::: TALES OF THE WORLD OF VISIONS :::

Tale 8 - What lurks on the hills

Spoiler (click to show/hide) I thought I would write a few stories about the world before I carried on with what was happening in the fort. That's what I started in the previous story and carry on with this one. There were 3 or more stories about the war between the Curled Wickedness and the Sheen of Lashes but I decided to change the approach and make it just one. Hopefully other interesting events that I had to ignore, pop up in later stories.

I hope you guys liked this story, the influence in the style must be very obvious and I thought that would bring an extra layer of enjoyment but if it is not obvious then it should feel pretty weird and different (to normal DF stories) so that would be quite cool too.

It should be apparent by now that even though all stories here are from the same world and will be around a single play through of the game, each story has its own style and hopefully can stand on its own. Reading them all in one go would feel all over the place but what I have in my head is that it is like finding a library in the ruins of Rockstockade centuries after its demise and reading and trying to piece together the remains of all the different books to reconstruct the history of the fort as well as their myths and legends.

As always let me know what you think, good or bad, about form or content. I think I tend to struggle with the end of the stories and maybe too with the punctuation and some grammar as Spanish sort of filters through and it doesn't always work the same in English. Anyway would like to read your comments. good luck and keep having FUN

Itha weightlilacs was the princess of the Sheen of Lashes. Avecovema the great natural force that permeates the World of Visions had entrusted her with the duty of helping her elven kin prosper in the north-eastern lands. Itha was proud of her people, they explored their world, taming dangerous beast and learning to stablish a thriving civilization in complete harmony with nature. The young world was full of monsters that threaten their way of life so Itha became adept at the art of battle to protect her people while at the same time help maintain the balance of the natural world.Her connection with Avecovema was so deep that she breathed at unison with the earth and all her graceful movements were one and the same with the winds and the rivers, so when she first set foot on Lemakifino she felt within the essence of her being that this was where their capital should be erected. And she knew then, that her destiny was tied to this thick, dark forest, thus, Hillstyle was born in the middle of the Uncertain Forest.As the firsts of their kind Itha and her people sought to explore as far and wide as they could, so they learned much about the young world and their place in it.Itha led many explorative parties and it was in one of those excursions that she experienced a sensation that would mark the start of a great source of anxiety for her. Despite having dealt with many dangers in this untamed world, even after engaging in battle with the dusk ogress Oce Shademurk who’s glowing yellow eyes burned in her mind the memory of feeling savage fear and incontrollable rage; Itha was not prepared for the dread that caused every organ in her body to stop working altogether. It occurred as they ventured on a path that took them out of the Uncertain Forest and onto the southernmost parts of the Hills of Illness.She had expected, once they came out of the foliage to be greeted by a breath-taking expanse with view to the Points of Partnering’s highest peaks. But what took her breath away was the immense sense of horror that invaded her when she laid eyes on the desolate hills, they found themselves on. No one needed to share her bond with nature to understand how bizarre the contrast between the forest and these hills appeared. Itha’s companions felt it too, although, not with the same intensity. These hills did not belong to this world, or perhaps they did but something had corrupted them to such extent that they had ceased to resemble Teyo Asada and were now the reflection of the topography from some other unfathomably disturbing existence.Itha’s first instinct was to turn away and return to her world, but she knew that she could no longer live her life knowing that this close to her home something so unnatural persisted. They had no choice but to explore this aberrant land and learn of its origin and how much of a danger that might be, for there was no doubt that this abnormal place did hide or was itself a threat.The elves dared forward and as they went deeper into this bleak realm, the sense of danger intensified and their surroundings became so unfamiliar that the lack of a reference to which compare this tenebrous place puzzled them to the point they lost all sense of the state of matter around them. The ground seemed to throb, and rocks seemed to flow, and the air was so thick that it was almost impossible to breathe. And the stench was so strong and so indescribable, that, had they been able to breathe with ease, their minds would be lost to a perpetual cycle of confusion and despair.It was only Itha’s firm determination that prevented the party to dissolve in terror or disorientation. And it was her ability to keep her wit that led the elves to what must have once been a river. There, they spied a sight that in any other circumstance would have been an unwelcome one, but here, it was almost a joyous occurrence, because it was familiar enough, to bring them back to the realization that their lives in the forest retreats and their elven families where not fabrications of their mind but real memories of what awaited them if they were able to return.What they saw was a female goblin, she stood in a shallow part of the river intensely looking about her feet before suddenly dipping her hand, in what should have been water, and in a swift move taking it back up with a fluttering fish, that resembled more the severed tentacle of some forgotten beast than an actual fish.The elves' reaction was uncharacteristically slow, and the goblin started to run as she saw them. Itha left an arrow fly and hit the floor in front of the goblin’s path. It made the gobbling hesitate for a fraction of a moment, long enough for Penopu Velvetylaboured to jump and take her to the ground.Olng Blackcloud laughed defiant at the elves. “I might be the one on the ground now, with you looming over me but soon the Silty Stench will make it, so it'll be me and my kind walking over your dry and discoloured bones”. Those words did not belong to an ordinary goblin and even if they had come from a superior creature, they still were unfittingly lucid, if in form not in content, when being spat out of a mouth in the same face that wore those same delirious eyes. Perplexed, the elves interrogated the creature which continued contorting in its insanity.“Thisosothi Epahnagnod has come forth, he mightily thrusted his jealousy for the living world in the form of a spire, from under these hills to the surface and created in this way his wondrous palace. A Palace of Boils and here his infinite power established an opening between the world of what is and the abyss, and from here he will bring death and decay to all creatures and then, him and us, his followers, the Curled Wickedness, will rule over everything”.The hideous creature continued regurgitating words of loathing and told mad stories of monumental creatures older than time itself that lived in an immaterial prison in the depths of the earth.These beings saw how creatures of flesh began populating the surface of their world and how elves and humans and dwarves multiplied like a plague and dominated over the World of Visions and they felt jealousy and revulsion and hate, and these feelings increased their power. Their power increased such that their prison was unable to contain it completely so some of it filtered into the living world and it consumed and twisted the flesh and blood of living beasts, thus creating ghouls and other night creatures. And that connection with the living world has given those ancient monsters a way of resurfacing and lay waste to any that opposes them.But the time and conditions must be suitable for that to occur, and they need help from inhabitants of the surface to be able to come forth. So, these demons had told the early goblins how to perform repugnant ceremonies that they ought to complete when the time was right. Now was that time.The pitiful goblin, with an otherworldly grin in its face, told the stunned elves that, Ijat Hobbledslunk, the colossal Thisosothi Epahnagnod had already trespassed into the living realm and infected it, establishing the place that he may use as a portal and called it Kosoth Stalkob the Palace of Boils which will soon become the centre of his dominion: Otdaamxu, Findseduced. That was the name of the place they were standing on right now.The legendary slab Ustospon the Incidental Gutter had been found and brought to Ersimete, Helmwebbed the vault of Findseduced. Everything was ready and there was no possible way of stopping Ijat’s advent.Sanera, the oldest and most loyal elf in the party, could not bear listening to Olng’s frenzied jabbering any longer and prepared his bow to execute her on the spot but Itha stopped him. The crazy speech of the pathetic creature was certainly the result of some feverish hallucination that had shattered its mind, but no goblin should be able to mutter anything with that level of sophistication, and the strange feeling of the place around them, too, warranted further investigation.Sanera and the others agreed so they demanded that Olng take them to her lair. Most of them expected to find a few more of these filthy creatures, they would kill them and free the world of their immorality before returning triumphantly; but not Itha. She had felt, not long ago, a change in the fabric of nature, she had much to learn still and did not understand its significance. As time passed, she got used to the strange presence and soon was able to ignore it but now it made perfect sense. She had felt the familiarity of those vibrations when they stepped into Findseduced and now she knew why, and they no longer seemed harmless.They moved swiftly through the sterile hills no longer stunned by its strangeness thanks to their newly found purpose. The dark clouds in the not so distant sky in front of them had a ghastly purplish iridescence and seemed to converge in a single point forming a spinning ring of nauseating patterns. Darkness increasingly surrounded them as they approached and directly below the gruesome heavens they were confronted with a terrible sight.Nor Itha, with all her empathic qualities nor old and wise Sanera were able, once they had returned to their forest, to describe to their kin what they saw from that moment on. There are no words to express those grisly visions or those appalling sounds; for there was no reasonable likelihood of those things they saw and heard to have ever existed in the world, and that smell, for the love of Avecovema, that smell.They saw a towering twisted megalith made of palpitating rock amalgamated with what seemed to be pus oozing, organic matter. The eerie clouds were congregating around its sharp peak. Below, the ground heaved with the naked bodies of goblins and trolls that chanted incomprehensible words in a sickening orgy of flesh. Olng gasped at the sight of the megalith, “Kosoth Stalkob! and that chant… those are the words engraved on Ustospon… It has begun”. She wriggled trying in vain to make an escape, presumably overwhelmed by the desire to join her lowly kin. This helped the elves come out of the stupor induced by the hypnotic, ethereal visions before them.Old Sanera, his fair wife Rayali and daring Penopu loaded their bows before Itha could react and let fly almost at unison their swift arrows, each piercing a goblin. But not the goblins that had been hit nor any of their companions, even flinched or stopped their sordid dance for at that precise moment a sickly blueish light engulfed them in a shimmering shower that encompassed the monolith.It came from the ring of eldritch clouds as the frantic creatures below chanted in accord “Dothrem, Dothrem, Dothrem”. But something else joined them, first imperceptibly but increasingly apparent. It was a voice that no throat from anything alive could have produced. It could have not come from the goblins and trolls alone since it ended up creating a hellish cacophony so loud that the elves had to cover their ears. This was when Olng made her move and run down to join the horrible ceremony, screaming “Dothrem, Dothrem”.The terrible light had reached blinding intensity but started to dwindle revealing once again the nightmarish megalith and above its tip, Itha saw a figure. It was a naked human female. The tip of her feet barely touching the structure, she stood erect with her arms to her sides and her eyes closed. Then she opened her terrible eyes and their hideous light seemed to penetrate Itha’s heart and she knew at once that this was no mortal woman. It was the dreadful goddess of nightmares and gambling. The horrendous ceremony had brought Dothrem forth from whatever vile world she inhabited, and she had gladly come to play her sickening game in the mortal world. Dothrem lifted her arms and as she did, a putrid cloud of black vapour raised from the base of the monolith.The spire split at its centre exposing a horrifying cavern within it. Itha felt faint when she saw emerging from this opening a pair of massive teeth followed by a short snout of noxious secretions. A pair of lidless eyes appeared, and soon half of the monstrous humanoid rodent had emerged into Dothrem’s light.Ijat the gopher demon turned its gaze towards the party of elves and Itha knew this, to be the beginning of something atrocious. She grabbed her closest companions unable to mutter any words but motioning them to flee. They did not need much encouragement as they had felt the same urgency and they all run, half forgetting from what, and not really knowing in what direction.Itha eventually directed them back to Hillstyle, where she lost not time gathering Alatha Shoreadored, the queen and Inevi Mergedwaxes the Druid. They listened incredulous at her incoherent tale but seeing the state in which the rest of her party arrived they concluded that there might indeed be some dangerous threat in the barren Findseduced. It was decided to recall some of the warriors from the surrounding retreats to form an army and march against the goblins.As the elves prepared to march Itha grew anxious. Late at night she would climb the sentinel trees and look south. Above the treetops she thought she saw that abhorrent glow in the distance, but none of the guards seemed able to see it. Her kin had unwavering respect for her, but her tale was too wild to be so readily believed. Even her party was no longer sure of what they had experienced once they had recovered. Sanera had grown stern and Rayali’s mind had not yet returned to her sweet self. Only young Penopu concurred with Itha in the nature of the danger the Curled Wickedness posed.Penopu spend her days and nights scouting the south edge of the forest or on the sentinel trees; barely sleeping and constantly watching. There was talk between the elves about Penopu having lost her mind, but Itha knew that what tormented Penopu was not the same that afflicted Rayali, for what Penopu was expecting, Itha knew was coming too.And come it did. The morning before the elven army was meant to set off, a cry of warning came in the form of a band of parrots Penopu had been training. Itha shouted commands to her warriors who quickly got ready to defend their home. She climbed the southernmost sentinel tree and watched intently. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary but soon she saw Penopu arriving riding her elk. She announced the march of the goblin army; she had laid a number of traps to slow their advance and was now asking for a few hands to return with her to ambush the enemy. Itha agreed shouting from her tree and Penopu swiftly left with five more elves ignoring druid Inevi’s weak protests.Then they all heard it. A tremendous crashing of trees, an indescribable cacophony of destruction. And Itha saw an atrocious silhouette towering above the treetops, it moved fast towards Hillstyle brushing aside the trees in its way. And as it came closer, she saw the unmistakable shape of a gigantic gopher. It was Ijat, the vast monster of short silver fur, leading an horde of demented trolls and goblins.Itha slid down the tree and led the defending force against their aggressors, they put down many goblins and trolls, but they had been only the vanguard and Ijat was coming right behind them, together with the main force. Itha knew that as long as the demon was standing the battle would not end in their favour. So, she sought him, jumping form branch to branch until she saw him. Then, she aimed all her arrows at his bulging body. But Ijat parried them away with ease and then charged at her.When there was not enough distance between them to use her arrows, Itha threw her bow and seized her short sword, and with tremendous speed she run around the monster and using one of the broken trees as a platform she jumped swinging her sword and aiming at his head. For a fraction of time their eyes met and Itha thought she saw a smirk in those terrible mandibles of his, but before her sword had completed its intended arc, Ijat grabbed Itha by her neck, and her weapon flung aimlessly into the trees. The devilish fiend then brought Itha up to its mouth. He bit her once with those terrifying front teeth and threw what remained of her to the ground. The rest of Hillstyle fell shortly after.The vile force of darkness had left no one behind, except for Penopu, who had attempted to ambush the demon but only managed to kill a handful of goblins before Ijat swung a terrible arm at her destroying the right side of her face and sending her, flying several meters away. She woke up hours after the obliteration of her home and having no other choice she made her way to Skinnywaters; where she received the title of acolyte of the Sheen of Lashes.She led many assaults and defended many forest retreats against the Curled Wickedness in the constant war that had started that faithful day in Hillstyle. But never again had the misfortune of encountering that dreadful fiend Ijat again; but knew of his terrible devastating attacks on other sites. Penopu died seven years later when Osluk Aeoranges, the yeti, devoured her.War between the Sheen of Lashes and the Curled Wickedness carries on to this day, more than 250 years later. Ijat continues gathering more and more strength with each battle. He now controls the north eastern territory: The Uncertain Forest and the Hills of Illness. The elves fought the dark army bravery and sometimes even managed to reclaim, however briefly, some of their lost sites including Hilstyle but ultimately were forced to retreat east to the Fields of Soaking where they are still being assailed. Word of a new hope has spread amongst them; they say the dwarves are coming from the west to deal with Ijat and his hordes; but very few believe such nonsense, as who on Teyo Asada has ever heard of dwarves aiding elves?