Hi everyone!  Nice addition to the web site to let you know about.  I recently received an email from a DDO player and fiction writer Adan Maskery, who asked if I would be interested in running a series on the web site that would feature the exploits of three characters from his R.O.T.T. guild on Thelanis.  Basically it would be a work of fiction centered around the quests in Dungeons and Dragons Online.  I thought it was a great idea!  It'll be a fun thing to look forward to on the web site here.  The plan is to get new updates out about once a week or so.  Enjoy!

Jerry
   
###
         
                                        Rise Of The Triad
                                             by Adan Maskery   

                                                                        Introduction
                                                                              Part 1

    The three huddled together and cried under a huge rock in the woods.  Casidhe, Soulnet, and Lorrial could all smell the smoke and hear the screams of their family and friends. 

    Casidhe sobbed, “Why did they come here?”  

    Soulnet replied in a whisper, “Shhh, be quiet.  They will hear us, and then we will join our families.”  

    It seemed to take days.  Eventually the noise died down, although the smell of burning wood and flesh remained.  Soulnet started to get up.  Casidhe and Lorrial grabbed for her, not wanting to lose the feeling of comfort she gave them.  

    She turned to them and whispered, “I am going to go take a look.  Stay quiet and don’t go anywhere.”  She crawled out of the hole and walked away.  

    Now they were alone.  Two of the three left in a hole, hoping that their friend would return.  They clung tightly to each other, still crying, being careful not to sob or whine.  

    Casidhe heard something akin to a stick breaking.  She snapped her head up and looked out of the hole.  Lorrial looked at her friend intently, then followed her eyes to the hole.  There was a face.  They screamed.  

    Soulnet was there with tears in her eyes.  She waved them to come out and said, “It’s safe, but prepare yourself to see something so horrible that it is worse than any nightmare either of you ever had.”  

    As soon as they crawled out and stood up they saw the horror Soulnet spoke of.  There were only a few buildings standing, and even those were burnt horribly. There were a few blackened timbers still smoking as the sun set.  The haze from the fires blocked out the beauty of the setting sun.   As Soulnet led them to the middle of their village they saw areas where their friends and families' houses stood.  All that remained were small odds and ends.  And bodies.  

    Bodies were everywhere; mostly men either cut down or burnt, strewn across the village.  They arrived at the village leader’s house. This was Soulnet’s house.  They could see where the men made a final stand.  Behind the large door they were laying in a pile that hinted at how chaotic the fight must have been; goblin and human bodies intertwined in a macabre pile of death.  As the walked through, they saw people they knew, including Casidhe and Lorrial’s fathers.  They ran to them and cried loudly.  

    “Daddy, daddy, no.  Why did you have to die?” Casidhe sobbed into the chest of her dead father as she mumbled other things.  

    Lorrial stood above her father.  She could see the cuts and slashes across his body.  He had at least two spears in him, and a few empty axe spaces in his belt.  The thought of goblins somewhere, many of them by the look of it, dead, brought a smile to her face.  

    “Don’t cry, your father gave his life to defend his home.  He is honored, he died in battle.  We will miss them, but we have other family to find.”  

    Then Soulnet’s voice broke the silence, “We don’t have far to go.”  She noticeably had a tear in her eye and waved them further into the house.  

    There in a back bedroom, the only room that seemed mostly intact, was like a slaughter house.  There were bodies of women and children everywhere.  They found their mothers and siblings in these piles of gore.  Their sorrow and growing anger blocked out their nausea and disgust at the sight.  They all exited, having come to the conclusion that they were alone and had no family.  Except for each other.  They walked out to the village center and sat down in the ashes.  Tears no longer came, they had cried too much.  There were no more to be shed.  

    Soulnet spoke first, “We need to leave.  Our lives here have died with our village.  I vow now, in this place, that goblins will pay for this; all goblins.  I do have one other family member left, Trevia.  She lives in Stormreach.  We may be able to stay with her till we get things figured out.”  Both Casidhe and Lorrial nodded in agreement.  

    Lorrial got up and walked back into the house, approached her father’s body, and grabbed what axes were left.  He had two axes, one in each hand, that looked as if one of those nasty goblins tried to pry them loose by tearing at his hands, but to no avail.  She laid her hands upon her father’s bloodied hands and tried to remove them.  The axes slipped out effortlessly, and she looked at her father and could swear she could see a slight smile that wasn’t there before.  

    Casidhe followed and went to her father’s body and said good bye to him.  She reached into his robes and removed a beaded necklace with a small book attached to it.  She kissed it and touched it to her forehead; then put it around her neck and tucked it into her shirt.  

    “Let’s go.” said Lorrial as she walked by Casidhe, who was going out of the building.  As she walked back to Soulnet she said, “Where is your father?  He was not in the house, and we have not seen him in town.”  

    Soulnet looked up, and with her eyes filled with determination said,  “He is not here, but as far as I am concerned he is dead.  I don’t want to think about what could be happening to him if he were alive.  There needs to be more blood spilled this day.”  

    Soulnet pulled out a dagger and sliced across her hand.  She handed it to Lorrial and said, “We stand here now and will make a blood bond and oath.  We three stand as sisters, not of birth, but of death. This sorrow and destruction binds us closer than birth sisters could ever be.  Together we will live and remember this so we do not take life for granted.  And together, we will destroy any goblins we come across in our travels, till we feel we have taken our revenge for our losses.”  

    Lorrial sliced her hand and then passed the dagger to Casidhe, who sliced her hand as well.  They made fists and dripped their blood into the town fire pit.  They looked up into each other’s eyes, and hugged.  

    Soulnet walked away.  Her blood-sisters followed.

(to be continued...)