The Mauldor Time-Line, Book 1: Birth and Rebirth

[Mordereth]

IC:
Deep breaths, and what seemed to be sobs, came from the figure on the ground after being touched by the tip of Artemis' bow, slowly, the hair turned to reveal the face of a Wood Elf woman.

"Thank the Creator and the Light, I've been save!" Her sobs turned to tears of joy. She tried to rise, but ended up falling backwards. On closer inspection, she seems quite unfit to do much of anything, let alone walk herself out of this place.

 

[Earthbound]

Bildin gazes at the woman, uninterested. "Pitiful, I think" he mumbles. "So, Njord," he begins, turning to the warrior, "the right tunnel. I think you should go first." Njord fails to notice him. "Njord, come on! What are you waiting for?"

 

[Captainguy42]

Miffy caught the woman as she fell. While he only considered himself a gentlemen when the time suited him, he felt like this obviously shaken woman would respond better to Mifaim the Prince, rather than Miffy the Rogue. He held her upright gently as he could.

" My lady, are you alright?" Miffy asked with severe amount of concern in his voice. "What happened to you?"

 

[fanklok]

"Hmm what'd you say little man. If it's some thing to do with bashing skulls and breaking bones lets go."

 

[Earthbound]

Bildin follows closely behind Njord as they part with the group. Sisk, Miffy, and Artemis stay behind with the bewildered woman, whom Bildin cares not for. Bildin doesn't think that Njord should use that axe, considering his older one was of a better quality, but he'd rather not question the barbarian. If he wanted to crush heads instead of severing them, that was a personal decision that Bildin had no right to argue with. The two approach the twisting corridor to the right and turn the corner, leaving the rest of the group behind.

I assume that you were alright with continuing, since you said "lets go." If you didn't actually want to leave them behind, just tell me and I'll edit my post.

 

[fanklok]

"That elf should be able to handle what ever problem she has, while we get to be the hero's that get that trinket the lord wants."

Spoiler: earthbound

yep yep you understood it perfectly

 

[Mordereth]

The woman manages to subdue her tears and speak to Miffy.

"Found me... I was just walking through the city one night and... Oh by the Light, they pinioned me to the wall and took a club to my head. I woke up with that thing sleeping not to far from me. When it awoke, it... It hurt me, worse, far worse than that blow to the head. I, I don't think I can walk. But just when I thought it was going to kill me, it. It stopped, perked it's head up, grabbed it's axe and walked off. I heard something happening and I thought it must be killing more people. Did you kill it?"

Meanwhile, Bildin and Njordturn to the left, vanishing from sight. They find a slightly smaller corridor, and via natural progression take a left to a larger corridor. They are half way down it now.

 

[Earthbound]

"Tell me, Njord," Bildin questions as they turn the corner to the smaller corridor, "what's a barbarian like yourself doing working for the Adventurer's Guild? You seem like you'd be better off wrestling bears and eating rocks in the mountains." He turns to Njord as they enter a larger corridor. "Where are you from? And more importantly, why are you here crushing imps in a cave instead of back there?"

 

[fanklok]

"Back home in the mountains we pride ourselves on being the strongest warriors, on their 19th year the men are sent out to search the land for strong opponents to defeat, and are to return on their 23rd year to tell stories of their conquests. The guild is notorious for being treasure hunters of old tombs and places like that usually have powerful guardians, just one tale of defeating them would earn me a legendary mark,even Svanir would have to bow to me."

 

[Captainguy42]

"We killed the minotaur, but I need to know, who found my lady? and what city were you taken from?" Miffy asked her as he lowered her to sit back on the rags, and knelt by her side.

"Siskan, do you have anything that could help her regain her strength?"

 

[Earthbound]

"Svanir...who would that be...," Bildin starts as they approach the center of the large corridor. He stops, catching Njord's attention as he does so. Something about the room caught his eye. His grip on his staff tightens as he glances around the room. What was wrong? He couldn't tell.

When he was studying five years prior, before his life was turned upside-down, he had learned many things. One of them was the uneasy feeling that he was feeling now. It was fear of the unknown; or more specifically, fear of unknown magic. There was a presence here that unnerved Bildin, and he keeps that in mind as he slowly starts walking again.

 

[fanklok]

"Svanir is the strongest, he fights with the strength of 5 bears."

 

[Mordereth]

"They, I, don't know. They had, this shifting to them, I think it was a spell or enchantment. I used to know someone who could do that, back in Wyndham." She coughed onto the hay on the floor, and there was a little blood in it. "I was in Cathilheim, just walking, I don't know why they attacked me."

Sisk sees the best way to bandage her and create a splint for her right leg which seems the more damaged of the two.

Bildin and Njord continue until they come to the end of the corridor, there is only the option to round the corner and turn left or turn back.

Something tickles Bildin's brain, something is urging him to open his Third Sight and see what there is to See. He knows full well that it can be dangerous, put detects no spells that would try to lure him into looking at something that could wreck his mind.

 

[Earthbound]

"Njord, you go on ahead," Bildin says to Njord, his concentration wavering. "If you see something, just lacerate it, crush it, eat it, whatever you want. I'll be there in a moment." Bildin leans against the wall, his peripheral vision becoming blurred. Njord says something back to him, but he doesn't hear it.

While studying years prior, he had learned of the ability of some magic-wielders to dominate the minds of weaker beings, be them sentient or not. Though he had never seen such magic used, or attempted it himself, he knew that this kind of sorcery was not to be toyed with. A fireball could destroy a body, as Bildin had encountered, but this kind of power could destroy a mind.

Weighing the decision in his mind, Bildin's curiosity beat his apprehension at the situation. He gently closed his eyes and concentrated on this power beyond the minds of the uninitiated. What was to occur could not have been predicted by Bildin, despite whatever he may have expected.

 

[fanklok]

"HEY HEY bah if he expects me to save him if anything happens he's out of luck." Njord said as Bildin went silent.

 

[Mordereth]

Bildin opens his minds eye. The corridor slips and changes, Njord's skin appears blue, icey, but with a fire beneath it. His face seems to project itself forward like it's closer to Bildin than the rest of his body. Danger. His head turns to the left to see a wicked enchantment laid against another turn about 15 paces after making the one in front of them.

It's purpose is to fire a murderous Dark Shaft into anyone who rounds the bend and enters it's direct line of sight, though there seem to be proximity markers to insure it is triggered and no one can pass. There is also room in the enchantment for deactivation Words, which Bildin might be able to read if he focused on it a bit longer.


Njord sees no visual changes, but something in Bildin's eyes seem off.

 

[Captainguy42]

Miffy help the woman up and put her arm on his shoulders to support her.

" My companions and I still have work to do deeper in this dungeon, and the way we came in has been sealed of I believe, if we do run into more enemies please stay out of harms way until we fetch you again."

Miffy began to walk with her down the corridor that Bildin and Njord had gone down.

"And please, any information you can tell us about this place will be welcomed."

 

[Hikikomori Ookami]

While Miffy helped the woman through her recovery, Artemis kept his eye on the unsearched tunnel and his ear on the tunnel Njord and Bildin went down. He reasoned that the gnome and the barbarian could handle almost anything that they came up against but still wanted to be prepared if a battle cropped up. The other tunnel, though, was a unknown and whoever called this place home could as easily be down that direction as the way the others went.

Once Miffy and the woman began heading the way Bildin and Njord went, Artemis allowed Sisk to pass him and took up the rear, glancing back the way they cam as often as looking ahead to his companions.

 

[Earthbound]

That trap is terrifying. The magic contained in it would obliterate any who were caught in its path. If Njord were to just walk into it, he would be gone. Bildin could just claim the truth: that Njord was killed by a nefarious trap. No one would be the wiser. Then they would only have to split the gold four ways, instead of five. It might even fire again if one of the others went to recover Njord's body. Then Bildin would get 100 gold instead of the previous 60.

Njord turned and began to take a step toward the bend. Then again, there might be better treasure ahead. Without Njord's help, Bildin might not be able to defeat all the obstacles in his way to said treasure. At the very least, Njord would prove more useful if he were to die defending Bildin from a foe than just being struck down before the fight. Bildin decided that he'd keep Njord around for now, if only for the moment.

"Njord," Bildin said emotionlessly in his direction. "Hold on, let me look ahead for a moment," Bildin murmured as he passed the man and walked down the corridor. He approached the spot near the enchantment and carefully whispered, "Aha! I had a feeling that we would find something like this. Careful, Njord," he turned to Njord, "we wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you," he voiced sympathetically as he began winding magic into the enchantment to deactivate it.

If I'm going to succeed without the trap blowing up and sending me flying across the room, then I'm fine with it taking awhile. Having the others explore the other corridor while I disarm the trap would be the best of both worlds.

 

[CourtingDisaster]

As the party headed after Bildin and Njord, Sisk followed Artemis's longing glance down the unexplored tunnel. As they arrived in the chamber, Bildin could be seen weaving an enchantment a bit further down the corridor - with a very impatient Njord looking on. Sisk wasn't quite sure what it was, but there was definitely something sinister just in front of the gnome mage. He didn't want to ask if he could assist because of the look of intense concentration across the gnome's face. As the party came to a halt to watch Bildin at work. Sisk moved to stand next to Artemis, nudging his shoulder - "Do you want to see where that other tunnel goes? This might take some time."

Spoiler: OOC

Sorry about the extended absence. Work and network troubles. Have some time off now. And should be able to post more in the afternoons, which seems to be when the thread is most active.