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Back to Empire on the HPe3000
... and ...
This is a first draft of a story set in the world of Greyhawk.
It is based on a home campaign so some of the people, places and things
may be different. Any helpful comments or suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks
Jason Zavoda
Gytha ran across the room, she wanted to yell to Ivo, but not
alert the approaching giants. She hissed at him in a frantic whisper
when she was thirty feet away. A few quick strides more and the gnome
turned to her, he had been facing the northeastern passage with his back
to the others.
"Gytha, what is it?"
"Giants, Harold has seen some approaching." Gytha called to him.
"I have a spell, quickly we need to all be near each other." Ivo
said to her.
At the chute Harald dared not quicken his pace much more than he
had already done. The rope was swinging like a pendulum, the faster he
pulled the more it began to arc, any more and he would be banging whoever
was coming up against the walls. If they fell from this height he did not
believe they would survive.
The little thief reached Harald's side and looked on, breathing
hard, mostly from fear and excitement, every instinct told him to run and
not to stop, but instead he faced the way he had come and drew his sword,
waiting for the giants to appear.
Gytha returned and Ivo pelted after, the gnome ran, but his short
legs made him slow compared to Gytha's lengthy stride. The cleric stood by
the rangers side, the halfling thief on her right, Ivo was near. He
stopped and began to intone his spell, he crushed a sticky wad of acacias
gum in his hand and reached out to touch the rangers arm.
"Hells." cursed Harold. Before the gnome could cast his spell a
giant foot hove into view, followed by a leg and massive body, slate gray
skin, grained like stone. The giant froze, taken by surprise at the
strange sight, two humans, a halfling and gnome, just before the spell
took hold. And in a span quicker than half an eyeblink they disappeared.
Two more giants followed behind the first, one bumped into his stalled
companion and had to put out his arm to steady himself.
"Windthorst." the giant said in a deep gravelly voice. "Why have
you stopped."
"Be still Wolgast, and you Wedel." Windthorst declared. He held up
his hand, the back of his palm to the pair that followed him. "There are
intruders here, perhaps the ones the others are looking for. You there!"
he called down to where he had seen the little ones standing. "Show
yourselves, I wish to parley with you." the giant spoke again, this time
in the common tongue.
They had been seen, Ivo knew it, he also knew that these were not
Nosnra's kin, but Giants of Stone, they delved into the oerth and cared
little for anything not directly of their kind or related to their craft.
Gnomes rarely bargained for these giants skills and the giants in turn had
no need of the craft of gnomes, so Ivo's kind and theirs normally dwelt
separately in peace.
Ivo willed his magic to be gone but first he walked away from the
others and backed a bit further down the kitchen to the north. "What
is it you wish to say?" he asked, appearing before the giant like a puff
of smoke when the lid is lifted from a boiling pot.
"Ah, noniz, where are your friends. You must be the ones who have
disturbed our sleep tonight and sent our lesser cousins scurrying about."
Windthorst said to Ivo.
"Stonelord," Ivo addressed the giant leader, a title which the
giant kind bestowed only on their greatest chiefs. "My friends and I are
beneath your notice, but we do have a quarrel with your lesser cousins,
please do not let me keep you from your slumber."
"What did he say?" asked Wedel, who did not speak any of the
smaller peoples tongues.
"Let's squash him." Wolgast said loudly.
* * *
(To Be Continued)