[Story] It Started as a Whisper... - A Tale of Yesderday, found in and amongst old papers
Comprising the group:
* Seerus, a mysterious, dark clothed human assassin
* Half elven adventurer and swords master Rathan Flameblade, the champion sword of Daggerdale
* The fair half-elven Dweomerkeeper, Servant of Mystery Silenea Milil, one of the few travelling clerics of Mystra
* Snar Snir, the disfigured and usually invisible human wielder of wild magics and things unusual
* The young rag-tag boy Zeke, newly following the companions, seeking adventure
* The beautiful and graceful Laurel Windsong, great elven bard of Daggerdale
* Thragar Doorsmasher, the infamous spike-armored dwarven Battlerager of the Seven Heroes, he of many Ioun stones. (Yes, Battlerager with Ioun Stones active. Fear him.)
At the foot of the Dhoom Mountains, seven travellers wander through a warm, stale aired chasm in search of their kidnapped companion, the mighty elven ranger, Alain Sylverleaf (What, you mean you haven't heard of him? 100 Lizard Men in one blow!"). Snar Snir, aware and alert, looks up and around himself just in time to see something cross the chasm above the focused group... something with wings. All became more watchful of their surroundings, ready for whatever was to come their way. Or so they think....
As the companions travel further up the chasm, the man in the lead, only known to his companions as Seerus, begins to hear a whisper coming from somewhere around him. At first, he pauses, listening, then continues on at a silent creep, peering around himself, seeking the source of the whisper. Immediately behind Seerus, Rathan Flameblade and Silenea Milil, beginning to be affected by Seerus' sudden quiet discomfort, start walking with their backs to the chasm walls, looking in all directions. The rest of the companions follow, uncertain of the change of pace at the lead.
Seerus begins to hear more whispers added to the first, and with each added whisper, the older whispers grow in volume, the words whispered almost becoming clear. Rathan jumps, suddenly distracted by a push from the wall behind him. As he turns to investigate, blades ready to face down any foe, he finds nothing but the wall behind him.
Finally, Seerus breaks. He turns to Silenea, asking "Don't you hear that? Don't you hear the whispers?"
Instead of whispers, Silenea hears something... someone... clawing on the wall beside her, coming from behind the wall, and then a scream of pain.
"HELP ME!"
Silenea turns to the cry to see nothing but the wall, yet the sound of clawing as if something were trying to get out of the wall continues. As she warily searches the wall for the source of the sound, suddenly Silenea begins to see a pair of hands, reaching, trying to get out of the wall. Slowly, the single person clawing grows to two... five... twelve... to many many people.. clawing at the wall as if trying to break out, reaching for escape, reaching for her help.
Seerus hears the whispers getting louder, more coherent, but continually seeks the source of the whispers to find... nothing. In his broken state, Seerus yells: "There's NOTHING there!", covering his ears to stop hearing the whispers.
Looking around herself, Silenea is confused at the reactions of her friends standing closest to her. The first scream in her ears becomes several, more screams added to the first:
"Help me! They're hurting me! They're hurting us! Help us! HELP US!" The cries of pain begin to deafen her... the clawing of more people, wanting to get out of their prison assail her ears.
"No! They're not there! They're not there!" Silenea screams, covering her ears and falling to her knees, trying to block out the screams, the cries of pain she cannot answer because she doesn't know how.
The young boy, Zeke, hears the howl of a wolf up the passage, and begins to tremble in fear. Turning to the Dwarven fighter, Thragar, and the elven bard, Laurel, Zeke screams "The wolves! They're coming! Run!" and begins running back down the passage, away from the group the way they came.
Laurel, catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye, turns to look around her, and finds nothing. Suddenly, she finds herself nestled between spikes as she is picked up by Thragar, who begins to run back down the passage after Zeke, thinking of Laurel's safety from whatever is affecting the group.
A shine back down the passage catches Snar Snir's eye. In the weak sunlight, Snar recognizes it as gold. A shiny gold coin just sitting in the passage. How could he have missed it? Snar turns to Rathan, and states in an angry, possessive voice: "My gold!" and runs down the passage towards the gold coin laying on the ground.
Seerus suddenly stops cold, uncovering his ears, and stares coldly at Rathan, a look of understanding dawning in his eyes. "It's you! YOU! Stop whispering!" Seerus yells to Rathan. Unaware of the danger at his back, Rathan is still standing, staring after Snar Snir, confused at his words, and still trying to study the walls around him, looking for what pushed at his back. Seeing that Rathan is ignoring him, and that the whiuspering is continuing, Seerus looks sharply at Rathan, pulling out his dagger, and approaching silently, as only an Assassin could.
Silenea runs up to Seerus, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and begins shaking him. "No Seerus, No! Seerus! No! Make them stop!" Silenea's words are almost incoherent, the cleric almost in tears as she yells at him. Seerus, completely unaffected by Silenea's words or grasp, continues on, his mind and intent set firmly on a spot between Rathan's shoulder blades. As she shakes Seerus, telling him to stop, to stop the voices from screaming, she hears an all too familiar voice to her, but the voice is in so much pain.
"Silenea... help me.... the pain... they're... ripping my flesh off..." The hesitant, strained voice of their kidnapped companion registers in Silenea's mind, and she lets go of Seerus in shock, looking and reaching to find her companion and friend. "Alain? Alain! No!"
Silenea sees Alain, trapped in the wall, clawing, trying to get away from his apparent captor. She puts her hands on the wall trying to reach Alain, to comfort him and take him from his pain.
"The pain... is too much... Silenea... I just... want to die..."
"Alain! No! Please Mystra, no!" Silenea's heartbroken scream goes unheard and unanswered by her companions, trapped in their own nightmares.
"Help me Silenea... grab my hand... please..."
"Alain!"
Alain grabs Silenea's wrist, and Silenea grabs his, and he pulls her into the stone.
The power inside Silenea's mind disconnects, too late for her to know what is going on. As she drifts off into an unnatural sleep, Silenea comes to a single realization: she has been cocooned.
Reaching the gold coin, Snar Snir picks it up and turns it over in his hands. Imprinted on the gold is his face, staring back at him. It truly is HIS gold. But another glimmer back up the passage catches his eye, and he looks to see Rathan, holding a bag of gold. For a moment, the bag becomes transparent, and he can see his gold. In his state of pure greed, Snar Snir yells out: "Come back here with my gold, you bastard!" and begins to run towards Rathan.
Once Silenea had let go of Seerus, he continued his path towards Rathan. Walking quietly up behind him, Seerus stabs Rathan in the back, knocking him to the ground. Rolling over, Rathan sees the smile of joy on Seerus' face. Before he can even think of anything else, Rathan feels the weak, yet solid, punch of Snar Snir, who is now kneeling beside him, taking what Snar sees as the bag of gold from Rathan. As he stores the bag of gold in his magical pouch of holding, Seerus kneels on the other side of Rathan, and pulls out another dagger. As he turns to look again at Rathan, Snar Snir notices that his gold lines Rathan's cloak. Puches and pouches of his gold seem to be stuffed into Rathan's cloak. Snar Snir begins to take his bags of gold from Rathan, every so often hitting Rathan over the head with one as he pulls it away.
Seerus looks to Snar Snir, and offers him the other dagger he pulled out, and says to him "I can help you get your gold, but we have to kill him. Here, take the dagger, and we will kill him together." Too busy concentrating on taking his gold from Rathan, Snar Snir barely hears the words of his companion.
Rathan, looking up into the face of his crazed companions, feels the shiver of true fear running through him. He gets up and tries to run, but feels something grab his ankle, tripping him and holding him fast. Rathan looks down to see a stone hand holding his ankle. Within seconds, four more hands are holding him down, one at his other ankle, one at each wrist, and one at his neck. Rathan twist and turns, breaking free of their grasp, and continues running away from his crazed friends.
Thragar hears a voice from behind him as he tries to rush out of the chasm, the voice of the woman he loves. Tera, his beloved Tera, was calling to him..
"They came, Thragar. No one could stop them. You failed me Thragar!"
Thragar drops Laurel unceremoniously on the ground and turns around to Tera. A look of shock and anguish appears on his face as he sees his beloved, her neck slashed, blood flowing from the gash.
"You failed me Thragar! You failed me!" The call continues again and again, blood flowing from her neck and chin, and gurgling in her mouth, obscuring her words as she repeats them again and again. The dwarf drops to his knees, his face in his hands, in tears. He looks up to Tera...
"How did you get here Tera? You can't be here."
So firm is the conviction in his mind that Tera does disappear. And then... he hears scratching on the walls to each side of him.
"Help me Thragar... He's cut out my eyes!" cries an all too familiar voice.
"Alain?"
"Help me Thragar! Help me!"
"You failed me Thragar! You failed me!"
Thragar goes to the rock wall to help Alain and Tera, and gets pulled in.
Looking down at Rathan now, Snar Snir sees that Rathan's armour is made of HIS gold. Someone had melted HIS gold down to make armour! All of a sudden, Snar Snir hears a voice from his bag at his side...
"We're disappearing! He's taking us! You have to kill him to stop us from disappearing! Kill him to save us! Kill him to save us!"
The last call is repeated again and again as Snar Snir pauses for just a moment to try to think. He fails. The call overcoming him, Snar Snir reacts without any thought, beginning to cast his spell upon Rathan... a lightning bolt.
The shock of the lightning bolt brings Rathan around just enough, and he becomes fully aware of his surroundings. He sees that the chasm is actually a larger, round area, with cocoons hanging from juts in the walls. And then he looks around at his fellow party members. While he doesn't see Silenea or Thragar, he does see each of the others, and some rather gruesome looking monsters around each of them.
..............
The story would continue with Snar's fun, Seerus, And Laurel and Zeke's misadventures (Laurel throwing a knife at poor Zeke), but without a proper description of the monster in question, the story as I wrote it years ago, ended there.
* Seerus, a mysterious, dark clothed human assassin
* Half elven adventurer and swords master Rathan Flameblade, the champion sword of Daggerdale
* The fair half-elven Dweomerkeeper, Servant of Mystery Silenea Milil, one of the few travelling clerics of Mystra
* Snar Snir, the disfigured and usually invisible human wielder of wild magics and things unusual
* The young rag-tag boy Zeke, newly following the companions, seeking adventure
* The beautiful and graceful Laurel Windsong, great elven bard of Daggerdale
* Thragar Doorsmasher, the infamous spike-armored dwarven Battlerager of the Seven Heroes, he of many Ioun stones. (Yes, Battlerager with Ioun Stones active. Fear him.)
At the foot of the Dhoom Mountains, seven travellers wander through a warm, stale aired chasm in search of their kidnapped companion, the mighty elven ranger, Alain Sylverleaf (What, you mean you haven't heard of him? 100 Lizard Men in one blow!"). Snar Snir, aware and alert, looks up and around himself just in time to see something cross the chasm above the focused group... something with wings. All became more watchful of their surroundings, ready for whatever was to come their way. Or so they think....
As the companions travel further up the chasm, the man in the lead, only known to his companions as Seerus, begins to hear a whisper coming from somewhere around him. At first, he pauses, listening, then continues on at a silent creep, peering around himself, seeking the source of the whisper. Immediately behind Seerus, Rathan Flameblade and Silenea Milil, beginning to be affected by Seerus' sudden quiet discomfort, start walking with their backs to the chasm walls, looking in all directions. The rest of the companions follow, uncertain of the change of pace at the lead.
Seerus begins to hear more whispers added to the first, and with each added whisper, the older whispers grow in volume, the words whispered almost becoming clear. Rathan jumps, suddenly distracted by a push from the wall behind him. As he turns to investigate, blades ready to face down any foe, he finds nothing but the wall behind him.
Finally, Seerus breaks. He turns to Silenea, asking "Don't you hear that? Don't you hear the whispers?"
Instead of whispers, Silenea hears something... someone... clawing on the wall beside her, coming from behind the wall, and then a scream of pain.
"HELP ME!"
Silenea turns to the cry to see nothing but the wall, yet the sound of clawing as if something were trying to get out of the wall continues. As she warily searches the wall for the source of the sound, suddenly Silenea begins to see a pair of hands, reaching, trying to get out of the wall. Slowly, the single person clawing grows to two... five... twelve... to many many people.. clawing at the wall as if trying to break out, reaching for escape, reaching for her help.
Seerus hears the whispers getting louder, more coherent, but continually seeks the source of the whispers to find... nothing. In his broken state, Seerus yells: "There's NOTHING there!", covering his ears to stop hearing the whispers.
Looking around herself, Silenea is confused at the reactions of her friends standing closest to her. The first scream in her ears becomes several, more screams added to the first:
"Help me! They're hurting me! They're hurting us! Help us! HELP US!" The cries of pain begin to deafen her... the clawing of more people, wanting to get out of their prison assail her ears.
"No! They're not there! They're not there!" Silenea screams, covering her ears and falling to her knees, trying to block out the screams, the cries of pain she cannot answer because she doesn't know how.
The young boy, Zeke, hears the howl of a wolf up the passage, and begins to tremble in fear. Turning to the Dwarven fighter, Thragar, and the elven bard, Laurel, Zeke screams "The wolves! They're coming! Run!" and begins running back down the passage, away from the group the way they came.
Laurel, catching a glimpse of something out of the corner of her eye, turns to look around her, and finds nothing. Suddenly, she finds herself nestled between spikes as she is picked up by Thragar, who begins to run back down the passage after Zeke, thinking of Laurel's safety from whatever is affecting the group.
A shine back down the passage catches Snar Snir's eye. In the weak sunlight, Snar recognizes it as gold. A shiny gold coin just sitting in the passage. How could he have missed it? Snar turns to Rathan, and states in an angry, possessive voice: "My gold!" and runs down the passage towards the gold coin laying on the ground.
Seerus suddenly stops cold, uncovering his ears, and stares coldly at Rathan, a look of understanding dawning in his eyes. "It's you! YOU! Stop whispering!" Seerus yells to Rathan. Unaware of the danger at his back, Rathan is still standing, staring after Snar Snir, confused at his words, and still trying to study the walls around him, looking for what pushed at his back. Seeing that Rathan is ignoring him, and that the whiuspering is continuing, Seerus looks sharply at Rathan, pulling out his dagger, and approaching silently, as only an Assassin could.
Silenea runs up to Seerus, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and begins shaking him. "No Seerus, No! Seerus! No! Make them stop!" Silenea's words are almost incoherent, the cleric almost in tears as she yells at him. Seerus, completely unaffected by Silenea's words or grasp, continues on, his mind and intent set firmly on a spot between Rathan's shoulder blades. As she shakes Seerus, telling him to stop, to stop the voices from screaming, she hears an all too familiar voice to her, but the voice is in so much pain.
"Silenea... help me.... the pain... they're... ripping my flesh off..." The hesitant, strained voice of their kidnapped companion registers in Silenea's mind, and she lets go of Seerus in shock, looking and reaching to find her companion and friend. "Alain? Alain! No!"
Silenea sees Alain, trapped in the wall, clawing, trying to get away from his apparent captor. She puts her hands on the wall trying to reach Alain, to comfort him and take him from his pain.
"The pain... is too much... Silenea... I just... want to die..."
"Alain! No! Please Mystra, no!" Silenea's heartbroken scream goes unheard and unanswered by her companions, trapped in their own nightmares.
"Help me Silenea... grab my hand... please..."
"Alain!"
Alain grabs Silenea's wrist, and Silenea grabs his, and he pulls her into the stone.
The power inside Silenea's mind disconnects, too late for her to know what is going on. As she drifts off into an unnatural sleep, Silenea comes to a single realization: she has been cocooned.
Reaching the gold coin, Snar Snir picks it up and turns it over in his hands. Imprinted on the gold is his face, staring back at him. It truly is HIS gold. But another glimmer back up the passage catches his eye, and he looks to see Rathan, holding a bag of gold. For a moment, the bag becomes transparent, and he can see his gold. In his state of pure greed, Snar Snir yells out: "Come back here with my gold, you bastard!" and begins to run towards Rathan.
Once Silenea had let go of Seerus, he continued his path towards Rathan. Walking quietly up behind him, Seerus stabs Rathan in the back, knocking him to the ground. Rolling over, Rathan sees the smile of joy on Seerus' face. Before he can even think of anything else, Rathan feels the weak, yet solid, punch of Snar Snir, who is now kneeling beside him, taking what Snar sees as the bag of gold from Rathan. As he stores the bag of gold in his magical pouch of holding, Seerus kneels on the other side of Rathan, and pulls out another dagger. As he turns to look again at Rathan, Snar Snir notices that his gold lines Rathan's cloak. Puches and pouches of his gold seem to be stuffed into Rathan's cloak. Snar Snir begins to take his bags of gold from Rathan, every so often hitting Rathan over the head with one as he pulls it away.
Seerus looks to Snar Snir, and offers him the other dagger he pulled out, and says to him "I can help you get your gold, but we have to kill him. Here, take the dagger, and we will kill him together." Too busy concentrating on taking his gold from Rathan, Snar Snir barely hears the words of his companion.
Rathan, looking up into the face of his crazed companions, feels the shiver of true fear running through him. He gets up and tries to run, but feels something grab his ankle, tripping him and holding him fast. Rathan looks down to see a stone hand holding his ankle. Within seconds, four more hands are holding him down, one at his other ankle, one at each wrist, and one at his neck. Rathan twist and turns, breaking free of their grasp, and continues running away from his crazed friends.
Thragar hears a voice from behind him as he tries to rush out of the chasm, the voice of the woman he loves. Tera, his beloved Tera, was calling to him..
"They came, Thragar. No one could stop them. You failed me Thragar!"
Thragar drops Laurel unceremoniously on the ground and turns around to Tera. A look of shock and anguish appears on his face as he sees his beloved, her neck slashed, blood flowing from the gash.
"You failed me Thragar! You failed me!" The call continues again and again, blood flowing from her neck and chin, and gurgling in her mouth, obscuring her words as she repeats them again and again. The dwarf drops to his knees, his face in his hands, in tears. He looks up to Tera...
"How did you get here Tera? You can't be here."
So firm is the conviction in his mind that Tera does disappear. And then... he hears scratching on the walls to each side of him.
"Help me Thragar... He's cut out my eyes!" cries an all too familiar voice.
"Alain?"
"Help me Thragar! Help me!"
"You failed me Thragar! You failed me!"
Thragar goes to the rock wall to help Alain and Tera, and gets pulled in.
Looking down at Rathan now, Snar Snir sees that Rathan's armour is made of HIS gold. Someone had melted HIS gold down to make armour! All of a sudden, Snar Snir hears a voice from his bag at his side...
"We're disappearing! He's taking us! You have to kill him to stop us from disappearing! Kill him to save us! Kill him to save us!"
The last call is repeated again and again as Snar Snir pauses for just a moment to try to think. He fails. The call overcoming him, Snar Snir reacts without any thought, beginning to cast his spell upon Rathan... a lightning bolt.
The shock of the lightning bolt brings Rathan around just enough, and he becomes fully aware of his surroundings. He sees that the chasm is actually a larger, round area, with cocoons hanging from juts in the walls. And then he looks around at his fellow party members. While he doesn't see Silenea or Thragar, he does see each of the others, and some rather gruesome looking monsters around each of them.
..............
The story would continue with Snar's fun, Seerus, And Laurel and Zeke's misadventures (Laurel throwing a knife at poor Zeke), but without a proper description of the monster in question, the story as I wrote it years ago, ended there.