|
About This Author
I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.
|
Sisyphean Attempts at Self-Improvement #1097367 added September 14, 2025 at 4:03pm
Restrictions: None
That's Armore
Having arrived home to discover the The Little Miracles Home for Orphans, Bastards, Urchins, Reprobates, Degenerates, and Other Wayward Youths has been boarded up and relocated to Driscoll, you decide to break in and investigate Reggie and Thogun’s old home. In the former room of the orphanage’s caretaker Aanen, Reggie discovers an enchanted lock box with a combination lock puzzle. Big-E successfully detects and dispels magic, disarming the box’s trap mechanism and allowing you all to try endless combinations with reckless abandon. After several minutes of trial and error, Antonio and Thogun search the rest of the orphanage for clues and learn that the orphanage cared for 34 youths over the years, and that number 34 is the key to opening the combination lock on the box. Inside, Reggie finds a piece of his baby blanket, which has been wrapped around an emblem that radiates very strong magic, and seems to be indicative of celestial origin, as the emblem incorporates the symbol for Mount Celestia in its design.
While finishing up in the orphanage, you hear someone call for you to step outside and meet with a half dozen Armore townsfolk who have come to investigate the sounds of someone breaking into the old orphanage. They recognize Reggie and Thogun and Antonio almost immediately, as you’re all local kids who have become famous heroes in the aftermath of the Battle of Kyriel. Antonio is surprised to discover that most of the townsfolk are using weapons and armor of familiar elvish design, and the fact that the townsfolk know of his father’s passing surprises him. He processes this information by intently inspecting a nearby shrubbery.
Thogun gives one of the locals named Borscht a hard time and forces him to play a nonsensical game called “Shit and Gigs,” after which he intimidates the man into handing over every last coin he has, and Reggie overcompensates him by giving him a gold piece immediately after.
When Antonio heads home without a word to anyone, you all follow at a distance and discover that, while you thought he was a latchkey kid from a poor family in Armore, he actually lives at a sprawling estate hidden in the nearby woods. You learn that his real name is Anthony Dawson, and his mother Camille and his little sister Bryony run the family business making high quality elvish items and selling them. It’s a family business that Anthony left behind when he spent some time abroad, then came home and adopted the persona of Antonio Margheriti, a young half-elf in search of adventure far from home.
Camille presents Bryony and Antonio with their inheritance. Bryony receives a beautiful and clearly extremely rare enchanted necklace, but she’s disgruntled that Antonio is receiving the inheritance that she really wants; their father’s legendary Moonblade. But the weapon is sentient and seems to have chosen Antonio for its next wielder, provided that he proves worthy.
In the course of carrying Antonio’s father down to the family crypt, Camille is ensnared by a stalactite-looking monster who had burrowed into the crypt and created an illusion to disguise itself just long enough to grab her and teleport away with her. You pursue the creator into its burrow and immediately split up.
Antonio discovers a small sampler box of potions, while Big-E slips and slides through a corridor, runs through a swarm of bats, and meets up with Antonio and Thogun as their two branching paths meet up. Meanwhile, Reggie stands his ground and tries to protect the egress point into the Dawson family crypt while a swarm of sixty giant rats descend on him.
——————————————————————————————
603 words
Written for "Invalid Item"  |
© Copyright 2025 Jeff is Gru in #2343485 (UN: jeff at Writing.Com). All rights reserved.
Jeff is Gru in #2343485 has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work. |
