Final Entry of the Journey through the Colorless HillsThe gray stone cairn loomed ahead of them and from its mouth shambled forth a small army of the dead. Skeletons and zombies alike and all elvish.
Upon dismounting they drew weapons
Wooden sword and shield
and Legendary steel and Two-hander
Etile's horse saw the grisly sight and it immediately fled from whence it came, and she briefly looked that direction with total exasperation.
Maloy's horse was seemingly possessed by the spirit of nature that lives in elven lands, and would have lived here at one point, and bolted past the two nearly toppling them as it slammed into the undead and began kicking and crushing in earnest. It's armorless flesh a vulnerable target for a horde of nails, teeth and knives.
The two adventurers sprang forth in full sprint to follow the horse's wake and soon found their group rhythm.
Etile helped keep zombies held off and busy while the horse and Maloy killed zombies. He would swing steel and copper at enemies in one movement, but noticed the copper had no slicing ability while the steel could easily kill zombies alone so he found his own tactic.
As he killed with his dominant hand he would use the copper sword, more a hunk of metal than a sword, and battery enemies away or weaken them until he could work his way around with his steel blade.
They crushed their way through the horde and pressed all the way into the cairn. The horse led the way up the stairs to the uppermost level where more zombies awaited. Another group of elf zombies waited at the top standing around a ledge to the north to some darkness below.
Setting to work Etile cut off any advance from another corridor as she blocked the way and Maloy sliced the first one he saw.
This one was a large brute for an elf and very well muscled and Stalkmatches was caught in the flesh of it's neck rather than the usual beheading.
Surprised by this he began to pull only before hearing the vicious neighing of the possessed horse. It barreled into Maloy to get to the zombie and knocked him off the ledge into the yawning abyss below.
Down and down he fell for what turned out to be be a few floors.
"Maloy?!" Etile yelled somewhere above him although it was almost drowned out by the voices of screeching and groaning zombies and a mad horse.
He had crashed on the floor and it would've hurt, but he landed on wood, not stone. He laid perfectly still waiting on his vision to adjust to the dark and recalled his father's words around a campfire when he was on watch duty. "A normal animal's reaction to the unknown is to flee or charge in any direction. That's what predators use to catch prey. Wait, get an idea of what's going on and then move"
As he began to see the room took shape. It was a small vault of some sort. Grown wood weapons, armor, clothing and statues were all around. The statues were disturbing monsters leering down at him and he feared they would come alive, but they remained stiller than he.
He got up and thanked the craftself of the wooden breastplate he landed on for it's softness and creeped up the stairs near him.
The sounds of fighting continued although quieter. Blood ran down the steps he climbed and at the top of the staircase blocking his way was one last zombie.
It sliced wildly at Etile and it demonstrated far more skill than the previous ones as it blocked sword strikes.
The enraged horse barreled to it as well and kicked Etile off.
She fell with a scream into the same hole he had been launched moments before. Maloy sliced the zombies leg off with stalkmatches and then with all his might stabbed his copper sword into it's brain killing it.
The horse was covered in cuts and bruises and was actively bleeding from the stomach, "serves you right you nuisance" Maloy said turning back down the stairs to check on Etile.
Her armor was in pieces. Chunks and chips of wood torn off leaving clothing visible underneath and her sword was covered in cracks. She seemed battered, but not defeated.
"I'm going to kill your horse" said Etile
"Really? I think he likes you"
She gave him an obviously ingenuine smile and then looked around
"Elven craftship. and good ones too. This gear is better than mine by a long stretch." She said as she picked up the breastplate Maloy landed on during his fall.
"A lot of decorations. Engravings and rings. I wonder if it was ceremonial or armor belonging to some champion?" she continued
"You don't know?"
"Oh yes, let me use my elf powers and tell you exactly where this totally random piece of armor came from and who owned it before, because I should know that being an elf" she responded tone dripping with sarcasm
Maloy actually laughed for once "Well, I'll be sure to file a complaint that my party's elf wasn't very good at being an elf" Etile laughed too now.
She replaced her own gear with the one below and they continued.
After leaving the cairn they decided to climb to the top and see the view.
All around them to the north was brown wasteland. Brown everywhere only broken by small gray spires of other cairns jutting from the earth and in the distance one large tower: Like a gray spear stabbing into the heart of the earth and draining its life.
They set about clearing each cairn. Neither knew how necromancer powers worked, but the bulk of the undead lived in the cairns and needed to be dealt with. Each cairn was easier than the first. They ran into the occasional trap, but they were built entirely from elven wood weapons and so Maloy would just catch the weapon on him if he couldn't dodge and would continue as his metal armor was unaffected.
At one cairn the horse ran away finally after killing many zombies. Where it went was anyone's guess, but wherever it was it would likely build a legend greater than either of the two of them. Finally after making a circuit around each cairn they finished the last one and were going to the tower. Etile's armor and weapons had been replaced by the stolen treasures of the necromancer and she looked like an elven warrior queen or perhaps a royal guard now.
The tower was surrounded by a furrowed field of brown. Not even dead grass was here. Like the zombies had been sent to dig the soil up like farmers or perhaps the tower destroyed the land in it's immediate area? Etile couldn't hide her exhaustion from her breathing now and sweat poured from her, but they were
so close. The battle needed to be finished
From the tower an army of zombies shambled forth. Same size as the first cairn.
Maloy wasn't even winded yet and readied his stance as they slowly moved forth. He glanced behind himself and saw Etile sprinting to the south away from the horde. "Retreat, fool!" she called back
He looked dumbfounded, but sheathed his blades and ran after her.
Once he caught up with the elf she led them to a stream a short walk away back into the proper living forests.
"You were going to let me die back there!" Maloy yelled
"I did not! I told you to run!"
"If I didn't would you have turned back?"
"Why would I choose to die with you? We're exhausted"
"Friend's don't abandon friends!"
"If you were as beaten as me you might" she replied a little more deflated
"I wouldn't! Friend's stick together, and we're not gonna survive out here if we're not watching each other's backs"
"Fine. I'm sorry!" She shouted back and then walked to the stream to clean the multiple layers of sweat off of her.
OOC:
We argued because she left me and I convinced her to change her values of friendship which she did not value it at all before
They spent a few hours resting and discussing things. Turns out Etile is an orphan: no siblings or anything either. They also discussed the nature of this mission. Their proving could have been done on a pack of wolves, but they chose this. Why? Because others expected more of them? In reality Maloy expected more of himself and, although Etile would never admit it, she didn't really want him to die on this adventure.
They returned to the tower after and quickly slew the dead since they had rested.
Now they creeped along in total silence. The zombies could sense them, but the necromancer might not be able too.
As they made their way into the tower this large open room with stair cases all around Maloy crept to a doorway in the Northeastern corner.
There a necromancer waited. human like himself. The man faced away from them and seemed lost in thought. Maloy did not wait. He struck with both swords at the man's neck, but the blades did not cut all the way and the man ran panicking. They struck at his legs, but missed and he ran from the tower the way they had come.
Chasing at full sprint they had to stop as he resurrected each of the corpses they slew. Maloy could easily sprint through, but Etile was already being bogged down by the dead and he would not abandon her and so they killed them all again. The tracks of the necromancer were confusing and so remembering his father's advice Maloy waited inside the tower,
After a long time the necromancer ran back in looking behind him believing he had likely given the adventurers the slip.
Maloy came up behind him and stabbed him in the leg with Stalkmatches and the man fell.
He pleaded for mercy as Etile beat him with her sword.
Maloy put Stalkmatches away and with his copper two-hander he stabbed again and again full force into the man's chest until finally his heart was crushed and he died.
The land was free of this curse, truly. The air lifted in the whole area and the two looked around in excitement and hugged laughing at their success.
Before leaving Maloy insisted on looking around and reading some of the documents here. The tower was poorly organized and a mess and there turned out to be a reason. The records spoke of another necromancer that this one was married too and she had left here sometime ago seemingly at odds with him.
Both documents and their own personal writings spoke of gentle souls full of compassion, and yet they had fallen to such evil? It boggled his mind.
Finally, he found what he had not been searching for:
For a moment all the world was seen by him and it saw him back. He was in the clouds and in the darkness of an abyss. His mind shattered and pulled itself back together. He was and is.
Etile saw none of it. She just watched him space out before waving her hands before his eyes
"you okay?"
"yeah." he said his gaze not moving at all. He closed the book and set it back on the floor.
"Let's go home" He said. She looked concerned but agreed.
As they left the tower he intentionally let her walk ahead as he looked at the dead necromancer. Once a being full of compassion and a desire to help who fell to darkness. How does this happen to someone? Callousness maybe?
Maloy's heart moved and he reached his hand out. The man lifted off the ground and rose to his feet blue fire filling his eyes.
Life was returned to him, his army was shattered as well as his hope of ruling these lands. Hopefully he would learn from this and accept his second chance with gratitude.
Maloy walked on before Etile could turn around and see what happened.
They were received back with great celebration. Maloy ceremonially placed Stalkmatches back on it's pedestal and bowed to Lord Almo. Etile allowed him to tell the tale since he was "So good at talking and a natural flatterer"
He spoke of the journey from the gaining of the sword to the armies of the dead to the death of the necromancer to all. The land was much safer now and the prosperity of all their people that much closer to being assurred.
He did not mention raising the man back to life or the second chance he offered him.
They celebrated more, shared the story many more times and drank plenty as they had finally been accepted as champions of the Colorless Hills.
So, what's next for these two soldiers? Likely guard duty, but we hope that this is not the end of their tale together.
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Topic: Stalkmatches - The blade of many hands (Weapon Succession Game) (Read 24812 times)