An Account Of The North

[LaCabra (Soda) 1519]

Chapter 1

 

A lonesome, tall figure stood at the easternmost base of the great Northern Barrier of ice and rock, around a small campfire that warmed his hands, battling the oncoming cold from the nearby North. Night had fallen several hours earlier, and the moon had crawled high into the ceiling of Anthos, whose stars twinkled in the frigid evening. The tall figure had his arms folded in prayer, his rugged face glowing in the firelight, while his gruff voice utter pleas of strength to a spirit of the Old Faith of the North.

This man was a lanky, long-legged Adunian by the name of Talen, a hunter and ranger whose knowledge and skill with the land was plentiful. Talen had set foot in the North before, but never had he ventured deep into it, and his mission was to do so. Lachlan Mor Elendil, a fellow Adunian and leading figure of the Adunian people, had assigned the skillful Talen to scout past the treacherous Mountains of the North, in search of suitable land in which a city could be built for Lachlan’s proud and mighty people. This was Talen’s mission, to find that land, and report it to the future leader of the Adunians.

Talen’s prayer of strength came slowly to an end, and the fire he had lit glowed dimly in the moonlight as embers. His gaze lifted to the close by wall of ice which towered over him dauntingly, its shadow lingering overhead. Thick ice comprised the majority of the wall, and this was what Talen would use to ascend it. Before beginning his climb, though, Talen dumped a handful of snow over the fire he had lit, and covered it with a dead bush that he discovered nearby. Beside the now hidden fireplace, Talen carved in a small message into the dirt with a stick, a message that a fellow ranger could recognize and understand. It was a “T” with three scratches on its right, the “T” symbolizing Talen’s name, and the three scratches representing that Talen had left the campfire on the third night of Malin’s Welcome, one of Anthos’ more gentle months.

When Talen began his ascension up the icy cliff face, the sun slowly peeked over the horizon. Using two sturdy ice picks, the Adunian clambered up the vertical wall, several holes being left behind where the picks had settled in the frozen surface. The wall itself was around fourty feet high, and as Talen climbed, the sun rose higher and higher. By early afternoon, the exhausted ranger’s hands gripped the edge of the wall, and with his final reserves of strength, he pulled himself up onto the flat safety atop the deadly cliff. At this, he fell into a tired slumber.

Biting cold woke Talen, gnawing at his toes. He knew that he required fire to go further into the North, but no trees were visible from the cliff top he resided upon. The sleep that had taken him had lasted several hours, as night was beginning its reign over Anthos. Quickly devouring some of the contents in his bag of belongings, mainly dried fruit and dehydrated strips of meat, Talen wore on. Deciding to follow the edge of the cliff west, Talen resumed his journey.      

With daunting, snow tipped mountains on his right, and a vast drop-off to his left, Talen walked for several hours. Not long after he began, the lights of Oren’s grand city were visible, twinkling in the clear moonlight. Talen continued, until at a measure of time, a vast fortress, home of the Teutonic Order lay below him. The Sariants here owned the only safe and commonly known entryway into the North, though they guarded it heavily and allowed few to enter its reaches. Talen had tried to enter this way, but he denied passage and was swiftly escorted out of theTeutonic Order’s land.

Half thinking to spit on the cursed lands below, with their black and white waving flags, Talen quickly shook off the thought of insulting the Order, and turned back towards the North. The feet of a mountain pass were mere feet away, and were the route that Talen would choose to take.  As he wandered along it, the ranger soon met the prints of some great hoofed beast, whose prints were much larger than even
an Orc’s footsteps. Mystified by the massive tracks, Talen quickly followed them through the mountain pass, deeper and deeper into the North. Morning once again crept up and replaced the night sky with a dim pink glow. As the sun’s rays just began their warming, Talen found himself at the end of the pass, and into an open clearing of land with several massive spruce trees ahead, from which he would gather firewood.

 

After snapping off several dry limbs from one of the spiny spruces, Talen soon followed the tracks of the hoofed beast once more. They led to a broken pathway of sorts, in fact, a great road that was ruined by time. Along this road lay forest trees that compared to giants, along with the ruins of a watchtower of
old. Overtaken by the land’s mysterious, regal beauty, Talen walked towards the marvelous tower, which had long been forsaken and empty. A dark doorway beckoned his tired feet inside, at which he entered and followed a staircase down under the ground. At the feet of the stone steps, he lay the firewood from the spruce trees down, and quickly set them ablaze. The firelight revealed the room he was in to be a storeroom of old, though it was hard to identify it as such, due to its wear.

Overcome by exhaustion, Talen bundled himself in his thick, green cloak, and lay quietly near the fire, falling asleep immediately. Day pressed into night, and night wore on to morning. It had been three days since he began his journey into the North, and it was now the sixth day of Malin’s Welcome.

 

(The second chapter will be coming as these events progress in-game.)

 

[TornadoWatch 364]

((I don't mean to ruin this, but the ice wall is utterly unclimbable in RP. I'd know, I worked on it for weeks before the North opened. I even found a way in by doing a parkour jump but the GM's didn't allow it to be RP.

 

The only way into the North at the moment is through the Teutonic Order's northgate.

 

If you want to enter by climbing, you'll probably have to talk to Viper3x or something. Teutonic Order tried with fully RP'ed climbing gear that was bought and we were not allowed entry.

 

Not much of a problem with this personally, I think it's cool, I just wanted to tell you.

[Kaiser 2347]

((lovely writing, I actually enjoyed it. This all happened ICly or just made up?))

[LaCabra (Soda) 1519]

TornadoWatch - All of this was actually done in-game with the help of a few event team members, I hope that clears up any confusion!

Uracow - Thanks, man, and yes, this has happened (and still is happening) in game.

[Samoblivion 532]

Haha, we had fun with this. I look forward to the continuation of this ;)

[LaCabra (Soda) 1519]

Heck yeah, dude, it's so fun! :D

[Weeberlore(Seardrick) 12]

The snow crunches underfoot of a silhouetted figure, the sun setting to his back as he travels North East. He takes a deep breath then exhales, the frigid air making his breath visible as it billows from his nostrils. The gargantuan Northern border soon comes into view. As he grows ever closer to the towering wall of ice and stone he says to himself. "What have you gotten yourself into this time Terrick?" 

 

The night now upon him, Terrick stops and builds himself a fire. He removes a tinderbox from his bag and collects a few small twigs. A spark is seen as he strikes the fire starters together. After a few more attempts a spark lands in the fine tinder and ignites a weak flame. Terrick quickly and carefully blows on the flame, adding the earlier collected twigs. Soon he has a sufficient fire that casts dancing shadows on the surrounding trees. Tired from his travels Terrick falls asleep next to the fire, waking often enough to feed it.

 

When he wakes in the morning the fire had burned out. He gets up and looks about his camp sight. He notices a strange marking in the dirt. He moves over to it and crouches down, seeing a "T" with three slashes next to it. This was the sign Talen had said he would leave. After a moment he stands and erases the sign with a quick pass of his boot. He looks up at the massive wall and sees scars in the ice where picks had been used to climb. Terrick removes a rope from his bag along with his bow and an arrow. "I won't let you have all the fun friend."