Whispers at the Fire
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Rumor has it a gnome was arrested for winning at a game of smash the barrel. Apparently magic isn't allowed, even when used responsibly and no one was harmed. What is crawling up the militia's rear end is anyones guess.
Of course these are rumors pronounced by said gnome.
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*Rumor has it that a man, dressed in black and wearing a skull mask, attacked Z while he was hunting for beetle shells one night.
The deadly attacker seemed to appear from and disappear into the shadows at will.*
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Cray Vincint takes a day trip down to the Grapevine Inn, he talks to a few different patrons and adventurers alike, buying them drinks and handing out a flyer to those who will listen.
The Narfell Times is a news publication comming to print soon and we want you.
We are looking for investigative journalists. All reporters will begin freelance and paid up to 50gp per article. You need to have a good reputation and be motivated. We are also looking for a specialty reporter to cover "Arts, Leisure and Culture"
We will host free classified adds as well. Buying, selling, renting, or help wanted. Well give you one line of free print, be sure to send your name and location.
If any of the local business are intrested in advertising space we'll consider your entry and may publish your add for free in our first Issue.
Have a gripe? Want your opinion heard? Then send the Editor a letter.
Also write to us to receive your first issue of The Narfell Times for free.
Send corrispondance to: The Narfell Times, Warehouse # 2, Docks District, Peltarch. ((PM))
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The guards were odly poking about in every dark corner of Norwick for the evening. A shadow had drifted into town in the wake of the commander of the guard and taunted the people about the town until dawn. It seemd to solidify out of the night and strike those about it down. A few saw its skull like head amidst the shadows and heard its mocking words. At dawn's light the town seemed to turn to normal.
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Just as quickly he came, he departed. The regular presence of the man in emerald and ebony has not been seen in many days. Some rumors talk of him being killed in combat, others talk about demons devouring him, then some say he's simply traveled to thay.
tough to tell though which, if any, is fact… the only truth is that the man calling himself Nickolai, for the time being, can no longer be found in Narfell.
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Cyrian comes out of the barracks seemingly well prepared, looks like he is going to be out for a while, he lets the guards know that hes going on one of ~his~ training missions, which by now many may know is usually extremely dangerous.
Chet! Your time has come lad, your comin with me! Grab all your kit, leve behind anything you dont want lo lose when. . er. . if, you should not make it back in one piece. he grins maliciously were goin bugbear huntin!
_prior to departure, Cyrian has a good look over Chet's kit, he nods seemingly satisfied but hands Chet a few things to be used when the times right.
Cyrian maintains a slow steady pace as he makes his way through the forest, using the time to explain to Chet the process of hunting bugbears with maximum efficiency._
Alright, first and foremost, Ill be giving orders, I expect you to obey them no questions asked.
rule number one, do not shoot your target unless they are alone and you want to get their attention chuckles
rule number two, never persue an enemy that flees.
rule number three, it is ok to run if you are outmatched.
four, use the terrain to your advantage.that all i can think of at the moment chuckles ill make up new rules when i feel like it.
As the duo enter the woods, Cyrian provides himself with an armor spell, a mind protection spell, and an elemental protection spell. he provides Chet with a mind protection, armor, and barkskin.
If you see a caster, get behind cover immediately. If you see a sneak, pretend you dont and move back aways and see if they follow you. If you see a blackguard, dont engage, fall back. he describes the methods of identifying each kind of bugbear, usually based on the weapons they carry
Allright, stay quiet and follow me *the two of them move up to one of the towers, and Cyrian peeks his head around to get a look, he spots an assassin, a rogue, and two warrior types, he whispers to chet to let him know.. *the assassin and the sneak are closest, the other two are a ways off….we can let the assassin know were here, they usually will try to sneak up on you, so well pretend we dont see him...when he come around here ill knock him on his ass and then you finish him off got it?
cyrian then picks up a branch from the ground and steps out into view of the assassin but not looking at it, he breaks the branch and the assassin moves to the shadow and starts making its way in around about fashion to the two.ok hes seen us, you hide a bit close to the tower and wait for the sneak to show himself.
*cyrian takes a defensive stance keeping his awareness of the assassins movements, and second before the bugbear strikes with its accursed bastard sword Cyrian turns and ducks the blow, bringing his scimitar down hard on the bugbears ankle causing it to fall to the floor, Chet jumps in now with his greatsword and drives it clean through the creatures chest, giving himself a shout of victory, of course no sooner does he shout out but he recieves a dart of nevative energy shot into his back by the sneak, who heard the scuffle and came to the others aid. Chet turns in disbelief and Cyrian orders him to engage the sneak which he does, Cyrian just watching.
at this point the two soldier bugbears come running, Cyrian jumps up and runs past Chet to meet the two bugbears which he fights defensively to give Chet a chance to finish up and join in.
after a moment or two Chet finishes off the sneak taking a couple good hits himself and jumps in to engage the other bugbears. Cyrian lowers his guard and opens up on the offense dealing hideous strike after strike to the poorly guarded bugbears, Chet offering a hit here and there, taking a couple more himself.
CRACK!
Bolts of lightning come down on the duo bouncing off Cyrians magic barrier and singing Chets whiskers, Cyrian realising the new threat stops screwing around and pulls out a second blade stabbing his shield into the dirt and with expert training slices the bugbears up.*
Chet! get back behind cover. chet does as hes told and Cyrian runs to meet him, using his wand to heal Chets wounds from the lightning, but not quite all of them
Allright, casters are tricky, their magic will mess you up quick, but they cant cast on you if they dont see you. just wait here and see if the caster comes to us or if hes gonna wait...
a minute passes and all that is heard is the bugbear chanting in the distance
looks like he doesnt want to come, now we can use arrows, jump out and shoot and jump back to cover, if your quick enough they wont have time to cast again...
Cyrian takes out his bow and hops out to cover and prepares to shoot, but he stops as there doesnt seem to be anything there...suddenly another crack is heard and Chet whines in pain, apparently the tricky bugbear used invisbility and snuck around to bolt Chet, Chet now is engaging the beast who also has a stone armor spell. Cyrian returns to watch, Chet who is ~quite~ beaten up at this point.
Knock him on his ass Chet!
Chet continues to hack at the stone form of the bugbear, each time the creature tries casting Chet swings hard at the creatures face smashing out stone teeth and interrupting the magic, the bugbear realiseing hwo hopeless it seems to use magic reverts to using its staff, swinging at Chet with almost no martial prowess, after several minutes Chet finally smashes through the stone armor and begins to wound the beast, the bugbear realiseing its time is near jumps out of combat and flees into the distance, Chet in his bloodlust gives Chase, but Cyrian yells at him to stop.
Chet returns to behind the tower where Cyrian was watching from, and simply grins a bloody toothed grin, his face and hair burnt from the lightning, his back aching from the negative energy of the dart that still pierces his shoulder blade, and his bruised body underneath heavily dented armor
Listen Chet, they both listen and can hear the sounds of many many feet crashing through the forest coming in their direction
That is the sound of our que to leave. cyrian pulls the dart out of Chets back and tosses it to the ground
Lets get out of here. Cyrian makes his way out of the forest seemingly in no hurry as Chet limps along close byYe need to work on your defense lad chuckles but ye did about as good as I expected. be glad we didnt see any blackguards laughs theyda made mince meat outta ye
((with permission from Lucid to post Chets training
))
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Having heard bits of Jerrick's speech, Chet now watches him come and go from the wall like a hawk, anger plain on his face for all to see. Chet suddenly becomes more vigilant than ever before, walking the walls more frequently rather than just standing and staring as he often did in the past. He is determined to see that no bugbear gets into town on his watch.
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Jerrick speaks up when bugbears are mentioned, and actually bring up a name.
There is one bugbear who is a friend of the druid Glen.
His name is Tomek. He helped us in the recent fight against the demons, and currently hunts corrupted goblins. He said he is leaving to make a new tribe, since his betrayed their word, and unlike them, he seems to keep his word.He has been a guest of the Glen for a short time now, and is welcome again should he come seeking shelter or refuge.
*Anyone who brings up wanting to kill him anyway will get a "look" from Jerrick, and if they get in his face, he will say that they will have to go through HIM first, before they get to that particular bugbear. One of the reasons, "We need every ally against this demon scourge that we can get! This is no time for petty generalizations about "This race is bad. " and "This race cannot change"
There were recently talk with the goblins, right? GOBLINS.
Enough said. . .
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Chet, A brooding grumpy guardsman of late, spits and curses at any mention of bugbears.
Advisor's been sayin them buggered bears be in ah world o hurt. snorts Should go an finish wot them demons dun ta em. End them buggered bears, in tha name ah all them what fell in ol norwick.
Chet keeps to his post at the wall saying little more. He stares off to the south looking hungry for a fight.
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ooh tainted bugbears?! This I have -Got- to see!
Cyrian can't help but grin as he sees an opportunity for a greater challenge, he collects his gear and heads off to see for himself, and if possible, to bring back some trophies
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_Coming back from a lone scouting expedition into bugbear territory, Will reports that as he suspected, there don't appear to be much in the way of bugbear our former bugbear allies left for people to hunt, so obeying the Senior Guardsman's directive shouldn't be a problem.
While he admits not going far into bugbear territory, most of those he saw were corrupted like the goblins, and those few that weren't appeared to have been driven mad and were attacking their fellows._
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Rumour has it that the Senior Guardsman, Devlin of the Miltia has ordered any guards under his watch to not hunt the Bugbears, and has persuaded others from keeping away from the area, claiming hunting them down would be against 'Tempus' Laws', and nothing but bad for Norwick at this point.
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rumors go around that a flash of light was seen south of the norwick in the rawslins as a group go down to investigate they see a succubus on the hill with a large line of powderkeg leading from the down the ramp and further south she light the keg watching them go off they followed the explosion to the bridge of the small island where bugbears were found strip of any gear and tied up looking at them they were beaten and then seems to be killed in the explosion
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Between patrol shifts, Albryanna can be seen making several trips to the Kuo-Toa caves. Returning hours later with several valuables, she proptly sells them to merchants in Peltarch, though saving any unique weapons she happens to cross, locking them safely in the militia barracks. Her mind seems set on something…
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Far to the south in the bugbear lands of the rawlins, adventures exploring the area find the aftermath of a large war. Hundreds of mangled, long dead bugbear corpses are scattered throughout the area…the bugbears were slaughtered. Any live bugbears found are much more crazed than ever before, attacking nearly anything that moves on sight.
(( This is purely rp info for those exploring the bugbear lands. Bugbears still spawn as usual, just consider them to be in a mindless rage. ))
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An angry Chancellor is seen speaking to the guards at the north gate and pointing north.
If that THIEF, Dentin Strauss so much as steps one foot within your eyesight, I expect his arrow-ridden corpse to be brought to me, understood?!?
_Rumor has it that a number of people, led by the Lord Chancellor himself, beat down some evil spirit near the Dwarven Hold in the Realm. Apparently, the dastardly Dentin grabbed a broken blade from the fallen enemy, and quickly downed a potion of invisibility to make his escape with the blade that was so rightfully property of the realm at that point.
The chancellor, who has been long rumored to have supernatural –perhaps even divine-- ability to see invisible creatures, gave chase but was unable to catch the thief._
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Stories abound about the fires that burned far to the south of Norwick. Some said dark forms could be seen diving into the flames and some said they could see figures seemingly falling from the sky. Some say a great rock feel from the sky destroying large swaths of forest. Others say a great evil has awoken in the forest. Most seem to just shrug and talk about people overreacting to forest fires caused by lightning.
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A dark storm was seen near Norwick earlier some days ago. Rumour has it an evil undead spirit was at work. The militia recruit Dietrick was seen attacking it, rumour spreads that the Chancellor Dwin attacked the hin at some point, though the reason for that varies person to person.
The spirit was said to have been taken down eventually and a runed blade quickly scavenged from it by Dentin who was last seen running with it North.
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Peoeple whispered as the forces marshalled in Norwick. Large contingents of the Legion from Jiyyd under General Grag moved through town and south. A strong contingent from Camp under Aelthaus moved through town, barely stopping to speak as they moved south also. The militia mustered in its full strength was out and moved through the hushed town checking defenses and bolstering the guard, then moved south leaving the guard on high alert.
Angels some whispered behind doors We seen angels comin down from the skies and gracin us.
Those brave enough gathered quietly by the fires as the last of the forces moved out and the gates were barred and catapults dragged out and staked to the ground. Chet and Davos worked endlessly and then settled into the silent wait. Suddenly the sound of a piercing horn called out from the south and the faint whispers of yells drifted north and silence again…until...lights in the sky...sweeping and clashing with darkness. The guards straightened and watched and moved restlessly about and then settled in, faces grim and always turned south and to the skies.
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*Word spreads from the fire that the warrior of Tyr, Andrew Tormier was carrying a sword, a gift he received recently, that was said to make mages have a headache. Almost immediately Aramuil was said to have determined that Andrew was the cause. This prompted others to murmur about Aramuil being a supermage.
After a long question and answer period between Andrew and Aramuil, Andrew showed him all that he held which was magically enhanced. As onlookers watched, Aramuil could not determine the cause and insinuated that Andrew was not speaking truth. Andrew offered to allow Aramuil to look through his belongings if he chose to do so. That offer was not exercised.
The cause of the headaches was finally determined by a process of elimination between Andrew and Celestria, testing each item he held one at a time to see if it caused headaches in the mage Aramuil. At last they determined it was the sword causing the headaches. The sword was given to Guardsman Celestria of the Norwick Militia who spoke to a senior Guardsman regarding the fate of the sword.
Aramuil was said to have promptly requested that the sword be given to him, however his request was declined and the sword was stored in a Norwick Militia barracks locker until a time in the future.
In addition, when asked, Andrew is seen directing most questions to Celestria, answering only the basic ones himself.*
