For Hooves the Bell Tolls - Interlude One

Thorzan's Pilgrimage

602 Post Maelstrom

A young Thorzan Shatterbeard arrives in the city of Sunstone on his first pilgrimage to the Sun Temple. As a young Cleric, and now Paladin, Thorzan has always longed to take his master training in the temple. He enters the massive temple admiring the finely crafted and polished stonework and golden designs.
The head priests greet Thorzan with much respect and give him a tour of the temple. Thorzan asks about the history of the city and stonework, but the priest only has limited history to give. He informs Thorzan that the Sun god himself, Vitta, Brother of the Sun will actually be watching the test today. This is the first time the god has chosen to do so in 120 years.
The priest then takes Thorzan back to the antechamber to prepare for the test and introduce him to the elf he will be taking the test with today, Shar T'Taren. The two quickly hit it off and became friendly almost immediately. With only an hour before the test they prepare together. Shar and Thorzan both breeze though the written and verbal parts of the test and arrive at the physical test. The masters need to be able to defend the faith and the faithful. Shar and Thorzan agree to do the trial together as brothers in the sun.
They were ushered into the throne room before the sun god himself where a pack of fire elementals waited. The elementals attacked like vicious feral animals. Striking out at the two future priests with flames again and again. Thorzan guarded himself and moved in to strike while shar healed and supported Thorzan. The pair were able to make short work of the elementals and only suffered minor wounds.
Only a short time later the priests move the duo into the lower chamber where they, Shar T'Taren and Thorzan Shatterbeard, can prepare for the ceremony. The priests bring out a large golden altar into the large throne room and place it in the center of the room before the pair. Shar goes first and kneels before the pedestal. It produces a small ball of flame, about the size of a baseball, that Shar reaches out and takes the flame in his cupped hands. Shar then bows with the flame raised high and leaves the chamber . Then Thorzan takes his place at the alter.
Thorzan kneels before the pedestal. There is a powerful radiant blast of light, through the tiniest crack in the ceiling, that beams onto Thorzan like the height of the noonday sun. In this moment Thorzan sees a vision of the future, in this moment Thorzan gains a deep understanding of those that he sees visions of, in this moment Thorzan is near to god as a mortal can be.

Thorzans sees the sun setting before him small enough to fit into his hand. Its power continues diminishing while he watches until it is a pebble, a crumb, dust, nothing. In its place a great bonfire that continues to grow.

Volmak sits in a forest clearing bathed in a soft green light as the sun passes through the foliage above. Volmak stands up and turns towards Thorzan. As Volmak does Thorzan sees that the body is dead and rotting. Volmak beings walking towards Thorzan, but with every step the forest dies and the body rots. The final step before Volmak reaches Thorzan his body crumbles away to nothing. The forest around the clearing is dead now.

Quthbert is held between two beings of Shadow and light, both pull at him, seeking to rip Quthbert to their side. The shadow pulls strongest as the figure of darkness grows larger. The light is trying to hold on but is slipping away. The figure of sunlight looks faded, like a deep sunset in its final breath before setting.

Thorzan sees himself on a high mountain stop. The sky is cloudy blocking out the sun. Here he sees no godly figures or other people. Only a mirror with a perfect shine like a pond never disturbed, it reflects only him, only Thorzan, perfectly.

A land never seen. Distant and near. Two rivers rise to flood the land. The gentle flood of the Northern River comes to heal the land. The raging flood of the Southern River seeks to conquer the land drowning those not of the water and becoming like the land.

The visions feel like entire lifetimes as you absorb endless knowledge, but after each one only seconds or less have passed. With their passing most of the knowledge fades like a dream leaving you with only what your mind believes most important. In real time you know only a minute has passed if even that.

Malbrix stands in the center of a massive whirlpool, but shadow is creeping around Malbrix like a dense smog. Marinus is reaching down from above in a glorious moonbeam as Marinus directs it at Malbrix trying desperately to push away some of the shadow. Malbrix doesn’t seem to notice and is ignoring the whirlpool while reaching for the shadow.

There are two A.G.R. standing across from each other. One consumed by fire in a hot rage destroying everything living around him. The other frozen in ice, peacefully meditating, but letting everything built around him falls to rust and ruin.

You see the same vision of Quthbert again, but now there is another figure standing above Quthbert. The man is wearing amour that looks freshly heated in the forge and is wreathed in fire from head to toe. He removes his helmet revealing eyes like hot coals, but with the face of Bayanor, Quthberts greatest rival. Then rapidly you see the future from this moment, it flashes again and again, ten thousand times, a million, uncountable in a lifetime. Every time the same, over and over, Quthbert is crushed, and the sun goes out. Except one. One time in the uncountable billions of times, Quthbert breaks free, and the Sun explodes in ferocity spreading life and warmth over the land like has never been known before.

There are 13 gravestones. Nothing is written on any of them, but the first has the moon carved into it blazing like a torch. You know these symbolize the steps that will be taken to godhood, but you cannot yet comprehend what step you will see.

The last vision is of the shadow. Long has it been dormant, so long even prophecy had forgotten it. It has three people before it all being pulled from another path. Quthbert, Malbrix, and Bayanor. Standing behind the Shadow however is wizard dressed in dark robes reaching down with a silver cage towards the essence of the god. You cannot see this man's face who stands above gods, but you know the cage is the among the greatest the evils set before you.

When you wake everyone is staring at you, but the sun god stands before you. His face is hot with a fiery rage and all the fires in the room are blazing hot. “Leave here now and do not return,” the sun god shouts, pointing with a furious hand, “or you will be executed without the sunlight to guide you. All here with never speak the name Thorzan Shatterbeard again or they will suffer the same.”
Shaking with confusion and unsure of what just happened Thorzan stumbles out of the temple. He walks back through Sunstone in a daze headed straight out of the city. He cannot bear to stay here for even another night. Thorzan crosses through the Sun gate for a second time today and silently walks into the Golden Sandsea.

***

Thorzan Shatterbeard travels for a couple of days through the desert in silent contemplation. He intended to travel the desert alone, but as he crests a sand dune, he saw a beautiful sea of tents sprawling out before him like a small city. The great Ormuu, The Travelling City. Thorzan looked on in amazement at the sprawling city. The final wagons are just being unloaded for the night and the last of the tents erected. Large bonfires were being assembled at the intersections of the camp where feasting and festing will soon take place.
Thorzan goes down to the village and, after watching for a while, he talks with one of the monks. Master Arnwyn greats Thorzan like an old friend and give him his own tent for as long as he travels with the city. Thorzan attempts to speak with another monk that appears unique wearing several items to worship the Niius, Brother of the Moon. The monk is unresponsive to Thorzans questions and leaves the city during the night. Confused by this Thorzan decides to just let it go instead choosing to to talk with Master Arnwyn again. They chat throughout the next day and Thorzan is convinced to travel with the city a while longer to visit Ormuus' Hope.

***

After a few more days of travel across the Golden Sandsea the caravan reaches Ormuus' Hope. While thorzan explores the town he relizes this is the home of the great statues carved by hand over centuries that he had read about. Amazed Thorzan travel all over town admiring all of the stonework for his entire first day in town. The next day Thorzan goes to watch the monks train in the main courtyard. While watching Master Oogwea offers to let Thorzan train with the monks. Thorzan agrees. Oogwea instructs Thorzan to choose students to dual and Thorzan chooses the still in training Master Ta Lahara and Tainia Xiu, leaving the other student Dynal Parasca to watch.
The three begin fighting while Master Oogwea lets them get a feel for each others strength and weaknesses. Thorzan blocks a few blows and strikes Tainia Xiu in the leg with his hammer. Then Master Oogwea steps in and has the three all turn to face him.
Ta, Thorzan, and Tainia all strike in unison. Thorzan and Tainia are rebuffed, but Ta seeing and opening stepped in and got a strike on Oogwea. The faint was intentional by Oogwea and he struck Ta Lahara with his staff sending him flying, unconscious. Tainia took this chance to strike, but overextended and Master Oogwea punch her in the face sending her flying 20 feet backwards. She collapsed to the ground and didn't rise. Thorzan, unafraid, charged in and struck Oogwea twice while narrowly dodging the master. Then in a sudden shift from speed to ferocity Master Oogwea threw all of his strength into a single punch striking Thorzan in the chest. The moment the fist connected Thorzan blacked out.

***

Three days later Thorzan awakens in the infirmary at the monastery of Ormuus' Hope. Master Oogwea is there and immediately goes to hug Thorzan when he awakens and Thorzan reciprocates. The two then jovially talk and laugh about their bout. Thorzan then gathers his belongings and leaves Ormuus' Hope with the blessing and friendship of Master Oogwea who agrees to come visit Thorzan Shatterbeard when he returns to his home.
Leaving the monastery town of Ormuus' Hope Thorzan heads for the great bridge that spans the nothing between the Golden Expanse and Astryia. Thorzan Shatterbeard decides to travel at night as much as he can to contemplate alone and avoid the gaze of the sun. It takes Thorzan a week of travel across the Golden Sandsea by night to reach the bridge. As Thorzan crossed he decided to take the long way home and make this trip a pilgrimage to better contemplate the visions he had. Having made up his mind Thorzan skipped the ferry in Red Harbour and continued on the road towards Camador.
The normally busy roads through Northern Astryia had a lot less traffic at night, but there were still some people on the road. Merchants late getting their wares to the city, hunters travelling to their favorite hunting spots while the land sleeps, and Camadorian Rangers patrolling the countryside. Thorzan travelled with a Ranger on her way back to their headquarters, Rangers Rock, for a while, but they were both travelers of few words.
Passing the great city of Camador, Thorzan continued across Northern Astryia to the great bridge between Astryia and Oresh. Following the road through the Ondlayesian Savannah for another couple of weeks Thorzan eventually reached Ondlayesa. The city that would later be known as Ambracia.
A little over a month after Thorzan Shatterbeard left Sunstone he sets sail for Radanha on the otherside of the world.
Upon arriving in the great city of Radanha. Thorzan sails under the Colossus of Rhadanha into the bustling Radanhi Port. Thorzan steps off the ship unto the busy docks and wanders with the crowd until he comes across a guard lounging on a barrel lazily waving the huge crowd past. Thorzan speaks to the guard who give him directions to the Whirlpool Temple of Radanha without much difficulty.
As Thorzan Shatterbeard approaches the temple some people slip out of the nearby alleyway. They approach Thorzan from behind drawing knives as they got close. Thorzan realized they were running up on him and turned to face his assailants. The attackers had grey masks covering their faces and they large cloaks of white and grey. The lead assassin shouts "You filthy sun worshipers will be washed from the land," as the pair jumps at Thorzan, "and the Clouded Sky will see it done."
The assassins stab at Thorzan, getting a couple of small cuts in, before Thorzan is able to crush the skull of one of the attackers. The other assassin proved more difficult to fight. The pair sparred for a long moment before there was a bang from the temple and an armored woman marched out with a trident. Upon seeing this the assassin tried to run, but she speared him in the back from the temple steps. She walks up and pulls her trident from the mans back, but leaves him to bleed out.
She greets Thorzan and Thorzan asks if she is a temple guard. She isn't amused by this, but she introduces herself. She is Haari Ana the high priestess of this temple. After apologizing the two talk for a while before Thorzan asks what she is going to do with the assassin bleeding out in the street. She simply says it's the seas justice and the guards will take care of the body when he is dead. Thorzan finds this very cold, but it was also an attempted murderer and he doesn't know the laws here. Haari Ana invites Thorzan to visit the Sea's Wrath Whirlpool on a spiritual voyage to which Thorzan agrees. Haari gets Thorzan a room in the temple for the night and informed him that the ship left at dawn.

***

The next day Thorzan and Haari board one of about 20 ships headed for the Sea's Wrath Whirlpool. The sail to the whirlpool takes a good chunk of the day with the ships arriving at the whirlpool in the early evening. The ships enter the edge of the whirlpool and begin rapidly gaining speed. The fleet travels in a line around the whirlpool dozens of times faster than the ships ever moved on the way here. Thorzan watches as Haari Ana steps up to the edge of the ship and begins chanting with a booming voice enhanced by magic. She is speaking in a laungage Thorzan doesn't know.
As Haari chants the other ships begin dumping livestock into the whirlpool. Sacrificing them to the God of Storms. Hundreds of cows, pigs, sheep, and even horses dumped into the sea. As Thorzan watches the ritual he steps up to one of the sailors and asks why they are giving such a sacrifice. The sailor tells Thorzan it's to buy their ships safety from the creatures of the Course Sea.
While they are talking, a roar washes over the ship from the sky. Harri, and all of the sailors turn in shock to see a large red dragon fly in overhead. Before anyone on the ship can move, Taka'Hur'kada, God of Storms bursts through the ship behind Thorzans. The ship explodes apart shattering debris across Thorzans ship. The next ship behind Taka'hur'kada crashes into the god at massive speed and is crushed against the god like a rowboat thrown against a cliff by a hurricane.
Taka'Hur'kada, God of Storms lashes out at the dragon that dives under the gods massive tentacle. Headed straight for Thorzans ship it begins breathing fire. The sailors and Haari all begin running for the bow of the ship and attempting to swing to the ship in front of them. Haari and a couple of the sailors make it, but most fall into the sea to be quickly, and violently, ripped away by the whirlpool. Thorzan charges after the sailors, grabbing the final rope, Thorzan swings. As Thorzan releases the rope the dragons flames engulf the ship behind them. The ship, with no one steering, veers only slightly, but at such dangerous speeds the flaming ship is ripped from the sea and thrown across its surface. The ship breaks apart like it was thrown across rock, with debris spreading hundreds of feet from the whirlpool.
The dragon loops back overhead and drops dangerous kobold from its back onto the ship who immediately begin attacking sailors. Thorzan and Haari jump to the aid of the sailors, but are both shocked to find the sailors preform far better than expect in the fight. Together the crew easily deal with the kobolds.
The ship finally reaches the point where it can safely break free of the Sea's Wrath Whirlpool and they leave gods and dragons to fight. They rocket towards Radanha using the momentum from the whirlpool. One of the sailors, Zanith Vetrone, took a serious neck wound during the fighting but Thorzan was able to save the young mans life.
Returning safely to Radanha Thorzan decides he's had enough sea for the moment and decides to visit the other temple to the storm god in the lands past Radanha, the Stormlands of Irontooth.
After only a few days travel Thorzan reaches the orcish city of Honorpoint. Honorpoint is often considered the civilized orc city and, while the populace is still prone to dueling, this is actually fairly true. Honorpoint is close allies of Radanha and actually defend them from the other orcs that live deeper in the Stormlands.
Curious of the orc smiths Thorzan decided to seek one out before heading into the Stormlands. Thorzan finds a blacksmith shop owned by an orc man named Tarn. The two talk about metals for the better part of the afternoon. After a while Tarn asks if Thorzan wants to help him in the forge.
They move into the back of the shop where Tarn has a large thick plate of metal heating over his forge fire. Tarn shows Thorzan the schematic for the massive great axe they are going to attempt to forge. The pair set up the anvil and prepare the metal. Then raising their hammers high they struck the metal. Tarn strikes, ting, Thorzan strikes, ting, Tarn, ting, Thorzan, ting. Over and over the pair strike the metal shaping it into the enormous axehead.
The two hammered away for over an hour working in perfect unison and their work showed it. A true master craft. Tarn applies his mark, his blacksmiths signature, to the axe. Then Tarn offers the axe to Thorzan to do the same. An incredible sign of honor and respect as it is very rare for a master craftsman to share in the credit of his work. Thorzan shakes Tarns hand and departs on his way with a new and respected friend.
Thorzan leaves Honorpoint and begins traveling across the Stormlands to Warpoint.
On the road for Warpoint Thorzan sees a raiding party headed up the road towards Honorpoint. Not wanting to get in the way of local customs Thorzan said a prayer for the raiders and stayed out of sight so they could pass. Thorzan then continued on his way deeper into the Stormlands.
Thorzan finds the town of Warpoint built in a cleft of rock that protects the town from the maelstrom. The town is made of stolen goods raided primarily from Honorpoint or scavenged from the storm.
The guard at the front gate was busy getting his dick sucked and drinking. He didn't even notice Thorzan until Thorzan was almost through the gate. He welcomed Thorzan and sent him to the main drinking hall. The guard seemed as though he was pretty plastered already. Arriving in the hall Thorzan found a massive feast going on, but the middle table had been shoved aside to make a makeshift fighting ring. Thorzan , grabbing a drink on the walk over, askes one of the feast goers where their leader was and the drunk orc drunkenly retorted "Who do ya think is fightin'."
Realizing this Thorzan decides to step up to the ring to watch the fight. One of the orcs was larger and faster than the other two, every hit he landed was followed by a sickening crunch. He struck one of the lesser orcs in the face, crushing his skull, with enough force to throw the orc away with enough force to fly over the crowd, scattering teeth over the crowd. The orcs watching cheered and drank to this. Finishing his beer Thorzan throws it down and decides to step into the ring. With a roar Thorzan leaps at the large orc and gets a gut punch in, then dodges to the side as the large orc tried to slam him.
Thorzan danced around getting a couple more jabs in, dodging several blows from the large orc. Then in a moment of overconfidence Thorzan throws all his weight into a punch, slowing him down. Thorzan struck the orc, but it opened him up to a blow that sent him sailing backwards. Thorzan blacked out before even hitting the ground.

***

Thorzan wakes in a rather makeshift tent. There doesn't appear to be anyone around and Thorzan gets up with a groan. He realizes he is now missing one of his teeth, but otherwise seems to be only bruised. Leaving the tent, Thorzan returns to the main hall to look for the orc he fought. Entering the hall Thorzan sees the orc sitting on a thrown carved from a tree struck by lightning. Thorzan Shatterbeard introduces himself and with a laugh the orc, Rykoth, does the same. Rykoth commends Thorzan on the fight, saying he has the spirit of an orc. Rykoth gives Thorzan his blessing to travel to Stormthrone and tells Thorzan that he is welcome to raid with them anytime.
Thorzan heads deeper into the Stormlands to visit the orc spiritual site known as Stormthrone. Thorzan reaches the edge of the maelstrom, at the only place in the world where in crosses the ground. Throw the storm Thorzan can see Stormthrone, but amidst the lightning Thorzan decides he has travelled far enough. Thorzan decides to kneel and pray before turning to head back. He turns, but this time takes the long way back through the Stormlands, skipping Warpoint.
Thorzan once again reaches the edge and passes back through Honorpoint. He decides to check in on Tarn, but when Thorzan returns to his shop he finds it closed with a notice left on the door. The notice was left by Tarns family to notify his acquaintances of his passing.

We leave this in memory of our husband, father, son, and brother; Tarn. A hero of Honorpoint Tarn heroically gave his life defending innocent people in the market when the raid from Warpoint broke through the nearby gate. Tarn in a breath of courage and ferocity destroyed a dozen of the raiders before they brought him down allowing hundreds of innocents to escape the market to safety. Tarn will be honored by this city and in the next life.

Thorzan knelt in the street and wept for his friend he so recently met.
After mourning Thorzan leaves Honorpoint and travels for Somersett Wharf. Arriving in the Radanhi shipping town Thorzan is amazed by all the ships and airships under construction here. Heading to the port, Thorzan finds a ship headed from Ambracia. The ship is preparing to set sail for Ambracia when Thorzan realizes that one of the sailors from his previous voyage is now working on this ship, Paul. Paul pulls out some rum and the two share the bottle while catching up.
The captain returns to the ship and gives the command to set sail. Paul, now very drunk, begins to climb the mast to the crows nest. Thorzan, not wanting to be in the way, decides to do some work below decks and finds some floors in the mess hall to scrub. It's going well, but after an hour or so the rocking of the ship seems to be getting worse. Thorzan makes his way back upstairs, only falling down them once, before flinging open the door unto the deck. Thorzan looked on in horror as a massive storm assaulted the ship. He had to brace himself as the water rushed over the side taking a couple of the sailors with it into the sea and crushing another against the mast with enough force to flatten him against the ship.
Thorzan tries to heal the sailor that got crushed
Giant squid attacks the ship
Thorzan falls overboard, but Paul swings down and saves him
Paul is grabbed by a tentacle and ripped apart
Thorzan fights the squid
He lands in Ondlayesa
Finds a strange man headed into the swamp and catches a ride as far as he is able.
Thorzan hops off at a small village and the two go their separate ways
Thorzan heads deeper into the swamp
Runs into a werewolf, seems like a cool dude
They walk together to the moon temple and Thorzan gets a run down of some god shit
Thorzan speaks with Niius
Gives Thorzan a touch leaving him with a moon tattoo
Thorzan departs the moon temple and travels south for the Udrendi Frostlands
He decides to try to cut some time off his journey by cutting through the swamp. Ultimately Thorzan barely survives and the trip took a week longer than it would have if he had stayed on the road.
Finally making it to Svenjavik Thorzan crossed the frozen water to enter Svenjavik through the Ice gate. He gets directions from the guard to the arena. Arriving at the arena he talks with one of the bookies. Thorzan wanting to be nice used healing magic on the guy, something illegal in this city. Thorzan panicking departs town immediately abandoning plans to join in The Svenjavik Blood Trial
***
Thorzan stopped for a day at Whitegate. He did some blacksmith work with the Imperial blacksmith in the fort. They got along well and Thorzan invited him to Ironvale when he is off duty. Thorzan slept the night in the barracks before departing.
Thorzan spent little time traveling across Astryia. It was an area that he was more familiar with. He did spend a couple of days in Vulanti City, but he wasn't able to find much work.
Thorzan passed quickly through Greengate as he was eager to see the Great Greenwood
Thorzan was traveling through the forest when he had his attention drawn by a stone fox. Thorzan chased after it into the woods. Thorzan fell into a pond and got attacked.
Thorzan finally decides to head back towards the road only to find that he actually can't recognize any of the trees around him. Not only his he lost but the forest seems to be changing around him...
Thorzan wanders for an unknown amout of time before finally running into some wood elves from Taesi Kaalsari. Suspicious of him they agreed to lead him through the Great Greenwood to make sure that he left their land. They told him not to come back through this way.
Thorzan travels toward Ishti Thalore through the Nightsong forest, that land that will eventually become the Arcanic Wastes.
Passing through the fishing village of Ell Hambraa, Thorzan gets in an argument with a townsperson. The townsman ends up attacking Thorzan and Thorzan is forced to kill the man. Unfortunately there were many witnesses that didn't believe Thorzans story so Thorzan allowed them to arrest him.
After a week in jail Thorzan was picked up by the guard from Ishti Thalore. They took him to the city of Ishti Thalore to 'await trail' in a wagon cage.
As they approach the city Thorzan sees it is already has a thick layer of smog floating above it, with factories pumping over endless new clouds of purplish black smoke. The city looks like it has a thin layer of grime over everything. Most of the people Thorzan can see from the cage all look down trodden with a select few standing above the masses.
Thorzan is brought to a nondescript grey building in the factory district where he is unceremoniously dumped into a windowless cell. No guards asked him and questions and nobody ever camp to take him to trail.
After a few days Thorzan got his cell neighbors to speak with him and they informed him that this was just a holding area for people they couldn't find a place for in the factory. Nobody ever got a trail and often bringing an issue to the guard will just result in both of you being arrested for being a burden on the city. "Worker Class" citizens aren't allowed through the gates and are forced to stay in the city. Only the "Valuable Class," made up primary of magic users and their family's, are allowed to freely roam the city or hold positions of power.
Thorzan convinces his cell neighbors to plan an escape attempt. After about a month of preparation Thorzan is able to take out one of the guards and begins trying to free his neighbors. He gets a couple of cells unlocked, but more guards are entering the building and Thorzan is forced to flee. Thorzan and one of his neighbors get free of the building, but before they can get to someplace safe Thorzans companion is speared through the back and quickly bleeds out in the street. Thorzan, exhausted and ashamed of his failure, escapes into the crowded streets and shakes his pursuers.
To Be Continued...