Poll

Valizar's crusade:

Doesn't actually happen
1 (14.3%)
Gets defeated in its first battle
1 (14.3%)
Wins a few and takes control of the southern forest
1 (14.3%)
Succeeds in wiping out opposition in the forest and kills Greenfellow
3 (42.9%)
Destroys the world
1 (14.3%)

Total Members Voted: 7

Author Topic: Tales of the Heroes  (Read 40450 times)

Offline Valdis

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #150 on: January 17, 2021, 08:38:21 PM »
Two for one deal: I collected the ship and Valdis.  ;)
3 for 1 actually. Lewis was probably on Valdis’ back when he stood his ground

Offline Malchia

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #151 on: January 17, 2021, 09:03:56 PM »
3 for 1 actually. Lewis was probably on Valdis’ back when he stood his ground
Oh yeah, how could I forget about Lewis?  Although, I'm only hoping that Malchia succeeded.  Truth is, that excerpt may have been eloquently describing all of us being erased by the GoLK.

Offline Asinjin

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #152 on: January 20, 2021, 11:14:38 AM »
Nathan Tanner (Windblade, Seas)

After the voyage into the unknown and Sas' departure from the Guardian, Nathan continued his mission to travel to all of the shrines and temples of Lakius in order to convert them to his vision of the religion of Lakius.  The Guardian proved an excellent vehicle for the mission, as its notoriety and speed allowed him to travel the world quickly and safely.

By the time the reign of Iott began, he had visited a quarter of the locations, including many of the challenging ones, such as the Orcish city of Aquehar.  Iott's reign proved a boon for Nathan's efforts.  Because the high cleric of Lakius was Iottian, he was able to sail from port to port without question.  The seas had few pirates and the Grean Navy, allied with Iott, gave the Guardian no issues.  Seizing that opportunity, Nathan visited the Grean ports in those years.  This took up two years, during which the Guardian cam and went.  Paperwork, wait time, and long explanations were frequent.  It was far from what Nathan enjoyed, but he knew this was the best chance he would ever have to talk to the seaborne nation.  His efforts went as well as he could have hoped.  The faith in the Grean Republic leaned away from him morally, but they were not hermits, as community and group effort were very important.  He was able in two years to place advocates of his stance in every temple and a number of shrines.  He met with winged Gree and advocated they join the faith.  One such Gree, a winged one named Nikit became the leading advocate in the Republic for Nathan.

Nathan continued to visit Iottian friendly locations in those first years, taking advantage of the connection.  The Destroytian Republic and Thalmeret, where especially they did not want to he his message but were obliged to because of Iott's influence.  In Port Draeydan, he discovered that the cleric of Lakius who was listed as the high cleric there for fifty years had died and everyone had assumed he was living as a hermit.  At Lake Mournee in the republic, which was the most difficult trip as he had to fly inland to make it there, he found a cleric of Lakius that had never heard of Nathan but had already come to the same conclusions about the faith, a half elf named Espertain.

When magic changed, Nathan was aware but not concerned.  It had little impact on his powers or his mission.  After months, it seemed that the biggest impacts were on travel and combat; one of which Nathan could do easily without spells and the other he hadn't meaningfully engaged in years.  He next took his quest to Icefia, where the Vass high cleric salvager shrugged at his suggestions and cared not either way.  Clerics at the many ports in Icefia where happy to hear his preaching and many liked what they heard.  Nathan made sure to revisit all of the first places he had stopped.  On occasion, such as in Aquehar, things had fallen apart and he had to rebuild.

The Guardian remained a notable ship and it sailed the world even after the Ascension of Kallark.  Again the dynamic of magic effected Nathan little.  He attended the funeral of the Yellowian Admiral and cleric of Lakius Samuel Mist, a sad day as the old man had been a stabilizing force in Yellowia since the rise of Iott.  It also brought about the first power struggle Nathan encounter with the high cleric Handel.  The two had wildly different choices as to who should lead the faith in Yellowia.  Even though Handel's choice was officially installed, the faithful in Yellowia took their lead from Nathan's choice, a Gatori river manager named Gekol.

The tensions between Handel and Nathan grew in the years after Kallark's ascension.  Iott was reasserting itself and it was more direct that it had been in the first years.  As Nathan traveled to Kathow-tio-Horari, where the he formed a strong relationship with that religion and its new high cleric, Yukora, Handel pressured him to bring the Yinites more on board with Iott's plan.  Nathan had no interest in that.  When he went to Layreadia, the nation through a festival in his honor.  They killed out their long time high cleric of Lakius, and allowed Nathan to anoint a young new cleric.  Iott did like like Layraedia.

Through all these years, Nathan made a point to meet with the Sky Giants whenever the opportunity arose.  Every time he met them, one more giant grew tired of waiting for the return of Stromus and feared they other deities would not meet expectations, specifically Taivas Valtias.  Aad, the Cloud Giant cleric of Taivas Valtias was never happy with Nathan's arrival and constantly sought to thwart his efforts.


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Offline Asinjin

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #153 on: January 20, 2021, 11:51:16 AM »
Nathan part 2

The ebb and flow of world politics never meant much to Nathan, until finally he was forced to face it.  Handel called an official conclave of Lakius in 805.  On the Floating Isle, fifty clerics gathered.  The meeting did not go well for Nathan and his side.  The traditionalists where more experiences and more interested in formally and procedure.  They were generally older and wiser.  They had the backing of Iott.  They thanked Nathan for his efforts, as the faith had increased in size during his time, but they insisted the movement stop expanding.  They siting Layraedia's actions again and again, as well as the undermining of the Yellowian high cleric.  Nathan did his best, Pierre, his oldest ally in the effort made a good case as well.  In the end, it was clear a cold war was beginning.

Nathan returned to the Guardian and they sailed around the world, visiting every shrine and temple that he could.  The Guardian was barred entry at the Grean Ports and other places that strongly backed Iott.  Aquehar went so far as to call him an apostate and banned him from the Orcish Empire.  The ire of the quasi deities also rose against Nathan's side, a move he assumed was brought on by Handel's allies in Iott.  The Ritvalists and the cretures of Pulundogin,  Lavash'Ki as well, especially since the Yinites were on his side.

After that voyage, Nathan and the Guardian sailed to Port Talp and he made a fateful announcement.  The ship was now in too much danger and spending too much time on his personal quest.  The Guardian was meant to protect the seas and now it was ferrying him and protecting him.  He didn't need it.  All the time is was spending for him, it should be spending elsewhere.  The crew was competent, the ship even more powerful than it was fifteen years ago.  He said he would visit, and he was never far with the crown at his disposal.  There were tears and hugs and the feast lasted days.  Claude attended, although he only made the last few hours having gotten the date wrong.

Making the Home of the Harbor Port Talp his official base of operations, Nathan went to work in a way he found far less enjoyable than his efforts of the past nearly two decades.  Writing epistles and letters, he sought to remake the religion.  He had done a fantastic job getting into the world and convincing, but there was little written for his side.  For years, he traveled less little and wrote a lot.  Only when an emergency came up did he quickly go to a temple or shrine.  His most trusted clerics did the work he had done.  He spent his fortune hiring guards for his evangelists.  The Guardian and other friendly corsairs, who almost to a ship preferred his interpretation of the religion, conveyed them to port to port.  Yukora order the traveling Yinites to aid Nathan's clerics.

It was during this time, that Nathan learned of the disappearance of the Guardian of the Tides.
He immediately rushed out to check on the crew.  Finding them, by that point mostly safe at port, he heard the story of what had happened.  Rin returned as well to check on everyone.  The sad news and funerals took weeks.  Nathan spent a great deal of energy for several months looking for the ship.  Every time he got close, it wasn't there.  Stopping in Kathow, he met with his friend Yukora, you told him a hard truth.  He could not continue his mission and spend all the time searching for the Guardian.  Realizing that it may even be an Iottian plan to distract him, one that was working, he have up the quest.

Nathan's two books of the faith were adequate.  Pierre politely smiled and put them into print.  However, his letters to the faithful were much better.  His third letter to Upflou from 813 is considered the best of his writings.  Returning to the temple if Port Talp a year later, he was horrified to find Pierre almost dead.  If not for a spell Claude had taught him years before, the assassin that had come for him would have succeeded.  There was never any proof, but Iottian agents were suspected.  Word came that the next attack would not fail, and would likely be in the form of fire.  That meant only one Iottian, one even Nathan feared to face.

Hoping to protect Pierre, Nathan made in known he would go to another base, although he did not say where.  Irony that Nathan was not living alone, almost a hermit until he determined his next move.  When word reached Nathan of Kallark's defeat, he thought it may be the break the faith needed. He went to confront Handel on the Floating Isle.  The high cleric of alone, as one might expect.  "All is lost, the isle is yours, the faith is yours."  The defeated high cleric left.  Having no choice, but more accepting of the fate in his older age, Nathan took the helm of the isle.

All his time leading up to the Counsil meeting of 816 was preparing the religion for what might come next.

Cleric 8 / Seatender 10
« Last Edit: February 06, 2021, 11:01:19 PM by Asinjin »
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Offline Zunder

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #154 on: January 20, 2021, 12:59:36 PM »
Irony that Nathan was not living alone


Assuming this was Now..  you hussy!
« Last Edit: January 20, 2021, 01:24:30 PM by Zunder »

Offline whitesword

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #155 on: January 20, 2021, 01:10:56 PM »
I really hope we get to play out that 816 meeting. It would be a fitting capstone to all this craziness.

Offline Zunder

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #156 on: January 20, 2021, 01:12:53 PM »
I really hope we get to play out that 816 meeting. It would be a fitting capstone to all this craziness.


Maybe after a red sky, lightening, and  Ila'Alnar.  Probably a few more shoes that need to drop

Offline Windblade

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #157 on: January 20, 2021, 01:23:59 PM »
Love the reference to Claude and is Tchau the fire from Iott.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2021, 02:08:38 PM by Windblade »

Offline Asinjin

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #158 on: January 20, 2021, 05:44:17 PM »

Maybe after a red sky, lightening, and  Ila'Alnar.  Probably a few more shoes that need to drop

Likely a few, timeline please...
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Offline Asinjin

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #159 on: January 20, 2021, 05:45:15 PM »
Love the reference to Claude and is Tchau the fire from Iott.

Some have already speculated that in posted, but it is not confirmed.
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Offline Zunder

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #160 on: January 20, 2021, 09:31:24 PM »
Breadcrumbs
790
Great Forrest Treaty
792
Hothmur Mountain Magic visit's Natsu's
796
Assualt on Baernl
797
Assualt on Grimhold
800
Grapalore
803
Sutyr betrays council
805
Conclave of Lakius
809
Day of Dust
809
Attack on Amasky - weeks of terror
810
Merid Destroyed
810
Grant calls out Razk
811
Gneblin Assassination
811
Battle of the Jungle Revealed
812
Spaz leaves
814
Kallark was destroyed
815
Artemus returns to Plateau
815
Battle of Mount Ila'Alnar ( Last stand ofSutyr)
815
Vega named chief constable
815
Iott is back to being in the place it was before (Schurke)
816
Undead came to Plateau (Grimhold )
816
Council Meeting
816
Red Glow on the Plateau
816
Low Bar Lightening

Offline Asinjin

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #161 on: January 20, 2021, 11:15:04 PM »
Rin Matasumo (Zunder, Seas)

After the events in the unknown and on the forgotten island, Rin and the Guardian of the Tides continued to sail on its corsair mission around the world.  While she felt comfortable and happy on the ship, as the years went by, Rin also felt like she could do more in other ways.  The ship limited her to travel from port to port and the area near the ship she could cover during the trip.  She held a position among the crew and had duties on the ship due to that position.  Habits are hard to break and routine is easy, so Rin remained and did good work on the Guardian for years. 

She collected information on the great Sakor'akai slayer, trying to track his movements in hopes of finding him.  He remained elusive and with few large whales to hunt, he seemed to focus on dragons, leaving him typically far for Rin's reach.  She tracked whaling ships put crews on notice not to join up with them.  These years were bad for whalers and good for Rin.  She did not know as it happened, but years later learned that Iott's reign had an unintended and good consequence.  They proliferation of magic and magical techniques meant that less whale oil was needed.  In the five years of their reign and shortly after, the amount of whaling halved by Rin's estimate; some of that due to Rin's efforts.

Her work went hand in hand with Nathan's efforts to remake the religion of Lakius.  At one point, though, Rin had an epiphany.  If Nathan succeeded, might that drain power from Treetop?  If Lakius became the tender to all sea life, wouldn't that encroach on Treetop?  Rin's guarded animal fell right in the path of the collision.  She never tried to stop Nathan, and helped him at port.  But a divine inspiration gave her pause at times.  In 800, Rin came to the conclusion that it was time to leave the Guardian.  Conflicted by Nathan's mission and chained to the ship's limits, it was no longer what was best for her and the whales.

Announcing her decision while the ship was at port in Kathow-tio-Horari, the crew quickly arranged a party in her honor.  Embarrassed, but not wanting to take away their moment, she agreed.  For three days, they told tales and made merry.  Len, the fey doctor and fellow cleric of Treetop, usually subdued, read a tearful poem in her honor.  By its length and complexity, which included several stanzas in fey that many didn't understand, he had been writing it for far longer than the few days they had been stopped.

Rin left the Guardian on a warm summer day at dawn as the tide rolled out to sea.  Many of the crew watched until she was out of sight.  She fired an arrow over the horizon as a final farewell and sunk it deep into the mast.  The crew left it there.

With Tsunami at her side, Rin now set about the task of making the world a better place for whales.  Her efforts and the drop in whaling had increased the population by a notable about.  The area around Kathow-tio-Horari, where the Yinites seemed to make everyone so fertile Rin didn't even want to hug any men while there, had given birth to packs of whales.  Trying to take advantage of that, Rin collected endangered whales from all over the world and brought them near to Hiyokuna Machi.  In the water near there, whales prospered and helped repopulate.  Still a slow process for whales, but nonetheless faster than any place else.

Rin was invited to the jungles to meet with Vavalikai Jungletree, high cleric of Treetop.  The meeting meant that she had achieved the highest honor of an animal guard.  Dozens gathered for the banquet, which also honored the owl guard and the gnomish prairie dog guard.  Rin was clearly the most sought out at the event, as the whale guard had a long tradition and was a challenging and respected role.

Times grew hard for the animal guard as the plagues came, but not for Rin.  At no time did a plague infect any whales.  She was ever vigilant and watched as the guards of other creatures were tormented by the plagues.  The sheep guard, the goat guard, and very sadly the high cleric, the guard of the elves all perished.  Rin wanted to help, but her orders and mandate were clear.  Guard the whales.  She offered aid when she could, but the whales were on a path to recovery, and that shouldn't be jeopardized.

After the worst of the plagues was over, Rin spent more time among people again.  It was on one such occasion when she and the slayer met again.
« Last Edit: February 13, 2021, 09:54:19 PM by Asinjin »
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Offline Asinjin

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #162 on: January 21, 2021, 10:39:32 AM »
Rin part 2

While visiting Veronica and her family, Rin heard Tsunami's call.  It was one of warning and urgency.  Rushing into the water looking out to the horizon Rin saw the enormous wings of the Sakor'akai slayer.  With his huge hunting spear in hand, we dove into the warm mating waters around the blessed island.  Blood blossomed into the water as he swooped back up ready for another dive.  Tsu met Rin and they races to the area.  Standing atop the whale, she pulled her bow and fired arrow after arrow toward the Sakor'akai.  Year of planning and waiting had readied her.  A fortune had been spent on the items she now wielded to defeat her prey.

Since last they had met, he too had improved his arsenal.  Scales of bronze and gold were draped around him to protect him, bones daggers adorned his belt, neck and head.  The arrows pelted him but did not pierce his skin.  Diving at her, finally an arrow drove into his shoulder having deflected off his bone crown, a shot Rin thought should have killed him.  He crashed into her and Tsu.  His spear tore into the whale and he latched onto Rin.  Tsu, nearly killed from the incredible flurry of the dive withdrew and he lifted Rin out of the water.

Up they flew as Rin prayed for protection and stabbed at him with a dagger.  Prepared for such an instance, her dagger was crafted to harm the slayer and each time to punched through the armor he winced.  One final strike and his wings went limp.  They plummeted towards the sea.  "We go together." he mumbled.  Rin again prayed for a spell to escape, but the slayer broke her casting.  They hit the water with incredible speed.

She had no idea when it was, but Rin when it was cold.  She was underwater, in utter darkness.  For only a brief moment she thought she was dead.  More likely another plane.  When she heard a voice, she thought something else.  Retsunagi, the eel creatures of the northern seas.  By the end of a few weeks, she learned, as the Retsunagi seemed unconcerned about telling her, that they were paid to keep are imprisoned.  They knew nothing of the slayer's whereabouts.  They would not tell her the time, and in the darkness, it was impossible to keep track.  Her prayers were sometimes answered, but those that would help her escape failed.

The time, years she assumed, was dull and cold.  Prayer and her captures concern for keeping her alive kept her going.  It was miserable, but not tortuous.  It was clear that whoever had paid to keep her there wanted her alive and healthy enough.  Daily, she called out to the whales, hoping for an answer.  Some voiced their regret, but the home of the Retsunagi was a place the feared to go.  She called upon the horde and called to the traveler, but they did not come.  She feared they were dead, for nothing else she could perceive would keep them from her.

On occasion, she would have company in the cells near her, they were sailors and fishers.  Sadly, they were kept alive to feed off of for only as long as their bodies would hold out giving blood to the Retsunagi.  It was a sad state.  One time, a Gree was put, unconscious, into the cell near her.  Rin was intrigued and a but excited.  The Retsunagi did not feast on Gree, so his reason for being here was be something else.  News of the world and the date were the little facts that helped her get thought this.

She was shocked when the gree opened his eyes and she saw a glint of recognition.  "Hello Rin, I have come to repay you."  Ritvali slipped between the bars and unlocked her.  "Quickly we go and I will deliver you to a friend."  They swam quickly, with Ritvali carrying her along.  Excitement and praying this was not a delusion raced in Rin's mind.  That it was Ritvali and not someone else convinced her it was not a dream, for she would not have picked or guessed him as savior.  Reaching the surface, her eyes took a long time to adjust to the light, but soon enough she saw the form of another Gree, an iceflow, and penguins.

Nezhek Unhebna awaited her and tended to her.  Ritvali spoke, "The Guardian of the Tides has gone missing.  Many of the crew are dead.  The Traveler of the Seas travels no more.  Tsu is out there somewhere.  But you are alive Guardian Rin, and you have me and Nezhek to thank.  Recover and remember, and I will meet you again."  Ritvali dove into the water, leaving a pile of items which belonged to Rin.

The ice flow sailed north, where Rin could recover in peace.

Cleric 6 / Ranger 4 / Animal Guard 10


« Last Edit: February 13, 2021, 09:52:29 PM by Asinjin »
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Offline Windblade

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #163 on: January 21, 2021, 11:05:04 AM »
Enjoyed the story. Who is Nezhek Unhebna? 

Offline Malchia

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Re: Tales of the Heroes
« Reply #164 on: January 21, 2021, 11:07:02 AM »
Enjoyed the story. Who is Nezhek Unhebna?
Isn't he the penguin guard?