Morganic's Game Blog

Warcraft: The Shattering

2010-11-24T00:05:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't posted on here for awhile, but that has been for numerous reasons. School, work, and a constant hopping from game to game. And not MMO's, just single player games.

So when all the hype for WoW: Cataclysm started, initially I was jaded self. I had played WoW for several years, not really enjoying it or sticking with it since my initial playing of the game where I lasted around 8 months. Nothing since that point had been more than 2. The hype was still there, constantly wearing away my defenses, until I had to resubscribe.

That was two months ago, and I only subbed for one month at the time. During that month, my sole goal was to get my death knight up to level 80, the first time having a main at level cap since my rogue in classic. That rogue was just deleted two months ago, still level 60 having only walked barely into the Outlands, wearing an eclectic mix of quest blues and tiered items. That was the reason I left the game after my initial burst, I got sick of the rogue play style and didn't want to spend the time leveling up another character.

Fast forward to yesterday. The news that the Shattering was going to take place today got me to resubscribe before I could even think otherwise. Last night was spent doing some of the pre-Cataclysm event quest lines and just kind of lounging around Stormwind listening to trade chat. My goal going in to today was to create a gnome priest. I had always wanted to create a healer, liking the support classes, but had never gotten one past level 12 before. I still have nightmares about trying to kill murlocs in Elwynn Forest in classic and having to runaway bubbled as the priest was so weak at the time. Also, I have never really enjoyed the time at level cap in WoW, so I was interested in going 1-85 again to see how Blizzard had learned its lessons on quest design.

So I created my little red-haired gnome and started in Gnomeregan. Thank goodness all those trips to that dungeon weren't for nothing. It had to be my least favorite dungeon of Classic, so it was nice that the gnomes had reclaimed it so I didn't have to anymore. Man oh man has Blizzard improved the questing flow. No longer is it going into a town/camp and picking up 10-15 quests before heading back out. Now it is 2-3 quests in an area before moving on. You are never bombarded with more quests than you know what to do with and are forced to move through the zones at a quick pace. No more being in one spot forever getting sick of it all. Also, adding flight points at Kharanos and the quarry make getting back to trainers and profession work much quicker.

All in all, I spent 5 hours of /played tonight. The longest single block of playing I've done since I created the death knight. I also made it up to level 15, first time I've gained that many levels in a sitting since I first logged in. Oh and no more running away from murlocs, the priest seems to be able to hold its own now. I did not die once, even in situations where I accidentally pulled multiple mobs. Overall, the Shattering is the revamp that Azeroth has needed for years now. Everything seems to flow so naturally and quickly.

Now that I'm level 15, I can't wait to try out the dungeon finder. I hope that the dungeons retained the old charm of actually having to think. No more AoE spam and rushing through. Here's hoping for the return of sapping, sheeping, the skull raid icon and the x raid icon. Even though I need to go to bed, I already can't wait to get back into tomorrow. Never though I'd say that again.

Dragon Age: Origins - Return to Ostagar Review (Spoilers)

2010-01-30T01:07:00.000-06:00

Seeing that they managed to put up the latest DLC for Dragon Age after much delay, I jumped and bought it. I am currently working on a Dalish Elf playthrough so I headed right on over into the adventure.

It started off decently enough, with some political intrigue hinted at by finding letters between Cailan and Orlais, and there is the whole idea of going back and finding the King's and possibly Duncan's body to get you into. Sadly that is where any sense of enjoyment for the game ends.

Instead of creating too many new areas, it heavily reuses the camp at Ostagar from the beginning of the game. I end up trudging through the same familiar, boring landscape fighting waves of mindless zombies. There was absolutely no story at all, other than following some Darkspawn necromancer through the ruins killing his summons. Then you kill the necromancer and get a choice of what to do with Cailan's body. Whoop de fucking doo.

For a game so heavily entranced with story, for additional content that is merely a straight-up dungeon crawl to be added is simply unacceptable. It is inexcusable for a company of Bioware's stature to put out the complete and unadulterated shit that was this DLC. $5 for a 1 hour dungeon crawl completely blows my mind. You don't even get to find Duncan's body, the one thing that I was really looking forward to finding.

Star Trek Online Beta Thoughts

2010-01-22T11:58:00.000-06:00

After hearing some mediocre reviews from the beta, I decided to go and download the open beta client with a key I received from Gamerzines. It only took about 2 and a half hours to download the client and off I went.

The character creation, like all of Cryptic's games was incredibly deep. There was a dizzying array of options for creating alien species. Not being a Trekkie in the least bit, I decided to go with a custom look rather than an established species. In the end I created what looked to be a female zabrak. If only the fun that came out of the creation carried over into the actual gameplay.

I've read comparisons over this being similar to Pirates of the Burning Sea, a game I loved in beta but never caught on post-release, in relation to ship vs ground combat. I don't really think this is an apt comparison because ship combat is boring in STO in comparison. I even had a friend ask if I was moving during combat it looked so slow. Even using the boosts out of combat did little to make it more exciting. Overall, it just didn't feel as good as PotBS did. Ground combat was also boring, at least in the early stages.

The storyline was just utter rubbish and I found myself just clicking through until I saw the green text telling me what to do. A voiceover system would be a lot more engaging than what is currently being presented. There was no connection for me to even try and engage myself.

For me, a definite don't buy.

A Look Ahead

2010-01-07T07:00:00.022-06:00

I figured I would take a break from talking about what I've been playing to look ahead to what this year may bring.

My Targets

Mass Effect 2 - Probably won't be getting this right on release as I want to get another playthrough of the original in first, but as a huge Bioware fan, this is a must buy. Still a little iffy about having to reload weapons, but that looks to be minor hiccup in a good revamp of combat. The Must Play RPG of the year.

Alpha Protocol - I am worried about this game. I haven't heard much about it lately though it looks to have an interesting premise. Hopefully the delay means the game will get thoroughly polished, a concern with Obsidian games. I will definitely wait to pick this up so if it gets horrible reviews I won't have wasted money.

Diablo 3 - Yeah, not this year but a major target for the future. Almost makes me want to play the second one again, except for actually having to play for the umpteenth time.

Starcraft 2 - I don't buy RTS games for the story, only the multiplayer, so I hope I don't end up being forced to buy the other two games for more units and the like. Heck, the only campaign I've played through in an RTS is Company of Heroes, and I've played a lot of RTS games.

Supreme Commander 2 - Total Annhilation and Supreme Commander have been my absolute favorite RTS games of all time. Strategies are perfectly balanced and the game is complex enough that it takes awhile to learn and master the game. I am giddy with excitement.

MMOs

Star Trek Online - I am interested to see how big of a flop this will be. Cryptic is proving itself to be a very poor MMO designer and recent comments and news are pointing to another Champions Online launch. I think their only concern is getting the game out and receiving the money rather than providing a quality experience for the customer.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - A pipe dream for 2010, but this will be the next MMO that I jump headlong into. I have friends to play it with and developer that cares for it players.

WOW: Cataclysm - I really hope WoW doesn't pull me back in for another expansion pack, but if history is a guide it will happen again. My saving grace is that if it comes out in November, NANOWRIMO will prevent me from picking it up, at least for a month.

I really wish there were more MMOs to hop into, but I haven't been impressed with any of the recent offerings. Fallen Earth was interesting, but never hooked me past the trial.

What I'm Playing: Empire: Total War

2010-01-06T07:00:00.024-06:00

To start this off, how in the hell did this game ever get a metacritic rating of 90? The game was unplayable at launch without constantly going in and deleting files to keep it from crashing. I had bought this the day it came out and had returned it to Gamestop within a week. Being a steam game though, I still had access to it, not getting the urge to download until recently.

While most of the crashes have been removed from the game, the game is still lackluster. I loved the original Medieval: Total War and enjoyed the Medieval 2, but cannot get into this game in the least bit. I'm not really sure what it is that is putting me off either. The game is sluggish on my computer when it shouldn't be, which contributes to my frustration.

I guess the problems lies in the lack of control I feel over my empire. I've been playing a lot of Civ 4 recently and in comparison, Empire is severely lacking. No peaceful means of expansion, minimal control over territories, and not much city control. I know Empire is more a war game, but a little variety would be nice. The only advantage that Empire theoretically has over Civ 4 is in actually playing out the battles. If only it were true in practice. Shoddy camera controls and overall lackluster AI makes it more enjoyable to auto-resolve every battle. Random point: why the fuck can't troops move quicker on the campaign map. Dear lord it takes forever for them to move.

Another peeve of mine is in regards to the DLC. Really, unit packs? You are going to charge people a couple of dollars for non-placeholder units? It is a big rip to me, as I have no problems with DLC for a game when it actually adds to the playtime. In the old days, this type of stuff would have been free content patch or combined up with a new campaign or something in a full blown expansion. Now they feel they can just nickle and dime us. Needless to say, I don't plan on purchasing any of the DLC.

What I'm Playing: Team Fortress 2

2010-01-05T07:00:00.014-06:00

The WAR update for the game that came out a couple weeks ago effectively killed my playtime down to only five hours in the last two weeks. Before that, it had enjoyed a long stretch of 10-20 hours a week, only being broken up by Dragon Age.

There are two main issues that I had with the update. The first is the classes. I absolutely loathe the playstyles of both demomen and soldiers, my two least played classes. Spamming projectiles on the cart and around corners doesn't take much in the way of skill. So of course, the new update makes everyone choose the classes to play with, leaving teams of sometimes 10 soldiers and demomen combined. I know this will balance out again, as I have already seen it steadily waning, but until it gets back to the old breakdowns, I end up frustrated more often than not.

The second issue is in regards to achievements. I like achievements that you get by going on a lucky streak or just doing what you are supposed to a bunch of times. I absolutely loathe achievements that make me change my playstyle, like taunt kills and taunting after kills. Let me just focus on killing and be pleasantly surprised as a window occassionally pops up saying "Achievement Unlocked: Yada Yada." It wouldn't be so annoying if the easiest way to get the new weapons was through the milestones. You can get to the first milestone pretty quickly, but end up having to change playstyles to get to the last one.

TF2 will continue to be on the backburner for at least a little while longer.

What I'm Playing: Portal

2010-01-04T07:00:00.013-06:00

In a continuation of what I've been playing, we arrive at Portal. I saw this game on the steam holiday sale for $5 and jumped on the bandwagon. While the game overall is good, I am glad I didn't spend anymore money on it.

The game does a good job of getting players slowly adjusted to the game mechanics, introducing them one at a time. The puzzles were overall pretty easy to complete, requiring only minimal retries with no need of searching for outside help. I liked the fact that even the jumps that required placing a new portal in mid-jump were decently easy to pull off. Nothing gets me madder than having to do a jump twenty times in a row to get it just right.

The storyline, while minimal, was just intriguing enough to keep me interested. The frosted glass windows high above left me feeling like someone was always above watching, even though in reality there wasn't. Glados provided comical voice overs, as I really enjoyed the ones involving the companion cube and it talking to you.

The light combat, with the turrets in the android training course, was just dangerous enough to keep you on your toes. The easiest way to beat them being portal in behind and kick them over was a little disappointing. This is counter balanced by the ability to get them to kill each other which was a fun way to do it.

The game only lasted about three hours for me, another two added on by playing through again with developer commentary on. This is the main reason for me not wanting to spend more than five bucks on the game. Hopefully Portal 2 will include a longer game and possibly some multiplayer co-op.

What I'm Playing: L4D2

2010-01-03T17:30:00.000-06:00

I figured I would start a series of posts chronicling what I've been playing for the last couple of weeks. The short is a decent number of games, but nothing too in depth. I'll start with one I received for Christmas, Left 4 Dead 2.

Team-Based Gameplay

Not having played the original other than a demo, I can't comment on whether it was too soon after the first or if enough of an upgrade. I can only say that I've been having an overall good time with it. My main complaint with the game (which is also a positive depending on the time) is the over reliance of team based gameplay. I have no problems playing on teams having participated in CAL matches and a tournament for Battlefield 2, but random pick-up teams leaves you wondering what kind of game you are in for.

I have had plenty of great games where the team was clicking and people were communicating and we would end up steamrolling on Versus or Scavenge. But I've had plenty more experiences with utterly horrible teams that wouldn't talk and wouldn't even work together, having one member go running off ahead of the group and leaving us to fend off the four infected players. This leaves a Jekyll and Hyde effect as the good teams were some of the most fun I've ever had in a co-op game while the bad ones have left me rage quitting in frustration.

Levels

The levels in the game are really a mixed bag. Some are just god awful to play through even when you are a good team. The bridge and plantation come to mind in this regard. Fighting a non-ending stream of zombies for a couple minutes straight with no break just gets on my nerves. The best round of plantation I had was when the gate glitched and immediately opened after talking on the radio for the second time, letting us escape to the boat, ignoring the whole climax of the battle.

For the bad ones, there are some definite winners. Hard Rain comes to mind for the interesting storm mechanic. Fumbling around in the howling wind and pouring rain was quite exhilarating and improved an otherwise drab level design. Also, I like the daylight levels as opposed to the screenshots of the mostly nighttime first game. Something about broad daylight gets me more interested.

Weapons

I can't imagine having to play through the campaigns without melee weapons as you would have to in the original. Being surrounded by enemies is easy to clear away with a couple swings of a baseball bat or machete, rather than spinning around shooting with a shotgun or assault rifle. Heck, probably a fifth to a quarter of my kills are with melee weapons.

Overall

Overall, I would recommend this game to people, though I find myself slowly getting to the point of playing when I see friends on. Maybe I just have a lower tolerance for stupid than most, but the bad teammates can kill a round a for me.

Fallen Earth Free Trial

2009-12-16T14:30:00.003-06:00

So I decided to give Fallen Earth a shot with their new trial key promotion. I am currently downloading the client, which is taking forever. The 400 some MB installer went quick, but the patcher is taking a long time to download. An hour and a half in and I have only downloaded about 3K files with 41K (or 4.1gb) to go. Any ideas on why it is so slow, perhaps a lot of people downloading it due to the trial? Normally I get about 1MB/sec download here at school, but it is much less with the patcher.

Update: Stopping and starting it a couple of times managed to increase the speed, no longer 3 days to download.

Allods Online

2009-12-16T12:31:00.000-06:00

I know I haven't updated much recently, but that's because I doubt you want to hear the exploits from the only game I'm really playing at the moment, Team Fortress 2. The Demoman vs. Soldier update comes out tomorrow and of course, those are my two least played classes. I'll play them to get most of the achievements, but will probably be right back to my usual rotation of pyro, scout, medic, and heavy.

Now back to the titular topic, Allods Online. I had been hearing some good things about it in the blogosphere recently and thought I would finally give it a shot. I finally got a beta key two days ago and went merrily about downloading the game. Since it is in beta, I didn't have to worry about the micro-transaction business model that I despise the implementation of in most current F2P MMOs. After a quick download, maybe 40mins tops, I installed and went to the character creation screen. There was little to no background information on the two sides from what I could see, so I ended up just picking the evil looking side.

From there, there were a bunch of classes that fit into the typical fantasy archetypes, paladins, mages, rogues and the like. Loving to go into battle in full on plate mail, I chose a paladin-esque character and went on to the game, where the disappointment began quickly. The graphics, even though I am not typically a graphics whore, were downright atrocious even maxed out on my system. The visuals were fuzzy and downright low quality. In 2009, even decent looking graphics are commonplace, not the shoddy ones presented in this game.

Quests were almost exactly like World of Warcraft, go to the person with an exclamation point, ignore the wall of quest text presented, and commence killing. Perhaps I'm just spoiled with single-player rpgs and the promise of full voice overs in TOR but it did nothing to draw me into the storyline, whatever it may have been. One particularly bad intro quest saw me firing a cannon til I hit the enemy ship. The only problem was that I had no control over the aim so I had to just keep clicking before it decided to hit it.

That takes us to the combat side of things, a pretty standard affair. I didn't like the lack of an auto-attack, or at least one I couldn't find. You right click on an enemy to lock on and then have to run up to him and spam one to do your basic attack. Combined with some mediocre class abilities, the battles were forgettable at best. The ability cooldown was so fast that I rarely even had to use the basic attack in any of the early battles.

So, from the general tone of this review, you can probably tell that the game was off my hard drive about 3/4 of an hour after installing it. I get a feeling early on about how I'm going like games and I could tell there was no point in going on.

Companions: Why They Should Stay

2009-12-03T20:58:00.000-06:00

Keen is frothing at the mouth. The latest TOR interview on GiantBomb is about companion characters and has elicited the responses from the community at large that one comes to expect in these days of gaming. Raging from fans on both sides of the issues about how it ruins the game. Personally, I lean towards of being in support of companion characters.

While there is always the chance that Bioware can horribly mess up the implementation, I feel overall that the idea would add a lot to the game.

1) How many times as a group have you been sitting there waiting for just one class? I know it has happened to me too many times. Being able to pop out a companion character to fill that role and get into the content faster would be an amazing addition.

2) How many times have you grouped with someone who didn't want to group, but was forced to to complete the quest? By allowing them to do it on their own, they aren't forced to do what they don't want to. This improves the quality of the members that actually want to group up.

3) It's been done before. Guild Wars, pet classes in any mmo, and on and on.

4) Companions and storytelling are Bioware's strengths. Why would they forsake that to go with what the other games are doing. They need to do what they do best for the best chance for the game to succeed. Doing what they aren't good at is a clear recipe for failure. Companions provide an anchor to the lore of the story, a chance for the game to recognize your accomplishments. It won't be like many MMOs where your achievements go completely unnoticed.

New Star Wars Game to be Announced 12/12

2009-11-25T20:00:00.000-06:00

According to Kotaku, a new Star Wars game will be announced at the Video Gaming Awards on December 12th. I am hoping for a Battlefront 3 (though with Pandemic gone, that is a long shot) or a Tie Fighter remake. I highly doubt it will be either of those though.

NANOWRIMO 2009 Complete

2009-11-25T16:40:00.000-06:00

Yep, I hit 50K words about an hour ago. Original story arc was planned to go longer, but I always wanted to expand what I hadn't written. I plan on breaking the original arc into 2 books, the problem now is writing a 2nd one.

Dragon Age: Origins: Origins Round-Up

2009-11-24T06:00:00.001-06:00

This last week I went through the remaining origin stories and thought that I should put up a post on my thoughts on them. Overall, the stories really railroad into a situation the writers want you in so that you can move on to the Grey Wardens. I guess I shouldn't expect too much from the 1-hour stage setting that it provides, but I would have liked more options.

Human Noble-
The first one I played and I enjoyed it quite a bit. Sure it is the typical cliche fantasy tale of going out for revenge, but the writing team pulled it out enough to get me interested. I was glad I was able to get the Dog in the story and could take him on to the rest of the game, something I wish other origins would have had.

Mage-
I clashed the most against the writing in this one. I had no feelings on the blood mage and his forbidden romance. Even though we were set-up to be friends, I just didn't care. I felt as though I was forced to pick a side on the debate. I would rather been able to be indifferent and done nothing to help with later accusations of aiding them forcing my exit.

Dalish Elf-
This one was a pretty good start. I choose to kill the humans for trespassing as that was the mentality I was taking with the character and the plot twist of being infected with the taint provided the impetus for leaving. I liked how they made you leave, knowing the player wouldn't want certain of staying.

City Elf-
Thankfully they set it up as an arranged marriage, which allowed me to be overly snarky to him. Not bad of an opening, but I just can't put my finger on where it fell flat. As a note, my city elf is replacing my mage character for the second playthrough because I like the direction I'm taking with her, anything to get ahead.

Dwarf Noble-
My second least favorite as I felt as though I had no say in anything. Shit was going to go down and I would be blamed with no chance to defend myself.

Dwarf Commoner-
Third least favorite. I just don't know what it is about the dwarves in this game but I can't stand their story arcs. I had to do what my pimp said and had no illusion of choice.

Star Wars: The Old Repulbic: Class Disappointment

2009-11-23T14:03:00.000-06:00

So the last two classes for TOR have been leaked and much to my dismay, they are two more force-sensitive classes. I thought for sure that having eight classes would lead to a nice variety of playability with differing roles. But instead, Bioware decides to make half the characters wield lightsabers. What about droids or other more interesting class combinations.

It seems to me that the whole Jedi Guardian, Consular, Sentinal issue could have been covered through the use of skill trees. Have one Jedi class and let the people decide how to specialize it, much like WoW's paladin, not add 25% more force users. And really, how are they going to differentiate the story all that much between the classes. I was hoping to level 8 characters through the story line because I am always a fan of Bioware story, but will it be worth playing 2 separate Jedi/Sith classes.

Since they can't go through and change the classes, I hope the writing team put in some extra time to differentiate the stories.

Found on Darth Hater via BioBreak.

NANOWRIMO Compilation: Chapters 19-25

2009-11-22T18:48:00.000-06:00

Chapter 19 – The Escape

This was a fight that they did not need at the moment. Not only would all of the noise from fighting attract the remainder of the guards in the mansion, and eventually the town, but it was an unmatched fight to begin with. Six heavily armored guards against an elf and soldier clad solely in cloth armor and carrying only daggers and short swords for armament. Arynn, left Howe sitting on the ground and went to stand next to Keladkha for the upcoming fight.

The first of the soldiers charged directly at her, sword raised for an overhead swing. As he brought the blade down at her, she nimbly deflected it with one of here own daggers. As the blade crashed into the ground next to her, sticking in the floor, she counter attacked with the other blade. The blade slashed across the guards throat, causing a torrent of blood to shoot from the gaping wound and quickly puddling on the floor. His body slumped to the floor in front of her, as she stared down the remainder of the guards.

Rather than charging one by one as the first one had so foolishly done, the remaining five guards all charged at one. Three of them quickly had Keladkha surrounded, forcing him to fend off sword slashes from all directions. The battle was not starting off well for him, as he took several short, shallow cuts across the chest and back, not enough to do any serious damage, but just enough of a hindrance. He finally was able to deflect a blow enough to allow an opening for a counter-attack. As the opponent's slash went harmlessly by, he plunged one blade into the guy's foot and the other straight into his chest. He quickly drew the blades back and turned to face the remaining two, thankfully no longer having anyone on his backside.

Arynn was faring even worse in her encounter. The men were using their strength advantage to knock her back onto the ground constantly. Numerous times she had to roll away at the last second to avoid being impaled on the end of a sword. Her clothes were glistening with blood that was escaping a nasty cut she had taken across the abdomen. After being knocked down yet another time, she finally saw an opening for an attack. She quickly jabbed one of the daggers into the man's thigh and as he recoiled in pain, she lept up and jammed the other blade into the bottom of his jaw, piercing the brain.

As the limp body hit the floor, she turned around and went on the offensive against her remaining foe. He backed up, constantly managing to deflect the quick, nimble thrusts from her daggers. She finally back him up into the corner of the room, cutting off much of the space for him to maneuver his blade. In one final act of daring, she took a running leap at him and plunged both blades deep into his chest, pining him up to the wall behind him. It did not all turn out well though as he had just managed to position his sword in just such a way that it pierced through her side as she lept at him. She fell to the ground next to the pinned body, the sword still sticking through the wound as blood stained it crimson.

On the other side of the room, Keladkha was unaware of what had happened to his companion as he continued to fight the two remaining guards. As one of the guards charged him, he quickly sidestepped and kicked out, knocking his opponent to the ground. Before the guard had a chance to recover, he rushed over and plunged one of the swords deep into the man's abdomen, causing a torrent of crimson blood to spill onto the floor.

Almost as soon as he turned back around, the other guard was on top of him. He did not have any time to react as the guard sent the hilt of his blade into his chest, knocking the wind straight out of him and sending him flying to the ground. As the guard stood over him waiting for the final blow, Keladkha realized that there was nothing he could do. He was wheezing much too hard to be able to dodge the attack from an opponent with superior positioning.

But just as the guard was about to the bring the blade down for the finishing move, Keladkha was surprised to see the man's eyes open wide in terror. He then noticed that there was a crimson stain slowly spreading across the front of the man's armor shortly before the man feel to the ground in a heap. Standing behind where the man just had been was Earl Howe. Sometime during the fight he must had managed to remove his manacles and recovered a dagger. When he had seen Keladkha on the ground with the guard over him, he had sprung to action and attacked before the final blow could be dealt.

Keladkha struggled to his feet to thank Howe for his actions in saving him, but before he could get the words out, he saw Arynn slumped on the floor in the corner of the room. He limped over to her body and saw the sword sticking out from her side. He slowly removed it, all the while applying pressure to halt the bleeding. He was pleased to not that she was breathing, though it was apparent she had blacked. With no signs of additional guards approaching for the moment, he went about patching up her wounds. He gently applied a gauze with a healing salve and then used some coarse linen bandages to wrap her abdomen tightly to restrict blood flow to the area.

After dealing with his own wounds, Keladkha turned to face Earl Howe. “I must thank you for what you did to save me.”

“For all you have to help me up to this point, I had to do something. But I must ask, what are you doing here? Are you insane, the number of pirates around here against just you two.”

“Well, we managed to get this far. Nothing says we can't get back out.”

The conversation then changed to that of how to escape from the area. Going back to the rear of the compound allowed them the best chance of getting out of the city unnoticed, but it the problem was going to be escaping through the house in the direction they had just come while carrying the unconscious body of Arynn. It was at that point that Keladkha remember he had seen that a secondary roof between the second and third level wrapped around the house and was not very steep.

Walking over to the window, he saw that he was able to easily slide it open. He peeked his head out and noticed that they would in fact be able to climb along it to reach the rear of the house. The lamps that hung in the streets were not strong enough to illuminate the area greatly, so they would be able to move along it in the shadows. He walked back over to Arynn's form and picked her up and slung her over his shoulder. Thankfully she was pretty lightweight, what seemed to be normal for elves, and would not provide too many problems on the return trip.

He slowly ducked through the window, careful not to bump her too hard on the window frame. Once outside, he looked around for any people that could see their escape. Not seeing any, he motioned for the Earl to follow them out onto the rooftop. They closed the window behind them not a moment too soon, for as soon as they began taking their first few steps along the roof, they heard a commotion from the room they had just left. Apparently the guards from the first floor had finally decided to check out what the commotion had been and would now be furiously searching the house for the culprits. With the windows closed, they never even thought that the attackers could have been mere feet away.

They continued along the rooftop at as quick of a pace as they could manage given their injuries and extra weight to carry. When they had finally maneuvered around to the back of the house, Howe was the first to climb down into the backyard. When he motioned that it was clear, Keladkha lowered Arynn's body down to him before hopping down onto a crate that shortened the distance. He took back up her weight and while crouched down, hurried through the tall grass back to the back wall of the compound. Once there they found a stump that allowed them the ability to climb over. Once again, Howe lead the way, checking for any patrolling guards. Keladkha hefted Arynn's body up onto the wall and climbed up himself before handing her back down to Howe and jumping off.

In the clear for the moment, the two of them began tracing the steps they had taken earlier in the night to get to this point. By this time though, the guards from the mansion had sounded the alarm and sounds of people getting up and heading out to search for the intruders came from all around them. They mostly kept to the side streets and ducked into the darkened alleyways every single chance they got. They were going to take this journey as slowly and safely as possible. The last thing they wanted to do was run headfirst into an oncoming patrol.

Numerous times along the escape route they had close calls. One of these almost saw them turn the corner straight into an oncoming patrol. Luckily, one of the soldiers had something with just enough time to allow the Earl and Keladkha to backtrack and hide in an alleyway. Once the patrol had past, they darted from the shadows and continued heading for the outskirts of the town.

The return trip was taking much longer than the infiltration attempt, but at last they had reached the edges of the city and were able to see the campfires from the Earl's armies' camp. They picked up the pace as they crossed the darkened No Man's Land. They greeted the guard at the entrance to the camp and headed in, weary from the night's events.

Chapter 20 – The Final Showdown

They spent the short remainder of the night in a tent that the Earl had allowed them to use as thanks for the rescue. The sleep came blissfully that night as they rested in a place of safety and didn't have to constantly keep watch for any number of things that could have killed them in the night. The camp was noisy, as soldiers constantly passed by on the way to their postings, but it failed to interrupt their sleep.

When they had finally slept off the tiredness from the previous night's excursion, they made their way back to the center of the camp and the General's tent. By now it was well into mid morning and they were surprised to find that the army was not pushing out for an assault, instead staying in the camp and making preparations. They had finally reached the large, circular tent that housed all of the high ranking members of the army and were let inside by the guard at the door.

Once on the inside, they watched as the Earl and his generals planned another assault on the city. From what they were able to overhear, it sounded as though this would be a night assault and that the primary target would be razing the city to the ground. “With the pirate lord dead, his troops will be demoralized.”

“Or having their fighting spirit reinvigorated,” one of the general's muttered, obviously annoyed.

“I'm telling you the plan will work. At sundown the archers ignite fires as far into the city as possible, and while they are dealing with that, we lead a charge straight to the heart.”

“Yes sir,” all the generals replied, not wanting to get on Howe's bad side.

As most of the general began to exit, Howe noticed them and motioned them over to the maps showing the battle plan. “Tonight we are going to end this pirate threat once and for all. It will be my most glorious battle.”

“I'm sure it will be, but I must talk to you as to why we originally came here.”

“Probably has something to do with Tiethal's death, doesn't it?”

“Yes. All the troops of the empire are needed in the capital to prepare for an assault on the forces that attacked us. Also, the nobles are needed to help decide the succession to the throne. We have already summoned Earl Eamon of Caendor to the city and you need to head there as soon as possible to help get the process underway.”

“I see. Stay and help me on this night and I will do as you ask.”

“We will sir.”

Keladkha and Arynn mulled around the camp for the remainder of the day, watching as all the preparations were made for the upcoming battle. Every soldier would be taking part in this final blow and the camp was abuzz with activity. Blacksmiths went about repairing arms and armor that had seen damage in the previous clashes. Doctors were getting the most able injured healed enough to be able to join their comrades. The stable workers were donning the war horses in their battle armor and making sure they were all set.

As the sun began to set on the eastern horizon, the troops began assembling in formation on the edges of the camp. The archers were the closest to the city for the moment, as they would be launching many volleys of flaming arrows in attempts to create a firestorm that would hopefully kill off most of the pirates. Behind them were the cavalry, who would be the first to charge down the streets into enemy lines.

A nervous energy was running through the air as troops wondered if they would live to see their families ever again. This was unlike all the previous forays and such a large scale assault would most likely mean high casualty numbers. The hope was that the fires would do most of the work and they would merely be heading in clear up the rest and raze the remainder of the town.

When the all light from the sun had finally vanished, torches were lit and the entire army moved into a position not that far from the first of the destroyed buildings on the edge of the city. At the signal from one of the generals, numerous men carrying torches stepped towards the lines of archers. With another signal, they began sprinting down the lines and lighting the cloth attached to arrowheads.

The archers released the arrows as soon as the cloth caught fire, sending them on a high arc into the city center. This process continued for nearly an hour, exhausting the entirety of the ammunition supply. From the edges of the city, they were unsure how much damage they were actually causing. But from what they were able to see, numerous fires had been lit across the city, giving it an ominous orange glow in the night sky. Arrows gone, the archers retreated to the back of the lines and rearmed with swords for the fight ahead.

The generals rode up and down the lines on horseback, shouting out last minute instructions to their troops. With everything squared away, the horn was finally blown to charge. The mounted combatants took off like a gunshot, barreling down into the city. The encountered little resistance throughout much of the first half of the city. That changed though when they finally reached the town square, which was not quite fully guarded as some obviously had been sent to fight the fires.
The horses broke on a wall of pikes, suffering many casualties, but causing nearly as many from trampling the lines. The cavalry continued pushing as far as they could, eventually pushing the enemy back behind its fortifications. By this time the foot soldiers were beginning to arrive, so the horsemen pulled back and prepared to find a way around to flank.

The ground troops were taking a constant peppering of arrows from pirates hidden behind the makeshift walls. They continued to push though, eventually reaching the gate and bringing a battering ram forward. The shoddy construction soon fell to the sheer power of the ram. As the gates swung open, the defenders on the inside were met with an onslaught of charging soldiers. Morale was quickly broken and they retreated into the mansion that was the centerpiece of the square.

Rather than risking men in the close combat that would characterize fighting indoors. The generals signaled that they would try and burn the defenders out. Under constant fire from archers firing from the upper windows of the mansion, troops ran up and used torches and some oil to ignite the outer walls. It would now be a waiting game to see if the enemy would wait it out and die by fire or make a counterattack. In the mean time, patrols were sent out from the square to check the remainder of the city.

These patrols went from building to building, searching all the floors for any people inside. If they found any, the were killed instantly as there was going to be no quarter was going to be given to pirates. Once they had searched the house, they used torches and any fuel to be found to light the house on fire before moving on to the next one. As time went on, the streets became choked with heavy clouds of black smoke, reducing visibility and causing rampant coughing. Even with all of the clouds, the fires lit the streets up almost like it was the middle of the day.

The troops surrounding the mansion were surprised as each minute passed that the pirates did not leave the mansion. Sporadic fire was still coming from the upper levels, but most of the building was engulfed in flames. Almost at once, the doors burst open and nearly a dozen men burst from the building, their clothes covered in flames. The soldiers waiting near the doors, cut them down before they got too far though as well as the few others that followed as time went on.

Nearly an hour later, the flames weakened the structure of the house enough that it was no longer able to support itself. It finally collapsed into a heap of burned timber and flames, signaling the end of the pirate resistance. The patrols had been making quick work of the remainder of the city, and before the morning rays even broke the horizon the city was successfully destroyed.

As the army finished its work, Earl Howe returned to the camp to meet with Keladkha and Arynn, who had stayed behind to help with any of the wounded brought back. “The battle is won.”

“Congratulations sir. I assume you will uphold your end of the bargain.”

“I will, my troops will be marching within a week. Your service here is through if you need to head off.”

“Yes, we will be taking our leave. We shall meet again in Belnor. Best of luck.”

With that he turned around and mounted up on his horse. The two of them rode from the encampment, leaving the city billowing black smoke behind. They were headed back towards the Great Road and off to the Shalomnori Wilds to meet with the wood elves again.

Chapter 21 – On the Road Again

Their travels once again took them through the marshes and by the spot where Shen had fallen. Keladkha brought his horse to a stop, next to the still barely visible bloodstained dirt and dismounted. He knelt down on one knee and said a little prayer of the Maker in honor of his fallen comrade. Then without another word, he climbed back up onto the horse and began riding at a good clip away.
The camp for that night was once again plagued by the tiny, biting gnats that were so prevalent in these parts. No matter how much they tried to keep them away, with multiple blankets, thick smoke from the fire, they kept on coming back in force.

They finally were able to drift off into blissful sleep when a light rain shower moved in a couple hours before morning. It was miserable when they awoke though, as the rain had wiped out their fire and soaked everything completely. With the rain still coming down, they would be unable to start up another fire to dry it out. As a result, they gathered the belongings and mounted the horses in their soggy armor for a miserable day of riding.

Rather than the showers breaking up in the hot air as they had hoped, they managed to intensify as the hours trudged on. While the morning sky had only been filled with light gray rain clouds, they were now black and ominous looking. The area around them was darkened, looking almost like it did shortly after the sun set. Flashes of lightning darted between the cloud tops, briefly lighting the way. Rumbling thunder provided an eerie soundtrack as they continued moving. Soon, the rain was coming down by the bucketful, so heavy that they could barely make out the road not ten feet in front of them.

Any hope of a dry camp for the night was lost as the area grew darker and darker, signaling that the remaining daylight had been exhausted. The managed to find a slightly higher patch of grassy ground to set their bedrolls on, but the area was mired in mud. With every step they took, their boots would sink into the muck and required great effort to pull free. The rain finally broke sometime during the night, leaving a warm, muggy, and cloudy morning behind. The path had turned to mud and the horses were struggling to make any good speed at all, yet they continued to push onwards.

By mid-afternoon, they had finally broken free of the marsh roads and entered the paved roads of the Great Road. The pace quickened and their spirits lifted as the scenic beauty of traveling the road returned. It wouldn't be too long before they reached the edges of the forest and headed in to speak with the wood elf people for aid. That night, they stopped at a small roadside inn that was the usual stopping point for merchants along the road. Business was light however and they were easily able to get two rooms for the night.

Given the chance of finally having a nice hot meal after the days of cold bread and jerky, they gratefully took the chance of ordering food in the main room with other few guests stopped there. As they chowed down on a delicious meal of steak and potatoes, they chatted with the other guests to get news on happenings in the empire. It appeared as though the southern folk of the Tracopes were once again attempting to assert their independence now that the king was gone. They were also glad to hear that Earl Eamon had arrived in the capital and taken control of the defense and rebuilding projects that the city faced. Also, there were no further stories of attacks on settlements, though a few travelers along the road had gone missing with wagons found destroyed.

With their stomachs full of food and ale, they finally retired to their rooms well after midnight to slip blissfully into a good night's sleep. It was probably the best night of sleep that they had enjoyed since leaving the generous confines of Caendor and the hospitality of Eamon. Once the first rays of the morning sun popped through the windows, they were gathering their belongings and headed back out onto the road. Their goal for the day was to enter the forest and at least make it a good portion of the way to the elven capital.

By the late afternoon they were deep into the trees when caught sight of some movement ahead. Not wanting to give away their position while they scouted it out, they dismounted and tied their horses to some nearby trees and set out on foot. As they closed in on the source of the sound, they noticed that it sounded as though multiple persons were walking through the underbrush. Peeking into a slight clearing ahead, they saw what appeared to be a scouting party of five orcs.

Given the chance of finally being able to ambush the enemy rather than be on the receiving end, they quickly snuck their way around onto a path ahead of the party. They crouched behind trees and waited as the orcs worked they way up to the positioned. At Keladkha's signal, Arynn quickly unleashed two arrows onto the party, felling two orcs before they even knew they were there.

As the orcs turned to determine where the shots had come from, Keladkha burst from behind his tree and lopped off one of the orc's head. It fell to the ground as the now empty neck spurted blood like a geyser. He swung again and slashed across the chest of another one of the creatures dumbly turned around. Before the body had even hit the ground, the last member was felled by another arrow. As they quickly searched the bodies for any supplies of note, they had forgotten a fact gleaned from the last time they had been attacked: that orcish scouting parties consisted of two groups of five.

The ambushers were now the ambushed as a two arrows pierced the back of Keladkha's armor, sending him sprawling to the ground. Spurred to action, Arynn quickly spun in place and unleashed an arrow at the first orc that burst from the tree. As it hit the ground with a loud thump, two more popped up in its place. She dropped her bow and pulled out her daggers to fight, but they were two much for her and quickly overwhelmed her. She could only watch as they brusquely tied her hands and feet together with coarse rope. Keladkha was given the same treatment, wincing as they roughly treated his wounds.

They began dragging them through the woods, though the destination was unsure. It seemed as though the orcs took a morbid pleasure in ramming them into every root sticking from the ground and through every set of brambles. They were quickly coated in dirt and muck from the ground. Keladkha's wound was growing even more painful with every bump he hit. The rough bandage they had placed on it was already soaked through with blood.

About an hour had passed, and they were bruised and battered from being dragged through the underbrush. All of a sudden though, the orc that had been dragging Arynn fell limp to the ground, an arrow sticking out of his head. Seconds later, the other three orcs met the same fate, arrows straight through the head. Keladkha tried to rollover to get a better view of what was happening when he saw four elves step from the brush on the side of the path. They quickly trotted over and cut them free from the bonds.

“You are lucky to be alive human. We have been tracking this group for most of the day when we stumbled across the bodies of their comrades. If we hadn't noticed the signs of someone being dragged, we wouldn't have followed,” one of the elves stepped forward.

“I guess I owe you many thanks,” Keladkha replied.

“I don't want your thanks human. You are lucky these orcs are more of an enemy than you or otherwise we wouldn't have cared.”

“Wait, Princess Arynn? What are you doing in the company of a human?” one of the other elves spoke up, realizing who his companion was.

The first elf took a rough hold of Keladkha and brought him close, “You better explain yourself here.”

“Leave him alone, Attan, I am here on the Queen's orders. He is fighting our enemies as well,” Arynn spoke up, walking over.

“Yes, your majesty,” the elf replied, letting Keladkha go but still glaring at him.

“You must take us back to the capital, we need to speak with my mother.”

“Right away, mam.”

They walked between the trees at a good pace, causing Keladkha to need to stop several times to catch his breath. Even though the wound had been cleaned and redone by Arynn, it still required constant changing as the walking didn't help the blood flow to stop. After what seemed like hours of walking they finally made camp under the stars. Sleep came quickly to Arynn and Keladkha. They were unhappy in the morning when the elvish patrol got them moving again before the sun had even risen.

It was late afternoon after a full's day march that they finally reached the outer sentinels protecting the elvish city. With some doubtful looks from the guards at the human, they were allowed to pass. Rather than heading straight to the Queen's quarter, they first went to Arynn's hut for some food and decent night's sleep.

Chapter 22 – An Audience With the Queen

Once morning had fallen over the land, the guards arrived at the hut to escort them up to the palace to meet with the Queen. Even though he had been in the city before, he noticed that the guards seemed uncomfortable having a human around and constantly kept one hand on the hilt of their weapons. They arrived at the main tree and began the long ascent to the throne room.

Quickly making the climb, they were ushered into an audience with the Queen nearly immediately. As they entered the room, the queen stood up and immediately walked over to her daughter. “The stench of death hangs heavily over you. The journey has proven to be a long one.”

“Yes mother, the human king has been killed and now Keladkha is uniting the people to restore the empire,” Arynn replied.

“The task seems to be a great one and not one to be taken lightly. How has it proceeded?”

“We have gathered troops and the nobles from two of the three fiefdoms. Only one remains before we will be able to hold the Landsmeet to decide on the new King of Ortheon and then formulate a plan of attack for striking back at the orcs,” Keladkha responded.

“I see, but if you have not gathered all of your troops, why have you entered the forest again. It seems like more pressing matters are at hand than to be walking between these trees.”

“Mother we came because the humans need troops to strike back against this blight on the land. We will not come through this unscathed if the humans fall.”

“You ask me to put our lives on the line for those that so willingly murdered our people not too long ago? You know my stance on the matter, we will fend for ourselves as we have done for centuries. The rise and fall of humans is of no matter to us.”

“But it is mother... our fates are intertwined. We can not live while they fall.”

“Your thoughts are clouded by your feelings for him. I can sense what you feel when you look at him. You would betray our own people in favor of a mere human. A human whose soul is black with sorrow and hate, motivated by a blood lust for some wrong that was done on to him.”

“You have him all wrong. He is trying to do the world right and you are acting to the contrary. You are dooming the world to an endless darkness.”

“I should never have let you leave with this human. It has changed you greatly and now I regret what I must do. You two are forever banished from the Shalomnori Wilds. If you are ever seen again on our lands, you shall be killed on sight. Now gather your belongings and leave.”

As she finished this proclamation, she turned away from them and began walking back to her throne, ignoring the pleas from her daughter. The guards closed in around them, and forcibly started to shove them from the throne room. Arynn continued to struggle against the guards, still trying to get her mother's attention. Keladkha accepted the fate, as he walked towards the door, guards one step behind him looking for any sudden movements.

They were lead all the way back down from the palace along the long, winding path that ran down the tree. The guards stayed outside of Arynn's hut as they were given ten minutes to pack up all of their belongings and stash it on their horses. With everything gathered, they were led from the city by the head of the guard, who once again reiterated their punishment.

On the outskirts of the capital, they were finally set free to go on their own way, yet unable to come back for help. The riding for the remainder of the day went without talking on either side. The trees and shrubs seemed to slowly move by as boredom began to set in. The ride to the Tracopes was going to be a long one and they had hoped that it would have been buoyed with good news of elven hope. Instead, it began with a sense of dread on what was to come. They were in need of as many allies as they could possibly get and this was going to be a major setback.

Camp for that night just seemed to continue the gloomy mood that they had both sunken into. For some reason, a camp fire just did not want to catch, even though they were doing it in the exact same manner that had been doing it all the time. As a result, they were forced to sit in the cold, darkness eating cold bread and tough jerky. Very few words of conversation were said between the two, until Arynn finally broke into a rant, “What is my mother thinking? Banishing her only child from the city over such a simple issue. She has to know what will happen if your kind fails in its task, it would only be a matter of time before the remaining elves are purged from the map. Something must be up with her to have her act like this. It is uncharacteristic even for her wild mood swings.”

“I don't know. But if we aren't going to get help from her, we are going to need to get double our efforts in securing more support. The Tracopes are not going to be friendly to us, but we will have to get their help somehow.”

After the short burst in conversation, each one went back to brooding on their sides of the camp. It was Keladkha's turn to take the first watch and stood up and began traversing the camp in circles to get a lay of the land. As he returned to the camp, he stopped and stared at Arynn for awhile as she sat cross-legged, deep in meditation as was the elven way. He had her mother's words running through his head, those about how she felt when she looked at him. He wondered if it was true that she was harboring feelings for him. While he definitely felt the twinges of affection for her, it was also problematic to become attached with one who he had to work so closely with.

Breaking off the thought train, he continued to make some rounds about the camp until it was time to for him to rouse Arynn for her turn to keep watch. He made his way back to where she was sitting and gently shook her from her thoughts. As she got the cobwebs out her head, Keladkha climbed down onto his bedroll and gratefully fell into a deep slumber for the remainder of the night.

Arynn was still fuming over her banishment from her homeland and the apparently strange behavior of her mother in the discussion. She had thought for sure that her mother would have agreed to help aid the humans and realized the immense dangers that they faced from the coming of the orcs. She continued mulling this over as she made her way around the camp, keeping one eye out for any possible movements in the darkness.

Having made numerous rounds around the camp, she walked back and sat down on a log. As she sat there, she looked longingly at Keladkha sleeping form. Her mother had been right about the feelings she felt towards him. Every time she looked at him, she felt butterflies in her stomach and a deep desire arose. The problem though was that it seemed that he not at all interested back. He hadn't been particularly open with her in the early going and he had only shut himself off more in the time since Shen's death. Sighing, she got back up to do some more rounds about the camp.

Chapter 23 – The Demons Are Everywhere

When morning came, they packed up their camp and set forth again on horseback. They were hoping to break free from the forests and get back onto the Great Road. From there it would be a week long journey across the heart of the empire to reach the southern borders that were home to the Tracopes and its capital, Andor. Along the way they planned to rest for a couple of days in Caendor to replenish the supplies it would take to survive in the jungles.

With their luck of late, a snow storm managed to blow up as they were just exiting the last trees of the Wilds. The winds were some of the strongest that they had encountered of late. The snow stung their eyes as it whipped by at gale forces. Drifts began forming in the low-lying portions of the roads, forcing the horses to work harder to make the same amount of progress. Thankfully, the storm was brief and they had ridden through it by the time they were going to make camp for the night.

With another hard day's ride, they caught sight of the spectacular white walls of Caendor before night fell. The guards at the gate recognized them almost instantly and allowed them entrance without too much hassle. Once inside, they were quickly shepherded into the castle where the Countess was waiting to greet them. After the pleasantries were exchanged, the servants took them to their rooms and set them up with some hot bath water.

They lingered in the castle for the next two days, in a life of relative luxury. When it came time to finally pull themselves away, they were not happy to leave the soft beds and warm baths behind. But with packs full of freshly prepared food, the journey for the remainder of the way didn't look too bad. They set out onto the plains with clear blue skies above and a cool breeze from behind, helping them on their way.

The journey to the southwest from Caendor was smooth and easy sailing. They hardly ran into anyone traveling across the road, save the occasional merchant, and the picturesque quality of the road continued to leave them amazed. The temperature continued to rise as they made their way to the south, much to their delight as they no longer had to spend it shivering on frigid bedrolls on the frozen ground. They no longer had to rely on the fire as the sole source of heat.

It was the third day of riding when they came across a strange looking fellow standing in the middle of the road. His robes were torn and he was constantly chewing on his nails and pacing back and forth across the road. As he saw them approaching, he broke into a trot towards them, “Oh please you have to help me. It is horrible, there are demons everywhere.”

“Demons, what the hell are you talking about man?” Keladkha questioned skeptically.

“I am... am... a part of a... certain community for the... er... practice of magic, and something... went terribly wrong.”

“A mage, I thought they banished your kind from the continent decades ago.”

“They tried... but we have kept the practice alive... in small communes.”

“And now you want us to help you?”

“Yes please, you have to kill all the demons in our facility.”

“How do I know you aren't some kind of foul demon monster trying to murder us by having us go visit your friends. Or how do I know you aren't some crazed duster who is merely so fucking high right now that you don't know who you're talking. Or better yet, are you a highwayman who will try robbing us after luring us over to your buddies.”

“Please you have to believe me. You must help.”

“Well, it's not like we have anything better to do. I always did enjoy slicing demons, brought a gleam to my eye and ectoplasm to my sword,” Keladkha said rolling his eyes as he motioned for the crazed person to lead them to wherever this building was.

They followed him into the woods for nearly a half of an hour before they came to a clearing in which a building stood. From the outside, they could already tell that something strange was going on on the inside. Random shrieks and shrills emanated into the forest and the windows showed an ominous green glow. “Maybe he wasn't joking after all,” Keladkha muttered.

“I'll have to follow you inside because I will need to pull up the summoning circle on the second level to make sure no others can get it,” the mage spoke.
“Whatever, I just want to get this over with so we can get back to the task at hand,” Keladkha angrily replied as he dismounted his horse. Arynn dismounted soon after and the group made its way up to the front door which had been smashed down at some point in time.

Keladkha was the first one to make his way through the opening into the darkened room on the inside. The other two quickly followed and gawked at the scene inside. Bodies of other men dressed in the same manner as the mage who had hailed them littered the floor, their bodies ripped to shreds by what looked to be some powerful hands. The walls, ceiling, and floor were covered in the dark green sticky substance that was known as ectoplasm, a residue left behind by the demons that occasionally passed into this realm from the shade.

They readied their weapons and prepared to move on to the next room, what the mage said was the dining room. Thankfully the building was small and there wouldn't be too many places for demons to hide and strike out at them. Standing at the door, Keladkha slowly swung the door open and peered inside. On the opposite side of the room stood three demons. These demons were piles of purple gelatinous goo that seemed to hover a foot off the ground. They had no legs and only short stubs for arms. The head was one with the body with a giant toothy grin and gigantic bug eyes.

The door creaked as he opened it fully, attracting the attention of the demons. Keladkha and Arynn took a few steps into the room and stood ready with swords and daggers in hand, as for some reason, the creatures were immune to arrows. The creatures slowly started gliding over in their direction, their eyes glowing bright red as they did. Keladkha ran forward and met the first of the demons with an overhead slash. The blade easily worked its way through the goo, causing the beast to end up as a pile on the floor.

Before he could react to the other, he was forced to watch as one of the other demons opened its mouth and shot a stream of slime onto him. It kept coming and coming until it had completely covered him. Almost as soon as it had made contact, it began hardening. Keladkha became unable to even move his arms or legs as it became almost like he had been encased in a hard plaster.

Arynn watched as this happened and reacted by flinging one of her daggers straight through what could be considered its head. The pile of goo flopped down onto the ground. Just as the last demon was turning to coat Arynn in the same substance as Keladkha, the mage stepped from the shadows at the door and unleashed a fireball at the beast. Upon contact, the entire creature was coated in flames and floated about the room shrieking in agony.

When the creature had finally succumbed to the flames, Arynn ran over to the now rigid form of Keladkha. She took one of her daggers and hit the hard coating with the hilt. The shell cracked a bit, allowing her to pick off some of the hardened goo. She continued the process until he was able to move his arms and help in the process of removing the remainder.

With it finally gone, Keladkha commented, “Well that was fun. Remind me to do that again sometime.”

The couple of other side rooms on the first floor, thankfully proved to be empty. The mage was able to account for most of his fellow magi through all of the corpses on the ground. It appeared as though none had been as lucky as he had been to escape. The ordeal was taking its toll on him though, as he appeared to grow more and more depressed with each body they found. Eventually it was time for them to head upstairs to what, according to the mage, was one large room that served as the living quarters.

As they walked up the stairs and into the room, Keladkha got a first glimpse of what they were up against. “This is my kind of demon,” he remarked.

“It's a desire demon, they try and give you deepest desires so that you will submit to them and then they remove your soul and take over your body,” the mage responded, looking into the room.

“Doesn't sound all that bad to me.”

The three of them walked into the room, weapons drawn. The desire demon, which resembled a nude form of a female, turned around as she heard them coming. She began speaking in a low, sultry voice as they got closer. “There is no need for fighting here. I can satisfy everything you have ever desired if you just put the weapons down.”

“Hmm, funny my desire involves my sword, you, and a whole lot of blood. So how's this going to work?”

“Are you sure that is your deepest desire? Because when I look into your soul, I see something very different. How about trying this on for size?” she uttered in her seductive tones. She quickly spun around and when she was facing them again, she had taken the form of Arynn. “This is the sense I'm getting here,” she said, voice mimicking Arynn's perfectly. “Now put down your weapon and I will be able to satisfy everything you have ever wanted.”

“You drive a hard bargain, but I like the real version better than some creeped out demonic one,” he responded, charging forward with his sword held high.

As he approached, the demon flung forward an arm and unleashed a major shock wave that picked him and threw him backwards onto the ground. As he groggily looked up, Arynn and the mage had been petrified in place, unable to help out in the battle. He picked himself up from the ground and began moving towards the demon. With another wave of the hand, there were suddenly three exact copies of her. Taking a swipe at the nearest one, the blade went straight through the illusion, causing it to vanish into thin air.

The other copy vanished with another quick swipe from his blade, leaving him face to face with the desire demon. Out of thin air she summoned a massive two handed battleaxe, looking almost comically large in her hands. He took another swing, but she expertly blocked the blade with the hilt. Keladkha was forced to dodge to the side as she responded with a large overhand swing. Before he was able to stand back up, the demon walked over to him and stood above him. She reached down and grabbed his chin with her hand and said, “We don't have to fight you know? We can be happy together.”

“I know,” he responded as he kicked up and threw her off balance. Before she could bring up the axe in defense, he had stood up and taken a massive swipe at her neck. The blade easily sliced through the skin and the entire demon quickly dissolved into a pool of ectoplasm on the floor of the room. Keladkha turned around to see the mage and Arynn drop to the ground as they were no longer petrified. He walked over to them as they stood up, looking around confused.

“Where is the demon?” Arynn asked.

“Dead. She is now a pool somewhere over there.”

“Thank you so much for your help cleaning this place out,” the mage spoke up.

“Kind of glad I did though, I thought you were just some crazy person on the road when you stopped us earlier. What is your name anyway?”

“Makatak. Um... Would I be able to... tag along with you? I have nowhere else to go.”

“Already got an elf, why not add an illegal mage to the party? Yeah, you can join us, just try not to get in the way too much. Now what was this about the summoning circle?”

“It is straight ahead, along the windows over there. Some of my fellows were experimenting with wild magic that was too much for them. It should be a simple process to remove though.”

With that, Makatak walked over the windows and knelt down over a shimmering circle on the floor. As he said a few words, there was a flash of light and it was gone. So that no one would stumble across all of the remains in the future, they decided to set fire to the building before leaving. They made their way back on to the Great Road, leaving the pillar of black smoke long behind them.

Chapter 24 – Ambushes

The remainder of the journey to the Tracopes was fairly uneventful. The mood around camp was lightened considerably with a new member to converse with and get a sense of his story. Makatak had spent nearly his entire life in the small building studying magic after showing signs of it at an early age. His parents had been worried what the King's forces would have done if they had found him, so they it was they who decided to give him up to the fellowship of magi.

While studying there, he had endured a rigorous and disciplined life. It was up with the sun and within an hour they would be deep into lessons about harnessing the power for good. These would last until a very brief lunch break which was followed by practical instruction in the use of spells. After dinner, they were given their only free time with the stipulation that it be used for the advancement of their studies. This included practicing alchemy or enchantments until the elder decided it was time for the lights to be extinguished. This pattern repeated itself for years.

Makatak was considered short for being a human, only standing as high as Arynn. The use of magic had been widely known to cause some premature aging in its practitioners and he was no exception. His shoulder length black hair was streaked with bits of gray and his face was creased and leathery. So even though he was shy of three decades old, he looked much beyond his years.

The sheltered life he had experienced with the fellowship had obviously not prepared him well for a life on the road in the wild. Every rustling sound in the undergrowth frightened him and he found it hard to sleep on a cold hard bed roll at night. Even though he had a horse from the fellowship's stables, he was unfamiliar with the beast and could barely manage to keep it under his control. His ability in magic did come in handy when it came time to set up the camp though as he was able to light a fire that needed no wood to burn and set up on a magical barrier that would alert them if anything came near them, eliminating the need for nightly watches.

The temperature continued to rise as the road continued winding its way to the south. Gone were the days of bearable days and comfortable nights, now replaced by sweltering sun parched days and warm stuffy nights. The humidity of the air around them also rose, leaving them to feel the sweat remaining on their bodies unable to evaporate into the already saturated air. Frequent rain showers also popped up, lasting no longer than an hour or so each time they arrived but managing to make the humidity even more unbearable.

The forests surrounding the them changed from the temperature trees to those of a jungle nature. More colorful flowers and plants sprinkled the undergrowth and the jungle seemed more alive with animals of every sort and nature. But as they moved into this territory, they had to be on their guard more than ever. The people that called this swath of land home weren't exactly the friendliest to the King's troops and could strike from hidden locations in the undergrowth at any time.

Running low on fresh water supplies after days of traveling, they decided to strike a path deep into the forest to find a spring of some sorts to refill their jugs. A couple hours into the trek, they finally came across a fast moving river that was so clear that they could see all they way down to the bottom. Canteens and jugs were gratefully dipped into the water, refilling their stocks to the fullest in days.

As Arynn and Makatak went about filling up the water and washing some of the armor and clothing, Keladkha took the chance to explore some of the surrounding area. As he beat his way through the bush, he came across some stone ruins that seemed oddly familiar to him. All of a sudden, the realization hit him that this was where his army had camped so many years ago during the Tracopian Reunification War. The ruins of the town they had been ordered to destroy was not going to be too far off.

Without a word to the others, he continued his journey further and further off of the beaten path. Eventually, he stumbled across some rotted and burned timbers littering an overgrown clearing in the trees. The memories flooded back into his head, unbidden. The painful thoughts of rounding up the villagers and forcing them into the town hall were all that was able to come to mind. He walked through the almost indistinguishable ruins, tears welling up in his eyes as all the painful memories returned. He eventually found the spot where the town hall had once stood. As he stepped between the fallen timbers, he disturbed some bones that were hidden under the plant growth.

The tears still streaming down his face, he knelt down amongst the bones and said a prayer for the villagers. After he was done, he continued to kneel there as he remembered all of the terrible things they had been ordered to do during the fateful war. He was unsure of how long he was there but the voices of Arynn and Makatak finally jarred him away from his thoughts. Arynn's questions about why he had been crying were merely shaken off as a remembrance of past wrongs.

With stocks restored, the party returned to the roads and their journey to Andor. The following day, they noticed a marked increased in the movement of creatures in the underbrush on either side of the road. About mid day, as the stifling heat was at its worst, they found the source of the increased activity. An ambush had been laid for them to ride into. By sheer dumb luck, they had accidentally taken a smaller side path off of the road and came up around behind the tribal people lying in wait.

Upon the tribals realization of what had just occurred, they stood up to begin the assault just as the three party members had dismounted their horses with weapons drawn. Makatak was the first to react, throwing out his hands, causing a blast of wind to shoot out and threw three of the six assailants several feet onto their backs. Taking advantage of the temporary drop in enemy numbers, Keladkha charged forward and hit the lead assailant in the face with the hilt of his sword, stunning him and causing him to drop to the floor.

Arynn just managed to duck under the wild swing from the blade of one of tribals. As his momentum took him by, she quickly darted out with her daggers and plunged both of them deep into the enemy's back. The attacker fell to the ground, two torrents of blood pouring out of his wounds. Keladkha didn't even see the third assailant come up and slash with a sword. Luckily, Keladkha's heavy armor managed to protect him from wounds but not from being knocked backwards. As he looked up, he watched as the tribal attacker was suddenly frozen from another hand thrust by Makatak. The mage followed it up with what appeared to be a large rock. As the rock made contact, the frozen person burst into a thousand pieces of ice, a violent looking end.

By this time, the other three attackers had recovered from being knocked back and were making a charge. The mage was the first to respond, throwing out his hand yet another time. This time a swarm of stinging, biting insects flew out, looking like more violent versions of the ones they had encountered in the marshes. The flew straight towards the tribe member on the right, quickly engulfing him. His charge suddenly slowed as he began screaming out in agony as the insects began to eat his flesh. Right before their eyes, he vanished into a bloody mist as the bugs devoured everything.

Keladkha had stood back up and took advantage of the distracted attackers to run up and take a mighty slash with his broadsword. It went straight across the chest of the nearest assailant, digging several inches into the flesh. A geyser of blood shot out as the body fell lifeless to the ground. Arynn dealt with the remaining attacker by dispatching him with two quick arrows to the neck.

It was at this time that they heard rustling in the undergrowth behind them. They quickly spun around to see one of the tribal members, that Keladkha had knocked with the hilt of his sword, standing up and fearfully looking at them. “Please don't kill me, I surrender.”

“Least I knocked some sense into you, but I can't risk leaving you alive. You could bring more reinforcements onto our position and have us murdered for what we've done.”

“Please no. I can join you so that you aren't attacked anymore.”

“How do I know that I can trust you?”

“Please you have to. I have seen what you are capable of and know that if I betray you I will be given no quarter.”

“Just keep that in mind. Man, an elf, a mage, and now a tribal, who would have thought this would be an adventuring party. What is your name?”

“Zephyr, and thank you so much.”

With no horse of his own to ride on, Zephyr joined Makatak on his. After cleaning up and patching up the few wounds they had sustained, it was time for them to move back on. As night fell on the area, they set up camp and sat around the fire, getting to know their new guest some more.

Zephyr was apparently a member of the Yuanti tribe, a group of nomads that swore no loyalty to either the empire or the nobility in Andor. They had long been the target of military campaigns aimed at driving them from the forests are they were thought to pose a risk to the frontier settlers. In reality, they were more the victims of unjust perceptions about their religion, which consistently included the use of human sacrifices to their pagan gods.

As a senior member of the tribe, Zephyr was considered the rank equivalent of a captain in the army. He had his own garrison of troops and normally led scouting parties to determine new camp locations and check on the incursions of settlers and farmers. The tough life in the jungles of the Tracopes had aged him considerably, leaving him with shoulder length silver hair and a faded tattoo across the entirety of his face. He stood a couple inches taller than Keladkha, yet was noticeably thinner in stature.

Chapter 25 – Shadows in the Night

On the following morning, they picked up camp and set back out onto the road. Their travels were continuously peppered by passing showers that came and went without any warning, that still managed to soak them to the bone. They hoped to cover the remaining distance to Andor by mid afternoon. Thankfully, their travels were unimpeded by any more tribes as they continued to traverse the winding roads.

By the time the sun was already on its downward path they finally caught sight of Andor. It was the least impressive of the fiefdoms of Ortheon, having been destroyed and rebuilt numerous times during constant wars that raged in the jungles. The outer walls were an eclectic mix of wooden palisades and stone foundations. A remaining layer of ancient stones served as the base of the wall and wooden palisades had been built on top. The wood was chosen when the stone quarries that had supplied the area for centuries dried up many years ago. The main gate showed numerous instances of the wood rotting way from life in a wet, humid climate.

Walking inside the city left them surprised at how deteriorated of a state the city currently was in. The homes and shops were nothing more than shacks built with scrap wood and were so shoddily put together that it appeared as though a stiff breeze would cause them to collapse. Filth and waste were piled up in the streets, attracting copious numbers of bugs with an atrocious smell of rotting food and human waste. As they walked the streets, they had to jump to the side more than once to avoid feral dogs snapping at them for getting too close to their food.

The noble district didn't prove to be in much better of a shape, unlike when they had visited Trelnoth. There was noticeably less filth littering the streets, though packs of feral dogs still ruled the streets, snapping at anyone who got to close to their scavenging piles. The houses lining the streets had been built decades ago and the poor economy that had plagued the city for most of its existence left many of the owners unable to pay for the repairs. The nobility here was by title only, as the families barely lived in conditions better than the peasants. Numerous homes they passed were filled with broken windows, peeling paint, and sagging, rotting porches.

As they found themselves wandering through the market district, an old man with a peg leg bumped into Keladkha. As he did so, he muttered, “Meet me in the old clock tower on the other side of town as the bell tolls twelve.” Immediately after saying this, he yelled, “Bug off!” and limped off into a dark alleyway before they could even respond to the strange situation.

“What the hell was that about?” Keladkha wondered aloud.

“We heard that these people want to break off from the empire, so it might be an ambush,” Arynn ventured.

“An... ambush? Maybe we shouldn't go,” Makatak said, nervously scanning the crowd around them.

“If they wanted to kill you, they would have just done it now. Anti-imperial fervor is peaking right now and no one would care if a soldier was killed in the streets,” Zephyr added.

“Well that's good to know,” Keladkha uttered sarcastically.

The group then decided that they should try to seek an audience with the earl to see if he would willingly help them. They easily found the lord's estate, as it was the only building in the place to be constructed entirely of stone and looked to be well maintained. The guards at the door stonewalled them, refusing to even send a message back to the earl that a representative of the King's army wanted to speak with him. With some threats of violence, they finally managed to persuade him to take the word back. The reply that returned was not what they were hoping, more guards to escort them from the premises. The earl was going to have none of the king's business on this day.

With the rest of the evening to kill before the meeting with their mysterious contact, they decided to stop in the nicest bar they had seen all day. The Prancing Pony, as it was called, would have been considered the dirtiest hole in the wall place to drink in any other city of the empire, yet here it was the cleanest and nicest spot they had seen. They drew some attention when they walked in for the seemingly random assortment of characters in their group, but the attention soon went back to the other conversations going on.

While they had hoped to gain some information regarding the political climate and situation in the city, the only information they were able to glean from the clientele regarded whores, prostitutes, wenches, and ladies of the night. It was not the most enlightened bar they had ever been in. As the darkness grew outside the windows, they downed the remainders of their ales and headed back out into the now emptied streets.

They slowly made their way to the opposite side of the town, where the meeting had been arranged. When they arrived though, they looked at the clock to tell that they were still over an hour early. Rather than go to find another spot to pass the remainder of the time, they stood against the walls and chatted to make time pass quicker. The guards wandering the streets were not happy to see people loitering there and yelled at them to move along. Knowing they were doing nothing wrong, the group ignored the patrols and waited for the bell to toll midnight.

When the bells finally began ringing out their mournful tone, the four of them quickly ducked inside of the building. They hadn't been told where inside to meet, but it was smart assumption that it would be at the top of tower where they didn't risk any interruptions. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, they found two figures lurking in the shadows, one of which was obviously the peg-legged old man that they had bumped into earlier. The other was much younger and looked to be a servant of some kind in the royal house.

“Good, you decided to show. I was worried that you wouldn't want to help me out,” the old man said, stepping forward.

“Help you out? We are here on important business, you better be helping us out,” Keladkha replied angrily.

“Well let us just say that our interests are mutual. If the earl decides to break away from the empire, it will hurt our struggling economy even more and I will be unable to earn future profits.”

“Okay, so how do we fit into your plan?”

The old man fidgeted around a bit, obviously worried about what they would think of his plan. “We are going to assassinate the earl, his son is much more open to our interests.”

“Okay, how?”

“Wait... you agree to this without any qualms?”

“He stonewalled us earlier. I need a quick solution and it is probably the most straightforward and easiest task I've been presented in my travels.”

Flustered by Keladkha's easy acceptance, the man continued, “We want to have you replace this servant in the house. That way you can administer this poison to his meal tomorrow at mid day,” he said, pulling out a small vial of clear liquid.

“Sounds good, I assume you will smuggle me in tonight.”

“Yes, if you just put on these servant clothes, I will take you to the mansion straight away.”

Keladkha took the linens from the old man and stripped off his armor and weapons, handing them to Arynn. He slid on the servant's clothes quickly and stashed a pair of daggers under the waist band. Without any further delay, he left the other members of his party to get a room at an inn for the night and followed the peg legged man through the streets. They finally reached the earl's mansion and maneuvered around to a back door entrance that was unguarded. Once inside, the old man directed him to the servant quarters and left him to prepare for morning.

It was well before sunrise that a guard entered the servant's quarters and rang a bell, signaling the beginning of a hard days work. None of the other servants gave Keladkha a second look as he assumed the role of Tack, a cook's assistant. He hadn't even been up for an hour before he was already slaving away over a raging fire, stirring a massive pot of oatmeal. The cook was a surly sort, constantly criticizing his work and trying to get him to work faster and harder.

There was no break after the preparation of breakfast was completed. Once the food had been served, he was put to work scrubbing out all of the pots and pans they had used. He was working closely with another servant but no words passed between them as they worried that any conversation would draw the ire of the cook and lead to a whipping. Thankfully, preparations for the lunchtime meal started soon afterward. A couple hours and the earl would be dead and Keladkha could convince his son to join the cause and be back on his way to Belnor.

When the food preparations were complete and ready to be served to the waiting guests, Keladkha took the earl's plate of food out of sight. There he pulled out the small vial of poison and poured it over all of the food. With that finished he carried the plate out to the earl and returned to continue delivering food to the rest of the guests. When everyone had been served, he tried sneaking to the back door to escape, but the chef saw him and sent him back out to the dining room to attend to any of the earl's need.

The first sign of trouble was that the earl's face began turning an odd shade of purple. He kept eating and talking, but those around him noticed that something was happening. Shortly thereafter, the earl began wheezing and was short of breath before he finally collapsed face first into his pile of food. The person next to him quickly reached over and checked for a pulse before declaring to everyone in attendance that the earl was dead.

Keladkha was going to take this distraction as his chance to escape from the building, but something happened that would change that. He saw, as he was about to slip through the door back to the kitchen, the old man that had supplied the poison stand up and announce to the room, “That servant there poisoned the earl. Look, he is trying to escape.”

Before he even had a chance to react, guards had surrounded Keladkha. They quickly locked his hands in shackles and began leading him down to the basements, where the dungeons were. Mere minutes after the earl was dead, Keladkha found himself betrayed and locked in a dank prison cell underground. If he didn't escape, death surely awaited him.

Space Shuttle Launch

2009-11-16T13:07:00.002-06:00

Go here to watch the Space Shuttle Atlantis take off in about 20 minutes time.

Link

NANOWRIMO Day Compilation

2009-11-15T19:22:00.000-06:00

Prepare for a long, at least three chapter's worth as I haven't updated in a bit.

Chapter 14 – Promises

They were glad that upon reaching the top of the cliff, the horses they had left hadn't wandered too far off. The horses were found to be grazing on a narrow band of grasses that had sprung up from the frosty soil to thrive on the sea breezes. Regardless of how badly they wanted to return to Caendor quickly, they had to stop to rest on the on the cold soil once again. Building up a nice sized fire, they sat around and warmed their chilled bones.

After an uneasy night of sleep with the wind and sea sprays constantly bombarding them, they gathered up the remaining supplies and packed them into the horses' saddlebags. Their goal was to ride hard and fast until well after sundown, hoping to reach the city shortly after daybreak on the second day. The journey went by quickly enough until the storm that had been threatening them overtook them.

Buffeted by blowing snows and high winds, the pace quickly slowed to as though they were walking through molasses. Visibility dropped to where it could be measured in feet and the temperature plummeted through the floor. Even wearing heavy woolen cloaks over the armor, each one of them was shivering uncontrollably in the matter of minutes. Drifts were gathering rapidly in front of them, forcing the horses to trudge through them. They would have stopped to wait it out but without a good place of shelter, freezing to death would be a serious concern. There was no way to even remotely keep a fire going in the conditions currently hampering the travel.

The dark gray clouds that closed in around took away sense of time. Minutes felt like hours and hours felt like days, yet they continued to trudge onwards. There was a brief let up in the ferocity of the storm, but it was only short lived and only succeeded in causing hope to plummet any further. There was no longer any clue as to whether they were even headed in the right direction anymore. Long ago they could have gotten turned around and were headed in the opposite direction of where they wanted.

After much time had passed, the winds finally began to die down and the clouds began breaking apart. They were able to watch as the morning sun rose into the sky, illuminating the path that they needed to take. Luckily, they hadn't gotten too far off track, at most few miles too far to the west. Quickly adjusting the course, they hoped that the slower travel was counteracted by them riding throughout the night.

With only a small delay to have a quick, cold meal, they continued pressing ever onward. It was with great joy that they finally saw the magnificent towers of the city sticking up from the horizon. It would be at most an hour before they could return to a nice hot meal and a warm bed. The gates to the city were opened before they even arrived, the guards generally happy to see them return with the mystical herb in hand.

The guards at the castle quickly ushered them up to the Earl's quarters. They had assembled the alchemists at the first sighting of them on the horizon. The Earl's condition hadn't changed in the nearly week that they had been away. It seemed as though he was almost frozen time, stubble was absent from his chin and he looked exactly the same as when they had left.

His wife couldn't have the same said about her. According the guards, she hardly left her husband's side since he had fallen ill. She didn't even leave to take meals, instead having the servants bring them up to the bed room. Her hair was unkempt and clothes horribly wrinkled from non-stop wear.

The alchemists took the Athaleas from them and began preparations according to the instructions found in ancient medicinal texts. According the texts, the potion that had to brewed with a number of rare plants would take a full day's worth of simmering before it they could even add the herb. Then it would take a few more days before it was ready to be given to the Earl.

With the blessings of the Countess, the three adventurers were given separate guest bedrooms with all the amenities of nobility. Each was assigned servants that did nothing but wait on them from dawn to dusk. They had water drawn for baths, armor cleaned and repaired by the master blacksmith, and full meals provided by the cooks. The food was utterly better than the hard bread they had been living off of for the past couple of weeks and an improvement over what the army served them. Roast ducks, full pigs, mountains of potatoes, fresh baked bread, and wine at a moment's notice.

While eager to move on to the other locations for gathering troops, they were starting to enjoy themselves, not wanting to leave when the potion was finished. The potion, according to conversations they held with the head alchemist, was proceeding just as the texts said it should. In a matter of days, they would know whether it was possible to save the Earl.

They were woken early in the morning by one of the guards, telling them that potion had been completed and that it would be tested within the hour. Quickly dressing, they made their way to the Earl's bedchambers, where they once again found the Countess sitting on the side of her husband's bed. The alchemists were doing some final preparations and ladling the concoction into a vial to pour down the Earl's throat.

The time had finally come to test the potion and everyone in the room waited with bated breath. As the countess held her husband's mouth open, the head alchemist poured the liquid down the throat. The seconds slowly ticked away slowly as nothing seemed to happen. Just as they were about to say it was a failure, the Earl began to show some signs of life. His eyelids fluttered open for a second, before he began coughing. As he opened his eyes, looking around in bewilderment, his wife broke into tears and buried her face in his chest, sobbing greatly in joy.

The questions rolled out his mouth almost immediately. What had happened, why was everyone in his room, why was his wife in such a mood, and where was his breakfast. Everyone broke into a raucous laughter at the last, much to the bewilderment of the Earl.

Shen, who knew the Earl quite well over his years of service, took up the task of trying to explain what happened with help from the captain of the guard as to what happened before the three of them had arrived. He was filled in on his poisoning and how they were unsure of who had done it and that no one was currently in custody for the crime. Shen recounted their arrival and the reasons behind it, much to the Earl's dismay of learning of the attack. He followed with a description of their journey through the Cave of the Winds and fighting the dragon and trials to get the herb.

“I guess I owe you much gratitude for all that you have done to save me and my throne from a dastardly attack,” Earl Eamon stated after having the full tale wash over him. “It is a shame about King Tiethal, while he was not the most popular, to be murdered along with your entire line is something so terrible that I can not even imagine. I have a question though, you only mentioned there being five corpses. What happened to the daughter?”

“The Grand Marshall was unsure of her whereabouts when we left. No one saw her during the attack or in the aftermath, so they were operating under the assumption that she was kidnapped in the assault,” Keladkha spoke up.

“I certainly hope nothing horrible has happened to her. I have known her since she was wee tot and it would kill me to know that she had been harmed in any way.”

“Sir, sorry to intrude, but there still is the matter of you and your army making way to Belnor to provide protection and set up the meeting of nobles to determine the proper heir to the throne.”

“Yes, yes. It will take a week to make proper preparations for while I am away, but you will certainly have my troops on hand.”

“Thank you kindly sir, we will have to make more stops to gather allies, but I believe royal decree makes you regent until a successor is chosen.”

With the assurances in place, the three of them left the Earl to have a chance to digest all the news that had been thrown in his direction at once. They each returned to their separate rooms to gather the belongings that had become strewn about in the days of rest here. It would take at least another day for the proper provisions to be prepared for the journey into the marshes, a dangerous place.

As a proper thanks for their work in saving him, the Earl decided to bestow certain gifts upon the party. To Shen, he bestowed a set of the Earl's own armor. It was of the top quality metal and was adorned with the seal of Caendor, a griffin taking flight. Upon Keladkha, he gave his own personal horse. It was of a long breed of horses that had served the kings and earls for centuries. It was arguably the fastest and most intelligent of the horses in all of Ortheon. Arynn was given a special quiver of arrows, with heads imbued with the elemental properties of fire, causing a burn on targets that it came in contact with.

The time finally came for them to say goodbye though, as there was still much work to be done in gathering the forces. It was with heavy hearts that they left the plush surroundings that they had grown accustomed to in the previous days. Shortly after daybreak though, they set out through the front gates, leaving the magnificent white towers and castle behind, shimmering in the early morning rays.

Chapter 15 – On the Road Again

The group made their way back onto the Great Road and headed southeast towards the marshes. They were thankful to finally be leaving the frozen wastes of the north for some of the warmer climates of the country. Some of the worries that had been following them since they left Belnor after the attack were beginning to recede knowing that the Earl of Caendor was headed to capital to help set events in motion. Their task lie before them, uniting the other members of the Empire to pledge support in this dire time.

Word must have spread from the capital in other means, as the road was the emptiest that they had ever seen it. Few were the days when you could travel for hours on the road and not run across another merchant or traveler. Those they did end up running across steered a wide swath around them, obviously worried about the sorts of folks they would meet on the road.

Their first campsite on the road was not far from where they had been attacked on the journey towards the capital. While there were bad memories in the air, the hard night of sleep was less a result of that and more of a readjustment from the plush beds they had grown used to. The one redeeming fact was that the kitchens at the castle had provided them with the best quality of provisions they had enjoyed at any part of their travels.

The weather turned favorable to their cause as they continued along the winding road to the southeast. The days were finally bearable and the nights didn't see them shivering constantly until morning. Bright blue skies and sunshine greeted them around every bend and lush green grass and trees stretched as far as the eye could see in both directions. The mountains surrounding Belnor loomed off to the right as they followed the road, providing a picturesque beauty to whole journey. The pleasant travel wouldn't last though, as the marshes were some of the most humid and unbearable portions of the continent.

As they road through small towns situated on the road, they were not welcomed, with the few people on the streets glaring at them and the militia following their every footstep. It seemed as though paranoia had gripped the citizens of the Empire and every stranger was to be mistrusted and treated badly. They even ran across some inns that refused to serve them because tales of mass betrayals in the King's Guard had been passed through, growing even worse with each retelling.

It was late on the third day before they started to enter the outskirts of the marshes. Even on the edges of the great marshes, the humidity was spiking and they could feel the sweat sitting on the skin, unable to evaporate into the already saturated air. Massive clouds of biting insects swarmed over the stagnant pools of water, flying in and attacking anyone that came too close.

Their camp that night had to be the worst they had endured at any point in the journey, worse than even the nights freezing on the northern coasts. The camp was constantly overrun with stinging insects that seemed able to get past any clothe they put up in futile hopes keeping them out. Even the fire seemed unable to keep the menaces away for too long. The marshes were filled with many strange and rarely seen varieties of animals that thrived in the stagnant waters. The watchman had to constantly investigate sounds of objects plopping into the water, to be sure that they wouldn't be overrun by any number of beasts that would kill them before having a chance to defend themselves.

Morning blissfully came, allowing them to saddle back up and hit the road in attempts of covering most of the distance to the city, allowing them to ride in on the following day. Trelnath was primarily a port city with a wide access to information being passed by the sailors putting into port there. They would be able to learn much about what had happened in Belnor since their departure.

They had been traveling for a good chunk of the day when they entered a portion of the road that was bordered by reeds that reached a good twenty feet into the air. It was near impossible to see past them and they managed to hem the road in a great deal, narrowing the range of movement the horses were allowed. The lack of any occurrences had caused the trio to lower their guard, as they just wanted the day to end.

They were caught by surprise when an arrow suddenly flew from the reeds and pierced the skull of Shen's horse. Taken by surprise, he didn't even have time to leap from the horse before it collapsed to the ground, throwing him violently onto the road. Spooked by the sudden flurry of activity, both Keladkha's and Arynn's horses threw them to the ground and took off down the road. The two watched in horror as two more arrows flew from the reeds and landed with a thud in the chest of Shen, who was just then trying to stand up to give chase to the attackers.

Spurred into the action of watching Shen fall to the ground again, Keladkha took hold of his sword and burst into the reeds, closely followed by Arynn holding her two daggers. It was a chaotic chase in the reeds, as they would occasionally get a glance of the attackers, but most of the time was spent blindly barreling through the green stalks. They finally burst through the other side of the plants, and got a view of three men climbing into a small boat to row away.

Before they even had a chance to pick up any speed, Keladkha was on top of them and flipped the boat, sending them sprawling into the water. As the first one stood up in shock and gasping for air, his neck quickly met with the business end of a blade swung by Keladkha. The fountain of blood quickly turned the surrounding water red and coated his armor.

The second member of the attacking group had a better reaction time out of the water, having the benefit of having watched them approach the boat. He burst from the water and before Arynn had a chance to respond, he had grabbed hold of her. He used his weight to tackle her onto the ground, the impact causing her to drop hold of the daggers. He pinned her to the ground and proceeded to continuously beat her head into the ground.

The pain coursing through her head was intense, but she took advantage of an opening while he was trying to catch his breath. She quickly rolled over, catching him off guard and throwing him to ground next to her. Reaching over, she grabbed one of the daggers that had flown off when he had tackled her. There was a look of pure terror in his eyes as he realized that it was his end as she plunged the dagger deep into the throat. Blood began pouring out of his mouth, gurgling his last words, making them unintelligible.

Meanwhile, Keladkha was giving chase to the third man, who had decided early on to not try and fight and instead took off through the waist deep water in a vain attempt to escape. The water slowed him down though and allowed Keladkha to use his strength advantage to powerhouse through the water, making up the distance rather rapidly. Once he had closed to within range, he lept from the water and landed on the man's back, taking them both under the disturbed water.

Keladkha was the first to recover and took hold of the back of the man's leather armor. He forcibly held the man under the water. While there was a lot of thrashing about in an attempt to break free from drowning, Keladkha never loosened his grip. The struggling grew to be less and less as time went, eventually having the last bubbles escape from the man's mouth, signaling that he was dead.

Keladkha let go of his grip, allowing the man to slowly float up to the surface. He turned around and began trudging back towards where Arynn had last been. He was relieved to find her alright, cleaning up her blades on the clothes of the man she had just killed. Now back together, they took off in a hurry through the reeds, hoping to reach Shen in time to administer aid and save him from dying.

Thankfully, their return path through the brush was straight enough, having been aided by the numerous broken reeds from the previous trek through. They emerged back onto the road, only a dozen feet or so from where Shen lie. There was a growing puddle of blood emanating from his body, as he lay there, gasping for air. The two of them sprinted to his side and knelt down beside him.

He looked up at them, an obvious pain in his eye, a look of a man resigned to his fate. “Did you... finish them... off?” he weakly muttered.

“Yes. Now stay with us, we are going to help you out.”

“No, my time has... come. I'm off... to a better place. Continue... the... journ...” he muttered, the light dimming in his eyes. He had passed on.

Keladkha looked on the body of his closest friend and mentor for the last decade he had spent in the Army. The tears came quickly, streaming down his face and wetting the dusty road beneath him. He didn't even attempt to stop them, as he stood up and slowly walked away from the body.

Arynn approached from behind him and put her arms around him. “He will be missed,” she whispered in his ear, trying to help him grieve.

He slowly freed himself from her grip and walked back over to Shen. Kneeling down, he picked up the body and began walking through the reeds. He carried him in the direction of where they had just fought and killed the three bandits. When he reached the battle site, he placed his friend's body into the boat. Walking away he gathered some dry kindling and stacked it next to the body. As a last measure, he lit a torch and dropped it into the boat. He stepped back and looked on in sadness as the boat quickly caught fire to the point where he could no longer see Shen's body lying in it.

Chapter 16 – Trelnoth

Not a word was spoken between the two as they started walking the rest of the distance to Trelnoth. Keladkha was definitely taking the loss of his friend hard, as he no longer was his joyous self and no longer paid any attention to the interesting sights on they came across. An hour or so after they had started walking, they came across their two horses, grazing on some reeds. Thankful to not have to walk the remainder of the distance to the city, they mounted up and got moving in a slow trot. They rode on through the night, as he made no attempts to slow the journey and ignored some feeble suggestions from Arynn to rest some.

Shortly after sunrise they came into view of Trelnoth. It was nowhere near as majestic as Caendor and Belnor, a result of being situated on the coast and in the marshes. The walls of the city, while once majestic, were now covered in green moss and splattered dirt. For all the traffic that poured through as the main port of the empire, it was not a particularly wealth fiefdom. Many of the citizens lived in small wooden shacks in the waterfront district, while the richer folk lived in masonry houses surrounding the main keep.

The merchant quarter was a particularly shady place, with shopfronts advertising everything from lost treasures to mystical cures for everything. Ladies of the night hawked their services on every street corner, attracting many sailors fresh in from months out at sea. Figures passed in the shadows, most likely thieves and pickpockets waiting for the correct moment to strike.

The docks district was just as scummy. Rats and filth filled the streets as rough, unshaven men went about their duties of unloading the shipments that the massive sailing ships brought in. Storefronts were for inns and thinly veiled whore houses. Crates of untold items were piled high on the docks, free for the taking as it appeared the town watch never even bothered to examine this area. As further examples of the crime, wanted posters filled the entire walls of some buildings, showing criminals ranging from rapists to murderers to thieves.

The noble quarters stood in stark contrast to the surrounding regions. The town watch was constantly seen patrolling the streets filled with massive masonry homes. Flower gardens stood well trimmed and watered on every corner. Nobles roamed the streets, greeting each other in their holier-than-thou ways. Their cares dealt nothing with the problems that troubled the rest of the town.

Keladkha and Arynn headed to the docks district to troll around the pubs to learn of any tales from the world around. Their first stop was called the Three-Legged Troll and was a particularly dingy atmosphere. Inside, many sailors lounged around telling whoppers of tales about their days at seas. Serving girls in the skimpiest clothing brought the drinks to the men who had probably had too much, even in the early hour of the day. The picked a table in the corner that allowed them the best chance of overhearing the conversations going on around them.

Most of the talk though, centered around topics other than the political situation of the empire. It could have been that most were of foreign origin, with many accents accentuating the talks. Whores in other lands, tales of fish that got away, and tales of pirates seemed to the most popular discussions among the men. They struck pay dirt though, with a pair of old salty sea dogs lounging in the corner of the tavern.

“I hear the Grand Marshall declared martial law in the city. People are terrified and he is only hurtin',” they overhead one of them say.

“Damn fear mongering,” the other one replied.

Having learned the only tidbit of information available, the decided to head back to the palace to seek an audience with Earl Howe. The palace walls gleamed in the sunlight, obviously better maintained then the remainder of the city. The giant oak doors were thrown open and they were allowed to walk into the great hall before being accosted by any guards.

“What are ye doing here? You shouldn't be here.”

“I am Keladkha Silverkin, a soldier in the King's army. I must speak with Earl Howe immediately, it is a matter of utmost importance.”

“From what I hear, the King is dead. He doesn't have an army anymore.”

“Regardless of what you think, I must speak with the Earl.”

“The Earl ain't here. Headed out to Starved Rock to deal with some pirates with the troops.”

Chapter 17 – In Search of Stupid

Annoyed by the this turn of events, yet another journey just to get an Earl, who by all means should be in the castle letting his generals take care of such a campaign, he stormed from the room leaving the guard wondering what that was about. Starved Rock was a location along the coast, about a day's ride from the city, that had been a haven for pirates and villainy for years. Numerous campaigns had been wrought to try and root them out, but every time they made any gains, they were quickly lost to the resilient pirates.

Without much of a delay, Keladkha and Arynn retrieved their horses and set out on the road leading to the southwest from the town. Being midday when they had left, they had traveled about half of the necessary distance before setting up camp. Keladkha was just as withdrawn and distant as he had been the night before. No matter how much Arynn tried to comfort him or get him to talk, he always just brushed her off and went back to brooding.

Their camp that night, while still in the marshes wasn't as bad as the ones they had endured during the journey to city. A stiff breeze off of the ocean managed to keep most of the annoying little insects at bay, allowing them a peaceful night's sleep at least. They had found a place that was well sheltered, so they could safely light a fire without having to worry about how could see it for miles around.

The morning rays peeking over the horizon signaled another day's journey to begin. They had had all of the materials packed into the saddlebags and had eaten prior to the first morning light even rising. They continued their ride in silence, each one to his own thoughts. While not as enjoyable this way, it avoided delays and allowed them the ability to make a good pace.

They finally reached a ridge overlooking the settlement of Starved Rock shortly before the sun had reached its apex. As they looked down upon it, the signs of an ongoing battle were clear. The Earl's army had set up its camp on the outskirts of the settlement and were also working to blockade it from the sea. Smoke rose from the shanties that littered the outskirts, the site of most of the battles. Even now, they could see soldiers and pirates fighting in hand-to-hand combat in the streets, fighting hard for every possible inch of soil.

The earl's banners flew in a cavalry regiment that was situated on one of the exit roads, ready to cut down anyone caught trying to flee. As they continued to watch, they heard the sound of a horn being blown, signaling the start of a charge. It appeared the Earl wasn't content with merely sitting on the fringes of battle, he wanted to get in and fight. They watched in horror as the horses moved into the streets and into a perfectly positioned ambush. The middle of the charge was wiped out by a sudden barrage of arrows as men rushed out with pikes to meet the front lines. In a matter of seconds, most of the regiment had been cut to shreds. Those that were able immediately began a retreat to the safety of camp. Neither of the two watching were able to tell if the Earl had survived to escape or been taken prisoner as a bargaining chip.

Over the remainder of the day, ground changed hands constantly, one second being held by the army and next by the pirates. The assault was finally called off shortly after the sun had fallen and the army tactically retreated to their camp. Now with the din of battle gone, Keladkha and Arynn decided it was time to make their entrance to the camp to find out what was going on.

They rode down the narrow, winding road to the camp. The wind was picking up around them and black clouds were rolling in off of the ocean. The area was occasionally illuminated by flashes of lightning darting through the sky, providing an awesome and terrifying display of power. They were stopped by soldiers before they entered the camp proper.

“We need to speak with Earl Howe or whoever is in charge immediately.”

“You'll need to speak with General Petraeus, his tent is the large circular one in the middle of the camp,” the guard responded, noticing that they bore the mark of the king and wisely didn't push them any further.

The two thanked him and began slowly riding in between the rows of tents. Screams of agony filled the camp as the doctors worked on attending to the wounded soldiers. The faces of the soldiers who hadn't been injured told a grim story, the battles were not going well and they merely hoped that they could give up and head back home to their families.

They finally rode up to the officer's section of the camp, where the tents were more spacious and had more spacing between them for privacy. They dismounted their horses next to a large bonfire outside of the largest tent, what was obviously the planning tent for the attacks. Angry voices emanated from inside, an argument was brewing between some of the commanders, one side obviously wanting to cut tail and run and the other wanted to stay in it for the long run.

Not wanting to greatly disturb the discussion, Keladkha slipped inside of the tent and stayed to one edge. Arynn waited outside with the horses, obviously not one of the army, she didn't want to draw any unneeded attention to herself. On the inside, Keladkha waited patiently for the argument to wind up so that he could introduce himself and get down to business. The two sides finally gave up the discussion, deciding to stick out the plan for a couple days at least.

As the last words were spoken, Keladkha stepped forward into the light and said, “I represent the King's army and I must speak with Earl Howe. It is a matter of the utmost urgency.”

“Good luck with that,” the General snorted, leering at him as he walked over. “He decided to play hero and got most his men killed and he was captured. We received a ransom note not that long ago.”

“So how long until you mount a rescue?”

“That will be damn near impossible. I can't risk my men on a suicide mission.”

Keladkha realized that there was going to be debating the issue with the general, so he made a suggestion, “I will go in there and try and get him out. Maybe I can reason with them and we can end this stupid feud.”

“It's your death wish. Don't blame us if anything happens.”

“Nothing will happen if I left it up to you. You are too busy trying to jockey for position to realize that you are so utterly incapable in running an assault. You have these pirates blockaded, which means they will eventually run out of food and have to accept your terms or be too weak to fight back. Yet you continue to push an attack on the place when it is built like a fortress, you send your men to an endless slaughter. If you were a part of the King's army, you would have been stripped of rank and executed for gross incompetence long ago.”

The room was left in a stunned silence after those remarks. The general was a well respected man who had served the Earl for decades. No one dared questioned the wisdom of his orders, no matter if the same thoughts had been running through their heads for the past couple of days. Before anyone even had a chance to respond, Keladkha strode angrily from the tent, meeting up with Arynn outside.

“Looks like we are on our own. We will have to infiltrate the town and get the Earl back ourselves.”

“Wait what?”

“The Earl was captured in the charge earlier today and is being held for ransom. No one here has the will to do anything about it and will just maintain the status quo. That is why I volunteered us to go in and get him back, hopefully ending this dispute.”

“Are you sure about this? That place is locked up ridiculously tight, there is no way that we will safely get in and out.”

“Going to have to, as long as the Earl is alive, he is the only one that order the troops to Belnor and help decide the new King. Without him, the legitimacy of the throne would be lost.”

“If you say so. I've got a bad feeling about his though.”

Chapter 18 – Deep Penetration

By this time, the entire camp had been shrouded in darkness, allowing the perfect cover for a covert entrance to the enemy encampment. Realizing that armor would only prove to be a hindrance, they stripped down to simple, black cloth garments. Preferring surprise to a full on battle, he opted to borrow some short blades rather than his usual two handed broadsword.

Properly attired, they began their exit from the Earl's camp. They had been given some rudimentary maps of the area, showing that Howe was most likely going to be held in the Pirate Lord's mansion at the center of town. None of the attacks had made it to this point yet, so the information on defenses in the area was rudimentary at best. They expected most of the pirates to housed in the houses in the main square in front of the mansion, with barricades and the occasional patrol to deal with.

The soon entered the very outskirts of Starved Rock, of which had mostly been turned to rumble. The shanties that had littered the area had been burned down to minimize the potential of ambushes. The bodies of soldiers and pirates littered the streets, attracting numerous rats, insects, and scavenging birds for a quick meal. Numerous times they had drop into the shadows and hold their breathes as they disturbed a bird and it flew into the air cawing madly.

When they were satisfied that no one was investigating, they would slowly inch forward through the city. Having left the city outskirts, the buildings were now more tightly packed in what appeared to have been the merchant district. While it provided amble opportunities to sneak in the shadows, they were never entirely sure if they were being watched. In any of the darkened windows, a pirate could have been sitting watching there movements, prepared to alert the main base of soldiers.

So far their movements had been unimpeded as they approached the wall surrounding the rear of the pirate lord's compound. The wall stood nearly ten feet high, and the only way they could see to get over it would be through the use of an old tree that sprouted straight from the base of the wall. Arynn nimbly darted into the tree and climbed up to a point where she would have a good view of the lawn. She signaled down to Keladkha that there were only two guards stationed on the far end of the compound. When he climbed up to join her, he noticed that they were locked deep in conversation with many empty bottles of rum around them.

With cat-like grace, they each leaped from the tree and softly landed in the tall overgrown grass on the interior of the compound. The guards either weren't paying enough attention or simply didn't hear the rustling as the two made their way hunched over through the grass. Thankfully, maintenance of the estate had taken a backseat during the siege as the unmown grass reached almost to where the guards were seated. Quickly they signed which guard, each was going to take out. Keladkha's target was the bigger, burlier one on the left who reeked of such a bad odor even this far away.

On a count, each of them burst from the grasses and stabbed the guards in the throats before they had a chance to yell out for reinforcements. Another quick jab to the heart made sure that the guards wouldn't survive to see the morning. Keladkha and Arynn propped the bodies up in the chairs, so that if any other guards walked by, they wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

With those guards dealt with, it was now time to search the interior for where the Earl was being held. With no idea as to the layout of the place, they decided to try and find a stairway to the basement, as that would be the most likely place for a dungeon to be held. Keladkha silently swung open the back doorway and popped his head in, quickly pulling back out as he saw a guard walking away from them. They quickly donned the armor from the two guards, hopping it would provide them with just enough of a disguise to hide from an inquisitive enemy.

With a quick motion to Arynn, they silently moved into the house and took the hallway in the opposite direction of where they had just seen the guard. As they darted through the hallways, they constantly kept their heads on a swivel in case any guard should pop out of any of the numerous rooms they had left behind. The rooms to the side were too risky of a proposition to search fully. If they happened to open a door leading the guard room, their cover would have been blown.

Luckily they found a stairwell that was headed into the basement portion of the mansion. There was a guard at the door at the bottom, but he allowed them entrance without question, as he obviously appeared to be bored out of his mind protecting whatever was down here. As they entered the room, they saw that one wall was lined with cages. Men of the Earl's army were being held here and it looked like they weren't given food or water and had not received any medical care. While they saddened by the prisoners' plight, there was no opportunity to help them at the moment, they had to find the Earl and escape without detection.

Their examination of the prisoners was not fruitful though, it didn't appear that the earl was being held down here, as all of the cages were full and none of them contained their query. With more of the compound still to be searched, they headed back out the door and past the inattentive guard. Once back on the main level, they continued the search for anymore staircases. Numerous times they were forced to duck into side passages as guards and servants seemed to endlessly travel through the halls.

Eventually, they stumbled across a stairway leading up to the second level of the mansion. Having no better leads, the decision was made to examine it for any further clues. Once on the second level, they were relieved to find that the guards traveled with much less frequency through these quarters. After briefly checking a few of the side rooms, it appeared this was where most of the servants made their homes. Small, dirty cots filled each room, with barely any personal space for each inhabitant.

The search of this floor provided no further clues as to the location of the Earl. They had found a second staircase down to the first floor and one leading up to the third and final level. It was going to have prove fruitful or the entire operation would be deemed a failure and they would have to return to the camp empty handed. With no other place to go, they slowly tiptoed their way up the stairs.

Once up there, they were able to tell that there was not much to this level. One narrow hallway with maybe a handful of rooms situated off of it. It appeared to be where the pirate lord lived and did his business. Surprising for being the main living quarters, there were no guards to be seen. Either the lord liked his privacy or something major was happening.

As they inched their way down to what appeared to be an office at the opposite end of the hall, they began hearing voices from behind a partly cracked door. One of them was definitely the frightened voice of Earl Howe and the other one they hadn't heard before.

“All I want is you to withdraw your forces and leave us pirates to be,” came the unknown voice, most likely the pirate lords.

“Never, I don't make deals with troublemakers like you. You deserve death for all you have done.”

“Why won't you just work with me? You are my prisoner and you have no power here.”

“Because I know my generals will come for me and you will pay for this.”

“I could just kill you before they ever got here, then more of your men will die for no reason other than your stupidity.”

Keladkha and Arynn inched towards the door and pushed it open a little wider so that they could get a good view of what was going on in the room. From what they could see, the pirate lord had his back to the them with the Earl kneeling before him in chains, obviously injured from the careless charge he had led earlier. From their vantage point, there was nothing to suggest that there was anybody else in the room.

They quickly decided on a plan of attack that saw Keladkha killing the lord while Arynn worked to free the Earl from his shackles. Finally, during a lull in their conversation, they burst from the door and Keladkha effortlessly slid his blade through the back of the Lord's neck, quickly dropping him to the ground. As Arynn hurriedly worked to free Howe's arms and legs, a bad sound came from behind them. In their charge into the room, they had run right past six guards that had been standing along the wall. The sound was them drawing their blades, preparing to fight.

At the sound, Arynn looked up from her work and dropped the lockpick she had been using with a gasp. Keladkha turned around and wordlessly stared at the six angry faces now looking straight at him. He clenched his hands tighter around the hilts of his sword and prepared for the inevitable fight before them. They would be heavily outnumbered by experienced fighters.

“Shit...”

NANOWRIMO Day 11

2009-11-12T13:01:00.000-06:00

Chapter 13 – Trial of the Ancients

It was several hours before Shen and Keladkha came to after suffering head injuries from the fight. Arynn had done her best to drag them into a corner of the massive room, setting up a camp for them complete with a blazing fire going. Her burns were not as bad as she had originally thought, able to be patched up with some of the basic ointments they had brought with them. It would be sore and tender for a couple of days, but there wouldn't be any long time harm done.

Keladkha was the first to come to, asking, “Where are we, what happened?”

“Shen took down the dragon. We are currently camped in a corner of its lair.”

“Where is he now though?”

“He suffered a mighty bump to the head, he was out cold like you were. I took the initiative of setting up camp and tending to wounds.”

Keladkha sat around the fire, sipping on some fresh herbal tea that had been prepared, trying to shake the cobwebs from his head. He was unable to remember most of the battle, only little snippets of it came to him, a side effect of hitting the wall so hard. Now with time to wait until Shen recovered, he decided that it would be the perfect time to fully explore the cavern that they were in.

His first stop was to examine the massive pile of gold and other items that the dragon had obviously collected over the years. There were coins and other items stretching across a wide swath of known human history and some that even appeared to predate them. It was a magnificent find that he would gladly notify historians to after all the problems they were facing were dealt with. One particular sword sticking from the pile caught his attention.

He slowly walked over to it and pulled it from the pile. Being such a big great sword, he had expected it weight a ton. But he was pleasantly surprised to find that it was lighter than most short swords currently used by the army. The entirety of the sword was constructed out of a single, milky white colored material. The hilt was adorned with what looked to be similar runes to those they had found on the walls earlier. He tested it by hitting it on a solid goblet lying nearby. For its lightweight, it was surprisingly stronger than the sword he was currently using.
Seeing nothing else of interest, he headed back to where they had set-up camp. Upon arrival, he was happy to note that Shen was now awake and attempting to shake the cobwebs from his head.

“So I hear you're our big hero,” Keladkha joked, sitting next to him at the fire.

“Can't remember too much other than a crazy stunt of climbing on its back, then nothing. What's that you got there?” he asked, looking at the sword.

“I'm not really sure. I found it on the pile of gold and it surprisingly strong and lightweight. Here take a look,” as he handed it to him.

“Man this is rare. It is made of dragonbone, they haven't been able to make anything this exquisite in centuries.”

“Dragonbone? You can make weapons from their bones?”

“Yeah. It is one of the strongest materials ever found, this will slice through even the heaviest of plate mail. That's a good find,” he said, handing it back.

“Wow, I didn't even think it was worth that much. Glad I picked it up now.”

They didn't stay too much longer by the fire as they hoped to get back to exploring the remainder of the cave. Hopefully, it wouldn't be too much further until they reached the rear of the cave and found the herb that they needed. With another quick meal in their stomachs, they packed up the camp and started the march again. On the opposite side of the chamber they found another passageway, this one much rougher, more natural looking, leading deeper in.

As they trekked further, they began feeling a breeze originating from somewhere above them. It was a cool, fresh smelling wind, probably entering from some cracks in the earth far above them. It was refreshing change, for as they had continued to delve deeper into the earth, it had steadily grown warmer. Now they temperature had grown grown considerably colder, made even colder as the sweat evaporated off of their skin.

As they continued walking, noticing that no longer were side passages branching off of the main path, they eventually came to another cavernous opening in the cave. The sound of running water filled their ears almost as soon as they entered. The middle of the room was filled with a massive underground river, flowing swiftly. Off to the right, the water entered the room from near the ceiling and fell in a spectacular waterfall until it reached the narrow channel that had been shaped out from generations of water flowing past.

With no obvious way over the river, they decided that they would have to ford it. Stripping off the cumbersome armor they wore, they slowly stepped into the quick moving current. While the water only reached up to just below the waist, the pull was surprisingly strong. The water was ice cold to the touch and so clear that they could see all the way to the bottom. The channel snaked its way through numerous stalagmites, making quite the picturesque view.

Once on the opposite bank, they quickly dried off the best that they could and donned the bulky armor once more. On the far side of the room, they found what appeared to a massive door built straight into the rock. The walls were covered in some ancient rune, different from the ones that they had encountered earlier, possibly elvish. Arynn, after having some time to examine them, was able to decipher most of what they said.

“It says that in the Ancients require us to prove ourselves worthy or else suffer their wrath.”

“But how do we prove ourselves and who are the Ancients?”

“I don't know who they are, but they talk of three tests that lie on other side of this door. That must be how we prove ourselves and move on.”

As they stood there talking about what lie ahead, the doors began to creak and swung open outwards. They were unable to see any further though as the doorway was filled with any inky blackness. Having no choice as to how to proceed, they each entered the doorway one after the other. As they appeared on the other side, they realized that each one was now alone. They would have to complete the tests laid out before them without help from anyone else.

Keladkha looked upon the room he found himself in marvel, massive pillars ran along either side of the room. The ceiling was vaulted and room was covered in beautiful works of art. He tensed as he examined the other end of the room, as he saw three shadowy figures standing next to the door, not moving. He began walking towards them, one hand on the hilt of his sword, waiting to see if they would attack.

But they made no signs of hostility as he got close. As he stood in front of the middle figure, a disemboweled voice filled the room. “Riddles will test your wit, before you can move on with it.”

Almost as soon as the voice finished, the figure in the middle spoke up, “What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?”

Thinking this over quickly, Keladkha guessed, “A river?”

Not responding to whether he got it right, the figure on the left began speaking, “Give me food, and I will live. Give me water, and I will die.”

“A fire,” he responded thinking of it easily.

As soon as the words, left his mouth the ghostly figure on the right spoke, “No sooner spoken than broken. What am I?”

Thinking over the question furiously, he was having troubles coming up with what the answer could possibly be. Almost as soon as thought he was going to have to just guess, it hit him, “Silence.”

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, the ghostly figures blocking his path vanished. He assumed that he answered all of the questions correctly when the doors lying in front of him swung open, even though the voice never returned to tell him anything. He strode forward and stepped forward into the darkness.

Shen examined the room he found himself in. It appeared to be an arena that he was in, with high walls surrounding the circle pit he found himself in with what appeared to be a crowd watching from stands situated above him. At the other end of the pit, a man stood clad fully in armor with two short blades in his hands. A voice boomed out over the room, “Stay your blade and you will have it made.”

There was a few seconds of silence, before with a blood curdling yell, the man at the other end of the pit began to charge him, blades out. Shen quickly drew his sword and gripped the hilt tightly. He had heard what the voice said, but was worried about letting this thing do whatever it wanted to him. He tried to hold back, but as soon as the man got into range, he swung out with the sword and beheaded the attacker, causing blood to spurt everywhere.

Barely after the man's body hit the ground, two more men appeared at the opposite end and began charging him. Once again, he was unable to hold off attacking and quickly took the men down with two quick slashes across the chest. Before the men had even fallen, four men now appeared at the opposite end. Realizing that it was hopeless to continue fighting, Shen laid down his blade and waited for them to attack them. Bracing himself as the first blade was about to strike, he was surprised when the blade went straight through him without causing any harm. Opening his eyes, he noticed that the men had vanished and a door had opened on the other end of the arena. He walked over and entered the darkness.

Arynn found herself in what appeared to be the ruins of an ancient temple or something. Fallen pillars and broken walls dominated the space she was in. As she examined the area for what she was supposed to do, a voice filled the room, “You will have to be quick of feet for this task to be beat.” As the voice faded, she noticed something glowing near the ceiling. Squinting to see it better, it appeared to be a key, possibly to the door on the other side of the room.

Getting to it would be the problem though, she would have to slowly make her way around the ruined structure to even get to a point to reach it. With no better plan, she ran up a tilted pillar and jumped onto part of a ruined wall. She slowly tiptoed across the wall, careful for occasionally a brick would give way and tumble down to the ground. She reached the end portion of the wall she was on and was forced to jump a five foot gap to the next section of wall. Backing up a few steps, she took a running head start and leaped across the gap, landing nimbly.

This section was short and she was soon forced to jump over to a pillar that was heavily tilting. Misjudging the distance, she only barely managed to grab hold of the pillar as she hit it hard. She pulled herself up and edged her way up to the top portion of the pillar. The only thing that she could see that was possible to reach was a long piece of ivy hanging from the ceiling. With a running jump, she grabbed hold of it and began pulling herself up to the ceiling. As she nearly reached the ceiling, she was able to get a foothold on another part of a crumbling wall.

She transferred her weight to it and looked over to where the key was now. It was just off the wall, requiring a jump to get to it. The problem was that there was no other place to land on. The key was out in the middle of nowhere and it was nearly a thirty foot drop to nearest platform. Having no other choice, she took a running leap and wrapped her hand around the key. Preparing for the falling sensation as the ground would be rushing up at her, she was surprised when she suddenly found herself standing on solid ground. She opened her eyes and found herself standing next to the door that originally been at the far side of the room.

The key was still in her hand and she quickly placed into the keyhole on the door and turned it. Thankfully, it worked on the first try and the door swung open. The opening was filled with the same inky blackness that had been on the door they had gone through earlier. With nowhere else to possibly go, she took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness.

As she stepped to the other side, she found herself standing next to Keladkha and Shen again. “I see you passed your test too,” Shen said smiling as he saw her.
“Yep, wasn't too hard. Where are we now?”

“The end,” Keladkha said motioning towards a massive plant growing ahead of them.

“Athaleas, so we found it after all.”

“Yes, and we've gathered what we needed already so we can get moving.”

With nothing else to do in the small room they found themselves in, they decided to head back through the door behind them. Stepping out of the blackness, they were quickly bombarded by a massive sea spray. They were standing back in the cave where they entered the passageway for the first time. The waves in front of them were choppier than normal, signaling that a storm was moving. Only having been standing there for a minute, they were already soaked to the bone from the spray.

NANOWRIMO Day 10 - Limerick Dragons

2009-11-10T19:05:00.000-06:00

Chapter 12 – Into the Darkness

The sun had barely risen over the horizon, bringing with it another clear, cold day. They gathered up the materials they had set aside the previous night and let the horses off their reins. The group made its way down the narrow and slick passageway to the cave they had found earlier in the day. Finding the caved in tunnel, they quickly squirmed through the hole they cleared the previous day.

Once on the inside, they stuck their torches, illuminating the surrounding area. This allowed them a better glimpse of the cave than the previous day's excursion. The walls seemed to have been chiseled flat like the entrance part of the cavern they had noticed yesterday. In here the walls were covered in a slimy green moss plant. It had the effect of absorbing the light from the torches, limiting their visibility of what lay further down the passage.

They had stumbled down quite far on the last trip, on what seemed to be a straight path. It turned out they were lucky to have made it back out on the previous night, as numerous side passageways opened up on either side of path. Most of these didn't extend too far back, but taking one in the dark would have caused them to lose all idea of direction.

They continued walking, slowly checking all possible paths to determine if they were headed the right direction. Down one of the side routes, they found a spot where the walls seemed to glow, as they had seen before. With the edge of a blade, they slowly scraped off the growth from the walls. Underneath, they were surprised to find runes that seemed to glow with a white light inscribed into the wall. The moss growing over them had provided the ominous green glow.

“I have never seen anything like this before in my studies. These must be ancient,” Arynn uttered breathlessly examining the wall.

“If we had more time, I would let you examine them to your heart's content, but we really should get moving,” Shen replied.

She had to force herself to look away and walk back to the main path. The discoveries and history that could be derived from such work was astounding. She made a mental note of about how far in they were so that she could come back here with more elves to study.

The path they were following seemed to go forever, for at least a few hours passed as they worked their way further in. They continued to find runes adorning the walls, increasing in frequency as their trek continued. The passageway turned out to be merely a small tributary though, as it finally broke out in the most cavernous space any of them had ever seen. From their left, they felt the cool breeze signaling that there was more than one entrance into the place.

They continued walking into the new space, working slowly to right and what they believed was the depths of the earth. They realized that this wasn't merely a natural cavern, it had been a city at some point in time. The cavern was filled with the rubble from what appeared to be houses and stores. Smashed pots and other household items were found on closer inspection of the crumbled structures.
“I never thought there were people that lived down in these caves, there was no mention in any of the texts,” Keladkha said.

Shen responded, “But there are multiple entrances. Adventures probably came in from different sides and never ran across this area.”

Their journey continued through the ruins of this ancient town. They came across several skeletons in some of the structures, revealing creatures that were much shorter and stouter than they were. The overall city layout reminded them of any one that could be found on the surface. It seemed to be separated into districts with a palace of sorts as the center of the area. The buildings were all constructed out of the same stones that composed the walls of the cavern. It seemed so odd that any creature would create a city so far underground, away from the sun.
They soon left the city behind and entered another narrower path. The walls here were once again covered in the green moss, but were oddly absent of the runes and seemed much rougher. It almost seemed like the previous inhabitants had not ventured down this path much. Undeterred, they continued the trek ever deeper. The journey was going to take awhile and they couldn't spare much time dealing with questions on a long lost race of people.

A disconcerting fact they were picking up on was an excess of skeletons that only seemed to grow as they continued deeper. The bones on these skeletons seemed to show some marks of scorching and the walls were oddly clean of the moss. The passageway took a bend and the trio was left staring in awe at another large cavern in the cave. This one was not as large as the last, but the middle was filled with a gigantic golden mound composed of what looked to be gold coins.

They carefully eased their way closer to the mound to examine it closer. As they got close enough for the lights of their torches to illuminate the pile, they saw that it was indeed the largest pile of gold probably anywhere in the world. The problem was that there was no explanation as to why such a large pile would be gathered here of all places. Upon closer examination, they noticed that all of the coins seemed to come from different sources. They even found a couple that bore the design of their own mint and had been applied to the pile only recently.

“Get away from my resting place, or I will set fire to your face. Get away from my gold, for it is mine to hold. So please move at a speedy pace.”

The three of them suddenly turned around, surprised to find that they had been watched from a perch above the door from which they entered. As they looked up, they saw that it was indeed a dragon from the times of old. It was bluish green in coloration and stood nearly five times their height. Dragons had been said to be some of the most intelligent creatures along with being some of the fiercest fighters. Tales from the ancient times told of dragons who were able to take down entire armies by themselves. Their scales were as tough as metal, their claws as sharp as blades, and blew fire hotter than a forge.

“Oh won't you speak up, or are you just a scared pup. Might you be thieves, now shaking in your greaves. You shall be a mighty fine sup.” Upon this utterance, he took flight the perch and landed with a loud thud next to them, shaking the ground so hard they were thrown from their feet.

“We have no intention of stealing your gold,” Keladkha called out as he stepped to his feet. “We were merely searching for some Athaleas to heal a friend.”

“Many have come before you, telling me no it's true. Your words are lies, thieving in disguise. You shall be a mighty fine chew.”

With that, the dragon took off into the air and turned its head and breathed fire from its great snout. The three of them were only just able to dive to safety before the flames hit the floor. The dragon quickly swooped down and landed, crushing Keladkha between one of its large talons. Arynn was the first to recover from the attack and unleashed an arrow at the chest of the creature. While it flew straight and true, it merely bounced off of the creatures mighty scales.

Shen, having now recovered, sprinted towards the leg holding Keladkha to the ground and took a mighty slash at what appeared to be a weak point in the armor. The creature roared in agony as it penetrated a few inches into the dark flesh, raising up and swinging its tail around and knocking the attacker back a few feet. As it took flight, Arynn let an arrow fly at the creatures head. It hit on the underside of it jaw, a weak point in its scales and planted itself arrowhead deep in the skin. The creature turned and rocketed towards her, a plume of flames leading the way.

While she was faster than the creature, the flames still caught her legs as she dove to the side for cover. The pain was excruciating and she temporarily dropped her bow and she landed in a heap on the ground. Keladkha now recovered from having the wind knocked out of him, began sprinting over to her location. Before he could reach her however, the dragon landed blocking his path. The creature quickly snapped its jaw down at him. With barely enough time to react he sidestepped and jabbed the sword into the side of the creature's neck. It a roar of pain, the beast reared up and he could only just manage to hold onto the hilt of the sword.
The dragon flung its head rapidly from side to side, able to feel that the Keladkha was still hanging on the sword plunged deep into the neck. As the blood poured out of the creatures wound, coating the sword, it became harder and harder to hold on. Finally, with one great heave, the beast flung its head and sent him flying into the wall. He hit with a large clash of metal on rock and had blacked out before even hitting the floor in a heap.

Satisfied that one of the thieves was taken care of, the beast spun around quickly on Arynn who was slowly limping backwards towards the protection of the small cave. As it slowly advanced on her, she let fly a couple of arrows that once again merely bounced off the armor like scales. In desperation, she let one last arrow fly and turning to run as fast as possible on two burned legs down the tunnel from which they had come. The arrow took a lucky flight, and managed to catch to dragon in one of its blood red eyes.

Unfortunately, Shen had come up with the crazy idea of running up the beast's back at the same time in an attempt to stab the creature through the head. As the eye hit is mark, the dragon took flight and soared high into the cavern's heights. Using it bony back, Shen was able to slowly inch his way up the back of the creature, ever nearing its head. He reached his target just as the creature was rocketing back toward the ground. Holding on as tight as he could with his shins and thighs, he lifted his sword high into the air and plunged it down to where the creatures brain was.

It suddenly lost control of its downward descent, and the angle increased. The creature finally hit the ground with a major thud, quickly throwing Shen from its back at the tremendous force of the collision. He landed on his chest and slid quickly into a wall, hitting with such a force that the room surrounding him faded to blackness.

NANOWRIMO Day 9

2009-11-10T06:00:00.006-06:00

Chapter 11 – The Cave of the Winds

The group was forced to spend the night to allow time for the servants to prepare the supplies needed to sustain them while in the cave. It would take a little over two days to ride to the cave but the tales of time spent within varied greatly by telling. Some told that months passed as travelers became lost in the winding passages in the dark, yet others mentioned mere hours for the entire trek through the cave. Their decision was to allow a week's worth of rations for the travel, that could be extended through rationing.

As the early morning rays shimmered on the walls of the castle, the trio set forth the gate and turned to the north. It was cold, cloudless day with a brisk northerly breeze chapping their faces. The Fulgorth Plains were utterly flat and featureless to ride through. Only at irregular intervals would they run across a lone tree or bush making a hard go of it in the the permafrost. They would occasionally run across the great tracks that the herds of animals roaming this land would leave behind, yet wildlife was scare except for the few birds of prey circling over head.

Their camp on that first night was forced to be in the open as there were no signs of any overhanging protection. This would be a night without a fire, as the light would be seen for miles upon miles of area around them and they could not risk another night attack. They unrolled their bedrolls close together, hoping that the proximity would help to take the edge of the chill the winds brought. Using the packs to block a portion of the wind, the night still turned out to be filled with cold fits of sleep. Watches were a welcome break, allowing them to get up and move around in an attempt to keep. Thankfully, their presence in the area failed to grab the attention of any wandering beasts or worse. As morning came, they were happy to gather their belongings and set forth on another day's journey.

The next day's journey started off in the much the same way as the previous days, uneventful travel over uninspired terrain. Things changed as they settled down for a midday meal of prime venison. As they huddled around the fire in a vain attempt to restore feeling in their extremities, movement in the distance caught their eye. Coming over the horizon was a giant winged creature gliding through the air. It was traveling at a dizzying height above them, its wingspan alone having to be twenty feet. It didn't seem to notice them as it glided by and turned back towards the coast.

“What was that?” Shen asked, the first one to speak.

“I'd have to say that looked much like the tales of dragons. But surely they have left this area long ago,” Keladkha ventured.

“Let's hope that we don't have to investigate this any further.”

Unnerved by the flying creature they had just witnessed, the group mounted back on to their horses and began the last leg of the journey for the day. It was just as uneventful as the morning had been and they camped next to a fallen tree, providing them some cover for the wind and way to light a fire without it being seen all around. Around the fire, they looked over the maps they had brought with regarding the location of the cave.

“All of these are horribly inaccurate. As far as I can tell, none of the coast line matches these descriptions,” Keladkha uttered in frustration.

“The teeth jutting from the sea reminds me of a rock formation that sailors used to speak of,” Shen said, referring to a hand-scribbled note on one of the maps. “And only a dozen miles or so of coastline is as jagged and filled with cliffs as these notes suggest.”

“So we just start at one end and ride to the other looking for this narrow, almost invisible path down to the cave at the water's edge?”

“That's about all we can do.”

They reached the coast when the sun was nearly directly overhead on the following day. The sea laying out before them was a violent one, with the white-capped waves crashed against the rugged coast line. Sea spray was thrown up well into the air, the wind carrying it to the group on the cliff top, coating them in a briny layer. Off in the distance, they could see the ice floes slowly floating wherever the currents decided to take them. Gulls of all sorts flew overhead, constantly sweeping down into the turbulent water to grab a meal of fish floating near the surface of the waves.

All the tales that they had read of this place, mentioned that the pathway down to the cave was almost hidden in the rocks and barely wide enough for one man to walk down. This meant that their travel would be slow going as they would have to search every possible pathway and move slow so as to not pass it right by. Throughout the day, they came to numerous such walkways leading down the cliff. At each one, one of the group would be forced to follow the path as far as it would lead. They came across one cave this way, but it proved to only go a dozen feet or so into the cliff face with no sign of deeper passageways. On the way back up to the cliff top, Keladkha was nearly thrown off of the narrow path by a particularly large wave. He only managed to just regain his balance before he slipped into oblivion.

They were forced to give up the search as night fell across the lands, it would simply be too easy to ride right past any possible paths. They found a suitable rock face to set-up camp behind, sheltering them from the brutal northern winds and sea spray that seemed to be everywhere, making for slick rock walkways and damp timber, leaving them unable to even start up a fire for warmth. The night passed quickly though as each one was eager to start up the search again in the morning.

The group set off just as the first morning rays peeked over the horizon. Even though they had only managed to cover a quarter of the coastline the previous day, they were hopeful that the rest could be covered by nightfall. By mid-morning they had checked out nearly a dozen promising paths down, but none of them proved fruitful. As the sun was nearing its daily peak, they saw the rock formation out at sea that looked like teeth jutting from the waves. This provided them hope that they were rapidly closing in on their destination.

An hour later at most, they came across a passageway down to the surface of the water that matched the descriptions in the texts almost perfectly. Hopeful that this would finally be the one, they all dismounted their horses and began the trek downwards. Upon reaching the bottom, they found a cave entrance that went back a few hundred feet. Their first search of the area proved fruitless however, as there did not seem to be any passageways leading back further into the cliff. The walls for most of the cave seemed almost unnaturally smooth for having been exposed to the elements for so long, it was almost as though someone had chiseled at the surface to make them as smooth as glass.

Just as they were about to leave however, Arynn noticed what looked to a passage partially blocked by a cave-in. Upon further examination, they removed portions of the rocks to allow them to crawl further in for investigation. Sure enough, the passageway was clear beyond that point and seemed to snake further into the cliffs. They only had a few hours of daylight left, so they traveled back as far as they could until darkness overtook them. At points, the rocks seemed to give off an almost unnatural glow, providing just enough light to show the shapes of loose rocks on the ground. It seemed to be a promising discovery that could be inspected more closely in the morning with torches and rations brought down.

They left the cave behind and climbed back up to where they had left the horses earlier. Their campsite for the night was exposed to full fury of nature. The winds picked up and waves peaked at nearly twenty feet high. Once again without a proper fire and now soaked to the bone from the spray, the night was long with anticipation of tomorrow's search of the cave. Each one felt as though this would end up being the promising cave to examine, so they prepared packs of rations to take with them and made sure the torches were kept as dry as possible as they would be needed to pierce the all-encompassing darkness that permeated portions of the cave.

Orzammar - The New Telos?

2009-11-09T11:35:00.001-06:00

I've been thinking since I finished my first playthrough about how each of the areas you have to go are like other Bioware or Bioware-esque games. Mainly how most of their games, have you in a tutorial section of sorts than force you to branch out into four areas. NWN's four districts in the first act, KotOR's four quest planets, KotOR 2's four quest planet, and finally Mass Effect's four quest planets, you get the picture. Jade Empire was an exception with a mostly linear game, though there were still three areas to go off of the first town (Pirate Base, forest, and the dam).

The first comparison that popped into my head, compared Orzammar to Telos from Obsidian's KotOR 2. While Telos wasn't one of the four quest planets, it bears a lot similarity in story and design to that which can be found in Orzammar.

The execution of the quest line seems similar enough to me. While it could provide an interesting quest line to follow, something inevitably falls flat. I am unable to put my finger what it is exactly. I just can't seem to care about the characters in the story and as a result am forced to just side with one in order to get what I want, the ability to get the hell out of there. Maybe if I had done one of the dwarven origins I would care about the players in the story, but as a human noble, I come in with no idea on what transpired to bring it to this state.

General spoilers will follow about the situation going on in Orzammar when you arrive, I'll denote the major spoilers before mentioning them.

When you first get to Orzammar through the mountains in the top left of the map (I am surprised by how many google searches I get for that info), it is besieged by two warring factions. Upon entering, a fight breaks out and some of Bhelen's supporters kill one of the other factions. This reminds me of the Czerka-Ithorian feud you had decide between in the other game. And, because nothing is ever simple, you have to side with one of the candidates for king and do some quests for him. The similarities are uncanny.

I eventually decided to side with Bhelen, because blood lines are the key to royalty. If the king has a surviving son, he gets the throne in my opinion. It doesn't matter if the King wanted someone else to have the throne, it isn't his choice. Now they are set-up to be the good-evil approach, so going with Bhelen seemed to go against my character's general do goodness, but by the time I reached this point in the game, I wanted to get to the end.

SPOILERS REGARDING RESULTS OF THE KING YOU CHOOSE

In the final credits of the game, I am glad I ended up siding with Bhelen. While he looked to be the bad guy when you first arrive, he actually results in benefits for the dwarves. Trade expands and new relations form between the races. Sure he disbanded the assembly and was nearly killed several times, but he brought the dwarves to a new golden age of sorts.

Curious as to the results of siding with the other faction, I looked it up on some forums. Apparently siding with the good guy results in a bloody civil war and the dwarves shutting themselves off from the outside world. So while one side looks good, it actually turns out to hurt overall to side with him. Can't judge a book by it's cover, showing good writing on Bioware's part. So while I like the results of the mission, actually doing the mission just sucked.

NANOWRIMO Day 8

2009-11-09T06:00:00.001-06:00

Chapter 9 – A Plan Emerges

“An elf? You brought an elf here?” the Grand Marshall questioned.

“They know more about what is happening here than anyone else. They can help us determine a course of action.”

“How are we supposed to do anything? The king and his sons are dead. We have no leader, no direction. What would have me do, call the army in from all parts of the country fight a war against an enemy who we have no idea where there base is.”

“The entrance to the shade is through the Dragon's Depths, as your people call them,” Arynn added meekly.

“The Dragon's Depths? I thought they were coming from the wilds,” Keladkha questioned.

“They are, but we lack the summoning ritual used to open more pathways. An ancient and fabled path is said to lie in the tunnels beneath those mountains. The songs of my people tell of great warriors entering there to defeat the evil and sealing it for generations to come.”

“Okay, so even if this hair brained plan of entering the Shade and dealing a death blow to the orcs or whatever you call them is the best plan, the army would have to be assembled from all parts of the country. We lack the ability to quarter all those men, let alone lead an assault in our current condition.”

“Regardless of whether we push an assault, we need to gather the nobles and armies to the capital to decide on a new King and provide protection for a rebuilding effort. I volunteer to set off and warn the fiefdoms of the dire need of this hour. I will gather the forces,” Shen stepped forward. “The nobles will trust me the most as I have met most of them from my years of service.”

“Fine, it is your death wish. I need to focus on securing the city walls and rebuilding all that has been lost. Get out of my sight,” the Grand Marshall angrily responded.

With that, the three of them exited the castle and made camp in one of the barracks that had only suffered minor damage in the fighting. It was here that they started to formulate a plan on how to gather the troops. There were three main fiefdoms in the country, led by the fortresses in Trelnoth in the Mishkarth Marshes, Caendor of the Fulgorth Plains, and Andor on the edges of the Tracopes.

“We should probably head to Caendor first. Earl Eaman has always been supportive of the king. He will be the most likely to send troops to our aid. It also isn't a long journey, maybe two days on horseback,” Shen said, looking over the maps they had gathered.

“Earl Howe of Trelnoth is a power hungry sucker. He will gladly accept news of the king's death if it means his line can take up the throne. We should probably head there second, though I don't envy traveling through the marshes. Too many strange tales of the beasts that live there. From what I've heard, if we arrive with all our limbs intact, it will be a major accomplishment,” Keladkha added.

“Andor will be the biggest problem. They still harbor bad feelings about the reunification war. Hell, Earl Montegard will probably see this as a good chance to officially break away from the empire without fear of retribution. Not to mention the forest folk harbor no reservations about killing a few of the King's messengers without asking questions.”

“There also are my people,” Arynn piped up.

“They would come to our aid after staying hidden for so many years?”

“I am sure that I would be able to convince mother that the need is dire enough. I mean if humans fall, elves would be the next to go.”

“I guess it is worth the shot. We will probably stop there after the marshes.”

With there plan assembled, they decided to rest before heading out on the journey. It was fitful night of sleep as each of them constantly had the corpses of the royal family floating in and out of their dreams. It was also hard to sleep with the constant smell of death floating about the city.

The next morning, the trio was willing to help with the stabilization process before heading out for their task, but the Grand Marshall refused to even allow their presence. Rejected, they gathered their few belongings and packed them into the saddle bags on the horses they had been able to requisition from the local stables. Their trek started off in the cool morning air with not even a cloud in the sky. If it hadn't been for the smoke escaping the few remaining fires in the city, the area would have looked quite peaceful.

Chapter 10 – The Snow Fortress

The journey from Belnor went by quickly. Riding from sun-up to sundown, they were able to make the entire trek by the evening of the second day. The city of Caendor had tall walls as white as the snow covered plains that surrounded it as far as the eye could see. The area was frozen year round, leading to a rough life for the citizens that called the city home. Yet they were a hardy folk, able to survive on the hunting of numerous flocks of beasts that roamed the plains year round.

The trio rode straight up to the gate painted as white as a fresh snowfall. The gate guards quickly noticed that they bore the seal of the king and let them in without harassment. Upon entering and asking to be directed to the earl, they learned of a terrible wrench in their plans. The earl had fallen deathly ill nearly a week ago, apparently poisoned by one of his own servants. Earl Eamon was currently lying in a comatose state and it was unsure if he would survive in a state that would allow him to continue. The guards directed them towards the castle where they would be able to discuss the matter fully with his wife.

They walked through the usually bustling town, only to have it seem emptier than normal due to the plague having hit the area particularly bad. The regal looking castle loomed ahead, an obvious focal point of the city. Its towers reached high into the sky and their whitewashed sides gleamed in the last sunlight of the day. The guards stationed at the entrance to the place allowed them enter the palace with only a minimal delay.

Once inside the magnificent building, the servants directed them to the earl's quarters, where they found his wife sitting on the side of his bed, wiping a damp cloth across his forehead. “Greetings, my lady,” Shen uttered, walking up close to her and bowing slightly.

“Shen is it? What are you doing here?”

“Unfortunately we are the bearer of bad news and need something in return. The King and all his heirs were murdered a few nights ago.”

“No... No... That can't be. Who would do such a thing?”

“The details are sketchy, but it appears to be the work of demons and the dark elves.”

Obviously shaken by the news that the King was dead and that her husband seemed to be headed down the same path, she began to tremble. “You said you needed something,” her voice quavering.

“We need Caendor's army mobilized and sent to Belnor at once. The capital has suffered greatly in the assault and many of our own troops died. We also need the nobles to assemble to determine the new King.”

“But only my husband can do that. He is the only one that would be able to give out the order.”

“There must be someway that we can either bypass that or else help your husband recover. What have the doctors said is needed for a recovery?”

“There is some mystical herb that seems to be the only reasonable way to cure the poison that was used. The problem is that it is incredibly rare, only found in one spot on the continent and we have no one to spare for the search.”

“Athaleas, that grows in the Cave of the Winds?” Arynn popped into the conversation.
“Yes. Yes, I believe that is the one.”

“I guess we will have to hunt this down. Arynn, do you know where this place is?”

“Yes, but the tales of the place have it guarded by terrible creatures. It would be a death wish to head down there without a full army.”

“We have no choice, we will have to attempt it. The army is necessary for the survival of the empire and those are only legends. With any luck, they will prove to be false and we can recover this herb and be back here before any more attacks take place.”

They left the lady to her grieving process as they returned to a guest room they had been granted. Once inside, they unfurled maps showing the entirety of the Fulgorth Plains. The Cave of the Winds had, in recent memory, became more of a place of legend rather than a landmark. Some ancient texts found in the library provided some further clues as to its location.

It seemed as though it had to be along the northern coast of the continent, as all the texts mentioned a constant sea spray. The herb that they would be searching for only grew in the pure blackness that permeated the deepest reaches of the cave. Unfortunately, this was also the supposed realm of a dragon. Dragons used to be commonplace in Ortheon along the northern coasts, but they had long since vanished. No one was sure why they had left, but it had allowed the growth of hamlets and fishing villages along the coast and grown the empire's economy greatly.

Dragon Age: A New Beginning

2009-11-08T10:51:00.000-06:00

I know that I said I wouldn't start up a new quite yet, but with few a spare hour I imported my mage character, Isabella and got her through her origin. I will be going a lot slower this time around, trying to find and do all of the side quests. First playthroughs for always about seeing the end. Once I know that, I can get wrapped up in the story more later.

SPOILER WARNING

The mage origin is a distant second to that of the human noble in my mind. I don't know what it is in particular, but it is more obvious that you have no role in what is going to happen. I was forced to take a stance on Jowan, even though I didn't care about either of them and could have just as easily ignored them. So being the good little mage I am, I told Irving about their plan and he told me to go along with and mercilessly slaughter a bunch of sentinels. I never got as attached to the setting, even though I love the idea of the tower.

The awesome powers of the mage will have to pull me through for now. I just feel so much more powerful than my warrior character I just beat the game with. I will primarily go primal spells with some creation thrown in so I don't have to take Wynne with me at all times and instead have a rogue.

NANOWRIMO Day 7 - Trippy Dream Sequences

2009-11-08T06:00:00.001-06:00

Chapter 8 – It Was Only a Dream

Taliel had lost track of how many he had been forced to relive that nightmare. No matter what he did, the same events had transpired and he had been forced to start over from the beginning. After yet another attempt, the darkness between the dreams seemed to last longer than any of the previous attempts. When his eyes finally opened, it was obvious that this dream was different.

He could feel the cold whipping about as he stood in a narrow mountain pass clad in full armor that he had never seen before. It was a black metal and very crude in design. As he examined the armor, he noticed that he was not alone in this pass. Behind him stood a whole army of the beasts that had captured him. As he stood there waiting for something to happen, it seemed as though he lost complete control of his body. He would be simply along for the ride for this dream.

A voice that didn't even sound like his came from where his mouth was. It was a strange hissing sound, much like what he had heard the dark elves use in talking to the creatures on the night of his capture. It sounded almost like he was giving to the army trailing him. Almost as he thought it, his body began moving forward followed by the sounds of thousands upon thousands of footsteps.

As they cleared a short ridge, Taliel got his first look at their destination. The city of Belnor lay directly in front of them. Its banners were unfurled in the morning rays, looking splendidly regal. He could see merchants and citizens going about their business in the market district. It all looked so peaceful, yet this army he was at the head of kept marching on. They were nearly on top of the gate before he even heard the sounds of the war horns going, mobilizing the men to arms. He was unsure why the alarm had not sounded earlier, surely they must have seen or heard the sounds of an approaching army of this magnitude.

Before the archers stationed on the walls had the chance to start up firing, a massive siege engine was being wheeled up to the door. It was a battering ram encased in what looked to be a decent sized house as protection from enemies above. The first arrows whizzed by his head, striking the beasts on either side of him, yet he stood there stoically. Taliel was thankful that this was merely a dream, an odd one at that.

Even as strong as the reinforced gate, it was no match for the speed and quickness of the assault. As soon as the gate swung open, the beasts began streaming through the opening. He walked alone, slowly through the opening as his troops parted around him. Whoever had control of his body knew exactly what their goal was. Parties of the creatures spread out over the city, sweeping through the limited resistance put up by the gathering armed forces.

He watched as the vanguard of their forces rushed towards the inner walls protecting the King's citadel. The guards at the gate had been lax and had not started closing it soon enough. The first of the beasts streamed into the opening and slew the guards furiously attempting to close it. Taliel felt his arm raise and then watched in horror as a blast of lightning shot from his finger tips, arcing towards the partially closed gates. It hit with such a force that the gate was shot back and damaged beyond repair. Man and beast alike standing on the other side of the gate were forced backward and knocked unconscious.

The King's personal bodyguards had been the best prepared for the fight, but simply could not deal with the overwhelming numbers they faced. They fell one by one fighting against odds that reached nearly nine to one at times. No force that had ever fought on the continent would have been able to stand to that onslaught.

With an almost uncanny precision, the first troops began sweeping through the ground floor of the castle. They struck down servants and guards alike where they stood. The fight was quickly turning into a blood bath, as puddles spread from the downed bodies. While casualties were being sustained on the part of the beasts in this close quarters combat, two would pop up in the place of their fallen brethren.
The second and third floors quickly fell as well. The King and Queen along with their sons were holed up in the master bedroom on the third floor. Orders had obviously been given to the beasts to not kill these high value target because when Taliel entered the third level, nearly two dozen of them were gathered around the door, weapons poised if anyone should come forth. There was some more conversation that he was unable to understand and finally the door swung open.

The five of them were huddled in the corner, tears streaming down their faces as they knew what their fates were to be. As Taliel approached them, he noticed that they were unarmed and he wondered if they would solely be captured and taken prisoner or faced a much worse fate. He saw a realization on the King's face that it had been a human who had helped to betray the kingdom and as much as Taliel wanted to scream out that this was all a dream, he couldn't.

The thoughts of prisoners being taken was quickly dispelled as his hand disappeared into his armor and procured a long pointy dagger. The King didn't even have time to react as the blade swung out and swept across his throat. One of the sons, upon seeing his father cut down, charged at Taliel. He was quickly dispatched with a singular stab to the chest, his corpse landing across his father's, their blood leaving a growing puddle on the ornamental rugs.

Just like a cold blooded killer, the remaining three were mercilessly butchered. Their blood splashed onto his armor and all around the room. It was probably the most gruesome sight that he had ever seen. He had to fight back the urge to vomit that continued to grow in his throat as he watched the last of the bloodshed. Satisfied that their task was through, he hissed at the beasts and they began to leave the castle. Back out in the market district, horns were blown to signify that the assault was over and that they should all pull out.

Taliel looked on the city in horror. Fires had been started in most of the buildings in the surrounding districts. Thick, billowing black smoke filled the air, severely limiting the visibility around them. Bodies of both beasts and men were filling the streets, their blood flowing like rivers and gathering in the low places of the town. He could see the severely wounded victims attempting to crawl to safety, only to have a passing brute finish them off. Passing the bodies of the guards, he was forced to look on the faces of fellow soldiers he knew and considered close friends. The pain of what had transpired was almost too much for him take, the only comforting thought that this was merely a dream.

Once out of the city and back on the mountain pass, he turned around to take a grander view of the destruction that had just been wrought on the capital. Thick black clouds billowed from all portions of the city. The work had been quick and efficient yet brutal. It wouldn't be long before the low-lying towns saw the smoke and sent couriers to investigate what was going on. The army of beasts continued to march on. Now towards the rear, he watched as the front echelons reached an area of dark elf magi bringing up the same summoning circle as on the day he was captured.
The group slowly marched through, vanishing as they went. By the time, it was his time to go through, he turned to get one last glance at the horrors that lay behind them. He turned back and stepped into the circle and everything went black.

He was unsure of how long it was before he woke. The first thing that he realized was that he was still strapped to the same table with the sorceress standing over him. “You have done us well,” she said upon noticing he was awake.

“What do you mean?”

“You have killed your king and brought us a great victory.”

“No... I can't have... That was a dream.”

“Was it now? Then how can you explain what you're wearing?”

As she said this, he looked down and noticed that he was wearing the same armor as the dream and it was coated from head to toe in blood. “You bitch. How could you?”
“If you would have simply gone along when I asked you nicely, I wouldn't have had to take control of you and make you perform what you were brought here to do.”

“But why would you do such a thing?”

“Do all humans have such a short memory? Your people did much of the same thing to mine a couple of centuries ago. You can't do such a horrible act and not expect retribution. My people welcomed yours so long ago with open arms and you responded by slaughtering us and driving us to the deep parts of the world. This is only the first act in our retribution for the crimes committed in the past.”

“But that was so long ago, we had nothing to do with it.”

The sorceress was going to have none of this conversation and strode angrily from the room, motioning for the guards to return him to his cell. As he sat in his own filth and watched the heavy steel door slam shut, Taliel crawled in the corner and began to weep uncontrollably. His own hand had slain the king and his family, the very people he had sworn an oath to protect. Sleep came mercifully, bringing him a respite from his dark thoughts.

Dragon Age: The End

2009-11-07T23:23:00.001-06:00

So I have finished my first play through of Dragon Age: Origins. I'll post my thoughts on the game, first on non-spoiler filled topics then with a spoiler warning preceding, the story and end of the game.

Combat: Combat in the game ended up being quite enjoyable. Sure there were the fights that utterly and totally kicked my ass, as mentioned in previous posts with one fight even taking 13 tries to succeed. Being a two-handed warrior got a little boring at times, combat tactics consisted of sundering arms and armor, knocking the opponent down and slicing a wide swath. Thankfully, I had magi in the party, which has a wide selection of spells plus combos to play with.

Overall, the tactical thinking required was fun. I enjoyed pausing at the beginning of the fight to determine an overall plan of attack and then executing the first few moves to pause and re-evaluate. Sure there were some annoyances, in large groups getting to the guy you want to hit can be troublesome at times. But overall, it didn't hurt enough to detract from the overall experience.

I also enjoyed the method for buffs. Rather than having most of them be cast then recast once it ran out, the sustaining system worked really well for me. I didn't have to constantly juggle buffs yet still had the benefits.

Inventory and DLC: I thought I'd give special mention to the inventory issues and outrage over a party chest being included in day one DLC. While I'm not a particularly big fan of first day money grubbing, the DLC was worthwhile, though a little of the short end. I'm just going to say in regards to the party chest, I never once used it. Nothing was stored in it and I never visited those merchants later on in the game.

Leveling Up: I liked how they did specializations in the game. Even though you could learn your first one at level 7, I never achieved one of the ones I wanted until level 10. Not just having it given to you was a pleasant surprise. Talents were generally worthwhile with not to many clunkers, so I'll give them credit there.

Load Times: I don't know if it was just me but after playing for a couple of hours, load times would dramatically increase, including some multi-minute waits. CPU usage would be hovering around 98-100%.

SPOILER WARNING! DO NOT READ ON IF YOU HAVEN'T FINISHED THE GAME!

The story in this game was overall pretty damn good. It dragged in the middle for me, particularly in the stretch for Orzamar, but redeemed itself in the end. Orzamar will be like the Telos or Peragus in KotOR 2 or Kashyyk in the first. Areas that you have to do to complete the game, but you wont like doing them. By that point I had lost all interest in working on the side quests and simply just did what was necessary to finish the game. Plus two ridiculously hard fights in a row (Brood Mother and Branka) is just stupid. There is not enough health potions for that.

The ending for the game was just epic feeling. Fighting the dragon on the roof top of the fortress with my dwarven breathren (as much as I hated their quest, the legion of the dead just pure rock) was simply breathtaking. When I noticed some key characters from the story fighting along with me, such as First Enchanter Irving and others, brought it over the top. I, of course, went the noblest of endings and sacrificed myself to destroy the archdemon and let Alistair take the throne. Having him eulogize my life was something special and am glad they put it into the game.

I wonder whatever happened to Morrigan, sure they told me they vanished into the wild while holding a child (probably mine), but I want to know. I couldn't bring myself to accept her offer, hoping that she wouldn't leave, but alas it wasn't meant to be. No way I was going to give her a child holding the essence of the old god.

Overall, I loved the game and will probably be starting another play through later in the week as a mage. I want the cool abilities to myself. You can see my characters at the Bioware social site.

Dragon Age: Thoughts on Orzammar

2009-11-07T13:00:00.002-06:00

Uggh... to sum it up in one word.

I'm going to try and keep this as spoiler free as possible, so be forewarned.

The deep roads just plain suck. Having to go through so many sections of them is even worse. They are long, the fights are boring, and it just drags on and on and on. It seems like the developers thought that they needed to add some more time to the game so decided hey, let's make them trudge underground and fight deep stalkers, spiders, and darkspawn till they claw their eyes out. Then let's make them due it for multiple quests (luckily the first one was short, the one regarding the Paragon, not so much).

I am not getting interested in the political situation of the dwarves at all. I am roleplaying an impatient Grey Warden who solely wants troops for battle, not to be a little errand boy. Since when do I have to solve everyone's problems.

Definite Spoilers Ahead (Regarding Paragon quest)

As I mentioned earlier, the paragon quest never seems to end. Thankfully I get a drunk dwarf to join me for the ride as his advances on Wynne are just plain hilarious. But having to trek through three or four sections of the Deep Roads to find this chick just gets on my nerves. Long boring passages with not much in the way of sightseeing.

It got a little interesting when I ran across one of Branka's captains which chronicled Branka going psycho. This interest soon wore off in the fight against the Brood Mother. 8 retries to get, which isn't my worst, but when the fight goes a couple minutes before you die, it gets old fast. The key to fight is not paying attention to the Brood Mother except when she is the only one around. Take out the tentacles and darkspawn quick, then get back to wailing on her.

Of course, after the Brood Mother, I get stuck in another proving grounds area. As if the one I did to get the Urn of the Sacred Ashes wasn't enough. I stopped for the night after defeating the third portion where you had to kill the spirit and hit an anvil to defeat the boss in the middle. That one required quite a bit of micromanaging as my team members liked to just stand in the middle trying to attack something they can't hit.

Update - Just finished the area and it sucks even more. I decided to side with Cairdin and Branka made me pay. I was low on health and mana potion coming in so it made it that much worse. Took about 7 attempts in which I finally succeeded by taking out her helper golems first than focus firing. When she duplicates herself for the first time, I wiped ridiculously fast. After numerous attempts, I finally survived the onslaught and destroyed the Forge of the Void.

NANOWRIMO Day 6

2009-11-07T11:30:00.000-06:00

Chapter 7 – The Homecoming

With the party rested after their eventful night, they began their trek towards the capital. It would have merely taken another two moons to make the journey had they still had their horses but now it would take them at least a week. Snaking to the southwest, the days began to get warmer and warmer as they left the cold northern latitudes behind them. The forests gave way to plains, which gave way to rollings hills as the mountains surrounding Belnor grew steadily larger with each passing step.

After each day of walking from sun-up to sundown, they would make camp in a secluded area off of the road. Night watch was a nerve racking experience after the attack, every sound in the darkness could be a signal to their end. Shen was looking worse for wear as he trudged through the days. He mainly kept to himself now, falling straight asleep as soon as his watch ended and waking with nary a complaint.

All along the road they found signs of attacks. Overturned wagons and charred bodies could be found every couple of miles. It was disconcerting to see the bodies of innocent merchants so savagely cut down. Having lost most of their goods in the original attack, these wagons were also a welcome find. The goods found inside often allowed them the luxury of a warm dinner rather than going to sleep on an empty stomach.

Finally, after nearly a week's worth of travel through the low country, the journey entered its final portion, the trek through the Orth Mountains. This would be the most grueling portion, traveling narrow, switchbacks in the high altitude. The weather had also turned bad once again, so much of the trek would be through swirling winds and blinding snows. More than once the group was nearly run over by over anxious wagon drivers, pushing too fast for the limited visibility. Each time they had only noticed just in time to dive to the side of the road to avoid being trampled.

They made their final camp a day's journey away from the city, under a rock overhang on the side of the road. The weather had finally cleared and they could see for miles in the crystal clear mountain air. As night fell over the mountains, they noticed something strange off in the distance.

“What is that glow?” Shen said, standing up to get a better view of the horizon.

Keladkha turned around and looked out, noticing an ominous orange glow on the horizon in the direction that Belnor lie. “I don't know. Has it been there before?”

“How would be able to tell. I could barely see my hand in front of my face last night,” Arynn piped up.

“I don't like the look of it. Too bad we won't get a better view until we get damn near on top of the city,” Shen muttered, referencing the fact that city was well sheltered on all sides.

The group glumly finished off their meal of cold waybread, the last of their rations. The night was going to be a long one, as clear night skies made for a much colder night. The overhang also seemed to catch every errant wind gust and funnel them straight past their bedrolls. During their fitful periods of sleep, each of them constantly tugged at the ragged woolen blankets, trying to completely seal themselves off from the outside world.

The morning never seemed to get any closer, but when the first morning rays hit their campsite, they began packing up the few belongings. Each was eager to return to a warm hearth and a full meal in the barracks. Thoughts of glory for divining the reason behind the plague briefly flitted through their thoughts. It was early evening when they reached the last ridge blocking their view of the city.

But as they cleared the ridge, their breath caught in the throat. The glow they had seen the previous night was the city in flames. They could see fires burning brightly from all districts of the town. Even the castle at the heart was unable to escape the flames.

“No... This can't be...” Arynn muttered breathlessly.

“What happened? An attack or an uprising?” Keladkha said uncertainly.

They picked up their pace, stopping just short of an all-out sprint down the slope towards the city. As they closed in on the city, the stench of burnt wood and bodies filled their nostrils. It was enough to make them gag. They were unable to see any signs of life as they approached the gates, which were swung wide open. The gates were never left open, making it look less like an uprising.

Bodies covered the ground surrounding the gates. Close enough to get an identification, they realized that there were many orcish bodies among the dead. The horde had beaten them back to the city and ransacked it. The carnage grew even worse as they entered the city proper. The bodies of citizens, mercilessly cut down as they ran, lined the gutters. Flies buzzed over the piles of corpses as smoke from the many fires wafted through the streets. They were barely able to see as far as a block in the haze.

The bodies of the empire's soldiers grew in number as they approached the defensive wall surrounding the castle. As they approached this barrier, they noticed that while the gate had obviously been burst open, a makeshift barrier had been erected in its place. Maybe some people and even the king had survived the onslaught. They stepped amongst the bodies of humans and orcs alike as they worked their way over to the barrier.

“Who goes there?” a wavering voice called out from the other side of the wall.
“Keladkha Silverkin and Shen Matale of the King's Army. Let us through.”

At these words, the makeshift barrier parted just enough for the three of them to squeeze through. They made their way in and looked at the nervous faces of half a dozen guards.

“What happened here Lieutenant?” Keladkha questioned the nearest officer.

“They came out of nowhere two days ago. Not even the sentries saw them coming. We were overwhelmed so fast. They breached the castle and...”

“And what?”

“The royal family... is dead.”

“No... That can't be...”

“Let me take you to Grand Marshall Torkin. He has taken control of the situation.”
“How did he survive? He should have been with the King to the end.”
“Tiethal sent him out to one of the lowland towns just hours before the attack. He didn't return till yesterday.”

With that, he led him into the castle. The main hall had been turned into a refugee living area for the citizens that had survived the onslaught and it didn't look like many had. He was led upstairs to the guards room, which had been made into a makeshift command post. Here he saw the Grand Marshall, leader of the King's Army, studying some charts. Upon their entrance, he looked up and a look of relief came over his face as he saw the two of them.

“Shen, you're alive. We thought for sure you had run into these bastards and bitten it.”

“We did, nearly died too. They took Taliel along with them.”

“Don't speak the traitor's name in this place.”

“Traitor? But how?”

“The few guards that lived reported seeing him leading the charge into the castle. Rumor has it that his hand slew the king and queen.”
“No... That can't be...”

“The men don't lie Sergeant.”

“Are the bodies still around? I want to pay my last respects.”

“They are being held in the King's bedroom prior to cremation. I'll have one of the recruits take you up there.”

He motioned to one of the guards at the door and the three of them followed him up another flight of stairs. He led them into what used to be the King's bedroom. Five cloth covered bodies were laid upon the bed.

“Five? Why only five?” Keladkha asked the guard. The King and his wife had had three sons and one daughter. There should have been six bodies on the bed, but one was missing.

“No one has found Isabella. We are fearing the worst,” the guard replied, leaving the room and heading back down to his post.

Shen slowly walked over to the lifeless forms on the bed. He had served in the army long enough to have received personal thanks from the King on multiple occasions for services rendered. He was never one to openly disrespect the royal family and had long felt close to the family. He lowered his self down to one knee, tears streaming down his face. He slowly spoke the Maker's hymn, in respect of the fallen. Keladkha stayed at the far end of the room, standing at attention until Shen had finished.
When finished, the trio slowly made their way back down the stairs towards the guard room. Once inside they approached Torkin to compare information gathered.

“Did your search find anything useful?” he asked as they entered the room.

“Yes, the plague is a creation of the orcs or whoever they are working with.”

“Orcs?”

“Creatures from the Shade. They haven't been seen outside of it since before humans came around. But they are unable to transport here with out help, which means something or someone has summoned them to attack us.”

“How do you know this?”

“The witch of the wilds isn't a mere fairy tale. We have brought back her daughter on the witch's orders to help with information regarding the creatures.” As he said this, Arynn stepped forward and removed her hood.

Dragon Age: Help on Redcliffe

2009-11-07T10:30:00.004-06:00

Since a lot of the google traffic for this blog has been from my post on the frustrations of fighting the Revenant in the courtyard of Redcliffe Castle, I figured I would compile some hints that I have for this fight. Note, as I mentioned in the blog article, I ended dropping it down to easy after 12 attempts, so most of these are determined from similar fights since then.

1) Get Wynne from the Tower of the Magi - Having a healer with lyrium potions allows you to live so much longer. Set up a tactic for healing allies and using lyrium potions when mana supplies get low. You will run through these potions like mad, but survivability will be way up.

2) Stay ranged - As the codex entry says, revenants can hit people standing all around them. So try to only keep your ranged party members on them until all the others are dead. Using Morrigan's sleep ability on the melee zombies will help, while using your own melee to take out the archers.

3) Potions, Potions, Potions - should be self-explanatory but have as many as possible. Get someone with high herbalism skill and buy em whenever you see them at a merchant. Some fights will see you going through 30 plus.

UPDATE - In regards to the google searches bringing people to this article I figured I would address some of their questions some future people can possibly get some answers.

Circle of Magi - To get the circle of the magi's help, go to the Lake Calenhad docks and travel to the tower. Complete the quest there dealing with the abominations if you haven't done so already. Then talk to the First Enchanter to get his help with Connor.

Night Raid - Make sure to get fuel from the store, recruit the dwarf, and restore the blacksmith. Other than that, hold back your fighter in the first portion of the fight, make the enemy run through the flames. Second part is all about killing efficiently. I can't give too much help as it depends on your group. Kill quickly and move on.

Dragon Age: New Patch, Thoughts on Redcliffe, and Dragons

2009-11-06T10:30:00.000-06:00

Bioware put out their first patch for the game today, which you can find on the social site. By making it easier on both medium and easy easier, it prompted me to re-up the difficulty after that Redcliffe part. To test it out, I took on a high dragon. Seemed like the perfect way to do it to me. 2 deaths (no wipes, just main character being eaten and spit out), 3 greater health poultices, 30 regular ones, 5 lesser, and a whole lot of fun later, the dragon was down. The dragon was an optional guard to fight that can be called down with use of a horn you find. The fight was exhilarating and overall fun to play.

The Redcliffe quest series seemed to go on way too long. One option took me to the Circle of the Magi in order to seek a solution, but of course I hadn't been there previously so I had to do that whole series of quests in order to get to what I had originally traveled there for. Then a whole bunch of back and forth across the map ensued before another dungeon crawl before I could even finish the quest. Then a bombshell was dropped by the Arl.

One annoying thing, that maybe I'm just overlooking, is that there is no good way to set up a tactic for a group heal. I was looking for something along the lines of multiple party members being below 50% then use group heal. So if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them.

NANOWRIMO Day 5: Now with more torture

2009-11-06T09:54:00.000-06:00

Chapter 6 – This Will Only Hurt A Little

Taliel had no concept of time down in the dungeons, minutes seemed like hours and hours seemed like days. None of the creatures had ever returned since locking him in this minuscule cell. There had been no food, no water, no contact with anything other than the constant screams of agony that permeated the prison incessantly. With no chamber pots or any waste receptacles, he was forced to spend his waking hours gagging on the smell and the nights laying in it.

Hope was fading fast as it didn't seem like anything good could possibly come of the situation. Voices started popping up in his head, telling him that life wasn't worth living anymore. Most of the time these were easily ignored, but as time continued to pass, it got worse. Just when he thought he couldn't take it anymore, the doors to his cell squeaked open.

Surprised by the sudden intrusion, Taliel stood staring as two of the monstrosities entered the room and pulled him out of the cell. He was lead forcibly through the same corridors that they had brought him through not that long ago. He was unsure what was going to happen, was he going to be executed or interrogated? Did they even speak his language?

They finally reached an end to a corridor, ending with a large set of double doors. One of the beasts that had been following them, walked around and swung the massive doors open inward. Taliel was scared from his first sight of the room, it was filled with all manner of hanging cages and diabolical looking instruments that were pretty much all covered in what looked to be blood.

With the doors open, they forced him into the room. He looked in terror at what appeared to be a dark elf standing in the middle of the room, cloaked in floor length black robes. The elf was a woman, but lacked a gentle face, instead wearing a look of pure spite and anger. He was led to a table stationed next to the woman, laid down on top of it and strapped into place by manacles attached to the floor.

“Ah, our newest prisoner,” she said with a voice of pure venom.

“What are you doing with me?”

“You will have a role to play in the events unfolding. The question is whether you will cooperate peacefully or if we will have to do things the hard way.”

“I will never do what you ask, you foul creature. You will suffer the full wrath of the Empire for this.”

“Looks like it will be the hard way. Let us begin then,” she said, walking over to table covered in odd, smoking potions and sharp instruments.

Examining the objects on the table, she first selected a small crystal vial filled with a pure black liquid. She turned around and while giving a strange smile to Taliel motioned for one of the beasts to hold his head back and mouth open. She slowly uncapped the vial and poured the contents down the back of his throat. He tried to scream, but the ice cold liquid produced a strange feeling. Almost as if everything was shutting down, he couldn't speak and noticed that he no longer had control over his limbs. He had been paralyzed and there was nothing he could do about it.

She walked back over to the table and picked up another vial. This was a slightly larger and bulbous one filled with a thick, orange syrup. With her prisoner unable to resist, she slowly poured the concoction down his throat, laughing ever so slightly as she did. Seconds passed as Taliel wondered what was going on, he didn't feel anything happening. It suddenly hit him though, it felt as though tiny insects were crawling around on the inside of his skin. As it progressed it felt as though they were constantly biting on his organs, causing him immense pain.

The urge to scream and start scratching at his skin was overwhelming and even though his mouth was open, not a sound was coming out. The pain continued to intensify, driving him mad. Soon it felt as though the insects were crawling around in his throat, making their way up to his brain. As the sensation of biting on his brain began, the pain became too much and everything went white with him losing consciousness.

Taliel was unsure of how long he had been out, but as he came to he heard a voice screaming bloody murder. The realization that it was his own voice came shortly thereafter. “So, have you changed your mind about helping us,” her voice came from behind him.

“I will never help you. You can do whatever you want to me, but my mind will never change.”

“We will see about that.”

She walked slowly back to her cart of horrors and picked up another vial of potion. This one did not have a stopper in it, and was spewing black smoke non-stop. The liquid was reddish-orange in coloration, and seemed hot to the touch by her reaction. With a flick of her hand, the beast's hands were back at his head, forcing it back and his mouth open.

“This may hurt a bit,” she laughed, pouring the vial down his throat. The second the liquid hit skin, Taliel was hit with the worst burning sensation he had ever felt. He could feel the pain as it slowly traveled throughout his body. It felt as though some had covered his entire body in flames, but rather than being damaged, he solely felt the pain. The pain was even worse than the previous potion and he wasn't paralyzed this time.

He kicked and thrashed with his arms and legs, bloodying himself where the manacles were attached. The entire time, a blood curdling scream was leaving his lips. It was an odd sensation, but it almost felt as though the sounds of screaming were coming from someone else, like he was detached from the sound.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her approaching with another vial. As she poured it down his throat, everything changed. The burning sensation was replaced with the feeling of ice. His entire body was slowing down and he could see his breath coming out in puffs of white mist. He looked down and watched as his skin tuned blue. He started to shiver uncontrollably, as his body temperature continued to drop. His thoughts began to cloud as he was unable to even put a coherent sentence together anymore.

Almost as soon as the sensation came, it was gone. “Have you given my offer anymore thought?”

“I will never help. You will have to kill me first.”

“Oh the thought has crossed my mind. Let's try one more thing.”

As she said this, she placed her cold hand on his forward. A few unintelligible words were spoken, then everything went black for Taliel. When he woke, he was back in his room at home. The smell of breakfast wafted through the air and the sounds of cattle rustling outside calmed him down.

“That must have been a really bad dream.”

He curled back under the covers of the bed and tried to squeeze a few more hours of sleep in. He opened his eyes to the sight of his mother entering the room.
“Honey, if you don't get up, you are going to miss breakfast.”
“Okay, mother, I'll be down shortly.”

As soon as his mother had left the room, he climbed from the bed and found some clothes to put on. He quickly bounded down the stairs towards the kitchen. The smell of bacon was wafting through the air and he realized he was absolutely starving. As soon as he entered the room, he saw his father sitting at the table helping himself to the food. Happy to see him, he bounded over and clapped his hand on his father's shoulder, saying, “Mornin' pops.”

But the second his hand touched, his father burst into flames. His father's screams of agony quickly grabbed his mother's attention. She came running over, crying hysterically. She turned to him asking, “What have you done?”

“I don't know, I just touched him and he went up in flames.” He grabbed hold of his mother to comfort her, but the same thing happened to her too. Taliel stood in shock, tears streaming down his face as he watched his parents writhe in agony. The thought of throwing water on them quickly entered his mind. Running outside, he grabbed a pail that was sitting next to the door. Hurriedly he went back inside and tried dousing his parents. The problem was that the water never reached them, it evaporated in mid-air forcing him to watch his parents die.

He turned to start running, but everything suddenly went black. He opened his eyes minutes later to find that he was laying back in his bed again. The same smells of breakfast wafted through the air. Cautiously, he stood up and began dressing. He made his way down the stairs and into the kitchen. The scene was much the same as he had seen it last, his dad helping himself to food and mother finishing the cooking. Rather than going to his father at the start, he decided to sit down at the table.
He grabbed a piece of bacon to satisfy his hunger but watched in horror as he brought it to his mouth it vanished. He tried again with another piece and the same thing happened. Just then his mother walked up behind him.

“Have a good sleep?” she asked, placing her hand on his shoulder. She quickly recoiled as she was suddenly engulfed in flames.

Looking up from his meal, his father saw what was happening. He ran over and took a rough hold of Taliel, having to let go shortly afterward when he caught fire too. Taliel stood up and began running from the house. “Why me? Why?” he screamed at the top of his lungs. Everything went dark and he opened his eyes to find himself in his bed with the smell of bacon in the air.

Dragon Age Frustration

2009-11-04T22:55:00.001-06:00

Spoilers Ahead!

Hit the first part of the game that really frustrated me. In the courtyard of Redcliff Castle, you have to take on 5 zombie, 4 skeleton archers, and one elite. Twelve tries later, I ended up dropping down to easy to get through, I will probably stick to easy because I am always in it for the story than the combat.

But back to the fight, none of the strategies I tried worked as the elite resisted all my crowd control moves. I ganged up on him - dead. Put Shale on him with rest of team killing others - dead. Put Shale and warrior on him with Morrigan and Leliana fighting zombies - dead. Ignored him - dead. Tried running through the door - can't do in combat - dead. Nothing worked, the difficulty is a little too out of this world for my liking.

NANOWRIMO Day 4

2009-11-04T22:52:00.001-06:00

Here's the latest, chapter 5.

Chapter 5 – Headed Home

Keladkha filled Shen on the details of the encounter with the wood elves, with Shen voicing some misgivings over transporting elven royalty through a land which hadn't seen the species for lifetimes. After leaving the inn, the group made their way over to the local militia headquarters. They left Arynn at the gate, in case any overzealous officer got too close of a look at her. Once inside, they reasoned with the commanding officer to allow them three horses for the journey back to the capital. Gathering what little belongings they had, they mounted the horses and took off at a swift pace down the road.

As night began to fall over the area, they decided to make camp in a dry riverbed alongside the road. With the heavy shrubbery along the banks, someone would have to be nearly on top of them to see the light from the campfire. The mood was considerably lighter than the previous few nights, with an answer to the source of the plague in hand and being on the road home to see relatives and loved ones once more.

They took turns being on watch for the night, with Keladkha taking the first and Arynn having the last. The night was calm and quiet with little to no movement in the shrubbery surrounding the campsite. Though as the first morning rays began peeking over the western horizon, there were loud rustling sounds from further down the creek. Arynn, being on watch, stood up to try and get a better look at the creatures.

“ORCS!” she suddenly yelled, as five black mammoth beasts popped out of the bushes not far from camp.

Never having heard of anything called an 'orc,' Keladkha and Shen groggily arose from their slumbers, trying to figure out what was going on. Before his vision had even cleared, he saw a black blur rushing towards him. He felt a massive pair of hands wrapping around his torso and lifting him into the air. He was stuck looking face-to-face with what had to be the most terrible thing he had ever seen.

The creature eyed him angrily, then opened his tremendous jaws and let out a screeching howl. The breath was putrid and Keladkha became covered with bits of the thing's saliva. In obvious anger, the creature began shaking him violently. Unsure how long he would be able to retain consciousness, Keladkha shut his eyes tight and tried not to lose the previous night's dinner.

Just when he thought it would never end, he heard the sound of a thump as something hit the creature. Opening his eyes, he saw the shaft of an arrow sticking out from the shoulder of the creature. He then fell as the creature let go to the pull the arrow out. Landing in a heap on the muddy ground, he could only watch as Shen sprinted over, great sword in hand, and cut out the legs of the creature. The orc fell over, howling in agony and unable to stand up again.

It was at that point that Arynn noticed five more orcs standing above them on the river bank. Apparently, the commotion from the battle had gained the attention of another scouting group. She quickly pulled another arrow from her quiver and drew the bowstring, letting the arrow fly. It hit the creature directly between its oily black eyes and felling the beast immediately.

While this was going on, Keladkha had managed to crawl back to his bedroll and retrieve his sword. He had just stood up and faced the first downed orc when he saw one leap at him from atop the river bank. Sticking his sword out in from him and bracing for impact, he could do nothing as he watched the beast streak towards him. The sword made the first contact, plunging straight through the stomach. The now deadweight threw Keladkha off balance, knocking him over with the orc coming down on top of him. He could feel the warm, sticky ichor spewing from the fresh wound, coating his armor and body.

Shen watched this happened but was unable to help as he had two orcs bearing down on him. He dodged under the wild swing of the first, stabbing it in the back as he passed. The second orc managed to make contact, but the dull blade failed to pierce armor, only managing to know Shen to the ground. The beast dropped his blade and piled onto of the downed warrior. Floundering in the heavy plate mail, he was unable to properly defend himself. The creature ripped at all areas of exposed flesh, leaving a bloody mess on Shen's face and forearms. The creature was preparing to finish him off, when the it suddenly stopped. Surprised, Shen watched as the dark crimson, almost black, liquid poured out of its mouth. Arynn had managed to place two quick, consecutive arrows in its back. The creatures death throes caused it to topple off of Shen, allowing him to stand up.

He quickly ran over and heaved the dead creature off of Keladkha, who was now badly winded. The remaining five orcs had taken up positions on either side of the dry creek bed. Armed with crossbows, they were wildly raining bolts down on the area. Arynn was able to fell another of the beasts before she took two bolts in the arm, leaving her unable to draw the bow. Out of the fight, it was up to Shen and Keladkha to finish off the beasts.

They clamored up the bank of the side opposite of the road, where two of the original scouting party had gone up to get a good angle of fire. Once on top, Shen barreled down on the nearest orc, using his remaining strength to topple the gigantic creature. He pulled himself up from the stunned creature to plunge his sword deep into the throat. Keladkha also managed to get the other beast unaware, launching a series of attacks that the orc could only manage to parry the blows with the crossbow. With his last remaining strength, he swung the sword over his head and brought in down through a now broken crossbow, landing the blow square in the chest of the beast. His last willpower used, he fell to his knees unable to even lift the giant sword. Bolts rained down around Shen and him, neither able to do anything about it.

Just as the last hope was giving way, they heard shouts from the direction of the road. Five soldiers broke into view through the shrubs, the local militia patrols had heard the sound of battle and shown up to investigate. Stunned by the size of the foes, they froze for a second. Enough time for one of the orcs to react by picking up the nearest soldier and biting his head clear off. This jarred the rest into the fight. By the time the last ogre had fallen, another soldier had been decapitated and another seriously wounded.

Keladkha, Shen, and Arynn had used the distraction to sneak further down the river bed, not wanting to answer the questions that were sure to come. As they continue limping into the growing daylight, they realized the horses had been scared off by the battle and were nowhere to be seen. Dismayed, they continued walking until they thought they were a safe distance away.

Keladkha, having suffered the least in physical wounds, went about tending to the others injuries. Arynn was very pale in color, much of her right side stained by the blood from the arrows. Keladkha placed one hand on her shoulder to steady her, and quickly yanked the arrows out. She let out a yelp of pain as each one left the arm, but not loud enough to alert the militia to their position. He pulled out one of the poultices from his pack that was damaged in the fight and wrapped her wounded arm with it.

Shen was the worst off of the group. Being mauled by the ogre left him with deep gashes across his cheeks and forehead. The blood was already beginning to harden, his eyes only half open. With a torn rag and some water from a flask, Keladkha began to gently clean away the blood. He was pretty sure the marks would mar his face permanently but they needed to bandaged immediately to ward off infection. He gently applied the poultices to the wounds and followed the same procedures for the arms. He then slowly removed Shen's armor to allow him to rest easier. There were scratches all over the breastplate and everything was covered in copious amounts of blood.

Shen fell asleep shortly thereafter, snoring loudly, leaving Keladkha and Arynn to discuss what had happened. “What were those things?” he asked.

“Orcs. Denizens of the Shade, wardens of the afterlife,” she replied glumly.

“But how did they get here? They can't just decide to come here, can they?”

“No. They have to be summoned by some of the darkest magic possible. Very few are able to do this anymore, not since the days before humans walked these lands have orcs been here. The last time took the armies of all nations of elves to send them back through their dark portals.”

“But what are they doing here now?”

“Someone has brought them here. For what foul purpose, I have no idea. Only time will tell. The situation grows worse to have them wandering the lands freely. We should rest for only a short time longer before moving on.”

“Shen won't be well enough to travel for at least a day. His wounds are very serious and we will have to wait for him. You don't look that well yourself either.”

“That is your decision to make, so if you say we wait, we will.”

With this downtime, they each went their own separate ways. Arynn went to a secluded area to meditate on all that happened. It was the elven method for trying to make sense of significant events and often lead to good plans of action. Keladkha, meanwhile, had stripped off his armor and went to clean it along with Shen's. The orcish blood had solidified onto the surface of the metal, requiring heavy scrubbing to even make headway against it. The menial labor allowed him a chance to reflect on everything that happened up to this point.

The plague, orcs, and the prophecy were all bad signs. The world had become such a different place in the last couple of months that he was starting to feel a little overwhelmed. So many times in the past couple of days he had thought over the words of the prophecy, unable to make sense of any of it. All he could tell was that if it were to come true, the days ahead would be worse than the ones they were currently suffering through. Many lives would be in danger and he would have a role to play, one that he was not looking forward to finding out about.

Infinity Ward Just Doesn't Get It

2009-11-04T16:34:00.003-06:00

Go here and read this.

Nine vs. nine? Really. I could go on and on about the lack of dedicated servers and now this. No chance in hell I'm picking this one up.

Dragon Age: Origins: First Impressions

2009-11-04T09:28:00.004-06:00

To start off - SPOILER WARNINGS AHEAD!

So after eagerly picking up my copy of Dragon Age yesterday, I ended up playing for most of the day, stopping only to eat and work on my novel. I made it to level 7 and am in the party camp for the first time after leaving the refugee city, the name escaping me at the moment.

Having read the excellent books by David Gaider, I thought I had had a good read on Loghain. He would disagree with the King, but ultimately follow his orders. Abandoning the king was a definite surprise to me, but provides great motivation to hunt him down and make him suffer. I was sad that that Duncan died, as I always did enjoy his character.

The origin story for the human noble left me a little disappointed. While the story of betrayal was good, I felt as though it was kind of short after all the pre-launch description I had heard. It took maybe an hour and a half at most to play through, with me taking my sweet old time to explore every nook and cranny. The war hound, subsequently named Scooby (Hey I was a huge fan growing up), would be a great party member, if he had more abilities. I just can't justify taking him along in my party.

Speaking of the party, with my human noble going the two-handed sword warrior (planned specializations: champion and templar), I currently use Alistair as a tank, Leliana as damage, and Morrigan for ranged support. I am considering giving Leliana a bow so that she doesn't die as often. I have Scooby and Sten sitting in the camp, picking up dust.

Combat has been fun, yet difficult at times. In reading some of the reviews, they were talking about how hard normal was at times, but I doubted it a bit. Turns out they weren't lying. The boss fight with the ogre was completed in one try, with only my main character dying by being picked up, but fights against bandits and wolves have led to numerous reloads when I entered cockily. Pausing, queuing up orders, unpausing and repeat is the method to ensure victory.

Only six hours in and I still have so many places to go, most games are well into their stride by now but this one has so much story to go through. On my world map, there are seven locations I can go next, of which I will probably end up going to do the Warden's Keep DLC.

Overall, this is one of Bioware's best releases of late. A definite pick-up for any RPG fan and hearty recommendation for any game player.

NANOWRIMO Day 3

2009-11-04T09:25:00.000-06:00

Here's what I wrote yesterday. There is a bit more on the next chapter, but I'll wait til I finish that today to post.

Chapter 4 – A Painful Beginning

Taliel watched as the flames quickly engulfed Keladkha. Being in the front of the party, most of the fire was blocked from even reaching him. Within seconds their position was overrun. Hands were reaching from above, pulling them from the ravine. Unable to even fight back in the close quarters, Taliel was brusquely pulled out by one of the most hideous creatures he had ever seen. His sword had been knocked from hands in the scuffle and he was powerless to fight back.

These creatures seemed to sense that something was approaching and gave up hope of overcoming a struggling Shen. The massive hands closed around the back of Taliel's chest plate and began dragging him through the snow drifts. All he could to do fight back was kick and scream for help. He saw Shen pulling himself out of the ravine in the distance and try to give chase. He had been too badly wounded though and was barely able to limp at a quick pace.

The journey was not a pleasant one, the creature seemed to enjoy taking every chance possible to ram him unceremoniously into a rock or tree root. It had only been a couple minutes of dragging before the creature managed to knock his prisoner unconscious. The walk seemed to go on for miles, the creatures not stopping to make camp until the moon had risen well into the night sky.

By the time Taliel came to, all of his armor had been stripped off and heavy ropes bound his arms and legs. He struggled to free an arm for a bit, but gave up when he realized the ropes had been tied to tight. He couldn't see very far into the darkened forest. All that he was able to see was a campfire in a clearing of trees not far from where he was tied.

He tried to think through all of his schooling and training as to what the creatures could be. Nothing he could think of matched these creatures even remotely. They were nearly a foot taller than even the tallest of his country men. Their skin was black and the fur that covered their arms, legs, and backs were even darker. Their face was wide with a long flared nose as the dominant feature. They also had two long, curled horns starting in the middle of the forehead and snaking out to the sides. Knowing that this was something that probably had never been seen before was a discomforting thought. What were they and what was going to happen to him?

He sat in the dark for the entirety of the night, waiting for his captors to come back for him. Shadows and creaking made him jump, constantly thinking that his end had come. It was morning by the time he saw the creatures approaching. They made no attempts at communicating, simply taking a rough hold and dragging him again. This day's journey was much the same as yesterday's. For how large the creatures were, they moved surprisingly fast. Taliel tried to keep track of how far they were going, but the constant jarring against every object on the forest floor interrupted his concentration.

It was shortly before nightfall that they arrived at what appeared to be a camp. When finally turned around, he was utterly surprised at what he saw. The hulking creatures that had brought him here were apparently working with what looked to be dark elves. Many stories had been told over the years of the cruelty that the Dark Elves were capable of. The Dark Elves had originally been wood elves that the humans had driven to the underground passageways of the continent. In the constant darkness, they brooded over the injustices that had to deal with and their malice and discontent grew.

From time to time over the last couple of centuries, there had been uprisings. These were usually small and quickly dealt with, but it kept the fear of these elves in the minds of the citizens of the empire. The possibility that the dark elves were the source of the plague as some sort of sick retribution for past wrongs was a discomforting one. Taliel tried listening to what was being said, but he was unable to understand the language that was being used. It was a sharp hissing sound, like he had never heard before.

He figured that he would spend a couple of days here as a prisoner, but it didn't look like he would be that lucky. He saw numerous elves dressed in long black robes quickly approaching. He could tell that they were magi when they gathered in a circle in a large clearing nearby. Watching intently, he saw them working their magic for a long couple of minutes. When it appeared they were about done, Taliel saw a faint red glow begin to appear in the center of the circle.

It quickly filled out, looking like a portal to another location. Without warning, one of the large creatures grabbed hold of him and picked him up, tossing him over a shoulder. From what he was able to see, it appeared all of the creatures were lining up into a formation. Once they had all been arranged, the first row marched straight into the portal and disappeared. The beast carrying Taliel began marching towards the portal. As they entered, he experienced the strangest feeling he had ever felt. It was almost like being coated in a freezing cold grease. But almost as soon as the feeling started it was gone.

Looking around, he could tell it was obvious that they had entered another dimension. They were standing on what looked to be a black, rocky surface with rivers of lava surrounding them on all sides. Up ahead, there was a black, foreboding fortress built straight into the side of a cliff. Either side of the ramparts were giant waterfalls of lava, giving the area an even creepier feeling.

As soon as all of the creatures had gone through the portal, the group began marching towards the fortress. Taliel could tell that it was bigger than any building he had ever seen before. The black gates had to be at least one hundred feet tall. The entire city of Belnor could have easily fit in the main courtyard behind the gates. Upon entering the fortress, he saw thousands of these creatures going about their daily business just like would be seen in any trade district of a human city.

The beast carrying him, broke off from the rest of the group and carried him into what appeared to be a prison. By the time they had descended a couple of levels to where the cells were, Taliel would rather been in any prison back in Ortheon. The pain, misery, and suffering present here were overwhelming. Not a minute went by without cries of agony echoing through the dank corridors.

The cell in which he was thrown, was barely large enough for him to lay down in. There was no hint of a bed or even a chamber pot for his waste. He had long complained about how restrictive the King's army barracks had been, but that seemed like living as royalty now. The bars of the door slid shut, leaving him isolated in the heart of the black city, unsure of what dimension he was even in. The love of life that had long characterized him was no longer there, he was now a shell of the man he used to be.

Dragon Age Releasing Tomorrow

2009-11-02T18:35:00.000-06:00

Can't wait to pick up my copy tomorrow. I have class until 12:20, then free the rest of the day. I plan on picking up the Warden's Keep DLC too, should be a fun time.

NANOWRIMO Day 2

2009-11-02T18:29:00.003-06:00

Due to a partial rewrite of the first section, here is the entire work so far. 5000 something words.

Chapter 1 – Chasing Myths

The falling snow whipped between the trees, driven by the unceasing winter winds. These were the Shalomnori Wilds, an ancient forest settled on the northeastern shores of Ortheon. Stories had been passed for generations of a witch living deep in the woods that killed wayward travelers. No one was entirely sure if the stories were true, but many people had vanished without a trace over the years.

Cloaked by the growing darkness, three of the King's soldiers trudged through the snow drifts. All were clad in full plate mail armor, clutching their heavy woolen cloaks close to their bodies for warmth.

“Do you think the stories are true?” Taliel, the youngest of the group piped up. He had only enlisted a year ago and this was his first assignment. His windswept blonde hair, slight freckles, and boyish good looks lead to many morality regulations being broken during his leaves in the city.

Keladkha Silverkin had enlisted nearly a decade before and had served alongside the eldest member of the party, Shen Matale, in the Tracopian Reunification War. The war had been a brutal retribution from King Tiethal for an attempt to leave the empire by the border tribes. Entire villages had been ordered burned and its inhabitants killed. The soldiers of this war still harbored bad feelings towards the King for the terrors they still experienced every night.

The war had taken a toll on Keladkha, physically and emotionally. Much of his chest and back were covered in scars from numerous clashes with the enemy. He had aged greatly in the war, with gray hairs starting to invade his cropped brown hair. His face was leathered and creased from the time spent outside. His eyes were the only thing that still seemed young, a piercing grayish coloration that always seemed to be darting about, watching all angles.

Shen had served the empire for nearly a century, belonging to the long-lived northern hill people called the Atronochs. His service was coming to a close and the long years had left their mark. He could have once been considered handsome, but two long scars on the right side of his face left a grisly mark. His long, flowing silver hair was pulled up into a ponytail that still reached nearly halfway down his back.

“We better hope so, if the King wants us to bring her in,” Keladkha replied. “The plague is hitting Belnor bad and anything that can help is much needed.”

It had been six months since the first residents of the city fell dead in the streets. The months following saw it spread to all edges of the empire. Cities across the country stood on the brink of anarchy as citizens clamored for answers. Theories as to the source ranged from attempts by the neighboring nations to seize land to dark cults of necromancers building armies of undead.

The King was desperately searching for a cure, seeking the counsel of mages and alchemists from all corners. When nothing had proved effective, he expanded the search into myths and urban legends. To this end, he sent soldiers out in hopeless searches for items of lore.

“You have to admit that many strange things happen in these woods. We have been walking for nearly a fortnight and have yet to see any animals, not even the birds are singing.”

The group continued to trudge on in silence as each became more aware of the howling winds. As night finally fell on the area, the trio found a small area sheltered by fallen trees to set-up camp. The drifts were slightly lower here and they went about unrolling their bedrolls and gathering wood for a fire.

“It's hopeless, we'll never get a fire going in this,” Taliel lamented after trying for nearly an hour to get one started.

“Guess we'll just have to deal with cold waybread,” Shen muttered, tossing the rock hard bread to the other members of the party.

“How come you never talk about the Reunification War? It was such a great victory for the empire, but it's never brought up,” Taliel questioned.

“Too many dark memories, too many friends lost,”Keladkha wearily said.

“Yeah, but there must be some interesting story to tell.”

“So you want to hear a war story. I've got an interesting one to tell you,” Keladkha spat angrily. “We were deep in the Tracopes, a small town called Quann. It was nothing more than a fishing and farming village situated on a picturesque lake. Rolling hills, green pastures, even a waterfall and river going through the middle of the town. It was the kind of place that you would want to settle down and retire in. The people were friendly to the king and we had spent nearly a week camped on the edges. They constantly brought us food and gifts to help in the war against the rebels. Orders came down a couple days later that the town was to be eliminated. Knowing that insubordination meant death, we entered the town on a dark, moonless night. Half of our unit went around gathering up the residents and locking them into the town hall. The rest of us started torching homes and pillaging belongings. The fires lit the area up like it was midday and the smell of burning wood flooded the nostrils. The last building we lit on fire was the town hall. I can still hear their screams...” Keladkha trailed off with a mournful look. “You wanted a war story, that is how the war was fought. There was no majestic cavalry charges, no brilliant strategy, just the endless slaughter of innocent citizens.”

Taliel was left speechless as both Keladkha and Shen stood up and curled up on their bedrolls. Sleep would not come easily tonight.

The early morning rays signaled that the snowstorms that had plagued them for the last week had finally passed. The members of the party went about their packing up tasks silently, the memories of last night's discussions fresh in their minds. As they set out on their trek, they each knew that the journey should be ending soon. There was only one portion of the forest that had yet to be checked. It was also the one that was the central part of most stories.

Hours passed as they continued to wander through the freshly fallen snow. The reassuring whistling of the wind was replaced with an uneasy silence. The only sounds to be heard for miles was the crunching of their metal boots in the snow.

“What was that?” Shen called out suddenly.

“I didn't see anything,” Keladkha replied.

“I saw something walking over there,” he said motioning towards an opening in the trees.

“Let's keep moving and keep our eyes open. I have a bad feeling about this area.”

Over the next hour or so, there was numerous sightings of something brown moving around in the trees. Upon further inspection though, every time showed no evidence of someone being there. No tracks, no broken twigs, it was almost as though their eyes had been playing tricks on them.

As dusk began to fall over the woods, the three soldiers entered a narrow ravine. The walls of it were barely wider than their own shoulders, little room to move and so tight in places that they had to move sideways. By the time they had made it halfway through the ravine, they began hearing rustling behind them. It was indistinct at first, but there was a loud whoosh as the sound began gaining on them rapidly. They barely had time to turn around before they saw a wave of flames overtake them.

Keladkha, who was in the rear of the group, was the first to be overtaken by the flames. The pain was excruciating, it felt as though he was being boiled alive in his heavy plate mail. Slowly, as the pain grew to be much, his outer extremities began to shut down. His legs gave way and his arms were unable to stop the fall. He landed face first in the mud they had been traversing. He tried to scream, but the sound died before it even left his throat. As he lay on the ground, the last thing he remember was the flames diminishing and a figure approaching him.

Chapter 2 – Rescue?

Keladkha woke with a gasp. He thought that he would have died in the flames, but the room seemed to be real enough and his entire body ached. He was unsure what room exactly he was in. It appeared to be a small, possibly one-room cabin. His rough wooden bed was in the corner of the room, opposite a large hearth filled with various size cauldrons. There was a small wooden table on the other end of the room on which his armor lay. It appeared to be heavily blackened, but still together. The walls of the cabin were covered in the hides of various woodland creatures.

Unsure of who the figure approaching him had been and who brought him here, he tried to sit up in bed. With a grunt of pain, he quickly gave up that plan. It was apparent that the flames had caused him some serious damage. Slowly pulling the sheets away, he noticed that most of his body was wrapped in coarse linen bandages.
Suddenly, he realized that Shen and Taliel were nowhere to be seen. Whoever rescued him surely should have gotten them too. Maybe this was a small village and they were being held in a different house. Maybe, the savior was headed back to get them now. Keladkha refused to believe that anything bad could have happened to them. He had been the first to be overcome by the fire, they were still fighting on when he had passed out.

While waiting for this mysterious person to return, sleep overcame him. Unsure of how much time had passed, his eyes fluttered open. His vision was blurry, but the room around him seemed darker. As his vision came to, he noticed a figure kneeling down by the hearth tending to the fire.

“Who are you?” he asked, stumbling over the words.

“Ah, you're awake. I was beginning to worry to about,” replied a young female's voice as she turned to face him.

“A wood elf? But no one has seen your kind for centuries.”

“We are able to hide far away from your kind. Some of the others aren't happy about bringing a human here. Especially one of noble descent.”

“Noble descent? I am merely a soldier in the King's army.”

“Hmm... We must have been mistaken. But please rest now. The attack has left you severely weakened.”

“Who attacked me? Was it one of your kind or something else? And where are Shen and Taliel? What have you done with them?”

“You really should relax,” she said as she came and sat on a stool next to his bed. At this close proximity, Keladkha was awestruck by her beauty. Her face was unblemished and her large brown eyes were easy to get lost in. She had her long brown hair pulled up into a ponytail. “You've been running a fever since you were brought here,” she calmly said, placing a cold towel on his forehead. “Your questions will be answered in time, as I am not knowledgeable enough on what's happening?” She absent-mindedly ran her fingers through his hair, staring off into the distance. Noticing what she was doing, she quickly pulled her hand back.
With that, she stood up to grab a platter of food sitting on the table. She placed it on a table beside the bed and walked from the structure, leaving him to his thoughts. He wondered why she seemed so reluctant to answer his questions. Was he to expect the worst? It didn't seem like they had been the ones to attack him, but he couldn't be entirely sure.

There was no reason to get so worked up right now, so he switched his attention to the food left by the elf. It smelled amazing to him, especially in comparison to the stale bread they had been eating for two weeks. It seemed to be local plants stewed in a creamy sauce with some freshly baked bread on the side. Even though there wasn't much, every bite was surprisingly filling.

It was some time before the elven maiden returned, this time with a much older male. They stood in the middle of the room for some time, examining him, before they even spoke to him. “Why have you come?” he asked Keladkha in a very curious tone.

“King Tiethal sent us on to seek out the fabled Witch of the Wilds.”

“The 'Witch of the Wilds,' that fairy tale your people tell of those in the woods. Your king is sadly mistaken if he seeks that legend, for she does not exist. Why has he sent you on such a fool mission?” he replied, obviously disgusted.

“A plague has been killing our people for many months now. He is desperate in his search and seeks any leads to a cure.”

“We know of this plague, and its cause. The witch for which these wilds are named will be unable to help in such a matter.”

“So there really is a Witch of the Wilds? I thought that was just a tale told to keep small children out of the forests.”

“She is our queen and you will eventually have to go before her for judgment on the sin of entering our lands.” With this statement, he turned and started to head out the door.

“Wait, but what of my fellow soldiers and who attacked me?”

“You will find out soon enough,” he said and walked out the door with the elven maiden following close behind.

The next few days followed in much the same manner, with very few visitors and even less information being revealed. The elven maiden returned numerous times to tend to his wounds and provide him with food to eat. Through conversations, he had determined that her name was Arynn and that she was related to some powerful member of the clan. She stayed relatively tight-lipped around him, though he noticed her constantly giving him curious glances. It turned out that she had never met a human before and that she longed to learn more about mortal species.

A week passed before the Queen finally summoned him to her chambers. By this time, his wounds had recovered greatly, thanks to the elven healing magic. When summoned, he was escorted by four warriors armed simply with short, curved swords, the likes of which he had never seen before.

The Queen's residence was situated high off the ground in the oldest and largest tree in the area. It was nearly a quarter hour of climbing before they reached the main chambers. Carved directly into the trunk of the tree, the chambers were a magnificent sight to behold. Everything was as ornate as being carved out of wood would allow. It even rivaled the sights of King Tiethal's palace in Belnor, long known as the Jewel of the Empire.

Upon entering the throne room, Keladkha's eyes were drawn immediately to the throne and the woman seated upon it. She looked like royalty in her flowing green and brown robes and her golden hair done up in a ornate bun. He was directed in a point directly in front of the throne to bow down.

Following the formalities, she began to speak to him, “Greeting Keladkha Silverkin, sergeant in the Ortheon army. I am Shalomnori, Queen of the Wood Elves. I hear that you were sent as an ambassador from your King to save your people from the plague. It is unfortunate that you come to speak to me on a subject that we know quite well. We know that this is no ordinary disease, it is the curse of demons. Demons from the beyond the Shade that wish to enter this realm for the first time since the coming of humans.”

Keladkha stood in shock of what she had just revealed. He had thought the ideas as to the source that had been flying around for awhile had been crazy, but this was simply insane. The Shade was the dream world, where people went in their sleep and upon death, not a place for demons to come from to kill off the inhabitants of this world. “This just doesn't make any sense though. This doesn't even seem true, it can't possibly happen.”

“That is because such things are from well before the time of humans. Your recorded history does not stretch back far enough to memorialize the fight of the elves against the demons. Upon your journey here, you say you were attacked by a wave of fire. That was the work of such demons. Their strength has grown of late, enough for brief forays into our realm.”

“But if the demons attacked, what happened to my two companions?”

“This is the most troubling aspect of what you speak. When we found your body, we found you alone. There was no trace of others. Either they escaped with their lives to be held prisoner or died and were dragged off to be scavenged.”

As she said this, the lights in the room were extinguished so that the only light was a couple candles behind the throne. The Queen slowly stood up and in a higher than normal voice called out, “As the jewel is overcast, the four pillars will fall at last. An ancient foe rises from the abyss, bringing with it the great darkness. One from the ancient line must fall, to find salvation for all.” Upon finishing, the lights suddenly returned and Keladkha now realized they were the only ones in the room.

Shalomnori eyed him suspiciously, looking as though she knew more than she let on. “It appears that trouble is rising. You must leave our lands at once for you have brought much danger.”

“But what was that?” Keladkha asked, surprised.

“Only you will be able to figure that out. Prophecies are for those involved to decipher, not outside ears. I can tell you that events have been set in motion putting all our lives at risk.”

“What do you know? Why can't you tell me that?”

“Vague premonitions is all I see. You will find out all you need to know when you return home. Another thing, I want my daughter to go with you.”

“What, why?”

“She trusts too naively. Some time with the treacherous ways of your people should change her views. Without your companions, you won't make it back to your city without help. Guards!”

“Yes, your highness?” the head of the guard responded from outside.

“Escort this soldier to the edge of the city and set him on his way.”

“Mam, I have to question the wisdom of this. He has set foot on our sacred grounds and should be killed. Why is he special? Do to him like the humans did to us so many years ago.”

“No questions. Do as I ask,” she responded sternly.

With that, the guard took a rough hold of Keladkha's shoulder and steered him back to the entrance door. Not a word passed between the two as they made the long descent back to the hut. The guard left him at the door and stormed off, not happy that this was happening.

Back in the hut, Keladkha began putting on his armor. It had been expertly cleaned and repaired since the attack. His armor and sword were all that remained, the packs with food and supplies had been burned beyond salvage. A fresh pack, stocked to the brim with elven travel food was laid on the table though. Just as he was going through the final preparations, Arynn entered the room. She was clad in a long green robe and had a long bow and quiver strapped to her back. She also carried a pack, looking like she was headed on a journey.

“Where are you headed?” Keladkha asked her.

“I am Shalomnori's daughter and she wishes that I join you on your journey.”

“The queen let her own daughter tend to a human patient? I find that hard to believe.”

“Since I found you, I brought you back to my hut to begin treatments before letting her know. While she wasn't happy, she allowed me to continue the work. I am training in the art of healing and it was considered good practice.”

“Very well, I don't like the idea of transporting royalty though. We will probably be headed into trouble, so you better be able to use that bow of yours.”

Chapter 3 – An Old Friend

The journey south from the capital was plagued by snows. The elf showed no problems, being able to walk along the surface of the drifts. Keladkha, on the other hand, was forced to trudge his way through the snows that reached up to his chest at times. Progress was painfully slow, as he just wanted to get back on the Great Road to the capital to bring the information to the attention of the King.

Their first goal was to head to the town of Shakur, a frontier town on the edges of the Shalomnori Wilds nearly a week's journey from the elven capital. Here they would be able to requisition horses from the local militia outpost to get back to the capital quickly. If the town could have been considered lawless before the plague broke out, it was absolute bedlam. It had gotten so bad of late that the local militia was forced to enact martial law to curb looting.

The town wasn't much to look at when approaching. The city center held only the bare necessities of local government along with a general store and chapel. These were all constructed out of the same roughly hewed lumber, which was now well worn and warped from the years in the harsh environment. Only the chapel had been constructed of stone, hauled in from quarries in the south. The outskirts of town were littered with logging camps and a handful of farms able to survive the short growing seasons.
Keladkha and Arynn, with hood pulled down low to hide her elven features, were accosted by a militia patrol soon after entering the town center. It was well after sunset and people without proper authorization were forced inside.

“Halt, what business are you on?” the guard called out, jogging up to them.

“The king's business, I am part of the King's guard,” Keladkha replied, annoyed by the interruption.

“I see the armor,” motioning towards the armor bearing the King's crest, “but we have had no reports of the army coming through here.”

“Special envoy with urgent news to get back to the king. Now let my companion and I pass to the inn to spend the night. We are in quite the hurry.”

The guard begrudgingly allowed them to continue on, obviously peeved about having rank pulled on him by an outsider. Ignoring the guard's response, Keladkha led Arynn towards the building with a tattered sign proclaiming it as the 'Wolves' Den,' the local tavern. They entered the tavern and approached the portly fellow standing behind the bar.

“We would like a room for the night.”

“Ah, good to have some payin' customers. Not had many of those with those bandits on the roads.”

“Bandits? I haven't heard of any such rumors.”

“Suprised ya haven't. Been all the talk these days. Merchants have gone missin' almost daily. Post ain't been received since last week either. Times are bad I tell ya.”

They took the key to their room and headed up the rickety staircase behind the bar. The room was at the far end of the hall, far enough away from the other guests. Opening the door revealed a very decrepit interior. The two beds were sagging low to the ground and the sheets covering them were tattered and frayed at the edges. Larges sections of paint had peeled away from the wall, exposing the bare, rotting lumber underneath. The couple candles in the room barely provided enough light to see half the room clearly.

“How quaint. Wish we could stay more than one night,” Keladkha muttered sarcastically as he made his way to the bed on the far side of the room. He began removing his armor slowly, setting it on the floor beside the bed. Exhausted from the journey here, he quickly fell asleep curled into a ball on top of the sheets. Arynn, as elves did not need the sleep that humans did, went about reading some of the odd assortment of books they had found in the room. She was particularly fascinated by one with assorted healing techniques for common illness.

Her reading over the use of leaches was interrupted by the sounds of shouting and swords clashing from outside the inn. Curious about what was happening, she pulled her cloak tight around her body and quietly slipped out the door. No one was stirring throughout the inn, the few guests were probably sound asleep. The steps creaked ever so slightly as she made her way down to the main level. The barkeep must have already gone to bed as the only person to be seen was a gray haired man slumped over the counter, obviously drunk.

She silently propped the front door open and slipped outside into the darkness. Off to her right, she could see some torches and what looked to be some people fighting. Sneaking along in the shadows, she moved to a position that allowed her a clear view of what was happening.

“You think you can steal from me wench? I will kill you for this!” A big bearded man yelled at the huddled up figure on the ground. Arynn finally realized that it was woman being beaten to death by three men.

“I... I... I swear I didn't take it,” came the muffled plea from the woman.

“Then who did?”

“I don't know. I swear it wasn't me. Just let me go please.”

“No! This is the last time wench. Isn't that right boys?”

“Yeah boss. Teach her a lesson.”

Just as they were about to finish their task, one of the smaller, mousy eyed men looked up and noticed Arynn watching from the doorway of a nearby building. “Looks like we gots ourselves a witness boss.” At that, the other two looked up in surprise. Not wanting to get turned in for a crime, they started to run towards the cloaked figure.

Startled by the sudden turn of events, she began sprinting down an alleyway between two nearby buildings. This was not going to end well unless she decided to fight, as there was no way she was going to be able to hide from these goons and the militia until morning. She sensed a good place to lay in ambush when she saw a roof beam hanging out far enough to serve as a means up to the roof. With a great leap, she reached up and grabbed hold of the beam and used it to swing herself up onto the roof.

The men had obviously split up, as only the biggest goon of them all followed her down the alleyway. Stopping the chase when he lost sight of her just before her bit of acrobatics, he cursed loudly at his stupidity. There was no way a witness was getting him turned in to the officials. They would scour the streets until this person was found.

Arynn sensed her chance to strike when the man stopped running. Pulling out the two daggers she kept at her waist, she leaped down on to the man's back, plunging her blades deep into his neck. As the man's dead weight hit the ground, she looked around to see if anyone was around. One of the other goons was standing dumbstruck at the end of the alleyway. Just as he turned to flee, she let one of the daggers fly. It caught him straight in the throat, blood gushing from the wound before he even hit the ground.

As she watched the man flop down to the ground, she was hit with an unexpected weight from behind. The other man had gathered up enough courage to try and take her. Caught unaware, she rolled over awkwardly, landing propped up against the wall of the building. Fortunately, her attacker was winded and lying on his back. He didn't have much of a chance to put up a fight as she plunged her knife into his neck.

She calmly got up and retrieved her daggers, cleaning the blood off onto the clothes of her victims. If a militia patrol showed up she would be in major trouble. With this in mind, she hurriedly sprinted back to the inn. Snaking inside the door, it seemed as though no one was wiser to what had just happened. The drunken man was still passed out on the counter and the barkeep was nowhere in sight. Back in the room, she did her best to clear the blood from her garments. With only a few hours until daylight, she sat on the floor and meditated as was the elven custom.

Keladkha ended up sleeping well past sunrise, a rarity in the life of a soldier. He was cheerfully unaware of last night's events, even whistling a tune as he put on his armor. With everything squared away, he led a quieter than normal Arynn back towards the main part of the tavern.

As they approached they heard a conversation between the barkeep and an unknown man. “I can't let you keep drinking yourself to sleep at the counter every night. The other customers don't like it and if you can't stop, I'm going to have to kick you out.”

“Save the preaching for someone else, I've lost too many men to take this bullshit,” came an oddly familiar voice in reply.

Keladkha quickened his pace a bit to figure out who the speaker was. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, he was shocked at what he saw. Shen was the man who had been passed out at the bar last night. They had walked right past him without even noticing.

“Shen, you old bastard. You're alive,” he called out, running up to embrace his old friend.

Holding him at arm's length, Shen slowly looked him over. “I thought I had lost you. You took the most damage from the flames. I left you to chase after those who took Taliel,” he slowly recounted, tears welling up in his eyes.

“Who took Taliel?”

“I don't know, I never got a visual on them. And when I gave up the chase and returned to the ravine, you were gone. There were signs of you being dragged off. I thought they got you too.”

Looking warily at the barkeep, Keladkha knew he couldn't say too much here. “It's a long story buddy. I will tell you more in private.”

Noticing that someone was standing behind them, Shen questioned, “Who's that?”

“Not the place for introductions.”

NANOWRIMO Part 1

2009-11-01T16:58:00.001-06:00

I figured I'd post this up here to see if anyone has any critiques on my writing. But here is 1910 words for my first day of writing:

Chapter 1 – Chasing Myths

The falling snow whipped between the trees, driven by the unceasing winter winds. These were the Shalomnori Wilds, an ancient forest settled on the northeastern shores of Ortheon. Stories had been passed for generations of a witch living deep in the woods that killed wayward travelers. No one was entirely sure if the stories were true, but many people had vanished without a trace over the years.

Cloaked by the growing darkness, three of the King's soldiers trudged through the snow drifts. All were clad in full plate mail armor, clutching their heavy woolen cloaks close to their bodies.

“Do you think the stories are true?” Taliel, the youngest of the group piped up. He had only enlisted a year ago and this was his first assignment. Not jaded from battle, his boyish good looks stood in stark contrast to his two superiors.
Keladkha Silverkin had enlisted nearly a decade before and had served alongside the eldest member of the party, Shen Matale, in the Tracopian Reunification War. The war had been a brutal retribution from King Tiethal for an attempt to leave the empire by the border tribes. Entire villages had been ordered burned and its inhabitants killed. The soldiers of this war still harbored bad feelings towards the King for the terrors they still experienced every night.

“We better hope so, if the King wants us to bring her in,” Keladkha replied. “The plague is hitting Belnor bad and anything that can help is much needed.”
It had been six moons since the first residents of the city fell dead in the streets. The months following saw it spread to all edges of the empire. Cities across the country stood on the brink of anarchy as citizens clamored for answers. Theories as to the source ranged from attempts by the neighboring nations to seize land to dark cults of necromancers building armies of undead.
The King was desperately searching for a cure, seeking the counsel of mages and alchemists from all corners. When nothing had proved effective, he expanded the search into myths and urban legends. To this end, he sent soldiers out in hopeless searches for items of lore.

“You have to admit that many strange things happen in these woods. We have been walking for nearly a fortnight and have yet to see any animals, not even the birds are singing.”

The group continued to trudge on in silence as each became more aware of the howling winds. As night finally fell on the area, the trio found a small area sheltered by fallen trees to set-up camp. The drifts were slightly lower here and they went about unrolling their bedrolls and gathering wood for a fire.

“It's hopeless, we'll never get a fire going in this,” Taliel lamented after trying for nearly an hour to get one started.

“Guess we'll just have to deal with cold waybread,” Shen muttered, tossing the rock hard bread to the other members of the party.

“How come you never talk about the Reunification War? It was such a great victory for the empire, but it's never brought up,” Taliel questioned.

“Too many dark memories, too many friends lost,”Keladkha wearily said.
“Yeah, but there must be some interesting story to tell.”

“So you want to hear a war story. I've got an interesting one to tell you,” Keladkha spat angrily. “We were deep in the Tracopes, a small town called Quann. It was nothing more than a fishing and farming village situated on a picturesque lake. Rolling hills, green pastures, even a waterfall and river going through the middle of the town. It was the kind of place that you would want to settle down and retire in. The people were friendly to the king and we had spent nearly a week camped on the edges. They constantly brought us food and gifts to help in the war against the rebels. Orders came down a couple days later that the town was to be eliminated. Knowing that insubordination meant death, we entered the town on a dark, moonless night. Half of our unit went around gathering up the residents and locking them into the town hall. The rest of us started torching homes and pillaging belongings. The fires lit the area up like it was midday and the smell of burning wood flooded the nostrils. The last building we lit on fire was the town hall. I can still hear their screams...” Keladkha trailed off with a mournful look. “You wanted a war story, that is how the war was fought. There was no majestic cavalry charges, no brilliant strategy, just the endless slaughter of innocent citizens.”

Taliel was left speechless as both Keladkha and Shen stood up and curled up on their bedrolls. Sleep would not come easily tonight.

The early morning rays signaled that the snowstorms that had plagued them for the last week had finally passed. The members of the party went about their packing up tasks silently, the memories of last night's discussions fresh in their minds. As they set out on their trek, they each knew that the journey should be ending soon. There was only one portion of the forest that had yet to be checked. It was also the one that was the central part of most stories.

Hours passed as they continued to wander through the freshly fallen snow. The reassuring whistling of the wind was replaced with an uneasy silence. The only sounds to be heard for miles was the crunching of their metal boots in the snow.
“What was that?” Shen called out suddenly.

“I didn't see anything,” Keladkha replied.

“I saw something walking over there,” he said motioning towards an opening in the trees.

“Let's keep moving and keep our eyes open. I have a bad feeling about this area.”
Over the next hour or so, there was numerous sightings of something brown moving around in the trees. Upon further inspection though, every time showed no evidence of someone being there. No tracks, no broken twigs, it was almost as though their eyes had been playing tricks on them.

As dusk began to fall over the woods, the three soldiers entered a narrow ravine. The walls of it were barely wider than their own shoulders, little room to move and so tight in places that they had to move sideways. By the time they had made it halfway through the ravine, they began hearing rustling behind them. It was indistinct at first, but there was a loud whoosh as the sound began gaining on them rapidly. They barely had time to turn around before they saw a wave of flames overtake them.

Keladkha, who was in the rear of the group, was the first to be overtaken by the flames. The pain was excruciating, it felt as though he was being boiled alive in his heavy plate mail. Slowly, as the pain grew to be much, his outer extremities began to shut down. His legs gave way and his arms were unable to stop the fall. He landed face first in the mud they had been traversing. He tried to scream, but the sound died before it even left his throat. As he lay on the ground, the last thing he remember was the flames diminishing and a figure approaching him.

Chapter 2 – Rescue?

Keladkha woke with a gasp. He thought that he would have died in the flames, but the room seemed to be real enough and his entire body ached. He was unsure what room exactly he was in. It appeared to be a small, possibly one-room cabin. His rough wooden bed was in the corner of the room, opposite a large hearth filled with various size cauldrons. There was a small wooden table on the other end of the room on which his armor lay. It appeared to be heavily blackened, but still together. The walls of the cabin were covered in the hides of various woodland creatures.
Unsure of who the figure approaching him had been and who brought him here, he tried to sit up in bed. With a grunt of pain, he quickly gave up that plan. It was apparent that the flames had caused him some serious damage. Slowly pulling the sheets away, he noticed that most of his body was wrapped in coarse linen bandages.
Suddenly, he realized that Shen and Taliel were nowhere to be seen. Whoever rescued him surely should have gotten them too. Maybe this was a small village and they were being held in a different house. Maybe, the savior was headed back to get them now. Keladkha refused to believe that anything bad could have happened to them. He had been the first to be overcome by the fire, they were still fighting on when he had passed out.

While waiting for this mysterious person to return, sleep overcame him. Unsure of how much time had passed, his eyes fluttered open. His vision was blurry, but the room around him seemed darker. As his vision came to, he noticed a figure kneeling down by the hearth tending to the fire.

“Who are you?” he asked, stumbling over the words.

“Ah, you're awake. I was beginning to worry to about,” replied a young female's voice as she turned to face him.

“A wood elf? But no one has seen your kind for centuries.”

“We are able to hide far away from your meddling kind. Some of the others aren't happy about bringing a human here. Especially one of noble descent.”

“Noble descent? I am merely a soldier in the King's army.”

“Hmm... We must have been mistaken. But please rest now. The attack has left you severely weakened.”

“Who attacked me? Was it one of your kind or something else? And where are Shen and Taliel? What have you done with them?”

“You really should relax,” she said as she came and sat on a stool next to his bed. At this close proximity, Keladkha was awestruck by her beauty. Her face was unblemished and her large brown eyes were easy to get lost in. She had her long brown hair pulled up into a ponytail. “You've been running a fever since you were brought here,” she calmly said, placing a cold towel on his forehead. “Your questions will be answered in time, as I am not knowledgeable enough on what's happening?”

With that, she stood up to grab a platter of food sitting on the table. She placed it on a table beside the bed and walked from the structure, leaving him to his thoughts. He wondered why she seemed so reluctant to answer his questions. Was he to expect the worst? It didn't seem like they had been the ones to attack him, but he couldn't be entirely sure.

There was no reason to get so worked up right now, so he switched his attention to the food left by the elf. It smelled amazing to him, especially in comparison to the stale bread they had been eating for two weeks. It seemed to be local plants stewed in a creamy sauce with some freshly baked bread on the side. Even though there wasn't much, every bite was surprisingly filling.

What I'm Playing

2009-10-28T09:11:00.003-05:00

I know I haven't updated this blog in awhile, but it's part of my November goals to get it started again, along with taking part in NANOWRIMO. So I'll be keeping this blog update with my progress and also my journeys in Dragon Age.

Part of the reason for my hiatus is the reason that I haven't really been playing anything substantial the last few months. That will all change come November 3rd though.

On to what I have been playing:

1) Torchlight Demo
Not sold on it even with all the good word of mouth out in the blogosphere. Seems like going to Diablo 1 from Diablo 2, a step backwards. I miss the free roaming aspect that has been replaced with the railroad tracks approach. The story is just plain missing and loot drops way too fast.

2) NCAA Football 09
Yep, going back a year and replaying this. Not really sure why other than as a way to kill time until Dragon Age comes out.

3) Jade Empire
After reading comments that Bioware wanted to come back and visit this IP, I got the urge to play again. It is progressing quite slowly as I am just about to go to the fortress of Death's Hand. Combat really starts to drag and I'm lacking the motivation to really push myself forward.

What I'm Playing

2009-09-10T09:25:00.002-05:00

Not much really. Currently stuck in the school grind waiting for new games to come out.

World of Warcraft
I now have 4 horde characters in the level 10-16 range that I'm slowly working up. Problem is I lose interest in the game every Friday when SWTOR updates come out. Damn you Bioware!

Blood Bowl
My go-to game of late. Created a skaven team and having a blast. I've got a gutter runner who has scored 18 touchdowns through 6 games, including 6 in one. Trying to up my offense a bit more by adding 2 more gutter runners (to a total of 4), but worried about protecting the thrower while they get open. Usually takes 2 turns to score on offense and am playing some stifling defense.

Company of Heroes
Installed this recently on a whim and am working my way through the second mission (destroying the AA guns). I love this game and is one of the few campaigns in an RTS that I've actually finished. I play really tactically, for example I built two sandbag walls on either side of the road for destroying the patrol with mines a bit further down the road. This is so the first two motorcycles would go through and blow up while I ran 4 paratrooper squads to the sandbag walls to take out the half tracks.

Goodbye to the Shaman

2009-08-31T06:00:00.000-05:00

After playing some more with my Tauren shaman, I decided to delete him. The play style just wasn't for me and overall the character felt very weak with long down times between fights. The mage's downtime I can deal with because the character is very strong and able to take down creatures easily.

Still wanting to play a Tauren, I ended up making a warrior and getting him up to level 7. The lack of downtime at the moment is excellent even though he really doesn't feel that powerful.

What I'm Playing

2009-08-30T06:00:00.000-05:00

Blood Bowl - Currently only playing a game or so a night but am still enjoying it. I have an orc team that I am taking through the single player campaign. It has been a while since they last lost a game though a Skaven team (always my bane) nearly ended that streak in the last game. Luckily killing their gutter runner and running the ball in on turn 15 saved me a draw.

World of Warcraft - My gnome mage is up to 10, shaman is still at 14, and the death knight is 74. Haven't played too much of late.

Diablo 2- Started up another playthrough with a friend. Currently going as a dual-axe wielding barbarian. Finished the first act and ran the sewers at the start of the second.

Warcraft 3 - Having played the first two, but never the third, I finally borrowed the disc and am working through a campaign. Currently on the 3rd or 4th mission with the humans.

That is pretty much where I'm at at the moment. Nothing holding my attention for too long and a wide variety of games on the hard drive. My guess is it's the anticipation of the upcoming fall release season. Sure many games have been pushed back already, but it is still looking solid.

WoW: Viewing the Old Content One Last Time

2009-08-28T10:52:00.002-05:00

With the upcoming Cataclysm changing the old world completely, I have had the urge to go back and level some new alts on both the Horde and Alliance side. This way I can see the content one last time when it is old and then level a goblin and worgen to see how it changed.

For the horde side, my favorite race has always been the Tauren. So I ended creating a shaman because it is a class that I've never played before. He will end up being an elemental shaman but for the moment his lack of mana is really killing the enjoyment of playing him. Downtime between fights is currently insane. Hopefully once I finish my current quest to get a fire totem things will improve, but it may be a struggle leveling him up for now. After two nights questing, he has reached the barrens and is level 13.

On the Alliance side of things, I ended up making a gnomish mage. The mage is a class I've dabbled with before, but never really played it past level 20 or so. I've got him up to level six and out of the newbie zone so far. It has been far easier to play than the shaman to this point, with no mana problems and the ability to kill most creatures before they even reach me.

The Death Knight is sitting at 74 and benched currently while leveling alts.

Bit Late to the Party But...

2009-08-25T13:57:00.001-05:00

Best video I've seen in awhile.

Guild Wars 2 Event System

2009-08-24T06:00:00.000-05:00

I was reading Eurogamer's preview of Guild Wars 2 when I ran across this interesting paragraph.

"We actually don't have a traditional RPG/MMO quest system," Flannum continues. "Instead what we've got are Events. Think of them as group-orientated activities. This is one of the many things that will encourage the player to explore the world - you can wander through and never quite know what you're going to see. You might come across a fortress that's being attacked by centaurs, or it might be that the centaurs attacked half an hour before you got there and they hold it now. You might start walking along a road you've walked a hundred times and suddenly there's a caravan travelling along that road that you may not have seen, and you can go help that caravan out."

Reading this puts GW2 on my gaming radar. If they can pull it off successfully, it could be the best quest system in any MMO to date. The thought of being able to run across these random events as they happen would really make the game world feel like a more real, dynamic place. In my mind, this is an evolution over WAR's Public Quests. The PQs provided a nice group event that anyone could join in and work torwards a goal, but it always ended up feeling repetitive and static because nothing ever changed. You could go back to the area at any point in time and the same exact thing would be happening.

At least with this events system, different things will be happening at different times. That well-traveled road could just end up providing you a completely new experience. I imagine that some players will struggle with wanting to do everything in the game, "complete it" so to say, but for me this is a new and exciting possibility.

TOR Gameplay Demo

2009-08-23T06:00:00.000-05:00

Basically showed exactly what we have received in written form up to this point. While exciting to get an extended glimpse, I didn't learn anything new and just reinforced my desire to be a Bounty Hunter. The BH looked like a cooler playstyle and more powerful than the Sith in the video but who actually knows.

You can check it out on IGN if you haven't seen it already.

WoW Cataclysm

2009-08-22T06:00:00.001-05:00

So the rumors were true...

I was kind of surprised but pleasantly await playing it. Will definitely be creating a Goblin early on as they have always been the race I've wanted to play. Guess its back to work on the ole Death Knight now.

Champions Online

2009-08-21T06:00:00.001-05:00

Cryptic dropping the NDA for the game did it for me, I'm not going to end up playing it. Didn't even have the urge to download the nearly 1 gig patch for the open beta after reading numerous negative and meh reviews. I was hoping it would be good, but I know I won't play a CoH2.

In City of Heroes, I spent more time creating characters than I actually spent playing the game. I would spend over an hour making one and then get into the boring gameplay and head straight back to the character creation. Never got past the 14-day free trial for the game.

So hopefully Aion has an open beta that I can get into, but if not I'll be sticking with playing WoW on and off and waiting for the single player games to come out this fall/winter. Speaking of WoW, I hit 73 on my Death Knight Wednesday night through questing in Dragonblight. Won't be playing for the next few days as I'm heading back to college today.

Supreme Commander 2

2009-08-20T06:00:00.000-05:00

I now realize that in my crowded list of future games I posted last week, I left of one that I particularly looking forward to. Today I was reading the September issue of PC Gamer (missed issue that they promptly re-sent after calling them up), and the title story was on SupCom 2. The article is definitely recommended to anyone who played SupCom or the older Total Annihilation.

The team appears to be taking some of the criticisms from the first game to heart and changing them up for the second go around. First area of improvement is the economy. The first one had a delightfully challenging economy that rewarded properly planning and quality base layouts. The problem was how unforgiving this was. One mistake or pushing construction a little too fast brought your entire war machine to a halt. When this happened, all the fun went out the window as you had to instantly reorganize your economy and play catch up to the other players. Storage facilities are no longer needed which will free up the base for a more streamlined look. This is a major plus in my book because constantly having to build mass and power storage crowded up the base and made it harder for units to find a path through the base and made placing structures harder. One area of disappointment is the removal of having additional engineering units speed up build times. While it required micromanagement of large teams of builders, it was nice to have the option to speed up the construction of the experimental units when you needed it most.

Another area that is being improved is the ACUs. Thank god they have escape pods now so they can be used in an offensive without worrying about them going nuclear. I would assume you would have to manually eject the commander, but that should be no problem as you should always have an eye on his health. There are some more upgrades to make the ACU better on the attack, like AA guns and torpedoes. Yay! The ability to finally walk your commander through water without having to worry about getting raped by subs and ships.

Aeon is now the Illuminate. The new art style is a welcome change with a steampunk type vibe to it.

Tech Tree Changes. No longer will Tier 1 and 2 units become useless by the end of the match. Rather than having tiers, units can be upgraded over time through an actual tech tree. Should be some good strategies for that and the ability to tailor your units how you want them. They give the example of a tank adding an extra barrel, then more range, and finally some AA guns. Should be interesting to see the end result.

More experimental units divided into minor and major classifications. Minors supposedly can be built by the 15th minute of gameplay while majors are more like the ones in the original SupCom. Also there will triple the number of them in the game which make for some interesting army make-ups.

Overall, a good preview that makes me even more eager for this game to come out.

Sith Warrior

2009-08-19T06:00:00.000-05:00

Via Gamespot, Bioware unveiled the fourth of eight classes in their upcoming MMO, the Sith Warrior. Whether this will be the only force using class for the Sith or if there will be a more force power focused one remains to be seen. My first thought based on their description was that there would be another one but I certainly hope not. My votes for the two remaining classes for that faction are a droid based one, and a pet-class (the most interesting suggestion I've seen is a slaver).

Even though I've sworn off playing a Jedi/Sith as my main class, their description was good enough to make me consider it as a first alternate.

EL: Well, I might have to disappoint you here, but the way the Sith Warrior leads is by physically hurling himself ahead of his group and into the fray, not by sprinkling around touchy-feely buffs for his buddies. That's just not his style. Although, if his refrains from Force choking his groupmates, does that count as a buff?

and...

EL: This was the first character we built, and in many ways, he is still our yardstick for all the other classes. I would not say playing this character is good clean fun because neither "good" nor "clean" is an appropriate term, but he delivers a visceral and satisfying experience. To quote a line from another venerable story: If you think that what's best in life is to crush your enemies and see them driven before you, you should definitely consider playing a Sith Warrior.

They certainly know how to sell their classes.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Localized in French and German???

2009-08-18T15:46:00.002-05:00

I didn't think that Bioware's upcoming MMO could get any more massive until I was reading a liveblog of EA's press conference today. All voice over will be in English, French, and German! Three languages and three times as much work for an already large undertaking.

Re-Subbed to WoW

2009-08-17T18:56:00.002-05:00

So after reading all the Cataclysm rumors, my interest in WoW was piqued yet again so I ended up re-installing it in an effort to finally get a character to 80. First attempt is my level 72 Death Knight, the closest to the cap.

Blood Bowl Review

2009-08-14T06:00:00.001-05:00

Blood Bowl is really the only game that I'm currently playing, but it is definitely one of the best I've played recently. For those of you who don't know the origins of the game, it was originally a board game developed in the 80's. It is set in the Warhammer Universe, so the available races include fantasy stalwarts like Orcs, Humans, Dwarves, and Elves, with more interesting ones like the rat-like Skaven and the Chaos.

From these races you get to build a team and play American-style football in a turn-based structure. A unique concept and wonderfully executed. My personal favorite team is a Lizardmen one based on brutal defense and a quick strike running attack. With this approach I am able to out muscle the small teams and dance past the stronger ones.

Gameplay is kept interesting through large amounts of luck. Winning comes down to 50% luck and 50% skill. So there will be games where nothing goes right and your normally sure handed player will fail at picking up the ball for multiple turns and then the next game will see you pulling off miracle plays. It can become frustrating at times when players are getting injured and dying left and right, but overall it helps to even the playing field.

Due to time constraints, I have only been able to get two online matches in (1-0-1) and the difference of playing another person is readily apparant. Playing against the computer is easy and repetitive, but that all changes online. The two opponents I've played against have been quality guys and fair players. I'm definately looking to get some more play time in the coming weeks.

What I'm Playing and Future Possibilities

2009-08-13T17:01:00.004-05:00

Right now, I'm definitely in a gaming rut. I find myself looking more to the future than playing what is currently sitting on my hard drive. I have a partially finished Oblivion game going and need to get a Mass Effect play through finished (reformatted old computer without copying saved game files).

So right now, the only game that I am able to get myself to load up is Blood Bowl. This is a game I would highly recommend to someone looking for a new game to play. I'll have a review up shortly, but it is a blast to play and I'm just getting started with online play.

It's probably easier to just put a list of games that coming out that I am look forward to rather than describing each one.

Tropico 3
Scribblenauts
Dragon Age Origins
Alpha Protocol
Diablo 3
Starcraft 2
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Mass Effect 2
Battlefield 1943

Yeah, definitely a lot to look forward to at the moment.

I've also had a hankering to get back into a MMO recently, but the thought of getting my Death Knight or Rogue to 80 in WoW isn't very appealing. I only have low levels in LotRO after playing the alpha/beta so long that I never got into it at release. Those are only the 2 currently out MMOs that would I go to, as I won't go back to any of the others I've played (including my first love SWG).

So I have been looking at Champions Online and Aion lately. The CO Open Beta starts Monday so I'm going to try it out then and Aion currently requires you to pre-order it, which I won't do. Maybe one of these two will catch my attention, but I highly doubt it.

Welcome to Morganic's Game Blog

2009-08-13T16:54:00.002-05:00

Thanks for stopping by! Here I will be commenting on what I'm playing, what I want to play, theorycrafting, and other general gaming news. I will try to update at least a couple a times a week, but when I'm in a gaming rut it just won't happen as often.

Please feel free to leave a comment with suggestions and ideas for the blog.