Forgotten Tales

Difficult read, all one paragraph, no caps ... and I had to increase the font size a lot! I'm old and have bifocals with a third pair for computer only.

I remember meeting you once or twice. You are not a person easily forgotten and your tales the kind that should echo throughout the land.

Eagerly awaiting the next instalment.

while in my captivity alone in that cell i had nothing but time to think. for the first time since i entered the orc mines i actually had time to reflect on everything that had happened. i thought of my father in law and my wife and child. all of them dead. all of them lost. forever. i thought of their family and my family abandoning me and losing our shipping business and i was suddenly overwhelmed with emotions. i cried for a long time until i was sobbing uncontrollably. anger sadness regret and frusteration began to build up inside me. anger and frusteration for being in this helpless situation. regret for all of the things that i should have done to save my wife and child and father in law. sadness that i would never see them again. for the second time i cursed the gods and malice and revenge began to consume me. i vowed to myself that if i lived to see my way out of this cell that i would exact revenge on those responsible. i looked around the cell and found a stone large enough to barely fit in my hand and i waited. alone with my thoughts twisting me into something that i was not. my thoughts were dark and cruel.

a very long while later a sentry came to bring me a bowl of gruel. when he opened my cell to place the food on the floor i smashed the stone down on his head with all of my might. he fell immediately and did not stir. i grabbed his keys and his spiked club and stepped out of my cell. i saw three passages. one in front of me one to the left and right of me. i chose the right path since that is the way the orc sentry had come. as i started forward a large orc stepped into the light out of the right passage. it was the large smelly orc that had asked for my help on the night that i went to investigate the orc mines. he looked at me and said "you". anger twisted his face and he charged at me from across the room. i waited until he was close and moved to the left. he ran into the wall and stumbled backwards. i began to hit him in the head repeatedly. when he fell to the ground and stopped moving i started for the right passage. i heard voices and footsteps coming from the left passage. i ran thru the right passage running as fast as i could to put distance between myself and the room with the holding cells. eventually i came to a lone hallway that led only to a door. the door was locked. i used the keys that i had taken from the sentry and unlocked the door and stepped thru.

the door opened into a large torch lit cavern that only led to the left or to the right. i heard more voices but these voices were human. i crouched behind a large boulder and waited. two knights came into view and i decided to show myself. they stopped to look at me but remained silent. i stated my name and told them i was in danger and needed to find the way out of the cavern. just then orcs started rushing out of the doorway i had just came thru. immediately i started swinging my club as fast as i could at the orcs. they had shields tho and easily deflected my blows. one of the nights shouted at me to get back. the two knights advanced on the orcs and began slicing hacking and stabbing them. the knights fought well and the orcs tried to resist but before i knew it the room was littered with dead orcs. the knights yelled for me to follow them. we ran for a great distance and eventually came out of the cavern and stood on a small field of grass. it was the field with the towers and the place where i was captured by the orcs.

to be cont.

when we had all caught our breath the two knights introduced themselves as lostknight and sellsword. they told me they were mining iron ore and were just leaving when they happened upon me. they said their packs were full of ore as they were trying to level their craft up and they had to go. i thanked them for their help and lostknight have me a mithral pick as a parting gift. i thought that was extremely generous of him.

i began to travel east and came upon marteks stronghold and decided to stock up on supplies. i was thankful that the orcs had not found my coinpurse. as i was leaving the stronghold i heard a chopping sound nearby. i decided to investigate. i eventually came upon a mage dressed in white robes chopping a tree. i said hello and he said hi. i asked him what he was doing and he explained that he was crafting planks. i asked him if he had heard of nelrog and he had infact talked to him not long ago and Todd me that he had a campsite to the south. i told him that his face looked familiar and he told me his name was humble. he also could tell that i had seen better days and gave me some gold. i told him that i wish that i could return the favor but all i had was a mithril pick. "excellent"! exclaimed humble. "i am in need of a mithril pick and i will give u 150 million gold for it". "wow thx"! i replied. he took the pick with a smile on his face and resumed his chopping.

with coin in my purse and after drinking a healing potion i headed south. i decided to climb a tree to see if i had traveled far enough. all i could see were more trees to the south and a large castle like structure that looked to be in a ruined state. i turned around and looked back to the north and had to duck my head back in the trees. not far behind me was a small hunting party of orcs. i couldnt believe how persistent these orcs were being. i decided to make for the castle ruins further to the south. i hurried along and came to the entrance of the ruins. one inside i saw a dead soldier laying on the ground and in his hands was a sword and shield and on his head was a steel helm. i quickly donned these items and traveled further into the ruins.

to be cont

Like it:) intriguing

vague recollections of that day ... please continue.

Man, I'm still trying to level up my craft...

SellSword wrote: Fri Aug 31, 2018 2:00 am Man, I'm still trying to level up my craft...

Yup, me too!

... back to the story.

continued

as i explored the ruined keep i heard a sound coming from down the hall. i went to investigate and i found some kind of what looked to be like a portal. then i heard a sound behind me and spun around. it was the red cloaked mage from the flying dragons. i knew i was not powerful enough to defeat this foe but i was not going to go without a fight. "u have toiled in our affairs for far too long and u will bother us no more". said the mage. "it was u who drew first blood magician". i yelled back. "prepare to die weakling". he said. i put my shield up to defend myself and prepared for the worst. he started chanting and i ran towards him and hit him in the face with my shield. he screamed in frustration and lunged for me. i chopped his hand off with my sword and he screamed. he began chanting in a raised voice. just then i saw a flash of movement coming towards us behind him and dropped to the ground just as lightning began exiting from his fingertips and the thing crashed into him at a high rate of speed. the force from the crash propelled the mage thru the air and into the portal with lightning spreading everywhere and then the portal shattered and all was still. smoke hovered in the air and i searched for whatever crashed into him.

i saw the biggest orange lion that i have ever seen. fear began to creep in and i was motionless. frozen still with fright. "relax and be at peace mortal" the lion said. "i have been hunting that mage and tracking him across the lands. he will not return from the portal". where did he go"? i asked the lion. "to another dimension that i will not speak about out loud". he said. "there was an orc hunting party skulking around outside. i slaughtered them" he said. "u should be more careful". he said matter of factly. "who are u"? i asked. "i am madmikael, guardian and keeper of these lands. i have been watching over these lands for eons". i stood in awe of what i had witnessed and this guardian that had appeared out of nowhere to save me from certain death. "i am searching for the rest of the flying skeletons" i said. "as am i" he said. "its better if u do not get urself involved". he said. "i must have my revenge". i said. "u will have ur revenge or revenge will have you". he said and turned around and left the ruins. "thank you madmikael". i whispered to myself.

as i exited the ruins i began to head south to continue my search for nelrogg. after a short time i finally found his campsite but he was nowhere to be found. i decided to wait until he returned and sat down to his campfire and reflected on everything that had happened. sometime later i saw a red figure coming from the west towards the campsite. i wondered if this was nelrogg. as the figure got closer i realized that to my horror it was a red skeleton. i drew my bow and aimed at the skeleton. "there is no need for that". said the skeleton. "my name is local and i am hunting for gear but i mean u no harm". i was astonished and confused that a skeleton would be talking to me. "my name is ryaca and i am searching for nelrogg". "do u know where he is"? i asked. "i do not but his campfire is going so he must not be far". said local. "ok i will remain here". i said. "here take this bow as it is much better than the one you have and take these boots also". "ur boots look to be in bad shape". he said. "thank you very much". i said. "be careful with that bow as it shoots fire arrows". and with that he walked off. i sat back down at the campfire and gazed at my new magical bow.

to be continued...

finally after some time had passed a figure in a blue shirt headed my way and spoke to me. he told me that the ranger had requested my presence in the tower near the summer gardens to the west. i quickly made my way there.

upon entering the tower the first floor was empty so i ascended the stairway to the upper level. upstairs i was greeted by madmikael and a golden spider and a white wizard. madmikael introduced me to arachnia the great and deadly golden spider and gandalf the powerful white wizard. across the room stood the commander of the flying skeletons and to my surprise also the hooded ranger stood with him.
"u must turn from here and seek revenge no more". the lion spoke. "i will see the commander of the flying skeletons dead for he has taken everything from me and nothing will stand in my way" i said. "if u decide to battle him u will meet a fate not even we the guardians of these lands cannot save u from" gandalf spoke. "nothing can stop that now". i said with determination in my voice. "do not be a fool". arachnia scolded.

in anger and frustration i swung my bow up and loosed an arrow at the commander he dove out of the way and i shot two more arrows at him. he ducked and then charged me knocking the bow from my hands. i struggled to draw my sword just in time as he unleashed a fury of raining sword blows down on me. relentlessly he kept swinging at me with reckless abandon until i ran to the other side of the room.
"stop this madness"! madmikael exclaimed
"no. let them continue". the hooded ranger spoke.
the commander charged at me again raining more blows down as i fought desperately to defend myself. again i ran to the other side of the room. i knew that i could not withstand much more of this and i was tiring. he charged across the room at me and in fear i threw my sword at him. it hit him with the handle and he clutched his forearm where it had hit with his other hand.he screamed in pain and in anger and he threw his sword at me and i dive out of the way. he had a murderous rage in his eyes as he stalked toward me. he began throwing wild punches at me and i staggered backward as he beat me about my head and body. he continued the onslaught and he landed several hard blows against my face and head. he was too strong for me to best him and i knew it. fear gripped me then. he came at me again and i kicked out fiercely and caught him square in the chest and he fell backwards and hit his head on the ground hard.

he slowly started to get to his feet and i grabbed my bow and nocked an arrow and aimed quickly and let loose another arrow. as the arrow flew out burst into flames and struck him right in the mouth. he dropped to the ground and his clothes caught fire and the fire consumed his body.

"we cannot save u now". the mighty lion spoke. the hooded ranger threw off his cloak and revealed his face to me. "i am compbatant. god and ruler of these lands. begone guardians". with a wave of his hands they dispersed and went down the stairs. the lion looked at me with pity and sadness in his eyes. "if only u would have listened. now we are powerless to help u further. goodbye ryaca of ashdown. till we meet again". with that he descended down the stairs.

"i curse u and all the gods of the lands". i shouted at compbatant. "u have cursed us for the last time ryaca of ashdown". he said.
"i hereby doom u to roam these lands for all eternity". with a wave of his hand he turned me into a ghostly form. "u will know an eternity of loneliness and emptiness as u serve ur sentence as a ghost knowing no peaceful rest or end. u have defied me and will not defy me again. begone". with a wave of his hand he banished me.

when i realized where i was i was hovering in the cemetery of ashdown village. i heard someone digging nearby and saw the grave digger i had known for many years. when he saw me he dropped his shovel and ran away. i turned and hovered away in silence.

ryacas ghost went on to fight in many wars and saved the peoples of the lands from evil many times. he fought and vanquished evil until one day a powerful demon conquered ryaca. the demon was the commanders ghost and he imprisoned ryaca. eventually a brave band of adventurers defeated the demon and freed ryacas ghost. now ryacas ghost roams the lands once again. forsaken and lost without purpose i exist...

the end