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qarajhcreations · 7 years

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Friday Night Lights, Khodrin’s Journal, part five

This is the story of the Friday Night Lights campaign, as told through the eyes of the Mountain Dwarf Fighter, Khodrin Emberhelm. This also means that if Khodrin doesn’t see (or hear, sense, smell) something happening, he doesn’t “experience” it.

After closing the double doors to the hallway of undead monks, we were now faced with a new threat. A threat we couldn’t see. To my side Mariah made a coin shine, and hurled it into the darkness. I couldn’t even manage up a protest; surely she would have had something less valuable than that. The coin made a “ding” as it hit the cavern floor, rolled for a bit and then went out of sight. I think the purpose was to illuminate the cavern, but alas, all we saw was more darkness. We didn’t see any kind of creature move away from the light. But we could hear it, clattering about somewhere in the dark. With an uneasy feeling barring down on us, we stepped into the darkness.

With my trained Dwarven eyes, the underground was not uncommon to me, and as far as I could tell, others had similar means of vision as well. Mariah cast a light (a tad too bright for my liking) on herself. The stalagmites were huge, some of them were even pillars, uniting with the stalagtites from above. Speaking of above, even with the source of light from Mariah, none of us could actually see the cieling. This cavern was huge. Judging by the sounds of the crittering, it was not one big monster, it would have trouble moving between the pillars. Instead it was the sound of, relatively, small feet. Lot of them. And fast. Yet it seemed, that if the creatures were aware of our presence, they were staying back, either laying in some sort of primitive ambush, or actually scared of us. I was doubtfull of the latter, in my experience, even at ridiculous odds, some creatures would stll throw themselves at danger.

Suddenly out of the blue, a creature lept in front of me, striking at me with an odd weapon. It didn’t hit, but it tried to run away. I swung at it, and connected, but the creature didn’t seem too fased by the hit. I kept my shield high, but didn’t give chase, these creatures seemed extremely agile and fast. As the creature was done attacking me, Liri suddenly darted off after, with Mariah and the Paladin in tow. I could see some outlines of this creature, or well of one of them, I should say. The other Tiefling(I believe the others called her Crest), who had stayed largely quiet throughout the journey (or maybe that is just because That Tiefling is so much more obnoxious), joined in on the frey, summoning a very bright beam from seemingly nowhere. Meanwhile That Tiefling had summoned four small lights, and hurled them into different parts of the cavern, but alas, to no avail. Nothing but more stalagmites were seen. Considering how squemish and seemingly frail That Tiefling was, I decided to stay close to him, if nothing else, to impose a different target. Deep down, I wanted to join in on beating the creature, I had some redeeming, mostly to myself, to do.

I could see them having trouble, the creature kept on hitting and then retreating away from their attacks. In frustration I called out, yelling out the creature’s cowardice, in the vague hope that it would come to me, so that I could finish it off. To my dismay and lack of fortune, I was in fact attacked, but I only reached to swing my shield half of the way, before three hard blows struck me in the side, knocking me down. The creature ran away, not attacking that Tiefling right next to me. Was this how I should die? it wasn’t very honourable, the creature had attacked from behind, and I had not managed to get a hit in on it. At least, I would die protecting people, something I had failed to earlier, and sworn to never do again. Yea, I was ready, ready to die for this group of rag-tag adventurers. I tried to smile as my body slumped to the floor, and then everything went black. Distantly, I could hear the sounds of combat and struggle, but my body wasn’t moving. I would loved to have done more, aside from not killing that Tiefling, my death seemed rather pointless. But at least, this wasn’t being swallowed by a plant, not able to fight back, this was an honourable death...

Suddenly a tender set of fingers grabbed my chin, forcing my mouth open and pouring some strange (and difinitely non-alcoholic) beverage into my mouth. My muscles began tingling, and I opened my eyes, looking up at That Tiefling’s horned face. I think I saw genuine concern in his face. Supporting myself by my warhammer, I got up, slowly, nodding a silent thank you to the Tiefling, he looked unharmed, so that was good. Gazing around, I saw that the others had taken care of the first creature, but also that two more creatures had shown up. Feeling a bit woozy, I had one in my line of sight, as it had just swiped at our Elven companioc. I reckon that I wouldn’t have been able to reach it, so I just grabbed my crossbow, trying to take aim. But right as I was about to fire a bolt, a hand clapped my on my shoulder and That Tiefling’s voice said “Alright, enough sleeping Dwarf, now get back in there!”, to my dismay, he clapped just hard enough for my aim to go completely off, shooting the bolt down in the ground. I coudld have smacked him with the crossbow, or cursed him to dig dirt with his hands bound. But... He DID just save my life, which would be the second time within a week. Hmm... Perhaps these people, what with their shorter lifespan and all, are quick to gain trust and friendship. I’ll try to be more friendly in the future, granted if we get out of here alive that is.

As our Elven friend, Elanil, drew out her longsword, I could see the figure of a skilled fighter. Her shimmering armour looked excellently made. She was holding two of the creatures at bay with her shield. I got in next to her, fending her from the side as one of the creatures caught her blind side. Instead, the weapon clanked against my shield, and my warhammer brought a nice headache to the creature. This felt good, fighting side by side... Even if it was an Elf, a fighter is a fighter, and honour is to that. Meanwhile, I saw the bright beam vaporize one of the creatures. I probably should have looked forwards instead, because once more, I felt my limbs going numb and my eyes shutting to darkness. For a while I felt life sieving away from me. Then I heard the voice in my head. A male voice, soft, worried. To my surprise I saw the Human cleric, Nicola, gesture to me, I don’t think I have even seen him in combat. There was a slightly golden aura to him, and it seemed the creatures were leaving him alone for now. Liri came running past me, handing me a healing potion, urging me to down it, so I did. Liri looked a little worse for wear herself. Her armour would not withstand much, and from a gash in her leather, I was pretty sure that she had taken a heavy hit.

She had been chasing after one of the creatures, as it tried to flee from Elanil and the Paladin. As I got over to her, I handed her the potion that I held myself. A Dwarf doesn’t forget kindness. The last creature fell to the Paladin’s axe, and the cavern was finally silent. I looked around in the darkness, even Elanil had taken a hit. The only one who seemed unscathed was actually That Tiefling. I’d like to think that he probably stayed cautious after seing me go down that easily. In that case, I had helped protect those who I’d consider as friends... were they friends? I looked over the lot, scratching my cheek a bit, I could feel my body starting to ache, as the adrenaline from the battle lifted from me. We decided to head back to the door, as it would easier to defend. The doors were still closed, and we could not hear the undead monks on the other side. As I expected, with what little experience I have with undead, the udead would be able to push a door open. However, the double iron doors would have to be pulled. I suppose a summoned mob or horde could be commanded to pull a door, but these undead seemed more to have risen on their own, for some reason, and was more stumbling about, than controlled for a purpose. We settled, bruised and battered, with myself and the Elf keeping the first watch, but the rest went without issue, no more scuttering about. As I got to rest, I was able to reflect upon my journey thus far.

I recalled the fateful day, where my former employer, my former caravan, had been annihilated. We arrived in a clearing, less than a day’s travel north-east of Athlin. Deciding to lay at rest for the night, we stored the horses under some trees and placed the wagons in a small circle, with a camp-fire in the middle. Weary from a long journey, about 10 hours on horseback (which is still unpleasant, even after more than 40 years in service of the caravan, I much prefer to sit in the carriages), I was granted sleeping through the night, not having any watches for the night. I woke when I heard the first groan of pain. The night was pitch black here, the dim light from the fire no longer shone into the carriage, where I was sleeping. A feeling, completely new to me, gripped my heart, I wanted to run away, not looking back. But I couldn’t, it felt like my legs were straped and nailed to the wagon. I could only see the outlines of creatures from my position, creatures of skeletal remains. The horrid stench of rotten flesh hung heavy in the air. The sounds of fighting had ended, and an eerie whisper was all that I could hear. “Find... them all... Kill... them all... Return to me...” the voice sounded like a cold wind, I could not tell if it was Human, Elven or what. A deep hatred seeded in the words. I clenched my fist, trying to move, but I was immobile. A loud whistle, and the creatures seemed to return to somewhere outside the camp. As the whistle had blown over, my limbs could move again. I looked out the wagon and was horrorfied. The entire caravan had been slaughtered. There is no other word for it, even the guard never stood a chance. Landing on the headless corpse of a guard, I scouted into the distance. A man-like figure sitting atop a black horse, holdng a staff with a green, glowing orb on top. Trailing behind him was at least grotesque creatures in varrying states of decay. I could sense the power emanating off of him, and especially of the staff.

I held a watch, until I no longer could see signs of the undead. Then I ran. Southwest, with no regard for paths or plantlife, in the late hours of the night. I stumbled multiple times, my heart throbbing and pounding, my beard coated in sweat and saliva. Finally I reached what seemed like a larger road, and about five miles west, I could see the dim light from a large town. My hope rose, and i finally slowed down, I realised I had probably run for about an hour straight, with a full set of gear on. As I slowed down, my knees started to ache so badly, I almost tripped. I had to catch my breath, but I couldn’t help the feeling of still being followed. Gritting my teeth, I began walking as fast as my knees and legs could manage. It felt immensely slow and it was painful as well. Each time the forest made a noise, rustling of leaves, the crack of a branch, anything caused me to stop, turn around with my warhammer and shield at the ready. I realise that I must have looked like a manic. As I arrived by the gates to the city, three guardsmen, two with raised crossbows, the third with a greatsword on his back. “Halt there, Dwarf. What is your business in Athlin at this time of night?” I holstered my warhammer, to show that I meant these folks no harm. Finally I was able to mutter, “My... caravan... we... were haah... ambushed... by undead.” My knees no-longer had the strength to hold my bodyweight up, and I stumbled to my knees, supporting myself using my shield. The last thing I remember, before falling unconscious, was the man with the greatsword shouting, “Let’s get him inside, call for a Cleric or a healer, find him a bed in the barracks.”

I realised that my cowardice had kept me alive that night, but it also dented my honour. I saw the faces of the undead creatures, the figure of the man with the staff, who controlled them, and a deep hatred and lust for revenge rose within me. I had heard tales of other Dwarves feeling a similar feeling, typically against Goblins, their grudges made them more determined and stronger as they fought, letting all of their rage and anger into every strike, every shot and every action. I felt that strength coursing through my veins, and I was ready to press on. As the rest of the group came to, we began moving back into the cave with the stalagmites, stalagtites and pillars. The other Tiefling, Crest, found some rather... odd looking mushrooms, and seemed to go into a trance. I am not sure I abide getting off on cave mushrooms, especially not in a time like this. It was common, but not particular well-spoken, that Dwarves in the Deep Mines would sometimes devour such shrooms, to calm their nerves. That didn’t always work though, and the Dwarf usually ended up going rather loony.

As she finished... doing whatever it was that she was doing, she claimed that she was speaking to them, which seems like folly to me. But I don’t know much about Tieflings, expect; they seem rather unpredictable. We moved on, through a series of natural tunnels, always on the guard for more of the creatures with the arm-blades. We heard nothing, saw nothing either. It was in fact, rather event-less. Not that I’d mind. A bit of respite was welcome. Finally the tunnel turned into something else. Though nothing useful. A vertical shaft. Trying her trick again, Mariah placed magical light on a coin, and threw it down the shaft. She wondered, out loud and somewhat directed at me, if this could be a ventilation shaft, as used in mining. Giving the shaft a look-over, I found that to be unlikely, giving it’s size and depth. We never heard the coin hit the floor, but it’s light were visible for a long time. Falling. Were we to slip here, that fall would certainly mean death. Above us, we also couldn’t see the top of the shaft. We talked a bit back and forth, without really coming to a conclusion, the amount of climbing gear that we had and the rope available to us, wouldn’t get us very far. I guess none of us noticed that Crest, the non-obnoxious of our Tieflings, had disappeared. In her stead, a tiny odd looking monkey stood, chirping up at us. It was jumping and pointing at my backpack. I was pretty sure I had nothing edible other than my rations in there. It then pointed at the cave wall, jumping up against it, then running back to me, yanking slightly in my backpack. Someone, I don’t know who, suggested “Maybe Crest wants some climbing pitons and search the up the shaft?” It took me a second to realise that the monkey was actually Crest, what a wierd type of magic. I dug into my pack, finding ten iron pitons and a hammer out, along with the twenty feet of rope, that survived the trip in the mire.

The monkey deftly climbed up, and found a ledge. From eye-measurement, I’d say a little more than fifty feet above us. Using the pitons and croppings in the wall, the monkey was fast. It threw down the rope, apparently securing it to a piton up top. That Tiefling, of whom I still don’t know the name, conjured a white web, spanning across the entire shaft. We looked at eachother, no-one seemed keen on getting up the rope first, until it was suggested that the more “brawny” types, myself and our Paladin, should go first. That way, it would likely be easier to defend the top, while the rest climbed up. As per usual, my tongue was less loose than that of the Half-Orc. She climbed up with ease, and seing how none of the others seemed to argue of who to go next, I shrugged my shoulders, hooking my warhammer in my belt, and shoving the shield onto my backpack. I stepped out on the web, pretty certain that I was weighing a decent amount more than the Paladin, but the web was solid, albeit rather sticky to walk on. Grabbing onto the rope, I began hoisting myself up, placing my feet on the pitons. Wasn’t a difficult task, but for some reason, the Half-Orc thought I needed help, she reached down and pulled me up by the collar. But it probably wasn’t wise to start an arguement atop a narrow edge leading to a lethal fall. She did this to all of the others though, so I suppose it’s not that bad. As the last one, Liri, was to climb the rope. She had been stalling on the webs for a while, and even though I offered to pull her and the rope up, she just started climbing. Poorly. She fell several times, into the web below, thankfully it seemed relatively soft, before finally clasping herself onto the ledge.

Dusting ourselves off, we now stood in a a new tunnel. Not unlike the one below us. It seemed to descend slightly, though nothing steep or slippery. Just dry stone and the eerie feeling of being close to something that’s not right. At a y-fork in the tunnel, with the left one leading slightly down, and the right one slightly up, we decided to head upwards. The Paladin first, striding her long steps forward. Suddenly the floor below her crumbled, and she dropped down in a tunnel running below and across this one. I had a vague idea, that the tunnel below was in fact the tunnel that went downwards, where we had turned to head up, but it was just a passing thought. Luckily the rest of us were far enough behind the action-hungry Paladin (SOME of us have short legs and a functional brain), that we could stop in time. As she had dusted herself of, she open her arms, saying “I’ll catch you!”. First to jump was Mariah, who was possibly also the heaviest (after myself and the paladin). The Paladin caught her nice and neatly. Unfortuneatly, That Tiefling had decided to jump at almost the exact same time, ended up slamming into the ground besides them. Our bard, who had been pleasantly quiet as of late, jumped on his on, landed with ease, meanwhile the little monkey-Crest crawled down the wall on her own. Finally it was my turn, still with the idea of the tunnels being connected in the back of my mind, I looked down at myself, warhammer, shield, chain-mail and backpack... I was weighing in at well over 300 lb, the Hal-Orc was strong, no doubt in that, but this was also a matter of being an independant Dwarf, I don’t need no Paladin to catch me. The others had all taken a jump, which seemed excessive for a 10 ft drop. I decided to shimmy out to the ledge, grapping on to the ledge (it sure wasn’t graceful, but, eh, I’m no dancer or Elf, so what do I care?). Letting myself drop from the ledge, I expected to land on ground, on my feet, but halfway down, I hadn’t seen (as I had my back to the group) that the half-witted Half-Orc had moved in below me to catch me. As I was about to fold my legs out for the contact with the floor, my rump instead squashed down on something. Quite unpleasant actually, even through the chain-mail. As I looked up, from basically sitting atop a flattened Paladin, I saw her trying to rub pain out of her neck and head. A simple cock-up in communication; let us not speak of this any further.

Heading up this new tunnel, we soon came back to the y-fork where we had first gone up. So we did, once more. The Half-Orc seemed to have lost her coy, whether it was my rump, or the fall the first time, I cannot say. But seeing her back down, it was my time to shine. Bending in my legs, I pulled an impressive leap, landing neatly on the other side of the collapsed floor. Only to find this floor crumble as well. Sitting in a pile of rocks, I scratched my bearded chin. I picked up a rock, to study what had made the floor so crummy, but found no clear signs, other than the floor simply being too thin to carry my weight. As I sat pondering, the monkey-Crest came to keep me company (and sympathy?). I heard the bard yell something along the lines of “Don’t go anywhere, we’ll come around... in a safe way!” Odd, how his mockery had been silent for the Half-Orc, but suddenly blatantly loud for me. It took about 20 minutes for the others to get around. Meanwhile, I tried my best to be friendly with the Tiefling-now-Monkey. Why she didn’t just transform back, is beyond me, the floor had already collapsed, and if needed, I could provide decent cover for her in a fight.

As the others came around, we decided to head downwards, as it seemed the top of this mountain was as solid as sandstone was good for building. For long, the tunnel spiralled downwards, slowly, constantly turning just enough to make it hard to see far up ahead. Given the distance, I’m glad that this didn’t suddenly turn into a slippery slide, that would have been bad for damage. Besides, my rump had had enough hard stuff to land on for one day, I needn’t a slide to burn the hairs off of my skin. Judging by the spiral’s length and slope, we must have gone downwards some 150 ft, leaving us, roughly 100 ft below the tunnel with the room of the stalagmites and pillars. Mariah and Crest, now back in Tiefling form once more, stopped up, and told that they could running water up ahead. I couldn’t, but I saw no reason why both of them would lie. With the change of scenery, most of us were ready to draw, or already drawing, weapons. And then it hit us. A horrid stench even worse than that in the monastery. To my surprise, there were torches here. And then we saw it.

On an isle in a coursing river, sat a huge, meatbag of a creature. Multiple tentacles swirling from it’s... torso. From where it sat, the river turned black and gooey, not unlike the sample that we saw at the monastery, however the waterfall behind it was clean, almost shining. It seemed we had found the course of what was ailing the tree in the monastery that our companions were from.Crest mumbled some magical words, though I am not entirely sure what the spell did. It was uncertain if the monster had noticed us, but eventually it let out a horrorfying screech, and from underneath it, spawned five small, wretched creatures, and those seemed to come towards us, wading out into the water, which wasn’t all that deep. As the creatures spawned, our various spell users hurled a colourful and dangerous looking rainbow of spells at the monster. I had seen some of the spells before, monsters tended to move away when they were hurt. But this fleshmound either wasn’t able to move, or was too stupid to move. I was more inclined on the first option. The spells seemed to do a good amount of damage, which was fine by me. Sure, there would be some glory in thwarting anything that size, but I could also see the colour of the water, the reach of the tentacles, and the amount of spawned creatures. No, this fight was one to be done from range. So brought up my crossbow and tried a shot, it was a pretty far shot in a dimlit cavern, and despite the monster’s size, my bolt fizzed down into the murky water. Oh well, back to hand-to-hand combat then. A few of the spawns had begun moving up towards our bard, the Paladin and our Elven companion, I reckon, my help was not needed there. Meanwhile, Mariah seemed to have trouble with her magic, as she disappeared from time to time. Only goes to show that magic is dangerous, though I suppose, it kept her from getting attacked, practical, if that’s your idea of fighting. For some reason, not only the Half-Orc (that didn’t surprise me really), but also Elanil and Liri decided to take the fight to the monster. I suppose we should have had some sort of tactical meet-up, before charging into battle. But with heads like our Half-Orc, that was a practical impossibility. Here’s hoping they’ll live, because I for one am NOT stepping out in that water, anywhere near THAT... thing, to get their corpses back. Strangely enough, they seemed to be walking on the water. Elanil swiftly cleaved one of the spawns on the way there, they weren’t that strong at all.

Suddenly, I heard a way too familiar noise. That damned scuttering again. Upon hearing this, I stepped behind That Tiefling and turned front towards the tunnel through which we entered, and called out what I heard. “We’ve got more of the bastards from the cavern incoming, steel yourselves!” At first, I thought to place down my hunting trap, but I was distracted by That Tiefling, who suddenly began to hover. The other Tiefling Crest, was also in the air. Must be a Tiefling thing, I guess. The next time I looked into the tunnel, I saw one of the damned cowardly creatures come at me in full sprint, gritting my teeth I readied my shield; “Yeah that’s right, you flailing fiend, it’s time for round two, and I’m stronger now!” Despite one strike going over my shield, the rest just clanked against my defence. I grinned, even though I could hear one more coming through the tunnel, “Not so fast this time, are you? Well, now it’s my turn!” Remembering it’s quick moves from before, I swung wildly with my warhammer, three rough strikes hit, but the fourth just smashed air. I had the man, Nicola, at my side, while not so much a combatant, he was good for healing. The other creature whiffed past me, heading for the group to the north of me. I took a couple of powerful hits, and landed one more myself. From various sources I felt myself being healed. The creature hit again, and this time, I used my adrenaline to boost my life, giving it another powerful blow. The creature whimpered away like a beaten dog. And soon both of them had been dealt with. Meanwhile, the Paladin, Elanil and Liri were thoroughly getting their hides handed to them by the monstrocity, while an electric sphere and a brightly glowing beam from the cieling were both ticking away at it’s health. From my position on the shore, I couldn’t do much, as I had moved out to meet the creatures from the tunnel, I had also moved to a range where my lacking crossbow-skills were even less likely to hit anything. I wanted to help, but the magic seemed to be doing so much damage over time, that it wouldn’t make sense for me to waste shots, trying to hit. Besides I had heard a new sound, the sound of footsteps, not scuttering this time, heavier, slower, coming from the tunnel. As I looked over my shoulder to convey this message, I saw the monstrosity go limb and it’s tentacles stop writhing, happy that my travel-mates all made it out alive, though the Paladin looked pretty beaten up. “We’ve got something else incoming!” I looked around, everyone looked tired or exhausted, we wouldn’t last long in another fight.

However, the slightly familiar faces of the rest of the knights and travel-mates, that were sent back to Athlin, by the farmstead in the fields, came as a pleasant surprise. Sheathing my warhammer back by my side, I nodded to the people, as they passed to look at the now dead monster. Already now, it seemed that the water was slowly clearing up, as the stream carried the black goo away. Upon being asked, by Elanil, how the others got here, they said they had a map. Which would have been very useful to have. They apparently dealt with ALL the undead monks, which seemed like an improbable feat to me, but I was glad to see friendly faces, and said nothing of it. Finally we could return, with a successful mission under our belts. I wasn’t sure what type of award was awaiting me, but I would be certain to make my claim at something. Preferably gold, but something else of value would also suffice.

None of us really spoke on the way back, tired, aching and worn, the eventless journey was exactly what we needed. We saw no traces of the undead horde going back, but we made sure to inform the Athlin City guard, to whom Mariah was to report to, of what we saw, if nothing else, an alert city could possibly deal with most of them. After a night of resting in actual bed for once, we finally got to see lord Anders Ravn, lord of Athlin. I had never met, seen or even heard of the man before, but the sight of the short, obese and wealthy man, made my brow furrow. He reminded me of the Dwarf that got me exiled from my home. He seemed surprised to see the group, and at first he was trying to snake his way out of rewarding us anything at all. None of the guards had asked us to not have our weapons with us, and with a slight nod to the Half-Orc, we both slowly started to unsheate our weapons, as we was in his private chambers, there was no guards in here. He suddenly became a whole lot more friendly, with a frightened expression he hurried to a desk and hastily opened several drawers, before his face finally lit up in a nervous smile. I did not like that smile, it seemed too happy for some reason. Handing us each a scroll with the seal of Athlin, he hurried to explain that these were deeds to the northern peninsula, north of the Silver Oak Forest. This was even better than what I could have hoped for, of course, without knowing how the land was there. But with enough time, enough work and patience, it would probably be fine for growing barley for ale brewing. I had decided upon a plot of land just outside the forest. If I could set up a farm there, and get a forge set up, I could become the best smith north of Athlin. It would take time, yes, but, if I could build a small wall, a solid house and a brewing house/forge and smeltery, I could have quite a neat steading. And of course, if adventure came, knocking at my door, my warhammer and my shield would be ready for service once more.

#Friday Night Lights #Roll20 #D & D 5e #Mountain Dwarf Fighter #first person narrative #Khodrin Emberhelm

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