Moonlight Tales
Terror of the Gruul Clans
In Memory of My friend Kyle Meyer
Prologue
Talos once said "Strength and behavior is what makes a man not magic powers" It has been years since Jeer was almost destroyed by the cult of Rakdos. Bill has passed away but that would not be the case for long. Diptholomew Peterson is a grown man now and today he is going off on an adventure with the Queen's adopted son.
Chapter 1
"Mother, I am leaving. Bye," I said.
"Diptholomew Wolf Peterson get back here and give your mother a hug goodbye!" demanded Mother.
"Fine," I said. I gave mother a hug.
"Thank you. Oh look at you, you're just like your father... (sigh) I sure do miss him," said Mother.
"I know Mom, I do too," I said.
"Well run along now, I'm sure Sam is waiting for you," said Mother.
"Yes, I am sure," I said.
I ran out the door, but before I headed towards where Samuel was waiting for me, I stopped by my father's grave to say goodbye. Mother had put a protective aura around the grave so that necromancers could not rise my father. His gravestone said:
Here lies a brave man, a loving father and husband, who died in battle.
When I got to Sam, he was almost being attacked by a bear. It was an adult by the looks of it. There must be a den near by.
"Dip! A little help here!" said Samuel. I shot a spell at the bear and made it run off.
"That was close. Thanks Dip," said Samuel.
"No problem," I said.
"Dip, you forgot your father's sword," said Mother as she flew from the castle.
"Oh, thanks, Mother," I said.
"Samantha!" yelled a familiar voice. It was the etched champion Mom and Dad told me about a year a go.
"What is it, Etched?" asked Mother.
"Beasts threaten the Myrs. They can't rebuild their homes," said Etched.
"Do you need help?" I asked.
"Yes we do, Son of Bill and Samantha," said Etched.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go help these Myr," said Samuel.
"You three go on head, I will be there soon," said Mother.
"Ok, come on, Etched, show us the way," I said.
"Alright, this way, Humans," said Etched.
We had arrived at the what was the start of the construction of the Myr bases. Wild beasts were running a muck.
"We must stop the beasts from killing any Myr!" said Etched.
"Samuel, do you have your rope?" I asked.
"Yes I do, Dip," said Samuel.
"Then let's do this!" I said.
Samuel grabbed one of the beasts with his rope and brought it down. I jumped on another beast and stabbed it in both eyes with my father's sword. The beast roared, shook me off, and ran away!
Mother arrived and she summoned a wall of lava to keep the rest of the beasts out. Then she summoned a rain cloud that rained on the lava wall turning it into obsidian.
"There you go Etched. You and the Myrs have a protective barrier harder than steel," said Mother.
"Thank you, Samantha, your son, and his friend for protecting us from the Beasts," said Etched.
"You are welcome," said Mother.
"Etched! Something is coming over the wall!" yelled a Myr.
Then ropes came down the wall and people wearing very tribal looking clothing came down the ropes. Then they ran towards us, but instead of attacking they just circled around laughing. Then they stopped and their leader stepped forward.
"I am Domri Rade. Why have you built this wall?" said the leader.
"To protect the Myrs from the beasts of this land. Who are you?" I said.
"We are the Gruul, and our beasts have been roaming these lands for centuries," said Rade.
"Look Rade, you don't want to mess with us. I am a werewolf, like my father before me. We were granted this gift from the Daedric Lord Hircine. And my Mother, a vampire, is a child of Molag Bal; the Daedric Lord of Domination," I said as I pulled out my sword.
"We don't don't want any trouble wolf boy and bloodsucker. We just want you to tear down this wall," said Rade.
"Never! I swear on my Mother's dragon blood this wall will stay,"said Samuel.
"So, you are the son of the great Dragonborn hero," said Rade.
"How do you know of the Dragonborn?" I said.
"I have read the stories, but that's not why I am here. If you won't tear down the wall, then I am afraid you will have to die. Kill them!" said Rade. Rade's men attacked.
"Fus Ro Dah!" shouted Samuel. The tribal warriors were thrown back into some near by warriors.
"So, you know shouting as well," said Rade.
"Yes, Mother taught me well," said Samuel.
"Well that's nice, but I am afraid I must leave. I will have my men clean up your remains when they have slain you," said Rade. Then he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The fighting was still going on. Swords and axes went this way and that way. Mother was almost staked but she grabbed the man that tried to.
"Nice try," said Mother. Then she threw the man into the obsidian wall. The impact killed him instantly.
The Myr joined in on the fighting as well. Luckily only five were killed.
When the dust cleared the Myrs, Mother, Samuel and I were left standing. The tribal warriors were dead, and their leader was gone.
"It's not the last we've heard of these Gruul, Dip. Be cautious, my son," said Mother.
"I will Mother," I said.
"Well now that this little shindig is done, I will have the Myr architects spice up the wall. A giant purplish black wall doesn't look that great," said Mother.
"And I will have the Myr welder repair the fallen Myrs," said Etched. We all nodded to each other.
"We can't just stand here; let's go fight some more of these Gruul!" said Samuel.
"No Samuel, we can't fight them alone; plus we don't even know where they came from. What we need for you to do is run home and warn your mother about what has happened. Then get back because we will need your help if the Gruul attack us again," I said.
"Agreed. I will be back," said Samuel.
"Good," I said. Then Samuel ran off to warn his mother, the Dragonborn, of what had happened.
Chapter 2
When Samuel arrived at his Mother's palace it was not a good scene. There was smoke coming out of the top level where Queen Beriadanwen's throne was.
"Oh no Mother!" screamed Samuel. Then he rushed into the palace only to find rubble and dead bodies. One of those bodies belonged to Venser.
"Oh no!" said Samuel. But there was no sign of his parents.
"Where are they?"said Samuel. Then three Gruul warriors came out of the shadows.
"I'm afraid your parents are a guests of ours," said a warrior with a evil smirk.
"Come quietly and you won't get hurt," said one of the other warriors.
Samuel dropped his sword as the Gruul warriors took him away.
Meanwhile, at an unknown Gruul encampment… "Why are you doing this, Rade? I thought your clans wanted to stay in the ruins of Ravnica," said Queen Beriadanwen.
"We did, but we got bored, so we came here to Jeer," said Domri Rade. Then Samuel was brought forth and was pushed forward. The tribesmen tied Samuel up on a post next to his Mother. Ghorbash, Samuel's Orc father, was tied up on a post to the left.
"Why have you kidnaped my family?" said Beriadanwen in anger.
"Your family are allies to a werewolf and a vampire that protect these artifact creatures known as Myr," said Rade.
"You mean Samantha and her son Dip?" said Beriadanwen.
"Yes, they have built a wall the prevents my beasts from roaming the plains of Jeer. They will not take it down, and the only way to break them is to capture their friends," said Rade.
"You're a monster, Domri! I swear I will chop your head off!" yelled Samuel.
Then Domri Rade punched Samuel in the face. "Say something like that again and I will not hesitate to kill you," said Rade.
"Dip, Samuel has not come back yet," said Mother.
"I know. What the heck is going on? I said. Then a man came through the obsidian wall gates.
"Hey! It's Ral Zarek," I said.
"Dip, Samantha, Azorius has been attacked!" said Ral.
"What!? By who?" said Mother.
"The Gruul," said Ral.
"They must have done that after they were done here," I said.
"But why?" asked Mother.
"Somehow they must have found out that you were allies with the queen. It was mass destruction over at Azorius; Venser is dead. They also have captured the queen and her family," said Ral.
"This Domri Rade is a psycho. All this chaos for not tearing down a freaking wall!" I said.
"How did the Gruul know this?" asked Etched.
"There must be a spy somewhere," said Ral.
"I see him in the tree to the right of the gates," said Mother. Then she used telekinesis to pull the spy out of the tree. The spy screamed as he flew through the air and landed on the ground in front of us. I pointed my sword at the him.
"Where is Rade!?" I demanded.
"He is southwest of here, past the big tree," said the spy in fear. Then I looked down at his pants.
"Well, it looks like someone had an accident, not that it matters," I said.
"Why?" said the spy. Then I impaled him with my sword which killed him.
"You did not have to kill him," said Ral.
"The Gruul are savages and they must be stopped. Anyway, what's past the big tree?" I said.
"The ruins of Kice," said Mother.
"Kice? Isn't that the city you and Dad grew up in?" I said.
"Yes," said Mother.
"I thought it was being rebuilt," I said.
"No! The people working on that project scrapped it. They said it was too much for them... Lazy mortals," said Mother.
"Why are they there then?" I asked.
"The Gruul clans like to live in ruins of cities or temples; it's part of their culture," said Ral.
"And how do you know this?" I asked.
"There is a book on them in the Izzet library," said Ral.
Chapter 3
"We have to save our friends," I said.
"Yes, we must. Ral, will you help us?" said Mother.
"You have been good allies for a while now, so yes, I will help you save the Queen and her family," said Ral.
"Dip, we have something for you," said Etched.
"What is it?" I asked. Then Etched gave me a sword.
"This is your father's silver sword from when he was a teenager. Your mother asked us to hold on to it. It's made out of the metal of fallen Myr heroes. Your father used it in most of his adventures with your mother, from destroying the evil Leaden to rescuing me from the Golgari. I think your father would want you to have it," said Etched.
"Wow! I don't know what to say," I said.
"You don't need to say anything, just know that your father is watching you and your mother from wherever he is," said Etched.
"Right," I said.
"Now go! You have a royal family to save," said Etched.
"Right, come on guys, let's go," I said. Then Mother, Ral, five Myr soldiers and I headed off to the ruins of Kice to save the Dragonborn and her family.
We had arrived at the Gruul camp. Domri Rade was waiting for us.
"You've come for me have you? But don't you see, my men and I are stronger than you and the Dragonborn since we've captured her," said Domri Rade.
"Enough Rade! This ends now! You have two choices: surrender or die!" I said.
"He will choose nether because he is weak," said Ral.
"Who are you?" asked Rade.
"I am Ral Zarek of the Izzet and I know you Rade," said Ral.
"How so?" said Rade.
"You like to think you have the power, but you don't. This is all a hoax just so you can impress the gods so much that they will give you back the one you loved," said Ral.
"Oh my god, it's true," said Rade.
"Then take my hand and we can end this nightmare," said Ral. Then he held out his hand, but Rade did not grab it. Instead he threw snakes at Ral which wrapped around his arms and hanged him off a tree.
"You've made your choice Rade," said Ral struggling.
"I don't care what I have chosen! My path is clear, I will impress the gods and they will give me back my dear Exava," said Rade.
"Exava? I did not know she had a love life," said Mother.
"I doesn't matter. I will have what I want, and to have that I must gain power, and to get more power, I must kill you... Get Them!" shouted Rade.
A battle raged on with swords, axes and spears flying through the air. It was a blood bath. Ral grabbed the snakes constricting him to the tree; he electrified them, pulled them off his arms and the tree, and threw them at one of Rade's men, which of course killed the tribal warrior. Ral then threw a lightning grenade at a group of Rade's men.
"Fire in the hole!," shouted Ral. The explosion killed the group of warriors. But more of Rade's men poured out of their tents like rats to a dead body.
"Can't you see! My armies are endless. I am Domri Rade; leader of the Gruul. If I can't get what I want, then I will use my beasts and men to rule this... world...," said Rade.
(Queen Beriadanwen had freed herself from captivity and impaled Domri Rade with a sword.)
"No one will rule Nirn as long as I am alive," said Beriadanwen. The queen pulled the sword out of Rade and his corpse fell to the ground.
Rade's men had seen that their leader was dead and so they ran off.
Something unexpected happened. A ball of light came out of Domri Rade's body and began to speak.
"Thank you for freeing me from that horrible mortal," said the ball of light.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"I am Meyer, God of Life and Death," said Meyer.
"Why were you inside Rade?" asked Mother.
"This Rade wanted to use my power to bring back the one he loved, but when I told him it would not work he didn't take me out. My power overwhelmed him and he went insane," said Meyer.
"Well, you are welcome," said Ral Zarek.
"Thank you, and for freeing me I will grant you one wish," said Meyer.
"Really?" I said.
"Yes. So chose wisely," said Meyer.
"You take the wish, Dip. You have earned it," said Mother.
"Thank you, Mother. Meyer, I wish for my vampire side back," I said.
"What!?" screamed Mother.
"Dip! What are you doing?" said Samuel.
"I see now how powerful my Mother is and how powerful my Father once was and if I had both their blood in me I would be as powerful as both of them. So that is my wish: to be what I was intended to be when I was born," I said.
"You sure about this?" said Mother.
"Yes, I am sure. So grant my wish, Meyer," I said.
"Very well, your wish is my command," said Meyer. Then my eyes grew darker but not bright orange like my Mother's. My teeth grew sharper than any normal werewolf or vampire.
"Thank you, Meyer, and if you could, grant one more wish to my Mother," I said.
"You know what? I like you people, so yes, I will grant one more wish to your mother," said Meyer.
"Mother, make your wish and I think I know what it is," I said.
"Meyer, I wish for my husband, Bill, to live another forty years. Can you make that possible?" said Mother.
"Yes, I can. I told Rade that I could not bring people back from the dead directly, but I did not tell him I can bring them back through wishing. So your wish, my dear, is my command," said Meyer. A flash of light went off.
"Come on Mother, I think someone will be waiting for us back at home," I said.
Epilogue
My Mother and I returned home to see my father prancing around the castle entrance.
"There you are! Can you explain why I am back in my body?" said Father.
"It's a long story," I said.
"Well, before you tell me, thank you. It gets boring in Hircine's hunting grounds when you are chasing the same animal forever," said Father. We all burst out in laughter.
THE END