Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Moréna: Session One


In the perpetual twilight, before the sun and moon, The Umbaran strode onto the shore of the shore of the Gelion river, beside the town Gelionunci. A web shot out of the water and pulled him down into the river. The Umbaran found himself in an air pocket beneath the river, he was under the bank, where a little cave wound back into it.

He was also being attacked by a spider the size of a small dog.

As he fought the spider he heard a small voice, further back. He ignored it, and continued to fight the spider. The small voice failed. He killed the spider. The Umbaran went into the back, walking past a series of webbed-up pods. They were still. At the back of the cave he found a small pod that was still swinging back and forth. He cut it open, and a small elven boy fell out. The boy looked deep into The Umbaran's dead eyes and died. The Umbaran searched the boy's body, but he didn't find what he was looking for. He searched around, and then found a stone. He pulled out a smaller crystal, which had been hewn from a similar rock, but smoothed down. The Umbaran compared them, perplexed. He walked around again, checking the room once more. He came back to the crystal rock, broke off a part of it, and pocketed both the smoothed down crystal and the new one.

The Umbaran went back to the river, swam back up to the bank, and pulled himself out. To his right was a forest, to his left was the town of Gelionunci. The Umbaran held up his crystals, and they both glowed equally. He headed for the forest. The underbrush in the forest was uncommonly thick, so out came Moréna and down went the underbrush. The Umbaran found a a clearing, with a gigantic tree. In the tree was an arrow. The Umbaran became frustrated and called out for Lona Ered, demanding that he come out and face The Umbaran. There was no answer, only a dark chuckle, coming from somewhere in the forest. Moréna's edges began to glow red.

All of a sudden the trees began to sway, back and forth, back and forth. Yells and screams heralded the arrival of men wielding swords. The Umbaran cut them all down in astonishingly brutal fashion. One of them reached up and grabbed The Umbaran's ankle, calling him "Boros" and that the men were bewitched and he could still be saved! The man was killed; The Umbaran didn't care. The trees began to sway back and forth again. A black liquid began to bulge out of their roots. Black liquid came from the the men and crawled towards the nearest tree. The Umbaran cut down the tree, and the black liquid went to another one. The Umbaran examined the men, and sighed deeply as he recognized each and every one of them.

The Umbaran headed towards Gelionunci. As he walked he saw a watchtower, which was situated in front of the wall. A gleam from the West hit the white stones of it, and it shone, briefly, in the twilight. The watchtower itself was immaculately clean, but there were dark webs in the windows. The Umbaran stared at the tower, gleaming there in the twilight, and eventually walked inside.

The entire place was covered in dust. Quivers arrows, weapons, the worn floor, all covered in dust. The ground floor was a single room, with windows facing the town and forest. The forest window had a magnifying lens in it. A stone stairway led up to a second story. It was simple stone, but polished. The Umbaran climbed these stairs cautiously, sword ready. There were no webs inside the windows, but on the outside, contrary to what he had seen outside. There were many more weapons up here, especially bows, which were without strings. He cut through the webbing on the windows and the twilight shone through. He looked through, at the clearing he had just been in. There was a creak in the floorboards behind him and he whirled around. There was an elven woman standing there. The Umbaran told her she had one minute before he attacked her. She disappeared. A blade fell down, behind from where she was. The Umbaran picked it up and read the inscription on it: "Mairon", it read. It glowed red, just like Moréna. The Umbaran chuckled drly and sheathed it in his belt.

The Umbaran left the tower and heard a little voice cry out. It was the boy from earlier. The Umbaran went behind the tower and found the boy. He turned around and found himself facing The Woman from before, with hundreds of other elves, begging for release from Lona Ered. They vanished in a blink.

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