Fantasy Friday
I play Dungeons and
Dragons every Friday. That is to say I run a 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons
campaign every Friday set in the country of Beniro. As such I've decided to
chronicle the hero's adventures from the perspective of different characters my
friends play. Each week and each short chapter I will rotate the perspective so you
can get a feel for all the characters. I will try my best to capture my
friend's characters and the adventures they go on. I might change some elements
but know I do it for the story.
A lot of the art I will be
using is not credited, so if you know the artist, tell me and I'll label it
appropriately.
THE
ACTION SOCIETY
BOOK
1
Rise
of the White Spider
CHAPTER
1
LORIFAIN
 |
| Lorifain, Elven Druid. |
"Whoa. Watch your
step." The old dwarf guide reached out and pressed her back to the cave
wall.
Lorifain’s eyes
followed the torch she had just dropped, breath caught in her throat, as it
flipped through air before skittering away into the darkness between themselves
and the flicker of light miles below. She looked at the darkness between her, the
darkness that had swallowed the torch, and imagined the darkness swallowing her
up. Her body went rigid.
"Not a pretty way
to go, I would think, miss." The old dwarf snapped her out of her daze.
"Yessir, I would
think not." She smiled, patting his shoulder, "Thank you, kind sir.
This is the second time you have had to save my life this morning."
He chuckled, "Don't
mention it." He released her arm and looked at the steps ahead of them,
"If I don't get you to the bottom, the King won't pay me a copper."
He examined the steps ahead of them, as he talked, making sure there were no
more missing footholds. She was amazed by how his short legs had no problem
keeping his balance and his wide feet seemed to find each foothold with ease.
“Though, I appreciate your thanks. Never been thanked by an elf and thought
they meant it." He added as an afterthought.
She watched the begoggled dwarf make
his way down the next three steps. Those three steps seemed to take an eternity
and each footfall fell on her ears like a boulder smashing against the city
below.
There was a city below. Miles below the Shale Mountains, in a cavern carved by thousands of skilled hands a thousand years before, lay the Dwarven city of Doktham. Even as she looked down at the city, it was still little more than a name on a map to her. The city had just been a name on a map until the messenger arrived.
There was a city below. Miles below the Shale Mountains, in a cavern carved by thousands of skilled hands a thousand years before, lay the Dwarven city of Doktham. Even as she looked down at the city, it was still little more than a name on a map to her. The city had just been a name on a map until the messenger arrived.
A little black bird carried
the message. It found her just as she was about attempt to enter the Passage, a
deep state of meditation that could last as long as the body, mind and soul
could take the stress. If the bird hadn’t made its presence known with a loud
peck at the shudders, she probably would’ve been unavailable for months. The
little bird had traveled all the way from Red Oak Wood with a message from
Sister Ciella.
The
King of Doktham required a healer and herbalist to come to his city at once.
The Order had owed him a favor and so, Lorifain being the closest druid to
Doktham, her territory in the Northern Pines, was ordered to fulfill his
request. At first, she had considered simply refusing the request with a simple
excuse of needing time to traverse the Passage but, alas, she could not lie.
She was scared.
She
wasn’t nervous about her own ability. She was an accomplished herbalist, a
talented healer and, among all the Acolytes she had met in her admission into
the Order, she was the best young druid in Beniro. It was also not as if she
did not know how to sling a blade. She had slain a Dire pine bear that had been
attacking the Northmen in her woods. She had left the beast to the wood, only
taking a tooth as a souvenir she carried in a bag of curiosities on her belt.
She was by no means a coward or weakling. To become an Acolyte, is to commit
one’s life to nature. Lorifain had endured cold nights waiting for poachers
and a twirl of her blade was enough to scare them from her woods. Yet, the idea
of going to Doktham terrified of her. Her greatest fear was something she had little
experience with. The dark. The true dark.
Doktham
was built miles under the foot hills of the north Shale Mountains. The only way
to reach the city at the bottom of the cavern, built by dwarf hands, was to
climb down. Luckily, the dwarves had seen fit to build a great stairway that
spiraled at a gentle slope for miles down to the city below. It would take half
a day to reach the bottom. A half day of walking down a path, a path barely a
meter wide, watching for any misstep, and knowing that there was no time to
rest. It was such a long way down and it was easy to imagine one falling into
the darkness below. Lorifain had already had a close call that morning.
She
had arrived at sunrise. An old dwarf, Borden, met her at the entrance. He was a
guide the king had sent to see her make it to the bottom. He was not the sort
of dwarf she had seen before. Most dwarves she had met were fur hunters and
dressed like little bears. Borden was wearing boiled leather. Most dwarves she
met had great beards braided into ornate and distinct shapes. Borden’s beard
was short and white, she wasn’t sure if her had hair, whatever had buried under
a leather cap. In fact, he wore so much leather that, with his goggles he wore,
she could see his nose to nose to his neck exposed. His fingertips were exposed
but so grimy that it was hard to tell where his fingertips began and gloves
ended. He had told her two rules,
“Most
important, don’t look down. If you have to, make sure it’s to check your
footing. It’s my job to look down.” She was grateful for
that rule, the latter was even simpler, “Do
as I say, when I say it, faster than I can say it.”
They
had made their way up to the top of a nearby hill and he had opened a little
door with a whisper of a password. The door had lit up with a symbol of a blue
five point star and the stout little man led her into a long hall. He lit a torch
and soon they were on the steps. She kept telling herself not to look down. She
focused on the wall across from her. She didn’t want to look down but it was
inevitable.
She
felt the whole world spin around her. The darkness below seemed to go on
forever and was the darkest dark she had ever seen. She had seen dark nights
but the stars always saved her. It was almost as if, even with her eyes closed,
it couldn’t be darker. In fact, she shut her eyes and reached out to grab
Borden’s shoulder. She slipped and fell on her butt. Borden had whipped around
and grabbed her arm.
She
didn’t scream. She couldn’t breathe. It was as if the darkness was all around
her and choking her. It was already terrifying enough to feel her legs dangle
over the edge but the blackness penetrated her soul. Above ground, she could
never experience this sense of dark, this sense of claustrophobia, this sense
of hopelessness. She was frozen.
She
heard Borden hissing and barking orders at her. She didn’t move. She just could
see herself falling, sinking into the black waves of the shadow below and
sinking down, down into nothingness. Suddenly, her face grew warm and light
bled through her eyelids. She opened her eyes, lids flicking open, and she
opened her mouth. She took a long gasp of air and panted, as she quickly stood
up, back to the wall.
Borden
had shaken his head at this display. He teased her and called her a “damned
elf.” She didn’t care. After a few minutes, she apologized for her foolishness
and thanked him. He had just chuckled, like the second time, “It’s alright,
Miss. I tell everyone not to look. But they do. People should never look until
they’re ready.”
Now,
as they got so close to the city that Lorifain could see the light bleeding through
the dark, and she knew she was ready.
*
 |
| A rough map of Beniro,. Doktham is highlighted. |
