|
|
Post by dragonlord7012 on Jan 16, 2016 2:15:47 GMT
Meetings
Grendel walked down the council chamber, as several voices where builly yelling as he quietly opened the door.
His "diplomats" where all in attendance, as well as palace priest Godiva, who acted as something of an adviser and aid.
At the moment the where yelling about ...something. He honestly didn't care, it was something to do with traveling kits, and weights.
He caught the eye of his adviser and put two sharp nailed fingers between equally sharp teeth, as she rushed to cover her ears, before letting out an loud ear piercing whistle.
The rest of the lot quoted instantly, well grumbling aside, as they rubbed their ears.
"Dinner is in half an hour, i'd like to be done with this well beforehand. I've gotten you and your peoples written reports, but i'd like to hear your personal impressions."
His aid took the lead as she pulled out several well penned papers. He suppressed a sigh, as she must of hired a scribe, yet again, as her own handwriting was somewhat bad. It wasn't much, but it ate into his discretionary budget little at a time, and he'd like to use some of what was left over for his private research.
"The "Thrum of the Mountain, has sent notice that they are well, and have established themselves, They've left a note they may wish to purchase some stone as odd as it seems, as apparently they've not dug deep enough to get at what they deem "good quality" stone, something about how it absorbs sound too much. It's up in the air, but we've enough supply to spare so it won't be a problem." she said precisely.
He nodded and moved to the next goblin in the row. Hild Sheer.
"We met Ikegami, They seemed a bit too focused on being polite, but they seem nice enough anyways. They alluded to problems in the last few years, but wouldn't say more even when i pressed."
He nodded, and turned to the next gurd, Niko Felsod.
"The Jotun are straightforward and seem reliable. They where direct, and seemed to be open to further discussions of trade, I think they could use a larger food market, as what little i saw of their shops had them seem a bit spare once you take in the size of them. Also, I'd heard word of boats going away to another kingdom, Not sure what it was about though."
Godiva interrupted, "If they're going to talk to someone else it's none of our business, if their going to raid someone, well so long as it it doesn't affect us its still none of our buisness. Before Darvin united us we certainly spend plenty of time attacking one another, who are we to question them, or their reasoning?"
Grendel hmm'd noncommittally, as he was more than willing to simply move on.
He looked to the next in line, one of the Iken brothers, but found the two seemed to be having a silent debate.
Clearing his throat, he quarked an eyebrow. "Something the matter"
The brother Osgar spoke up, naturally. "My King, We've an issue. Both kingdoms we've visited have declared intent of war upon each other!" he said, loudly.
Godrik nodded. "Yes, and both have made offers to join their side. The Commonwealth has promised to be a secure ally, and neighbor as well as monitary compensation."
"And I spoke to Tanglemane of our Warmages! He has offered whatever we ask!" He says filling the room with his presence.
Grendel was about to speak, when a messanger emerged from the side door.
"Lord Grendel! We've envoys from the Commonwealth! They say it is of dire importance! " said the young goblin page.
Grendel nodded, and checked the candel on the wall, roughly twenty minutes till dinner.
He sincerely hoped it didn't get cold.
|
|
|
|
Post by dragonlord7012 on Jan 18, 2016 2:02:18 GMT
Preparations part 1:
As Grendel worked at his desk hurriedly getting his affairs into proper order before he left for the trade summit, the castle priest Godiva entered the door, a curious face looking in.
"Did you know there is a goblin outside your door ?" she asked curiously.
Grendel nodded, "I did, that's Orthic, he's currently our head architect. I'll call him in, in a moment. But first we need to have a discussion."
"Godiva, you are by far the best priest in the realm. You are passionate. You care about your work and you are enjoyable to have around." he began.
Godiva blushed for a moment at the praise, as Grendel never seemed to notice her efforts before.
"There is only one problem. You spend too much money."
"I what!?" she asked offended.
"Godiva, Read these." he said as he pushed several doccument towards her.
"You're day to day expenses outpaces my own expenses seven fold. And you spend more on day to day things than any three mages do on their private projects combined. We make allowances for this kind of thing for Mages, and for goblins with important duties. But you the manner in which you perform your duties comes out so far above any given estimates, that if I where to ever assign you to any larger projects , your projected costs would actually impact the finances of the entire realm."
The gobliness looked shocked as she absorbed the information, but soon her features started to decide upon anger as Grendel continued.
"But that isn't really a problem of course." she blinked, her rage subsiding in confusion.
"We arn't so poor that we have to carefully watch every copper pices, Our people are industrious, and creative. And I'm hoping you can develop stronger in both of these aspects. Which is why I've asked Orthic to wait outside today. I want you to work along side him, and to learn from him. While he has the skill to reduce cost by designing better structures, he's also hit his stride and is a fountain of new ideas and creativity. Have you seen the Mages College?"
"Well not yet."
"You should." he sated and without continuing further.
Before she could formulate a response he spoke up, louder "Orthic, If you would come in?"
The young goblin came back in side, hands worn with use and nervousness on his face.
"I'm sorry about making you wait Orthic. I've a project for the both of you. "
Orthic looked confused, and Godiva took in a breath to speak as, Grendel overode her.
"Darvin once walked these halls. He brough us out of our violence and set the flame of knowledge and self improvement within all Gurd. It is up to us to keep it strong. Godiva is passionate and can move hearts when she speaks with passion. While you Orthic tend to be extremely creative and have forced many of us to think in new ways. I'd like to see if you could both channel that and worth together. I think the result could be greater than the whole.
"I've allready signed off on a new School of Arts and Architecture, and I wish for you two to work together and design and build it. I'm not asking for miracles, so no need to worry overly much. As with most projects, you will have an expanded budget to help solve any problems, and allow you the freedom you'll need. I'll be checking on your progress when I get back, please keep a log of both your ideas, and your budgeting so i can see what i missed while I'm away."
Orthic seemed extatic as he mumbled his thanks and hurriedly excused himself to get started.
Godiva paused at the door way, and turned back to King Grendel who had shanghaied her into this mess.
"We're both followers of Darvin. I'm only asking you learn something, maybe about architecture if nothing else..." he said simply.
She glared a moment longer, and blew out a huff and with a nod of begrudging agreement left.
Grendel slumped back down into his chair, at least the easy meeting he had today was over. Now for the hard one...
|
|
|
|
Post by dragonlord7012 on Jan 18, 2016 3:49:02 GMT
Preparations part 2:
Grendel had walked near half a mile from the palace and into the Markets, Everyone was smiles as he walked by. His people where still jubilant to be home, and out of the harsher plains of the north.
Turning down a back ally, he wound his way into a small open box of yard that was surrounded by buildings on all sides, Moving up to the only door.
A older female goblin opened up with a sweet gentle smile on her face.
"Yes? Something I can help you...."
Then seeing Grendel, the smile was gone and replaced was a leathery scowl.
"Oh, its you, " said Helga "Nana" Grimnoss
"Hello, Nana..."
"Don't you 'Hello Nana' me. You're always trouble. Go away, i've eight brats to keep from losing fingers, I don't need a ninth."
"I was always perfectly behaved, and incidentally your favorite."
She shot him a narrow glare, "Don't think just because your grown up and King, doesn't mean I couldn't dunk you in the lake. None of your sass Grendel."
"..." he articulated.
Helgra Grimnoss scowled, seemingly even more annoyed, that he didn't give her the chance to try.
After a few moments she turned away leaving the door open, "Well don't just stand there like fool Godoh. Get inside" She said not bothering to see if he obeyed.
The room was an eclectic mess of herbs, and remedies all strung up high on the walls and ceilings, the sound of yelling and laughing filled the room as several tiny goblin children scampered about underfoot like they where possessed by madness.
He quietly followed as she found her way to a comfortable looking chair in the corner that could survey the entire room as well as the two adjoining though their doorways.
"How are you then?" she asked unpleasantly.
"We're going to a trade conference soon. It promises to be interesting." he said a bit lamely.
"That's nice, going to try and cheat others out of their money? At least you can sleep well knowing they tried to do the same." she said, and in her own manner, it was friendly and warm advice.
"We're also building an army academy..."
She blinked before throwing up her hands as if to be done with him, "Oh well that's just fantastic! Not even a full year and you've gotten us into a war, that must be some kind of record."
Her eyes narrowed, "And I suppose that explains why your visiting. Never visiting your Nana just to say hi, or bring her a pie. No its, 'Nana, we're going to war. Please come along and fix our stupidity because we fell on our swords.' " she spat.
"A lot of lives would be saved if you did." He didn't bother arguing, it wouldn't help.
"A lot of lives on our side you mean." she countered derisively.
"Once you finish with our side, I'm sure no one will complain overly much if you move on to theirs?" he
She grumbled for a bit as she pushed off her chair and grabbed a tiny pair goblin currently with its teeth deep into another, who was trying to scratch its eyes in turn. A wave golden light whisked away the both of their injuries like they where figments of the imagination, and a few sharp short wispers made them both pale and scamper off well away from each other.
A long moment took hold as Grendel waited patiently.
"I'll think about it" she finally said.
Grendel smiled, as he nodded.
"And I'll want a new horse. Even if I decide i don't want to, I'm tired of walking everywhere. Something pretty. Tan perhaps? A mare or a gelding. I don't want some stupid stallion with something to prove, I'll have more than enough of those to deal with already."
"Of course" he said unthinkingly, It would be a small price to pay.
Besides, worst comes to worse, they could always just send her at the enemy forces.
If that doesn't break moral, nothing will...Grendel smiled wryly, as a sharp familiar smack fell on his head.
"I said no sass! "
"I..."
"You where thinking it! It was all over your face." she said sternly, in a tone that still made him feel a bit cowed.
"...Sorry Nana"
"Good. now come help in the kitchen, we can make your favorite, none of these runts seem to have an opinion outside 'food is good' so we might as well enjoy ourselves."
The rest of the evening was far more enjoyable as she ranted about the fools surrounding them, and he would begrudgingly sooth her temper while he helped keep an eye on the children.
-----------------------------------
Helga "Nana" Grimnoss, Mage[Healer] Recruited! (Mage Caste, Army Barracks);
|
|
|
|
Post by aspenivan on Mar 22, 2016 23:16:58 GMT
Lessons Learned
At long last, to Orthic's great joy, Godiva got it. Well, not the architecture exactly, but at least how to manage the budget as well as her personal expenses. In fact, many would dare say she had become quite the thrifty clerk! And more than that, she seemed to be at peace with the change, taking on simplicity and pragmatism as principles of her faith. Rational as the best of Darvinists!
Orthic hesitated to congratulate himself, however. Over the course of countless disagreements and strained conversations, he had learned something too. The essence of good teaching, he now knew, was humility and patience. It came through in his own work: Gone was the grandiosity of his former designs, replaced by solid and practical constructions that would stand the long test of time. Buildings that spoke less of Orthic's own supposed grandness, and more of his function to serve the Gurd.
Some might miss Godiva's wild parties and Orthic's experimental flair, but such change in the face of learning was a part of life for every good follower of Darvin. Each had taken in a lesson, and each was applying it.
__________
-- Godiva (Priest) and Orthic (Architect) have their traits replaced with new ones!
|
|
|
|
Post by dragonlord7012 on Apr 17, 2016 3:11:04 GMT
It began as a normal day like any other.
King Grendel walked along the city path, When suddenly he collapsed.
A disease from the north, rare in occurrence, the Dreaming Sickness.
Non Contagious and completely mysterious in origin, It only affects the strongest of magic users, afflicting them with fever and mad dreams.
With the crisis with their Dwarven allies at hand, Grendel names Kordval his successor in abasence.
While not leadership material by most accounts, The Goblin Mage still was closest to the Dwarves of Thrum.
Fever took his mind in entirety later that day before he could be questioned.
With a Heavy heart Kordval accepts the position, only so long as Grendel draws breath.
Should he pass, the title will go up to the mage council once more...
Seeing the hostility of the Dwarven allies, Kordval makes his official notice of the incident to the Thrum of the Mountain.
"It is with a heavy heart that I Inform the people of the Thrum that King Grendel has fallen ill. The disease is known to our people, and unfortunately we have no cure, so only time will tell if he recovers.
In his absence, I can only conclude his last act before the sickness took him, was appointed not for my political but for my studies of Thrum.
It is my greatest desire to honor that wish.
The news that our presence on your people weighs heavily on my heart, and the heart of many goblin.
As such, It is by my decree that the dwarves of the Thrum of the mountain are to be given legal presence to bring their grievances to the Gurd directly if they so wish it. The farmers to the Agriculture Council. Minders to the Smiths, and so forth.
the people harmed by our actions may, instead of taking such a long trip, may appeal to local representatives and have them decide proper response to be replayed from our fund.
In addition the Gurd are willing to pay damages to those who feel their losses substantial, in the hopes that those disenfranchised might be given their proper due.
-Acting Reagent Kordval
--------------------------------
-Kordval (longshot) takes over while Grendel is ill
-Gurd extend rights to Thrum, and allow for grievances(and mod marks) to be brought before their respective councils. (The Mage High Council ruling the other councils)
-A purse of 10g is set aside to pay Thrum who wish to bring their grievance before their respective council, any who can prove their livelihoods harmed by the Gurd may claim compensation.
|
|
|
|
Post by dragonlord7012 on May 16, 2016 0:35:46 GMT
The ancient goblins where a cowardly race, or so the Gurds scholars quietly believe.
They hid in their burrows, afraid of the world around them, They where much smaller than their modern decedents, and where beset upon by the harsh world around them. It is only when goblins band together that this trait fades away. This ingrained behavior allows them to tolerate a closeness to their fellow goblin far and away more than any other race.
Goblins care little if they are tripping over each other, they naturally coordinate, or baring that, some good natured violence was always a good traditional fallback. Nothing says "I don't like you stepping on me while i'm asleep" like a bite to the ankle. It is being alone, that truly disturbed the relative calm of the sharp toothed beings.
It awakens that tiny instinct in the back of every goblins mind, at just how vulnerable they truly are.
Fever dreams are a terrible thing.
Normal dreams have that strange dream logic to supply events and reasoning, but fever dreams feel no such obligation.
Grendel was alone.
He could feel it, the raw emotion of being on his own. Completely by himself. No one to talk to. No one to help him. Death, was looming just outside the safe place. And the safe place was collapsing around him.
He flailed about violently trying to escape, to run, nothingness held him still.
Delirious and setting with his efforts, he flailed again, and again, the bonds came every time to hold him.
Death had tied a noose around his neck, its icy touch was chocking him.
He had to escape, he felt his strength leaving him, once more, just once more.
He pushed himself away, downwards, away from his end, to safty, to find others.
Grendel was free.
He blinked, wordlessly he looked around, at a empty void no longer threatening.
Like the blackness behind his eyelids, it didn't feel mysterious at all. It felt peaceful.
He could vaguely feel the presence of others, like hearing a conversation in another room. It was wondrous to put him at ease.
The goblin king felt... strange, almost light, as if he where a feather.
His mind wandered, and the terrain around him shifted to a field.
The grains where a whitish grey, blurring the further out from him they went. They flowed back and forth in an invisible wind.
He could feel them, a similar feeling to not being alone. Comforting, somehow even more so, for them both being alive.
How had he missed how alive the fields where? They where always just a feature of the land to him, now it seemed foolish to of discounted them so.
He let himself drift for a long while the trees titanic bastions of arbor and life.
He was in a forest?
He must be, he must of missed it watching the trees.
A deer slowly, and his breath caught.
A buck tall and noble, the creature was radiant. Powerful muscle and sinew moved almost daintily, white wisp not unlike the frost of breath dissipated into the air as it breathed.
Its eyes glowing fires as it walked along the forest path, and he with it to keep it company.
As he looked upon the creature, he wondered to himself. What was that glow, did he have it?
He looked at his own hand, It shown like the new days sun, he could feel the glow radiant beyond anything he'd ever imagined.
He was majestic. How could he of ever missed his own splendor?!
The deer flared up briefly, and he turned to it just in time to see it collapse, an empty lifeless arrow shone lightless in its heart.
He wanted to scream and cry out, but his throat was voiceless.
The light bled out into a single point until a thread disconnected from it and into the ground.
Acting on madness and grief, he followed desperate to catch it, and at his grasp, he tumbled through eternity, and he saw it source, and his hand let go.
It was there he realized. His so called splendor was nothing.
It was like a sun, blinding but without robbing his sight. It radiated outwards, its light a infinite net of roots, birthed from a single pure seed.
Reaching out to everything.
Reaching out to himself, Grendel saw his own connection, and the connection going back out past him.
He looked longing at it for a time still, before he followed his own thread away...
======
Nana Grimnoss walked with a purpose towards a panicked scene.
Three servants, wher trying despartely to hold their king down, as his body violently spasmd once more.
A young female apprentice from her retinue put a cloth, soaked with mage-chilled water to his neck and forehead to cool the blood before it reached his brain, hopefully prolonging his body from cooking him alive.
The healers where desperate at this point, It was everything they could do to keep him alive, much less recover.
"He bit me again!" shouted one who was holding a ear now bleeding.
"Shut up godoh, we're busy!" Shouted another who was indeed busy getting kneed in the face. " Besides you should of learned the first time!"
A silent wave of magic pulsed from the Gurds body, and half the room instinctively ducked for cover.
Nana suppressed a scoff. Normally a magic surge meant some goblin would shortly be on fire, but Grendel had both trained and mastered the volatile of magic of his people, unlike those idiot warmages, or their peers.
Any fool can destroy, it takes mastery to fix or create.
Grendel had gone completely still, She'd think him dead if not for the shallow breathing, and her magic telling her otherwise.
"The Idiot's done for now I think. About time too, fussy child. You three go rest, I'll take it from here. " She said secretly worried about the pulse.
The other three only spared a glance at each other before leaving, decidedly not arguing with the old goblin crone.
Pulling up a chair, she gingerly sat herself down and waited.
It was a long wait, as she stared at the young goblin. The fire died at the mantle, the shallow heat of the room giving way to the cold northern air. Still she didn't move, starting hard at the breathing corpse with unflinching eyes.
The body lost its nerve as it finally gave way to a stir.
"hnnn"
"Finally awake then King-Brat?"
"...Nana?"
"Yes you moron. You caught the Dreaming Sickness, Terrible nightmares, followed by death. Well normally at least. You managed to screw up something correctly for a change."
"...I had a dream, a vision."
"Yes dear, that is why we call it the Dreaming Sickness, we're not very creative when it comes to names."
"I saw the origin of life and magic. I felt it, everything it...I..." he was at a loss for words.
Nana stared at him until he broke out into a sweat that may or may not of had something to do with his breaking fever, before she nodded.
"You're still a moron" she said to his befuddlement, before continuing.
"Alright then you had some sort of mystical vision, goodluck figuring that out."
"In the meantime you need to hurry and get off your ass. Everyone is acting like an complete moron, insted of the normal level of half-competence you'd managed to drag out of them."
Grendel let out a chuckle of disbelief.
"Also you still owe me a horse. A pretty one. Don't make me hit you with my walking stick."
Grendel nodded acceptance.
"Yes Nana." he said meekly, settling himself back down to rest. He had much to do, but it seemed he now had the time to do it.
SUMMARY:
-Grendel Recovers and retakes control of the kingdom.
|
|
