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Library: The Chronicles of the Merry Men. Pt I
Books
Author: pehtoori
Date:May 28 2009
The story I'm about to tell starts in a land recently conquered, in a city
inhabited by conquerors. A group of men
were sitting around a table in a pub, immersed in a conversation. The group
consisted of five people. Two of the men were
brothers. Their names were Corvinus and Boris and they were of noble descent
and were to a certain degree endowed with money.
The third man was named Simon, as in Simon the Sorcerer. The fourth man was
named Zipob, and he was as big as he was poor,
but he did possess a bigass axe, which he swang often and with suprisingly
good accuracy. The fifth man, whose name escapes me
is in the process of offering these men a job. After some due consideration,
the men decide to go and meet the wizard who
is offering this job for them
On arrival at the wizards home, he promptly lays the cards on the table. This
band of ragtag mercenaries is to enter
countryside of the heathen natives and procure a tome about their pagan
rituals and make it look like God Learners (part of
whom everyone in this city was) didn't do the dirty deed. Some haggling
followed and the band decided to accept the job
for a hefty sum of money.
Afterwards our heroes went around town, planning the heist and buying
supplies. Needless to say, the noble brothers
had to pay for most of it. After finishing up their errands, our heroes
started their journey. The destination was a village
in the countryside where the temple with the tome is. It was the middle of
summer and the weather was fairly hot, but a swift
breeze made the journey tolerable.
After a three day journey, they arrived at the outskirts of the village. They
set up camp for the night and planned
and they plotted and they schemed how they would steal the tome from the
temple. After a lot of arguing they got to the
conclusion that they would split up. The brothers Corvinus and Boris would go
to the temple to scout the perimeter and find
out as much as they can about the temple itself. The rest of the band would go
to the village itself and interview the locals
and find out some general info.
The brothers set up on horseback for the temple. It was situated next to a
lake, on the opposite side of the village
itself. They followed a narrow road leading to the temple, meeting only a few
villagers on the way. The forest cleared a
kilometer or so before the temple, and after a short ride they were welcomed
by wary villagers working at the temple, eyeing
the approaching nobles suspiciously, for the brothers were not very
experienced in venturing out to the countryside and were
clad, shall we say, unfittingly.
'I say, the natives are restless', muttered Corvinus. 'Indeed they are',
agreed Boris and added: 'Perhaps they are
not accostumed to our fine war horses.'
As they got near the temple, a wary looking temple priestess approached them.
'You are not welcome here, murderers.
Get off before I set the dogs on ye!.'
The brothers were midly unnerved, as they were not accostumed to such
treatment from the peasant folk. 'Did she say
dogs?' asked Boris. 'I daresay he did, brother, perhaps we should bugger off
then, and not make the nice lady any angrier?'
answered Corvinus. Boris nodded and they turned around and headed back to
their encampment.
Meanwhile, Simon and Zipob had questioned the villagers and found out that
there was going to be a midsummer festival
the next day and were already waiting for Corvinus and Boris at the campsite.
The evening was spent deliberating on what was
the best course of action. Obiviously the best time to move was the night of
the midsummer festival, when everyone was drunk
to boot. They decided their attack plan would be twofold. Firstly, Corvinus
and Zipob would approach the temple from the south
after most of the temple folk would have left for the village to partake on
the festivities. Simon and Boris would do the same
from the water by boat, as it was new moon and very dark at night. Zipob and
Corvinus were to create a commotion at the southern
end, and Simon and Boris would sneak in the temple to steal the tome.
An hour or so after the sun had set, Zipob and Corvinus got ready to sneak to
the complex. They made their way through a field,
making as little sound as possible. At the edge of the field there stood a
house without windows. They crouched next to it looking
at each other wondering whether their novice sneaking abilities had been
enough. "I wonder if the dog heard us or not', wondered
Corvinus. 'Dog? What dog?!' asked Zipob, flabhergasted. 'Oh, we didn't mention
the dog? I'm sure we did. There was a bigass dog the
priestess threatened to set upon us if we didn't leave.'. 'You didn't mention
any fucking dog!', cried Zipob.
They got their answer immediately after as they noticed the bigass dog staring
at them, growling silently waiting to
attack. 'Corvinus, you pester the dog and I'll cut it in half while it's
attacking you.' Corvinus wasn't very pleased
with this idea, but it was too late for objections, as he had barely time to
ready his sword and shield for the beast. The animal
lunged at Corvinus, but Corvinus' shield makes a clanging sound as he
skillfully blocks the attack. At the same time Zipob gets a mad
gleam in his eyes and swing his mighty axe at the dog, alas missing slightly.
Then Corvinus makes an attempt with his sword, and this
time the attack connects! The dog makes a yelping sound as blood gushes from
its front paw. But the dog resumes its relentless attacks,
but still Corvinus manages to hold it bay with his shield. While the dog is
struggling with Corvinus, Zipob makes ready for his next
attack. He isn't reckless this time, he aims his axe with great percision, and
devastatingly connects with the dogs front paw, severing
it from the ankle. The dog makes a mighty yelp and starts to run away.
'The mutt is getting away!' yells Corvinus. 'Forget the damn dog! I hear a
noise, they've heard us!', cries zipob.
At the same time, Simon and Boris hear the commotion at the boat. 'I dare say
that must be our distraction, Corvinus can be
awfully noisy when he wants to.', says boris. 'Yeah, let's get a move on',
agrees Simon. They paddled to shore near the temple. They
checked their surroundings to make sure no one saw them make landfall, and
headed for the temple as stealthily as possible. When they
got to the door, they found it to be unlocked and entered the temple.
Meanwhile Corvinus and Zipob were making ready to combat the peasants so that
Simon and Boris could enter the temple and steal
the tome. It didn't take them long to realize the plan was going down the
drain, because the peasants hadn't noticed them, but they did notice
Boris and Simon. They noticed two silhouettes enter the temple who they
assumed to be Boris and Simon, and two temple priestesses heading for
the door. 'I say, we'd better go help the chaps.', suggested Corvinus. 'Shut
up and run', replied Zipob and they started for the temple. As
they entered the temple, they noticed Simon and Boris already locked in mortal
combat, they hadn't been taken by surprise. The fight wasn't
too bad either, one of the priestesses had been impaled by boris' sword, and
he was trying to pull the sword free. The remaining priestess
was just about to lunge at Boris, as Corvinus yelled: 'Ah-ha!', and swung his
sword with deadly accuracy and the priestess fell down, dead.
When the scuffle was over, Zipob noticed that there was an unconscious high
priestess on the floor, drool dripping from the side of
her mouth. 'Yo, what's with the twitchy chic?' asked Zipob, visibly disturbed
by the high priestess' twitching left leg. 'I had to paralyze her,
we need the question her.'. Boris noticed a familiar twinkle in Corvinus' eye
and muttered 'Uh-oh.' Immediately Corvinus volunteered, 'Let me
deal with the lass, I'll have my way with her and she will speak the truth in
no time.'
After a few minutes, the surviving high priestess woke up. Simon was the first
to ask questions. 'Where is the book? Tell us where it is
and we will not harm you.' The priestess stayed quiet. Corvinus stepped in:
'Here. let me.' The priestess' finger let an audiple snap as Corvinus
broke with a swift hand movement. 'Tell us or you will die slowly you heathen
mongrel!'. Simon was very disturbed by this. 'Uhm, he gets like this
sometimes, it is very weird.' commented Boris. But the priestess would not
budge. Corvinus broke her fingers one by one trying to coax an answer,
but the woman wouldn't speak. 'The bitch must be mute', said Corvinus
matter-of-factly and slit the womans throat, much to the objections of the
others. 'What?' asked Corvinus, 'It's not like she was going to talk!'
'What's behind this door here', asked Zipob and opened the door. Behind it, on
a pedestal stood the tome they were looking for, there
for the taking. "Heh. I guess we needen't have tortured the old lady after
all.', said Corvinus, not really looking remorseful at all. 'Let's
get out of here', suggested Simon and they put the book safely away and
departed.
The escape was uneventful, the new moon safeguarded their escape, and the
villagers were drunk out of their minds anyway. The raid had
been succeful, and they even had taken some swag from the main temple. Money
was sure to be plentiful from the mage Fizban, who had hired them.
The rejoicing was interrupted by Simon, something had obviously occurred to
him. 'A thought comes in to mind. We were supposed to frame
someone other than *us* for the job.' 'Oh, bugger. I knew we forgot
something.', said Boris. 'Oh well, we need not bother old Fizban with trivial
details, eh?', suggested Corvinus, and everyone agreed. As the band rode
towards sunset and their newfound wealth, everyone was merry except Simon,
whose conscience was tormenting him about torturing the poor woman.
The End of Pt. I
Books