Abisat
By Lord Vetka
Abisat
Awaken! The sand pierces my wounds as the wind grows stronger. Dry blood stuck to my fingers along with wooden splinters. The strike had torn through my leg in one motion. I can’t move, the pain was too much. I was so close.
Disappointment. That’s all I feel is disappointment. Knowing that what I had planned for so long and so thorough, had failed.
Now I lay here. Marked for death by a reckless fool. I see no sign of help, only sand. The sunlight scorches my rough skin. What’s next? There’s nothing here. No buildings and no civilization, just bloody sand.
I don’t see how my life will carry on much longer from here. So now I’ll die. Die knowing I have failed. Die knowing I am a disgrace. Die knowing, I let my people down.
Wait. To the north. A small anomaly. I can’t quite see what it is. I need to get closer. I crawl. The pain is excruciating, but it’s my only chance, if I’m going to die, it might as well be through trying.
Still crawling. My arms tire as my legs are dragged along the floor. My armour’s weight doesn’t help either. I need to keep going.
Minutes have passed. Minutes of crawling and resting, crawling and resting, over and over again. Now I’m here. The favour is on my side. What I have found is a keep. Just a keep in the middle of a desert. From the outside,
it seems empty. Next to it, a stockpile. Made of pine wood and hay. This is promising. I should check the keep first.
Still crawling to the keep. I am outside the entrance. Push open the door. A scream. I look up. There are eight to ten people sitting and whimpering in the corner.
They are scared of me. Why? Why are they hiding? They shiver and cry, their eyes fixed on me like a murderers. I don’t know who is in more danger, me or them.
“Hello?”
They don’t answer. I lay in the opposite corner for a few minutes, then one of the eldest men replied.
“You are a lord?”
To which I reply yes. All of them stand up and stop worrying. They come over to me and help me up. Sit me down on a chair. Minutes have passed. I have spoken to the people and they have helped my leg the best they can.
It is still in pain, but from what I have been told, it will heal.
I know what I need to do. It’s the only chance these people and I have. I will use the limited resources in the stockpile. I will start my own economy and army. I will protect these people and myself.
I can’t rely on ranged troops to do so. I’ll need to find a quick way to gather strong melee troops. It seems maces are my only option.
There are enough resources around. They seem to be guarded by some men. Whether they are friend or foe is another thing. I will have to be cautious with my decisions. I can’t let any more people down.
I need to redeem my role as lord. I am a crusader.
Story by Mathew Steel. Thank You Mathew Steel!
Map by Lord Vetka
I have a power player "riderwiz" who likes me to make him hard maps then he takes the map and makes it harder by adding to the invasions, the "Abisat(MV)" is his version, it is included in the zip with my map.
A great story, that's for sure ;)
A good story indeed.
Makes me wonder: what was the original mission, that brought discrace on this Lord and brought him to the desert keep in the first place?
But maybe that is a story for another map ;)
It is a good story, maybe the mission was one of revenge.
Hey Nigel, I wonder who will write the story for "Two Cities?