An Adventurer's Tale/the Daimons Part 2
Roleplay from Baldhart
Message sent to all adventurers in the vicinity of Heen (16 recipients)
"Do you think there's any water here?" Baldhart asked, eyes scanning the flat, featureless, empty dunes of Hcallow. After a bit he sighed, wiping his sun and wind burned face with the once moist rag that he had wrapped around his face to keep the sand from his mouth and nose.
"This hellhole must be where the Daimons came from," he said, walking up alongside Danost.
"Will you just shut up and march?" Danost snapped angrily, shifting the weight of their equipment load on his shoulder, keeping his eyes locked on Calibann, who was now no more than a silhouette amidst a rolling cloud of dust, a phantom leading them deeper into oblivion.
"We're almost there!" Calibann called over his shoulder, his voice muffled by the roaring wind. "I'm sure of it!"
They had been marching for three days through the desert, three days without sleep, for early in the second morning a sandstorm had blown in seemingly from nowhere, and Calibann had related stories of travellers waking up to find themselves buried deep below a dune of sand, so they had forced themselves forward.
And of course their pack animal died midway through the second day, so their discomfort had been added to by the added weight of their baggage. To say nothing of the average desert pestilence; Bandits, scorpions, spiders, snakes and lack of water.
Calibann held up a hand towards them as the wind picked up, rising into a deafening crescendo, then pointed off to his left. Baldhart looked in time to see a rising cloud of sand drifting lazily towards them.
"Stay close, or we'll get lost!" Calibann called back, straining so his voice could be heard. "If we're separated, we'll die!"
"Wait!" Baldhart hollered, reaching into his own pack.
"What are you doing?"
"I finally found a use for this damned rope!" he screamed, pulling out a long length of entwined hemp. Tying it around his waist, he passed the rest up to Danost, and then to Calibann.
Bound together, the three men marched deeper into the sandstorm.
Baldhart (Freeman)
Roleplay from Calibann (2 days, 2 hours ago)
Message sent to all adventurers in the vicinity of Heen (18 recipients)
Calibann, Baldhart and Danost came stumbling through the sandstorm which ended as abruptly as the desert itself, one moment they were plodding forward into a hellish wind barely able to see the body of the man in front of them. Seems many were also coming this way having heard of events in action and with the wondrous rumor of a powerful item somewhere around the Fortress City of Heen. If there were any place that the defenders could hold out it would be this one. Not only had they heard of the wondrous item but also that there was to be a great battle between both humans and creatures on each side. Having been far in the outlands for the last many weeks they had heard of these strange alliances and even words as to why they were happening but to witness themselves was fascinating.
They had come to the edge of the storm and almost immediately they were out of it and in a much greener land and they could see the Stronghold out ahead in the distance a silhouette in the evening sky. They could see the main fires camped outside with the attackers as well as the blackness of the city against the mountain where the defenders peered out from darkness.
"Follow me..." Calibann startled at his own voice this having been the first time he had spoken since they left the storm and he did not realize how loud it had been.
"Follow me," He began much more quietly, " This map given to me by the Lord who sent us will get us right into the city. That is why we had to remain so secret and not be found, if they had this they could take the city easily. We must get in there and find that item and get away. Danost, you are the best at reading these things get us into the city."
He hands the map to one of his two truest friends showing the trust he gives to both the men he met so recently but seeming like a life time ago.
Danost looks at the map for a moment, orients himself in the darkness and whispers "Let's go"
Baldhart, being the largest of the three takes up the rear in case they are surprised.
The three stealthy follow the edge of the Northern forest and take a small stream into the outer defenses of the city. Calibann peers at the parchment in the pale light and makes way forward slowly.
Soon they are at the outer city walls and making their way through a not so pleasant tunnel into the city.
Just as they are half way through Calibann hears a soft grunt from behind and turns in time to see Baldhart swing his sword silently and disappear to the outside of the tunnel, Calibann makes a quiet noise to Danost to stop and returns to the edge of the tunnel. He gets there just in time to see Baldhart finish off some type of ugly undead creature and throw it's remains into the boggy stench.
"That one won't be returning to speak of this tunnel" He says as they make haste to cover the entrance knowing others will come to investigate.
"There, we've made it, now let's find a place to clean up. Get something to eat, some rest and we shall make a plan to search the city. I have been given good information on where we should begin." Danost whispers as the three huddle in the back of the alley where they had made surface through a small gated doorway hewn into the rock itself
The trio of adventurers set's out to find the best place to bed down for the evening.
Calibann (Freeman)
Roleplay from Baldhart
Message sent to all adventurers in the vicinity of Heen (18 recipients)
Baldhart woke in the middle of the night, and began laughing hysterically, much to the chagrin of the fifty or so cowering peasants crowded into the common room of the hostel. But he couldn't help it. He found it endlessly funny.
He felt hands on him as Danost and Calibann's worried faces appeared over him.
"I think he's gone crazy," Calibann whispered, his diagnosis bringing more booming laughter from Baldhart.
"Is there a healer?" Danost shouted into the darkness.
"No," Baldhart said between gasping breaths. "I don't need a healer. It's just so damned funny."
"What?" Calibann shouted, near hysterical himself now.
"Don't you see?" He stopped, suddenly aware of how sore his aching sides were. "God, don't you see? We walked entirely across the continent, from ocean to god blessed ocean! And for what?" Another wave of laughter hit him, but he managed to choke out the words: "Adventure!"
Danost grinned down at him. "You woke us all up because you suddenly realized how absurd this whole thing is?"
"No, it's because I don't know whose the bigger fool; You for dragging me along, or me for allowing it." He took a deep breath and sighed. "Adventure. You stupid bastard. But," he rolled back over on his side, "I'm glad you did."
and with that, the exhausted Baldhart fell immediately back to sleep.
Baldhart (Freeman)
Roleplay from Baldhart
Message sent to all adventurers in the vicinity of Heen (26 recipients)
Mud and offal slushed underneath his feet as he followed the guide through the subterranean tunnel below the city of Heen, watching the light of the torch grow farther and farther away as the man began to outpace him, stopping every now and then to look back and laugh at him.
The man himself had been paid handsomely, and was more than happy to guide an outsider through the tunnels he had worked his entire life in. To him, it was simply another day on the job.
He waited for Baldhart to catch up, then grinned widely. "You are slow, friend. I could have already been on the field!"
Then, without another word, the man stepped forward, through a gushing sheet of water and into another tunnel that had been hidden by the rushing water. The tunnel on the other side began to grow so narrow that Baldhart had to turn sideways to squeeze himself through.
Finally, the tunnel began to widen again when the guide stepped through another sheet of water. Wet, tired, and with a strained sigh, Baldhart once again followed.
He could smell death as they approached the battle field. It was so repulsive he had to cover his nose with a scarf that had been soaked by the waste water. It was too dark to see the corpses, but he knew they were there. He picked his way silently through the corpses, trying his best to avoid stepping on their mangled remains, a slight honor from one soldier to another.
It was better to be here than in the city, though. He felt safer in the open, with the dead, as opposed to the confines of streets and alleyways full of starving peasants, and a monarch trying to hold control over a starving city with the handful of survivors from a decimated army.
"They say the Maggot Lord fell over there," his guide whispered, as if the dead would hear his intrusion into their world.
"I need more than third hand gossip for what I'm paying you," Baldhart seethed through clenched teeth. "You said you had reliable sources."
The old man smiled, his white teeth standing out in dark contrast to his tanned face. "Yes, from the two or three soldiers left alive."
Again they were moving, stalking through the graveyard, avoiding sentries from time to time and moving deeper into the killing field, moving until the stink of the week old dead became unbearable. Finally, Baldhart was forced to stop and wretch. It seemed like the road was paved with broken men and entrails. Still, no sign of where Hannnibal had fallen.
"I'm not cut out for this, old man," Baldhart whimpered, the smell of decay almost overpowering, making him dizzy and weary. Finally, asserting control over himself, he pulled the scarf back over his face and breathed deeply. "If I wanted to do this bull, I'd have stayed in the Army."
He turned, and saw the guide kneeling over a corpse, working at the leather straps holding on his leather breast plate.
"What are you doing?"
"Foraging," the guide chuckled, pulling off a boot. "I can sell the leather in town and make some coin." Placing the boot against the bottom of his foot, he shook his head. "here," he said, throwing it to Baldhart before pulling off another, "They will fit you, I think. The Captain here will need them no longer, and he had a large foot, like yours."
The experience was nothing new for any soldier. A dead man had no use for equipment that may save a life or limb of a living man, and such sights were common on every battlefield he had ever seen. So he removed the raggedy boots he had walked across a continent with and slid on the dead officer's, surprised at how well they fit.
"I keep the sword," he said with a sense of finality, standing up and tossing Baldhart a leather helmet, and then heft the sword over a shoulder. "We did not find what you were looking for, so I will sell you that."
"Keep the Gold," Baldhart said, "I'll just have need for you tomorrow. Free of charge, of course."
Baldhart (Freeman)
Roleplay from Calibann (just in)
Message sent to all adventurers in the vicinity of Heen (30 recipients)
"Dammit!" Calibann pounds his fist into the table again and finishes off his drink immediately ordering another one. He is sitting in a small, sparsely populated backroad tavern in the center of the city. His two companions Baldhart and Danost having recently joined him. Baldhart look over at Danost and raises his eyebrows questioningly and Danost gives him a look that seems to say, "Give him a moment."
"I can't believe the bad luck, we march halfway across the world to get here and pick up an item and take it back to Mesh. Then before I can get here Hannibal goes and gets killed and leaves them out for whoever can find them, then again my luck I can't find anything more than some trash and old armour."
Calibann thumps his fist again. "I mean this was my chance, my chance to prove I am more than just some commoner. My chance to impress the Ruler of Mesh and perhaps be given title and not be treated like scum for the rest of my life! One day, just one time I wish I could catch a break like all those blue blood members of the lucky sperm club, all they had to do was to be conceived." With that Calibann goes silent and stares into his half empty mug.
"Listen Calibann, I know it's not what you wanted," Danost replies calmly, "but we did have quite the adventure here and still are. I have heard these items are all over the place and perhaps luck can stil shine on you. Don't give in, or then for sure you are beat. You have to keep on trying". Baldhart nods in agreement and adds "We're here through thick and thin with you buddy, we have all been through too much together to let something like this get us down. Look, we have food and shelter, drink and money for wenches. You can't really ask for too much. Look at all the other people out there starving and dying everyday. We have our wits and our strengths, our weapons and our companionship. Let's drink tonight and tomorrow we'll worry about what comes tomorrow."
"Well there's nothing for us here now, no reason to stay in this Gods forsaken hellhole in the middle of a Desert. I say tomorrow we strike out. I don't care which way we go I just need to get out and get moving."
Calibann (Freeman)
