Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 51
(12/15/00 7:21 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Aww! Thanks Sinlao! ...and thanks to everyone who has posted responses! They are greatly appreciated!
Sure! I'll be glad to set up a list if anyone wants to be notified of new posts. Rather than posting it here, just send me an e-mail (harts@jm.com) and I will create a group.
Thanks all!
Scuttle - Professional Natural Disaster - Now causing destruction for over 19 seasons.
- Tarew Marr
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Very nice, you have a real skill
BackStabElite Registered User
Posts: 1
(1/26/01 9:31 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
OMG!! these are great!!
keep it up, you are a natural talent my friend
Alborland
Female rogue of the 8th shadow
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 82
(2/21/01 11:40 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Talia tried to stop herself from constantly watching the road where Scuttle should be appearing. “He is fine” she told herself. “He will be here soon. Probably found a lightning bug that he had to follow.” She shook her head, amazed at the child-like nature of her halfling friend, but she was nonetheless getting more concerned as the night went on.
It had been over three hours since she left Scuttle inside the town, which she thought was more than enough time to gather whatever belongings he needed and meet her here. He wouldn’t have mistaken the place either. He knew the place where they were supposed to meet. It was three years ago that they had met in this very spot.
That particular day, Talia had traveled to a nearby village to buy some supplies for the owner of the tavern she worked at. She had taken her time enjoying the travel through the mild climate and warm breeze that tossed her hair gently. She meandered along, reveling in the sights and sounds of the wilderness that the well traveled road cut through.
Her peaceful stroll had been shattered when an excited, high-pitched yelp came from just over the next hill. A small boy, who she would eventually come to find out was no boy at all, but a barely adult halfling named Scuttle, had just fallen out of a tree and was backing away from a monstrous, highly angered forest spider. Scuttle had inadvertently annoyed the spider when his curiosity had prompted him to climb a tree to examine the glistening, bag-like object hanging from a high branch. However, the spider that put the object of Scuttle’s curiosity in the tree did not much care for a nosy halfling poking around her eggs. The spider aggressively attacked again and again, forcing him towards the same tree he had just fallen from. He was desperately trying to fend off the huge eight-legged menace with a battered shield and a woefully inadequate dagger when Talia arrived at the scene. She sneaked up and drove two hands full of gleaming dagger into the spider’s backside. The spider screamed in agony at the tremendous wound she had inflicted and spun to face the new threat. Talia saw the small halfling run up behind the spider trying to emulate the stabbing motion with his own small weapon. The spider had turned again towards the halfling, then collapsed in front of him as Talia had plunged the twin daggers deep into the spider’s bleeding rear. A horrible piercing scream bit through the air as the arachnid’s life left its body.
Scuttle wouldn’t quit thanking her once she had rescued the curious little man. He followed her all the way into town, bouncing around her like an excited puppy. He begged and pleaded with her to teach him how to fight like she did. He excitedly continued to relive the incident, dancing around Talia and mimicking what he perceived as her fighting style. Try as she might, she could not fend off the excited young halfling. He followed her all the way to her small room above the tavern where she worked. She told him that she could not teach him anything and that he should go home. He stood, looking forlornly at her as she gently closed the door on him.
The next morning, Talia opened the door to go down the stairs to the small tavern where she worked. She grabbed the pack of supplies from the village and backed out of her apartment, pulling the door closed behind her. Her heel caught on a somewhat squishy obstacle that gave a startled grunt, and she nearly fell over the rickety railing on the stairway to her room trying to avoid tripping on the whatever-it-was. She caught her balance and looked down on a groggy, half-asleep halfling.
“Scuttle! What do you think you are doing?” She put her hands on her hips and scowled at the little man.
He rubbed his eyes sleepily and looked up at her. Scuttle grinned drowsily, with a childlike grin. “Hi Talia! I was just guarding your door. I owe you my life and all, so I am doing what I can to repay it back.”
She rolled her eyes good-naturedly and laughed. “Scuttle, I can handle myself quite well, and you don’t owe me anything. It was my pleasure to help you. I really don’t need a bodyguard little one.” She smiled and patted him on the head. “Run along now. I have to go to work. Take care young one.” She waved goodbye and purposely ignored him as he hurriedly tried to gather his things into his small backpack, as she walked down the stairs to the streets below.
She spent a hectic day with the tavern owner, using the new supplies to make a new batch of brew. She was so busy that she completely forgot about the little halfling until she started walked out of the door of the tavern. Scuttle was marching back and forth across the entrance of the building. He had a deep scowl on his face, a look of stone-faced concentration. He walked with his chest puffed out and swung his arms like a palace guard would march in a parade. Talia did her best not to burst out in laughter at the solemn face on the little halfling. It was like seeing a stuffed toy with a look of seriousness beyond anything the facial features could ever show. Scuttle had such a round, jovial face, that the steadfast, serious expression was more comical than imposing.
“Scuttle! You silly halfling!” Talia put an open palm to her forehead in exclamation. “What do you think you are doing?”
Scuttle snapped to attention and saluted Talia, then visibly relaxed his posture and smiled happily. “Talia!” His face beamed with recognition. “I was hoping you would come out soon! When would you like to start teaching me how to fight like you do? Tonight maybe?” He hopped up and down excitedly.
Talia got down on one knee, grinned lopsidedly, and looked directly into the halfling’s face and whispered conspiratorially to him. “I don’t remember telling you that I would teach you how to fight. Did I really say that?” She raised an eyebrow inquiringly.
“Uhmm…well…maybe you didn’t say it EXACTLY like that,” he gulped down the lump in his throat “but I am SURE that is what you meant!”
She stood up, put her hands on her hips, and looked down at the little halfling, trying to keep some semblance of a scowl. “You’re ‘sure’ that is what I ‘meant,’ eh?”
Scuttle looked up at her, his head was tilted as far back as it would go, and he nodded his head back and forth with such enthusiasm that she burst out laughing. “Oh all right little one. Come up to my room and I will show you a few things.”
He whooped excitedly and bounced around her with a childlike frenzy while they made their way to her small room above the tavern.
Her reverie was cut short as a familiar, but far away sound reached her ears. There were many, many booted feet walking along the road, but it was coming from the wrong direction. It was coming towards the city from the wilderness, and directly towards her little hiding spot on the hill next to the tree.
Scuttle - Elipsis addict and Professional Natural Disaster - Now causing destruction for over 19 seasons.
- Tarew Marr ---
Me likes dots...
Likes 'em lots...
Laenaya Registered User
Posts: 63
(3/8/01 8:17 pm)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Love it, keep going. Its making the work day go faster .
Laenaya Siliconenhanced <Myths and Legends>
51st Level Rake
The Rathe
Halen Registered User
Posts: 1860
(3/19/01 4:58 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Alas, scuttle has quit EQ, no more scuttle the rogue story :-(
Pedric Cuf Registered User
Posts: 2
(3/25/01 10:16 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Scuttle has quit? This is the work of Inoruuk! These stories were some of the best I have ever read in my entire life! In my opinion they even rank up there with Tolkien, of course not at the same epic level but they were extremely good nonetheless. I am sad to see such a fine author leave. Hopefully, with a little help from Bristlebane, he will see his fault and return. These were much better than anything my feeble pasttime could come up with. We shall miss you Scuttle! And we shall wait for your return, for EQ never lets someone go. It shall live on for the rest of your life.
Halfling rogue of the 18th keg, proud resident of Xev
"If there's a better invention than the spork, I don't want to know about it."
Raziel EomBrn Registered User
Posts: 4
(4/16/01 9:55 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
I am an author for 3 years and have published MANY books in the states about EQ(with the permission and credit to Verant )and these add up to mine! Hehe probably better!
You can view some of my work in the stories section of eq.castersrealm.com they are called The Shadows Falls by Raziel. This little halfling is a very good writer! I only wish my Gnome butt could figure out how to aply poison to a dagger!(even if it is candy) so even if Scuttle doesn't play EQ anymore...can he still post his tories?? Thanks.
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Where has Kaibutsu gone? He has got to keep this story going. I feel like I have read the first chapter and I want to finish the book, NOW.
Please come back Kaibutsu or tell me where to go to get....THE REST OF THE STORY!
You cannot start something like this and leave us all hanging. It is criminal.
HALLAD
Halen Registered User
Posts: 2174
(5/3/01 3:36 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
LOL
Edited by: Halen at: 5/3/01 8:48:43 am
Kaibutsu Registered User
Posts: 84
(5/3/01 6:06 am)
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
Talia shrank back, crouching into the shadows of the dense trees, blending into the mist and darkness of the cold mist still hanging in the air from the earlier storm. She gently unclasped the chin brace on her helmet and slipped it off her head, quietly placing it on the ground in front of her. She leaned towards the direction of the booted feet, listening carefully to the approaching steps, trying to discern how many sets of feet were closing on her hiding spot. The woods had gone completely silent. There wasn’t a single sound in the forest, save the sounds of the mud slurping and sucking at the boots of the travelers, and the ping of small stones being crushed and kicked by iron shod boots.
Iron shod boots…
That could only mean two things. Dwarves possibly. She listened again and decided it was definitely not dwarves. There were multiple travelers coming towards her. Were it a band of dwarves, they would most likely singing some sort of marching song. Dwarves tended to do such things. That would certainly be a good reason for the silence of the forest. Even were there no song, dwarves naturally tended to march in sync with each other. These sounds were a ragged and unorganized group, definitely not the strict, precise travel of the dwarves.
Yes, it had to be. Orcs!
She could hear them now. Grunting back and forth. One of the orcs shouted over the noise the others were making. It seemed cursing at something or someone. What was a band of orcs doing this close to the city? The city had a militia that regularly patrolled the wilderness surrounding the city. It was almost unheard of to find even a large band of orcs this near the city. The orcs had learned quickly that the organized militia would lay waste to the disorganized pack of greenskins.
She listened again to them. It sounded like a small group. Maybe seven or eight of them. They laughed in a typical grunting fashion of the orcs, and from the way the footsteps varied it seemed like they were pushing each other around as they walked, very typical of orcs. There was another shouted grunt from one of them, and the orcs quieted down and continued marching in Talia’s direction.
She peered into the gloom of the dark, wet night. Yes, the shadows were becoming clearer now. She could just make them out in the dim light of the waning moon. There were eight of them. One was much larger than the others, he was quite obviously the leader. They looked back and forth to the sides of the road, and seemed to be doing their best to be stealthy. This, of course, was completely impossible for orcs. Halflings, gnomes, and elves naturally made no noise when travelling. Dwarves could do the same when they decided they didn’t want their presence known. A typical, untrained human made an unearthly cacophony in comparison to the other races, but even humans were all but silent compared to the noise that orcs make when on the move. The noise of a band of travelling orcs can be likened to the amount of noise you would hear if a very large rhino decided to go meandering through an elven pottery shop.
The orcs closed in on her hidden position. They wouldn’t see her here. They clambered up the road and gained the hill with the large tree where she was supposed to meet Scuttle. Again she wondered what such a small group of orcs was doing so close to the city. She glanced back to the road in the direction of her old home. She could just make out the torches of the city guard at the front gates. Apparently so could the orcs. The orc leader threw out his hands in a quieting motion, and the orcs settled down again. He grunted a command, and one of the orcs turned and ran back they way they had come at a very fast pace.
The leader gathered and herded the remaining orcs to the side of the road, directly opposite Talia. She gave a small sigh of relief and thanked whatever gods were paying attention to her since the orcs had chosen the other side of the road. Talia didn’t dare make a move. She was almost afraid to breathe. The grunts in the group didn’t look like anything to be concerned about, but the leader was a huge monstrosity. One of the largest orcs she had ever seen. She didn’t know if she could take him or not, but she knew that if the orc had an additional six attackers on her, she could not fend them all off, so she remained where she was, silent and motionless.
Talia wasn’t sure how long she sat there unmoving, but it seemed like hours. She noticed a slight rumbling sound coming from the opposite direction of the city. What on Norrath was that? She looked away from the city towards the direction the orcs had come. She could just make out a dull, flickering glow in the distance. As she waited and watched, the slight rumble, grew to a steady thunder, then to a chaotic roar. The noise almost deafened her as it got closer. It was the sound of hundreds, if not thousands of the same booted feet moving her direction at a very fast pace. The same grunting and growling accompanied the footsteps, but there were so many of them, so much snorting, and growling and grunting, she couldn’t begin to make out how many there were.
The small band of orcs came out of their hiding place and gathered in the middle of the road. Talia could just see the light of torches coming through the trees now. Gods! She had never seen so many orcs at one time. The leader moved his troop to join the rest of the orcs, and the mass all continued towards the city. She continued to watch the army or orcs, feeling completely helpless. She realized that the first group of orcs must have been a scouting party of some kind. Had she figured this out sooner, she could have tried to warn the city. There was no hope of doing so now. She could not hope to outrun the orcs without being detected first. The city would just have to fend for itself.
No sooner had that thought crossed her mind, a warning horn went off in the direction of the city. A huge signal fire went off in the gate tower, and other horns echoed from the city in the distance. The orcs realized that stealth, such as it was from an orc army, was no longer needed, and a war cry echoed throughout the valley as the orcs charged the walled city. Still the orcs kept coming down the road. How many of them were there? She couldn’t imagine what power could have mustered such an army, and what kept this many orcs from fighting amongst themselves. There had been other orc armies, but certainly none the size of this one. This had to be a hundred clans gathered together.
She saw the ranks thinning out now. The stragglers were still trying to get to the battle. Occasionally, a single orc would cross near her. There were just too many of them to all fit on the road. But so far, her luck still held, and she remained undetected. The last of the orcs passed her, and she noticed another sound from the road. It was a coach following the orcs. The coach was black, blacker than the night sky. Every piece of metal, every smoothly painted wood plank was the color of midnight. Even the horses that pulled the coach were black. She looked again. They looked like horses but they were just wrong somehow. They seemed to almost smolder in the cool mist of the night. Their eyes were a burning red that flickered like a dull fire. She rubbed her eyes and looked again. Yes, as the horses walked, sparks lit the ground with every contact of the hooves. There was a cloaked driver huddled down and holding reins that writhed like serpents, seemingly alive. Talia could not see inside the coach. The black curtains hid the passenger from view. Talia shuddered as the coach passed her. She had never felt anything so wrong before. It was almost as if the coach radiated evil. She rubbed her hands together quietly to warm them as the coach rolled out of sight. Her whole body was shuddering with a chill that had nothing to do with the weather.
That was what was holding the orcs together and stopping them from their typical internal squabbles. Being near whatever that was would be enough to chill anything to the bone. She understood what was keeping the orcs from their infighting, absolute terror.
She looked toward the city again. The screams of the injured and dying carried to her ears. Oh Scuttle, where are you? Are you even alive now? Did you make it out of the city, and if you did, were you slaughtered by the orcs? Talia gathered her helmet and began to strap it on. She stopped moving and turned her head slightly. There was something near her in the trees…something was watching her and she didn’t know what it was.
She ripped her two daggers from their sheaths and bent in a fighting stance, carefully looking around. There was a searing flash of light, and a moaning sort of sound from the right. She turned in that direction, just in time to see a huge Shaman casting on her. Pain ripped into her flesh. She stumbled slightly and moved towards the Shaman, who was already casting again. She staggered as the magic hit her again, but continued at the creature. Again the Shaman cast at her, the bright lights of the energy converting to magic surrounding him. The spell smashed into her chest. She crumbled and fell in agony. She could feel the poison tearing through her veins from his first spell. She crawled to her feet and stepped in front of the towering Shaman, swiftly stabbing with her twin daggers. The Shaman grunted and tried to cast again, but was having difficulty continuing the motions while fending off Talia’s stabbing blades. The two danced around each other. The Shaman continuously trying to cast a spell on Talia, while Talia desperately tried to puncture the Shaman with a fatal wound. The Shaman was able to cast another spell, and Talia found herself frozen in place. The orc stepped back and looked at her malevolently. A wicked grin came across his face, and he began casting again. Talia was paralyzed and couldn’t even wince at the next spell. The orc seemed to know this, and was pulling the energy into the spell slowly and torturously. The energy built up more and more, the cast becoming brighter and brighter. She had never seen magic like this before. She couldn’t even close her eyes to shield them from the painful brightness in front of her.
She could feel the spell that was holding her in place start to weaken slightly, but she was still pinned in the same position. Talia tried again to close her eyes from the brightness of the spell and tried to move in any direction to get out of the way. What was the Shaman doing? Why doesn’t he just kill me rather than torturing me like this? She managed to move a small amount and close her eyes from the searing brightness.
Then the light that was even tearing through her eyelids went completely black and a hideous scream echoed throughout the forest. She opened her eyes and blinked to clear the bright aura that still seemed to burn in her vision. She saw the orc in front of her still. Its eyes were wide with fear and pain. It stumbled forward, dead where it lay, and from behind the orc stepped a small man with two dripping daggers in his hands.
“Talia! Why are you just standing there?! Don’t you know that orc was going to cast a spell on you? Why weren’t you fighting him? That’s no way to fight a Shaman! You know that!” Scuttle stepped over the dead Shaman walking towards Talia. She closed her eyes just as the spell gave out, and Talia collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.
“Talia get up! You can’t just lie down here! There’s orcs all over the place! I’m surprised you didn’t see any of them! Talia! Talia!” He shook her unconcious body, trying to rouse her.
Scuttle - Professional Natural Disaster - Now causing destruction for over 19 seasons.
- Tarew Marr -
Re: Scuttle the Rogue
WOOT!!! I have the luck of a rogue. At least, no less than the luck of Scuttle. One day after my plea for more, Kaibutsu has satisfied my desire (at least for today), even after being gone for over two months. Wow!!
You MUST keep going. When I first started reading this story I did not give you much of a chance to keep my attention past your first post, but I was dead wrong. I feel like I am addicted to a very good book, but I must beg for more pages from the author. This is quite a strange feeling. When I have had it in the past, I finished the book that night. I must be honest and tell you that I am fearful that I will be left hanging. Do not let that come to fruition.
Please keep writing, if only for my sake, if not for all the others here who seem to enjoy it as much as I do.
I am confident that this will be published someday if you are able to complete about ten to fifteen more chapters. In fact, I would be willing to do what I can to see that happen for you.
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