Saturday BoTD (Book of the Day)
stargrace (( Every Saturday or so I try to post one of the many books I have in my Norrathian Library, filled with player written books from the Antonia Bayle server. You can visit this library in person at the Magical Housing in North Freeport, just head to the bottom floor of the mage tower. It’s under the name of Ellithia. If you’d like to donate a book to my library that doesn’t appear on the list, please feel free – I will send a donation back in return ))
The Rime Come Forth – By Gezm
An icy chill had decended over the lands of Kunark. The iksar of Sathir’s Span felt it wash over their bridge unmercifully causing great distress and concern among it’s people. On an average day the temperatures were quite warm and humid, the tropic wind blowing in from the shores of Ill Omen.
Gezrn Stonescale, a young iksar monk who had traveled to the area to explore what had become of his homeland was no exception. It was a sudden cold which rode on the winds, cutting threw him.
It blew from the direction of Cabalis and the Field of Bone, he summised as he shivered. He gazed in the direction of the tower and felt another blast of wind strike his scales forcing another shiver. Walking across the bridge village he watched various other iksar’s worried looks in the direction of the wind.
What could cause such a change in the temperature? He wondered to himself as he prepared Shrika, his sokokar for travel. mounting up Shrika took off from the bridge flaping her wings to soar higher into the air.
To The Field of Bone girl!” Gezrn shouted over the sound of the air passing them, and the green creature turned herself beginning to glide in its direction. The vibrant countryside flew by on all sides, cliffs, deep emerald grass, the lake’s shore, all of it seemed like a moving painting to the iksar. Though he air was still crisp and chilled it was yet sweet from the various plants below, soon to change however as he reached the field of bone. The air grew colder as suddenly as the smell of death wafted up to meet him. As Shrika swooped in to land, Gezrn spotted a pudgy burynai running toward him, it’s run looking rather silly but the monk stifled a grin given the seriousness of the situation. The
furry creature was in fact a friend of Gezrns, one he had helped before, Pulnil the Haggler.
“Gezrn!” The pudgy little fellow cried. “There is trouble you have to help!”
“Whoa…slow down, whats going on? ” Gezrn asked attempting to calm the burynai.
Pulnil’s beady eyes reflected his worry as they shifted about, he extended his arm and a single claw to point at Kurn’s Tower. “It’s the Tower!” Gezrn followed his little friends point and gasped.
The top of the tower was engulfed with a purple vortex, it swirled slowly up. The spikes from the roof of the tower still hung in the air, but the only portion of the towers stonework visible was from below the vortex.
“I fear for the Haggle Baro, you will go and make sure he is okay wont you!?” The little burynai’s voice seemed to grow higher as he spoke getting more frantic.
“Yes…I will check on him as soon as I can but I must check on something else first…alright?” He asked gently placeing a hand on the small furry things shoulder.
Pulnil nodded a little glancing around neviously still, before scurrying off to the edge of the field to watch the tower. Gezrn then, headed towards the nearby shore past the tower.
Every step brought Gezrn deeper into the cold, until at last it felt almost as if it were Everfrost. Even the air seemed to turn ice blue as he moved…untill at last he crested the final hill and saw why.
Below, where once had sat the warm waters of the Dragon’s Shallows, sat a sheet of thick glacial ice. The glittering ice spread all along the coastline that he could see, with debris of large wooden ships scattered throughout it. All over the ice sat camps of soldiers, it seemed they were reading for battle.
Some fooled with blades that sparkled as if ice themselves, other ran with wolves made of the arctic wind. but what was most shocking was what helmed the ice and army alike: A massive ice barge, pulled by two masive targans.
The targens were gargantuine beasts, they resembled dragons in every sense save the turtle shells upon their backs. Everything about them was coated in a thin later of frost, or so it seemed with thier white scales. A black iron collar was wrapped around their necks twin chains leading back to the pure unmelting ice chains leading back to the pure unmelting ice of the barge they pulled over the sea.
From afar, Gezrn could dicern a figured chained to the deck, and a giant armored figure partroling the deck. Upon the deck there were also several normal sized beings on their knees in a row. The giant armored man walked in a line before them, each seemed to say something, and eventually one was simply beheaded infront of his allys and the rest were sent into the icy camps on the ice.
“Hey! you there!” called a human voice from behind gezrn, the monk turned to face a human in strange plate armor, it was mostly black, save for the frost blue runes sprawled around it.
Gezrn looked at the man perplexed until he spoke once more.
“Come with me or Die!” He demanded and drew a blade which seemed forged from ice.
“Who are you?” Gezrn asked calmly.
“An arm of the Rime.” the human charged at Gezrn, who simply stood still. The man’s blade raced towards Gezrn’s neck with deadly accuracy. Quickly the monk rolled off to the left letting the blade sail harmlessly overhead, the slash threw the human off his balance, allowing gezrn to deal a devestating kick to his chest making the man fly backwards a foot before striking the ground.
The iksar moved towards the fallen man, who scrambled to his feet. quick as gezrn had ever seen a fully armed human move, the man turned tail towards their camp.
“Time to go.” Gezrn muttered and with his own burst of speed quickly made way to return to Sathir’s Span and report what he had seen. “The Rime…”