[NuRPG] NuRPG Tertek Prologue [An Alley in the Hive Ward of Sigil]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------=_NextPart_000_0036_01C0ABE0.F13CEDE0 Content-Type: text/plain;

charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Well, here it is...my very first chapter in the NuRPG. Tell me how you = like it because I love getting feedback on anything I write. Also, if = anyone has any suggestions for where the portal at the end ejects Tertek = on Nu, please let me know. I'm open to any ideas. The exit can be in = just about any enclosed space, i.e., a doorframe, a window, even an = archway formed by treebranches in a forest. Anything similar to that = can hold a portal in Sigil so let me know what you all think ^_^;

Tertek scowled as he ran through the alley. Sodding cony-catchers! = They got all riled because he had tried to use their portal to the = Outlands without paying their price. So much for reaching Elysium by = his favorite route. For some reason, though, when he refused to pay the = price of one finger, the guards didn't approve and decided they'd take = the finger from him by force. Why, by all the powers, would they want a = finger to allow access to the Tradegate Portal? Tradegate's a = good-aligned gate-town. The tiefling could see the sense in requiring a = finger to get to some nastier place, such as Curst, Gate-town of Carceri = or Plague-mort, Gate-town of the Abyss, but Tradegate? Tradegate was = the gate-town of Bytopia. The people in Bytopia didn't take fingers = from each other!

The blue-scaled tiefling hazarded a glance over his shoulder. Sure = enough, the three portal guards maintained the chase, only about ten = yards behind. "This is what I get for trying to use a portal in th' = Hive," Tertek muttered wryly. Ducking a low-hanging beam protruding = from a building lining the alley, he continued running, his mind going = over the spells he had memorized, trying to find one that would get him = out of this mess.

One spell, above the others came to mind. Jump. If he could jump onto = a nearby roof.Tertek's thought cut itself short as the tiefling turned = his gaze to glance at the tops of the buildings surrounding him. = "Lady's Mazes," he swore, "I had t' bleedin' forget I'm in th' Hive." =20

Architecture in Sigil, especially in the Hive Ward, generally carried = very sharp features, literally. Bladelike structures of stone, metal, = or a combination of the two lined the rooftops of many buildings in the = City of Doors. Some thought this style of architecture intended respect = for the Lady of Pain, the enigmatic, yet extremely powerful figure who = ruled Sigil. Of course, any person who'd been in Sigil for even a few = hours knew the Lady didn't take kindly to worship, respect, or even = being spoken about at all. Careful people didn't talk about her at all = while in her city.

Tertek glanced back again. His pursuers still trailed him by about ten = yards, though they appeared to be losing ground. However, the tiefling = knew he couldn't keep running forever and by the looks of the path = ahead, he must have picked the longest alley in all of Sigil to run down = to escape. No end to the alley had come into his sight yet. Behind = him, he could hear bits and pieces of his assailants' breathless voices = as they chased after him.

"Throw yer bleedin' sword at 'im," one snapped, speaking heavily = accented Planar Cant.

"Bar that, ye leatherhead!" another retorted, "This chiv's th' best one = around in th' Cage."

"We'll ne'er catch th' berk if ye don't attack 'im," the first one = snorted.

"Both o' ye shut yer bone-boxes now!" the third voice demanded.

Tertek narrowed his eyes and continued running. He knew he couldn't = keep going forever but unfortunately, his situation permitted him no = other choice. Fortunately, the portal guards sounded worse. Their = puffing and wheezing echoed down the abandoned alley to Tertek's ears. = The tiefling rogue grinned. He may have a chance to escape them after = all. That thought, however, abruptly flew out of his head when his face = smacked right into an invisible force wall in front of him. =20

"Bloody.!" he began. Remembering he was being chased, he whirled about. = Having seen him stop, Tertek's attackers had slowed down and began = spreading themselves across the alley, grinning in anticipation as they = drew their weapons and began to approach slowly.

"Ye think ye'd peel us n' try t' use our portal t' Tradegate without = payin'?" snarled the man with the first voice Tertek heard. This man = looked quite blatantly human. However, unlike the humans that lived in = better areas of the city, such as those humans in Clerk's Ward, this one = looked a mess. Soot covered the man's face and his hair looked like a = brush wouldn't even take out all the tangles. His clothes were little = more than rags and his sword.well, his sword looked ready to fall apart = any moment.

"Aye, berk," the second voice came from a man with coal-black skin and = bright red hair the color of fire. Tertek recognized the man as a fire = genasi, a half-human being with the blood of a creature from the = Elemental Plane of Fire. Judging from the gleaming red tint of the = sword the genasi held Tertek guessed the blade carried some sort of = magical fire effect. "Ye give us a finger or pay th' music," the genasi = sneered.

The third man, another human by his looks, remained oddly quiet and = stood back a bit further from the others, though he stood his ground = rather than advancing. He seemed quite nondescript, even for a human. = His clothing looked to be of average quality. His hair brushed, though = a bit mussed from the long run. His hand held a long sword but he = didn't hold it up in a fighting stance. Tertek couldn't help but wonder = what this third man was.a mage, perhaps? Or even worse, some kind of = fiend? It didn't make sense that a fiend would guard a portal to = Tradegate but the tiefling had seen crazier things in his long life.

Tertek took a quick moment to look around and survey his surroundings. = Almost directly above the head of the first two men, close enough for = the tiefling to reach by means of a Jump spell, two beams crossed the = alley, one on top of the other, the bottom one just shy of twenty feet = above the ground. The higher beam rested far enough above the lower = beam to provide a small place to perch between them. Spotting those = beams as his opportunity to escape, Tertek glanced at his attackers for = a brief moment before whispering a single word, "Featherweight." =20

Immediately upon speaking the word, Tertek felt the magical runes fade = from his mind. At the same time the incantation fled his mind, his body = began to fill with a sense of weightlessness. Taking a couple of = running steps toward the beams, the tiefling leaped into the air. The = haggard-looking human tried hitting the tiefling, swinging his decrepit = sword at Tertek but his sword swished through the air below the = tiefling, far to slowly to possibly have a chance of hitting the leaping = tiefling.

Tertek grinned as he flew through the air toward the beams but that grin = turned to an expression of shock as the air between the beams suddenly = began to contort and shimmer. Ivories! Why did this particular place, = of all possible locations in Sigil, have to have a portal in it? Worse, = he had no way of avoiding entering this portal. To compound the whole = mess, if this portal led somewhere really nasty, like the 532nd layer of = the Abyss or Tiamat's lair on Baator, he could kiss his tail good-bye = because he'd end up in the dead-book for sure. Under the circumstances, = the tiefling decided that he'd rather have stayed on the ground and = fought the assailants from there. Unable to do much else, Tertek = squeezed his eyes shut as his great leap carried him straight into the = portal and into whatever awaited him on the other side.

------=_NextPart_000_0036_01C0ABE0.F13CEDE0 Content-Type: text/html;

charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content=3D"text/html; charset=3Diso-8859-1" = http-equiv=3DContent-Type> <META content=3D"MSHTML 5.00.2614.3500" name=3DGENERATOR> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff> <DIV> Well, here it is...my = very first=20 chapter in the NuRPG.  Tell me how you like it because I love = getting=20 feedback on anything I write.  Also, if anyone has any suggestions = for=20 where the portal at the end ejects Tertek on Nu, please let me = know.  I'm=20 open to any ideas.  The exit can be in just about any enclosed = space, i.e.,=20 a doorframe, a window, even an archway formed by treebranches in a = forest. =20 Anything similar to that can hold a portal in Sigil so let me know what = you all=20 think ^_^;   Tertek scowled as he ran through the alley.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Sodding cony-catchers!<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  They got all riled because he = had tried=20 to use their portal to the Outlands without paying their price.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  So much for reaching Elysium = by his=20 favorite route.  For some = reason,=20 though, when he refused to pay the price of one finger, the guards = didn’t=20 approve and decided they’d take the finger from him by force.<SPAN =

style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Why, by all the powers, would = they want=20 a finger to allow access to the Tradegate Portal?<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Tradegate’s a = good-aligned=20 gate-town.  The tiefling = could see=20 the sense in requiring a finger to get to some nastier place, such as = Curst,=20 Gate-town of Carceri or Plague-mort, Gate-town of the Abyss, but = Tradegate?<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Tradegate was the gate-town of =

Bytopia.  The people in = Bytopia=20 didn’t take fingers from each other! The blue-scaled tiefling hazarded a glance over his =

shoulder.  Sure enough, = the three=20 portal guards maintained the chase, only about ten yards behind.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  “This is what I get for = trying to use a=20 portal in th’ Hive,” Tertek muttered wryly.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Ducking a low-hanging beam = protruding=20 from a building lining the alley, he continued running, his mind going = over the=20 spells he had memorized, trying to find one that would get him out of = this=20 mess. One spell, above the others came to mind.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Jump.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  If he could jump onto a nearby =

roof…Tertek’s thought cut itself short as the tiefling = turned his gaze to glance=20 at the tops of the buildings surrounding him.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  “Lady’s = Mazes,” he swore, “I had t’=20 bleedin’ forget I’m in th’ Hive.” =20 Architecture in Sigil, especially in the Hive Ward, = generally=20 carried very sharp features, literally. =20 Bladelike structures of stone, metal, or a combination of the two = lined=20 the rooftops of many buildings in the City of Doors.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Some thought this style of = architecture=20 intended respect for the Lady of Pain, the enigmatic, yet extremely = powerful=20 figure who ruled Sigil.  = Of course,=20 any person who’d been in Sigil for even a few hours knew the Lady = didn’t take=20 kindly to worship, respect, or even being spoken about at all.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Careful people didn’t = talk about her at=20 all while in her city. Tertek glanced back again.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  His pursuers still trailed him = by about=20 ten yards, though they appeared to be losing ground.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  However, the tiefling knew he = couldn’t=20 keep running forever and by the looks of the path ahead, he must have = picked the=20 longest alley in all of Sigil to run down to escape.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  No end to the alley had come = into his=20 sight yet.  Behind him, he = could=20 hear bits and pieces of his assailants' breathless voices as they chased = after=20 him. “Throw yer bleedin’ sword at = ‘im,” one snapped, speaking=20 heavily accented Planar Cant. “Bar that, ye leatherhead!” another = retorted, “This chiv’s=20 th’ best one around in th’ Cage.” “We’ll ne’er catch th’ berk = if ye don’t attack ‘im,” the=20 first one snorted. “Both o’ ye shut yer bone-boxes = now!” the third voice=20 demanded. Tertek narrowed his eyes and continued = running.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  He knew he couldn't keep going = forever=20 but unfortunately, his situation permitted him no other choice.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Fortunately, the portal guards = sounded=20 worse.  Their puffing and = wheezing=20 echoed down the abandoned alley to Tertek's ears.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  The tiefling rogue = grinned.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  He may have a chance to escape = them=20 after all.  That thought, = however,=20 abruptly flew out of his head when his face smacked right into an = invisible=20 force wall in front of him.  = “Bloody…!” he began. =20 Remembering he was being chased, he whirled about.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Having seen him stop, = Tertek’s attackers=20 had slowed down and began spreading themselves across the alley, = grinning in=20 anticipation as they drew their weapons and began to approach = slowly. “Ye think ye’d peel us n’ try = t’ use our portal t’ Tradegate=20 without payin'?” snarled the man with the first voice Tertek = heard.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  This man looked quite = blatantly=20 human.  However, unlike = the humans=20 that lived in better areas of the city, such as those humans in Clerk's = Ward,=20 this one looked a mess.  = Soot=20 covered the man's face and his hair looked like a brush wouldn't even = take out=20 all the tangles.  His = clothes were=20 little more than rags and his sword…well, his sword looked ready = to fall apart=20 any moment. “Aye, berk,” the second voice came from = a man with coal-black=20 skin and bright red hair the color of fire.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Tertek recognized the man as a = fire=20 genasi, a half-human being with the blood of a creature from the = Elemental Plane=20 of Fire.  Judging from the = gleaming=20 red tint of the sword the genasi held Tertek guessed the blade carried = some sort=20 of magical fire effect.  = “Ye give us=20 a finger or pay th’ music,” the genasi sneered. The third man, another human by his looks, remained = oddly=20 quiet and stood back a bit further from the others, though he stood his = ground=20 rather than advancing.  He = seemed=20 quite nondescript, even for a human. =20 His clothing looked to be of average quality.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  His hair brushed, though a bit = mussed=20 from the long run.  His = hand held a=20 long sword but he didn’t hold it up in a fighting stance.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Tertek couldn’t help but = wonder what=20 this third man was…a mage, perhaps? =20 Or even worse, some kind of fiend? =20 It didn’t make sense that a fiend would guard a portal to = Tradegate but=20 the tiefling had seen crazier things in his long life. Tertek took a quick moment to look around and = survey his=20 surroundings.  Almost = directly above=20 the head of the first two men, close enough for the tiefling to reach by = means=20 of a Jump spell, two beams crossed the alley, one on top of the other, = the=20 bottom one just shy of twenty feet above the ground.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  The higher beam rested far = enough above=20 the lower beam to provide a small place to perch between them.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Spotting those beams as his = opportunity=20 to escape, Tertek glanced at his attackers for a brief moment before = whispering=20 a single word, “Featherweight.” =20 Immediately upon speaking the word, Tertek felt the = magical=20 runes fade from his mind.  = At the=20 same time the incantation fled his mind, his body began to fill with a = sense of=20 weightlessness.  Taking a = couple of=20 running steps toward the beams, the tiefling leaped into the air.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  The haggard-looking human = tried hitting=20 the tiefling, swinging his decrepit sword at Tertek but his sword = swished=20 through the air below the tiefling, far to slowly to possibly have a = chance of=20 hitting the leaping tiefling.<SPAN=20 style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; = mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; = mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Tertek=20 grinned as he flew through the air toward the beams but that grin turned = to an=20 expression of shock as the air between the beams suddenly began to = contort and=20 shimmer.  Ivories!<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Why did this particular place, = of all=20 possible locations in Sigil, have to have a portal in it?<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Worse, he had no way of = avoiding=20 entering this portal.  To = compound=20 the whole mess, if this portal led somewhere really nasty, like the = 532nd layer=20 of the Abyss or Tiamat’s lair on Baator, he could kiss his tail = good-bye because=20 he’d end up in the dead-book for sure. =20 Under the circumstances, the tiefling decided that he'd rather = have=20 stayed on the ground and fought the assailants from there.<SPAN=20 style=3D"mso-spacerun: yes">  Unable to do much else, Tertek = squeezed=20 his eyes shut as his great leap carried him straight into the portal and = into=20 whatever awaited him on the other = side.</DIV></BODY></HTML>

------=_NextPart_000_0036_01C0ABE0.F13CEDE0--