Avengard Chronicles

Rinero slowly opened his eyes, he was lying down. The ground under him was lightly shaking. When he finally opened his eyes, they were met with pair of sunken green eyes. Rinero then recognized the face in front of him, it was Zetarnu. Rinero then surged upwards and shouted, "Hey, it you!"

"Well, you've certainly recovered well. You've been out for only two hours, impressive considering the attack you took."

Rinero looked around, he was inside of a wagon, he then looked back at Zetarnu who was sitting on a crate. "Well after what happened back there it would be stupid of me to resist. Guess I'll have to just go along with this," Rinero thought with despair. 

"So that attack you used back there, it was magic right."

"Well, no shit dumbass," Zetarnu raised his hand with a single finger pointing to the air. "I'm a mage," suddenly a bright red flame ignited just above the tip of the mage's finger. The flickering red flame gave off an otherworldly and strange aura, just looking at the small flame made Rinero's eyes sting, and his head hurt making him want to vomit.

"From the expression on your face I can tell my magic makes you uncomfortable. Don't worry it's just the human brain's natural reaction to seeing magic for the first few times. Magic, being such an unnatural and strange thing, sends the mind into a frenzied and confused state. But the more you expose yourself to magic, the more accustomed your mind becomes to it." The mage then put out the magic flame.

"Well then Rinero now that you are already here, I can finally give you the full explanation on why I need you to come on this quest with me." 

Hearing this the now thoroughly humbled Rinero sat down and sighed. "Well not much else I can do in my position than hear why I got kidnaped by this crazy old mage," He thought.

"So, you are already aware about the whole situation of fighting the bandit king Sharshang, leader of the Black Dagger Bandits."

"Yes, you told me about that before you blasted me with your magic."

"Good, well yesterday I was informed that a scroll containing a demon summoning scroll was stolen from the secret vaults of the Fiferidge library. They ended up catching the thief, a member of the Black Dagger Bandits, but by the time they did the thief had already transferred the scroll to another person. To leave such dangerous arcane knowledge as summoning and making contracts with demons in the hands of such a dangerous group could end in disaster. We would have gotten the military to deal with the situation but since the High Council can't keep their dam swords sheathed, dam near every man who can point a spear the right way along with every mage, priest, and paladin have been sent to Terra knows where on the northern frontier.

"Luckly for me the mobilization order only went to large cities such as Fiferidge so small villages like yours were completely ignored. So today I went to Denstrik and acquired you; and despite getting knocked out from one magic missile you do show potential. Even a talented swordsman such as you, loses to the weakest mage, that is unless the swordsman knows how to counter the mage's magic. So, what I plan to do is train you and several other people, storm Sharshang's hideout, and have him dead by the end of the month."

"That's in two weeks! Are you sure your plan will work?"

"I'm confident, first of all the scroll has to actually get to Sharshang. After that he has to translate the ancient runes on the scroll. After translating the runes, he needs to gather the necessary preparations to perform the summoning and then actually summon the demon. All this gives us between two and two and a half weeks of time to get to Sharshang before he activates the spell."

The mage then pulled something out of his pockets, it was a scroll. "This thing right here is what we will be using to take out Sharshang. It's loaded with several destructive spells which even he will stand no chance against. All you need to do is distract him then I fire the spell from outside eviscerating the bandit king in one strike."

Hearing the plan now gave Rinero a small amount of peace, at least now he knew how he would be spending the last weeks of his life.

"By the way Rinero, if you're wondering where your valuables are they are in that black bag. It has your cloths, money, some of your blankets, and your saber which has been sharpened by my apprentice."

"You have an apprentice?"

"Yup, his name is Noname and he is quite experienced with blades and has talent for the arcane arts."

"What a strange name he has."

"Yes, well he was abandoned as at birth, for he was a half breed child, and was given no name. Half orc, half man, his mother lived on a frontier village and one day that village was sacked by an orc raiding party and I think you can assume the rest of the unfortunate story of his conceiving from there. Anyways Noname's mother gave him to a priest, and he was taken to the orphanage in Stonenenburg where we are currently headed. He was often mocked for his appearance and was bullied harshly. He became quite secluded but showed a high level of intelligence, so the church, seeing his potential, decided to give him an education.

"He was taught to read and studied in the Stonenburg Monastery and became a scribe and bookkeeper in the vast libraries of the church. Eventually he began studying the arcane arts. Despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding his birth and his treatment from others he is a hard worker and quite knowledgeable. I decided to take him as my apprentice after he was recommended to me by a priest from there. He does have considerable talent; he's driving the wagon right now."

Rinero peered out the covers of the wagon, he could see that their horse drawn wagon was traveling on a road through a dense forest. The road was surrounded by tall trees and dense shrubs and bushes. Above small rays of light pierced the shade of the trees. Rinero then looked at the driver's seat he saw Zetarnu's apprentice. He wore a long black cloak which obscured most of his large body. Large, claw-like hands gripped the reigns of the wagon horse. Then the apprentice turned around to look at Rinero and Rinero saw his face.

The apprentice's face was large, twisted, and deformed like that of a leper. Underneath the hood of his black cloak long, black, stringy hair fell. The half orc's red eyes were unnaturally large and round. His thin jaw had sharp teeth sticking out from it. Noname's skin to was like that of a leper, lumpy and wrinkled and was a pale green color. Noname saw Rinero and gave him an unnervingly wide, toothy grin. Rinero nervously gave his own smile and quickly slid back under the wagon's covers.

Zatarnu began laughing at Rinero's reaction. "Yep, he isn't the prettiest to look at, but I can assure you he is quite smart."

And so, the wagon made its way through the forest and into the open plains of the grassland. By then the sun had begun to set. The group decided to make camp at the forest's edge and continue to Stonenburg tomorrow which was just in sight from their position, a small silhouette framed against the orange horizon of sunset. 

"Alright now that we have settled down here why don't we make a fire and have ourselves a meal," proposed Zetarnu.

"Sounds great," responded Rinero.

"Noname, get the firewood and the pot from the wagon would you."

"Yes master," said Noname. Despite how he looked his voice was surprisingly soft with a slight lisp. Noname brought the wood and placed the logs down and then snaped his fingers. The logs burst into flames and placed the pot over the flame. "What would you like to eat master?"

"Make us some chicken soup Noname."

"Understood master." In the pot Noname boiled water and then put chicken, vegetables, and herbs into the pot. After a few minutes the soup was done. They each got bowls for themselves and served themselves. 

"This soup is great, thanks Noname," said Rinero.

"Thank you, Mr. Espada."

Once the three were all done with their soup Zetarnu went into the wagon and withdrew 3 glass mugs and a bottle of mead. "Let us all drink, to our first new party member," he said as he poured the pale-yellow beverage into the glass mugs. "Drink up Rinero, you probably won't come back from this journey alive, neither will the rest of our future party," thought Zetarnu behind his smiling face. They each took one of the mugs and drank, they drank till the moon came out and the bottle ran dry. They traded stories with each other as they drank, Rinero's tales of swordplay and tournaments, the arcane exploits of Zetarnu, and Noname's rather dull stories of his time as a scribe. They laughed and drank for hours. 

"You know maybe I can get along with these two. If I'm going to be stuck with them might as well try to enjoy their company," Rinero thought to himself. Rinero looked up to the stars but then heard a noise from the forest. Rinero pretended he didn't notice the noise but peered carefully into the forest and noticed a faint glint in between the trees. Suddenly there was a twang sound, and an arrow came flying straight at Rinero's face. Rinero dived out of the way and the arrow stuck into the wagon behind him. Rinero reached for his saber, yet his hands grabbed only air. "Dam it, my saber is in the wagon!" Rinero thought as he scrambled to retrieve his blade. 

After the arrow struck a group of bandits surged forward from the forest. They carried short swords and axes and one of them had a crossbow. They were lightly armored with an assortment of pieces of plate and chainmail over their ragged cloths. Their faces were obscured by black scarfs and cruel, killer eyes peered under their iron helmets. One more man came out of the bushes wielding a longsword. The man was in chainmail and wore a kettle helm and a black scarf. Over his chainmail he wore a white surcoat with a black dagger symbol. He was clearly their leader.

"Black Dagger Bandits!" shouted Zetarnu. Noname and Zetarnu got up and sprung backwards. They were surrounded, in total there were eight bandits around them. One of the bandits dashed forward, axe raised ready to strike. Noname leaped in front of the bandit and drew a dagger out of his cloak. The long, cruel piece of iron flashed under the moonlight as it slashed open the bandit's throat. Blood sprayed like a fountain from the wound and the bandit let out a sickening gurgle before dropping dead.

All at once the rest of the bandits charged forwards, bloodlust in their eyes. Zetarnu pointed his staff at the charging bandits. The staff shimmered with red arcane energy and blasted a bolt of electricity. Yet not even a millisecond later the bandit leader fired off his own bolt of electricity from his right hand. The two bolts collided in a blinding flash with a deafening boom. Noname shielded his eyes from the flash with his cloak and took advantage of the confusion. Noname charged the bandit with a crossbow and stabbed him in the chest seven times. The bandit leader charged at Zetarnu as the flash dimmed. Zetarnu dashed back and pointed his staff at the leader. "Son of a bitch! This one has magic," thought Zetarnu. Before Zetarnu could fire off another spell he was kicked in the chest and pinned to the ground by the bandit leader. The bandit raised his longsword to strike, yet before he could strike Zetarnu used telekinesis to grab the axe out of the hand of the first bandit Noname killed. The axe whizzed through the air and smashed into the bandit leader's side, piercing his armor spraying blood all over the ground. 

Zetarnu got up and spit on the face of the bandit leader who was writhing and screaming in pain on the ground. "Heh, rookie," said Zetarnu kicking the bandit in the face, crushing his nose. Meanwhile Rinero had jumped out of the wagon, blade ready, just in time to see Noname fire a small fireball at the bandits. The fireball exploded on impact with one of the bandits, blowing a hole through his chest and leaving nothing but a flaming corpse on the ground. Noname withdrew a second dagger from his cloak and rushed the rest of the scared and confused bandits, one dagger in each hand. Noname weaved through the swings and stabs of the bandits while delivering his own lethal strikes with incredible swiftness. The bandits scattered as Zetarnu, using his telekinesis, flung the weapons of the fallen bandits at the still living ones. The scene was absolute chaos and all Rinero could do was watch, frozen like a statue. Flying weapons, fireballs, the calm and polite Noname brutally stabbing bandits to death, it all made no sense to Rinero and made his head hurt. 

Noname plunged his two daggers into the last bandit, one in the neck, one in the heart. The corpse fell life less on the ground and Noname raised his head, then smiled and waved at Rinero as if he didn't just kill a man right in front of him a second ago. "Well that all the sons of a bitches done," said Zetarnu, hands on his hips.

"Wait no master, look at the number of corpses, there are only 7!" responded Noname.

"Then where is the- RINERO BEHIND YOU!"

Rinero whipped around to see a helmetless bandit, axe in hand, about to cleave him in half. The words of the old mercenary who taught him swordplay flashed into his mind. "Don't let the fear and panic of surprise take you over, keep your mind clear and strike without hesitation." Rinero swung his saber with deadly speed and precision at the bandit's unprotected head. Yet the familiar sensation of steel bashing against flesh and the subsequent cheer of the crowd was not what met him. It was a sickening, strange sensation. A dull, wet, thunk as the saber sliced halfway down the middle of the bandit's head. The bandit's eyes became lifeless as blood drooled out of his mouth. The body fell to the ground with a thud, blood dripping off Rinero's saber. There was no victory, no pride or triumph in the act, just nothing, Rinero felt nothing. Rinero stared at the lifeless corpse sprawled on the ground, unable to comprehend that it was his doing. His mind went blank, then it all hit him at once, a barrage of emotions. the whole thing didn't feel real, the entire day didn't feel real. Abducted by a mage and his half orc apprentice to go on a quest, it was all ridiculous, like something out of a dream. Surely, he would wake up in his bed ready to spend his tournament earnings, surely, he didn't just take the life of another man. 

A hand clasped on his shoulder; it was Zetarnu. "Don't feel bad Rinero, it was you or him. Now try to get some rest, you're going to need all the rest you can get." said the mage. Rinero dragged himself into the wagon, covered himself in a blanket and went to sleep.