Post by kaijick on Mar 20, 2007 12:20:39 GMT -5
The Creation of A Hero
I took a look around at the strange new world that I'd arrived in. I was in a small town that looked as it had gone through some hard times, but managed to pull through and remain. Hope. Now I could understand how it got it's name. I had little doubt that it was hope, along with perseverence and strong will, that had put this town together and held it together. This land was tough.
I took note of the few buildings I saw and decided to go talk to an old man that I saw standing next to a big stone sticking out of the ground. I asked himself who he was, and he introduced himself as Nicholas. I decided to myself that I would just call him Nick to myself as I smiled while listening to his story of who he was. I asked him what the stone in the ground was when he had finished, and he explained to me that it was called an obelisk, a stone that people touched to bind their soul to incase they were defeated in battle and has to revive. I quickly touched it and asked him about the town. He explained that Hope was the first settlement in the land of Akarra, and that to the north was a small peninsula, and to the south was more dangerous areas that I shouldn't travel to until I was stronger. Figuring it was time to get started, I asked him where He suggested I go, and he directed me to a farm a little ways to the south, and told me to talk to a man named Rupert, so I heades south, but got distracted on the way.
I had seen a man that looked pretty wise, and I could feel a magical aura about him. Now I had never really been one who was for magic, but I decided to talk to him anyways. He introduced himself to me as Arno, and explained to me he was a user of magic, and that his father had taught him how to use spells and magic to make a living in the southern lands, before people started talking of searching for akarra again and deciding to join them. I told him I was a little interested in magic, and he said he would teach me a little of how to use it if I went and talked to the towns folk about it, so I decided to do that before talking to Rupert. Maybe this magic would help me with whatever would happen down at the farm.
So I decided I would go ask Nick first, since I knew where he was and had already spoken to him a bit, and didn't feel so ackward. Upon asking him about his thoughts on magic, he told me that he didn't know much about it, but he did tell me that wizards use magic for destruction, whereas clerics use it for healing and wellbeing. He also told me that constructive magic like healing is based off of faith, whereas offensive magic focused on pure power and intelligence. The next person I saw was north a bit, so I moved to him for my question. His name was Gerard, and he was a priest. When I introduced myself, he coldly told me to go talk to someone named Sinistra. So I moved south a bit to talk to her. She told me that she was a priestess, and explained to me that she used magic to perform good and help others, and that if I wanted to be like her, to train to a neophyte of my religion, and to learn as many spells as possible. Since she was so nice I asked her about religions, and she explained that there were two gods named Ambus and Benedek, and explained to me how they had come to be known to us several hundred years earlier. After explaining this, she got a bit of a sparkle in her eye as she said shed love to defeat benedek, and proceeded to explain to me the power of curses, and even gave me my first quest. I now had to kill a ghost, but I decided not to get ahead of myself and put this quest into my log to complete a bit later. So on I moved to the next person I had seen: a woman named Wynn. I traveled north to talk to Wynn, and all she had to tell me about magic was that she was amazed how wizards could hold so many spells on the tip of their tongues. "OK then..." I thought to myself as I asked her about some of her history. She explained to me who she was and that she loved to train and ride horses. She also told me that she sold them, which I promptly set to memory, for I knew I'd need a horse later. OK, now I figured I would talk to the blacksmith. Maybe he would know more about magic.
Well, he didn't. instead he told me that he knew nothing of how to USE it, but that he did know how to RESIST it. This caught my interest so I listened on. He told me I needed to make sure I raised my resistances to spells, or I may be blown away by one single spell. I made note of this, and when I went to walk out, he snorted to me that wizards seem to channell their power through staves, and that might be useful information. I walked out and headed to Rupert. Rupert explained to me that spells required alot of concentration, and that magic users had to decide what spell to use, and then where to use it. I thanked him with a chuckle, and asked more about him. He explained to me that he was a farmer, and that when they first came to akarra, he decided to think ahead, and started a farm while everybody else explored. I asked him about Hope, and he explained there was a Hope before the one I was in, and that it had been destroyed when our ancestors were forced back south. I told him that I hoped we didn't have to go back south again, and that I would do all i could to help, to which he just smiled, but I could tell he was bothered by something. He told me that the rabbits were eating all of his crops and causing problems, so I offered my serviced in getting rid of a few rabbits, to which he said he would teach me some very useful information. I knew hat magic might com in handy for something, so I started heading back to Arno, since I had talked to all the townsfolk. On the way to Arno, I stopped and tlaked to a guard that i saw named Oskar, who didnt seem too talkative and just told me he liked to keep it calm and lawful, and that his partner was far to the northeast, who I should talk to later. Well, back to Arno I guess.
Upon reaching Arno, I told him I had talked to all the townsfolk about magic, and he gave me a short quick on magic facts which I easily passed. he gave me a staff and some knowledge of magic use. "ok.." I thought to myself. Not what I was looking for, since I wanted to be a melee fighter and not a mage. I destroyed the staff, making note of the knowledge I had learned. Well, time to go kill some rabbits.
As I looked to the field, I could see about a dozen little bunnies running around, feasting on his cabbage. I walked up to them slowly, not wanting to scare them before I was within whacking distance. Closer.....closer....I crept like a cat, and then dropped my club on the first unsuspecting bunny. I had to chuckle a bit at the sound it made as it splattered on the ground, covering my club with blood. Quickly before the others had a chnce to reacte, I attacked the other 2 bunnies he was with with prescision, splattering them all into the ground, showering my boots with bits of flesh and blood. This was actually a pretty fun task...
Well the rabbits didn't take long at all, and I cleaned the blood off of my club as I walked back to Rupert. To my delight, he taught me how to dodge! I quickly made note of the skill and headed back to hope. When I arrived back in Hope, I decided to go and check the smithery to see if they had a better weapon that I could use. Alas, there was none I was qualified to wield, but I did ask Holger about skills. He proceeded to tell me how he and his father had made a living in the old lands as mercenaries, then with a chuckle told me not to be frightened. He said that he had some good weapon knowledge that he could share with me...but not for free. He wanted me to pay him 15 copper coins to go into his battle dungeon and take his challenge. Curious, and wanting to learn all I can, I paid him the only coins I had. Exactly 15 copper coins. So he took me down to the dungeon, and threw me in. I could see some skeletons, so with a smile I tightened the grip on my club and walked towards them. They saw me as well, and started making their way towards me. When I got in range, I grinned big, showing my teeth in a wicked smile as I raised my club for the strike. BOOM! I nailed the first skeleton right in the head...and then he hit me back so hard it broke my neck. I died, instantly. I awoke next to the obelisk in Hope. Still groggy, I groaned to whoever was in hearing distance:
"Did anybody catch the number of that bus?"
I could hear somebody laugh heartedly as I stood up, thankful I had touched the obelisk earlier while talking to Nick. From there, I decided I would DEFINANTLY wait to try that again. Just then, I saw a man walking by.
The man introduced himself as Syke, a wandering ranger. He had some nice looking wares, but I was more concerned with anything he could teach me. And I was in luck. He told me that he was educated in the skill of Fighting 1, and that he would teach me if I went and killed 15 wolves. So I took off into the night to nail me some wolves. After about an hour of swinging my club and getting the crap bit out of me, I came back, bloodied and hurt, my club cracked, but I had done it. Syke looked at me, interested as I told him how the last wolf almost had me dead to rights. The beast had jumped on me, my club fallen from my hand as I pushed with all my might against the beasts throat, holding his dripping teeth from my neck. I began kneeing him in the stomach as hard as I could, trying to keep him off balance as I inched my hand up to his eye, and finally was able to reach it. I gouged it's eye, making it yelp and jump off, and in a split second I had my club back in my hand, and i smacked it across the head, the impact rattling its brain, killing it. With a smile, Syke handed me a scroll he had written detailing the knowledge of Fighting 1 inside it. I read it, making note of it all, and asked what else he had that I could do. He handed me a bow, some arrows, and told me to go kill some select creatures with the bow, and then come back and talk to him. I kinda walked away a bit, and the minute I had lost sight of Syke...I threw the bow away and dumped the arrows in a bush. I might regret it later, but I figured I sure as hell wasnt gonna do that now, I never planned to use a bow and I never will. with a chuckle to myself I figured I would HAVE to do it later, but hey, that was later, and I strolled off into the forest.
Not too far off, I came to an old tomb. I could see the letter "Z" near the entrance, so I decided to take a look inside. Since it was pitch black inside, I pulled out a torch and walked forward to an open room. As I looked to my left I saw some indents, so I went to check them out. I thrust my torch into the first one I came to, and jumped back in horror as a zombie came out and attacked me! I waved the fire in it's face as I got out my club and began beating it across the head. Once to the side, once to the top, one that took it jaw clean off before it finally fell to the ground and stopped moving. I picked up 2 copper coins from the body and some worgs teeth before noticing he had managed to scratch me some on the arm. I cleaned a bit of the dirt out of the wound and got creative, putting the worgs teeth into my club, adding some spikes to it, then rested for a few seconds before investigating the next indent. This time I was prepared. I thrust the torch inside, awaking the zombie and luring it out into the open before attacking it. I kicked it in the leg, knocking it off balance before I swung my club into its rotted ribs. The teeth worked nicely, puncturing its old skin and tearing it as I pulled the club away. The zombie staggered back up, and I aimed for the killshot when all of a sudden I could hear movement behind me. Before I could turn around I heard the sizzle of a spell, and felt myself get hit with a force I knew instantly to be magic. I looked at my arm and could see some dead skin, and figured the spell was a curse. I turned around to face the attacker, and saw it was from a zombie, a little bigger than the others, and it was wearing an old torn cloak of some sort. "Zombie Mage" I thought to myself. I started towards him, and got hit in my side hard enough it knocked me over. Crap, I had forgotten about the other zombie! I got to my knees before I heard another spell get fired off, and I could feel the skin on my back wither just a second or two after the spell hit me. I moaned in pain, and stood up, turning to the mage as I mumbled to myself "I think I'll call that a wither curse, seeing as what effect it has on the flesh."
Just as I got to my feet, I got hit from behind again. Now I was pissed. I swung the club as hard as I could, turning my whole body back to the zombie and taking its head clean off, then swinging back around to the mage, beserking towards him with a fierce battle yell as I punched his neck, breaking his rotted veins before kicking his leg, breaking it clean off. Then I screamed in anger as I took my club in both hands and pulled that bastard down as hard as I could onto that mages head, making it explode on impact. I sat there, breathing hard, dripping blood, totally in a rage. I looked towards the next indent. Oh yes, oh yes.
After about 4 hours of terrorizing the poor undead inside the tomb, I came back out into the light. I decided to take a rest, and for 5 minutes I slept like I never had before. When I awoke, I felt totally restored in both vitality and stamina, and headed towards Hope. I felt so much stronger. In just a few days I had totally overcome my old self, I was amazed. I decided I needed to take on something bigger. I headed to the stout looking guard I had talked to earlier. Oskar again told me that he had a comrade far to the northwest and that I should go talk to him, so I did. After a long trip on the road, I finally reached Konrad. I was pissed when he told me before he taught me anything, I had to go BACK to hope and play messenger boy, giving a note to Oskar about some bad business in Hope, but I took the note and grumbled my way clear back to hope. When I got back to hope and gave Oskar the note, he told me he was not satisfied with the messanger quest being enough to warrant teaching me his skills. I felt like killing him. I totally could have just clubbed him caveman style across the face until the knowledge I wanted oozed from his dead eyes, but instead I asked him what he wanted me to do. He told me to go and reach a new level of power, strength and agility, and come to sense with my inner constitution. Angerily I screamed in his face that I had just spent the last 4 hours conquering a tomb full of undead and had already done what he wanted. I think I must have scared him a bit, cause he agreed and taught me Fighting 2. As I tried to learn this new knowledge, I was met with grief as I learned that I must be of the warrior class to use this new skill, and that the warrior class required Toughness 1 to be qualified for it. but this was ok. I had planned to become an executioner.
I took a look around at the strange new world that I'd arrived in. I was in a small town that looked as it had gone through some hard times, but managed to pull through and remain. Hope. Now I could understand how it got it's name. I had little doubt that it was hope, along with perseverence and strong will, that had put this town together and held it together. This land was tough.
I took note of the few buildings I saw and decided to go talk to an old man that I saw standing next to a big stone sticking out of the ground. I asked himself who he was, and he introduced himself as Nicholas. I decided to myself that I would just call him Nick to myself as I smiled while listening to his story of who he was. I asked him what the stone in the ground was when he had finished, and he explained to me that it was called an obelisk, a stone that people touched to bind their soul to incase they were defeated in battle and has to revive. I quickly touched it and asked him about the town. He explained that Hope was the first settlement in the land of Akarra, and that to the north was a small peninsula, and to the south was more dangerous areas that I shouldn't travel to until I was stronger. Figuring it was time to get started, I asked him where He suggested I go, and he directed me to a farm a little ways to the south, and told me to talk to a man named Rupert, so I heades south, but got distracted on the way.
I had seen a man that looked pretty wise, and I could feel a magical aura about him. Now I had never really been one who was for magic, but I decided to talk to him anyways. He introduced himself to me as Arno, and explained to me he was a user of magic, and that his father had taught him how to use spells and magic to make a living in the southern lands, before people started talking of searching for akarra again and deciding to join them. I told him I was a little interested in magic, and he said he would teach me a little of how to use it if I went and talked to the towns folk about it, so I decided to do that before talking to Rupert. Maybe this magic would help me with whatever would happen down at the farm.
So I decided I would go ask Nick first, since I knew where he was and had already spoken to him a bit, and didn't feel so ackward. Upon asking him about his thoughts on magic, he told me that he didn't know much about it, but he did tell me that wizards use magic for destruction, whereas clerics use it for healing and wellbeing. He also told me that constructive magic like healing is based off of faith, whereas offensive magic focused on pure power and intelligence. The next person I saw was north a bit, so I moved to him for my question. His name was Gerard, and he was a priest. When I introduced myself, he coldly told me to go talk to someone named Sinistra. So I moved south a bit to talk to her. She told me that she was a priestess, and explained to me that she used magic to perform good and help others, and that if I wanted to be like her, to train to a neophyte of my religion, and to learn as many spells as possible. Since she was so nice I asked her about religions, and she explained that there were two gods named Ambus and Benedek, and explained to me how they had come to be known to us several hundred years earlier. After explaining this, she got a bit of a sparkle in her eye as she said shed love to defeat benedek, and proceeded to explain to me the power of curses, and even gave me my first quest. I now had to kill a ghost, but I decided not to get ahead of myself and put this quest into my log to complete a bit later. So on I moved to the next person I had seen: a woman named Wynn. I traveled north to talk to Wynn, and all she had to tell me about magic was that she was amazed how wizards could hold so many spells on the tip of their tongues. "OK then..." I thought to myself as I asked her about some of her history. She explained to me who she was and that she loved to train and ride horses. She also told me that she sold them, which I promptly set to memory, for I knew I'd need a horse later. OK, now I figured I would talk to the blacksmith. Maybe he would know more about magic.
Well, he didn't. instead he told me that he knew nothing of how to USE it, but that he did know how to RESIST it. This caught my interest so I listened on. He told me I needed to make sure I raised my resistances to spells, or I may be blown away by one single spell. I made note of this, and when I went to walk out, he snorted to me that wizards seem to channell their power through staves, and that might be useful information. I walked out and headed to Rupert. Rupert explained to me that spells required alot of concentration, and that magic users had to decide what spell to use, and then where to use it. I thanked him with a chuckle, and asked more about him. He explained to me that he was a farmer, and that when they first came to akarra, he decided to think ahead, and started a farm while everybody else explored. I asked him about Hope, and he explained there was a Hope before the one I was in, and that it had been destroyed when our ancestors were forced back south. I told him that I hoped we didn't have to go back south again, and that I would do all i could to help, to which he just smiled, but I could tell he was bothered by something. He told me that the rabbits were eating all of his crops and causing problems, so I offered my serviced in getting rid of a few rabbits, to which he said he would teach me some very useful information. I knew hat magic might com in handy for something, so I started heading back to Arno, since I had talked to all the townsfolk. On the way to Arno, I stopped and tlaked to a guard that i saw named Oskar, who didnt seem too talkative and just told me he liked to keep it calm and lawful, and that his partner was far to the northeast, who I should talk to later. Well, back to Arno I guess.
Upon reaching Arno, I told him I had talked to all the townsfolk about magic, and he gave me a short quick on magic facts which I easily passed. he gave me a staff and some knowledge of magic use. "ok.." I thought to myself. Not what I was looking for, since I wanted to be a melee fighter and not a mage. I destroyed the staff, making note of the knowledge I had learned. Well, time to go kill some rabbits.
As I looked to the field, I could see about a dozen little bunnies running around, feasting on his cabbage. I walked up to them slowly, not wanting to scare them before I was within whacking distance. Closer.....closer....I crept like a cat, and then dropped my club on the first unsuspecting bunny. I had to chuckle a bit at the sound it made as it splattered on the ground, covering my club with blood. Quickly before the others had a chnce to reacte, I attacked the other 2 bunnies he was with with prescision, splattering them all into the ground, showering my boots with bits of flesh and blood. This was actually a pretty fun task...
Well the rabbits didn't take long at all, and I cleaned the blood off of my club as I walked back to Rupert. To my delight, he taught me how to dodge! I quickly made note of the skill and headed back to hope. When I arrived back in Hope, I decided to go and check the smithery to see if they had a better weapon that I could use. Alas, there was none I was qualified to wield, but I did ask Holger about skills. He proceeded to tell me how he and his father had made a living in the old lands as mercenaries, then with a chuckle told me not to be frightened. He said that he had some good weapon knowledge that he could share with me...but not for free. He wanted me to pay him 15 copper coins to go into his battle dungeon and take his challenge. Curious, and wanting to learn all I can, I paid him the only coins I had. Exactly 15 copper coins. So he took me down to the dungeon, and threw me in. I could see some skeletons, so with a smile I tightened the grip on my club and walked towards them. They saw me as well, and started making their way towards me. When I got in range, I grinned big, showing my teeth in a wicked smile as I raised my club for the strike. BOOM! I nailed the first skeleton right in the head...and then he hit me back so hard it broke my neck. I died, instantly. I awoke next to the obelisk in Hope. Still groggy, I groaned to whoever was in hearing distance:
"Did anybody catch the number of that bus?"
I could hear somebody laugh heartedly as I stood up, thankful I had touched the obelisk earlier while talking to Nick. From there, I decided I would DEFINANTLY wait to try that again. Just then, I saw a man walking by.
The man introduced himself as Syke, a wandering ranger. He had some nice looking wares, but I was more concerned with anything he could teach me. And I was in luck. He told me that he was educated in the skill of Fighting 1, and that he would teach me if I went and killed 15 wolves. So I took off into the night to nail me some wolves. After about an hour of swinging my club and getting the crap bit out of me, I came back, bloodied and hurt, my club cracked, but I had done it. Syke looked at me, interested as I told him how the last wolf almost had me dead to rights. The beast had jumped on me, my club fallen from my hand as I pushed with all my might against the beasts throat, holding his dripping teeth from my neck. I began kneeing him in the stomach as hard as I could, trying to keep him off balance as I inched my hand up to his eye, and finally was able to reach it. I gouged it's eye, making it yelp and jump off, and in a split second I had my club back in my hand, and i smacked it across the head, the impact rattling its brain, killing it. With a smile, Syke handed me a scroll he had written detailing the knowledge of Fighting 1 inside it. I read it, making note of it all, and asked what else he had that I could do. He handed me a bow, some arrows, and told me to go kill some select creatures with the bow, and then come back and talk to him. I kinda walked away a bit, and the minute I had lost sight of Syke...I threw the bow away and dumped the arrows in a bush. I might regret it later, but I figured I sure as hell wasnt gonna do that now, I never planned to use a bow and I never will. with a chuckle to myself I figured I would HAVE to do it later, but hey, that was later, and I strolled off into the forest.
Not too far off, I came to an old tomb. I could see the letter "Z" near the entrance, so I decided to take a look inside. Since it was pitch black inside, I pulled out a torch and walked forward to an open room. As I looked to my left I saw some indents, so I went to check them out. I thrust my torch into the first one I came to, and jumped back in horror as a zombie came out and attacked me! I waved the fire in it's face as I got out my club and began beating it across the head. Once to the side, once to the top, one that took it jaw clean off before it finally fell to the ground and stopped moving. I picked up 2 copper coins from the body and some worgs teeth before noticing he had managed to scratch me some on the arm. I cleaned a bit of the dirt out of the wound and got creative, putting the worgs teeth into my club, adding some spikes to it, then rested for a few seconds before investigating the next indent. This time I was prepared. I thrust the torch inside, awaking the zombie and luring it out into the open before attacking it. I kicked it in the leg, knocking it off balance before I swung my club into its rotted ribs. The teeth worked nicely, puncturing its old skin and tearing it as I pulled the club away. The zombie staggered back up, and I aimed for the killshot when all of a sudden I could hear movement behind me. Before I could turn around I heard the sizzle of a spell, and felt myself get hit with a force I knew instantly to be magic. I looked at my arm and could see some dead skin, and figured the spell was a curse. I turned around to face the attacker, and saw it was from a zombie, a little bigger than the others, and it was wearing an old torn cloak of some sort. "Zombie Mage" I thought to myself. I started towards him, and got hit in my side hard enough it knocked me over. Crap, I had forgotten about the other zombie! I got to my knees before I heard another spell get fired off, and I could feel the skin on my back wither just a second or two after the spell hit me. I moaned in pain, and stood up, turning to the mage as I mumbled to myself "I think I'll call that a wither curse, seeing as what effect it has on the flesh."
Just as I got to my feet, I got hit from behind again. Now I was pissed. I swung the club as hard as I could, turning my whole body back to the zombie and taking its head clean off, then swinging back around to the mage, beserking towards him with a fierce battle yell as I punched his neck, breaking his rotted veins before kicking his leg, breaking it clean off. Then I screamed in anger as I took my club in both hands and pulled that bastard down as hard as I could onto that mages head, making it explode on impact. I sat there, breathing hard, dripping blood, totally in a rage. I looked towards the next indent. Oh yes, oh yes.
After about 4 hours of terrorizing the poor undead inside the tomb, I came back out into the light. I decided to take a rest, and for 5 minutes I slept like I never had before. When I awoke, I felt totally restored in both vitality and stamina, and headed towards Hope. I felt so much stronger. In just a few days I had totally overcome my old self, I was amazed. I decided I needed to take on something bigger. I headed to the stout looking guard I had talked to earlier. Oskar again told me that he had a comrade far to the northwest and that I should go talk to him, so I did. After a long trip on the road, I finally reached Konrad. I was pissed when he told me before he taught me anything, I had to go BACK to hope and play messenger boy, giving a note to Oskar about some bad business in Hope, but I took the note and grumbled my way clear back to hope. When I got back to hope and gave Oskar the note, he told me he was not satisfied with the messanger quest being enough to warrant teaching me his skills. I felt like killing him. I totally could have just clubbed him caveman style across the face until the knowledge I wanted oozed from his dead eyes, but instead I asked him what he wanted me to do. He told me to go and reach a new level of power, strength and agility, and come to sense with my inner constitution. Angerily I screamed in his face that I had just spent the last 4 hours conquering a tomb full of undead and had already done what he wanted. I think I must have scared him a bit, cause he agreed and taught me Fighting 2. As I tried to learn this new knowledge, I was met with grief as I learned that I must be of the warrior class to use this new skill, and that the warrior class required Toughness 1 to be qualified for it. but this was ok. I had planned to become an executioner.