Post by Sir Haymar Glen on Jan 30, 2016 7:14:42 GMT -8
Hey all, here's my latest LoR MOC, and the next installment in Skye's story: Gollum Attack!
Chronicles of A Spy: Gollum Attack!
-----------------------------------------------------
The second my torch went out, I was enveloped in complete and absolute blackness. My eyes struggled in vain to adjust to the oppressive darkness, but to no avail.
Panic began to set in.
I wandered blindly around the room, trying to recall from my memory the layout of the place.
To my chagrin, I had been paying more attention to my strange feelings, and the nautilus shell, then I had been to the room itself. Now, my lack of situational awareness was coming back to bite me.
Closing my eyes, I willed myself to focus my mind on figuring out a way out of here, instead of panicking needlessly.
Opening my eyes, I at first detected nothing different. Then, I started to notice the room wasn’t as dark as it had been when I closed my eyes.
I was able to faintly make out the pedestal that had held the nautilus shell, as well as some of the runes on the floor. Puzzled, I moved slowly around, trying to discern where the light was coming from. To my profound surprise, the light moved with me!
I looked down at myself, searching for the source of light. Almost instantly, I noticed the light was spilling from my satchel, leaking out from under the flap.
The satchel where I had put the nautilus shell.
Hesitantly, I lifted the flap, half-expecting to be hit with some sort of spell. Instead, I beheld the nautilus shell, glowing vibrantly with an inner light.
Fascinated, I lifted the shell out of the bag, holding it up, allowing the light to shine into the room un-inhibited.
Curiously, I noticed that the light it was casting wasn’t a bright white, but rather a dappled bluish color, like how light looked underwater, which kind of made sense,given what it was.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the doorway through which I had come was revealed in the increasing light, bringing me back to the present situation.
Striding forward, I hastily exited the room, holding the nautilus shell in my right hand, and my crossbow in my left, determined to get outside as quick as possible.
Unfortunately for me, getting out was not going to be nearly as easy as getting in.
Rounding a corner, near the entrance, I stopped short in shock.
There was a huge slab of stone in my way, completely blocking the passage.
I couldn’t believe my bad luck. In disbelief I rushed forward, half-hoping it was an illusion.
It wasn’t, as I found out, colliding painfully with the immovable rock face. Slumped against the slab, I admitted defeat to myself, and, getting up, began heading back to the chamber, hoping there was another way out of this forsaken place.
Otherwise, I thought darkly, I’ll become a permanent addition to these caves.
——————
As luck would have it, there was another tunnel branching off the main tunnel, opposite the entrance to the chamber. Unfortunately, it led down, not up as I’d been hoping. Still, at least it was another way out, or so I hoped. Still, I hesitated.
Well, I thought, I’ll never get out of here if I don’t take the chance this actually leads somewhere.
Squaring my shoulders, nautilus shell held high, I advanced into the tunnel.
——————
Countless dead-ends, and what felt like several hours later, I emerged from a crevice so thin I had had to move through it sideways, and into a sizable cavern.
To my right, the rocky floor dropped away, forming a sort of shoreline for a large pool of clear, shockingly blue water, weaving around outcroppings and islands, to disappear into the dark.
In front of me, the stretch of land I was on extended to another rock face, similar to the one I had just emerged from, complete with, to my joy, another opening, hopefully leading to the surface.
To my left, the finger of land extended a fair bit farther, than ended in a sheer rock face, going up into the low ceiling. Oddly, the finger of land was dotted with small pools of water, their bottoms obscured by the low light. Various sizes of razor-sharp rock outcroppings were scattered around the bank.
Seeing nothing immediately threatening, I advanced into the open, slowly picking my way through the field of razor rocks.
Halfway to the opening yawning in front of me, the nautilus shell casting a watery light over the cavern, I caught the distinctive glint of light reflecting off metal.
Curious, I stopped and turned towards where I saw the glint.
As the light slowly revealed what was lying on the cavern floor, my curiosity turned to shock and disbelief. Strewn across the floor, in un-even heaps, was coins, jewels, gold bars, crystals, etc. I knew it was probably unwise, but I stooped beside the nearest pile, and began picking through it.
I wasn’t an Outlaw, but free gold was, well, free gold.
And I was definitely an opportunist.
Scooping up a few choice pieces, placing them in my satchel, I was about to move to another pile, when my light glinted off somethings lying near the pile I was kneeling next to. Turning, I shined the light fully on them.
Old, broken weapons………and bones.
My stomach turned to ice when I saw the latter.
Bones meant there was something in these caves that would try to eat me.
I definitely didn’t want to meet whatever it was, so I slowly backed away from the piles, moving swiftly towards the other opening, hoping to get away undetected by whatever lived down in these dark tunnels.
I was not successful.
I had drawn even with a small island of rock out in the lake, (which, the light revealed to my growing horror, a skeleton wearing Lenfel armor upon it’s crest), when I heard a rustling sound below me, at the water’s edge, and ragged breathing, like a predator sneaking up on its’ prey.
I looked down, shining the nautilus light, and almost right beside me was a hideous, bipedal creature the color of desert sand, with a single bony spine protruding from its’ back.
Caught in the light, the creature gave a wheezy snarl, baring it’s sharp teeth, and leapt at me!
Off-guard though I was, I was still able to react quickly enough, whipping my crossbow up and sending the bolt straight into the twisted creature’s chest.
It fell backwards into the water, landing with a splash, where, strangely, it’s corpse floated instead of sinking.
There was no time for me to ponder this however, as I now became aware of the sound of wheezy breathing……all around me, seeming to fill the cavern.
Afraid of what I would find, but unable to help myself, I slowly turned around, lifting the nautilus shell high.
All around me, emerging from various hiding places, were three more of the little creeps!
Dropping my crossbow, I drew my katana, just as the first of the creatures came at me.
Sidestepping its’ attack, I switched my sword to my left hand, slicing downward as I did so, cutting off the monster’s outstretched right arm at the elbow.
It let out a strangled screech and fell back against the rock, as its’ fellows hissed angrily and advanced towards me.
As the other two things came at me, I noticed they shied away from wherever the light from the nautilus was.
Getting an idea from this, I turned and shined the light full at the one on the left.
It screeched and covered it’s eyes, backing away.
I whipped around, doing the same thing to the other vile creature.
As I was doing so however, another creature, this one emerging from the water behind me, attacked, going for my un-protected back.
Turning, I stabbed this new attacker in the head, then spun back around, and finished off the wounded monster, as it attacked me again.
Distracted as I was, I didn’t notice the water in the pool beside me growing darker, until one of the vile creatures suddenly burst forth, leaping out of the water!
Taken by surprise, I barely had time to shine the light into its’ eyes before it was on me, knocking me to the ground and biting at my forearm, which I had thrown across my face defensively.
Gasping as the little monster’s needle teeth sank into my flesh (just past the vambraces I was wearing too, darn it!), I brought my other arm around and stabbed my sword deep into its’ ribcage.
Prying its’ jaws off my arm, I hurriedly disentangled myself from the beasts’ corpse, lunged to my feet, sheathing my sword and scooping up my crossbow in the same movement, and dashed into the tunnel opening, blinding and then bowling over the creature in the entrance.
Moving as fast as I could in the confined space, my sole goal now was to put as much distance between me and those nightmarish things as possible.
I lost track of time and direction, trusting in providence to get me out, and driven on by the sound of wheezy snarling somewhere behind me.
At some point however, I noticed the passageway was gradually becoming brighter, as if a natural source of light was somewhere up ahead.
Hope began to build in my chest.
Turning a corner, I saw a circle of sunlight, far in the distance, but getting closer every minute, shining like a beacon in the vast darkness.
Seeing the light growing in size, I sped up, running flat out towards the opening ahead.
Reaching the end, I skidded to a stop, reaching wildly for something to grab onto, for I suddenly found myself treading on air.
My flailing arm hit a rocky protrusion, and I latched onto it. Then I winced, because it had been my wounded arm.
Steadying myself against the tunnel wall, I looked more closely at where I was.
The tunnel end led straight off a sheer cliff, high in the mountain. Extending from the floor of the tunnel was a rocky ledge, barely three feet in any direction.
Far below, the Aines River flowed, fast and cold.
Looking to my right, I could see the remains of what had once been a set of stairs, leading off the ledge, down to the riverbank.
Now, they were just broken stumps, unevenly spaced and certainly unable to hold my weight.
A noise behind me drew my attention away; the sound of wheezy breathing, growing closer by the second!
Frantic, I looked around for another way down besides the stairs; there was only one other option.
Before I could process the insanity of what I was about to do, and with the wheezy snarling filling my ears, I jumped.
—————————————————
So, I finally found another use for those gollum figs; twisted cave creatures!
Hope you all like the next installment of Skye's story!
Cheers,
Joshua
PS. The One Ring is hidden somewhere in the MOC. Can you find it?
Chronicles of A Spy: Gollum Attack!
-----------------------------------------------------
The second my torch went out, I was enveloped in complete and absolute blackness. My eyes struggled in vain to adjust to the oppressive darkness, but to no avail.
Panic began to set in.
I wandered blindly around the room, trying to recall from my memory the layout of the place.
To my chagrin, I had been paying more attention to my strange feelings, and the nautilus shell, then I had been to the room itself. Now, my lack of situational awareness was coming back to bite me.
Closing my eyes, I willed myself to focus my mind on figuring out a way out of here, instead of panicking needlessly.
Opening my eyes, I at first detected nothing different. Then, I started to notice the room wasn’t as dark as it had been when I closed my eyes.
I was able to faintly make out the pedestal that had held the nautilus shell, as well as some of the runes on the floor. Puzzled, I moved slowly around, trying to discern where the light was coming from. To my profound surprise, the light moved with me!
I looked down at myself, searching for the source of light. Almost instantly, I noticed the light was spilling from my satchel, leaking out from under the flap.
The satchel where I had put the nautilus shell.
Hesitantly, I lifted the flap, half-expecting to be hit with some sort of spell. Instead, I beheld the nautilus shell, glowing vibrantly with an inner light.
Fascinated, I lifted the shell out of the bag, holding it up, allowing the light to shine into the room un-inhibited.
Curiously, I noticed that the light it was casting wasn’t a bright white, but rather a dappled bluish color, like how light looked underwater, which kind of made sense,given what it was.
I breathed a sigh of relief as the doorway through which I had come was revealed in the increasing light, bringing me back to the present situation.
Striding forward, I hastily exited the room, holding the nautilus shell in my right hand, and my crossbow in my left, determined to get outside as quick as possible.
Unfortunately for me, getting out was not going to be nearly as easy as getting in.
Rounding a corner, near the entrance, I stopped short in shock.
There was a huge slab of stone in my way, completely blocking the passage.
I couldn’t believe my bad luck. In disbelief I rushed forward, half-hoping it was an illusion.
It wasn’t, as I found out, colliding painfully with the immovable rock face. Slumped against the slab, I admitted defeat to myself, and, getting up, began heading back to the chamber, hoping there was another way out of this forsaken place.
Otherwise, I thought darkly, I’ll become a permanent addition to these caves.
——————
As luck would have it, there was another tunnel branching off the main tunnel, opposite the entrance to the chamber. Unfortunately, it led down, not up as I’d been hoping. Still, at least it was another way out, or so I hoped. Still, I hesitated.
Well, I thought, I’ll never get out of here if I don’t take the chance this actually leads somewhere.
Squaring my shoulders, nautilus shell held high, I advanced into the tunnel.
——————
Countless dead-ends, and what felt like several hours later, I emerged from a crevice so thin I had had to move through it sideways, and into a sizable cavern.
To my right, the rocky floor dropped away, forming a sort of shoreline for a large pool of clear, shockingly blue water, weaving around outcroppings and islands, to disappear into the dark.
In front of me, the stretch of land I was on extended to another rock face, similar to the one I had just emerged from, complete with, to my joy, another opening, hopefully leading to the surface.
To my left, the finger of land extended a fair bit farther, than ended in a sheer rock face, going up into the low ceiling. Oddly, the finger of land was dotted with small pools of water, their bottoms obscured by the low light. Various sizes of razor-sharp rock outcroppings were scattered around the bank.
Seeing nothing immediately threatening, I advanced into the open, slowly picking my way through the field of razor rocks.
Halfway to the opening yawning in front of me, the nautilus shell casting a watery light over the cavern, I caught the distinctive glint of light reflecting off metal.
Curious, I stopped and turned towards where I saw the glint.
As the light slowly revealed what was lying on the cavern floor, my curiosity turned to shock and disbelief. Strewn across the floor, in un-even heaps, was coins, jewels, gold bars, crystals, etc. I knew it was probably unwise, but I stooped beside the nearest pile, and began picking through it.
I wasn’t an Outlaw, but free gold was, well, free gold.
And I was definitely an opportunist.
Scooping up a few choice pieces, placing them in my satchel, I was about to move to another pile, when my light glinted off somethings lying near the pile I was kneeling next to. Turning, I shined the light fully on them.
Old, broken weapons………and bones.
My stomach turned to ice when I saw the latter.
Bones meant there was something in these caves that would try to eat me.
I definitely didn’t want to meet whatever it was, so I slowly backed away from the piles, moving swiftly towards the other opening, hoping to get away undetected by whatever lived down in these dark tunnels.
I was not successful.
I had drawn even with a small island of rock out in the lake, (which, the light revealed to my growing horror, a skeleton wearing Lenfel armor upon it’s crest), when I heard a rustling sound below me, at the water’s edge, and ragged breathing, like a predator sneaking up on its’ prey.
I looked down, shining the nautilus light, and almost right beside me was a hideous, bipedal creature the color of desert sand, with a single bony spine protruding from its’ back.
Caught in the light, the creature gave a wheezy snarl, baring it’s sharp teeth, and leapt at me!
Off-guard though I was, I was still able to react quickly enough, whipping my crossbow up and sending the bolt straight into the twisted creature’s chest.
It fell backwards into the water, landing with a splash, where, strangely, it’s corpse floated instead of sinking.
There was no time for me to ponder this however, as I now became aware of the sound of wheezy breathing……all around me, seeming to fill the cavern.
Afraid of what I would find, but unable to help myself, I slowly turned around, lifting the nautilus shell high.
All around me, emerging from various hiding places, were three more of the little creeps!
Dropping my crossbow, I drew my katana, just as the first of the creatures came at me.
Sidestepping its’ attack, I switched my sword to my left hand, slicing downward as I did so, cutting off the monster’s outstretched right arm at the elbow.
It let out a strangled screech and fell back against the rock, as its’ fellows hissed angrily and advanced towards me.
As the other two things came at me, I noticed they shied away from wherever the light from the nautilus was.
Getting an idea from this, I turned and shined the light full at the one on the left.
It screeched and covered it’s eyes, backing away.
I whipped around, doing the same thing to the other vile creature.
As I was doing so however, another creature, this one emerging from the water behind me, attacked, going for my un-protected back.
Turning, I stabbed this new attacker in the head, then spun back around, and finished off the wounded monster, as it attacked me again.
Distracted as I was, I didn’t notice the water in the pool beside me growing darker, until one of the vile creatures suddenly burst forth, leaping out of the water!
Taken by surprise, I barely had time to shine the light into its’ eyes before it was on me, knocking me to the ground and biting at my forearm, which I had thrown across my face defensively.
Gasping as the little monster’s needle teeth sank into my flesh (just past the vambraces I was wearing too, darn it!), I brought my other arm around and stabbed my sword deep into its’ ribcage.
Prying its’ jaws off my arm, I hurriedly disentangled myself from the beasts’ corpse, lunged to my feet, sheathing my sword and scooping up my crossbow in the same movement, and dashed into the tunnel opening, blinding and then bowling over the creature in the entrance.
Moving as fast as I could in the confined space, my sole goal now was to put as much distance between me and those nightmarish things as possible.
I lost track of time and direction, trusting in providence to get me out, and driven on by the sound of wheezy snarling somewhere behind me.
At some point however, I noticed the passageway was gradually becoming brighter, as if a natural source of light was somewhere up ahead.
Hope began to build in my chest.
Turning a corner, I saw a circle of sunlight, far in the distance, but getting closer every minute, shining like a beacon in the vast darkness.
Seeing the light growing in size, I sped up, running flat out towards the opening ahead.
Reaching the end, I skidded to a stop, reaching wildly for something to grab onto, for I suddenly found myself treading on air.
My flailing arm hit a rocky protrusion, and I latched onto it. Then I winced, because it had been my wounded arm.
Steadying myself against the tunnel wall, I looked more closely at where I was.
The tunnel end led straight off a sheer cliff, high in the mountain. Extending from the floor of the tunnel was a rocky ledge, barely three feet in any direction.
Far below, the Aines River flowed, fast and cold.
Looking to my right, I could see the remains of what had once been a set of stairs, leading off the ledge, down to the riverbank.
Now, they were just broken stumps, unevenly spaced and certainly unable to hold my weight.
A noise behind me drew my attention away; the sound of wheezy breathing, growing closer by the second!
Frantic, I looked around for another way down besides the stairs; there was only one other option.
Before I could process the insanity of what I was about to do, and with the wheezy snarling filling my ears, I jumped.
—————————————————
So, I finally found another use for those gollum figs; twisted cave creatures!
Hope you all like the next installment of Skye's story!
Cheers,
Joshua
PS. The One Ring is hidden somewhere in the MOC. Can you find it?
