Prelude: a Fallen star

[Bitom]

OOC

Prelude thread for Tet only.

Karug stands on an large clearing. The campaign did not go well. Briefly, he wonders if he's the only survivor of the band of orcs sent to pacify the human village. Certainly he's the only one to flee in this particular direction. They were supposed to be simple humans with farm tools, but there was a mage among them, and three of the other humans had weapons of war and clearly knew how to use them. Yeah, the others are probably dead.

There is a light in the sky. It streaks quickly across from East to west, blue like a sapphire. It is followed by another, and another, each larger than the one before. The fourth and fifth make a dark shadow at the warriors feet as they bathe the land in blue light. The sixth can be heard tearing its way through the air overhead, and then the Orc begins to worry.

The Seventh looks as large as a melon, burning too brightly to look directly at without pain. The eighth sends the light-sensitive orc to the ground clutching at his eyes. He misses the sight of the last one passing overhead, close enough to singe the trees on either side of the plain. He fails to hear its roar as he is deafened in the first instants it is within view. But he cannot miss the impact.

The huge orb of blue fire smacks into the mountain to the west of him and sets the earth to shaking. Cracks form, trees burn, and the mountain is half the size it used to be in a matter of instants. Shards of rock from the explosion shower everywhere, setting grasses and trees aflame. If Karug wasn't already on the ground, he would have been knocked there by the tremendous shaking.

The shaking continues for a few moments that feel like hours, and dust rises into the air. When it is done, Karug takes his feet.

[TetNak]

"Gaaah!"

Karug, an average sized orc, keeps his head down and eyes closed as the heavens fall around him. He wonders briefly if this is some spell cast by the local mage. If so, all orc tribes in these lands will soon be dead, but for the here and now he worries about himself.

When the violent shaking of the earth stops, the orc finally stands back up. His pack, spiked shield, and longbow are all scattered on the ground after he was thrown from his feet. Karug adjusted the scale mail, fashioned from pieces of metal the local blacksmith found, and goes about collecting his things.

Karug's maw chomps a few times, his over sized incisors jutting out from his bottom lip. He thinks it might be best to just leave, but he also knows that he might be able to be rewarded if he finds anything of interest. His need of power and wealth overcome any sense or reason, and the orc heads off toward the west, and the crash site of whatever just whizzed overhead.

[Bitom]

The orc tromps along across the field, and into the forest, walking toward the mountains. Once or twice, he hears the roar of fire and changes his direction, always making his way toward the mountain. He knows, however, that day will come before he reaches it.

[TetNak]

The orc is smart for his kind. He decides it would be better to rest under the cover of something that will blot out the sun. He ensure when day break comes that he is under a thick canopy in the forest. There, he will sleep, and proceed again when early evening falls over the land. For now, he continues walking ...

[Bitom]

The orc comes to the beginning of the mountain, where the land starts to rise. He finds himself distant from the burning of the forest and takes shelter in a small cave formed by the roots of a toppled tree. When the sun sets once more, he is able to move forward once more.

Climbing above the tree line, he sees much of the forest around the mountain is on fire, and that it will be likely to continue burning. He may be trapped on the mountain for weeks.

[TetNak]

Karug turns around, he is regretting coming this far and getting trapped by a damn fire. He could be killed. He decides the best remedy is to at least get up on the mountain, and in turn protect himself from getting toasted alive. More than paranoid, the orc pulls his sawtooth blade from a leather strap on his side, ready to hack at anything that pops up from the broken mountain he begins to climb.

[Bitom]

Karug continues his climb, progressing up into the dust and ash cloud of the impact. His Orcish eyes allow him to see well enough to climb and soon he reaches the end of the mountain, some miles below where it was yesterday. He looks down at a scene which is blatantly impossible. Below him is a castle made of black glass or polished black stone. It stands in the middle of a crater of black stone. Mixed among the blackness, there are some glints of reflected light, both silver and blue.

The Castle

Obviously, you are looking down on it, but it is raised off the floor of the crater like this, so the angle is valid.

[TetNak]

Karug grunts in surprise.

The orc takes a few steps forward, wondering if he should get closer, or flee. Fleeing does not seem like a terrible idea, but maybe if he can find something of worth here, he could set himself up for life.

Karug makes his way down toward the castle, sawtooth blade and shield in hand.

[Bitom]

Karug decides to head in the direction of the castle, heading down into the crater. As he approaches, he can see what caused the sparks of light. Hundreds of crystals lie strewn about the inside of the crater, all of them blue tinged. Mixed with them are wads of a shiny metal, half-melted by the impact and then solidified again as it cooled throughout the day. The castle draws closer, but more slowly than Karug thought. The crater and the castle in it are both larger than he believed.

[TetNak]

"Gar!" grunts Karug, rushing down toward the crystals. He attempts to gather as many shards as he possibly can and plucks them into a belt pouch. He is grunting as he rushes to claim his prize in this little canyon. He loses all his care for security as he replaces his sword and shield while he attempts to scramble for the possible riches.