3^rd generation

January 2008

Spanky’s Fantasy Campaign

World: Neverdark

Just before daybreak, on a cool autumn morning, a young girl began pounding on the monastery doors. The brothers were already up at their morning prayers and looked at each other. As the pounding got harder and more frantic, the headmaster nodded to one of the brothers dressed in a yellow robe, who made his way back through the long corridors to the tall wooden doors, with beautiful stained glass windows in the top to let in the morning light, just as the sun brought it's first rays though those panes. He opened the door to find a young village girl, in muddied, bloodied, ragged clothes, and exhausted. She kept looking over her shoulder and didn't notice when the door opened and was about to pound on the brother's chest, when he grabbed her hand. She jumped and screamed, trying to tear herself away from him. He didn't give any resistance and she immediately fell to the ground, holding her hand, sobbing and looking around like a trapped animal.
"Girl, what is wrong?" The brother asked, hands open to show her he had no weapon or will to harm her.
She looked up at him with her big sky-blue eyes and the realization seemed to hit her that he was not after her, that she could trust him. She jumped to her feet and flung her arms around his chest. "Please," she was trembling "before they find me."
He looked around trying to see if perhaps there was someone he could spot on the edge of the clearing around the ancient fort. He saw nothing, but just as he was turning to look back to the girl, in the tree line, he caught a glimpse of something glinting off of those first rays of sunlight, but then it was gone.
"Come inside quickly." He ushered her inside the doorway and motioned to a fellow brother to help him pull down the large oak bar that locked the doors in place. As the oak bar came down, it blocked the sunlight from those windows for a moment and made the girl shiver.
"Who is after you?" The brother asked while walking her to the infirmary.
"I-I don't know who they are. I need to find Belethion. He's a cleric of the Unconquered Sun. He should be here." She explained as she cradled the hand she was knocking with.
"I'm brother Joill. What is your name?" He asked while they walked. "Why do you need to see Belethion?"
"Persephone, I need to talk to him. It's important." Her light brown hair kept falling into her face.
"Lets get you looked at first, you're hurt." He gently reached for her swollen bloodied hand.
"No! I need to see Belethion NOW!" She began to dart off down the hallway, but despite the robe, brother Joill was very fast and grabbed her by the waist. "NO! I need to see Belethion. I NEED TO SEE BELETHION!"
"Quit squirming!" He picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder kicking and elbowing. "I'll bring you to him as soon as you're checked out. You have some injuries and we need to get them taken care of. Whatever you need to say to him, can wait."
"You don't understand!" Persephone stopped squirming and began to cry. "They've got my Mom."
Joill brought her into the infirmary and laid her on the cot while she curled up into a sobbing ball. A tall, thin woman came out of a back room and knelt down next to the huddled mess of mud, blood and tears.
"Thank you Joill, I'll take it from here. You did right by bringing her to me first."
"How-?" Joill asked.
"This place echoes a lot and she wasn't exactly quiet. I thought I saw Belethion in the main hall on my way here. If you would be so kind as to fetch him, my task might go easier with her."
Joill nodded and backed out of the room as the cleric began to say a few words over the girl and a frown came over her face. "She's worse than I had suspected." She said to herself.
In the main sanctuary the sunlight filtered through the high stained glass windows tat were hundreds of years old. All the colors of the rainbow filtered through and cast an image of the likeness of the face of the Unconquered Sun god onto the white linen altar cloth. Around the room, brothers of the order stood at prayer or kneeled on the hard stone floor, which too was awash in color. It was here kneeling that Joill found Belethion kneeling in his yellow cleric's robe, praying.
"Brother, there is a girl from the village come. She is badly injured and desperately seeks you." Joill whispered closely.
"Demeter?" Belethion briefly smiled, then like a cloud crossing the sun, his smile faded. "Hurt?"
"No, she said her name is Persephone."
"I know no one with that name." He thought out loud.
"You should come quickly." Joill stood straight. "She is in the infirmary."
"Yes, thank you brother Joill." Belethion nodded solemnly to the altar and then as quickly as courtesy permitted, he exited the room and briskly walked down the passages. A smile crossed Belethion's face as he thought of Demeter, his sorceress questing companion. He tried to remember how many years it had been since he had returned to the monastery, but time seemed to stand still here. They had little news of the outside world. But his mind kept remembering the taste of her lips and the smell of the lilac perfumed soap she always used and how it seemed to fill his head when they were together. He shook his head. She was the reason he knew he had to return to the monastery. He couldn't concentrate on his prayers when all he could think of was the way her golden skin felt so silky to his touch and her green eyes were like endless fields of grass. He had done everything in his power to forget about her and some girl who wasn't even his Demeter, no, just Demeter. How some girl could bring all these thoughts and feelings rushing back. Did he really love her? But he had said vows to the Unconquered Sun. He couldn't just turn his back on them. And a human! How could he let this happen? She wasn't even an -
"Elf?" Belethion stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the sobbing girl on the cot. Long pointed ears peaked out though her long light brown hair.
Reflexively Persephone put her hands over her ears, recovering them with her hair and looked at the speaker as she set up. "HALF-Elf." She sniffed. "Who are you, Elf?" She said the last word almost like an insult.
Belethion couldn't speak for a moment. His eyes. Her eyes, they were the same as the ones he looked at himself with, in the reflection pools. The rest, she looked almost exactly like Demeter when they first met, but they had quested together for only 4 years, and he had been amazed at how quickly she had aged. "Uh, Belethion. Who are you?"
"Persephone. I guess it's you I need." She looked around the room like she expected to see vipers slithering along the walls. "Can we talk someplace private?"
"Sister Llirya, is she alright to leave?" He asked the healer.
"I wouldn't leave the grounds yet, I've healed most of her wounds, but she's still got some trauma that needs some time to heal. I'm working on some potions but I'll need Brother Cloyah to help. They should be ready tomorrow morning. Come back then."
"Thank you sister." He took the girl's arm, but she pulled it away.
"I'll follow just fine." She snapped as she took a glance around the room again.
The lithe elf led her down the hallway, and to a drawing room in a seldom used part of the keep. Here the windows didn't catch much sunlight and were only small clear diamond shaped panes set into the thick stone walls. Most of the light came from the fireplace and the candles Belethion lit. Persephone also noticed all the thick books lining the walls of the room. She jumped as the only sound of the heavy oak and iron door as it closed was the sound of the latch, then the click of the key.
"Alright." The Elf walked up to her, his yellow robe looking almost like it was on fire as it caught the firelight from the fireplace. "We're alone, what is so important?"
The Half-Elf took a deep breath and from somewhere in the folds of her tunic, she pulled a dagger and dove at the brother with it. Stunned, he almost missed when he grabbed for her hand, the dagger cut his hand and through his sleeve, but he managed to keep a hold of her hand, turned and jabbed his elbow into her chest. It knocked the wind out of her and she dropped the dagger, grasping her chest with her off hand. He swept her feet out from under her with his leg, but holding her wrist still, he pulled her arm up behind her back as he guided her to the floor, cushioned by the sheepskin rug. The Elf placed a knee in the middle of her back and pulled the other arm back around.
"What's your problem girl?" He asked, astonished that anyone would try something like this in a monastery.
"Are you going to rape me now? Just kill me and be done with it." She tried to spit at him but she couldn't turn her head far enough.
"Seriously. If I wanted to kill you, your neck would already be broken. Why did you attack me?" He gave her arms a little tug.
"Because I need your heart." She began to sob.
"What?" He was confused but didn't let her go.
"They said I needed to find Mom's friend Belethion, rip out your heart and bring it to them or they would kill her and send ME, HER heart." She gave up fighting and went limp.
"Who, kill who?" He still didn't trust her yet, at least not enough to let her up anyway.
"My Mom, Demeter."
"What? Where's your father?" He stood up and looked around almost as if he expected him to be in the room with them.
"Dead I hope. She was raped by a man like you. An Elf with blue eyes." She spit at him and got her mark this time.
"What?!" He turned her over to face him, the blood from his hand soaking into her tunic.
"Mom would never say anything more than my father was an elf with blue eyes. But the inkeep, she told me the truth. Mom wouldn't ever admit it. She said that the Elf kidnapped her, put her under some sort of spell and, well, took her. Finally he just got tired of her and dropped her in an owlbear's nest and left her for dead. That's where the villagers found her. Both her and the owlbear were almost dead. They finished off the beast and brought her back and healed her. Half a year later I was born."
"But that would mean that before I came back here…Why would she be fighting an owlbear alone, that's suici…My gods." He ran his hands through his hair. "Ow- Now listen here. I did NOT rape anyone. I love Demeter." Gods, he said it. He really does love her. He shook his head. "When Demeter and I parted, I didn't know. She didn't tell me. She was always so tired. She said she wanted to go back home and rest. She said she was tired of -everything." He was trying to process this new information.
"Why didn't you come back to see her if you loved her so much?"
"If I knew she was pregnant, I would have done things differently. But I wasn't sure if what I felt for your mother was really love until well, recently. You're not an Elf, you wouldn't understand. It's not the same with Elves."
"I'm HALF-Elf, apparently your half. Try to explain." She demanded.
"In our culture there are no love matches. The passion, the intoxication -uh, well, it's not there. There are rituals for everything, including conception. I had no idea that our coupling without those rituals could, well, bear fruit." He felt really awkward explaining sex to whom he just found out was his daughter.
In a flash she had the dagger in her hand again, he was able to easily grab her wrists this time. "What's wrong with you?" He shouted at her.
"I don't care about you or your rituals. You left us and never looked back, that's pretty clear by all accounts. I just want my Mom back!" She screamed then dropped the blade and went limp crying so hard her body shook. "I just want my Mom back."
Belethion held her close to him. "Calm down. We'll get her back, I promise."
"We can't. There were armed men. They had a wizard too, he knew what to do to stop her, but not before she killed half the soldiers. They were hunting her. They're hunting you too. We'll never be able to defeat him ourselves. He'll be waiting for us, even if we get past the ones who chased me here. I heard them talking one night, they said that they get paid for both our heads, not our mouths." She absent-mindedly covered her ears with her hair.
"Then we're going to need some help." Belethion looked to the symbol of his god in the stone above the fireplace and said a silent prayer.

Joill was not used to riding for any length of time and it seemed to him that his legs were both numb and on fire at the same time. He vowed that in the future his riding sessions would be for more than an hour or two at a time. Shortly he came upon a human town, he smelled it before he could actually see it. It was a combination of body odor, feces and cooking food. There were wooden walls around it and a pimply-faced boy in a poorly repaired boiled leather coat of plates that looked as though it had seen battle with a much larger man and long before the boy who was now wearing it was born. The boy with mated brown hair never even looked up at Joill in his yellow robe, holding a pomander of a dried orange pricked with cloves. Instead the young man stared at the young washerwomen near the well in town. Even the Elf couldn't fault the boy for attending the women who's snug fitting kirtles had become drenched and molded to their forms so tightly. Joill also found himself staring. He could understand why some Elf men had fancied human women. He thought to himself, but then before you ever really get to know them, they're gone. Like short candles that burn too brightly and go out before the last page of the book can be read.
The thin man climbed down off of his steed to give his legs a chance to regain their feeling, and lead it down though the streets. He asked a few boys who were playing with marbles outside a building with the image of a sack of flour and a bottle on the sign swinging in front of the door.
"Excuse me lads, perchance have you seen a Dwarven woman come though here by the name of Pigeon?"
The boys looked at each other for a moment and the smallest one of the three shoved the middle one. "I told you it was a she."
"But it had a beard. Ladies don't grow no beards." He shoved the little one back, knocking him over.
"The old lady on the edge of town who sells those smelly soaps and herbs and things, she's got a moustache." The little one retorted.
Finally the oldest one stepped in between the two boys, shoving them apart, putting a hand on either's head. "Yeah, Pigeon came into town yesterday. I think she's still at the inn."
"Thank you young man. Um," He looked at the rows of wooden buildings that seemed to be all made from the same set of blueprints. "How would I tell which one that is?"
"It's the Sleeping Bear, down the road on your left, past the butcher." He pointed a dirty finger down the street.
"Yes, thank you again and may the gods smile on you." Joill continued on his way.
Maybe they have to make all of their buildings so roughly and uniform because they don't live long enough to design and build things with more originality and better workmanship. He thought to himself as he noticed that he could see straight through the walls of one of the buildings, to the next street.
After the horrendous smell of the butcher's shop, he spotted the sign with a big brown bear sleeping on a pillow with a mug of ale over top. It made him wonder if bears would ever actually dream of beer. He put the foolish thought out of his head as he tied his horse to the post and entered the inn. Just inside he saw some men who looked to be fur traders bantering with a pretty buxom young serving girl who's dress was laced up at the sides so tightly that it seemed as though her bosom was trying to escape through her collar. He could indeed see the appeal of human women; Elven women didn't look like that. Then he turned his attention to the bar where he was suddenly jolted back to reality as a very round barmaid with curly hair that seemed to go in every direction, and brown teeth, where she actually had them, stood a the bar laughing with a patron. They certainly don't make Elf women like that, thank the Unconquered Sun.
He scaned the rest of the room and sitting by herself near a young man strumming a lute he spotted the Dwarf woman he was looking for. She sat only chest high to the table, but she didn't look child-like. Her face was broad but well proportioned to her shoulders. Her beard and hair were neat and braided like fine-spun copper wire. She wore all shades of black and grey. He could see a charcoal gray shirt with light gray bindings around the collar and cuffs embroidered with black thread in Dwarven runes, and a polished shiny steel Dwarven crafted breastplate with intricate engravings of more Dwarven runes.
He attracted stares from the patrons as he strode across the room. "Pigeon, excuse me." He pulled up the chair next to her.
"Hi there, Jake isn't it?" The Dwarf woman warmly greeted him and put out a stubby hand.
"Joill actually." He shook her hand quickly.
"Right. Joill, What brings you here? Didn't I just see you a few days ago?" She stroked her coppery beard that matched her long braid.
"Belethion requests your presence most urgently." Joill was becoming more uncomfortable with the other guests staring at them.
"What's the matter? I just saw him too."
"He says it's extremely important, a matter of life and death." He didn't know what was the matter, but he did know that they hardly ever sent anyone from the monastery to the human villages unless it was of extreme importance. With as uncomfortable as he was feeling, and the smell of so many humans overwhelming him, he could understand why.
"Alright. Let me get my things and we'll find where Tusky Poo went off to." She hopped down from the chair and her head only came up to Joill's ribcage, but she was twice as wide. "Can't stable the poor thing around here, he'd go mad, or more likely hurt someone who thinks they're gonna get some bacon."
She may have been good looking for a Dwarf woman, but Joill was ever so glad that he was an Elf.

Persephone sat on a marble bench outside in the monastery courtyard where the brothers all came to tend the small garden, ride and stable their horses, practice sword fighting and enjoy the warm blessing of the Unconquered Sun. To her, this felt not like her out of doors. This courtyard had a fake, terrarium like feeling to it. In the nature she knew, trees were abundant and wild like all the many animals that lived there. In her nature she could hear Ehlonna whisper to her though the rustling of the trees and the hum of insects busily working. Here Ehlonna was stifled and made Persephone feel alone and disconnected.
She hadn't seen Belethion since having attacked him earlier in the day. The sun was staring to get lower in the sky and the brothers and sisters seemed like they were hurring up for something. She spoke very little Elven and whatever they said she couldn't make out. One of the sisters gently grabbed her elbow to lift her. The Elf woman spoke something but Persephone gave her a blank look and refused to stand.
"No Human speak. You, me." She motioned for the girl to follow.
"No." She shook her head. "Me, stay here." She enunciated and pointed to herself then the bench.
The sister said something in Elven, nodded to her and left her to sit there. The youth was almost surprised when she left. Even if it felt like fake nature, it was better than being cooped up and stifled indoors. She took a deep breath and shuddered as the pain from her side shot through her. Sister Llirya had helped with most of her injuries, the scratches and bruises, she even seemed to subdue the pain in her left side. Still every time she took a really deep breath, it was there, a reminder that this was no dream and that somewhere her mother was a prisoner, if she wasn't dead already. A tear ran down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away when she heard footsteps behind her.
"Is everything alright?" Her father asked. "Nuieda said you didn't want to come in."
"No, I'd like to go out to the forest, but between the guards - "
" The brothers are just trying to protect you. We took a risk sending Joill. There have been strange reports. " He sat on the other end of the bench just out of reach in case she decided to stab him again. "It may be nothing, but I've just found out about you. I don't want to loose you again."
"Right. Because you loved my mom enough to abandon her and forget about her for more than sixteen years." She wanted to blame him for everything. Hating him would make it easier to turn him over for her mother when the time came.
"You're just a child. You can't possibly understand what sort of weight comes with being a sworn cleric." He felt guilty because he did try his best to forget about her though it never truly worked.
"If your god thinks that abandoning your family, or at least your consort, well then," She paused. "then your god can kiss my ass."
She stood and began walking towards the gate just as it opened and in strode Joill with a painful look on his face, still riding his horse. Riding a spotted wild boar, in plate armor, followed the Dwarven woman. When she spotted the girl she flipped up her visor and jumped from her mount.
"Persephone! Girl is that really you?" Her short legs ran towards the Half-Elf.
"Auntie Pigeon!" She ran up to her godmother. "What are you doing here?" The two hugged tightly.
"Theo sent for me." She nodded to the girl's father. "Good gods you have grown. It's only been 2 years and you've shot up like a weed!"
Drop jawed, Belethion stared at the pair for a moment. "You two know each other?" Then he looked directly at the Dwarf. "You could have damn well told me."
"It wasn't my place. Demeter didn't want you to brake your vows and come to hate her for it."
"But, I have a daughter, a child, my blood. I had a right to know." His face and ears were turning a bright shade of red.
"An I had no right to tell you what wasn't any o' my business. Now I know you didn't just call me here to berate me at your family reunion. What's up?"
The Elf took a deep breath. "Someone's taken Demeter and sent my own daughter to kill me."
Pigeon looked at the two and noticed that he kept himself out of arm's reach of the girl. "Let's go find the bastard and make 'em pay."
Belethion smiled. "That's what I had hoped you'd say. We'll leave in the morning."
Pigeon nodded and took Persephone's long slender finger in her hand. "And you tell Auntie Pigeon everything what happened."

The Half-Elf sat cross legged and barefoot with her boots sitting next to her, in the forest clearing which had not yet been touched by the fall's changing colors and was still vivid green here. A small reflection pool was as calm as ice, just inches from where the girl sat, with the skirts of her linen dress and wool surcoat pooling around her. Her curly light brown hair tumbled into her olive tinged face and almond shaped, deep blue eyes, which were closed as she breathed in and out methodically. Her long thin hands rested on her upturned knees while she meditated.
Persephone was in a deep trance when she saw the images in the pool as the wind whistled about her. Demeter, who looked much the same as her daughter, but with more founded and fuller features and darker brown hair with gray streaks running though it, was running. She turned and loosed magical bursts of energy from her fingertips at the unseen assailant then fell to the ground.
The girl opened her eyes with a start. The air was still but for one leaf which fell and touched the surface of the pond, it's color was a deep blood red and the reflection in the pond changed as the ripples passed though. When Persephone looked up, the leaves on all the trees that she could see had turned a deep shade of red.
Persephone pulled on her soft leather boots and ran back to her mother's little hut just on the edge of the forest, at the outskirts of the village. When she got close she began creeping up, trying to be as silent as possible. She whispered a soft prayer to Ehlonna and a fog shrouded her as she made her way to the hut. Everything was quiet as she cautiously opened the door.
"I never saw what attacked me. It wasn't because of the fog, and I didn't have my eyes shut, it was invisible. I must have lost consciousness for a little bit. When I woke up on the floor, my head was spinning. There was one name that kept running through my head, "Belethion" Mom's cleric friend. And there was writing on the wall. It looked like it was burned into the wood. A duša zakaj a duša, I don't know what it means but when I read it I understood. Whoever has Mom wants Belethion or at least his heart. I think it means a heart for a heart or something." Persephone looked the Dwarf woman in the eye. "Please Auntie Pigeon, we've got to save Mom."
"In the morning we'll set out to find her and make whoever done took her, pay for it. You need to get some rest now. We'll have a long journey tomorrow."