the spine

The night was a crisp and cold night. So cold infact the clouds ceased to exist to cover the stars and the beautiful blood moon above The Spine. Snow covered the earth in a thick blanket, al ost up to an average sized human’s knees. The trees were not spared either, as their trunks were covered...

"Bounty my friend! This forest has yielded an absolute bounty for my humble table." The orc appreciatively gazes on the large fallen tree that now holds a selection of berries and mushrooms, some salted meats, dried forest leaves, two skins of spring water and his own two loaves of crusty bread...

Kieara Macraith Orcs, he had found, were not the mindless raiders the humans had often called them. They lived as migrating hunters, but they were opportunistic. Valthar was making his slow way back to the Tundra. When you were alone there was always a chance they would see if you carried...

The jagged peaks made him pine for home. Valthar had missed it so much that it made him ache for weeks, but those snow covered mountains made him think of the tundra he called home. The ice wind that came down from those mountains and cut across the caravan were welcome. These southern lands...

Grass laced with pearl white snow crunched underneath the Nord's feet as she weaved through trees and foliage, her eyes scanning the Spine for some hint as to the location of her prey. Somewhere within the wood was the creature she was looking for. The witch's words rung in her mind as she...

How long had Vreilar been walking? He’d stopped counting after the first thirty days, and the road had brought him little respite in the time since. What few healers he came across said they could do little for his injured arm, which now hugged close to his stomach in a sling of dark canvas. A...

Exploring the unknown requires tolerating uncertainty. -Brian Greene Just another standard courier mission, which usually meant trouble. The actual courier mission was not the problem. Usually the actual message was delivered safely and on time, allowing his brother to pull whatever...

There was a split. The tribe was in unrest. Yet they tried to stay united. Mabess led a small party along the fringes of the worksite. Axes split wood and hammers clang against metal. Metal that did not come cheaply. The costs were piling up by now, and the ashlanders were not the monetary...

Molthal continues to expand west of the Spine, clashing with the petty kingdoms and principalities in the wild northlands. Beset by marauding elves, ill-disciplined auxiliaries, and badly stretched supply lines, Molthal has taken a more conciliatory approach towards the larger settlements in its...

Toirbheartan, Northlands, Southwest of Gulf of Ryt. Toirbheartan had started life as a defensive settlement. The town that had expanded around it was more accidental than intended. The walls had been pushed out to accommodate them but there was still a scattering of lean-tos and huts beyond...

Iliris raised her hand, to shield her eyes from the freezing wind at least a little, drawing her gaze up the narrow mountain pass. She was still in the familiar surroundings of the Spine, but far more north than her travels would usually bring her. A lot closer to Molthal and Blightlands than...

The Spine was ancient, perhaps being the very foundation of the world from which all the rest grew. Cuthwyrd didn't know. He wasn't sure that anyone knew. As long as the history went back, the Spine had been there long before the tale started and continued far beyond its end. They were one of...

(OOC notice: please do not include a large number of sidekick NPC soldiers. I'm DMing here and there to progress the story, otherwise i'm prepared for any deviation ;D .)(Magic users better stay in incognito mode for their wellbeing for now! ;P And the story is somewhat grim/dark.) Early...

It was cold here. Cold, desolate, and lonely. Arumi hated the cold, but he loved the mountains. They felt like home. He sat perched upon a massive wall carved out of the living rock, part of a structure the delved deep into the mountain face and reared out into the spaces between. It had been...

((Mists of Rivendell by Enrico Fossati)) His name was Zeng. And he was a monster. So Lazule chased after him. A beacon of light pursuing the fleeing dark. * * * * * Another small village. Annihilated. Fires burned around her. Pillars of black smoke rising up to the gray clouds above like...

Silence. It hung over everything here, a silence so thick it was suffocating, stifling. The fires had not lasted for very long, and the occasional pop of sap in timbers that had been milled and placed was the only sound to break the silence. No birds sang. No flies buzzed. It was as if the...

Thunder growled, a low sonorous sound that echoed from the high peaks that pierced the very heavens themselves. Those self-same peaks were shrouded today, of course. A steady rain had fallen since the night before, and the sun was powerless to cut through the dreary, rain laden clouds...

Thunder growled overhead, a brief flicker of lightning lancing from one cloud to the next preceding it by only moments, casting lurid shadows in the streets and in windows lit by lantern light throughout the city. Mericet sat in a torpid day as the storm rolled out of the mountains toward the...

Crisp air, sundered by smoke that reeked of something unpleasant, undesired. Unwanted. Nightmares, death and madness all swirling in the clean light of a spring day, while the chill winds blew from peaks even higher above, piercing the heavens themselves, crowned with clouds and blowing snow...

Tired, dirt smudged feet trudged through the wilderness as night fell. No moon cast light this moment, the darkness enveloping the land like a blanket of snow, the air seemingly as cold. Brisk winds blew across the naked skin as the man continued on in exhaustion, hugging himself as teeth...