That's Not Who I Am... Chapter 1: Nektulos Forest
Aelas sat down and opened his spell book, examining his previous scribings of the spell "Burst of Flame" trying to memorize the finer points of the spell. It was an easy spell to get, but he wanted to cast it faster to get the edge in the battles. He walked up the path to the log. The log was a huge fallen tree right off the path in Nektulos forest that everyone chose to rest and meditate on. It might have been because of its placement. There were a variety of faces resting on that big knotty log, which was now wet and smelly because it had just rained . Ogres were mumbling their broken English to eachother and bonking eachother on the head while laughing like the neanderthawls they are. Trolls were speaking raspilly back and forth while sharpening their blades. Then there were the other Dark Elves, who reamained reserved, talking only every once in a while.
All of these odd races have a tentative relationship with eachother because of one thing, they are dark. We are all hated throughout Norrath. Whenever a dark race got near a light race, they were quickly taken care of, simply because of their existence. Nektulos had always been the choke point for lighties, as theyre called by other dark races, because it is home to a fantatical militia of dark races who go out of their way to make sure no person of light blood lays eyes on the dingy walls of Neriak, the Dark Elf City.
Aelas despised his home. He hated everything about it from the dark and dankness of it to the fog of hate that lay so thick on the ground the path has to be shoveled before it can be walked. He saw the whole war between the races as a poinless waste of life and energy. That's probably why he was agnostic. He chose not to follow the God of Hate, Innoruuk. Innoruuk was the symbol of all that was wrong with the world. If only these blind idiots would see what they were doing through their blinding shroud of belief! Pretty much everyone hated him for his views on the war.
Neriak is a city run mainly by Necromancers, so everyone who doesn't follow the path of pulling corpses out of their graves to fight for them is given icy glares on the wet streets or Neriak. Aelas chose the path of a Magician because he didn't want to depend on the service of others to get what he needed. He'd have a companion in his pet after he got one and could summon food and drink whenever he needed. It was a choice of convenience more than anything. It had its downsides though. Pretty much every merchant and commonperson whom he crossed paths with would refuse to talk to him. Merchants charged outrageous prices for the most common of wares. On more than one occasion, he caused fights in bars and banks because of things he'd say. That's why he had a bad reputation.
As he hoisted himself onto the log, an ogre with a big scar across his cheek pulled him down to the ground and Slammed him into the log. Aelas slid down to the ground, his back against the log. He gasped for breath as he cluched the part of his chest that was slammed.
"You deserve that. You no believer of hate!," the ogre said, barely making sense because his snaggled yellow teeth caused a whistling when he talked.
"God, why the hell.....ugh," Aelas coughed up a fair amount of blood.
"You lucky I not do more, oh wait, me have idea!" the ogre grabbed Aelas's staff, which was already cracked and snapped it in half, then threw the sharp pieces at Aelas.
One of the pieces hit him, splinered side first and caused a bloody gash on his right cheek. The other Ogres laughed and egged him on, as the assailant danced over Aelas's nearly unconcious body. He then proceeded to dig through his backpack, looking for something else to hit him with. All the backpack had in it was some parchment with spells scrolled on them and some Malachite, the magic rock used for element summoning.
"Rock pretty, I keep. I have troll friend who like to burn tings, I give paper to him. Ta-ta, non believer!" The ogre then issued one final insult, he picked Aelas up by the throat and tossed him onto the rocky path in front of a black wolf. The Ogre and troll troop then walked off, laughing as they lumbered into the forest, just laughing their huge asses off.
The wolf sniffed Aelas and growled. The wolf sensed the warmth still left in his body. It tugged at Aelas's already ruined robe with its razor sharp teeth. Aerlas regained conciousness and rolled to the side and got to his feet. His whole body hurt like it had been tossed off a cliff, but he had to run. It was a long haul back to Neriak, where at least the guards would save him. He limped/ran back to the city entrace with the wolf nipping at his heels all the way. At the city entrance the guards made short work of the wolf, scoffing at his inability to take on such a weak beast. Aelas collapsed on the ground before the entrance to regain his breath and strength. He must have blacked out for the night because he awoke laying face up on the forest floor looking up at the canopy. Barely any light shone through. What did make its way into the forest was reflected off the fog, giving the forest a dingy green glow.
His home within Neriak was in the Tower of the Spurned. Aelas made his way there and walked in. The Tower was for people like him who chose Jobs other than Necromancy. The sub basement was where his home was. He had a "room" at the end of the bottom hall. More like a cell. It had a cot, bare mossy walls, and no windows. His only light was a dimming lightstone embedded into the wall above the cot. The rent was one gold piece a week, affordable at least. There were always people coming and going through the hall outside. He had no door, only a tattered curtain to separate him from the others. Sometimes people would come into the room not knowing what it was and start staying there overnight.
The more evil denziens of Neriak held a huge grudge against the Spurned. Sometimes an especially dubious person would wander in and start causing hell, there have even been deaths because of them. There is at least one Anti spurned group out there whose main purpose in life is to cause trouble for us. As it happens, this day would be the day no one wanted to happen.
Aelas had been sleeping all day, trying to get rid of the pain and stop the bleeding. It was about 3 o'clock when he awoke to put some more bandages on. He was sitting on his bed bandaging his face wound when his curtain parted. Rays of light poured in when the shadowed form of another Mage, Casta, walked in and leaned against the wall.
"How 'ya feeling?" Casta asked, almost sarcastically.
"Great! I've got to send a Thank You message to that nice ogre. I needed a good face shredding" Aelas said, retorting to Casta's smugness.
"Ahh, suck it up Ae, you'll be fine. The guild headmistress wishes to see you, by the way. Must be something about yesterday. Good luck" Casta said.
Aelas stood up and stretched. He was stiff, but he could manage. The headmistress, Jayna D'Bious was on next floor up, so he headed up there right away. A summons to the Headmistress of the guild was not taken lightly.
"Hail, Aelas." Jayna said. "Please take a seat."
"Listen, about yesterday, it wasn't my fault, that buffoon just came up to me and started roughing me up."
"I know that. But............"
An explosion rocked the tower. Intense heat filled the basement as pieces of the ceiling started to crumble. They then heard the unmistakeable clatter of bones and metal that could only be skeletons start down the stairs into the basement.
"Damn! The Anti-Spurned! We have to get out of here, now!" Jayna D'Bious shouted.
The hallway was filled with flames, skeletons, and corpses. The skeletons cackled as they killed the helpless people in the hall. Jayna started chanting and all of the skeletons disappated into blue balls of light as a ray ripped through them. They continued to run up the stairs. It was a long run to the top of the tower and they avoided the lobby and any other main rooms that more skeletons would be in. The got to the top of the tower and walked into the observation deck. They got about two steps into the room and the statues lining the wall started to life. There were about five other people with Aelas and Jayna at the time. A skirmish ensued. Aelas casted Fire Flux, but it was useless. The statues were immune to flame. Four of the others were slain by the staues. Then the tower started rumbling. It was collapsing!
"The next building! Jump to it!" Aelas called to Jayna and the other person.
The anonymous person jumped first, he missed his mark by about 5 inces and fell into the alleyway. Jayna jumped, making it to the edge flawlessly. The statues closed in on Aelas as he made his jump. He barely dodged an axe swing as he leapt from the balcony to the adjacent roof. He was short. His fingers clasped onto the ledge of the roof as he dangled helplessly. Jayna grabbed him and started to pull him up. They both looked down at the stranger who fell. He was being run through by a skeleton. The tower collapsed into the ground. They had made it out safely, but countless others had died.
"I have something I want to do, Jayna." Aelas said stonely, showing no emotion.
Aelas walked up to the temple of Innoruuk wearing a black robe he found and holding a challice. He walked up the steps, paying no attention to the explosions, screaming, and riot going on behind him. The main chappel had an altar to place to make offerings to Innoruuk. Aelas placed the Challice on the altar. The Challice was filled with poison. Out of the Temple to Innoruuk Aelas walked, not looking back. He made his way out of Neriak, not looking back. Aelas walked out on his home, disguised, without looking back. There would have to be a better place for him out there. He had no home among the damned.
Aelas sat down and opened his spell book, examining his previous scribings of the spell "Burst of Flame" trying to memorize the finer points of the spell. It was an easy spell to get, but he wanted to cast it faster to get the edge in the battles. He walked up the path to the log. The log was a huge fallen tree right off the path in Nektulos forest that everyone chose to rest and meditate on. It might have been because of its placement. There were a variety of faces resting on that big knotty log, which was now wet and smelly because it had just rained . Ogres were mumbling their broken English to eachother and bonking eachother on the head while laughing like the neanderthawls they are. Trolls were speaking raspilly back and forth while sharpening their blades. Then there were the other Dark Elves, who reamained reserved, talking only every once in a while.
All of these odd races have a tentative relationship with eachother because of one thing, they are dark. We are all hated throughout Norrath. Whenever a dark race got near a light race, they were quickly taken care of, simply because of their existence. Nektulos had always been the choke point for lighties, as theyre called by other dark races, because it is home to a fantatical militia of dark races who go out of their way to make sure no person of light blood lays eyes on the dingy walls of Neriak, the Dark Elf City.
Aelas despised his home. He hated everything about it from the dark and dankness of it to the fog of hate that lay so thick on the ground the path has to be shoveled before it can be walked. He saw the whole war between the races as a poinless waste of life and energy. That's probably why he was agnostic. He chose not to follow the God of Hate, Innoruuk. Innoruuk was the symbol of all that was wrong with the world. If only these blind idiots would see what they were doing through their blinding shroud of belief! Pretty much everyone hated him for his views on the war.
Neriak is a city run mainly by Necromancers, so everyone who doesn't follow the path of pulling corpses out of their graves to fight for them is given icy glares on the wet streets or Neriak. Aelas chose the path of a Magician because he didn't want to depend on the service of others to get what he needed. He'd have a companion in his pet after he got one and could summon food and drink whenever he needed. It was a choice of convenience more than anything. It had its downsides though. Pretty much every merchant and commonperson whom he crossed paths with would refuse to talk to him. Merchants charged outrageous prices for the most common of wares. On more than one occasion, he caused fights in bars and banks because of things he'd say. That's why he had a bad reputation.
As he hoisted himself onto the log, an ogre with a big scar across his cheek pulled him down to the ground and Slammed him into the log. Aelas slid down to the ground, his back against the log. He gasped for breath as he cluched the part of his chest that was slammed.
"You deserve that. You no believer of hate!," the ogre said, barely making sense because his snaggled yellow teeth caused a whistling when he talked.
"God, why the hell.....ugh," Aelas coughed up a fair amount of blood.
"You lucky I not do more, oh wait, me have idea!" the ogre grabbed Aelas's staff, which was already cracked and snapped it in half, then threw the sharp pieces at Aelas.
One of the pieces hit him, splinered side first and caused a bloody gash on his right cheek. The other Ogres laughed and egged him on, as the assailant danced over Aelas's nearly unconcious body. He then proceeded to dig through his backpack, looking for something else to hit him with. All the backpack had in it was some parchment with spells scrolled on them and some Malachite, the magic rock used for element summoning.
"Rock pretty, I keep. I have troll friend who like to burn tings, I give paper to him. Ta-ta, non believer!" The ogre then issued one final insult, he picked Aelas up by the throat and tossed him onto the rocky path in front of a black wolf. The Ogre and troll troop then walked off, laughing as they lumbered into the forest, just laughing their huge asses off.
The wolf sniffed Aelas and growled. The wolf sensed the warmth still left in his body. It tugged at Aelas's already ruined robe with its razor sharp teeth. Aerlas regained conciousness and rolled to the side and got to his feet. His whole body hurt like it had been tossed off a cliff, but he had to run. It was a long haul back to Neriak, where at least the guards would save him. He limped/ran back to the city entrace with the wolf nipping at his heels all the way. At the city entrance the guards made short work of the wolf, scoffing at his inability to take on such a weak beast. Aelas collapsed on the ground before the entrance to regain his breath and strength. He must have blacked out for the night because he awoke laying face up on the forest floor looking up at the canopy. Barely any light shone through. What did make its way into the forest was reflected off the fog, giving the forest a dingy green glow.
His home within Neriak was in the Tower of the Spurned. Aelas made his way there and walked in. The Tower was for people like him who chose Jobs other than Necromancy. The sub basement was where his home was. He had a "room" at the end of the bottom hall. More like a cell. It had a cot, bare mossy walls, and no windows. His only light was a dimming lightstone embedded into the wall above the cot. The rent was one gold piece a week, affordable at least. There were always people coming and going through the hall outside. He had no door, only a tattered curtain to separate him from the others. Sometimes people would come into the room not knowing what it was and start staying there overnight.
The more evil denziens of Neriak held a huge grudge against the Spurned. Sometimes an especially dubious person would wander in and start causing hell, there have even been deaths because of them. There is at least one Anti spurned group out there whose main purpose in life is to cause trouble for us. As it happens, this day would be the day no one wanted to happen.
Aelas had been sleeping all day, trying to get rid of the pain and stop the bleeding. It was about 3 o'clock when he awoke to put some more bandages on. He was sitting on his bed bandaging his face wound when his curtain parted. Rays of light poured in when the shadowed form of another Mage, Casta, walked in and leaned against the wall.
"How 'ya feeling?" Casta asked, almost sarcastically.
"Great! I've got to send a Thank You message to that nice ogre. I needed a good face shredding" Aelas said, retorting to Casta's smugness.
"Ahh, suck it up Ae, you'll be fine. The guild headmistress wishes to see you, by the way. Must be something about yesterday. Good luck" Casta said.
Aelas stood up and stretched. He was stiff, but he could manage. The headmistress, Jayna D'Bious was on next floor up, so he headed up there right away. A summons to the Headmistress of the guild was not taken lightly.
"Hail, Aelas." Jayna said. "Please take a seat."
"Listen, about yesterday, it wasn't my fault, that buffoon just came up to me and started roughing me up."
"I know that. But............"
An explosion rocked the tower. Intense heat filled the basement as pieces of the ceiling started to crumble. They then heard the unmistakeable clatter of bones and metal that could only be skeletons start down the stairs into the basement.
"Damn! The Anti-Spurned! We have to get out of here, now!" Jayna D'Bious shouted.
The hallway was filled with flames, skeletons, and corpses. The skeletons cackled as they killed the helpless people in the hall. Jayna started chanting and all of the skeletons disappated into blue balls of light as a ray ripped through them. They continued to run up the stairs. It was a long run to the top of the tower and they avoided the lobby and any other main rooms that more skeletons would be in. The got to the top of the tower and walked into the observation deck. They got about two steps into the room and the statues lining the wall started to life. There were about five other people with Aelas and Jayna at the time. A skirmish ensued. Aelas casted Fire Flux, but it was useless. The statues were immune to flame. Four of the others were slain by the staues. Then the tower started rumbling. It was collapsing!
"The next building! Jump to it!" Aelas called to Jayna and the other person.
The anonymous person jumped first, he missed his mark by about 5 inces and fell into the alleyway. Jayna jumped, making it to the edge flawlessly. The statues closed in on Aelas as he made his jump. He barely dodged an axe swing as he leapt from the balcony to the adjacent roof. He was short. His fingers clasped onto the ledge of the roof as he dangled helplessly. Jayna grabbed him and started to pull him up. They both looked down at the stranger who fell. He was being run through by a skeleton. The tower collapsed into the ground. They had made it out safely, but countless others had died.
"I have something I want to do, Jayna." Aelas said stonely, showing no emotion.
Aelas walked up to the temple of Innoruuk wearing a black robe he found and holding a challice. He walked up the steps, paying no attention to the explosions, screaming, and riot going on behind him. The main chappel had an altar to place to make offerings to Innoruuk. Aelas placed the Challice on the altar. The Challice was filled with poison. Out of the Temple to Innoruuk Aelas walked, not looking back. He made his way out of Neriak, not looking back. Aelas walked out on his home, disguised, without looking back. There would have to be a better place for him out there. He had no home among the damned.