City of IF :: View topic - Boiling Cauldron 2 - Chapter 1

Boiling Cauldron 2 - Chapter 1 - A burning memory

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City of IF -> The Vault

So what is it?

A simple act - Go for Joshua.

[ 0 ]

A trap - Best investigate the fields.

30%

[ 4 ]

A trap - Spring it.

23%

[ 3 ]

Something outside the realm of possibility.

38%

[ 5 ]

A reason to run.

[ 1 ]

Total Votes : 13

Who Voted: Advarr, Crunchyfrog, DeadManWalking, Design, FatHairyApe, Lilith, Masterweaver, Mephistopheles, Scheherazade, Shadowraven, The White Blacksmith

#1: Boiling Cauldron 2 - Chapter 1 - A burning memory Author: Idea master, Location: Sneaking Idearium into your beverages.

Posted: Mon Oct 01, 2007 10:57 pm
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IT LIVES!

Boiling Cauldron 2 - Chapter 1 - A burning memory

In a dark and dreary plane of existence, a hag pulled out her cauldron and cast her eye around her hut. "What should I mix today, dearies? Eheeheehee..."

Twenty or more glass bottles lined her shelves, and the liquid inside them showed thousands of different people screaming in agony. Then there was That One Jar.

That One Jar held a brew that Helga had made twenty years ago, and which had gone horribly, horribly right. She couldn't stand the sweetness it had in it. She had bottled it up, hoping in time that she might be able to sour it again later. In fact, That One Jar was the one that had reduced her to one eye. Her eye fell on it, and she smiled a hate and anger-filled smile.

"Oooo, yes! I always like to start my mornings with a bit of revenge! Here we go, my dearies! Eheeheehee!"

She poured the bit of brew into her cauldron and watched it churn, the water inside being converted to that same ancient brew. This time, she wouldn't blindly act. This time, it would be simple movements that would bring them all crashing down! This time, she would feast on their souls!

The children couldn't remember much of that night. They were the only survivors. All was calm and peace, and then...the sky itself had turned to flames.

They had spent their childhoods growing up together. There was Victor, the son of Fredrick and Eirra. He had slight magic abilities, and when he really concentrated, he could turn into a stone version of himself. If he held still, people mistook him for a little statue.

Cheri and Thurgo had a little girl. Her name was Wendy, and plants always seemed to grow better around her. It was also hard for her to go to sleep, since she glowed a little bit. Thurgo claimed this was her aura, so bright and pure, and that she was surely destined for good things.

Dinranwen and Raven had met one night, once he had smuggled in some particularly nasty goods through the gates for her. One thing led to another, and it had produced Nick. He was particularly good at spells and sneaking around, but loved to combine the two. He bounced around from his mom's shop to his dad's guild, and he got a wide education from the both of them.

Fredrick and Raimah had given birth to a pale-skinned and dark-haired girl with slightly pointed ears, which they named Cindy. She was getting very good in her weapons training and was going to be allowed to hold a real weapon soon. It was only a dagger, but at least it was better than learning prayers.

And then there was Faware, the little dragon that sometimes came to the city and played with the children. He was, apparently, the child of Rai and Surtum. Every time he came, his scales were different than the last. Fredrick had studied him and said that his powers were random and that his scales responded to whatever elemental power he could call upon. He had also said, in time, that Faware could learn to use any power, any time.

But no matter what, the five children were huddled together in a dark, smelly corner of the sewers. Fredrick and Eirra had gathered them up and put them down there, hidden from the world. They'd been told not to move until the little green ball above their heads had turned blue. Fredrick said it was for their own good. Until the scary man in black robes had left the city, then it wouldn't turn blue.

"Do you think our mommies or daddies are coming back?" Victor asked.

Cindy glared a little at him, she hadn't perfected it yet. "Didn't you see what that man was doing? I don't think he'll leave until he gets what he wants."

Nick shuddered. "Why didn't he ask somebody? Why did he have to do those...things? It would have been much easier."

Wendy cried a bit and sniffled. "It wasn't in him. He's always been black."

Faware fed their small fire. "But surely our moms and dads will come get us? Mine know I'm here and won't let me be trapped."

There was a noise up ahead. The sphere above them turned from green to blue, so whoever it was couldn't be the scary man in black robes. The children rushed out, each one hoping it was their parents.

And yet, they were still greeted by the man in black robes.

"M-M-My daddy says you can't be here!" Victor tried to stand up to whoever it was. "Not so long as that light is blue, you can't be here!"

The man looked at the blue light and glared at it. It turned green. Then he smiled and looked back at the children, and it turned blue again. "He got it right, a bit, I'll give him that. More than I expected, and it explains where he put what I was looking for."

"You're bald," Wendy said. "Why do you have no hair?"

The man turned to Wendy and crouched. "Because when I throw fireballs around, I don't want to catch my hair on fire. So I got rid of it."

Nick looked at the man and asked his question next. "What are you looking for?"

The man smiled. "I'm looking for words to a spell. Lots of mages around the world know a lot of the words, but a very few know the ones I need to know to finish the spell. I tried asking them, but they don't always tell me."

Cindy asked her question next. "So what did you do to the city?"

The man looked at her and gained a serious expression. "Now, I don't think that's something I ought to be telling you, young lady. But if you go up to it, I'm sure you'll find out."

Faware finished their round of questions with, "Are our parents coming to get us?"

The man looked him in the eye. "They're just outside the entrance that they used to hide you. In fact, they're all there, why don't you go say hello?"

The children ran to the slippery ladder and started climbing it, and the man in black robes reached into their little nook and clenched his hand around the blue sphere. A single word was heard - Velox - and then it dissipated. He smiled and went to the slimy stepladder himself.

Once outside the sewers, a vision of horror greeted the children.

The city was no more. Flaming buildings had taken its place. People were in the street, not moving. Their parents were there as well, right outside the entrance to the sewers. All of them had fallen around the entrance, a few with hands outstretched, as if they had been crawling there even when they knew they had been dying. The mighty dragons Surtum and Rai had fallen and crushed several buildings, and Eirra the gargoyle was missing her legs and wings.

The children wept their brains out. There was nothing else they could do. The city they had been raised in was gone.

"Nobody knew the word but Richard, and he had removed it from his mind and hidden it in that orb. And now that I have it, there remains only a hundred more to find in the spell that will grant me my birthright."

The children turned and looked at the man in black robes. "How could you do this to our parents? Who are you? What are you?" That was their joint lament.

"I am the offspring of one who denied his blood. I am Ophillion, and I bear in me the blood of a dead god. So did my father, but he rejected his blood, and the gods sealed away all that could have been his within one of the mystic mountains far to the north. With the spell I am assembling, I will find the mountain in question and take all the essence of godhood that I deserve! I am the most powerful mage in all the realms!"

"But this...was our parent's city. How could you do this to them? To us?"

The man's look softened. "I am not without a heart. I shall leave you outside the city of Davensford, in the kingdom of Barrington. I believe the king there owes your parents favors, and they should transfer to you."

-----

And so they had been raised for the past ten years. The young ones were eighteen now, and a portion of their parent's favors had been put to hiding Faware. The rest of those favors was spent in being taught in their parent's pursuits, so that they could follow in the footsteps of those they had lost, and feel a little better about what had happened.

However, as of late, the city was facing a growing threat. Duke Joshua was trying to regain his throne, as the children's various connections told them.

"My advisors," the king asked, "What do you know of this strange shortage of wheat?"

Wendy began. "It was done late in the night, your majesty. Whole fields were burned to the ground, done by several men in various parts of the kingdom."

Nick picked up the line. "They concealed themselves from all who might be there, but not from those scrying from afar. Mercenaries, and the expensive kind, were hired to burn the wheat, sow the ground with salt, and kill the farmers."

The king hmmed at this. "Victor, Cindy? Your thoughts?"

"Act must be returned with act," Cindy said. "Let the one who can buy grain cheaply have his supplies disrupted similarly, to signify that we know who he is."

"And that person is Duke Joshua. He has no difficulty whatsoever, possibly because he stocked up the week before this happened."

The king looked at Nick. "Are your thieves ready to do what is necessary?"

Nick frowned. "They are indeed, though I am worried. This was a blatant act, one that we easily followed. I fear it may be a trap, and to act will mean we fall into it."

The king hmmed a little more...

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
I bring back from the dead a once-good storygame, if only to wrap up the dangling plot points from the last one!
So. Is it a trap? Is it mere coincidence? Or is there something devious afoot? Only YOU, the reader, know for sure!
Let the mighty resurrection begin!
F12
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Last edited by Idea master on Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:27 pm; edited 1 time in total

#2: Author: Mephistopheles, Location: Not where I want to be.

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:26 am
—
nice and short and easy to read story IM. hmm, the obvious thing to me is that it is in fact a trap, one where joshua thinks that he shall be able to destroy the kings greatest men and create further hardship and discontent though out the land by setting his stores to flame as the thieves attempt to liberate the crops in the name of all that is good and right!

#3: Author: The White Blacksmith,

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 9:33 am
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I didn't read the first one, but this looks interesting. Could you give me a link for it(The first one), please?

#4: Author: Crunchyfrog,

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:01 pm
—
oh goody! I thought the other one ended a bit quickly. I think the burning of fields of wheat is a warning of some kind, and they have to figure out what it is. Maybe a message has been burnt into the fields...?

#5: Author: Idea master, Location: Sneaking Idearium into your beverages.

Posted: Tue Oct 02, 2007 9:11 pm
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Sure thing, Whitey. Just click on the orange text.

#6: Author: Lilith, Location: Happily curled up in a Daemon's lap

Posted: Wed Oct 03, 2007 7:41 pm
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Burnt fields? C'mon! That's a little petty..... and not a way to get back a throne.

Unless it is a trap... (well, duh!)

#7: Author: Idea master, Location: Sneaking Idearium into your beverages.

Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 8:28 pm
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Another poll has been built from the parts of polls long since past. Ignore the moans and chop off the limb of your choice, please.

#8: Author: dinranwen,

Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2008 8:26 am
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[color=darkblue] Oh, come on! You're seriously not telling me that I've been gone.....how many months now?....and Still haven't moved this past the STINKING first chapter. *glares* Not happy, not happy AT ALL.

Sorry, had to vent. But seriously....I do sorta understand RL can stink worse the dragon manure.

#9: Author: Guest,

Posted: Sun May 04, 2008 7:11 am
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I'm sorry I made a tie. I chose something out the realm of possibility. May I have voted?... anyway hope someone patters along and votes here.

#10: Author: Advarr, Location: In lone corner of my mind: Imagination

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 12:17 pm
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I think the realm of creativity and impossibility is due to show up now so, that's what I voted for.

Nice SG, I think a little more should be explained about the characters though. Sure beats mine though (In my general opinion).

#11: Author: Design,

Posted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 6:44 pm
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I voted outside the realm of possibility, that's always a fun choice.

#12: Author: FatHairyApe,

Posted: Wed Jul 23, 2008 8:35 pm
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Nice work. I am going to quote my favorite passage:

Quote:

Cheri and Thurgo had a little girl. Her name was Wendy, and plants always seemed to grow better around her. It was also hard for her to go to sleep, since she glowed a little bit. Thurgo claimed this was her aura, so bright and pure, and that she was surely destined for good things.

And now I will tell you why I love it. First of all, it has an incredibly simplicity and staccato that is really moving and powerful. Everything is matter-of-fact, truth, and taken for granite. This is an excellent writing style. The idea about plants and this aura of innocence is such a cool idea, too, and I loved the way you describe it--with few words, also! Nice work. I am looking forward to see if this aura can be tarnished and what it means.

The only problem I had was your names. This is a personal problem, so don't change anything just because I said so. Generally I like to balance my names--some with different syllables and some a little more understandable than others. A lot of your names are crazy ones we've never seen before, and it is kind of jolting to be swept into a new story with a. so many names and b. so many new names that don't strike a chord. If you don't want "jim" as a name (and who does haha) you can consider "Gala", for example. This is a name that sounds like it MIGHT be an actual name, there are no crazy y's and z's and ae's, and it is simple and to the point. It's all about feeling Very Happy

.

Great work! Keep writing! Very Happy

I look forward to more.

City of IF -> The Vault

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