Post by mrdent12 on Jul 29, 2009 12:39:09 GMT -8
A robed figure walked up to a makeshift camp in the middle of nowhere just as the sun was rising. He had been traveling for a day and his robe was covered in leaves and dirt. The terrain had been treacherous and the man was leaning heavily on his staff. For the most part, the camp was empty save for a midnight black raven eating what looked to be a two zombie eyes and a creature the robed figure recognised as a Shifter that was apparently napping. Next to the Shifter lay a bow that looked almost as big as the Shifter itself, two crescent shaped blades, and a pile of freshly picked berries. As the robe figure approached, the raven looked up from his feast and screamed "Move no more", causing the robed figure to jump back startled.
The Shifter stretched out his arms and yawned sleepily. Instinctively, his hand reached for his bow and a arrow from the quiver lying next to it. His eyes scanned the surrounding area with a deceptively lazy scan. The camp seemed to be in some semblance of order and the only out of place object was a robed figure with a staff that was blocking his view of the rising sun. The Shifter closed his eyes and opened them again, the robed figure persisted to be blocking his view. "You must be the chronicler that temple said they would send to chronicle my life for that great library of yours. If I had known it would cost me a view of the sunrise I wouldn't have agreed to it. Could you step aside?", yawned the Shifter.
The robed figure stepped aside and said in a apologetic tone, "Please forgive me. I have been traveling all night to reach this place. It wasn't the easiest to find. My name is Ishkur and you must be Torok. I must confess, I was expecting a much older looking Shifter and a less eye eating birds."
"Don' let the boyish good looks fool you, I am over 100 years old and the bird is a raven. His name is Death on account of taste for eyes. I heard it said once that raven's helped creatures cross over by eating their eyes. Personally, I think he just likes the various tastes and to test his strong constitution.", retorted Torok.
"I did not mean offence. I ask you to forgive me. I have never chronicled the life of any non-elf over eighty. The trip here also made me weary. Do you mind if I eat something while I interview you? I am famished.", asked Ishkur.
"I only mind if you mind if I eat. A good meal in the morning is one of the simple joys in life. That is one thing I learned in all these years, enjoy the simple pleasures because in death they no longer can be enjoyed. Now where do we start?", responded Torok.
"Traditionally from when you were born and we go from there.", answered Ishkur as he put some ink on his pen in preparation to start writing.
"Well, I was born in a town next to a supposedly blessed or cursed forest depending on who you talked to. It was rumoured that a race of mighty hunters that could turn into animals lived there and anyone who entered was killed by them. My parents, trackers and guides by trade, told me the stories were nonsense, but always seemed to lead groups they were guiding around the forest and never tracked anyone into the woods. They were rather bad at hiding their fear of the place. Once when they were showing me the nuances of tracking, I went into the forest to hide from them. They knew where I went, but just kept yelling at me to get out. They made an amusing sight of themselves. As I was laughing at it, I heard another voice laughing at my parents. To my great surprise it was another Shifter like me. When I saw it, it turned into a wolf and ran deeper into the woods. From that day on, my parents banned me from the woods.
A couple years later, when I was in town, I heard a local warlord talk about invading the forest and using the resources gained to increase the wealth of the town. I ran straight home to my parents home and grabbed my fathers bow, the same one I have to this day. I tried to get to the forest to warn the Shifters, but by the time I got there the battle was over. The warlord's army was destroyed, but so was much of the forest. From a distance, I noticed the Shifters getting ready to move out, so I did what any young boy with wanderlust would do, I ran home and packed a bag to follow them. My father saw me packing and asked where I was going. I told him the truth, that I was following myths. He told me to be careful and if I ever wanted to come home the door was always open. He also gave me his bow and told me he understood. He too wanted to explore in his youth. One day I will want to settle down and when I did I could always come home he said.
I made sure to stay at least a day behind the tribe. It would have been easier to follow a advanced scouting party of Elves. They always had different sort of tracks. One day it was panthers and another day it was wolves. If not for the large numbers I would not be able to follow them. Anyway, one day I came across a gruesome scene of Shifter and plant creature bodies. I was shocked. I traveled all night and snuck around the camp they made to see if they were alright. It was tragic. Much of their youth had died. I kept a closer trail of them from than on, silently staying within eye shot of them until they came to a out of the way forest. I decided to stay back when I caught the scent of Elves and saw the signs of watch tower construction. I managed to evade some patrols of Drow and Elves, but a raven kept following me from the sky. A human ambushed me while I was resting and he had the raven on his shoulder.
'Well, well aren't you the good hider. Those patrols are some of the best scouts around.', he told me. He introduced himself as Arty and further explained that his 500 years experience was nearly impossible to hide from. We got to talking about our travels and he offered to take me as his apprentice in tracking, trapping, and hunting. I was already a good shot from a distance because of my upbringing, but he said there is more to hunting than tracking, hiding well, and shooting well. Before he could teach me though, he had to take care of some business that I could aid him with. We ambushed a small group of Drow heading to the Elven village. It was like picking off rabbits. We hid behind the trees and shot from over 250 feet away. The Drow never knew what hit them. Within a matter of minutes the Drow were dead. Until that day I had never killed anyone, but it only seemed right since they had the heads of their enemies on their belts.
The next few weeks we ambushed more small parties of Drow and occasionally Elves that had small Drow children. I never did find out what the war was about and Arty had no idea either. He just felt like it was the right thing to do. He even gave me the gift of a raven. I never had a pet before, but this one seemed to bond with me. I found that the raven liked to eat the eyes of the creatures we killed so I decided to name him Death. The four of us were like a family and for several years we traveled from place to place occasionally raiding demon caravans, grave yards infested with the undead, caravans of war parties, and slave traders. We did all of this because it seemed right at the time. You must understand, by right I do not mean good. It was just some whim that arose.
One day while we were resting and joking around Arty's tone changed to serious. He asked me if I had ever wondered why he had lived so long and looked like he never aged. I had just assumed he was joking about his age. He told me told me that it was because he had the gift. A gift that had been passed on from the dawn of time. Whoever possessed the gift would never die of old age. In the event of the possessors death the gift would randomly pass on to someone else. Whenever a possessor of the gift was bored with life he could pass it on to anyone willing. It turns out that all those years of travel with him was his test of my worthiness to have the gift. With it I could travel as long as I wanted and do all all I wanted to do. Before giving me the gift, he cautioned it is also a curse because anyone I love will eventually grow old and die. He had his one love die a hundred years ago and has been looking for someone he deemed willing to pass the gift on to ever since. He put his hands on the side of my head and I felt invigorated. When I opened my eyes I saw that he was a wrinkled corpse. At the same time as he passed me the gift, his raven flew over to Death and touched his wing and a spirit seemed to pass into Death. Death also seemed to become resistant to most diseases from the eyes he ate.
Ever since I have been traveling and tracking caravans and war parties. I once even tracked a demonic caravan for a year as it made it's way to some extremely eery city. When I got bored with that continent, I think I heard it once referred to as Pangaea, I came to this one. I thought maybe this one would be fun to explore. I also ran into a bit of trouble there. I raided the caravan of some slave traders heading to Hold. They didn't take too kindly to my raid and reported me as a murderer and thief to the magistrate. When I came to this continent one of your monks looked at me and said he knew Arty, my master. It seems they had corresponded for a long time. He asked if I would be willing to let a chronicler from his order chronicle my life and here you are.", finished Torok.
"That is quite the interesting life. Was this out of the way forest next to some caves?", asked Ishkur.
"Yes, that is where the Drow lived if I recall correctly. Details merge together after a while.", said Torok.
"Than you were part of the war too. The war that gave me a similar condition to you. For you see, I am also resistant to aging, mostly due to the lightening that resides in me. I was on the side of the Drow for sometime, but now see they were the aggressors.", enthused Ishkur.
"Seems to be a common occurrence of this long life thing. Too bad you had to be on a side in the war. It truly was a fun war to be neutral in.", said Torok as he pulled an eye out of his bag and gave it to Death. "Does this disturb you? I am sorry. It has been a couple weeks since I fed him eyes, so I am letting him indulge for a little on these werewolf eyes."
"No it does not bother me. I am just amazed you killed a werewolf.", said Ishkur in awe.
"Well if you will excuse I must be going. I hope you got all you needed.", said Torok while he packed up his stuff and disappeared into the woods.
For the next couple decades Torok traveled through the woods and wilds of Creation. As time progressed, he got into trouble in Creation as well for sniping a family that was transporting gnome slaves he had been following for two or three years. He made his way back to Pangaea's and landed in one of the smaller port cities. He hated the airships, never could understand why people wanted to fly. He stayed mostly in the wilderness, but one day while he was traveling near Fall crest a messenger gave him a note and promptly ran away. If he was pardoned he might as well see who arranged the pardon for him and headed to Fall crest.
The Shifter stretched out his arms and yawned sleepily. Instinctively, his hand reached for his bow and a arrow from the quiver lying next to it. His eyes scanned the surrounding area with a deceptively lazy scan. The camp seemed to be in some semblance of order and the only out of place object was a robed figure with a staff that was blocking his view of the rising sun. The Shifter closed his eyes and opened them again, the robed figure persisted to be blocking his view. "You must be the chronicler that temple said they would send to chronicle my life for that great library of yours. If I had known it would cost me a view of the sunrise I wouldn't have agreed to it. Could you step aside?", yawned the Shifter.
The robed figure stepped aside and said in a apologetic tone, "Please forgive me. I have been traveling all night to reach this place. It wasn't the easiest to find. My name is Ishkur and you must be Torok. I must confess, I was expecting a much older looking Shifter and a less eye eating birds."
"Don' let the boyish good looks fool you, I am over 100 years old and the bird is a raven. His name is Death on account of taste for eyes. I heard it said once that raven's helped creatures cross over by eating their eyes. Personally, I think he just likes the various tastes and to test his strong constitution.", retorted Torok.
"I did not mean offence. I ask you to forgive me. I have never chronicled the life of any non-elf over eighty. The trip here also made me weary. Do you mind if I eat something while I interview you? I am famished.", asked Ishkur.
"I only mind if you mind if I eat. A good meal in the morning is one of the simple joys in life. That is one thing I learned in all these years, enjoy the simple pleasures because in death they no longer can be enjoyed. Now where do we start?", responded Torok.
"Traditionally from when you were born and we go from there.", answered Ishkur as he put some ink on his pen in preparation to start writing.
"Well, I was born in a town next to a supposedly blessed or cursed forest depending on who you talked to. It was rumoured that a race of mighty hunters that could turn into animals lived there and anyone who entered was killed by them. My parents, trackers and guides by trade, told me the stories were nonsense, but always seemed to lead groups they were guiding around the forest and never tracked anyone into the woods. They were rather bad at hiding their fear of the place. Once when they were showing me the nuances of tracking, I went into the forest to hide from them. They knew where I went, but just kept yelling at me to get out. They made an amusing sight of themselves. As I was laughing at it, I heard another voice laughing at my parents. To my great surprise it was another Shifter like me. When I saw it, it turned into a wolf and ran deeper into the woods. From that day on, my parents banned me from the woods.
A couple years later, when I was in town, I heard a local warlord talk about invading the forest and using the resources gained to increase the wealth of the town. I ran straight home to my parents home and grabbed my fathers bow, the same one I have to this day. I tried to get to the forest to warn the Shifters, but by the time I got there the battle was over. The warlord's army was destroyed, but so was much of the forest. From a distance, I noticed the Shifters getting ready to move out, so I did what any young boy with wanderlust would do, I ran home and packed a bag to follow them. My father saw me packing and asked where I was going. I told him the truth, that I was following myths. He told me to be careful and if I ever wanted to come home the door was always open. He also gave me his bow and told me he understood. He too wanted to explore in his youth. One day I will want to settle down and when I did I could always come home he said.
I made sure to stay at least a day behind the tribe. It would have been easier to follow a advanced scouting party of Elves. They always had different sort of tracks. One day it was panthers and another day it was wolves. If not for the large numbers I would not be able to follow them. Anyway, one day I came across a gruesome scene of Shifter and plant creature bodies. I was shocked. I traveled all night and snuck around the camp they made to see if they were alright. It was tragic. Much of their youth had died. I kept a closer trail of them from than on, silently staying within eye shot of them until they came to a out of the way forest. I decided to stay back when I caught the scent of Elves and saw the signs of watch tower construction. I managed to evade some patrols of Drow and Elves, but a raven kept following me from the sky. A human ambushed me while I was resting and he had the raven on his shoulder.
'Well, well aren't you the good hider. Those patrols are some of the best scouts around.', he told me. He introduced himself as Arty and further explained that his 500 years experience was nearly impossible to hide from. We got to talking about our travels and he offered to take me as his apprentice in tracking, trapping, and hunting. I was already a good shot from a distance because of my upbringing, but he said there is more to hunting than tracking, hiding well, and shooting well. Before he could teach me though, he had to take care of some business that I could aid him with. We ambushed a small group of Drow heading to the Elven village. It was like picking off rabbits. We hid behind the trees and shot from over 250 feet away. The Drow never knew what hit them. Within a matter of minutes the Drow were dead. Until that day I had never killed anyone, but it only seemed right since they had the heads of their enemies on their belts.
The next few weeks we ambushed more small parties of Drow and occasionally Elves that had small Drow children. I never did find out what the war was about and Arty had no idea either. He just felt like it was the right thing to do. He even gave me the gift of a raven. I never had a pet before, but this one seemed to bond with me. I found that the raven liked to eat the eyes of the creatures we killed so I decided to name him Death. The four of us were like a family and for several years we traveled from place to place occasionally raiding demon caravans, grave yards infested with the undead, caravans of war parties, and slave traders. We did all of this because it seemed right at the time. You must understand, by right I do not mean good. It was just some whim that arose.
One day while we were resting and joking around Arty's tone changed to serious. He asked me if I had ever wondered why he had lived so long and looked like he never aged. I had just assumed he was joking about his age. He told me told me that it was because he had the gift. A gift that had been passed on from the dawn of time. Whoever possessed the gift would never die of old age. In the event of the possessors death the gift would randomly pass on to someone else. Whenever a possessor of the gift was bored with life he could pass it on to anyone willing. It turns out that all those years of travel with him was his test of my worthiness to have the gift. With it I could travel as long as I wanted and do all all I wanted to do. Before giving me the gift, he cautioned it is also a curse because anyone I love will eventually grow old and die. He had his one love die a hundred years ago and has been looking for someone he deemed willing to pass the gift on to ever since. He put his hands on the side of my head and I felt invigorated. When I opened my eyes I saw that he was a wrinkled corpse. At the same time as he passed me the gift, his raven flew over to Death and touched his wing and a spirit seemed to pass into Death. Death also seemed to become resistant to most diseases from the eyes he ate.
Ever since I have been traveling and tracking caravans and war parties. I once even tracked a demonic caravan for a year as it made it's way to some extremely eery city. When I got bored with that continent, I think I heard it once referred to as Pangaea, I came to this one. I thought maybe this one would be fun to explore. I also ran into a bit of trouble there. I raided the caravan of some slave traders heading to Hold. They didn't take too kindly to my raid and reported me as a murderer and thief to the magistrate. When I came to this continent one of your monks looked at me and said he knew Arty, my master. It seems they had corresponded for a long time. He asked if I would be willing to let a chronicler from his order chronicle my life and here you are.", finished Torok.
"That is quite the interesting life. Was this out of the way forest next to some caves?", asked Ishkur.
"Yes, that is where the Drow lived if I recall correctly. Details merge together after a while.", said Torok.
"Than you were part of the war too. The war that gave me a similar condition to you. For you see, I am also resistant to aging, mostly due to the lightening that resides in me. I was on the side of the Drow for sometime, but now see they were the aggressors.", enthused Ishkur.
"Seems to be a common occurrence of this long life thing. Too bad you had to be on a side in the war. It truly was a fun war to be neutral in.", said Torok as he pulled an eye out of his bag and gave it to Death. "Does this disturb you? I am sorry. It has been a couple weeks since I fed him eyes, so I am letting him indulge for a little on these werewolf eyes."
"No it does not bother me. I am just amazed you killed a werewolf.", said Ishkur in awe.
"Well if you will excuse I must be going. I hope you got all you needed.", said Torok while he packed up his stuff and disappeared into the woods.
For the next couple decades Torok traveled through the woods and wilds of Creation. As time progressed, he got into trouble in Creation as well for sniping a family that was transporting gnome slaves he had been following for two or three years. He made his way back to Pangaea's and landed in one of the smaller port cities. He hated the airships, never could understand why people wanted to fly. He stayed mostly in the wilderness, but one day while he was traveling near Fall crest a messenger gave him a note and promptly ran away. If he was pardoned he might as well see who arranged the pardon for him and headed to Fall crest.
