3. The Story of Ponce LaRue

The Story of Ponce LaRue


  • An Unnerving Experience

    The alarm rang out clear and steadily over Norwick. Ponce was already at the front, deflecting the goblins as best he could alongside the his fellow defenders of the walls. The goblins came in hordes, as is their rather inneffective strategy, washing up against the defenders in wave upon wave. The warriors were slowly worn away, but the warring ability of the goblins quickly waned and the battle was soon won. Victorious, Ponce returned to the city to rest.

    After a nap and a prayer to Torm (praise Him and all his glory) Ponce was back at the walls to see how the gate fared. There he found a few famliar faces such as the entheusiastic, though somewhat reckless, Mage, Arc. Conversation was quickly struck up between Arc and what seemed to be two senior Spellweavers concerning the portal located in Norwick. As Ponce had to explain the natural loss of hair that men suffer to a rather blunt young woman, he heard a cry of alarm coming from near the portal.

    Turning, he saw a number of people in battle with walking dead. Zombies, they were pouring out of the portal by the dozen. A slight grin came to the face of Ponce, and his eyes brightened. This is what he was here for; this is what he could do. Pulling out his trusted symbol of Torm (all glory to Him and his might) he lept forward, and bellowed, turning the undead. Half a dozen fell to the ground, motionless. Hot with the fever of imminent victory, he charged forward turning zombie after zombie, with the entheusiastic cheers of his comrades at his heels, he he worked until he had pushed the vile things back to the portal, the ground strewn completely with their putrid bodies.

    He quickly, and rather foolishly, expended his abilities to turn, however, and was forced to resort to the use of a crossbow to ward off the ones that continued to walk through the portal. Suddenly, Arc stepped through the portal. For a moment, Ponce thought his friend was surely doomed, but Arc stepped back out a few moments later, exclaiming how the area beyond was filled to bursting with the walking dead.

    Upon hearing this, Ponce offered his abilities to the up-and-coming mage. Praying to Torm (all hail Him and his divine presence) Ponce regained his ability to turn the dead. Arc and Ponce, both confident in victory, jumped into the portal. The other side was a Arc described. A room: filled completely with the walking dead. Producing his holy symbol, Ponce began his work. As he did so, however, he realized they were surrounding the two of them at all sides. Desperately, he continued to turn them, felling row after row, but still they continued. Suddenly, Arc stepped back out through the portal. Ponce continued to try to turn, but was quickly overrun and was taking blows from the many flailing, rotten limbs. Seeing the wisdom in his companion's actions, he quickly stepped through the portal, back to safety. He stepped out in time to see a powerful mage, who had manifested himself in the body of a troll, step through the portal he just left. Upon healing himself, Ponce returned through the portal to find all the vile dead felled by the powerful mage.

    Somewhat discouraged, but still quite confident in his abilities, he continued onward with his companions, hopefully to find the source of the undead within this crypt. As usual, the undead came in hordes (perhaps they learned this from the goblins?) and were cut down as they came. Eventually, the party came across a stone door, and undead could be seen on the other side. Ponce offered to destroy them, a mage in the party, one dressed in an unfashionable black robe, agreed with the suggestion.

    Ponce slid the door open, and began to do his work upon the walking dead. They fell, just as he knew they would, and he worked his way forward. Eventually, he came across what appeared to be a new breed. They looked stronger, and were armed with axes and primitive weapons. Undaunted, he lept forward to turn them: to no effect. A cold wave of fear swept over him as he tried again, this time blows struck him as he tried. Again, nothing. Now faced with his own mortality, he attempted to retreat and let the zombies' own slowness undo them. But as he stepped back, the one critical blow landed upon him. He fell to the ground, unable to move. He drifted in and out of conciousness. In this drowsy trip, between periods of utter nothingness, he realized his body was not too severely injured. He could remain like this, and be rescued by his comrades!

    Suddenly, he snapped awake, his body refilled with life to the point where it could function again. Looking up and around, he saw the mage in the black garb standing over him. A smile crept to Ponce's face and stood to thank the man. His thanks were, however, were greeted with grumblings about incompetence. Not a friendly man, was this wizard in black.

    The party soon came across a seconday expidition which had gotten to their location via the cemetery of Norwick. The group merged, and trudged forward, Ponce was now careful to stay near the rear.

    The new, larger party quickly made its way through the crypt, slaying hundreds of undead along the way. Many blows were landed, many traps recklessly set off, but the party emerged victorious. They returned to the surface to split the heap of loot they had found. Ponce, hoping the tempers of the mage had cooled, stepped up to him to thank him again, properly. The mage responded, "You owe me your life. I will not forget this." And he walked off to the north, not even caring about the share of wealth that was rightfully his. Clearly, this was the wrong type of man to owe your life to.


  • A Dark Request

    Ponce smiled as he saw Lucidious walking down the path from Jiyyd. He greeted his friend, and after the normal exchange of pleasantries, they agreed to do a normal patrol to the southern gate of Norwick. A calm, uneventful trip, just the way that Ponce likes it, and they had arrive to the glowing, familiar gates of Norwick. When they reached the other end of the city, Lucidious waved down a young woman standing on the ramparts of the city walls. He addressed her as 'Shay' and they seemed to have been previously acquainted. She spoke to Lucidious for a short while about the resurrection of people, and she asked if he could have a body resurrected by a strong priest he was acquainted with. He agreed, and accepted the gold that was to be paid to the priest.

    Ponce soon realized that a woman, who he would later come to know as being named Raisa, had joined the small gathering, apparently also an acquaintance of Lucidious and this Shay individual. Shay told Lucidious to follow her out to the forest to show him the body. Raisa followed, and being a man who was always interested in the higher arts of the divine, Ponce chose to tag along as well. It was about the time that the woman dashed out alone into the western reaches of the forest, unarmed and without proper protection, that Ponce realized what her intentions were. The Raisa woman realized this even faster and was on Shay's trail before Ponce, leaving Lucidious gawking at the scene.

    They crashed into the forest, making their way through the dense undergrowth, the shadow of Shay bouncing about in front of them. Ponce could hear her making all sorts of noise, intentionally attracting the attention of a small host of goblins, which was soon between her and Raisa in a long race to an unknown destination. Lucidious had caught on to Shay's suicidal intentions, and had managed to catch up with the rest of the party. When Shay finally stopped, she began to fight the horde goblins with what she had, but it was clear she was not trying to win, as hardened goblin soldiers began to surround her. Fuming at the madness this woman was displaying, Ponce began to release volley after volly of crossbow bolts and rays of searing light, as Lucidious did the same and Raise hacked her way through the goblins. The three of them together managed to make their way through the ranks, breaking them entirely, and found Shay with her back to the trees, still wounded from the experience.

    Many wails and cries of confusion and desperation were thrown at the seemingly mad Shay as she backed away from the group. Ponce managed to cure her wounds, and just as it seemed she would come back to Norwick, she tore off again, leaving the three of them to grapple with their amazement. They were not able to track Shay this time, and after much depressing talk, they chose to split up to try to find her, or her body. Ponce sputtered, but finally agreed to travel to Jiyyd to see if that is where she went. As he suspected, the woman was not to be found there, and he made his way back to Norwick, as was agreed. He arrived to find Raisa waiting there, but Lucidious was nowhere to be found. They waited, for hours they waited, and still Lucidious did not make an appearance. Ponce began to worry, and since Lucidious's absence was highly extended, Raisa dispatched a bird, perhaps her familiar, to scout him out. It returned on the western horizon, and they made their way to the western end of the Rawls.

    The scene that followed was disturbing. A bloodied and grave Lucidious stood away to the side, in the shadows, as an equally bloodied Shay flailed hopelessly in a mass of goblins. Lucidious cried out to Raisa and Ponce to hold back, but his words fell on deaf ears as the two sprung into action, though they may have known there would be no saving her this time. By the time they had worked there way to Shay, Ponce's healing enchantments fell helplessly on a lifeless body. Confusion and anger swelled up in Ponce's mind as he sared down at the body, while Lucidious collected it up, and began to carry it back to Norwick. Raisa solemnly collected up the fallen woman's possessions, and turned to return to Norwick. Ponce blinked at this mechanical demeanour, unusual and unexpected from Lucidious.

    As it would turn out, the woman, Shay, was supposedly possessed, an the only freedom was death, followed by a short period in the Fugue, and then resurrection. These words washed coldly over Ponce as he waited alone in the chapel of Norwick for the priests to arrive and take the body. When they left, he immediately found himself a table, and began to write a letter…


  • An Odd Counterpart

    Steel clashed on steel, and the screeching of goblin warcries could be heard rising over the sound of blade raking across exposed skin. Arrows flung away from the gate of Norwick, scattering out in all directions toward the masses of goblins, some hitting their mark, other striking the snow harmlessly or soaring out over the cold black waters of the lake under the moonless sky. The roar of enslaved hulks seemed to silence all other sound, as they crashed through the forest and into the clearing, towering over the wave of goblins below them.

    This wave passed, and the defenders began to regroup. The normal murmering began as they awaited the next assault. One voice in particular caught Ponce's ear, however.

    "10 gold for healing or enchantment! Uh, sir, your payment?"

    If Ponce had disapproved of anything before, it was no match for the amount of the complete disbelief that simple statement created in his head. This woman (Utsa, Uzza, Ucha, whatever this woman was named) had the audacity to come to Norwick and, in the heat of battle, demand for payment to keep its valiant defenders alive!

    "Rather hard to charge for a service others are simply providing free of charge," Ponce grumbled more to himself than anyone else, but he sincerely hoped she noticed his displeasure.

    The battle raged on, wave after wave of goblin folk and their allies crashed up against the sturdy walls of Norwick. The battle was ferocious, the strongest attack on the gate that Ponce had ever seen. A few warriors even fell during this battle, which was most disheartening for him, in particular a small hin. Between two waves, however, he overheard the woman speaking again,

    "Come here, Shade, I'll heal you, free."

    Ponce's normally frowned mouth levelled off in approval, it seems perhaps the woman had seen the apparent selfishness of her actions. As he turned, however, he would be sorely disappointed. This 'Shade' who she referred to, was some kind of overgrown cat! A domeseticated one, or perhaps summoned, he could not tell, but the fact remained: She provided healing to this animal, to this BEAST, while her fellow defenders stood about, ankle deep in a mingle of bloods! And still she capitalized on this!

    Ponce drew in a heavy breath, and his back and shoulders shuddered a bit with anger, but his attention was quickly returned to battle as a fresh wave broke the treeline. The battle went on, and after much struggle was at last concluded, Ponce approached the woman.

    He insisted that she cease her 'business,' but she did not seem to have any intention of doing so. The conversation between them quickly deteriorated to wanton accusations and childish namecalling, Ponce allowed his anger to get the better of him on more than one occassion. Eventually the woman simply left, leaving him to grumble angrily to himself. As stomped back out into the field, he noticed the body of the hin, lying in the snow, no one had bothered to bring it back. He sighed and sadly collected up the body and brought it to the Friar's. Another day in Norwick passes.


  • A Healthy Prospect

    Ponce sat in the chambers of the Chancellor, a few beads of sweat were on his forehead and he was gripping the arms of his chair anxiously. He stared up at the ceiling as Arcaome and Lucidious discussed their plans and a curious little hin dashed about. The dark elf, presumably Chancellor Lof, approached the waiting group as the last interviewee could be seen leaving the room. He summoned the next person in line, and Arcaome greeted him and they returned to the table.

    Ponce exhaled softly. The hin was beginning to get rather annoying, bouncing around like that. What was he talking about anyway? Creeping? What does that mean? Perhaps he is drunk? Shaking his head, Ponce continued to think, as Lucidious tried to trick the hin to being silent. He stared at the ground, now.

    The previous applicants all looked like accomplished warriors. Even Arcaome had the credential of being a part of the Spellweaver's academy. Ponce was rather discouraged, he did not have such notable accompishments. What would he apply to become? How could he prove himself? He shook his head again and sighed.

    Looking around, he noticed the hin had gone. Probably bored of waiting, or perhaps was easily distracted by a flying insect or shiney object. No matter, the hin seemed to be some sort of scout; they were not in competition. Abruptly, Arcaome and the Chancellor returned. Arcaome proudly announced that he had been appointed as the new Arcane Advisor to Norwick, which came with quite a nice pay. Ponce and Lucidious congradulated Arcaome on his accomplishment, and Ponce was summoned to the table.

    He sat in a chair, the Chancellor and a female hin were present at the table. The hin had a number of papers in front of her, and appeared to be copying down the conversation. The Chancellor began his questioning, asking for his name, how long he had been in Norwick, and so on and so forth. Eventually, the interview came around to his qualifications. He explained his skills. He was then asked, if, as a cleric, he would be tolerant of other faiths. Ponce breathed in deeply, and his mind raced. Oh, what a question. How would he prove that he would not go about accusing passers-by of devilry and witchcraft?

    Before he could answer, however, Arcaome stepped forward and ask to speak on Ponce's behalf. He vouched in his favour, then politely returned to the waiting area. The Chancellor then explained the situation of Narfell; that the healer of the Town, Friar Fred, had fled quite some time ago. He offered Ponce the opportunity to take over the Friar's position as a healer and as the Spiritual advisor of Norwick.

    Happily accepting the job, as it was more then he could ever have expected, he returned to the waiting area to inform Arcaome and Lucidious of the news. Lucidious was last to be interviewed. His modesty, however, nearly cost him the opportunity, and Arcaome had to step in and speak on behalf of his friend. Ultimately, Lucidious was made assistant to Arcaome.

    It was a fruitful venture to those involved, and perhaps by devoting themselves to their new employment, they will develop themselves in a way that goes beyond finances.


  • heyses!!!! you be forget erugdish in big nasty undead story!!!! if not for erugdish not get so far you not. erugdish go through portal but be run cos so many undeadies and findses fellows and show how get to dead place without big nasty portal. then as go down into big tomb place erugdish and bloodmaker lead way and lop many nasty undead heads while everyone else be shootses them.


  • A Question of Loyalty

    The dieing gurgle was all Ponce heard of the orc. All he saw was its corpse. And yet, it would cost him more than he could have expected.

    The orc bent its head back and screamed up at the sky before it lurched forward and collapsed on the road just inside Norwick's southern gate. As Ponce stared, he eventually looked over to his wizedend companion Arcaome, who stood firmly holding a recently loosed crossbow, the very one that Ponce sold to him not a few days earlier.

    Ponce was about to question bystanders who looked rather shocked at the death of an orc at the gates, when one of them explained how the orc had been seeking to break free from his barbaric roots. It slowly dawned upon Ponce what Arcaome had done. After a long and delicate discussion about Arcaome's past, Ponce knew this incident would not do well for his friend's self-confidence. He quickly lead Arcaome to the house of the Friar, where he explained his plan for Arcaome's future.

    "Repent your past. Devote yourself to good. Follow the teachings of Torm. You are not beyond redemption." Ponce pressed the issue, but Arcaome was not ready. He could not yet forget his past, evidently. Could not forgive himself. This was fine. Change is not rapid, one cannot expect a man to change what he is on request.

    The two companions bid their farwells and head off in different directions. Ponce headed toward the general store, as he normally does. As he did, he heard the angry bellow of what could only be an orc from the town square. Confused, he investigated cautiously. There was, indeed, a large orc standing there, accompanied by many of the bystanders that were around when Arcaome mistakenly killed an orc by the souther gates.

    After some translation, Ponce came to realize that this orc was in fact, kin to the orc that Arcaome had slain! The orc also seemed to know that Ponce knew of Arcaome, and was demanding to know where the man was, with the intention of killing him: "Blod for blod," as an observer noted. Ponce admitted he did know where Arcaome was, nor where the man had intended to go. He then began to try to convice the orc to leave the poor wizard alone. He began by assuring the orc that Arcaome was a good man, that it was all an unfortunate misunderstanding, but he did not have high hopes for this strategy. The orc quickly dismissed it. He then tried to ask for mercy from the orc, offering whatever the orc wanted in exchange for the man's life. Again, the orc demanded blood. One last desperate strategy involved informing the orc that Arcaome was under Ponce's teaching. While not entirely true, he asked the orc to spare the man, as it would be difficult to bring Arcaome into the light if Arcaome was dead. The orc began to become frustrated. He claimed that he would kill Ponce in exchange for the life of Arcaome. Now alarmed, Ponce tried intimidation. He told the story of his debt to the wizard in black to the orc, hoping that the threat of incuring the wrath of the wizard for making it impossible to collect his debts would ward off the orc.

    The orc responded with a swing of his axe that nearly took off Ponce's head where he stood. Backing off, Ponce hurled a ray of negative energy at the Orc, and it struck him squarely in the chest. The orc was only slighly injured, and it charged at Ponce, swinging his axe furiously, screaming some primal warcry as he flung into a rage. The orc landed a devastating blow on Ponce, who began to bleed quite steadily as he drew his weaponry and swung at the orc with his trusted mace. He struck the orc, but again to little avail. The orc's path of fury had barely begun, but with another swing Ponce fell to the ground, nearly dead.

    As his worldly possessions slipped away from him, his eyes opened slowly, the sickly red glow of the Fugue filled his vision, but just as quickly as he entered the fugue, he was pulled back. A comrade had managed to bring him back from the very tip of death. Ponce awoke suddenly and looked about. It was painfully obvious as to what had happened. He extended some thanks to the interloper, gathered his things, and sheepishly made his way back to the temple. As he brooded over the events, he hoped that he would be able to convince Arcaome to repent before Arcaome wakes to find the orc standing over his bed.