| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Beowulf |
Posted - 20 Nov 2004 : 21:27:14
Born to a humble Tormite who long ago had immigrated from the city-state of Teziir to the township of Hluthvar in the Sunset Vale, Herodyn grew up questioning his father's faith in favour of the more glamourous Helmite prescence in Hluthvar. By the time he had reached the age of self-right however, he had growen disillssioned with Helm based on what he heard from travellers, who spoke (quietly of course) of Helm's deeds during the Time of Troubles and other acts of blind obedience. And so it went that Herodyn, always a spiritually conscious man, chose Torm's selfless concern for the common good, over Helm's amoral obediance to the law.
Needless to say perhaps, this decision was strongly begrudged by a number of Herodyn's Helmite friends, even his lover, and thus did the young man leave, not only the preliminary service of Helm, but also Hluthvar itself.
His sacrifice did not go unnoticed or unrewarded however. By the grace of Torm, Herodyn was thence gifted with flawless health, godly luck and radiance, and healing hands.
Venturing southward to the city-state of Iriaebor, Herodyn made new friends, the likes of Melvarin the Strong and Lacander the Bard, whom he undertook an adventure or two with. Eventually, most of the fellow adventurers enlisted in the Shields of Iriaiebor, as the city-states army is called.
As orcii had recently begun to pour out of the southern reaches of the Sunset Mountains to harry Iriaebor, as well as neighbouring Berdusk and the small town of Asbravn, Herodyn saw much action. He quickly rose to the rank of Shieldknight (Non-Canon, equiv. to Corpreal/Sgt., while Shieldthane = Sgt./Lt/Capt. and a Shieldmaster = capt/general). He was also stationed at Fort Ironside (homebrew) when a great orc horde attacked the forces (and ore-mine) there. A mere 30 Shields held off well over a 150 orcii in their battered and ruined stockade until their relief at last arrived to marvel and help clean up the dead. Thus did the survivors earn the nickname "Orc-Doomers". And they became the nucleus for a new company of Shields know as Orc-Doom.
During these Orc Wars, intel. eventually discovered that the orcii were pouring out of the Sunset Moutians and Far Hills because a terrible evil was making it's way through their customary turf and driving them before it. Thus, did the combined alliance of Iriaibor and Berdusk put together a powerful company of 100 experienced warriors, mages, and priests, Herodyn amongst the least amongst them. Their job was to penetrate into the southern Far Hills, locate this "terrible evil", and, if possible, eliminate it ... thus bringing an end to the constant orc migrations and avoiding another Battle of the Bones.
As fate had it however, th "terrible evil" found them first. And over the course of three nights the unstoppable horror managed to whittle the elite force down to almost nothing and throw it into complete disray. During that time Herodyn became seperated from all of the others and for a time wandered, lost, through the Far Hills. Before he would see another sun rise, the Render (or "Uk-ruk-usher" as the orc prisoners called it) tracked him down, trapped him in a cul de sac, and, errr, rended him.
His identity was thence taken over by an erinyes. This devilwife had long ago fallen from Tiamat's grace, but was now being given a chance to redeem herself. she was to do this by tracking a number of evil beings whom in ages past, had betrayed Tiamat's son and prophet, Sammaster, and killing them and/or their corruptive legacy.
To this end, the erinyes made her way out of the Far Hills, and back down to Iriaebor, where she mustered the aid of Herodyn's old adventuring friends.
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