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Voting closed: June 08, 2016, 02:25:52 pm

[ZM5]

                                                                The Plane of Portent
                                     

Spoiler: Map of the Region (click to show/hide)

The Plane of Portent, or "Mon Ogusp" in the Goblin tongue, is the southern part of the world of Archia. This planet is home to many beings; the noble Humans, the proud Orcs, the war-like Centaurs, the brutish Ogres, the reclusive Nerubians, the envious Beast Men, amongst many other sentient, civilized creatures. The Draenei, a humanoid race from another planet, have also made their temporary dwelling here - drawn to their presence came extradimensional demonic legions, who already have a strong hold over various parts of the world, to the misfortune of every living being who comes across them. Various unnatural, wretched races, who serve ancient, evil deities seeking to destroy all life on Archia, also have seen an increasing presence in certain regions.

The Plane of Portent itself had seen many expeditions from the Northern Coalition, an alliance with members from several Human confederations, Dwarven kingdoms, Orcish clans, Naga empires, Draconian unions and Draenei societies. These expeditions have a two-fold purpose - aside from harvesting local resources, they are there to establish large societies which are to serve as the main line of defense against any threats coming from the south.

This project had seen mixed results over the 125 years that it existed for. While it certainly provided more than adequate resources for the Coalition, internal demoralization and outside, unaccounted for influences have taken their hold over most of the groups sent to this region, resulting in in-fighting amongst the various races compromising them.

While the Naga and Orcish groups have dealt with their own issues rather well, the Draenei, Draconian and Dwarven members find themselves dealing with military threats from the local Ogre and Troll empires, and the Human factions have been mostly destroyed from the inside - several of them have converted into demon-worshipping cults, even gaining unnatural features from the fel energies, whereas others yet are slowly starting the descent into it.

In particular, the Crazy Realms still have small pockets of uncorrupted survivors trying to hold out against their former brethren, and the Confederations of Gladness have begun worshipping a dark creature as their master - one that isn't demonic, but nonetheless it is a physical manifestation of negative energy that is influencing the actions of the Confederation.

This particular story starts in one of the hamlets of the Confederation, Rismuinnah, or "Tallchanneled" in our language. A conspiracy has been planned by the local government, the Councils of Flame, in order to finally depose the fallen pride, the tyrannical Elbens Jackalsneaks, who fooled the Confederation into believing she was one of their deities. A young man by the name of Olith Axeshatter, trained from birth to be the one to slay the pretender, has just been assigned his final, and most dangerous, series of training exercises.

Wheter he succeeds or not, we don't know yet, dear reader. Make no mistake - there's no such thing as the legendary "chosen one" in this world. Should Olith fail, it is an inevitability that another will eventually pick up where he left off...
OOC: So, this is something I haven't tried before; sorry if the writing isn't that great, but I figured we didn't have this type of thread in a while - the ones that I'm aware of don't seem to be active anymore, and I guess having lots of mods in might put a slightly different spin on it.

I'll mostly be playing this "legit" - I'll do my best not to screw up and die, but if it does happen, we'll just make another adventurer in another part of the world, which could give some type of different narrative perspective, and I'll eventually do voting processes whenever we come across any decisions to make. I also won't do any attribute/skill boosting outside of whatever interaction knowledge we might come across, so no DFhack witchcraft or grinding.

I'll start the adventure for real tomorrow, 'cause I'm writing this at 2am, so stay tuned. I'll be using my personal modding projects, if enough people get interested I'll do a full release, it's something I wanted to do for a while now.

[Enemy post]

Sounds interesting. I like mods. Are we playing human?

[Droggarth]

Aye, interesting indeed! Trust me if it was a regular dwarf/human story I wouldn't be reading much of it but since it has Warcraft's Draenei, Nagas, Orcs, etc in it then heck yes.

If somehow your original adventurer is killed then you can sometime down the line create a Draenei male adventurer, have him try achieve a lot while still being cautious to bring peace to at least some part of that world for good forces to thrive. Call that draenei male: "Drorh Starshield the Battle-Master of Peace".

Just my own suggestion.

[peasant cretin]

Looking forward to reading this.

[ZM5]

Sounds interesting. I like mods. Are we playing human?

For now, yes.

Spoiler: Olith's appearance and personality traits/values. (click to show/hide)

He is also a worshipper of Uthros, the human god of consolation. Started with the default "Hero" amount of points.
I'll try to keep updates on a semi-regular basis. Without furher ado, here's part one.
Olith had woken up early, knowing that the next few days or even weeks will be particularly busy. Yet, for whatever reason, he didn't feel anxious about the prospect of potentially dying. In fact, it was...quite exhilarating, perhaps a side effect of his tough years-long training.

He ran to Tallchanneled's mead hall, the Truss of Panthers, where he was supposed to be given his final training regimen, equipment, and rations.

The lord, Corud Blockadecrazes, had been like a father-figure to Olith, being the one who came up with his exercises and overseeing them every step of the way. A rather strict man, he was also embittered by past experiences - the worst of which were the deaths of his wife and child during the Squeezing War, a conflict between the Confederacies and the local Orc expedition - a conflict that could have been easily avoided, were it not for Elbens' warmongering and egoism.

He gave Olith a pack with the best possible equipment the Councils could spare - a steel helm, iron high boots and gauntlets, a bronze breastplate, copper chain leggings, an unadorned khorium shield and steel long sword. For rations, he was given a single waterskin, five squids and a bag of twenty-five dates.

Olith's orders were to wipe out the local bandit encampments, for they would surely try to take advantage of the chaos caused by the coming uprising in Deadstricken, the capital city.

Corud assigned two of his loyal soldiers - the maceman, Mudi Hardynatures and the swordswoman, Cobim Scouredstroke, to accompany Olith on this mission, to monitor his progress, and also to test his leadership skills, for it was a task he could not do alone.


Upon leaving the mead hall, Olith headed to Corud's main hearthperson, Lir Ramshock, who gave the newly-minted soldier directions and a map with the locations of all the bandit camps, as well as general information on them.

The nearest camp, Bristledpant, was dominated by a small group of brigands, the Enchanters of Twilight. According to Lir, they apparently dealt with a few vigilantes already, who killed some of their men.

When they saw Olith and his allies marching towards their site, the two remaining bandits in the camp, a macewoman, Polk Goalstirs, and the bands ringleader, the axeman Thrun Handfruits, immediately noticed the crest on his breastplate, and started attacking.

Polk was clearly a rookie - her blows were visibly telegraphed and struck at the strongest spots in Olith's armor, deflecting her strikes. Unfortunately for her, neither the swordsman nor his companions knew mercy for rogues like her - Cobim cut off her arms with her steel short sword, before a bash to the skull from Mudi's mace set Polk up for a decapitating slash from Olith's sword.

Thrun was visibly more competent - an older man, with specks of gray visible in his long hair, he wielded his axe with noticable skill - regardless, his defeat was a foregone conclusion, as he had to contend with three equally-skilled opponents.

A slash at his chest from Olith's sword resulted in the weapon getting lodged in his torso and a loud snapping of bones - this caused the brigand to fall over from the pain. Cobim then executed Thrum with a single strike.

Olith took the pouches of ill-gotten coins from the bodies of Thrum and Polk, noting the design on the back of the golden ones. What were these creatures?

A book was also among the items stolen by the bandits.

Not quite the best work Olith has read - he was confused as to why this was a worthy enough subject to write a book about.

Heading south from the camp, the group came upon quite a grim sight - severed, partially skeletal limbs amongst a pile of armor and clothing. Mudi pointed out the crest on one of the helmets - it was the symbol of the Crimson Group, the governing body from the village of Farmthinned.

This sight somewhat unnerved Olith - this was not the work of the Enchanters of Twilight, for then surely the body parts would have either been thrown into the pools around the camp along with the rest of their bodies, and any valuables would have been taken away. It was not the work of a wild animal either, for then the limbs would have claw and bite marks on them. The cuts were also clean, as though from a sword or axe. There was also the mystery of what happened to the rest of the remains.

Leaving the sight and hoping to find the answer of what happened to these soldiers later, the group quickly found the next camp, Fencecounsels.

This site was founded by the Intensity of Citadels, a group of osh-tekk bandits. Presumably they once used to be members of the Somber Spears, an osh-tekk civilization not far away from the Confederation. Although Olith hadn't interacted with any osh-tekk yet, he was aware of them and occasionally saw a few of their merchants in the marketplace of Deadstricken.

They were a human-like race, with the main difference being that they are quite larger, universally have glowing, blue eyes and some of them have skin colours not found in regular humans - mostly gray and various shades of blue and green. Their culture was also vastly different - they were a lot more savage, drinking the blood from the hearts of their fallen enemies, and used quite exotic-looking weapons.

Their reverence towards the gods of the sun also allowed them to temporarily increase their physical strength by offering a small blood sacrifice.

The chief of this group, Otokk Goodgilt, was an aged, experienced warrior. He knew Olith's purpose in coming to their camp, and challenged him to face his men.

The initial wave of fighters, consisting of three wrestlers and a swordsman, was much more challenging than Polk and Thrun were. The swordsman managed to chop Mudi in the left lower leg with his macuahuitl - the blow severed the nerves, and Mudi immediately fell over as he lost all feeling in the leg. One of the wrestlers managed to gain possession of Cobim's sword and take it away from her. Another one punched her across the face, knocking out some of her teeth. Upon noticing this, Olith immediately came to her aid, swiftly cutting down the two warriors.

He then clashed with the swordsman, and upon noticing a gap in his defenses, quickly severed his hands before decapitating him. The last wrestler died not late after, from a stab that seemingly tore through his brain.

The next wave consisted of a remaining wrestler, a hammerman and a pikeman. This bunch was a lot easier than the last one, and didn't cause the companions much trouble.

Finally, the chief came down to fight.

He took out a primitive dagger and swiftly cut into his own chest. His eyes glew red for a moment before going back to their natural bluish colour, and his arms and legs were enveloped in a faint aura.

Olith understood why Otokk was elected chief of the Intensity of Citadels, for even though he wielded a simple, unadorned copper machete, he was quite a formidable opponent, deftly parrying Olith's own attacks and dodging whenever neccessary. It appeared, however, that the enhanced strength from the blood sacrifice made him too wrathful and overconfident, causing him to leave a gap in his defenses, something Olith immediately took advantage of, killing the chief with a swift two-hit combo aimed at the left hand and the head.

This rush of adrenaline was something Olith had seldom experienced, not to this extent, anyway. Regardless, the battle tired the group out, and so he and his companions decided to recuperate at this campsite.

To be continued.

OOC: Gonna continue this soon enough, so stay tuned. I have to say, it's quite fun piecing together bits of the world's history in order to weave a narrative.

[Droggarth]

the Squeezing War

o_o ...What?

Hehe, anyway. Good read!

[ZM5]

the Squeezing War

o_o ...What?

Hehe, anyway. Good read!

I honestly don't question the randomly generated names anymore. One of the fel orc civs in this world is called "the Seduction of Dying", and there's also a forgotten beast somewhere called "the Bad Evils". Kind of...redundant.

[Droggarth]

I honestly don't question the randomly generated names anymore. One of the fel orc civs in this world is called "the Seduction of Dying", and there's also a forgotten beast somewhere called "the Bad Evils". Kind of...redundant.

I myself don't give much thought to random names while playing DF but still some names even when playing make me go "lolwut?" can't help but imagine a ridiculous name.

Anyhow, wonder if Mudi's left lower leg will be okay.

[ZM5]

Nah, I checked - his nerves were severed, so his leg is useless now. Next time I play I'm gonna see if there's a crutch in the camp that I could give him.

EDIT: Second update.
After recuperating, the group looked through the piles of stolen goods around camp. This band had stolen many pieces of armor and weapons from the nearby villages - none were neccessary, essential upgrades for Olith, though, so he left them - the Councils could recover all the goods after his job was done.

On the way to the nearest, southwestern camp of Siditraykus, where a band of kobolds dwelled, the companions were ambushed by a ferocious lion.

The beast charged wildly at Olith, who dodged the attack just in time - only to be hit with another charge, knocking him over. As the lion prepared to maul the swordsman, Cobim closed in and stabbed it in the chest, sending the feline predator reeling. Olith took this opportunity to rise up and deliver the coup de grace, lodging his sword in the beast's skull.

Olith thought this beast attack was fortunate, if somewhat worrying. Until recently, wild animals only attacked humans when they were starving. This lion however, didn't look like it - even then, it had a frenzied look in it's eye that Olith had never seen in any natural beast before. Could this have been the work of Elbens too? Or perhaps a darker, more powerful force?

Regardless, he couldn't spend precious time thinking about the reasons behind this lion's behaviour. Olith butchered it's corpse and fashioned a crude crutch out of it's bones, giving it to Mudi.

Arriving at the camp, the group immediately heard cries of panic from the kobolds. Olith felt somewhat bad for having to kill them - even though they were thieves, the kobold race was indeed quite pathetic. It was a shame they had a seemingly natural compulsion to steal from others. Regardless, this bandit group, Libikifabin, didn't put up any sort of fight.

This left only two local bandit groups to deal with - the Brigands of Emancipating, the gnoll group, who have made their camp, Yelledsing, not far to the west, in the Deserts of Pantomiming; and the Cunning Ropes, an ogre gang in Gemcankers, which is further to the east, dangerously close to Elderfords, one of the human villages.

Seeing as Yelledsing was closer, the three soldiers went there. The desert heat was unforgiving, but eventually they reached their destination and were immediately beset upon by the gnoll outlaws.

These hyena-like humanoids are one of the youngest races in this world. Their origins are unknown and a subject of speculation amongst scholars - it does not, however, take a trained scholar to notice that they are brutish and primitive, often starting fights amongst themselves for the most trivial of reasons. Due to this, only the strongest of them lead the various packs and bands - the most intelligent gnolls leave their home societies to join other civilizations.

Olith knew of them from Corud's teachings - the few gnolls he interacted with were those intelligent ones who noticed the folly of their brethren's behaviour. This was the first time he dealt with the feral gnolls, however.

The battle was a whirlwind of blood and severed limbs. Most of the brutes were unarmed, preferring to try and bite Olith and his companions. He could see that they would be quite a force to be reckoned with, were they able to stop infighting long enough to gather a sizeable army. Regardless, their bites could not pierce through Olith's armor.

Cobim was doing fairly well herself, skillfully severing limbs and dodging oncoming attacks. Mudi stayed back, still not confident enough that he could fight effectively while holding a crutch. Olith drew most of the gnolls attention, due to him being arguably the strongest and most skillful of the group, something this race could easily recognize. His own strength surprised him when he completely bisected a charging gnoll.


After killing several of the closest gnolls, Olith quickly turned his attention to a crossbowman perched on the nearby hill, aiming a strange weapon he did not recognize. It appeared to be cobbled together from steel and other bits of metal, vaguely resembling a crossbow, with a crude bayonet sticking out from the front of it.

The gnoll fired something circular at Cobim, thankfully missing - as he was frantically trying to load the next shot, the swordswoman rushed him, swiftly severing his head. Olith later noted the ammo used by these "shredder" contraptions were sawblades - quite a dangerous weapon, an accurate shot could easily cut off a limb or decapitate an unwary target.

At that point, only the stragglers remained - Olith and Cobim eventually picked them off. This camp had the same types of stolen goods as the last one - nothing the group cared enough about to take.

The three companions rested for a few hours, before leaving for Gemcankers. The trip was rather uneventful, thankfully - the group needed their strength, for this would surely prove to be the toughest bandit camp to clear out.

The ogres were a race of large, horned humanoids. There were two noticable variants - the regular ogres who possessed only a single head, and were very brutish, but lacking in terms of intelligence; and the two-headed ogres, who, as their name suggests, had two heads - one cyclopean, having only a single eye, with the other having two eyes. For unknown reasons, this variant is much more intelligent than the one-headed ogres - in fact, their intellect is high even by human standards. This, combined with their uncommon cunning, as well as the natural strength every type of ogre possesses, makes them formidable opponents.


As expected, the ogres proved a much greater threat than even the osh-tekk. While the unarmed wrestlers were cut down relatively easily, two of their macemen, including the band's boss, were able to deal several crippling blows to Cobim and Olith.


This made fighting much more difficult. Regardless, through teamwork and their force of will, the companions emerged victorious. They rested at the campsite and patched up their wounds with the materials stolen by the ogres.

The only thing left now was to report their success back to Corud, and prepare for the coming insurrection in Deadstricken.

To be continued.

OOC: Well, that last battle was pretty intense - genuinely thought I was gonna die there due to the combination of a bruised lung with a broken leg. Anyway, next time things should get quite exciting.

[Droggarth]

Nice, a gnoll with a steel shredder, that's a first I've read gnolls wielding something like that! That last bandit camp, yikes. I myself am playing as a Naga ischromancer (just custom necromancy at the moment but with ability to still gain skills and whatnot) in my new DF world with your modpack and even with Supernaga (Insert Ability Token) stuff foes seem to have a chance to damage me. Point is, I have clearer picture now how brutal your modpack really is and how even with my super-skilled naga necromancer character there's a real mortal possibility of getting shredded two times over if ya don't keep your wits and feet.. or long naga tail in my case. x_x

Again good read! Should've sat down with a large cup of tea and then read it, guess I'll re-read it like that.

[ZM5]

After travelling back to Tallchanneled, the companions reported their success to Corud and Lir. The lord then explained that another reason for clearing out the bandit camps was to give the Councils enough time to evacuate atleast some of Deadstricken's population, before the uprising took place, during the past few nights.

He instructed Mudi to stay, as he was in no shape to fight anymore. Corud then recommended heading to the village of Dangertattooed - the local governing body there, the Coalition of Cyclones, was in alignment with the Councils of Flame, and some of their men were willing to lend Olith a hand.

Finally, to officially confirm Olith's mission, Lir announced his orders.

Olith parted ways with Mudi, Corud and Lir, and left for Dangertattooed with Cobim. There, he recruited the help of Tiquo Kindleunited, a swordsman.

The remaining soldiers would have joined Olith, were it not for their own orders - while Olith and his group were leading the attack on Elbens' keep, they were to rescue the rest of Deadstricken's citizenry along with the remaining soldiers of the Councils.

After several days, the three swordsmen reached Deadstricken's gates. As they were nearing the bridge, they noticed five figures standing near the city entrance, with sounds of unintelligible arguing coming from their direction.

As it turned out, some of the gnolls of the Brigands of Emancipating were not present when Olith, Mudi and Cobim were clearing out their camp. It appears they followed the trio's tracks and somehow found out about where they were going, with intentions of getting revenge for their slain comrades.

The gnolls were arguing with a strange, one-eyed creature, one that Olith had never seen before. An odor resembling that of a rotting carcass appeared to be wafting from it's direction towards the group.

Tiquo explained that it was called a "geist" - a type of undead, seemingly always former humans - if variants of other races exist, they have never been seen. In life they used to be criminals, bandits and delinquents, who were executed by hanging, and their bodies thrown into mass graves in the wilderness.

For unknown reasons, some of them would come back as these geists. Their bodies were bent and crooked, and their flesh rotten, but despite this, they were still just as strong as they were in life - perhaps stronger, as they didn't have to worry about overexerting themselves anymore.

Even more mysteriously, some were what scholars called "feral undead", completely mindless and animalistic, seeking only to feed on the living, whereas others were "intelligent undead", retaining their former intelligence and memories - while some would try to make up for their crimes in life and rejoin society, despite their hideous form, others would try to get revenge for their deaths. Their single eyes were also quite an oddity, as it obviously didn't match up with the features of humans. The process that creates these wretched beings has never been witnessed.

Staying back, the group eventually saw that the argument between the geist and the gnoll leader erupting into a full brawl. The remaining gnolls left their posts to break up the fight and didn't notice Olith and his companions approaching. The bandits were easily scattered and eventually slain - the geist didn't prove much of a greater challenge, though that could have been due to it's completely unarmored and weakened state from fighting the gnolls boss.

Walking inside the city walls themselves, the group noticed the town wasn't completely empty. The resident executioner, Irol Secretivestop, was still maintaining her clothing shop, although it appeared to Olith that she was in a hurry, packing up some of the more valuable items. They also found a local priestess, Apo Baldedtributes, who was strangely glassy-eyed and spoke with a monotonous voice. Olith quickly surmised that she was under the influence of Elbens. He quickly left her home, disgusted.

Around the city, groups of sickly-looking cats wandered, seemingly aimlessly. Other frail-looking animals were seen by the group in the abandoned pens. Several completely ruined houses caught the attention of the companions - the handywork of Elbens, no doubt - punishment for disobeying her.

A temple in town had another priest, the High Direction of the Certain Creed - the osh-tekk Rere Meetcrew. He had the same dazed look as Apo - another person under the influence of Elbens. Certainly this was no house of the gods, not anymore.

The district nearest the keep was nearly completely empty - not even animals wandered here. A planter's shop had a single inhabitant, Nedul Pastblot, but Olith was unable to have any meaningful conversation with her, as she was yet another priestess.

The front of the gates of the keep itself filled Olith with a sense of dread. A smell of burning flesh came from within - it appears the fight had already started.

When the group entered Elbens' throne room, they witnessed a horrific sight - the scorched bodies of various mercenaries who were sent here to fight alongside them. It appears they started the fight too early and paid the dearest cost, although they were still able to deal some amount of damage to her.

The sight of Elbens floating up in the air, mangled as she looked, somehow filled Olith with a relief - she was truly no deity, merely a blasphemous pretender.
Regardless, she was still a powerful, if arrogant and overconfident, opponent.

Olith felt a searing pain as several of her fireballs struck him. He could still hear her introducing herself as the goddess Thudel, as though she wasn't aware Olith had already seen through her deception.

Elbens had a significant physical advantage over Olith, not only being considerably larger, but also being able to fly. This allowed her to divebomb the young hero, catching him in the leg.

Olith fell over in pain, clutching his completely mangled leg. The false goddess laughed at him, despite her own physical state.


This taunting proved to be her downfall, however. Olith took this opportunity and slashed with all of his remaining strength.

As Elbens screamed in pain, clutching the stump of her hand, the swordsman quickly got up, hobbling with his mangled leg, and lunged at her. Finally, it was done.

As Olith passed out from the exhaustion and the heat, he smiled as he saw Elbens' limp body collapsing onto the floors of the throne room. He could hear his name being shouted by two familiar voices.

He woke up a few hours later - Cobim and Tiquo explained that they put out the flames that were eating through his armor and clothing, then dragged him out of the chamber and patched up his leg. They thought for a while that he had died from the heat, but fortune had it that Elbens' flames didn't burn hot enough to kill Olith.

It appeared that there was more trouble to deal with, as the group heard some shouting coming down from the levels below the throne room. As they descended, they saw an ogre wielding a crossbow escaping further downward, and a female mercenary with burnt-looking clothing and armor, who introduced herself as Aader Claspglow.

She belonged to a species that was quite well-known to Olith - the draenei, one of the members of the Northern Coalition. They were a great asset, as their alignment with the light made them quite zealous warriors, rather surprisingly for their peaceful nature, and they would often show up in situations which required the purification of environments and individuals tainted by dark energies.

As Aader was still quite shaken from Elbens' massacring her comrades, the group told her to stay in the keep while they dealt with the ogre, who they learned was the chief of a criminal organization. Although Cobim and Tiquo insisted for Olith to stay as well, due to his leg, the young swordsman demanded to go with them, just to see if he really is in as bad of a shape as they think he is.

Olith and the others caught up with the ogre chief eventually, and put him down quite quickly - the brute could barely defend himself as all three swordsmen descended down on him. Olith was surprised he could still run quite fast, with his leg being in a beaten-up state.

Going back, Aader joined up with Olith and the rest, and they headed outside the town. There was, however, one thing still left for them to do while in the city.

After putting all of his equipment on the floor, Olith dropped on the bed and fell asleep almost immediately. It was the most comfortable he had been in a long time.

OOC: The battle at the keep got pretty intense - another moment where I thought I'd die. I would have requested some alcohol at the tavern but none was available for whatever reason - no barrels or anything, pretty crappy tavern but eh (there were 2 others with the same problem). I guess Olith wouldn't really care about drunken revelries anyway, due to him being more of a stoic.

[Droggarth]

Read it while listening to Warcraft 3 music. Since Olith achieved something he was trained to do, me thinks going back in time and rolling up this theme(s) fits IMO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB0f6FyCwic

That last part got indeed tense even while reading as I was imagining that bat demon with all the damage on her and then Olith getting his leg mangled (ouch!). Strange how two of your own including your own adventurer now got hit in the leg horribly, wonder if Olith's leg heals.

[Enemy post]

Will you keep adventuring with the mangled leg, or retire?

[ZM5]

Will you keep adventuring with the mangled leg, or retire?

Nah, that wouldn't be the reason - mangled legs still heal - I'll go with the angle that it was badly damaged but not to the point of being unusable and unsalvagable. If it was fully severed or had just the nerves cut off I would have retired then, though.

I'm still gonna retire Olith, due to the events of this chapter.
After resting up at Fatab's inn, the group of four left Deadstricken shortly before dawn. The journey back to Tallchanneled was as uneventful as they hoped - the last few days were a bit too full of excitement, even for the likes of Tiquo and Cobim.

Olith knew, however, that Elbens' death wasn't the end of their line of work. There were still many more creatures out there, actively malicious beings or simple wild animals, willing to harm the innocent citizens of the Confederation - while the Councils of Flame and Coalition of Cyclones were rebuilding and bringing order back to the villages, Olith and his group would have to scour the nearby areas for potential dangers. Although, Tiquo and Cobim were disappointed, the young hero wasn't surprised when Lir had another order.

Viperparch was a shrine that was present even before the Northern Coalition settled the Planes of Portent. No one truly knows who built it - no other traces of this civilization are left. Similar shrines were found in other regions of this part of the world, and almost universally they were dwellings of different types of large creatures. Very few journeyed to these ancient ruins, and even fewer returned alive to tell the tale. This one was home to some type of primal, animal god - a force of nature.

As Olith's group was leaving the mead hall, Lir quickly stopped them. In a hushed tone, he began speaking of another worrying event - reports from various villages have surfaced that the villagers were going missing in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. A night watch was set in Farmthinned - all of the guards had been killed, although the hamlet's citizens found one of them still barely alive, with several missing limbs and broken ribs - he died of his injuries shortly after. Before he bled out, the watchman mentioned three, crazed-looking humans, one of which he recognized as Anya Thornhomes, now known as "the Ghoul".

Olith didn't know of her, but he shuddered to think of what type of horrid act a human being would have to commit in order to be compared to a mindless, undead monster. Regardless, this was a task that required further investigation. Asking the citizens of nearby hamlets might have provided a clue as to a potential location of the three murderers - the desert titan could wait for now, as it appeared that it's most recent attack occured more than 60 years ago - it clearly was in no hurry to strike again.

The group started their investigation in Walkedbuds, a village ruled by the Momentous Councils, with Ape Hairyfuture as the lady. The woman was quite well-informed of this series of murders - apparently, Anya used to be a hearthperson of the Crimson Group of Farmthinned, until she left them for unknown reasons. Regardless, the mutilated watchman recognized her, and as she hadn't been seen in Farmthinned for months now, it was very likely that she was indeed one of the culprits behind these killings. At around the same time, two other hearthpeople, one from Filledseed and the other from Calmcreek, also left and were not seen again for months. It was possible that they were Anya's accomplices.

Olith later talked with a little girl, Asa Cottonfound. The child mentioned that she and her cousin, Cikul Hailtaught, went for a walk to the nearby waterfall. There, they saw a strange, two-story house - she mentioned smelling an awful odor coming from it when the two got close. Asa didn't understand why, but upon the stench hitting them, Cikul quickly grabbed her by the arm and ran off back home, looking around in a panicked manner.

The group could only guess what it was exactly that unnerved Cikul. Regardless, now that they had a lead, they would head to this mysterious shack. It wasn't too far to the west from Walkedbuds.

A badly mangled and partially rotten corpse of a geist was on the ground in front of the house. This in itself wasn't worrying, perhaps it was simply an act of self-defense. Regardless, the shack itself was quite unsettling.


Upon opening the front door, a horrid stench hit Olith in the face, making him cough. A chest lay near the left wall, and spatters of water were visible all around the floor, where a few seeds were scattered. There was also a small workshop to the right of the entrance, and another door was on the opposite side, leading outside. Out of curiosity, Olith checked what was inside the chest - a pile of large bones was inside it, alongside a few articles of leather clothing and more seeds.
Olith went towards the staircase, not quite sure what to expect. It appeared that the odor got worse and worse as he neared the staircase, and was almost overpowering when he reached the upper floor.

He immediately noticed what was causing it - a partially eaten corpse and several limbs lay on the large table. Olith realized what this meant - Anya and her accomplices were kidnapping the villagers in order to eat them. He was enraged, but moreso confused - how could a human being sink to something as low as this, especially given the situation their entire expedition had been in?

Regardless, he pressed onward, going down the corridor to his left, and entering the first door he came across.

A skeleton lay on the table - it was missing all of its limbs and head. Unwillingly, Olith opened the barrel near the right wall - inside it were a skull and the missing arms and legs, presumably belonging to the skeleton, as well as the decapitated head of a geist. There were two weapons hanged on the wall, a bronze maul and some type of crude-looking copper dagger. Torture implements, most likely.

Wanting to find the culprits of this as soon as possible and get out of this den of wretchedness, the swordsman stormed out of the room and barged into the one on his right.

He nearly vomited when he saw what was inside - the partially rotten, dismembered corpse of a human female lay on the bed in front of him. He quickly closed the door, so Cobim and Aader wouldn't have to see this gruesome display. Even for someone who stared death in the face multiple times, Olith thought this was too much for him to bear.
He went back to the dining room, hearing some noises coming from the other side of the house. As he neared another door, it became apparent that this was the sound of somebody talking.

Opening the door to another room, he was almost immediately jumped by two women and a man - all emanated a horrid stench and appeared as though they hadn't bathed in anything except blood for the past few weeks, or even months.


The woman dressed almost entirely in bone armor quickly struck Olith, but his tattered cape managed to reflect the blow from her axe. On the other hand, Olith himself didn't manage to pierce through the man's armor.



All of them appeared to be veteran fighters, skillfully wielding their weapons, and possessing several scars.
Olith retreated back into the dining room, so that his companions could catch up to him - it was unwise, in retrospect, to have started the fight without everyone ready.

Regardless, a slip-up by the axewoman allowed Olith to disable her weapon arm, causing her to drop her dark iron axe.

A follow-up slash by Cobim caused the woman to fall over, letting loose a roar of pain mixed with great anger, followed by her declaring her murder of one of the villagers.

Another slash from Tiquo decapitated the screaming wretch. Unfortunately, the close quarters of the fight didn't leave room for Cobim to dodge, and so she took a stab from the male spearman. Her arm hung limply and her sword dropped to the ground.

In a daze, Cobim tried to charge the man, but ended up hitting Olith instead, leaving both of them stunned. The cannibal took this opportunity to stab Olith with his glaive, an attack that severed the nerves in his arm and caused him to lose hold of his sword. The spearman's friend was fighting with Aader, and managed to cut off one of her hooves, leaving her on the ground.

Another attack from the spearman hit Olith in the stomach, causing him to vomit. Meanwhile, the swordswoman was seemingly intent on killing Aader, stabbing into her flesh over and over as she cackled madly. She then cut off the draenei's left leg below the ankle, followed by powerful slash to the stomach, causing Aader's guts to spill to the floor.

Olith motioned for Tiquo to immediately help the draenei, before picking up his sword with his working arm. Unfortunately, he didn't notice another attack from the spearman, which cut a massive hole in his injured arm. Even more blood sprayed as Tiquo cut off the swordswoman's hand, and her laughter turned to screams.

Trying to focus, he risked a stab at the man's right foot, which ended up paying off - the attack severed the cannibals foot clean off and he fell to the floor, groaning in pain. Tiquo managed to cut off the swordswoman's other hand, leaving her utterly defenseless. Another slash decapitated her.

The spearmans death followed not late after, when Olith severed his other foot, and then stabbed him straight through the head.

Unfortunately, the injuries sustained by Aader were too great, and she went completely limp a few moments later.

Tiquo helped carry Olith and Cobim out of the building, being the only one who didn't sustain any injuries. A single lion tried to make the group it's meal, however several slashes from Tiquo and Olith put it down.

The three returned to Tallchanneled, reporting their victory over Anya and her group - although, it certainly didn't feel like much of a success. To Corud's surprise, Olith handed in his armor and shield without a word, then left the mead hall, back to his home, along with Cobim and Tiquo. They were in no shape, physically or mentally, to fight anymore.

Of course, this is merely the end of Olith's chapter, dear reader, not the end of any potential stories from this region. Who will be the next to gain fame and potentially cause large ripple effects throughout the world? Only time will tell.

OOC: This was a doozy - quite a darker end to Olith's story than what I originally wanted to happen, but it goes to show - do not mess with retired adventurers. As a little bonus, here's a fun drawing of Anya done by Zyalin on the subreddit, so kudos to him!

That bit at the cannibal's house was a pain to do. For whatever reason, most of the site lagged horribly, nearly as bad as Dark Fortresses - no clue why. Another bizarre thing is that around the entire campsite there were blips indicating wandering creatures - they moved around but no ambushes happened. No idea what that was about.
I'll set up a poll for who we could play as next, so I'd appreciate if you guys voted - it will close on the 8th.

Thoughts? Comments?

[Enemy post]

At least Olith lived. I voted for a Tarkata for next time.