Post by K Man on Aug 2, 2004 13:46:54 GMT -5
{Well folks, this is it. My submission for the open call for the first Eberron novel. I would appreciate everyone that reads it scouring it for errors and letting me know what they find. I can't reveal the synopsis of the story here for obvious reasons, but just read and let me know what you think.}
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“Come on Xeni, can’t you dig any faster?”
“Relax Derm...” Xeni replied calmly. “This is the Mournlands, you know, a forsaken wasteland. There’s nothing out here.”
Derm looked around, his eyes scanning the desolate wastes for any reason to prove his long time companion wrong. Deep inside the changeling wanted to spot something that would allow them both to flee this horrid place, through the murky barrier of the Dead-Grey Mist and back into the kingdom of Breland beyond. Derm wanted to see minions of the dreaded Lord of Blades or even a wandering living spell that might come too close and chase them both back to the safety of Vathirond. Even if it meant the duo would be at risk, Derm thought that anything was better than remaining in one place for too long in the Mournlands. Finding nothing to satisfy his argument and reluctantly resigning himself to remain in a place he feared as much as death itself, Derm looked back to his companion Xeni and what progress he had made so far.
Nearly uncovered, the piece of adamantine was as large as both the changelings combined.
“It’s huge!” Derm, forgetting the fears that
made his heart pound, exclaimed his statement loud enough for it to echo across the empty landscape.
Xeni stood and nodded his head, never removing his eyes from the metal chunk he had just managed to uncover.
“Nothing out here…Siberys be damned if that
isn’t the second lie I’ve heard today.” Derm broke the hypnotic trance the metal had on his vision and looked across to his friend.
Lifting his eyes to meet those of his ally, Xeni smiled as he remembered the lie Derm referred to. It was how the duo managed to relieve themselves of the obligation to pay for their breakfast this morning by cleverly appearing to be orphans on the verge of starvation. It was a trick that Xeni took particular pride in claiming invention of, but one that could not be used in the same place for very long as tavern owners scarcely believed one town held could hold many orphans. Since Xeni and Derm were nomadic, rarely staying in one place, it was a perfect way to eat free everywhere they traveled.
Being a changeling had its benefits.
“Well, not really a lie, more like an omission.” Xeni retorted, bending over and cleaning more of the dirt from around the metal. “I meant to say nothing out here but bodies and precious metals.”
Derm huffed and dropped his sack to the ground to help Xeni free the metal from the ground by clearing the dirt it was embedded in. Such large pieces of metal half-buried into the ground were commonplace in the Mournlands. After the Day of Mourning and the resulting explosion, remnants of once great buildings were scattered across the lands with violent force but rarely were they composed of such precious metals that warranted the effort the two changelings put forth now. It was often rumored that riches awaited those brave enough to seek them but few adventurers had the nerve to venture into the wasteland to look for treasure. Xeni and Derm were different in that they called the entirety of Khorvaire their home and to them, this was just digging in their backyard.
After a frenzy of flying dirt and clumps of mud thrown about, the two managed to completely uncover the metal piece and now stood on either side of it, admiring its design.
“It looks like a solid piece.” Xeni commented first although both changelings present shared the thought.
“Yeah. What’s this? Looks…almost like a handle. Is this a door?” Derm muttered as he knelt down, pointing with a finger to an obtrusion from the piece.
“Hey…” Xeni’s face suddenly went flush. “You don’t suppose this leads somewhere do you? Somewhere with more treasure?”
“Someone put an adamantine door out here for a reason.” Derm smiled. “It’s gotta go somewhere.”
Please sat upright and looked down the long hallway forcing the rags covering his body to be sent into the air as a cloud, shuddered free by the violent movement of the warforged.
Lifting his metal body from the table, Please quickly took inventory of his immediate surroundings. The tools still hung from their hooks and the metal, like the materials that composed his body, remained neatly stacked in piles nearby. Nothing appeared to be disturbed from where he remembered it, so the source of the noise confused the construct. It was a distinct sound of metal striking metal. A sound Please knew all to well for in his first few steps in the complex upon awakening, he managed to fall over many times and strike the ground with his body, making the exact noise he just heard. Tilting his head as though to provide a better angle to hear, Please waited for the noise to repeat itself.
“Try… again…” Xeni huffed out of breath.
Derm, also out of breath rolled onto his side and grabbed the bar that had just slipped from both of their hands. Helping Xeni to his feet, Derm planted the end of the bar just underneath the lip of the adamantine handle and braced against the bar.
“This had better be worth it…” Derm muttered.
“How could it not be? Even if we just get the door off we’re as rich as kings.” Xeni replied, throwing his weight onto the bar.
Grunting and holding their breath, the two pulled on the bar with their combined might, producing sweat in beads that began to roll down their faces. The force the two exerted proved to be less than the force keeping the door sealed and the bar gave way, causing both Xeni and Derm to slip to the ground. The bar clattered against the door, just as it did moments ago.
Please ran through the halls as fast as his legs would carry him. He passed the other storage rooms with the half completed bodies like his, past the rooms with the weapons he practiced with and past the forges that had been cold since the day he awoke. Please now knew where the sound came from and raced to its source…the door he could never open.
“Damn!” Xeni fell to the ground for the third time, the exhaustion he felt becoming apparent in short raspy gasps of breath.
Xeni, panting and unable to voice his mind, simply thought about the choice made earlier this morning to come to the Mournlands. The wasteland of fresh battlefields that never decayed, the wandering magicks that never died…even the almost guaranteed threat of encountering hostile monsters seemed to do little to overshadow the potential for riches the two thought they would find. So far the expedition had been relatively fruitful with enough rare metals and other trinkets found to pay for a few frivolous days of food and wine, but it was far from their ideal haul. Finding enough air in his lungs to make words, Xeni decided to pose a question that rarely escaped his lips.
“You think…we should…give up and…head back with…what we got?”
Derm offered little in the way of a response aside from throwing his hands into the air and continuing to lay on his back in the dirt, panting. Xeni, usually very quick to add his thoughts vocally to everything, also remained silent and felt his lungs desperately searching for more air. This door, now their target instead of the imagined riches beyond, had proven beyond their skills of thievery. Used to being able to steal what they wanted with little effort, Xeni and Derm suddenly found this expedition most depressing.
“At least… the sun’s… going away…” Xeni said between breaths.
Derm, intent on seeing what his friend was talking about since the sun still burned brightly into his eyes, lifted his head and looked down the length of his body to Xeni. Gasping now from shock instead of fatigue, Derm shouted what he now saw to his companion in crime.
“Move! It’s a warforged!”
Knowing that Derm was usually one to play tricks that caused panic even for a brief moment, Xeni remained still and laughed.
“Right…a warforged. Let me guess, a soldier for the Lord of Blades right? Why would one be here?”
“We were made to rule Eberron…that includes the Mournlands.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Khorvaire Asunder
“Come on Xeni, can’t you dig any faster?”
“Relax Derm...” Xeni replied calmly. “This is the Mournlands, you know, a forsaken wasteland. There’s nothing out here.”
Derm looked around, his eyes scanning the desolate wastes for any reason to prove his long time companion wrong. Deep inside the changeling wanted to spot something that would allow them both to flee this horrid place, through the murky barrier of the Dead-Grey Mist and back into the kingdom of Breland beyond. Derm wanted to see minions of the dreaded Lord of Blades or even a wandering living spell that might come too close and chase them both back to the safety of Vathirond. Even if it meant the duo would be at risk, Derm thought that anything was better than remaining in one place for too long in the Mournlands. Finding nothing to satisfy his argument and reluctantly resigning himself to remain in a place he feared as much as death itself, Derm looked back to his companion Xeni and what progress he had made so far.
Nearly uncovered, the piece of adamantine was as large as both the changelings combined.
“It’s huge!” Derm, forgetting the fears that
made his heart pound, exclaimed his statement loud enough for it to echo across the empty landscape.
Xeni stood and nodded his head, never removing his eyes from the metal chunk he had just managed to uncover.
“Nothing out here…Siberys be damned if that
isn’t the second lie I’ve heard today.” Derm broke the hypnotic trance the metal had on his vision and looked across to his friend.
Lifting his eyes to meet those of his ally, Xeni smiled as he remembered the lie Derm referred to. It was how the duo managed to relieve themselves of the obligation to pay for their breakfast this morning by cleverly appearing to be orphans on the verge of starvation. It was a trick that Xeni took particular pride in claiming invention of, but one that could not be used in the same place for very long as tavern owners scarcely believed one town held could hold many orphans. Since Xeni and Derm were nomadic, rarely staying in one place, it was a perfect way to eat free everywhere they traveled.
Being a changeling had its benefits.
“Well, not really a lie, more like an omission.” Xeni retorted, bending over and cleaning more of the dirt from around the metal. “I meant to say nothing out here but bodies and precious metals.”
Derm huffed and dropped his sack to the ground to help Xeni free the metal from the ground by clearing the dirt it was embedded in. Such large pieces of metal half-buried into the ground were commonplace in the Mournlands. After the Day of Mourning and the resulting explosion, remnants of once great buildings were scattered across the lands with violent force but rarely were they composed of such precious metals that warranted the effort the two changelings put forth now. It was often rumored that riches awaited those brave enough to seek them but few adventurers had the nerve to venture into the wasteland to look for treasure. Xeni and Derm were different in that they called the entirety of Khorvaire their home and to them, this was just digging in their backyard.
After a frenzy of flying dirt and clumps of mud thrown about, the two managed to completely uncover the metal piece and now stood on either side of it, admiring its design.
“It looks like a solid piece.” Xeni commented first although both changelings present shared the thought.
“Yeah. What’s this? Looks…almost like a handle. Is this a door?” Derm muttered as he knelt down, pointing with a finger to an obtrusion from the piece.
“Hey…” Xeni’s face suddenly went flush. “You don’t suppose this leads somewhere do you? Somewhere with more treasure?”
“Someone put an adamantine door out here for a reason.” Derm smiled. “It’s gotta go somewhere.”
***
Please sat upright and looked down the long hallway forcing the rags covering his body to be sent into the air as a cloud, shuddered free by the violent movement of the warforged.
Lifting his metal body from the table, Please quickly took inventory of his immediate surroundings. The tools still hung from their hooks and the metal, like the materials that composed his body, remained neatly stacked in piles nearby. Nothing appeared to be disturbed from where he remembered it, so the source of the noise confused the construct. It was a distinct sound of metal striking metal. A sound Please knew all to well for in his first few steps in the complex upon awakening, he managed to fall over many times and strike the ground with his body, making the exact noise he just heard. Tilting his head as though to provide a better angle to hear, Please waited for the noise to repeat itself.
***
“Try… again…” Xeni huffed out of breath.
Derm, also out of breath rolled onto his side and grabbed the bar that had just slipped from both of their hands. Helping Xeni to his feet, Derm planted the end of the bar just underneath the lip of the adamantine handle and braced against the bar.
“This had better be worth it…” Derm muttered.
“How could it not be? Even if we just get the door off we’re as rich as kings.” Xeni replied, throwing his weight onto the bar.
Grunting and holding their breath, the two pulled on the bar with their combined might, producing sweat in beads that began to roll down their faces. The force the two exerted proved to be less than the force keeping the door sealed and the bar gave way, causing both Xeni and Derm to slip to the ground. The bar clattered against the door, just as it did moments ago.
***
Please ran through the halls as fast as his legs would carry him. He passed the other storage rooms with the half completed bodies like his, past the rooms with the weapons he practiced with and past the forges that had been cold since the day he awoke. Please now knew where the sound came from and raced to its source…the door he could never open.
***
“Damn!” Xeni fell to the ground for the third time, the exhaustion he felt becoming apparent in short raspy gasps of breath.
Xeni, panting and unable to voice his mind, simply thought about the choice made earlier this morning to come to the Mournlands. The wasteland of fresh battlefields that never decayed, the wandering magicks that never died…even the almost guaranteed threat of encountering hostile monsters seemed to do little to overshadow the potential for riches the two thought they would find. So far the expedition had been relatively fruitful with enough rare metals and other trinkets found to pay for a few frivolous days of food and wine, but it was far from their ideal haul. Finding enough air in his lungs to make words, Xeni decided to pose a question that rarely escaped his lips.
“You think…we should…give up and…head back with…what we got?”
Derm offered little in the way of a response aside from throwing his hands into the air and continuing to lay on his back in the dirt, panting. Xeni, usually very quick to add his thoughts vocally to everything, also remained silent and felt his lungs desperately searching for more air. This door, now their target instead of the imagined riches beyond, had proven beyond their skills of thievery. Used to being able to steal what they wanted with little effort, Xeni and Derm suddenly found this expedition most depressing.
“At least… the sun’s… going away…” Xeni said between breaths.
Derm, intent on seeing what his friend was talking about since the sun still burned brightly into his eyes, lifted his head and looked down the length of his body to Xeni. Gasping now from shock instead of fatigue, Derm shouted what he now saw to his companion in crime.
“Move! It’s a warforged!”
Knowing that Derm was usually one to play tricks that caused panic even for a brief moment, Xeni remained still and laughed.
“Right…a warforged. Let me guess, a soldier for the Lord of Blades right? Why would one be here?”
“We were made to rule Eberron…that includes the Mournlands.”
