Post by Gando on Mar 2, 2008 3:48:52 GMT -5
[Prequel: ~ Grug gets a mission and some $]
Author's brief note: This was really supposed to be one day in the life of Grug The Paladin/ChaosLord/JusticeWarrior but I have gotten abit carried away so now its more like a Year in the Life...Hope you (readers) do not mind.
Ok so growing up in a slum in some huge city like Jindar is no picnic..but toss in being an orphan, odd-looking and with strange abilities to boot and you have a recipe for hell on earth. That is how Grug our beloved hero started out.
But a mysterious stranger changed all that one late night...Grug ever a perspicatious fellow quickly saw the note as a means for a better life and a way to perhaps better the lives of his fellow misfits and orphans in the process. Deliver a message was all he need do. The note he recieved from the stranger came with a sealed envelope which his burgeoning arcane senses told him was mage locked very tightly. The note implied he would be well rewarded if he could deliver this message in a timely fashion to a hermit who lived just a bit west of an obscure town called Udor. Not too far a journey in the autumn for a healthy lad to make.
So he scraped together what little food he could scrounge, said goodbye to his fellow street urchins and off he went...Sure enough a week and a half later he found the hermit, noted in the missive as a "blue bearded dwarf with the complexion of pitted iron and the eyes of a hungry wolverine." More like a hungry deer prolly, thought Grug being hungry himself after a week of no food, as he trundled up the path to the cottage and knocked on the door.
"Hrmmph! Who dare disturb the rest of Old man Black bear!" a voice came growling out of the cabin as the door cracked open. The first thing Grug saw was a dagger made of well-cast iron, the point of which was inches from his nostrils. he looked around the dagger, past the gnarled knuckles of the fairly large hand down the diminutive arm with buldging biceps to the face like the rocky side of a well worn cliff. Sure enough it was a blue-bearded dwarf but the note's description was too kind by far to liken that face to pitted iron.
"Well?? What is yer business lad? Or shall I slit yer gullet and have a nice stew tonite?" That last question came out as a chuckle but there seemed little humor in it.
"I...I always thought dwarves lived in big places with lots of stone around them and carried large axes and picks for digging etc...er that is...hehehello?"
"That's no answer lad, and don't bother thinking things fer yer self, youll just end up boggled like a stone giant at a tea party."
[Storyteller aside: Everyone but our dear hero knows that stone giants are very much loners and hate company due to extreme shyness but back to our story.]
"Well?? Speak up! I haven't got all day ya know. The sun is soon setting and I have things to get done before then. Hurry up or Ill just slit yer throat here and now lad!"
"WellermynameisGrugtheVagabondsirandIam..."
At this point Grug slowed down a bit to avoid stammering and continued though somewhat breathlessly: "I'm supposed to deliver an envelope to the hermit who lives here. The note I was given said Id be rewarded...Please dont kill me?"
"Grug, heh? Vagabond I can smell...but you dont look much like a Grug...parents too lazy to find a real name? Eh no matter...lets have it! Come on dont take all day! The envelope please?" With that Grug reached into his pouch and pulled forth the still sealed if slightly crumpled envelope and handed it to the surely dwarf.
The dwarf hermit sheathed his dagger at his side and grabbed the envelope, muttered something under his breath and blue runes appeared above it breifly. He ripped open the envelope with haste and eagerly read the letter within, while astonished Grug looked on in wonder. A mage? the Note didnt say anything about a mage. Though to think of it....who else could overcome a magelock? Maybe he can train me a little as a reward?
But Grug's pondering came to naught as the surely dwarf apparently forgetting his guest entirely slammed the door in Grug's face (missing his nose by an inch by the way) and left the poor lad standing in the autumn evening air.
Grug was at a loss, fatigued and hungry beyond endurance and completely forsaken by all humanity it seemed. He sat down in front of the cottage and leaned his back against the wall and sobbed a bit.
A voice spoke into his head: "Take heart little one! The world is cruel but it is also bountiful!" Grug looked up with a start. Huh?Where? Who? HUH???
The voice did not speak again and Grug dismissed it as a hunger pang gone wild. As he was thinking this the door to the cottage opened again and a voice much gruffer rang out in his ear.
"Still here huh? Oh I forgot! Twas supposed to give you this. Tis part of some bigger plan I think but I only know its none of my business...Inside you'll find all you need." Grug looked up at the dwarf holding a huge backpack filled to the brim out to him. He quickly got up and dusted himself off drying his eyes.
"Th. Tha...Thank you!" He stammered out.
"Bah if it was up to me I'd let the wolves have ya but yer apparently fated for worse than that." He turned and started to head back inside and then turned with a strange look on his face. "Yer luck will run out quick enough if yer don't even have a weapon to fend yerself with. Best take this." And suddenly the same dagger he was threatened with earlier was thrust yet again in Grug's face...this time pommel first. Grug took it tentively and then recieved the hand made leather sheath for it as it flew through the air and hit his shoulder.
"That's my favorite hunting dagger there but its the only thing I have that I trust you not t'kill yerself wid. Now be off before I change my mind and call dem wolves myself." He turned around stroking his blue beard pensively and stomped back inside. The door slammed closed a moment later.
Grug stood nonplussed for a moment and then shrugged philosophically as he was accustomed to doing when faced with things he didn't understand and couldn't explain.
As he trudged back down the road and off towards udor he wondered what was in the bag...his hunger and curiousity soon overcame his need to be away from the potentially crazy mage dwarf with the brusk manner. He sat down on a large rock and set the backpack down in front of him and opened the lid. Inside were scrollls, and food rations...
[storyteller aside: ewww I hate these things...all dried out and hard to chew but its not my tale...Im just the teller and according to Grug this is how it happened...anyway...back to the story.]
and a leather breastplate that looked like it might fit Grug's oversized chest. at the bottom was a pouch and a note.
Grug read the note while munching a bisquit and dried apple skin. (ewww?)
Grug stopped chewing so his brain could absorb the food for thought. Mysterious Stranger huh? so that's why those eyes were mismatched like mine...same race? Zulgor? Wonder what that means. Wonder if that has anything to do with my natural affinity for making magical energies do funny things? Like this...
And he flung a small burst of energy from his finger tips towards a nearby boulder which promptly turned into a bush and then incinerated into ash.
Sure wish that didnt make me so darned tired and that it worked more often, he thought to himself.
Grug got up after finishing his food, hefted the backpack onto his back easily and headed off to the east where the town (homlet?) of Udor lay. His trepidation over the unknown offset momentarily by the prospect of good fortune and possible adventure.
Author's brief note: This was really supposed to be one day in the life of Grug The Paladin/ChaosLord/JusticeWarrior but I have gotten abit carried away so now its more like a Year in the Life...Hope you (readers) do not mind.
Ok so growing up in a slum in some huge city like Jindar is no picnic..but toss in being an orphan, odd-looking and with strange abilities to boot and you have a recipe for hell on earth. That is how Grug our beloved hero started out.
But a mysterious stranger changed all that one late night...Grug ever a perspicatious fellow quickly saw the note as a means for a better life and a way to perhaps better the lives of his fellow misfits and orphans in the process. Deliver a message was all he need do. The note he recieved from the stranger came with a sealed envelope which his burgeoning arcane senses told him was mage locked very tightly. The note implied he would be well rewarded if he could deliver this message in a timely fashion to a hermit who lived just a bit west of an obscure town called Udor. Not too far a journey in the autumn for a healthy lad to make.
So he scraped together what little food he could scrounge, said goodbye to his fellow street urchins and off he went...Sure enough a week and a half later he found the hermit, noted in the missive as a "blue bearded dwarf with the complexion of pitted iron and the eyes of a hungry wolverine." More like a hungry deer prolly, thought Grug being hungry himself after a week of no food, as he trundled up the path to the cottage and knocked on the door.
"Hrmmph! Who dare disturb the rest of Old man Black bear!" a voice came growling out of the cabin as the door cracked open. The first thing Grug saw was a dagger made of well-cast iron, the point of which was inches from his nostrils. he looked around the dagger, past the gnarled knuckles of the fairly large hand down the diminutive arm with buldging biceps to the face like the rocky side of a well worn cliff. Sure enough it was a blue-bearded dwarf but the note's description was too kind by far to liken that face to pitted iron.
"Well?? What is yer business lad? Or shall I slit yer gullet and have a nice stew tonite?" That last question came out as a chuckle but there seemed little humor in it.
"I...I always thought dwarves lived in big places with lots of stone around them and carried large axes and picks for digging etc...er that is...hehehello?"
"That's no answer lad, and don't bother thinking things fer yer self, youll just end up boggled like a stone giant at a tea party."
[Storyteller aside: Everyone but our dear hero knows that stone giants are very much loners and hate company due to extreme shyness but back to our story.]
"Well?? Speak up! I haven't got all day ya know. The sun is soon setting and I have things to get done before then. Hurry up or Ill just slit yer throat here and now lad!"
"WellermynameisGrugtheVagabondsirandIam..."
At this point Grug slowed down a bit to avoid stammering and continued though somewhat breathlessly: "I'm supposed to deliver an envelope to the hermit who lives here. The note I was given said Id be rewarded...Please dont kill me?"
"Grug, heh? Vagabond I can smell...but you dont look much like a Grug...parents too lazy to find a real name? Eh no matter...lets have it! Come on dont take all day! The envelope please?" With that Grug reached into his pouch and pulled forth the still sealed if slightly crumpled envelope and handed it to the surely dwarf.
The dwarf hermit sheathed his dagger at his side and grabbed the envelope, muttered something under his breath and blue runes appeared above it breifly. He ripped open the envelope with haste and eagerly read the letter within, while astonished Grug looked on in wonder. A mage? the Note didnt say anything about a mage. Though to think of it....who else could overcome a magelock? Maybe he can train me a little as a reward?
But Grug's pondering came to naught as the surely dwarf apparently forgetting his guest entirely slammed the door in Grug's face (missing his nose by an inch by the way) and left the poor lad standing in the autumn evening air.
Grug was at a loss, fatigued and hungry beyond endurance and completely forsaken by all humanity it seemed. He sat down in front of the cottage and leaned his back against the wall and sobbed a bit.
A voice spoke into his head: "Take heart little one! The world is cruel but it is also bountiful!" Grug looked up with a start. Huh?Where? Who? HUH???
The voice did not speak again and Grug dismissed it as a hunger pang gone wild. As he was thinking this the door to the cottage opened again and a voice much gruffer rang out in his ear.
"Still here huh? Oh I forgot! Twas supposed to give you this. Tis part of some bigger plan I think but I only know its none of my business...Inside you'll find all you need." Grug looked up at the dwarf holding a huge backpack filled to the brim out to him. He quickly got up and dusted himself off drying his eyes.
"Th. Tha...Thank you!" He stammered out.
"Bah if it was up to me I'd let the wolves have ya but yer apparently fated for worse than that." He turned and started to head back inside and then turned with a strange look on his face. "Yer luck will run out quick enough if yer don't even have a weapon to fend yerself with. Best take this." And suddenly the same dagger he was threatened with earlier was thrust yet again in Grug's face...this time pommel first. Grug took it tentively and then recieved the hand made leather sheath for it as it flew through the air and hit his shoulder.
"That's my favorite hunting dagger there but its the only thing I have that I trust you not t'kill yerself wid. Now be off before I change my mind and call dem wolves myself." He turned around stroking his blue beard pensively and stomped back inside. The door slammed closed a moment later.
Grug stood nonplussed for a moment and then shrugged philosophically as he was accustomed to doing when faced with things he didn't understand and couldn't explain.
As he trudged back down the road and off towards udor he wondered what was in the bag...his hunger and curiousity soon overcame his need to be away from the potentially crazy mage dwarf with the brusk manner. He sat down on a large rock and set the backpack down in front of him and opened the lid. Inside were scrollls, and food rations...
[storyteller aside: ewww I hate these things...all dried out and hard to chew but its not my tale...Im just the teller and according to Grug this is how it happened...anyway...back to the story.]
and a leather breastplate that looked like it might fit Grug's oversized chest. at the bottom was a pouch and a note.
Grug read the note while munching a bisquit and dried apple skin. (ewww?)
"Dear Grug,
You must have many questions. Unfortunately neither you nor I have the time nor luxery to fill these questions with answers in this note. Suffice to say in the course of your adventures Im certain you will find out all you need to know and then some. Who am I? Do not worry about that. I'm merely someone passing along good fortune to a fellow Zulgor in need. Im sure you will do the same some day for some other member of our rare and oft beleaguered race. For now please use these meager rations and golds to buy yourself passage to Udor. There is trouble there brewing and someone is needed to sort it out. Your intelligence is manifest in the fact that you are reading this note so you must be capable of doing as you have been requested to do. Much good fortune will follow you if you do. If not...well the loss a thousand gold pence here or there will not hurt as much as the possible demise of a fellow Zulgor.
Signed: A mysterious Stranger."
Grug stopped chewing so his brain could absorb the food for thought. Mysterious Stranger huh? so that's why those eyes were mismatched like mine...same race? Zulgor? Wonder what that means. Wonder if that has anything to do with my natural affinity for making magical energies do funny things? Like this...
And he flung a small burst of energy from his finger tips towards a nearby boulder which promptly turned into a bush and then incinerated into ash.
Sure wish that didnt make me so darned tired and that it worked more often, he thought to himself.
Grug got up after finishing his food, hefted the backpack onto his back easily and headed off to the east where the town (homlet?) of Udor lay. His trepidation over the unknown offset momentarily by the prospect of good fortune and possible adventure.