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Howdy, and welcome to my first story of my new series, The Shadow’s Trails, a Medieval/Dungeons and Dragons-inspired mythos, world, whatever you want to call it! Before we begin, I’d like to do a quick run down on the characters and their DnD classes in this part.
Gabriel - Arctic Wolf, Ranger
Davie - Goat, Wizard
Alex - Coyote, Sorcerer
Galley - Sea Otter, Bard
Ricky - Field Mouse, Warrior
Ligo - Fennec Fox, Rogue
Enjoy!
————————————————————-
Bane of the Bastion Blade
Chapter One, The Unforgiving Lands That Lay Before Us
"We can't fight them forever, we must get to the doorway!!!" Davie held to his spell book, casting flame spells as the rest of the party used their wide variety of weaponry.
Blades clashed and sparks flew as the party fought their way through the Catacombs of Dragul Zlek-Saa, an icy abyss of undead warriors, kings, and thieves alike. These zombies were awakened long ago by the lord of the dead, Zlek-Saa, and were ordered to complete one task, to kill all who enter.
Spells and swords were cast to destroy the endless stream of corpses, with the party’s ranger’s arrows bringing down many zombies, but tenfold replaced all those who fell. The party was becoming worn down and exhausted, growing more and more desperate with each kill.
Gabriel, the ranger, reached into his quiver, but grabbed at nothing but cool air. He turned his head to find that he had run out of arrows. Rushing to fight back, he began to reach for his trusty short sword.
Suddenly, he gasped for breath as a blackened, rusted blade pierced into his stomach. A decaying kobold smiled and weakley gave a sinister laugh. With one swift swing, Gabriel had decapitated the zombie.
Gabriel stumbled and gasped for breath as he began to tear open his shirt, when he noticed his pain had subsided. He was bewildered as he shifted around his fur and clothes. He had no wound, not even a slight bruising.
He was so busy looking for a wound, his friends had to make a protective circle around him. His wizard and sorcerer friends, Davie and Alex respectively, were on the edges of the circle, casting fire and protective enchantments to stop the armies, who were now using all their might to kill the two magic users. All according to the magic user’s plan The zombies were too foolish to notice the split between the army that gave way to an escape for the party.
Gabriel yelled, "Davie!!! There's an opening! Go! We need to run!!!!"
Davie summoned a ball of blue fire to light the way through the gap, running as fast as his chubby legs could carry him.
“Hurry!!! We need to break through!!!” Davie yelled as he used his horns to plow through a crumbling cat zombie, urging his friends to rush through the armies.
The zombies realized their foolishness and ran after the party. But there was no chance to catch them.
With an explosive spell, Alex ripped apart the pillars and doorway behind them, collapsing the doorway to the catacombs, and sealing in the hordes of the reanimated corpses. Rocks and chunks of stained marble and stone crumbled and tumbled, splashing down as they landed in smaller dunes of dust and sand. Heat radiated off the shifting dunes, blasting the party with a burning breeze.
Ligo began to chuckle, a small sound only Alex heard at first, before he began to laugh aloud, doubling over from his laughing. Davie snickered before dying of laughter as well, rolling around in tears. Pretty soon, the whole party had begun to laugh, throwing sand in the air and shaking each other in joy.
“WE MADE IT!!! OH, THANK THE GODS WE MADE IT BOYS!!!” Galley yelled as he twirled around, with Ricky in his cupped hands.
“Ahhhh, beautiful sand!!! Soon, we reach the ancient ruins and gorgeous oases of Malazkesh-Zilta!!!” Alex yelled into the desert, hollering and laughing as he jumped into a soft pile of sand.
Gabriel panted and giggled, before his smile drained as he stumbled in the sweltering heat. “Guys, I’d hate to be a b-burden, but…I-I’m not feeling too good…” he said before blacking out a moment later, falling to his side and curling up in the sands of the Malazkesh Desert. The party stopped laughing and ran to Gabriel, trying to shake him awake.
—————————————————————
Muffled conversations began to spring around the wolf as he came to, words of worry and planning circling the space in his mind. The darkness began to fade as Gabriel’s eyes opened, watching the soft wavering of the tent’s roof. To his right, he began to hear full words and sentences, all spoken in a concerned tone...
“I just think our best course of action is moving by night and day. There are mountains buried in this desert, from when this sandpit used to be a snowy jagged range! We can use those for shade, I know they are out there!!!” Galley whispered.
“There is no guarantee! These sands are always moving, a large mountain could be buried just days after it was uncovered. We can’t risk it.” said Ricky in an angry hushed tone.
“Let me guess, you can’t handle a little bit of heat. Neither can I, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep him alive!!!”
Ricky angrily shouted, “And when we ALL die from heat sickness and dehydration, who’ll save him then?!”
“Both of you shut it!!! He’s coming to…” Davie whispered before rushing over to get a water pouch for Gabriel.
Gabriel groaned and attempted to sit up before being pushed down by Galley.
“Hey hey hey!!! No, no, no! Lay down, you need to rest.”
Gabriel rubbed his eyes and face before asking, “Where are we?”
Davie poured water into the wolf’s mouth as he replied, “We are about four days away from Malazkesh-Zilta. We trekked for about two days, and we set up the tent no more than a few hours ago. We have been discussing what we should be doing to get to Zilta as quickly and as safely as possible.” Alex walked briskly over to the rest of the group who huddled around Gabriel.
“I apologize for being this serious and blunt in my question, but were you or were you not stabbed in the Catacombs?”
Gabriel looked up at Alex with a puzzled expression.
“Actually, I was. W-why do you ask?”
Alex grimaced as he said, “Because you don’t have a wound. This is a very serious matter we have to account for.”
Gabriel became frustrated as he brushed off Alex’s concern, answering, “Alex, it's not that serious, the blade was dull. That’s all that happened.”
Alex shook his head.
“The reason you fainted the day we ended up here was because of that invisible wound.”
Gabriel was surprisingly angered at this point, his eyes glowing a pale blue hue.
“I don’t know what you are trying to pull, but I am not stupid…oh, I see! You think I'm weak, don't you, Alex, DON’T YOU?! This is some sick joke you’re playing! I. Am. FINE!!!”
He fumbled for a dagger and flung it at his friend. Everybody gasped and grabbed the wolf’s shoulders as he gnashed his jaws and roared fiercely. Alex caught the blade easily.
Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut, panting as he reopened them, showing his white eyes. Alex breathed deeply.
“It’s worse than I thought.”
Gabriel looked at Alex, stuttering as he said, “A-A-Alex, I’m so sorry! I-I don’t know what c-came over me, I s-swear I would never do that, p-plea-”
Alex placed his paw on his friend's mouth, the sad smile on the coyote's face attempting to soothe the wolf.
“Shhhhhshshhh!!! Gabriel, there is no need to apologize, I know this isn’t you. But it is the sickness that is possessing you....I'm sorry to say that you are gravely ill because you have been hurt by…’
The coyote sighed, breathing in deeply before finishing his sentence.
“Because you’ve been infected by a Bastion Blade.”
Everyone but Davie held a confused look as they stared at the coyote sorcerer.
Davie solemnly stepped forward and said, “I most likely need to explain. A Bastion Blade is any sword or bladed weapon that has been cast in a pit of Murtino Sangrile, a vile liquid that is more commonly known as Death’s Blood. It is a concoction that consists of a variety of poisons from across the lands, the blood and pus of a hanged man’s corpse, and a handful of the red sands from the Malico Desert, known as “Evil’s Playing Field”. Once removed from one of these foul pits, the blade is used by the undead and the truly evil to inflict a sickness on others, called the Bane of the Bastion.”
Alex interjected, saying, “That’s what’s so concerning. Not only do you now have the sickness, but that it’s effects are very strong and are destroying your body and soul. Davie will explain why.”
Davie cleared his throat before beginning again. “The sickness is a slow, painful infection, it often does not show itself for a full week and the effects are often slow to present themselves. What just happened should have taken half a month to show up.”
Alex turned to Gabriel again and said, "The sickness first makes a person more irritable and weaker. After that, it causes fever and chills, vomiting, hallucinations, temporary blindness and a lot more nasty things, eventually death.”
“Which brings us to the discussion; with how the sickness has affected you, you most likely have fifteen to twenty days to live. But with the heat, it could be shorter.” Davie said, adding “So, we were discussing if we should travel both by day and night, or just night time.”
"We wanted to give the vote to you, Gabriel. We have been discussing this for too long and too angrily, so we thought it best if you acted as our tie-breaker."
Sitting up, the wolf immediately said to his friends, “That should have been a rhetorical question! I want us to travel by night. It’s too dangerous to put you all at risk for me. So we go by moonlight.”
Galley scoffed and left the tent, fuming and sulking outside. Everybody else nodded and made preparations to leave, for the sun was dipping low and the moon would be present soon…
—————————————————————
Gabriel moaned and wheezed, even with the support and help of Davie and Alex as the party walked in the soft sands, tired out to the point that they had to rest every few yards. It had been four nights since the last discussion. Despite the cold temperatures of the midnight dunes, Gabriel was scorching hot to the touch and was growing sicker and sicker by the second.
Galley grunted as he said “It’s hopeless, we are lost and you have sealed your coffin, and potentially ours, because you felt the stupid need to protect us…”
Alex dropped Gabriel’s arm and rushed over to Galley, pushing him to the floor.
“I have had it with your bewailing! That is your friend, and you will respect his wishes. He has a noble cause and it was his decision, not yours, so shut your trap.”
Galley lifted himself up, growling and yelling as he clawed the air in anger, scratching through Alex's clothes and leaving red claw marks on his leg. That was the flame that spent the coyote’s long fuse.
Grabbing Galley by his tunic, Alex then threw him into a nearby dune. The otter quickly got up and ran for the coyote again, when Davie’s foot hoof came down and held him to the sandy ground.
“If you could stop attacking one another, you would have noticed that this idiot unearthed something…”
The goat pointed to the dune, the falling sand revealing a collapsed pillar with ancient hieroglyphs.
“Oh, gods. Everybody but Gabriel better start digging, the path to Malazlesh-Ziltala was lined with pillars, so there must be a few more in this area that are destined to make a definitive path!”
The party toiled for hours, uncovering pillar after pillar, until a path began to form beneath their very eyes. The moon shone upon ancient hieroglyphs, causing the pathway to glow a pale neon blue, with similarly colored mist appearing and winds beginning to swirl and swish around them.
Alex grinned, saying “My friends…we’re on our way to Malazkesh-Zilta…home of the oldest civilizations and the great city of learning.”
Gabriel shouted in anguish as doubled over, groaning in pain. “I-I don’t…feel well…I-I think i'm going to HURK!!!”
The poor wolf began to gag, nausea ripping apart his stomach as a horrible headache reverberated in his skull.
Then, came the horrible retching.
A dark black liquid dripped from the wolf’s mouth as he tried to breathe, only to begin throwing up again and again. Galley and Davie rushed over to rub his back and help him up, while Gabriel gagged and struggled to hold the bile in his mouth.
They tried to comfort him as he purged the black goop from his stomach. The wolf finished, stood up and opened his mouth as if to say something, before tumbling down and falling into a deep, painful sleep.
Until the next chapter...
Gabriel - Arctic Wolf, Ranger
Davie - Goat, Wizard
Alex - Coyote, Sorcerer
Galley - Sea Otter, Bard
Ricky - Field Mouse, Warrior
Ligo - Fennec Fox, Rogue
Enjoy!
————————————————————-
Bane of the Bastion Blade
Chapter One, The Unforgiving Lands That Lay Before Us
"We can't fight them forever, we must get to the doorway!!!" Davie held to his spell book, casting flame spells as the rest of the party used their wide variety of weaponry.
Blades clashed and sparks flew as the party fought their way through the Catacombs of Dragul Zlek-Saa, an icy abyss of undead warriors, kings, and thieves alike. These zombies were awakened long ago by the lord of the dead, Zlek-Saa, and were ordered to complete one task, to kill all who enter.
Spells and swords were cast to destroy the endless stream of corpses, with the party’s ranger’s arrows bringing down many zombies, but tenfold replaced all those who fell. The party was becoming worn down and exhausted, growing more and more desperate with each kill.
Gabriel, the ranger, reached into his quiver, but grabbed at nothing but cool air. He turned his head to find that he had run out of arrows. Rushing to fight back, he began to reach for his trusty short sword.
Suddenly, he gasped for breath as a blackened, rusted blade pierced into his stomach. A decaying kobold smiled and weakley gave a sinister laugh. With one swift swing, Gabriel had decapitated the zombie.
Gabriel stumbled and gasped for breath as he began to tear open his shirt, when he noticed his pain had subsided. He was bewildered as he shifted around his fur and clothes. He had no wound, not even a slight bruising.
He was so busy looking for a wound, his friends had to make a protective circle around him. His wizard and sorcerer friends, Davie and Alex respectively, were on the edges of the circle, casting fire and protective enchantments to stop the armies, who were now using all their might to kill the two magic users. All according to the magic user’s plan The zombies were too foolish to notice the split between the army that gave way to an escape for the party.
Gabriel yelled, "Davie!!! There's an opening! Go! We need to run!!!!"
Davie summoned a ball of blue fire to light the way through the gap, running as fast as his chubby legs could carry him.
“Hurry!!! We need to break through!!!” Davie yelled as he used his horns to plow through a crumbling cat zombie, urging his friends to rush through the armies.
The zombies realized their foolishness and ran after the party. But there was no chance to catch them.
With an explosive spell, Alex ripped apart the pillars and doorway behind them, collapsing the doorway to the catacombs, and sealing in the hordes of the reanimated corpses. Rocks and chunks of stained marble and stone crumbled and tumbled, splashing down as they landed in smaller dunes of dust and sand. Heat radiated off the shifting dunes, blasting the party with a burning breeze.
Ligo began to chuckle, a small sound only Alex heard at first, before he began to laugh aloud, doubling over from his laughing. Davie snickered before dying of laughter as well, rolling around in tears. Pretty soon, the whole party had begun to laugh, throwing sand in the air and shaking each other in joy.
“WE MADE IT!!! OH, THANK THE GODS WE MADE IT BOYS!!!” Galley yelled as he twirled around, with Ricky in his cupped hands.
“Ahhhh, beautiful sand!!! Soon, we reach the ancient ruins and gorgeous oases of Malazkesh-Zilta!!!” Alex yelled into the desert, hollering and laughing as he jumped into a soft pile of sand.
Gabriel panted and giggled, before his smile drained as he stumbled in the sweltering heat. “Guys, I’d hate to be a b-burden, but…I-I’m not feeling too good…” he said before blacking out a moment later, falling to his side and curling up in the sands of the Malazkesh Desert. The party stopped laughing and ran to Gabriel, trying to shake him awake.
—————————————————————
Muffled conversations began to spring around the wolf as he came to, words of worry and planning circling the space in his mind. The darkness began to fade as Gabriel’s eyes opened, watching the soft wavering of the tent’s roof. To his right, he began to hear full words and sentences, all spoken in a concerned tone...
“I just think our best course of action is moving by night and day. There are mountains buried in this desert, from when this sandpit used to be a snowy jagged range! We can use those for shade, I know they are out there!!!” Galley whispered.
“There is no guarantee! These sands are always moving, a large mountain could be buried just days after it was uncovered. We can’t risk it.” said Ricky in an angry hushed tone.
“Let me guess, you can’t handle a little bit of heat. Neither can I, but I’m willing to do whatever it takes to keep him alive!!!”
Ricky angrily shouted, “And when we ALL die from heat sickness and dehydration, who’ll save him then?!”
“Both of you shut it!!! He’s coming to…” Davie whispered before rushing over to get a water pouch for Gabriel.
Gabriel groaned and attempted to sit up before being pushed down by Galley.
“Hey hey hey!!! No, no, no! Lay down, you need to rest.”
Gabriel rubbed his eyes and face before asking, “Where are we?”
Davie poured water into the wolf’s mouth as he replied, “We are about four days away from Malazkesh-Zilta. We trekked for about two days, and we set up the tent no more than a few hours ago. We have been discussing what we should be doing to get to Zilta as quickly and as safely as possible.” Alex walked briskly over to the rest of the group who huddled around Gabriel.
“I apologize for being this serious and blunt in my question, but were you or were you not stabbed in the Catacombs?”
Gabriel looked up at Alex with a puzzled expression.
“Actually, I was. W-why do you ask?”
Alex grimaced as he said, “Because you don’t have a wound. This is a very serious matter we have to account for.”
Gabriel became frustrated as he brushed off Alex’s concern, answering, “Alex, it's not that serious, the blade was dull. That’s all that happened.”
Alex shook his head.
“The reason you fainted the day we ended up here was because of that invisible wound.”
Gabriel was surprisingly angered at this point, his eyes glowing a pale blue hue.
“I don’t know what you are trying to pull, but I am not stupid…oh, I see! You think I'm weak, don't you, Alex, DON’T YOU?! This is some sick joke you’re playing! I. Am. FINE!!!”
He fumbled for a dagger and flung it at his friend. Everybody gasped and grabbed the wolf’s shoulders as he gnashed his jaws and roared fiercely. Alex caught the blade easily.
Gabriel squeezed his eyes shut, panting as he reopened them, showing his white eyes. Alex breathed deeply.
“It’s worse than I thought.”
Gabriel looked at Alex, stuttering as he said, “A-A-Alex, I’m so sorry! I-I don’t know what c-came over me, I s-swear I would never do that, p-plea-”
Alex placed his paw on his friend's mouth, the sad smile on the coyote's face attempting to soothe the wolf.
“Shhhhhshshhh!!! Gabriel, there is no need to apologize, I know this isn’t you. But it is the sickness that is possessing you....I'm sorry to say that you are gravely ill because you have been hurt by…’
The coyote sighed, breathing in deeply before finishing his sentence.
“Because you’ve been infected by a Bastion Blade.”
Everyone but Davie held a confused look as they stared at the coyote sorcerer.
Davie solemnly stepped forward and said, “I most likely need to explain. A Bastion Blade is any sword or bladed weapon that has been cast in a pit of Murtino Sangrile, a vile liquid that is more commonly known as Death’s Blood. It is a concoction that consists of a variety of poisons from across the lands, the blood and pus of a hanged man’s corpse, and a handful of the red sands from the Malico Desert, known as “Evil’s Playing Field”. Once removed from one of these foul pits, the blade is used by the undead and the truly evil to inflict a sickness on others, called the Bane of the Bastion.”
Alex interjected, saying, “That’s what’s so concerning. Not only do you now have the sickness, but that it’s effects are very strong and are destroying your body and soul. Davie will explain why.”
Davie cleared his throat before beginning again. “The sickness is a slow, painful infection, it often does not show itself for a full week and the effects are often slow to present themselves. What just happened should have taken half a month to show up.”
Alex turned to Gabriel again and said, "The sickness first makes a person more irritable and weaker. After that, it causes fever and chills, vomiting, hallucinations, temporary blindness and a lot more nasty things, eventually death.”
“Which brings us to the discussion; with how the sickness has affected you, you most likely have fifteen to twenty days to live. But with the heat, it could be shorter.” Davie said, adding “So, we were discussing if we should travel both by day and night, or just night time.”
"We wanted to give the vote to you, Gabriel. We have been discussing this for too long and too angrily, so we thought it best if you acted as our tie-breaker."
Sitting up, the wolf immediately said to his friends, “That should have been a rhetorical question! I want us to travel by night. It’s too dangerous to put you all at risk for me. So we go by moonlight.”
Galley scoffed and left the tent, fuming and sulking outside. Everybody else nodded and made preparations to leave, for the sun was dipping low and the moon would be present soon…
—————————————————————
Gabriel moaned and wheezed, even with the support and help of Davie and Alex as the party walked in the soft sands, tired out to the point that they had to rest every few yards. It had been four nights since the last discussion. Despite the cold temperatures of the midnight dunes, Gabriel was scorching hot to the touch and was growing sicker and sicker by the second.
Galley grunted as he said “It’s hopeless, we are lost and you have sealed your coffin, and potentially ours, because you felt the stupid need to protect us…”
Alex dropped Gabriel’s arm and rushed over to Galley, pushing him to the floor.
“I have had it with your bewailing! That is your friend, and you will respect his wishes. He has a noble cause and it was his decision, not yours, so shut your trap.”
Galley lifted himself up, growling and yelling as he clawed the air in anger, scratching through Alex's clothes and leaving red claw marks on his leg. That was the flame that spent the coyote’s long fuse.
Grabbing Galley by his tunic, Alex then threw him into a nearby dune. The otter quickly got up and ran for the coyote again, when Davie’s foot hoof came down and held him to the sandy ground.
“If you could stop attacking one another, you would have noticed that this idiot unearthed something…”
The goat pointed to the dune, the falling sand revealing a collapsed pillar with ancient hieroglyphs.
“Oh, gods. Everybody but Gabriel better start digging, the path to Malazlesh-Ziltala was lined with pillars, so there must be a few more in this area that are destined to make a definitive path!”
The party toiled for hours, uncovering pillar after pillar, until a path began to form beneath their very eyes. The moon shone upon ancient hieroglyphs, causing the pathway to glow a pale neon blue, with similarly colored mist appearing and winds beginning to swirl and swish around them.
Alex grinned, saying “My friends…we’re on our way to Malazkesh-Zilta…home of the oldest civilizations and the great city of learning.”
Gabriel shouted in anguish as doubled over, groaning in pain. “I-I don’t…feel well…I-I think i'm going to HURK!!!”
The poor wolf began to gag, nausea ripping apart his stomach as a horrible headache reverberated in his skull.
Then, came the horrible retching.
A dark black liquid dripped from the wolf’s mouth as he tried to breathe, only to begin throwing up again and again. Galley and Davie rushed over to rub his back and help him up, while Gabriel gagged and struggled to hold the bile in his mouth.
They tried to comfort him as he purged the black goop from his stomach. The wolf finished, stood up and opened his mouth as if to say something, before tumbling down and falling into a deep, painful sleep.
Until the next chapter...
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Multiple characters
Size 50 x 50px
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