terrified. The thing turned slowly around and locked eyes with his own. He was frozen to the spot. Crippling fear, doubt, dread and hoplessness held the kobold in place as this thing approached with its arms outstretched toward him. Dinki drew his blade and held it between them as it got closer. And closer. Until it was upon him. Dinki dropped his blade to his side. There was nothing he could do. The thing wrapped its hands- was it hands? They felt more like tendrils around his throat. This was it. This was the end of Dinki. Nothing escaped from this place. He would die and become one of those things down in that pit. He closed his eyes and let his head drop.
Suddenly there was no more heat. No more horrible odor. And he thought he felt the soft tickle of grass blowing in the wind pricking at his nose. Yep. He was dead. Certainly dead but wherever he was, it was leaps and bounds above the place he was before. He pushed himself up from the ground and looked up to the sky, the sun shining in his eyes. He raised a hand to block the rays of sunlight. Thats weird. The Sunmuver is here too? He looked around and in the distance he saw familiar smokestacks burning against the blue sky. Wait. Is that the humie town? He squinted trying to get a better view and sure enough, there were those iconic wooden palisades.
Dinki's not dead. Dinki's not dead! He grinned for a moment before he heard it again.
Leave here.
Dinki's spine froze and the icy fear clutched his soul again. This time he found his motivation and he bolted. He sprinted and scrambled over rocks until the warren was in sight. Out of breath, exhausted, bruised, cut, burned, only then did Dinki allow himself rest. He collapsed into the kobold cudl piul and passed out.
And thats the story of how a kobold became the first thing to escape the Nether.
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