Thursday, May 11, 2006

Dungeons & Dragons - Stories of the Godkissed - Dahk the Deer Hunter

The air was crisp and clean. There was a slight wind blowing through the forest, causing the dry leaves on the ground to rustle and swirl. In a sunwashed clearing stood a lone deer, slowly and gracefully grazing. About twenty feet away stood two large figures. One was clad in nothing but a few skins tied together and knee length fur boots. His long blonde hair was tied at the neck into a ponytail. At his waist he carried a warhammer, etched with powerful runes. The giant who stood next to him was clad in full plate mail, and carried at his waist a large powerful blade, which had a handle made of a vortex of energy. Looking at their faces, intently staring at the deer, one could easily tell which was the master and which the student. The mans face was intent and watchful, taking everything in. His sharp blue eyes were like polished sapphires. He stood completely still, checking with his tongue whether the wind was still blowing into his face, ready to move quickly and silently should the wind direction suddenly change, alerting the deer of their presence. The giant stood, jaw dropped, gaping at the deer, drooling gently. The man glanced the giants way and smiled. This would be fun, he thought.
"Why don't you try yourself," whispered Wulfgar. "I'm sure you have plenty of experience hunting creatures in the desert. This should be nothing compared to any of those elusive creatures."
"What? Oh. Yeah! Lots of experience in the desert. Hunted lots. Very easy." The giant blinked and continued to drool as he stared at the deer. When he saw Wulfgar moving away, he cringed. He'd never hunted anything in his life. But he was starving. He needed to eat.
Dahk inched closer, moving his massive bulk as silently as he could. Even then, he sounded like a dragon walking on loose gravel. When he was about ten feet away, the deer suddenly looked up, cocking its ears. Dahk instantly paused, trying to keep himself in balance. After a moment or two, the deer decided there was nothing and went back to grazing. Dahk moved forward again. The deer looked up again. Dahk paused again. After repeating this maneuver twice more, Dahk realised that he was close enough. Slowly filling his long pipe-like sandblaster with sand, he put it to his mouth and took aim at the deer. After a minute or so, making sure his aim was true, he let loose a volley of high velocity sand at the deer. It barked slightly before it died as the sand engulfed it, suffocating it. Dahk yelped in victory, jumping up and down a few times. Roaring in carnal pleasure, he walked up to the deer and looked over it. Then he saw what was wrong. He roared again, this time in agony, as he realised the entire deer was totally covered in sand. There was sand everywhere. Sighing in displeasure, which sounded like a tarrasque mating call, he pondered the problem. Then his little beady eyes lit up as he found a plan. Snapping his fingers in the air, he moved back a bit, and took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he blasted the deer with a colossal gust of wind. Now, what he expected to happen, was that all the sand would get blown off, and he would have a nice, dead, un-sanded deer. But he didnt realise his strength, and as he blew, the entire deer was carried away. So imagine his surprise, when he opened his eyes, to be greeted by plain ground. His entire face scrounched up in befuddlement, and then he looked into the sky, and saw a small shape disappear over the horizen. A small deer-like shape. He screamed in displeasure and anguish and banged his fists on the ground, bruising them slightly. Then he sulked all the way back to the rest of the party. When he reached them, they were all on the ground, laughing hysterically. Seemingly they had all seen the deer as it passed over them.
He slouched on the ground at the edge of the camp, and began sharpening his finger nails.
"Ugh, damn deer. Wait. We're not through yet. I'll find you, and you'll be sorry. Oh yes, you will."

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Dungeons & Dragons - Stories from the Underdark - Part 1

The Underdark loomed from all around them. It closeted them into the close confines of this one cavern. Over here, far under the surface world, the distinguishing line between night and day was absent. But that didn't mean that fatigue too vanished. The party was resting, and tired after a long walk through the winding tunnels of the Underdark.
The four adventurers had split up their watch to two of them taking watches in shifts. Wizardsmurf and Garder'el slept, regaining their spent energies, and preparing their minds for the next day. Dahk and Ahk sat facing each other, able to sense the other in complete darkness. The drow saw the sand giant in front of him in the turbulent hues of infravision and watched him gently fiddle with his armour straps. The giant was a large peaceful entity, who seemed to feel and understand the stone that was all around them. As Ahk watched him, he could see the large nose, the large forehead, and the small beady eyes, all sending out emanations of total calm. His massive greatsword lay next to him, within arms reach - should anything attack, and he seemed to move one hand towards it, just to reassure himself that it was still there. The drow smiled ever so slightly; the giant was one of the most peaceful and gentle creatures he had ever met, yet he had witnessed him first hand roaring like a dragon and culling creatures into two. The giant looked up, and returned the smile.
Dahk could sense the drow in front of him through the stone. And not surprisingly he hardly felt anything; Ahk could be compared to a statue. He returned the smile that he sensed Ahk giving him. He chuckled inside as he thought about the way Ahk could assume a fluid form quicker than he, Dahk, could think.
Suddenly, in the distance, in the direction of the tunnel mouth, he felt something moving towards them. Moving fast. A quick motion told him that Ahk had sensed it too and was on his feet and had both his scimitars drawn. Ahk curtly nodded in his direction and signalled the ground. Understanding dawning on him, Dahk picked up his greatsword, and then got up and charged at the nearest wall. Two feet from the wall he jumped, and instead of hitting it, he went straight through. Ahk took a deep breath, glanced at his sleeping companions, wondering if he should wake them, and then decided against it. He sheathed both weapons, and stood waiting completely still, fifteen feet from the mouth. The soft foot falls would've evaded but the sharpest of ears. He grimaced inwards as he realised what was coming towards him. Quickly he switched out of his infravision back to his normal spectrum. Dazed momentarily, he closed his eyes to get his bearings. When he opened them again, there were five dark cloaked shapes in front of him, spread in a line. He quickly threw out his senses for the giant, and felt him right behind the visitors, still waiting in the stone. The one in the centre walked forward, and threw back his hood. As his hood fell, a mane of bleached white hair fell with it. Skin darker than ebon, the drow in front of him was taller than most. His eyes were dark purple, and he smiled, exposing teeth that rivalled his hair for whiteness.
"Ah, finally," he said. "I get to meet the great Ahk'Sanaris. The defiled drow!" He spat and bowed in mock respect.
Ahk simply stood, not saying a word, but his head cocked as he suddenly realised that his sleeping companions were no longer sleeping. Smiling now, he said "I would recommend you lower your voice, or you won't live to regret it."
"And we must definately listen to the great drow, the second Drizzt Do'urden, musn't we!" he said in a loud voice, as he saw the scimitars. Then, in a hiss "You're days are - "
He didn't manage to finish the sentence as one of the drow to the left screamed. He turned quickly, to see a quarterstaff wielded by a lithe figure slap one of his drow into unconsciousness. His eyes wide, he tried to rally around his other four troops and run. And when he turned around, blocking the entire mouth of the tunnel was a huge giant clad in a gleaming white full plate mail, and brandishing a greatsword the size of a normal drow.
"Going somewhere?" he asked, nonchalantly. "I think not."
The drow commander turned to the other side to see a huge drider walk up the walls with one of his drow, who was all wrapped up in web. Turning back to Ahk, he looked at the him with pure venom in his eyes. Ahk still stood completely still making no sign of movement. Without thinking, the drow commander yelled and lunged for him. In a blur of motion, Ahk pulled out both his scimitars and slapped the drow hard on his shoulders with the flats of his blades even before he had reached him. The drow commander fell, unconscious. The two remaining drow searched frantically for an exit.
Garder'el and Wizardsmurf by now had finished with their victims and came to stand beside Ahk. Garder'el had a simple turban wrapped around his head, and his gith features stared expressionlessly at the drow. Clad in simple monk clothing, he brandished his fabled quarterstaff with supple ease. Wizardsmurf tramsutated as he walked from drider to Deep Imaskari. He reached Ahk and looked at the drow and raised his eyebrows gracefully, questioning their motive. Just as they were about to speak, the drow suddenly quitened, and stood completely still, their brows furrowed in thought. Quickly Garder'el and Wizardsmurf threw out their telepathy to intercept any messages, but they seemed to be too late, for the drow suddenly smiled deviously and split up. One ran towards the commander, and the other one ran towards the other two drow who had been stashed at the back of the cavern. Before the four adventurers could do anything, the drow had murdered their companions and killed themselves. Puzzled for a moment, they looked at each other in befuddlement. Until they heard the noise in the distance. Great, thudding footsteps were making their way down the tunnel, heading for their cavern. They quickly split up, Wizardsmurf and Garder'el moving towards the ceiling, climbing nimbly as if it were flat ground. Ahk moved deeper back into the cavern, and Dahk moved with him. All of them tensed, clutching their weapons tighter. Wizardsmurf's brow furrowed as he begun to waggle his fingers, preparing a spell. As they waited, the tension seemed to grow, and then finally, the moment carried itself.
From the mouth of the cavern walked in a huge creature, with massive blood red wings spread dangerously behind it. It's huge red body was naked save for a loincloth around its waist. Corded tendons jostled with each other creating a creature of total muscle. It carried a jagged blade which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. In its other hand it carried a whip. Its deathly black eyes gazed at the party with an evil glint. It smiled and bared fangs the size of Ahk's forearm. Standing an easy fourteen feet tall, it dominated the cavern. It walked forward and then to one side. Dahk tensed his weapon and smiled; one balor was a good fight. Suddenly there was a spike of emotion along the party's joint consciousness and he was puzzled. Then he saw the second balor walk in.
"Uh oh"