Into the (Not Silver Tower) Depths, Narratively

(Note: Yolig is here represented by a slightly smaller miniature. It can be assumed that he is ducking, on account of the low ceiling in the tunnels that they are exploring. The tunnels that i must assure you are not Silver Tower)

 

To be honest, Yolig wasn't sure why they were helping the dwarf. But he did know what the song of the stones told him and the stones were telling him that this was the right way to go. They liked it better when he was deep under the ground anyhow. His tiny wizard friend seemed less happy, especially after he broke down a loose brick wall and found what lay beyond.

 

 

 

Strangley carved and brightly lit metallic corridors confronted them. Some strange creatures also confronted them, a bit more directly than the walls did. The walls didn't have swords, after all. The bird man let out a hideous shriek on seeing the companions, and charged. He didn't account for Yolig's fist. Telek, not wanting to leave Yolig fighting alone, chanted a few words, and the humans began to scratch themselves furiously. It was... not quite what she intended to do, but it seemed to help.

 

The oddly garbed humans babbled something about "the golden orb" before Yolig smashed them into paste. Telek filed it under "probably important, and probably bad". Yolig filed it under "gold is shiny." They ventured on.

They next found a much more cozy cave, at least in Yolig's opinion. The stones sang well here, and they seemed to be telling him that a cure for the dwarf was not far away. Sadly, the spiderlike grots who lived there couldn't seem to hear the song, and they poked tiny sticks at Yolig in no uncertain terms.

They regretted doing this, briefly.

There was another large door leading out of the cavern, back into the strange, sharp edged tunnels. Three of the vicious birdmen waited here, along with more of the spidery warriors. The birdmen were stirring a cauldron, and filling bottles with the glowing liquid, but they quickly raised their weapons and squawked out something about the sacred sun, before moving to attack.

The fight that followed was one of the most savage that Yolig had been in. The birdmen were fast and clever, and one of them swooped under his arm as he brought up his trusty rock, and slashed him badly. It might have gone badly for him if Telek hadn't managed to pull off the itching spell again, causing her to stare at her own hands and shake her head. Yolig wasn't sure why, the spell seemed to be a blessing from the stones.

 In the end, they triumphed. Telek stepped over the prone bodies and picked up one of the full bottles, holding it as far from her body as she could. This seemed to be what the stones were telling him would cure the dwarf, but there was only one way to tell. Yolig picked up another bottle, and before Telek could stop him, he smashed it over the unconscious dwarf's head.

(To be Continued)

Narrative Time: Into the Basements of Destiny

 A record of the Journey of Yolig and friends into the basements of the Ruined City, and the wonders they found therein:

The furious dwarf revealed himself as the sole surviving inhabitant of the ruined city. In his fury at the beasts of the mad god who had destroyed his home, he had thought them to be more of the god's servants. After the brave Yolig explained "No, we the good ones," his rage calmed, and after some discussion, he agreed to help our heroes on their quest. It seemed that the dwarf knew of the gates to the heavens that they sought, and that the secret lay in the catacombs from which he had emerged.

 Boldly forth did the adventurers go, into the haunted depths. And haunted they truly were. By ghosts. That being how hauntings usually work.

Their journey quickly became perilous as shrieking phantoms descended from every dark corner of the ruins, bent on havoc. Telek proved that her newfound magical talents would not go to waste, as she cast a spell to make the bodies of the ghosts itch most furiously (which enraged the spirits further, as they did not have bodies, and should not have been able to itch). Yolig and the dwarf made short work of the confused and distracted ghosts.

There were other more powerful spirits in the depths, however. The largest of the rode a bone steed, and the dwarf knew it well, for it was the beast that had slain his companions and stolen the secret. Without waiting for his new companions, he charged,

This proved to be foolish, and while brave Yolig and also mostly brave Telek were bound in battle with other phantoms, the dwarf was felled.

Yolig was not pleased, and with a roar he dispatched his foe, and turned to the ghostly rider. The dwarf had managed to wound the creature before falling, and Yolig brought his well trusted stone over its skeletal frame, and smashed it into the ground. The catacombs grew still.

Telek approached the dwarf, and found that he still breathed, though his wounds were sore indeed. Of the secret, there was nothing to be found. It seemed that the heroes had gained nothing from their adventure, and lost much, but Yolig with his keen eye spotted a grate, leading further down. Carrying the dwarf with them, with the hope of healing him, the pair ventured further into the depths, into the sub basement of destiny.

(Hey, if gw can write in a faux epic style, so can i!)

Silly Narrative: The Quest for Snacks

 
    Yolig had been told by the stones to expect a lot of things from the surface. He'd been told it was a bright, horrible place. He'd been told it was an empty, roofless wasteland, ravaged by the followers of the mad god of blood. And it had all been true. What he hadn't been told was how much fun he would have there.

    Still, it was a wasteland, and sadly short of the delicious fungi and cave mushrooms that he and the other troggoths loved to eat. If they were going to break down the gates to heaven, they would need full bellies. Yolig didn't need the stones to sing that to him. Fortunately, the little one they had saved had somehow found a way to some food. Even more fortunately, the mad god's minions were there too. This would be fun.

They had a couple of the skull giant things with them this time, and Yolig and the boys charged, quickly bashing the thing about with stones and hammers. Olvarn wasn't about to be outdone, and he crushed one of the barbarian in his fist.

The mad barbarians didn't seem too troubled by that. Yolig wasn't surprised, what with them being mad. They instead crowded around Olvarn, and he roared in annoyance as they managed to hack a few wounds into his stony skin. Yolig had a bit more luck, as he smashed the skull monster's... skull in with his trusty boulder.

 

After that, things began to go a bit awry. There were still more of the skull giants between Yolig and the food, and the next one dealt one of his companions a horrific wound, felling the bold Troggoth. Olvarn was having more luck casually slaughtering the barbarians, but it wasn't enough to break them.

Telek was about to have troubles of her own. A band of the blood maddened warriors had managed to somehow sneak around the flank, even though they were screaming about blood the entire time. Telek managed to bash one of them over the head with her staff, but the others closed in... and things might have gone very badly had they not been suddenly doused with buckets of acidic vomit. The few who survived the deluge fled.

 This was now the second time that Telek had been saved by fortuitous vomit, and frankly, she thought, it had better be the last.

After that, things got a bit wild. The blood worshipers weren't about to give up the food (whatever it might be) without a fight, and Yolig wasn't going to let them get away with hurting his buddy. Olvarn had finally managed to fight free of the band he'd been stuck dealing with, and with a roar, he lumbered into the fray, knocking down a wall as he went. Still bellowing, he called out to Telek. "We need help, little wizard! Call the beast!"

g

Telek had no idea what he meant. She'd been able to do... something during the last battle, but what did summon the beast even mean? Summon the beast... within? No, that was nonsense. Olvarn had his damned prophecy and this was probably part of it. With nothing else coming to mind, Telek closed her eyes and concentrated

None of them really expected what happened next. The grate in the middle of the ruins had gone ignored, after all, there was a whole lot of food next to it. The first thing Telek heard was a horrifying war cry. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was a dwarf, leaping out of the now open grate with his axe swinging. There were a few bloody moments, and then the skull giant fell, dead. The surviving barbarians fled.

Olvarn looked over the carnage, and the crates of liberated food, and smiled broadly once again. "Well done! A tiny beast like you! That is good too."

The dwarf still looked... quite furious. Good might not be the right word.

(to be continued)

A Little Narrative Game and a Silly Goal

 Well, it's been a bit again. The world is still a mess, so I'm messing about with tiny people because that's what I've got to do to keep myself busy for now. 

So, this will be a battle report of sorts, and it's for Age of Sigmar, and this one... has a story (oh no). I've got a goal, you see. I'm going to be putting up a series of these as me and my friend who is part of my quarantine bubble work together to have some fun and tell a story through... tiny figures. I can't promise it will be good, the painting will definitely not be good, and the story will be about as far from canon as you can get. It will be, and I mean this, extremely silly.

So, let's start! Our story begins in the dang old Age of Chaos, in the Realm of Ghur, with our heroes... the troggoths.

"The story is in the stone and the stone is the story". That's what Yolig knew even before the great dig up began. He and the other boys, they weren't sure where they were digging to, or why, but the stone was telling them it was the right idea. Olvarn, the king, who had lived longer and lived deeper than any other troggoth Yolig knew, he could hear the stories the stones were saying as clear as a drop of water in a still pool. They said "go up, find the last of the little ones in the caves where the sun can see, and keep them safe. That one is a good one. They will help you, good Troggoths. They will help you find the door to heaven, and you will tear it out of the ground".

 There was more to it than that, that was just the part that Yolig could hear. Olvarn heard it all, and he sang back to the stones as they dug. That's why he was the king.

Soon they came out into a cave where the sun could see them. The sun wasn't a friendly thing, but for the stones they would face it. And when they found those caves, where the sun could look in edgeways and see them, Yolig was the second one through, standing behind Olvarn as the huge king watched, and grinned. There below them were the mad warriors of the mad god, and there was the last of the little ones. The stones were silent now, but that was because they didn't need to say anything more. The troggoths knew what they had to do.

The mad warriors were quick, of course, as mad warriors usually are. They charged in, frothing and screaming about various things that Yolig couldn't really follow. They surrounded the little one, though, and that was a problem.

And there were quite a few of them too. Yolig and his brothers thought about charging in and stomping them into the ground, but the stones didn't seem to like the idea just yet, so they waited. 

The king, on the other hand, had spotted the strange crazed beast, sneaking up between some cave pines and cave coral (troggoths aren't known for naming things with any originality). The beast growled out something about skulls, and Olvarn, giving this statement the full consideration it deserved, bashed the beast's skull in. The stones seemed to approve of that.

The followers of the mad god had surrounded a grave site. Even Yolig knew that was a bad idea, and the raging spirit that awoke and slew two of the warriors was just further proof that you should never mess with raging spirits.

Yolig had to admit later that he'd spent a little too much time thinking and to little time listening, because when he looked up a human with an axe was trying to disembowel him. Luckily, his thick skin saved him from getting anything more than a deep scratch, and he and his brothers laid about themselves with club and boulder

It was quite effective. The lone survivor fled the field, or in this case, the cave.

The other mad warriors were feeling a bit less mad now, as they tried to escape with their prize. And escape they might have, as Yolig had started thinking again, and only made it as far as the grave stones. King Olvarn was a better thinker, and had already thought out a solution: He crushed one of the warriors in his hand, and smashed the rest to pieces. Not elegant, but it was the kind of solution that the stones liked.

He looked down, and saw the last of the little ones. They seemed concerned, even after Yolig told them "We not eat!" which should have allayed any concerns. But they had done right, as good Troggoths should, and now, the story would continue.

(So, that's that! You may notice that the battle was a little... one sided. That may have been on purpose, for this post. The next one should be a bit more even.)