Last Ride of the Heir RPG

[The Perky Ent]

After everyone was dry and restless, Arathorn got up and said, "Well, there's an exit somewhere! Let's find it. Take torches and split up. Twins, go to the left. Paladir, Hanindur, go to the right. Owacyn, come with me" As they split up, more and more of the room became visible, although there was nothing to find. "Owacyn, there is something here. I can feel it. It's either right in front of me, or right behin-" but Arathorn stopped. He heard yells. It was comming from the right. Owacyn and Paladir had found something.

Running back to the lake, Arathorn saw something he had only heard of. Something that haunted these lands for aeons. Looking up, Arathorn saw a fell beast, and it had Paladir. Elladan and Elrohir quickly ran up to it. Fireing an arrow in the stomach of the monster, it dropped Paladir, but he was hurt badly. This would be a long, fierce, tough battle.

[astarielle]

Elladan and his brother walked off to the left with the darkness retreating with the blurred light of the torches they held. Everything the dim light touched was dark and putrid. Somewhere water could be heard forever dripping from the barely visible ceiling creating a stagnant pool on the hard ground. They hadn't been looking for an exit, any exit, long when shouts were heard from the other side of the room. Fearing the worst Elrohir, closely followed by his brother, ran towards the sound, bows notched.

The sight they saw, neither could have imagined. Infront of them was a fearsome fell beast, such as they had never seen before apart from in the books of old. It towered above them as if mocking their size, enticing them to take it on. But that wasn't all they saw. In the great jaws of the beast was Paladir. For what seemed an age, as if frozen to the roots of the earth, they drew their bows. In the gloom it was hard to aim straight but the twins fired their bows and struck home. The beast roared, not out of pain but more out of annoyance, and dropped their friend on the ground. He was badly hurt but far from safety yet.

Elladan made a dash for Paladir who lay outsteched on the ground whilst shouting to his brother and anyone else that could hear him above the roaring of the fell beast, "Cover me!" He ran as fast as he could but with every stride he took the distance seemed to grow. Unfortunately the fell beast saw the elf before he could reach the fallen man. Despite a hail of arrows that rained down on the beast, its claw slashed towards Elladan. Elladan ducked but not quick enough, and a claw caught him accross the shoulder leaving a deep wound and knocking him sideways. Elladan was winded and despite the pain he crawled on towards Paladir whilst the others distracted the fell beast. He hurridly pulled his friend to safety, well as near as safe can be in a place such as this. Paladi was still alive thankfully and after catching his Elladan breath he pulled himself up and notched his bow again, forgetting the pain in his shoulder.

[The Perky Ent]

Phervasaion's post

Paladir, along with Hanindur walked off to the right as the group split. The place was dark and foul, and Paladir new that something was not right but he followed Arathorn’s orders and carried on walking into the darkness. As they walked forward they definitely felt a presence before them, and an evil one at that, evil and powerful. Paladir stopped, thinking he had seen something, and as he gave his eyes time to focus there was a towering dark figure in front of them, yet it remained still.

“Is… Is that a statue? Or worse?” Hanindur said, edging slowly towards the dark shape. He rose his torch up towards the shadows face and suddenly, its eyes opened and a red fire beamed from them.

“Hanindur move!!” Paladir cried as the beast raised its hand to swipe the Ranger, but Paladir charged and shoved Hanindur out of the monster’s grasp and instead Paladir himself was taken by the monster. The great being began to squeeze the life from Paladir, and its grasp was so tight that he didn’t think he was going to make it, but he kept trying to fight his way out from the monster’s hand. The beast began to loosen his grip, but, even though Paladir could now breath again, he new this was not good. It threw him into the air and then opened his wide gaping mouth, revealing long sharp teeth, as sharp as a sword, and Paladir landed right on top of them. His left leg and the lower part of his stomach were now impaled on the fell beast’s teeth and Paladir new that even if he survived this encounter with no more wounds, it would only be a matter of time before he died.

This is it, he thought, but suddenly he heard a whizzing noise, and straight away he new the noise was an Elvish bow… Elladan’s bow. The beast tossed Paladir to the side like a piece of rag, and he landed with a thud on the hard ground. At first Paladir could hardly move as his legs were totally disabled, but his upper body was still in tact and the Ranger would never give up. Elladan ran to Paladir to check if he was still alive and to his astonishment he was, he looked up and noticed a wound on Elladan’s right shoulder and yet he still continued to fight, firing arrows at the dark fiend, but all they did was bounce of his hard, scaly skin, causing no real damage.

Paladir glanced to his left and through his blurry vision he managed to count all of the remaining company, five there were, but he knew that it may not be enough, as skilled as they are, to defeat a being of this power. The injured Ranger then looked to his right and saw his sword lying on the ground. The light was reflecting off the weapon, light from the men’s torches. Paladir mustered all his strength and began to crawl, slowly but surely, to his gleaming sword. He stretched out his right arm and grasped the hilt tightly and brought the sword into his possession and as he grasped it he said to himself, “We’re not finished yet beast!” He looked down at his legs which were now covered in blood, yet he began to feel life flow through them again, and with a great struggle he started to pick himself up off the floor.

[The Perky Ent]

In anger of what had just happened, all the men charged at the fell beast, who wan on the ground for the moment. In the lead was Arathorn, his sword clasped in his hands. Approaching the Fell Beast, Arathorn aimed right above the left wing and swung. It made a small cut that ran across the wing, but it didn't remove it. Upon the attack, the Fell Beast screamed in pain, and with it's tail, wacked Arathorn across the room. Arathorn tried to get up, but the pain was too unbearable. Seeing what had happened, the other men charged faster. Just as they approached, the Fell Beast became airborn. "It's up to us for now" Elladan said, pulling a arrow out of his quiver.

Many arrows fired at the Fell Beast, but it would not come down. It was highly resisting. "Aim for the head!" Arathorn shouted from a distance. Taking his advice, Elrohir fired at the head, and brought the fell beast down. "Our turn!" Owacyn said to Hanindur, as they both ran up to the beast and confronted. Owacyn ran for the feet, grabbed his sword, and swung. Swiftly, theh Fell Beast's right leg came off. Hanindur, in the other direction, went for the tail, and with three sharp swipes, detatched it from the beast. Writhing in pain, the Fell Beast rose into the air again, flying madly across the air. "Bring it down!" Arathorn said, pointing to the Beast's eyes. Elladan and Elrohir both fired, but missed. Only one arrow hit, but it landed in the stomach, a place not likely to bring down such a beast. Suddenly, as Arathorn looked up at the men, he saw Paladir with them. He was about to do something crazy.

[The Perky Ent]

Phervasaion's post


“Hold!” Said a voice from behind the monster, and everyone turned, including the fell beast, to see Paladir limping towards the beast while using his sword as walking stick, he looked as if he was an old man but his voice was still loud and clear.

“Listen to me Demon!!” He began. “You may have injured me, but you haven’t beaten me! And even though my legs are now almost useless, I only need my arms and hands to wield my blade! And if I wield it!! Then I remain undefeated!!!” His voice began to grow even louder and stronger. “So hear me! Let us finish the fight we started!!!”

The fell beast just stared for a minute, but then a great evil smile came across his face, the smile was a smile of acceptance. He rose his hand to hit and finally kill Paladir, but to his surprise Paladir dodged his blow, and countered his attack with three heavy hit’s to the monster’s leg, and only with the third did Paladir manage pierce his skin. The beast backed away but came back with full force, and the battle between Paladir and the Fell Beast went on for some time, with Paladir amazingly dodging his swings and then coming back with heavy blows. But, it was only a matter of time until Paladir faltered, his legs gave way and he was flung to the other side of the room where the fell beast planned to finish him. With three large stomping strides the beast reached Paladir and raised his hand, but the Ranger was still not finished as he jumped to his feet and drove his sword through the monster’s neck. It swayed slightly, and with a crash he fell against the wall, creating a large whole and an escape for the company. The fight was finally over.

“Now… now you can escape,” said Paladir, pointing to the huge hole in the wall. “The way is open,” his voice became weaker and quieter. The men and the remaining Elf brother’s ran over but there was nothing they could do for Paladir now. Blood was seeping from his wounds, and Paladir was too weak to carry on. The injured Ranger fell to his knees and took his last breath.

“At least… I’m going to a better place, Hanindur.” Paladir gave a weak smile and then fell to the ground,

[Hama Of The Riddermark]

Owacyn winced as he saw Paladir go limp, a tear escaped from his eyes, but he swiftly wiped it, trying his hardest to make it look like it was to get rid of dust. Drawing his sword slowly his thoughts strayed to Gondor and his wife and unborn child. Slowly and painfully he snapped them back to the present. Arathorn rested an arm on his shoulder. "Owacyn, there will be a time to grieve, but the time is not now...we must get through this, we have to, for the sakes of our children, and for children to come we must survive." Owacyn looked at Arathorn and tried to give a smile, but it came out as a twisted smile with a nervous twitch at the side.

Elladan and Elrohir joined them looking up the stairs. Hanindur slowly joined them as well. Owacyn looked around the company. Nine reduced to five in what seemed like hardly any time at all. Hanindur slowly and quietly said "We should commit Paladir to the waters, not just leave him here to rot in this hole."

[The Perky Ent]

"We cannot linger! There will be a time to bury the dead, but it is not now. Every second we wait, more orcs will prepare. We must go!" Arathorn said to Owacyn, running through the hole. A small stair went down into the depths, which the men followed. Beyond that was a small tunnel reaching beyond the darkness. "It seems we've found a secret tunnel of some king! This must be how they built it. Using these tunnels. They must lead to an exit! Let's go!" Arathorn said, running into darkness. "Is there no other way?" Elladan said. "The air smells foul" "We have two choices! We can either take the tunnel and stand a chance to escape, or we can stay in the tunnel and wait for them to find us." Arathorn said, grabbing his sword as he ran.

For what seemed like hours they ran through the darkness without sing of an exit. The tunnel and Paladir's body were now far out of sight, and the world seemed like pure darkness. The men couldn't even see where they were going, as their torches were put out by a leak in the tunnel a while back. "Now I know what it feels like in the void!" Elrohir said. "It truly is a punishment worthy of someone like Morgoth." Elladan said. For the next half hour, they ran, until they began slowing down. "This is useless, Arathorn! I'd rather be back in the tunnel, than lost and dead here. There's even a chance we're running back in the wrong direction!" Owacyn said, giving Arathorn a hard look. "Just a bit more" Arathorn said, though his mind was slowly agreeing with Owacyn.

An hour later, they saw light. It was beautiful. A beacon of hope. It gave hope to them. At the end of the tunnel, there was a ten foot drop into a bright, large room. With the exception for a large stair running up, the room seemed empty "This is our exit! Surely! " Hanindur said, jumping out of the tunnel. "Freedom" Arathorn said. "Look!" Elrohir said, running up a crack in the floor. Elrohir quickly broke the floor, revealing an enormous stash of weapons. "This must be a hidden armoury!" "Let's get some weapons and get out of here!" Arathorn said, grabbing beautifully crafted swords. After gathering a large amount of weapons, the men went up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs was a large dining room. Four long tables stretched hundreds of feet across the room. On each side of the room was an open exit. One, it seemed, went to a lounge. The other, went to the main hall. "We're saved!" the men said, running out to the hall. "Not yet!" Arathorn said, for guarding the large wooden doors were a small group of orcs. "Them the ones that got us at the bridge! Kill em!"