Freeform Roleplaying · Legacy archive
Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
-
Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#1Place-Holder (Or how a certain minor mage, a runaway thief, a burly north-man, and a monk from Khitai, stalked the vile sorcerer Vul-Kazza to his ice-shrouded tower)
Rogues Gallery:
Kisanth, mysterious follower of Isis, lover of wolves
Ythedrir Tenstone, red-bearded, towering, axe-man from Vanaheim
Jakh the Foul, scar-faced thief from parts unknown
Xiahao, a motivated and single-minded Khitan avenger
Somewhere east of the Graaskal Mountains, and west of the Mountains of Gray-Apes, in the half-frozen southern reaches of weird Hyperborea... -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#2The wind-swept, southern reaches of Hyperborea were lands best left untraveled. Witches, Ice-trolls, and Snow-apes lived here, and not much else did for long.
And yet here she was, her four-legged lover in tow, traversing the late-winter slush, the skies above, gray and leaden. Ravens, perched precariously on the withered branches of twisted dwarf-trees, and mocked her advance, cawing rudely whenever her wolf raised his snout to look in their direction. Only the incessant, howling wind and the cursed black-birds broke the silence of the dreary tundra landscape around her.
The creature suddenly paused, and sucked in air through its nostrils. A low menacing growl escaped the wolf's gut, and he looked up at Kisanth.
There was someone or something nearby. Wolf-sense was never wrong. There were not many places to hide in this flat, uninspiring land, yet Kisanth slowed her pace, and looked around her, peering intently in a wide-arc across the white-washed terrain
Only wind. But then she spied a figure against the whiteness of the snow, coming towards her. Slight and crouched. Alone…
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#3Jakh was trudging forward, hunched up under layers of furs, cursing the cruel fates that forced him to flee his homeland for these grim northlands. The cold ached, deep into the marrow of his bones, and he hadn't seen a soul for days.
Finally, looking up he saw a figure in the distance, with what appeared to be a mastiff or another large hunting dog. A grin crossed his face, mutilated to the point where it would drive many a grown man to foul himself on the spot, and he continued forward, drawing into earshot of the other figure he yelled above the sound of the wind, "Peace of the Moon Goddess upon you. What brings you to these wastes?" -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#4Yethedrir, though endured to weather far worse then this, still wearied of it. The hel-cursed Vul-kazza would pay in blood, if he could ever find the coward. News was said to be found in a village nearby, but it seemed well hidden.
He pulled up on the reins, bringing Sridath to a stop. Movement ahead had caught his eye, and he could make out Travellers ahead. Perhaps they knew of the village he sought? Cautiously, he spurred Sridath forward.
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#5Cold, bitter wind. It knifed through the senses, but within his mind, Xiahao set it aside. The cold in his flesh was as nothing before the slow simmer of hatred within his soul, warmer even than the thick fur cloak that enveloped his burlap robes. He hunted, and that was enough. He hunted for the man who had slain his students and stolen the Jade Lotus.
Ah, the sound of human voices? Is that what the wind carried to his ears? Shifting his course slightly, Xiahao went to investigate... -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#6Kisanth paused as the wind tore at the words thrown forth by the hunched figure ahead of her, placing a reassuring hand upon Lovers head and gripping her mages staff more firmly, her cloak drawn tight about her against the biting cold. She was surprising to see another living soul in these frozen reaches, but the stranger gave friendly enough greeting, and the weather was far too poor for scoundrels to be anywhere outside of a warm hearth and willing wench regardless.
"We travel north in search of knowledge, but after a day of this devils teeth of a wind we'll settle for a warm fire and cup of mulled wine!" She called back, raising her voice above the driving gale. Travelers this far north were perhaps not as rare as she and Lover had first thought, whether this was good fortune or bad however, had yet to be seen. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#7The snort of a horse, and a red-bearded, axe-wielding Vanirman comes into view. And from yet another direction, a robed man swathed in a fur-cloak emerges from behind a snow-drift.
Four strangers eye each other from a distance. Four strangers and a wolf... -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#8As Jakh approached the woman and the beast, the closer he got the more sure he was that it was a wolf not a dog, he saw two more figures in the distance. Thinking back to his childhood training in the Guild he remembered his old master's words, may 16,000 barbarians have their way with the treacherous worm's sister, The Moon Goddess provides the opportunity, but you must be bold in seizing it.
"HAIL YOU TWO, COME CLOSER SO THAT WE DON'T HAVE TO SCREAM OVER THE WINDS TO HEAR EACH OTHER. IT'S COLDER THAN A WITCH'S TITS IN A BRASS BRASSIERE OUT HERE AND THE SOONER I START MOVING AGAIN THE HAPPIER I'LL BE." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#9Yethedrir did not question the ways of the gods. It could be a trap, but that did not bother him. He grinned at the mans words. Witches where he came from wore furs, and nothing else..
He rode up closer and dismounted to approach on foot.
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#10Strangers. Best he complied for the moment, these lands were strange, and he could ill afford to waste a chance for allies. And so Xiahao slipped across the snow, his footprints light, and soon vanishing.
Gathering his cloak tighter about his body for the moment, he raised his face into the wind, a face clearly marking him as a distant foreigner, as did the thick accent as he spoke the common tongue of merchants. "You must have pressing need to be out in cold. I... hunt." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#11Kisanth took a half step back as the new arrivals approached, at first suspecting them to be friends of the stranger before her, realizing quickly by their body language and words they were equally unacquainted with each other.
Keeping her hand firmly upon Lovers head she carefully advanced, sizing up the new arrivals carefully. "It seems we are at a proverbial crossroads no?" She gestured to the four directions they all had advanced from. "Legend says at crossroads can come great fortune and great change." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#12
Ythedrir was known for a few things, but eloquence was not one of them.
"I hunt as well, and its a hel-dog sorcerer by the name of Vul-Kazzah!" Ythedrir nearly spat.
"I was told to find a village nearby, and they may know how to find him. Have you seen such a village?"
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#13"I passed a village not 5 miles back, if nothing else it will get us out of this thrice damned cold," Jakh said. Turning back the way he came he called over his shoulder with a misaligned grin, "Follow me, I don't want to lose my nose to frostbite."
An hour of trudging through the snow later.
As they were nearing the village Jakh turned to Ythedrir and asked, "You, barbarian, you said you were looking for a sorcerer? How did he wrong you, did his foul magic kill all your cattle, or did he take your virgin sister as a sacrifice?" -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#14"Vul-Kazzah, Lover and me have heard that name recently," She raised her voice so all could hear her clearly despite lagging slightly behind the others. "A village near here was raided by a bunch of sell swords in his employ, they took children and butchered many."
She gestured to Lover with her left hand, her right leaning on her staff as the days fatigue wore upon her. "We offered to help rescue these pups and return them to their village, if you men have the heart of wolves you are welcome to join us." A bit of a goading challenge she knew, but men, much like beasts, respond well to opportunities to prove themselves, and none of them impressed her as cowards or prone to hesitaion when called to action. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#15"Some months ago, a man with skin and hair like snow slew my students with dark magics and stole from me, while I was at the Emperor's court. I will have his balls on my fireplace." So spake the man from the far east, as his hand slipped back within his cloak, a scowl as dark as the nights upon his face.
"His treachery must have been of the most vile. My students were not weak, and yet they were torn, limb from limb, as if by bears." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#16
"Barbarian? I'd smash your face but I would likely improve it." Ythedrir half smiled. "The swine made off with .. items of great import to our tribes. Holy relics - the Feathers of Alfdis the Valkyrie."
"We have common cause. Let us hope that these villagers know which way the swine went." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#17The four not-quite-companions slogged thru the never-ending snow.
Sridath snorted repeatedly, uncomfortable so near a wolf, yet the wolf in turn, ignored the steed, as it silently stalked beside Kisanth. The Khitan monk was mostly silent and only Jakh, his face an eye-sore of scarred flesh, would occasionally hum or attempt to converse.
The flame-haired Ythedrir, a tower among most men, first saw the pathetic settlement come into view, a meager village nearly buried in the snows. Hovels and huts of wood, peat, and moss crowded together in a small two-hundred meter enclosure, surrounded by a pathetic barricade (it could not be called a wall) of sharpened logs.
An opening in the barricade allowed the four travelers to enter the village unimpeded.
Pale, sickly smoke rose in wisps from several of the huts, and only the sound of metal clanging against an anvil could be heard. An open-air smithy stood, near the center of the Thorpe, countless furs strung together serving as a make-shift roof.
A young man, barely into his twenties hammered down on the weathered anvil with great focus and fury. He gripped tongs holding a broad-sword in the other, its blade cooling quickly in the freezing cold of winter. He glanced up quickly at the strangers, then ignored them once more hammering on his weapon.
Another man across the way was skinning foxes, and hanging their furs to dry.
A woman, babe in hand, stared at the intruders unabashed, eye-ing them up and down, as they neared the village’s center, her eyes darting nervously from the wolf to the man with the jagged face, to the red-haired axe-man to the blue-donned, one-eyed woman and to the weird, intense man in robes and fur cloak.
“What are you wanting? We have little to do with strangers here.” The woman spoke boldly, but plainly.
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#18Kisanth stared back at the woman with her good eye, detecting an underlying current of fear in her voice, mixed with the more obvious tones of distrust. "Me and my companion Lover seek a warm bed and hot meal, for now," She began, gesturing to her hulking wolf with a free hand, feeling it better to allow her companions to voice their intentions themselves. "Beyond that knowledge of Vul-Kazzah's tower, so that we may bring him a recoking that will echo across the chasm of time itself." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#19"We have no warm beds to spare, and no hot meals to share. You need to move on---" At the mention of Vul-Kazzah, the woman literally shuddered, and gripped her babe tighter to her chest.
(Of disturbing note, the companions notice the babe is either fast asleep or---)
"Begone!" she raises her voice now
"Gulna, be thee begone instead. This is no way to treat strangers." a new voice, full of phlegm and cough. An old wizened man, his scrawny flesh and bones barely covered in furs, and partially exposed, stepped forth from a hut and likewise eyed the strangers.
"We have beds to spare. More than we would like. But we are poor here, and coin or barter would be in order." He smiles, his mouth devoid of teeth, save the one yellow-brown one.
His rheumy eyes seek the Vanirman. "Ye are no raiders then? Then who are ye? And why do you speak the name of the albino sorcerer? A reckoning ye say?" He tries not to look upon Jakh's face, and ignores the statue-like Xiahao. He also tries hard not to stare at Kisanth, but fails, his lecherous thoughts plain to see, despite his advanced age.
Then he notices the wolf, and shuts up. And stares. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#20Cutting in almost as soon as the old man swallowed his tongue Jakh said, "I'm Jakh, called the Foul by many, I'm sure you've figured out why," smiling he continued, "What my loquacious traveling companions are not doubt waiting anxiously to say is that they have some personal issues with Val-Kazzah. Something about brutal slaughtering scores of innocents and stealing priceless artifacts, some curses were cast that shouldn't have been." Stopping he looked back at Ythedrir and then leaned forward to stage whisper in the old man's ear, "he also got the barbarian's little sister pregnant and fled the town the next day." Continuing speaking so that the whole group could hear him once more, "Terrible deeds, truthfully, and he must be brought to justice."
Pausing for a moment he looked around, "Now, if you'd be so kind as to point me to the nearest tavern, or brothel, I'd be much obliged." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#21"Ho-ha!" the old man chortles, his black lungs straining, "hasn't been a brothel here since three-fingered Hildy passed from the runs." The old-man calms himself, scratches his stubbly chin and says, "my barn ye can use, full of straw to sleep on and to feed that horse...and other creature. Cheese we can offer, and some mulled wine, aye. What have you to give for in return for this hospitality?"
"Nevertheemind Gulna, she thinks her babe is still alive" he adds matter-of-factly, and Gulna stalks off, without a another word.
"Ye'll find that devil-cur no easy prey", the booming voice of the young blacksmith suddenly sounded, "He takes what he wants, and his soul is an endless abyss of evil. This we have learned. We have learned to fear his magic and his trained snow-apes", he continues clanging, seemingly having said what he wanted and no more.
"Bah, do not listen to the young and foolish, my friends" craws the old, one-toothed man. "come, let me show ye where ye can sleep. That creature...that *wolf*, it will behave? We have pigs and chickens walking freely." he asks Kisanth.
"So, ye hunt the albino sorcerer?" he mutters, as he leads the incongruous group to the barn-stables, "He is a man of *great* power. Ye are foolish", as he says this, he almost smiles, in a most peculiar manner.
The old-man is unpleasant. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#22"Lover does not eat straw, he prefers fresh meat, as do I." Kisanth replied matter of factly, not sure if the man was speaking in jest or truly lacked knowledge of wild beasts from the south. "Or the balls of those who leer at me with too much lust in their eyes." She added, just loud enough for the man to hear her over the gusting wind, her familiars low growl clearly audible."
She waved her free hand dismissively at his inquiry of Lovers discipline, long since used to such fear voiced by small minded townsfolk everywhere she went. "Lover will share my bed, and my meal, as he has most of his life, your livestock and children have little to fear from him," she paused a moment for dramatic effect, "or me for that matter."
As they entered the run down barn she turned and passed the man a small leather pouch. "These healing herbs should be adequate compensation for Lover and my stay here, I know coin has little value this far north where the claws of winter tear at peoples health." The man may be unsettling and grungy, but if properly compensated for the nights lodging hopefully would trouble them no further. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#23...though trouble them further he would, though they had no way of knowing this presently... -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#24
He held back from the others as they headed to the barn.
"Know ye where this Val-kuzza could be found?" he asked as he tossed a couple of silver coins to the old man. He was carefully watching the mans reaction.
The was a warning in the mans prior comment's - they were the words of an acquaintance, not a peasant victim.
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#25The old geezer accepted Kisanth's healing herbs grudgingly, but at the site of Ythedrir's silver his rheumy eyes lit up.
"If you insist on pursuing your own death and doom (yes, both), know ye that the great one dwells in an impregnable tower locked in perpetual ice. It is less than a week's ride north from our humble thorpe." The geezer looks at the massive Ythedrir and smiles again, licking his tooth, "Ye think your axe will will be enough? Gods be with you, man of Vanaheim, gods be with you..." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#26Tossing the old man a couple silver for letting them stay the night, Jakh headed to the barn, ate and fell asleep almost immediately.
A couple hours before dawn...
Waking up to the cold, even more biting than it was during the day, Jakh looked around, making sure his new traveling companions were asleep. Rolling out of the hay he made his way out into the night, to the old man's house. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#27Unbeknownst to Jakh, five pair of eyes watched him leave the barn--Ythedrir's, (since the Vanirman didn't trust a single one of these foreigners) the wolf's, (who sensed Jakh rising before Jakh actually rose) and Sridath's, (who could not sleep comfortably with the smell of wolf in his nostrils.)
The wolf then nudged Kisanth, and by then, Xiahao was awake as well. No one moved or said anything at first. Maybe he went to piss after all.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jakh reached the nearby hovel soon enough, clinging to the pre-dawn shadows, his breath steaming in bursts, from the mind-numbing cold.
Reaching a window, Jakh, the foulest of the foul, paused. He could hear the old man snoring and wheezing inside.
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#28Slowly pushing aside the furs with his kukri, Jakh stuck his head into the room to look around. The room was rank, cold, and dark, with a draft that almost made it worse than being outside. Pulling himself through the window into the room he stalked over the the old man's bed. Putting his hand to the old man's mouth and the blade of the kukri at his throat he made sure the old man wouldn't be able to scream as he started awake. He smiled, revealing a mouth missing more teeth than it had remaining and shook the old man's head to wake him. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#29Kisanth snuggled back against Lover, enjoying his warmth in a frigid hours of early dawn, quickly noticing Jakh's absence, wondering briefly what would compel a man to venture out alone at such an hour. The cold made her scar sting, like a brand across her face, and once again she thought of the warmer south lands, and the comforts so easily left behind in pursuit of knowledge.
Stirring slowly she laid her head back down and enjoyed a few more moments of passing comfort, the challenges of the road ahead loomed before them, and a day that would likely be every bit as cold and miserable as the one before it. "Lover, next time I wish to journey into the land of ice burgs and yeti's, remind me how unpleasant this trip has been thus far.' -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#30The missing teeth was nothing new to the old coot, he had but the one himself, but upon seeing Jakh's foul face up close and personal, the man's crusty, rheumy eyes bulged open in true fright.
He did not move or speak, but looked torn between utter confusion and unadulterated fear. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#31Leaning in close Jakh started speaking in a voice totally devoid of anything that could be said to resemble human emotion, "the Master is disappointed with you, friend. Very disappointed, and he sent me to kill you. But you see friend, I like you so I'm going to give you a chance. I'm going to let you tell me everything you know, EVERYTHING, and I'll let you live. How about we try this now, yeah?"
Pulling back he paused, "Of course, that offer only stands so long as you don't try to lie to me you kaffir weasel, you do that and I will make you beg for death before I kill you. You've seen my face, I learned from the best." Pulling his hand of the man's mouth he waited. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#32...a trembling hand reaches up and points to a corner of the dingy hut, as the village elder closes his eyes, and weeps. Jakh can make out a worm-ridden, warped wooden chest full of ratty clothes and old-man stuff. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#33Looking over his shoulder, Jakh spied an old, wormy chest sitting in the corner. Sighing he grabbed the old man by his neck and propelled him towards the chest, kicking out his knees from under him when he was within arms reach of the chest. Pushing the kukri into the flesh above the old man's right kidney Jakh leaned forward, "Get it for me, grandfather." -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#34The old-man complied, trembling hands reaching into the smelly refuse that was his belongings. His hands emerged, holding something wrapped in a fox-fur. Removing the item, Jakh could now see over the man's shoulder, an oval-shaped chalk-white stone of some kind. Not quite translucent, not quite opaque, it was the color of watery-milk. He could not identify the mineral, though he had a knack for just that, having briefly apprenticed under the shady "Gem Merchant" in his youth.
The old-man still looked terrified. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#35Jakh pulls the kukri back an inch, and says to the old man, in a voice that could almost be called personable, "I lied friend, I wasn't sent to kill you"
The old man kneels there rigid for a few moments and then calms, resigned.
"No, friend, I was sent to deal with your master. He has..." Pausing Jakh tasted the word on his tongue before continuing, "He has annoyed a Power far greater than him. I truthfully could care less about your pathetic life, and so I'm willing to trade. You tell me everything about Val-Kizza's tower and I will let you live out the rest of your worthless life."
Stammering the old man started spouting out words, almost without pause, "The Master will be most wroth! He will be angry with me...." He continued on this track for some time until Jakh cut him off.
"Answer me friend, or I will start by flaying your foreskin"
"I have never been to his tower," the old man says meekly, "I merely serve him. He likes to know of who comes by, and who seeketh him, those who may wish to do him harm... He has many enemies. And I am but His humble servant... I--I uhh, I told Him of your coming...of your words of revenge.."
Sighing, with genuine disappointment in his voice, Jakh said "Pity, you could have bought your life with that information. But, Setan has been drawn, and she must taste blood before I sheath her lest the Dawn Goddess look unfavorable upon me."
Slamming his hand down over the man's mouth one more time, Jakh drew the kukri across the old man's throat. Holding him thus for a few moments, Jakh waited for the man's heart to beat its last. That done he ldragged the corpse to the bed, grabbed the stone the old man had had, re-wrapping and did a quick search through the house for any valuables.
((If I find anything I pocket it, when I'm done I shovel some of the hot coals out of the fire, throw them on his bed, slip out the window and head back to the barn.)) -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#36BY the time Jakh, the truly foul, returned to the barn, the companions-by-accident were fully awake, up and about. The Vanirman was feeding his horse some straw, the monk was doing bizarre calisthenics, and Kisanth was whispering something to her wolf.
In a few minutes the smell of burning hovel would reach the the barn and the rest of the village. It would not be long now, until it went up in flames.
(OOC: Pariah loses 5 Karma points)
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#37Tossing the scroll and the gem to Kisanth, Jakh said, "You are a mage, yes? The old man was selling traveler's lives to Vel-Kazah, what can you make of these?" -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#38The strange traveler from foreign lands had been silent much of the night, having only volunteered a few strange, silver coins up when pressed for payment, stamped with the face of an unknown emperor, and an odd character, unreadable, likely, to any but himself. And then, he had pulled himself not into the straw, but up into the rafters of the barn, rolling up into the beams with a long practiced skill. He had noticed the scarred man leaving the building, but not bothering to follow. His position was essentially fortified, and if the man went to provoke a response from the old man, he was prepared for it.
Morning devotionals were simple, a brief pause in the morning sun, a moment of cross legged sitting, the form the of eight gates. Every motion was audible, not just his clothes, but the muscle and sinew themselves cracking like a whip as Jakh returned, and he took a moment to spare a glance to scroll and gem, even as the smell of smoke crossed his nose. It was time to leave, he suspected, or time to fight a fire. -
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#39Kisanth caught the gem and scroll form the air with one deft movement, bringing them to her nose and inhaling deeply. "It reeks of fox, suitable for a servant of a vile wizard no?" She turned to Lover, giving him a wink and smile. "Fortune favor us this morn my dear, perhaps we can find the foul caster lairs with these." Her voice trailed off as she set about attempting to glean information from the items.
-
Re: Mini Adventures #1: The Tower in the Glacier
#40A moment of thought, his eyes deeply closed, and Xiahao murmured, "A trusted servant is oft trusted with the keys to the master's home. Or perhaps it is how he sold travellers to the man."