Rashemen - RP Thread

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Long ago, the world was not as we know it today. Great empires ruled over the realms. To the north west, the great empire of Netheril ruled. Powerful mages, like the world had never seen before, nor will again. All living in cities that flew through the sky. To the south, the kingdom of Calimshan stood proudly. With their elemental heritage, they ruled the great sands of the Calimshan deserts, summoning forth powerful sand-magiks to help defend their empire. To the south-east, the kingdom of Mulhorand. Their rulers, directly decended from the gods themselves, who bore more powerful divine powers than any mortal alive today could ever imagin.

But to the cold lands of the north-east lay two great empires - Raumathar and Narfell. Locked in constant battle, these two empires scorched the land around them. Raumathar, a young nation by all accounts, whose armies relied heavily upon area battle magic; whose powerful wizards possessed spells that could flattern entire armies in one spweep. Narfell, an empire whose might came from the outsiders who served them. It was the Year of the Stone Giant, -160 by Dalereckoning that the final clash came. Tthe summoning of Kossuth, elemental god of fire, and of a great demon lord proclaimed both empires downfall, leaving a land of ruin where once stood two great empires. But out of the dusts emerged a sisterhood of magicians, sworn to keep alive not only the survivers of the wars, but more importantly, the lore of the empires. And that is where our story begins.

The cold winds blew off the peeks of the great Icerim Mountains. South they blew. South across the vast Endless Wastes. Lands as anchient as they come. Battle grounds of old where the great magical empires of Narfell and Raumathar fought their battles many centuries ago. The winds continued south, dipping and turning acorss the empty lands. At last they came to a large valley in the landscape, which was home to the mighty River Iceborn. The winds followed this mighty river south south west. Atlast it came to a village, the first signs of life it had seen since leaving the IceRims. The wind sent shivers running down the spine of the residence of the village, as they raced inside to start the fires to warm the coming night. The winds continued south, out over Lake Ashane and away from the lands of Rashemen.

This small village is where our scene is set. Set on the shores of the River Iceborn, a few miles in from where it meets Lake Ashane, the village takes its' name from the river that supplies it's lively hood - Iceborn. Iceborn is a small town, and one of th eonly few situated so far north of the main centres. It contains only twenty-odd houses, a small tavern where the locals spend their evenings, and of course a small shrine to Bhalla (called Chauntea in most places around Faerun), the Earth Mother.

The residence of Iceborn, as mentioned previously, rely heavily on the river for their livelyhood. This far north, normal forms of agriculture are impossible, so fish make up most of their diet, with some dried fruits and pickled vegetables imported from the south. In the frozen rolling hills surrounding the village, a few herds of goats roam, constantly watched over by shepards and spirits of the dead, common around the lands of Rashemen.

The laws of the land are simple, and all who live there follow them religously.
1) Do not kill or deliberatly injure another Rashemi - save your anger for your true enemies.
2) Do not steal from your fellow Rashemi or outsiders with honor. To do so is to taint your own honor
3)Respect your family, the spirits and the deities, for they guard your soul in this life and after.
4) Be strong, resolute, and courageous, for the weak, lazy and craven betray the spirit of the Rashemen people.
5) Obey the Iron Lord, for the safety of all Rashemen is his responsibility.
6) Obey the Witches, for they are the bond that ties the people to the land and the Iron Lord to the people, and their word is law. To defy them is death.


With these set of simple laws in place, like in Rashemen, and more particularly Iceborn has lasted in this harsh enviroment for many centuries. But resently something has begun to stir that even the Witches do not speak about. A whisper on the wind during a dark night. A shepard and his herd disappearing without trace. Dark rumblings at night from the heart of the Fortress of the Half Demon to the west. Could it be the re-emergence of a force of old? Or prehaps some new power rising to challenge the Witches.

 

A smallish halfling and his dog walked into the village of Iceborn just a few minutes before dawn. He looked around a bit, then made his way to the shrine to Bhalla. He motioned to the dog and it lay down on the ground in front of the shrine, watching. The halfling went into the shrine and dropped to his knees. After a few minutes he brought out of his cloak a small burnt piece of wood and placed it near the altar. Next he put two small rocks by the entrance. He bowed to the altar one last time and sighed.

The dog looked up as he came out of the shrine. "Yeah, Black, you're right. We should eat something," the halfling said. Reaching back into his cloak, he brought out a piece of dried goat meat, ripped it in half, gave a piece to the dog and started to eat himself.

Not knowing what to do next, he went over to a large rock across the way and sat down. The dog came over and put his head in the halfling's lap.

"Well Black," he told the dog, "at least we've got eachother. I hope Gesed understands the message we left. Maybe he'll even get here today." Then he settled in to wait.

 

Jex had arrived in Iceborn a fews days ago. He was having problems sleeping and spent most of his time sitting in the tavern watching people come and go from under his hood. He was always unsure about how people would react to his appearence and heritage.

Sitting in front of him was a half eaten flank of fish a barely touched glass of ale. He had heard the rumors going around town, people tended to talk in taverns and he had picked up on a few conversations.

Leaving a few coins on the table, he got up and went outside. It was near dawn and he felt sorry for the tavern owner who had stayed awake to serve Jex, even though he wasn't ordering much. He was just going to take a liesure stroll around town and maybe to the temple of Bhalla. He was always interested in the gods. He noticed a small light near the base of the temple and slowly walked over to see source of it's glow.

 

The trauma of the past few days must have caughten up with Sepp, because he was startled awake by a low growling from Black. Black's hair bristles were raised and he was staring at a hooded person going towards the shrine of Bhalla. Sepp put a calming hand on Black's shoulder and the growl died out in a high pitched whine.

Sepp took a sniff of the air. "You're right Black," he whispered to the dog, "he doesn't smell like any of the other big people we've ever seen. I wonder what he is?" Still, he didn't seem to be aggressive, and he might know something about Gesed or what had happened to the rest of his family. Sepp's stomach was turning as if he had just eaten a bagful of cavecrickets without roasting them, he was about to speak to someone besides his family members for the first time in his life, but he had to find out something. He motioned to Black to stay hidden, then stood up and stepped out of the shadows of the rock.

Taking two steps towards the hooded figure he raised both his hands and said, "Good morning, in the name of the Earth Mother Bhalla, I greet you."

 

Jex who had allowed his vision to slip into infravision had spotted both the halfling and the dog. He wasn't really surprised when Sepp announced himself, he was more surpised that it was friendly and not hostile.

Studying the scene Jex answered "Good morning, to you as well, I saw your fire and was wondering what as happening. I'm sorry if I disturbed you."

Jex pulled his hood back from his face. He might as well get it over with. Revealing his pale grey skin and stripped hair, he didn't want to seem like a mysterious figure in the fog to anyone. Especially with his heritage. He had found that many considered that a threat, just because he had drow blood. "But I am wondering, why were you laying outside, instead of at the tavern. They do have rooms available?"

 

Well, the hard part was over, he had said the formal greeting his parents had taught him in case he ever did meet up with a big person. Although he and Gesed had often spied upon groups of big people near their valley, against their parents' rules of course, he had never actually spoken to one, so he didn't know what was supposed to happen next. However, the big person hadn't immediately attacked him so that was a good start. He was also relieved that the language he spoke with his family was apparently understood by this person.

"You did not disturb me," he answered. "I was just waiting to see if my brother would come here. Have you seen him? He looks about like me, but a little taller and he has black hair. He might have had some goats with him, but he might not have."

With a shock he noticed that this big person had somewhat pointy ears, like his family, but unlike any of the other big people he had spied upon. And his hair and skin were different than anything he had seen before. Then something else occurred to him, a word he was unfamiliar with.

"What's a tavern?" he asked the big person.

 

Takeing by surprise Jex gave the halfling a surprised look "What's a tavern? A tavern is like an inn, except that there is a commons room where people can gather to eat and drink. And no, I'm sorry I haven't seen your brother, but I haven't left the tavern very often during the day." Jex answered with a wry smile.

"Why don't you come to the tavern and have some real food and some shelter. If your brother does come into town, I'm sure somone would point him in the taverns direction."

 

Hmmn, "inn" thought Sepp, another word that Ma and Pa hadn't taught him. Maybe Gesed would know what they were and would know to go there. And eating something other than dried goat meat, goat cheese, and Ma's lichen cakes did sound like a good idea too.

"Okay. I'm Sepp. This is my dog, Black. What's your name, and, if I may ask, what type of person are you?"

 

"I'm called Jex, my full name is Jex'tallin. And I don't mind it comes with territory. I'm half drow. My father was a drow elf, and my mother was human. Follow me to the tavern, I'll get you something to eat and maybe so ale."

Jex turned sideways and extended his arm down the street that he had just came from, pointing in the direction of the tavern.

 

Sepp followed Jex down the street to the "tavern". It was like a house, but a little bigger. There were obviously a lot of things he didn't know about the world. He remembered a bedtime story Pa had told them once where somebody was an "elf", but what did "drow" mean? Maybe it meant grey, because Jex's skin was grey. He had a lot to learn. As they came to the tavern, Black sat down outside the door. "Okay, if you don't want to go in you can stay out here," he told the dog. Then he followed Jex inside.

There were a lot of tables and chairs, a lot of new smells, some of them pleasant, others not so pleasant. Sepp noticed one person that really stood out from the rest. He wasn't that much taller than Sepp, maybe just a head higher. But he was so WIDE. Sepp's whole family could easily fit inside his clothes, plus maybe a goat or two. His face was just a bunch of hair and two eyes and some lips. The things he wore attached to his body were mind-boggling, belts and straps and bags, but Sepp's eyes were particulary drawn to the bottles he had strapped around his mid-section. They were almost just like the ones Ma used to put her special drinks in before she found out how to keep them effective in treated goat bladders. Maybe he would have what Sepp was looking for.

Sepp told Jex, "Just a minute Jex, I'll be right with you." Then he went up to the wide hairy-faced person and said, "Hello, my name is Sepp. I see you have a bunch of bottles there on your belts. I was wondering if in any of them you had special drinks that might make a sick person better, or even special drinks that might make it so a person did not get a certain kind of sickness. Do you think you'd have anything like that?"

 

Alinys quietly closed the door behind her, stepping in out of the cold. The tavern was noisy, as it normally was this time of night after the fishers had come in with their days catch. A smile here, a nod there, a wave over there. She slowly circled the inn, looking for them. They must be here somewhere, they cant have got away! Unless of course their kinds had powers she did not know about.... Hmm, she hadn't thought of that. She had met one of their kind before, or atleast something similar to the one with pointy-ears, although he had lighter skin. And she could have sworn he didn't have any powers of disappearing... or did he?


And then there was that short creature. An interesting creature for sure. People weren't naturally that short. Prehaps he had some sort of curse on him. Or maybe it was something to do with the fort. Yes! That must be it! All related to that evil place. What other explaination could there be? She would have to pray to Bhalla tonight anyway, to seek guidance. Prehaps even a letter to the Witches Hall in Illmmatar wouldn't go amiss. Yes, that is what she will do. But first to find out what they are, before they frighten any of the locals, or end up on the wrong side of one of the barberians from the local Great Stag lodge.


Ah! There they are! The pointy-eared one seemed to be sitting down, while the short one was speaking to one of those nobles from the south. Foolish people those nobles were - how many had died while exploring the fortress only Bhalla knew. She approched them slowly, weaving her way through the tavern, with her staff gripped tightly in one hand. You have nothing to worry about, Alinys, she told herself. Don't be a foolish girl! No one would dear harm you, espcially not here. But Bhalla protect me anyway. Now, hold yourself tall, do your anncestors proud! Just find out who they are and what they want. Or more importantly what they are.

She sat down on the seat opposite the dark-skinned one, still with her staff in her hand, and smiled, trying to keep her nervousness off her face. "Greetings", she said, then bowed her head respectively. "I am Alinys Trannyth, Servent and Priestess of Bhalla. Welcome to Iceborn". Nothing more to do but sit back and wait for a reply, with words on the tip of her tounge to call upon the powers of her diety, incase she had somehow insulted the point-eared creature or its' companion.

 

Sepp waited patiently for about a minute for the person to respond. He was definitely alive, because he was breathing, but after smelling his breath, Sepp could tell that he had probably drunk a whole barrelfull of ale. Looking in his eyes he could see the person was in that not-quite-conscious but not-quite-dead state that one got in after drinking too much ale. Sometimes Gesed would challenge him to see how much of Pa's ale they could drink. Gesed always won, but often put himself in the same state as this person. Sepp did his best, but after six or seven helmet-fulls of ale he always ending up puking it all out and losing the bet. He had lost some of his most prized possessions to his brother that way. Anyway, it seemed clear that this person was not going to be able to respond for awhile, and if he did suddenly puke a bunch of ale, Sepp preferred to take a bath in the water.

Just then he noticed an older looking female big person coming up to Jex. She said she was a Priestess of Bhalla! Great! That was even better than the person who seemed to have special drinks. By the way he smelled, he probably didn't know much about healing, which is what Sepp was really interested in. A Priestess of Bhalla surely would.

"In the name of the Earth Mother Bhalla, I greet you Alinys Trannyth. I am Sepp. This is Jex, who I have just had the pleasure of making aquaintance with. I am very glad to meet you. I hope you can help me and my family."

"All my life I've lived with my Ma, Pa, sister and brother in a valley a few days walk from this place. My Pa and brother taught me to care for our goats, collect the edible plants, and hunt the animals around, and my Ma taught me to respect the Earth Mother and how to ask Her for help when I needed it. I really need Her help now."

"A few days ago I was returning from collecting burning rocks with my dog, when I saw lots of black smoke coming from our cave. I rushed home, only to find Ma, Pa, and Drell, my sister, lying in smoldering heaps by the door. Most of their insides and faces had been burned away, with their arms and legs not burned as badly."

"It must have been a really bad sickness that killed them, because Ma knew how to cure every other sickness that any of us ever had: fever, chills, nightsweats, wolf bites. There were only two or three times when one of the goats had something so bad that it died. But obviously this one was too bad even for my Ma."

"As I sat there weeping, I started to feel a horrible burning in my stomach. I burped and smoke came out of my mouth. It was happening to my dog too, but the smoke came out his other end instead. Well, we got out of there as fast as we could."

"The burning in my stomach didn't stop until we got out of the valley. My brother Gesed had been out with the flock of goats, so I left him a message by Pierre and Roche, and then came here to see if I could find any help."

"That's what I was asking that wide, hairy person over there, but he can't hear right now, and I think you would be better able to help than him anyway. What I want is some special drink to either cure me from the stomach burning sickness, so I can go back home and keep living in our valley, and some for Gesed when he gets back, or at least something that will let me go back there long enough to properly return my family to the Earth Mother."

"I've never met a real Priestess of Bhalla before, but from everything that Ma told me about them, they could do anything that the power of the Earth Mother would grant them. Can you help me please, Priestess Alinys?"

 

Jex studied the priestess as Sepp told his story guaging her for a reaction of some kind. He found himself flinching when the halfling brought up what had happened to his family, Jex's memory flashing to when he found his father charred corpse.

Finally when he was able to get a word in edgewise Jex spoke "As Sepp already said, I am Jex. You need not be nervous, I'm not here with bad intentions, it's just another stop on a long journey."

"Perhaps you should focus on helping Sepp, he's seem to be in more dire straights than I am. I've never heard of a disease that could do such harm to a person. I have seen spells that have that effect, but not a disease."

 

Spells? Ma and Pa had mentioned those special powers in some of their scarier bedtime stories, but no one in his family knew how to do anything like that, just useful things like how to ask a rock to share some of the warmth the sun had given it with you. And that was easy, rocks didn't really need the warmth, not like you did. Or how to borrow some of the life force from the tiny animals that lived in the dirt, not enough to hurt them, but enough to help your own body if you got hurt real bad, like when he had broken his leg while collecting good sling rocks a year ago. But those weren't special powers, everybody could do them.

And why would anyone want to hurt his family? They never harmed anybody. How could they, they never TALKED to anybody, ever. What was going on?

He wanted to sit down and cry, but didn't want Jex or the Priestess to think he was a baby, like Gesed and Drell always teased him. It wasn't his fault he was born last. He hadn't been a baby for a long time. He wasn't going to act like one now.

He looked at Jex, then at the Priestess. "I guess it could have been a spell, instead of a disease. I never thought of that. Could you help either way, Piestess Alinys?"

 

Karren sighed as Lachlane began to cry again, as usual, for no particular reason. The poor Karren began trying to comfort her son as the noise in the tavern picked up. Finally, after a few minutes past, Karren decided to get back to work. Placing her baby in the home-made, yet sturdy, carrier upon her stomach, Karren continued to serve the ever growing numbers of people in the tavern.

Her eyes, though only slightly, were drawn to the door for a moment as an old lady entered, shivering in the breeze. However, standing on the spot, as if entranced, Karren began to watch the lady as she moved around the room, as if searching for something.

“Poor old wretch. Needs a drink, I think.” Karren sighed to herself, heading towards the newcomer.

“What can I be getting ya’?”

 

It was fortunate that his forehead was so thick, otherwise it would have hurt a lot more when his head fell down on the table, face-down. Still, it was enough to wake him from his slumber. Lying on his cheek and with a moan, he reached for a tankard of ale on the table that wasn't there. The series of words that he mumbled next could have meant anything.

He opened his eyes just far enough to look around a bit. The table that was previously empty was now occupied by a diverse bunch of people. It sparked just enough interest for him to open his eyes a little further. Curses, why was this tavern so brightly illuminated?

A halfling, small even for his kind, was sitting with his back to him. He was tattering away, and the woman with the staff seemed to be listening closely. Then his eyes caught sight of the figure next to them. Pointy ears. No facial growth. Dark skin. An Elf! a Drow even! These potential customers suddenly seemed suspicious. What was a Drow doing in these parts, talking with humans?

His stomach stirred while he was trying to muster the strength to listen in on their conversation more closely. What the hell had he been drinking? Ugh, such bright lights!

with a groan, he fell asleep again.

 

Sepp's left hand started to shake as he waited for the Priestess to answer. She seemed to be staring into him. He glanced nervously at Jex. Maybe he and the Priestess were telepathically discussing how they were going to cook and eat him. Maybe Pa really wasn't full of spoiled mushrooms like Gesed always said, and the big people really were nasty, evil creatures. So far, Jex seemed pretty friendly, and had even offered to give him some food, but maybe that was just a ploy to trick him into letting his guard down.

He could feel several pairs of eyes watching him, and his neck hairs started to quiver. This was not a good place to be. There were no rocks or tufts of shrubs or even snow to hide in, just dead, worked wood. If he needed to suddenly run away from these big people, he wouldn't be able to tangle them up with roots and grasses. He could barely feel some old, withered roots deep under the floorboards of this building, but he knew that he didn't have the power to coax them up and around the ankles of these people, maybe Ma would've, but definitely not him.

He wanted to reach his hand into his cloak to grasp his dagger, but didn't dare make such a threatening move. He started to plan his escape. Maybe a backwards roll, through the legs of the drunk wide hairy person, and then under some tables. Looking at Jex though, he didn't think he would make it, Jex looked pretty capable, like a snow lynx.

Well, maybe he was wrong, and the Priestess was just a little slow in her thinking, and if he was right, he would be joining most of his family again, which wasn't so bad after all.

 

Jex looked at the man whose head had slammed into the table with a lound bang. He sighed quitely to himself realizing that he had forgotten to pull his hood up after meeting Sepp. Hopefully he's to drunk to notice, he thought to himself.

"I'll help you Sepp. I don't know if it was a spell or a disease, but either way I'm here to lend you a hand. Now about that food," he said as he lifted his arm to signal the waitress.

 

Karren, the crying Lachlane in her arms, looked over at the halfling. Obviously, the old lady wasn't much of a talker, so the waitress let her be.

"What could I be gettin' ya', my little friend?" Karren smiled, trying to ignore her babies cry's. However, the smiled faded slightly as, waiting for the small man to reply, Karren's eyes fell on his companion. Dark skin, pointy ears. Elf... Drow!

Realising what this creature was, Karren almost jumped. She had heard tales, mainly told by her husband, about these dark creatures with no feelings. Now, watching the innocent-looking elf, Karren wondered what was fiction in those old tales. Was this elf really a menace, a foe?

 

Sepp didn't want to offend the Priestess, but her stare through him had turned into the type of looking far away but into herself look that Ma had when she was having day visions or going dream traveling. He knew when she was doing that the best thing to do was to not disturb her until she came back to her body. He bowed respectively to the Priestess and turned to the big woman who had spoken to him.

She had asked him what he wanted to eat, not told him how he was going to be eaten, and Jex had reaffirmed his friendliness, so he must have been wrong about the big people being hostile. That was a relief!

She had a what must be a baby strapped around her! Since he had been the last baby of their family, he had never actually seen one. It was even smaller than he was. He felt attracted to it.

"What is your baby's name? Was he always so small? Does he talk yet?" he asked the big woman.

Then he remembered she had asked him a question and that Jex had said one could get food at a tavern. "Oh, yes, I'm really hungry. I haven't had any hot food for a few days. I'll have a big plate of going-out-to-work-all-day food, please."

[ June 12, 2005, 16:15: Message edited by: Scot ]