Difference between revisions of "Dwarfworld Newspapers"
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__TOC__ | __TOC__ | ||
− | + | Let’s everyone give a warm welcome to our new Archangel Astaldo. Part of his job is to answer questions on the newbie/questions channel. So if you have a question, he is the guy to see! | |
− | + | ||
+ | Hey all you aspiring artists, and badge lovers too. Want to win a great art contest? How about having your badge used as an award in Xhodon? YOUR Badge could win, and be featured as a prize for winning contests. Come take a look, only a week left for the contest. http://forum.xhodon.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3450 Contest ends 4th of October 05:55 am (Server time) so submit your .png by pm or in game message to Trinity or MagicM. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Facebook Fan! Check out Xhodon on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xhodon/110667678993770?ref=ts | ||
+ | |||
+ | Missed us on the forum, want to find the last papers easy? Check out Wiki Xhodon Newspaper. | ||
+ | http://wikien.xhodon.de/Dwarfworld_Newspapers | ||
----- | ----- | ||
− | == | + | ==A Bargain is Struck== |
===By Wizard_of_Oz=== | ===By Wizard_of_Oz=== | ||
− | + | Part 1 | |
− | + | In a place which doesn't exist a moment occurred that happened and will happen again. The Watcher sat across the table from the All-Father and said "you have taken from me what is rightfully mine. Creation is not just yours." | |
− | + | ||
− | + | To which the All-father replied "If you challenge me all will be destroyed you are too late". | |
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | ||
− | + | Watcher stood and looked across the cosmos that he helped create and said "If I cannot have it than what use is it to me to allow to exist? I propose to you that we contest for this our creation with my agreement that whoever wins lets the other full reign until time's end which is but a moment for us." | |
− | + | ||
− | ----- | + | All-father stood and walked so he stood besides the watcher and looked out at the cosmos. "What type of contest" he asked? |
− | == | + | |
+ | Watcher softly spoke "we will divide the peoples and creatures of your favorite world and have them contest against each other. We will test them. And, through those test we will have a winner between ourselves." Looking towards Xhodon the Watcher asked "are we agreed?" | ||
+ | |||
+ | The All-Father looked out to Xhodon and said "yes we are agreed". | ||
+ | Watcher started walking away and the All-Father heard him say “Tell Auio the dragons have come to Xhodon." | ||
+ | |||
+ | On the world of Xhodon the sky ripped that day and through the tears a different sky of iridescent purple shown. The Felundin saw wave upon wave of dragons, fly through the torn sky and trembled in fear. Great and small creatures of many colors flew in the once peaceful sky. If seen closely some had armored riders riding between the dragon's great wings. Despair crossed the land. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In the capital city of Wonka, Auio raced up the stairs of the great tower to the Keepers Hall. The keepers were children of the All-Father whose task was to tend to the great crystal of life. The doors to the great chamber were ajar and great gusts of wind emanated from the huge multicolored crystal set in the middle of the room. Auio entered the room and saw that the Keepers were fighting amongst themselves. Where usually they would wear gray cloaks and gowns to reflect their balance and harmony now fought keepers dressed all in black against ones in all white. Above them the great crystal pulsated with black and white streaks of lightening. Auio saw the control rod that was set in front of the crystal. The control rod had enabled the keepers to work great magic to the benefit of Xhodon. He hurriedly walked to the rod and picked it up. | ||
+ | |||
+ | At once he felt the conflict in the Great crystal through the rod. The day’s appearance of the great dragons to Xhodon had added a great amount of shadow life to the world and the crystal worked only toward life whether evil or good. | ||
+ | |||
+ | "If the great crystal would split the keepers into shadow and light what effect was it having among the peoples of Xhodon?" he thought. "There must be a way to balance this he thought. It would be our only hope against the great dragons" | ||
+ | |||
+ | At that moment the All-Father spoke to him "you must draw life from the Felundin into the crystal". | ||
+ | |||
+ | "But All-Father, that will kill millions" Auio Shouted. | ||
+ | |||
+ | "We must do it to save all. It is not just the Felundin who have life here on Xhodon and the Felundin are the most good" replied the All-father. "So you must do what must be done". | ||
+ | |||
+ | Tears streaming down his face Auio faced the Great crystal and lifted his arm which held the rod. He commanded the Crystal to draw the life from the Felundin. The light around the crystal surged as it drew life from Xhodon. As it did Felundin fell where they stood, not to move evermore. The Crystal drew even more and Auio heard in his minds ear the screams and lamentations of the peoples dying across the world. | ||
+ | |||
+ | "Enough" said the All-Father. "Now Auio" he said "direct the Felundin's life to the sky and at the dragons" Auio did as he was told and he felt the crystal surge as its energy shot from the great tower into the sky and pierced thousands of dragons with the dead Felundin's life. | ||
+ | |||
+ | What took minutes seemed hours for Auio. "Now,” said the All-Father go and look out the window". | ||
+ | |||
+ | Aoiu slowly walked to the window and looked out to the sky. In the sky dragons were fighting dragons. The sacrifice of the Felundin had brought a balance to the dragon hoard and now as many who were of shadow fought against those who were light. "But at what cost?" thought Auio. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The All-Father spoke to Auio "go and gather the Felundin that are left and keep them safe keep them hidden. This world of life, Xhodon shall become a battle field a contest shall be tried here for the fate of the universe. Go and gather your people". | ||
+ | |||
+ | "I will All-Father" replied Auio. Turning from the window Auio walked towards the doors that lead to the city past bodies of a room filled with slain keepers. He got to the doorway and closed the door and locked it with a spell. He slowly took the first step towards the crying city. | ||
+ | ----- | ||
+ | ==The Caverns: Entries from the journal of Tubadi.== | ||
+ | ===By kizeren=== | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Entry 1:==== | ||
+ | I awoke from my bed of stone to the echoing of morning battle chants. Today will be a glorious day, for the dwarfs are planning to journey the deepest cavern expedition that we have ever undertaken. We are great in number and thus our deficiency and we need to expand. The stone is plentiful. The essences we are graciously given by the elves and the crystal we barter to the fairies for stone. But the gold....it is the most precious....the life line for our warriors. It has come scarce. Its privation has caused many of our brothers and sisters to become dissatisfied with my direction of leadership. I am their distinguished hero, leader of our encampment this tenure. As our necessity for gold increases, we must take our tools in hand and dig. Its insufficiency will provoke us to explore deeper than we have ever voyaged before. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Entry 2:==== | ||
+ | We began to prepare for our journey. We sharpened our axes, bound our beards, and laded our mana bread. We doused our torches with oil and proceeded to do a count when we heard shouting coming from the entrance to our cavern. The goblins had come to help us! Although their reason for uniting has eluded us, we welcome the redundant strength to our encampment. I informed the horde that we will be leaving out in the morning. Now the time has come for rest. Our journey will take us several weeks and we have packed enough food, water, and resources to last far beyond that if need be. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ====Entry 3:==== | ||
+ | I awoke once again to the glorious sound of morning battle chants, but on this morning, they echo with greater numbers than past days. We took count of the horde and those who have come to assist us on our journey. There were several million. We began our decent into the caverns. It seemed as if we had been walking for hours when we came to a massive stone wall and it seemed as if the cavern had come to a dead-end. As we stood in resolve, we could hear distant mumbling from the other side. The horde derived a way for us to approach what was on the other side of that wall. We planned to dig through. After an hour had passed, we came to a senescent door that had been buried by stone. It appeared to be hundreds of years old so we effused the hinges with torch oil. The mumbling seemed to be getting closer so we paused for a moment. | ||
+ | |||
+ | We could hear the clanging of what sounded like weapons and armor. We opened the door ever so slightly so that we would be able to peer into the next room. The room contained what we presumed was roughly 20 or so Salamanders, Root Wights and Meat Bumblebees as well as others creatures that we thought had long disappeared from our world. These creatures are an enemy to us and we knew we would have to battle them. We charged them with great force as we knew we could not lose to so few numbers. We were victorious and not one casualty was reported. As we stood cheering in our victory, the ground began to tremble. We all looked up to find a colossal sentinel towering roughly 12 feet above us. | ||
+ | |||
+ | A guild of 20 goblins charged and was able to annihilate the massive sentinel. Victory was ours once again, but celebration was not in order, we had lost a few in the battle. We carried hope that our shaman could hold the lost souls until we returned home. After such a prolonged and formidable journey, we decided that a much needed rest was in order. As I drew my axe to sharpen it, I decided to wait until morning. Settling into my makeshift bed, a quiet fell over the horde and only the sound of meager chit chat tarried. I find enough life in me to journal our exploits during this difficult voyage, and at last, it is the end of our first week in the caverns. | ||
+ | ----- | ||
+ | ==Wizard_of_Oz & the Oompa Loompa Empire== | ||
+ | ===By Luna-Heart-Stone=== | ||
+ | Chapter 1 | ||
+ | |||
+ | It was another stormy night, and in a small empire located at the far edge of the world of Xhodon, a small orange and green airship approaches the empire through the storm unnoticed by anyone or anything, because all normal people would be inside their homes to avoid this treacherous night. | ||
+ | |||
+ | While aboard the airship which is called Dorothy, a great mage sits at the bridge of the ship with his pitiful servants running about obeying his every command, for fear they would lose their heads. Wizard_of_Oz is the great mage with his ghostly airship cruising the sky’s looking for new lands to conquer, with a crackle of the radio a voice spoke through, “Master Wizard_of_Oz this is agent 9 reporting in from the small empire today would be a excellent time to take control of their land for they are nothing but land loving magic less fools” spoke agent 9. | ||
+ | |||
+ | But with another crackle and a loud crack the radio spoke again “Well Wizard_of_Oz your agent is dead and I just enjoyed the sound of his breaking neck, Mwhahaha!!!” cackled the voice. | ||
+ | |||
+ | “Oompa's take us down prepare to call the rest of the fleet hiding in the clouds, prepare my armor and sword, and prepare the rockets” spoke Wizard_of_Oz. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The airship Dorothy locks onto the small palace of this pathetic empire and begins to fire what seems like a never ending supply of shark-fin rockets, Wizard_of_Oz looks at his ghostly reflection bathed in the red light of the burning palace, and smiled to himself. The airship soon came close to the ground and the Wizard_of_Oz jumped out with his sword ready to slay any barbarian that he may see. | ||
+ | |||
+ | In a single night an empire burns and Wizard_of_Oz is still not satisfied with the burning wreck he left behind, the poor people he slaughtered with their blood still on his hands he sighs, that he did not find his murdering friend who killed his agents, so where does he go now.... | ||
+ | ----- | ||
+ | ==Death’s Hunter== | ||
===By Trinity=== | ===By Trinity=== | ||
− | |||
− | + | Darkness settled around the valley quickly as the sun set far in the distance. The treetops swayed gently in the night breeze as the smells seemed to dance in the air. The scent of lavender rose and hyacinth made a sticky sweet smell in the darkness. So strong was the allure of the flowery scent that it seemed to leave a glowing trail before the dark robed figure that was watching and waiting in the night. The dark figure slowly moved along in the fragrance of the luscious perfume knowing his target was at the end of the invisible trail. He knew better then to get to close, for she was a Goddess, and would send him to oblivion if she felt any suck threat from him. So far behind he watched as she moved swiftly through the trees and darkness like a dolphin through the waves. This was her domain, she knew it well. | |
− | + | Hours passed as he followed her distantly through the valley, across a vast river, into a vast cavern carved in the mountain that loomed above them. The robed figure shivered slightly as he looked up at the looming giant that forever sleeps. The secrets beneath buried for eons. This was the meeting place of the Gods, the mountain of Ancient Dreams. Now his steps slowed, he had heard both wondrous and heinous things about this mountain. Men had gone mad just staring at it. So powerful were his urges to leave that he found himself moving backward. He had little choice but to force his tired and resistant feet to move forward. | |
− | + | As he pushed forward, careful to keep the scent close, he began to move easier. A ward! Maybe the mountain was not as frightening as he thought. Maybe it was all illusion. He continued on to the entrance to the cavern he had seen his quarry enter. Before him lay a corridor dimly lit with half burnt torches. The damp acrid smell burned his nose. The floor of the tunnel was made of a smooth rock, either by magic or ages of wear it had been made smooth as glass or fine marble. The walls were rocky and crumbly to the touch with a damp moss clinging to the walls giving it a dull green carpeted look to it. | |
− | He | + | He found no guard posted to deter intruders, the ward was strong outside. He would not have made it through if not for the ancient amulet about his throat to ward off such strong magic. As it hid him from the Goddess he followed but only if he stayed stealthy. More than once he thought about turning back, but his daughters pleading gray eyes urged him forward. When this was over he could take her home, back to her mother where she belonged. The foul creature that held her now would pay for this. He would do as he was told, but vengeance would be his when he completed his quest to spy on the Gods meeting. |
− | ---- | + | |
− | Aspiring Scribes! Ever get the urge to write? Send me a story by Friday of the week, and I will post it in the Monday edition. | + | A simple hunter, father, husband, this was never something he had thought he would be doing. He had been away when his daughter had been taken. His wife had been distraught with fear when he came home. She told of the creature that attacked them. How he said that if the hunter wanted his child back, he would follow the Goddess of Nature on the darkest of Moon times to the meeting place. He would then meet the creature and tell him what he had learned. He filled with anger again at the thought of the evil creature holding his daughter captive. He pushed forward a little faster, still as quiet as he could possibly be. |
− | Have something special to say? A Dwarf World Tribune will be posted every Monday. | + | |
+ | The corridor seemed to go on forever. Twists and turns wound through the mountain but he pushed on. The smell of the Goddess’ perfume seemed to waver and the hunter realized he had missed something. She had not come this far. He turned back looking at the tunnel walls more carefully for any clue to a new path. After what seemed like hours he caught a faint glimpse of a shifting in the wall. It was a false wall so he searched for a latch or handle. There had to be a way to open the door. He listened for voices on the other side but heard nothing but the light drip of moisture from the ceiling to the floor. As he stepped back against the other wall to survey the door in front of him, he heard a faint click and the door slid open to reveal a short hall and what looked like a vast cavern further in. A large toothy creature stood guard there. He smiled viciously as he slammed his large hammer down upon the hunters head. Then blackness…. | ||
+ | ----- | ||
+ | ''Aspiring Scribes! Ever get the urge to write? Send me a story by Friday of the week, and I will post it in the Monday edition.'' | ||
+ | ''Have something special to say? A Dwarf World Tribune will be posted every Monday.'' |
Revision as of 03:39, 28 September 2010
Newest | Contributors | Archives |
|
Contents
Let’s everyone give a warm welcome to our new Archangel Astaldo. Part of his job is to answer questions on the newbie/questions channel. So if you have a question, he is the guy to see!
Hey all you aspiring artists, and badge lovers too. Want to win a great art contest? How about having your badge used as an award in Xhodon? YOUR Badge could win, and be featured as a prize for winning contests. Come take a look, only a week left for the contest. http://forum.xhodon.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3450 Contest ends 4th of October 05:55 am (Server time) so submit your .png by pm or in game message to Trinity or MagicM.
Facebook Fan! Check out Xhodon on Facebook! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Xhodon/110667678993770?ref=ts
Missed us on the forum, want to find the last papers easy? Check out Wiki Xhodon Newspaper. http://wikien.xhodon.de/Dwarfworld_Newspapers
A Bargain is Struck
By Wizard_of_Oz
Part 1 In a place which doesn't exist a moment occurred that happened and will happen again. The Watcher sat across the table from the All-Father and said "you have taken from me what is rightfully mine. Creation is not just yours."
To which the All-father replied "If you challenge me all will be destroyed you are too late".
Watcher stood and looked across the cosmos that he helped create and said "If I cannot have it than what use is it to me to allow to exist? I propose to you that we contest for this our creation with my agreement that whoever wins lets the other full reign until time's end which is but a moment for us."
All-father stood and walked so he stood besides the watcher and looked out at the cosmos. "What type of contest" he asked?
Watcher softly spoke "we will divide the peoples and creatures of your favorite world and have them contest against each other. We will test them. And, through those test we will have a winner between ourselves." Looking towards Xhodon the Watcher asked "are we agreed?"
The All-Father looked out to Xhodon and said "yes we are agreed". Watcher started walking away and the All-Father heard him say “Tell Auio the dragons have come to Xhodon."
On the world of Xhodon the sky ripped that day and through the tears a different sky of iridescent purple shown. The Felundin saw wave upon wave of dragons, fly through the torn sky and trembled in fear. Great and small creatures of many colors flew in the once peaceful sky. If seen closely some had armored riders riding between the dragon's great wings. Despair crossed the land.
In the capital city of Wonka, Auio raced up the stairs of the great tower to the Keepers Hall. The keepers were children of the All-Father whose task was to tend to the great crystal of life. The doors to the great chamber were ajar and great gusts of wind emanated from the huge multicolored crystal set in the middle of the room. Auio entered the room and saw that the Keepers were fighting amongst themselves. Where usually they would wear gray cloaks and gowns to reflect their balance and harmony now fought keepers dressed all in black against ones in all white. Above them the great crystal pulsated with black and white streaks of lightening. Auio saw the control rod that was set in front of the crystal. The control rod had enabled the keepers to work great magic to the benefit of Xhodon. He hurriedly walked to the rod and picked it up.
At once he felt the conflict in the Great crystal through the rod. The day’s appearance of the great dragons to Xhodon had added a great amount of shadow life to the world and the crystal worked only toward life whether evil or good.
"If the great crystal would split the keepers into shadow and light what effect was it having among the peoples of Xhodon?" he thought. "There must be a way to balance this he thought. It would be our only hope against the great dragons"
At that moment the All-Father spoke to him "you must draw life from the Felundin into the crystal".
"But All-Father, that will kill millions" Auio Shouted.
"We must do it to save all. It is not just the Felundin who have life here on Xhodon and the Felundin are the most good" replied the All-father. "So you must do what must be done".
Tears streaming down his face Auio faced the Great crystal and lifted his arm which held the rod. He commanded the Crystal to draw the life from the Felundin. The light around the crystal surged as it drew life from Xhodon. As it did Felundin fell where they stood, not to move evermore. The Crystal drew even more and Auio heard in his minds ear the screams and lamentations of the peoples dying across the world.
"Enough" said the All-Father. "Now Auio" he said "direct the Felundin's life to the sky and at the dragons" Auio did as he was told and he felt the crystal surge as its energy shot from the great tower into the sky and pierced thousands of dragons with the dead Felundin's life.
What took minutes seemed hours for Auio. "Now,” said the All-Father go and look out the window".
Aoiu slowly walked to the window and looked out to the sky. In the sky dragons were fighting dragons. The sacrifice of the Felundin had brought a balance to the dragon hoard and now as many who were of shadow fought against those who were light. "But at what cost?" thought Auio.
The All-Father spoke to Auio "go and gather the Felundin that are left and keep them safe keep them hidden. This world of life, Xhodon shall become a battle field a contest shall be tried here for the fate of the universe. Go and gather your people".
"I will All-Father" replied Auio. Turning from the window Auio walked towards the doors that lead to the city past bodies of a room filled with slain keepers. He got to the doorway and closed the door and locked it with a spell. He slowly took the first step towards the crying city.
The Caverns: Entries from the journal of Tubadi.
By kizeren
Entry 1:
I awoke from my bed of stone to the echoing of morning battle chants. Today will be a glorious day, for the dwarfs are planning to journey the deepest cavern expedition that we have ever undertaken. We are great in number and thus our deficiency and we need to expand. The stone is plentiful. The essences we are graciously given by the elves and the crystal we barter to the fairies for stone. But the gold....it is the most precious....the life line for our warriors. It has come scarce. Its privation has caused many of our brothers and sisters to become dissatisfied with my direction of leadership. I am their distinguished hero, leader of our encampment this tenure. As our necessity for gold increases, we must take our tools in hand and dig. Its insufficiency will provoke us to explore deeper than we have ever voyaged before.
Entry 2:
We began to prepare for our journey. We sharpened our axes, bound our beards, and laded our mana bread. We doused our torches with oil and proceeded to do a count when we heard shouting coming from the entrance to our cavern. The goblins had come to help us! Although their reason for uniting has eluded us, we welcome the redundant strength to our encampment. I informed the horde that we will be leaving out in the morning. Now the time has come for rest. Our journey will take us several weeks and we have packed enough food, water, and resources to last far beyond that if need be.
Entry 3:
I awoke once again to the glorious sound of morning battle chants, but on this morning, they echo with greater numbers than past days. We took count of the horde and those who have come to assist us on our journey. There were several million. We began our decent into the caverns. It seemed as if we had been walking for hours when we came to a massive stone wall and it seemed as if the cavern had come to a dead-end. As we stood in resolve, we could hear distant mumbling from the other side. The horde derived a way for us to approach what was on the other side of that wall. We planned to dig through. After an hour had passed, we came to a senescent door that had been buried by stone. It appeared to be hundreds of years old so we effused the hinges with torch oil. The mumbling seemed to be getting closer so we paused for a moment.
We could hear the clanging of what sounded like weapons and armor. We opened the door ever so slightly so that we would be able to peer into the next room. The room contained what we presumed was roughly 20 or so Salamanders, Root Wights and Meat Bumblebees as well as others creatures that we thought had long disappeared from our world. These creatures are an enemy to us and we knew we would have to battle them. We charged them with great force as we knew we could not lose to so few numbers. We were victorious and not one casualty was reported. As we stood cheering in our victory, the ground began to tremble. We all looked up to find a colossal sentinel towering roughly 12 feet above us.
A guild of 20 goblins charged and was able to annihilate the massive sentinel. Victory was ours once again, but celebration was not in order, we had lost a few in the battle. We carried hope that our shaman could hold the lost souls until we returned home. After such a prolonged and formidable journey, we decided that a much needed rest was in order. As I drew my axe to sharpen it, I decided to wait until morning. Settling into my makeshift bed, a quiet fell over the horde and only the sound of meager chit chat tarried. I find enough life in me to journal our exploits during this difficult voyage, and at last, it is the end of our first week in the caverns.
Wizard_of_Oz & the Oompa Loompa Empire
By Luna-Heart-Stone
Chapter 1
It was another stormy night, and in a small empire located at the far edge of the world of Xhodon, a small orange and green airship approaches the empire through the storm unnoticed by anyone or anything, because all normal people would be inside their homes to avoid this treacherous night.
While aboard the airship which is called Dorothy, a great mage sits at the bridge of the ship with his pitiful servants running about obeying his every command, for fear they would lose their heads. Wizard_of_Oz is the great mage with his ghostly airship cruising the sky’s looking for new lands to conquer, with a crackle of the radio a voice spoke through, “Master Wizard_of_Oz this is agent 9 reporting in from the small empire today would be a excellent time to take control of their land for they are nothing but land loving magic less fools” spoke agent 9.
But with another crackle and a loud crack the radio spoke again “Well Wizard_of_Oz your agent is dead and I just enjoyed the sound of his breaking neck, Mwhahaha!!!” cackled the voice.
“Oompa's take us down prepare to call the rest of the fleet hiding in the clouds, prepare my armor and sword, and prepare the rockets” spoke Wizard_of_Oz.
The airship Dorothy locks onto the small palace of this pathetic empire and begins to fire what seems like a never ending supply of shark-fin rockets, Wizard_of_Oz looks at his ghostly reflection bathed in the red light of the burning palace, and smiled to himself. The airship soon came close to the ground and the Wizard_of_Oz jumped out with his sword ready to slay any barbarian that he may see.
In a single night an empire burns and Wizard_of_Oz is still not satisfied with the burning wreck he left behind, the poor people he slaughtered with their blood still on his hands he sighs, that he did not find his murdering friend who killed his agents, so where does he go now....
Death’s Hunter
By Trinity
Darkness settled around the valley quickly as the sun set far in the distance. The treetops swayed gently in the night breeze as the smells seemed to dance in the air. The scent of lavender rose and hyacinth made a sticky sweet smell in the darkness. So strong was the allure of the flowery scent that it seemed to leave a glowing trail before the dark robed figure that was watching and waiting in the night. The dark figure slowly moved along in the fragrance of the luscious perfume knowing his target was at the end of the invisible trail. He knew better then to get to close, for she was a Goddess, and would send him to oblivion if she felt any suck threat from him. So far behind he watched as she moved swiftly through the trees and darkness like a dolphin through the waves. This was her domain, she knew it well.
Hours passed as he followed her distantly through the valley, across a vast river, into a vast cavern carved in the mountain that loomed above them. The robed figure shivered slightly as he looked up at the looming giant that forever sleeps. The secrets beneath buried for eons. This was the meeting place of the Gods, the mountain of Ancient Dreams. Now his steps slowed, he had heard both wondrous and heinous things about this mountain. Men had gone mad just staring at it. So powerful were his urges to leave that he found himself moving backward. He had little choice but to force his tired and resistant feet to move forward.
As he pushed forward, careful to keep the scent close, he began to move easier. A ward! Maybe the mountain was not as frightening as he thought. Maybe it was all illusion. He continued on to the entrance to the cavern he had seen his quarry enter. Before him lay a corridor dimly lit with half burnt torches. The damp acrid smell burned his nose. The floor of the tunnel was made of a smooth rock, either by magic or ages of wear it had been made smooth as glass or fine marble. The walls were rocky and crumbly to the touch with a damp moss clinging to the walls giving it a dull green carpeted look to it.
He found no guard posted to deter intruders, the ward was strong outside. He would not have made it through if not for the ancient amulet about his throat to ward off such strong magic. As it hid him from the Goddess he followed but only if he stayed stealthy. More than once he thought about turning back, but his daughters pleading gray eyes urged him forward. When this was over he could take her home, back to her mother where she belonged. The foul creature that held her now would pay for this. He would do as he was told, but vengeance would be his when he completed his quest to spy on the Gods meeting.
A simple hunter, father, husband, this was never something he had thought he would be doing. He had been away when his daughter had been taken. His wife had been distraught with fear when he came home. She told of the creature that attacked them. How he said that if the hunter wanted his child back, he would follow the Goddess of Nature on the darkest of Moon times to the meeting place. He would then meet the creature and tell him what he had learned. He filled with anger again at the thought of the evil creature holding his daughter captive. He pushed forward a little faster, still as quiet as he could possibly be.
The corridor seemed to go on forever. Twists and turns wound through the mountain but he pushed on. The smell of the Goddess’ perfume seemed to waver and the hunter realized he had missed something. She had not come this far. He turned back looking at the tunnel walls more carefully for any clue to a new path. After what seemed like hours he caught a faint glimpse of a shifting in the wall. It was a false wall so he searched for a latch or handle. There had to be a way to open the door. He listened for voices on the other side but heard nothing but the light drip of moisture from the ceiling to the floor. As he stepped back against the other wall to survey the door in front of him, he heard a faint click and the door slid open to reveal a short hall and what looked like a vast cavern further in. A large toothy creature stood guard there. He smiled viciously as he slammed his large hammer down upon the hunters head. Then blackness….
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