This was Jerome's first post in his Good Smiting thread that got a bit sidetracked by ot stuff.

Shall we try again? I think it looks like lots of fun! :D
<font color=silver>
The morning dawned over the IW population, sunlight washing away the dark tendrils of the night, bathing the earth in a warm, tender glow.

There is a little patch of land however, that is not touched by the light, nor has it been for little over two years since the dark one was slain. "The Fallen's Garden" the superstitious local villagers called it - a thick and dark forest which no light penetrates, which has sprung up and grown around the body of Jerome The Fallen Paladin... defeated in a battle between Larry, Rikard, and the other Ancients of the Blueboard. He died at the end of a mighty struggle, which saw him first fall from his lopfty status as a Paladin, and then subjectIW to a reign of terror that has inspired legend about those who took part.

At the end of the battle, he died.

Death, however, does not possess the finality that some would believe.

A hand broke the earth as it grasped into the air that it had not felt in years. Soon, the rest of the body followed, a helmeted head, an armoured body, and an ancient, blackened blade.

Jerome stood aloft, his face a contorted smile.

"HEAR ME IRONWORKS! HEAR YOUR MASTER SPEAKING! I HAVE CRAWLED AND FOUGHT AND BATTLED MY WAY BACK TO LIFE - MY REVENGE *WILL* BE SATED!"

Even nature itself seemed to stop and listen, all was silent as he continued.

"LOOK AT WHAT HAS BECOME OF THIS PLACE... LOOK AT THE FEEBLE, LAW ABIDING *FOOLS* WHO HAVE POWER... WHILE MY EVIL BRETHEREN ARE HUNTED! THOSE WHO ARE EVIL.... RALLY UNDER MY BANNER, AND WE SHALL RECLAIM OUR RIGHTFUL PLACE IN THIS PATHETIC WORLD, AS IT'S MASTERS!"

"THOSE WHO WOULD OPPOSE ME... TREMBLE. I HAVE NOT LAIN FOR ALL THIS TIME IN SLUMBER, I HAVE STRENGTHENED DAILY, AND NONE WILL *DARE* STAND AGAINST ME. AND YOU, LARRY, YOUR'S WILL BE THE FIRST LIFE I TAKE AFTER MY... OTHER SETBACK. YOUR CARCASS WILL HANG ON MY WALL! SO SAYETH JEROME THE FALLEN!"

and all existence trembled.
Evil had returned.</font>

ooc: an old fashioned brawl between good and evil, with me and Larry headlining. Choose your alligence well, mortals. ;)

Edited to add color

[ 04-03-2002, 03:13 PM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

<font color=skyblue>Asleep he was, that fine Spring morning. He had slept in, due to an arousing dream about Mistral.
Suddenly, the air staled and the the birds stopped singing. The strange, alarming silence made him wake up. There was something wrong in the land of Ironworks.
Running over to the window, he lifted it and looked outside. the clouds had darkened the morning sky and bathed the land in a cold cloth of darkness.

It was as if something from his past...long ago...was returning to his memory.

Then, he realized what it was. A sudden recolection of events long since forgotten came racing back to his memory. At the dark sky, Larry spake, "He has come back!"

Throwing off his Mad Modding Mage robes and running over to pick out of the closet a nearly forgotten pair of clothes, Larry once again took on the alignment and stature of a mere Ranger. He ran over to the phone to call for the old ones. The forum needed everybody's help on this. </font>

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"o yum um u more ho m ommmmm mmmm mm" SUddnley Illsha falls off his meditating cow and looks upwards to see a dark cloud form. He could sense the foul magic in the air. This magic helped stir his mothers drow side in him, the dormant evil spirit arose in his mind and satrted its combat with the good Avariel in him.

OOC:
Name = Illsha Damoul
Race = Half drow half Avariel (no wings)
Class = mentally disturbed wild mage
Level = 7

Stats

str = 10
dex = 11
con = 6
int = 20
wis = 4
Chr = 16

Weapon prof = Quater Staff*
sling *

description =

although he is half drow he still knows how to please and get on with people. Even though he is always judged as evil as he is prodominatley drow. His skin is a mix of dark drow skin and a plae human complexsion. Resulting in two white lightnening bolts, one on each cheek. Even though he is clever his poor wisdom and con has let him slip sumwhat into insanity and has helped heim develop a split personality!

Equipment:

black robes with two lightning bolts down the back

ring of intellegence +2 -2 wisdom

'Nige' Quater staff +2 (his best friend)

Sling+0.5 (Illsha's Creation) very minor/heavy enchantment his own design in fact.
requires no ammo but can never be more than 100 yards away from him or it will explode in creating either 100 cows or pigs. Every time the bullet hits, it either casts a single magic missle on the target or heals the target 1d4+1 or damages illsha 1d4+1

It's just a cliff, they say.

Wrong!

***

Clouds surge over the sky, sending lightning hurtling to the ground. The wind whips up through the trees, gathering its' strength. Thunder blasts across the landscape, a natural fanfare crying out its' message of great deeds to the world.
All is still for a moment; ad then a great single blast of lightnng strikes the cliff, blasting it apart. Chunks of rock are broken asunder and picked up by the wind's grip, thrown aside. A cave is revealed, dark and forbidding, until a golden light streams from the cave entrance. A man steps forth, a mighty figure clad in light, clutching a gleaming sword. He raises the blade on high, and as if in answer the sky shakes with an almighty peal, a cry from the very heavens, a proclamation of power from the earth itself - and then all is quiet.
The light dims, and the figure of light begins to speak.

***

"Ah, the weather's cleared up. Jolly good."
"Don't think I haven't forgotten the last time you left me in the rain," says a voice that inexplicably seems to come from the golden sword. "Three weeks at the smith's getting my blade derusted. Don't you know basic swordcare, man?"
"Ah, fear not, Karnas! If *we* have been woken, then indeed mighty combat awaits us, heroic deeds require us, and glorious - OOF!"
The next sounds are a collection of metallic scrapes and muffed 'ow' noises as Tancred tries to find his footing on the uneven rocks.
"Watch that first step, holy-boy... it's a DOOZY!" cackles the sword.

***

They also say some things never change.

Right!

Illsha then banishes his meditation cow into the abyss! He then stands up and wonders where the lightning and thunder eminated from as that person must hold sum power whether they be good or bad

Neb was sleeping. Until he was hit on the head by a chunk of rock that had been blasted off of something. The sorcerer arose from the dusty ground and brushed the dirt off of his crimson robes, gathered his broad-brimmed red hat which had been knocked off by the rock and put it on his head.

He shouted, "Alright! What bastard hit me on the head with this chunk of rock?" Silence, except for a branch falling off of the tree he'd been sleeping under and hitting him in the head, crushing his hat.

A few moments were spent restoring the hat to it's previous condition.

"Okay," Neb says to noone, "I suppose I shall have to find you and.... Avenge my hat! And my head! Onwards.... To somewhere I guess...." The sorcerer looks around a bit, feeling rather confused. To one side is a road that leads to a dark and shadowy realm. To the other a road that leads to a place full of flowers and cute fluffy bunnies and all nice things.

Neb looks towards the nice place and spots a bunny, "Ooooh! Target practice time!" He then readies a fire ball and chases after the bunny into the nice place.

Whooops, I meant to have a look in here on the last good smiting.

Char
Name: Biff the Disgruntled
Race: Half-Orc
Class: Barbarian

Description: Check the name... what can I say, he isn't a very complex person.

IC: Seeing the mage chase after the little bunny, biff caught it by the scruff of it's neck and lifted it up.
Looking to the sorcerer he said, 'Why you chase little bunny rabbit?'
'Bunny rabbits not for chasing, they for eating!'

P.S- Just say if the character's are supposed to be a bit more on the serious side.

"Target practice is over I guess...." Said Neb, then looked down and saw that he was standing in a patch of daisies, "Ick! Flowers!" He then casts a Horrid Wilting spell on the flowers, killing them. "Ah, MUCH better."

Biff looked down at the ground 'Heh, magic-man made flowers dead, that funny.'And broke out into a hoarse bout of raucous laughter.

OOC: Well if i must
Name - Shadow Hound
Class - Thief / Mage
Race - Half Elf

Description - a weird little fellow Shadowhound has a bad habit of stealing anything small and not neccessarily valuable. Some people swear he has Kender in his blood.He has been thrown out of many thieves guilds after robbing the leaders.

IC:

Shadowhound strolls along whistleing a merry tune he then looks over to see a large laughing moron and a mage, imediatly seeing a oppertunity he strolls over to see whats going on.

'Who you?' grunted the immense half-orc 'me getting food, what be you doing here?'

OOC: Hey, he's not a moron, he's 'intellectually challenged.' :D

OOC: Encard, the cheerfully cheerful ChAos Mage, is here, of course. Why would he miss it?

IC: A large red portal suddenly opens in the air slightly to the left of and above Neb, and Encard fallks out, his hair on fire. After screaming a bit and snuffing it out, he picks himself up off the ground, brushes himself off, and says, "Hmm... so, who's the loud funny person who was shouting something earlier? And did you say something about your hat? Hmm... I hope you don't mind too much if I follow you around a bit, since I'm not really sure what's happening... it's all so loud and fuzzy... fuzzy..." Encard suddenly notices Biff and says, "Oh... hello, funny cheerful person? And who might you be?" There is suddenly a loud popping noise, and blood can be observed to spurt from a number of spots on the field. Encard winces, then says, "That must have hurt... well, I guess there are a few less bunnies around now... I wonder why that happened..."

'Heh, you crazy.' Biff said, and then lifted the chaos mage and perched him on a branch nearby 'there, you be safe there.'

OOC: Accident waiting to happen, isn't it!

Encard looks at Biff for a moment, then says, "Err... that might not be such a good idea... things som-" The words suddenly turn into a curse the branch is struck by small (but very strong) bolt of lightning appearing out of midair, breaking it off and dropping Encard to the ground. He somehow managed to get under the branch so that it ended up landing on top of him. Sighing, Encard used a minor spell to get the branch off, then got up. After thinking for a moment, Encard cast something that made him glow brightly for a few moments.

'Hey, how you do that, how you make glow?' Biff said, obviously enthralled by the shifting hue of the chaos mages illuminated body.

Feeling the eminations of a battle of titanic proportions brewing, a certain shadowed figure, stares intensely at a veiwing pool. His squinting eyes flare as the images flash before him. If any were in the room they would be able to hear him mumbling, "The fallen one rises again? The modding mage once again dons the clothes of a ranger. Orcs and mages and wild mages choosing sides. . . This can't be good for the balance. . .Ohh my I must start planning"
As the figure rushes out of the room the shadows seem to cling to him and follow him. Even the lighted globes of magic in the halls seem to dim at his presence. He opens a door further down the hallway from the viewing room. The room is occupied by a huge table in the middle of it and numerous bookselves. The room is completely filled with scrolls and tomes of all shapes, sizes, colors, and languages. He rummages through the pile until he finds what he is looking for then he unfolds the large map on the table in the middle. "Ok the fallen garden is here, and the modding mage is here, and the other group is here. . . . . . . Hmmm. . . . . . .Well that doesnt leave me much time."

Well me immense barbaric friend, i am here because i heard that there may be a chance of a good battle and a good battle means good spoils of war, now that you must understand.

In The Fallen's Garden, things were changing.

The huge, gnarled, oaken trees were shrivelling, growing black and thick with thorns and barbs along their branches. Leaves withered, falling from their trees and dying along the ground like a huge warped carpet.

Almost unnoticably, by tiny amounts each time, the Garden seemed to be extending itself little by little, new roots of the same hideous trees springing up outside of it's original borders. It was enlarging itself.

Inside of the myriad of dark trees and dying foilage, creatures were pulling themselves from deep cracks in the ground - none could even be called remotely human anymore. They were the bodies of Fallen Paladins long ago - twisted and corrupted by the dark magiks and now summoned to their new master.

IT WILL TAKE TIME, Jerome mused. The forces of good were assembling, he could feel their presence if not their location. It would be easy to destory his army in their infancy - steps must be taken to ensure that did not happen.

He needed evil champions. Someone with which to invest aportion of his power, and to hold Good at the sidelines until he was ready.

Evil ones knew where to find him. They would come to the garden.


[ 04-04-2002, 06:11 AM: Message edited by: Jerome ]

Neb decided to leave the moron, the maniac and the one which he didn't really have any idea what was to themselves and headed for the dark land that lay opposite this "nice place". As he made his way there he randomly scorched away flowers and blasted trees to ash with his magic.

The Sorcerer reached the entrance to the Fallen One's garden and cried out, "Anyone home?"

Illsha senses the magic of the choas mage and decides he should be there for some unknown reason. He then summons a warhorse, a beautifull warhorse appears before him which soon muatates into a war boar due to his wild magic. He thinks to himself o well its betta than walking. He jumps on the boar digs his heels ito the beasts side and gallops off to where the magic aura is eminating

Lightning and thunder? Who is playing with the StormQueen's toys? She stands silent, on the cliff, peering out at the horizon. Someone was messing in her domain today....and that made for a cranky Stormy.

Shrugging his large shoulder's, Biff decided that all he needed to know was that there was one who chased bunnies, one who's crazy, and glows funny colours, and a small yappy one.
Then he walked over to where Neb was and grunted 'if there is battle, I get to crush good guys, right?'

Illsha comes galloping in on his boar seeing the group of people he decides to take both hands off the boar and wave. While he was showing off he didnt see the tree taht the boar was heading dirrectly to. The boar crashed into the tree instantly breaking its neck andthrowing its rider up into the air. AS Illsha flew through the are he cast aganisers scorcher on the ground which allowed him to slowly decend to the round thus not causing any harm. well that was the plan any way. While bringing it down towards the ground he set fire to encards hair. And then just as he was about to land he set fire to his robes and numerouse chickens that had appeared when he cast the spell. He landed on a pack of roast chicken and then started rolling around the floor trying to put out the fire.

THE FIRST ARRIVES. "ENTER, MORTAL, IF YOU THINK YOURSELF WORTHY.

I DO NOT ACCEPT FOOLS INTO MY SERVICE, HOWEVER. IF YOU WISH TO SERVE DARKNESS, PROVE YOURSELF BY DEFEATING ONE OF MY LESSER MINIONS."

The shambling hulk of one of the twisted corpses, a former Fallen Paladin, stumbled into view. Rusted armour, centuries old, hung in cracked and broken fragments on it's misshapen form. A huge two handed blade - still stained with the blood of it's last use, was gripped tightly between it's claws. It raised the weapon and started moving towards the Sorceror.

While the mage and demon combatted, Jerome began making preperations. This world had grown lazy in his absence, and nature was easily harnessed, and was even now beginning to twist and sway under his influence. Curiously though, despite his best attempts, the weather seemed unaffected. Powerful magiks were at work here, and they were rooted through a mortal, Jerome was certain. If he could harness his or her power.... this would need to be looked into.

He turned to one of his Fallen compatriots. "FIND THE ONE WITH MASTERY OVER THE SKY. FIND THEM, AND TELL THEM OF MY CAUSE. IF THEY DO NOT PROVE *WORTHY* OF SERVING ME...KILL THEM. GO NOW!"

On the back of a dark steed, the messenger went forth.

"Hah! A dead paladin? Pfah! Not a challenge at all!" Neb cast Evard's Black Tentacles to hold the creature and then hit it repeatedly with Lightning Bolts until it was blasted to bits. He'd have to cool down a bit with the spellcasting though, he'd now run out of 3rd level spells and was dangerously low on 4th level ones.

Biff jumped forward, weilding his heavy axe and flail, and bellowed to where the voice had emanated from 'Me serve evil too, I crush damn goody-goodies, do your worst, I shall crush it's skull!'

Sheera, my tiger warrior monk/druid (12/14) hides in a tree waiting to strike....... OOC: I know i have been killed like 1000 times, but I believe I shuld be have a second chance.

Biff awaited the response from the sinister voice that Neb had recieved, but after getting no answer, he was getting impatient and demanded again 'Come on, me kill good people too, test Biff!!'

<H2> "I DO NOT ANSWER WHEN CALLED BY A LOWLY *DOG*! </H2>

IF YOU SO WISH TO PROVE YOURSELF, THEN JOIN MY MESSENGER IN SEARCH FOR THE ONE WHO HOLDS DOMINIONS OVER THE SKY. YOU, MAGE, CAN ASSIST THEM, OR JOIN ME IN MAKING PLANS FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FORCES OF *GOOD*.

SO SAYETH JEROME THE FALLEN"

'Messanjur? What a messanjur? And me not dog, me half-orc.. but I good at killin, not finding people, kill, kill, kill, that's what me does.'

Sheera pulls out his +1 crossbow and fires at Talthyr. Ok, Sheera has strength 17, dex 20 (hes a tiger after all) and con is 16 (67 hps) and only wisdom is actually a good score after con as wis is 15. He has intelligence 12, and charisma is like 9. Sheera then casts Pixie Dust, and jumps out of the tree and into bushes.

The crossbow bolt thuds into the heavily armour plated shoulder of Biff, and enraged, Biff whipped around, tore the bolt out of himself, and with a ferocious roar charged at where the attacker was.

Neb is rather annoyed at this attacker, he decides to fireball the bushes that he's hiding in but then remembers that he's out of 3rd level spells for today. Instead he casts an Evard's Black Tentacles spell at the bushes, the 8 mighty tentacles should grasp anything living in there and crush it. Unfortunately that would include Biff if he charged into the bushes.

Still furious, Biff turned to look at Neb 'What for mage do that?'

THEN GO TO THE TOWNS, THE VILLAGES AND THE CITIES OF THIS LAND. CAUSE DESTRUCTION... KILL. CHAOS WILL BE OUR BANNER WHEN MY ARMIES RIDE FORTH, AND I WANT YOU AND THE MAGE TO CAUSE AS MUCH DISRUPTION AS YOU CAN.

ALSO, HUNT DOWN LARRY. DO *NOT* KILL HIM, OR YOU SHALL SUFFER TORMENT MORE THAN YOU COULD EVEN BEGIN TO DREAM OF.

GO!"

Since the mass of vines obstructed his way to the attacker, Biff calmed down, and grinned at the prospect of murder and mutilation offered by the voice.

As Legolas made his way to the home of the modding mage, his best chance of stopping this new and greater evil, he couldn't help but feel he had already lived through this before. He thought it a déja vu, but was not entirely sure. The door wasn't scorched, though he thought it should have been. Maybe he had had a dream, a vision, about this fight to cme, but in that case it had been a surprisingly vivid one.
As he stepped through the last layers of mist and entered the home, he found a ranger there, instead of the mage he had expected. It was not one he had seen before, and so he logically assumed this was another of the moderator's incarnations.
"Greetings. I have come to ask your aid in the struggle against the one known as Jerome. I fear my rangers and their rabbits aren't enough by themselves, but you have proven yourself a powerful individual in our previous struggles. Care tofight by our side?"

OOC: Larry, I'm not sure how I should envision that particular fighting style, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Oh...are we still in this fight???
I kinda got lost with all the other posts!
:D
Will post tonight.

Illsha then stands up and looks at his burnt robes, he tehn appologises to encard for burning his hair he then stands there ooking at the evil path, his mothers spirit is telling him to go down that path to serve evil and live like a drow should, but my father's sspirit is telling me to go help the rangers to preserve peace and love. But somewhere in my head my coscience is telling me to obtain balance. He then conjures up a new meditating cow jumps on the back of it and starts to clear his mind so he can see the true path, the path taht his desty lies upon

AGHHHHHH! LEGOLAS! FOR GODSAKES HELP ME!

Casts Moonblade (level 3 druid HOW spell)
*slashes like mad to get out of the vines*
Casts Shield Of Lathander (protects me from all damage(for three rounds); if you think im ubering, check the manual in HOW under priest lvl 5 spells)

Freed of the vines, Sheera leaps behind Neb and casts Miscast Magic, and stabs him with the moonblade! For the stats on the moonblade, its a +4 blade and when the target is hit, he cant cast spells the next round.