Gormonkane. The Avatar of the Elements. The Champion
of Tyrra. Held in a prison for 1,000 long years.
Yes, by now must everyone in Avendale has heard of
Gormonkane. This is the story of how he was finally
freed from his long imprisonment by two humans, a
half-fae, a stone elf, two Sarr, a dwarf, a biata, and
an Amani elf.
It was Sunday morning of the most recent Avendale
gathering. I guess that would make it about the 21st
of July, but I would have to double check that to be
sure. I had just gotten out of a long morning
conversation with Squire Kheldon and Sir Celdric, and
I was milling about on the field with Sir Kaylin and
Noble.
Suddenly I heard a voice in my head, asking me if I
had been involved in the previous dealings with
Gormonkane. I told the voice that I had, and it told
me to follow it. So I did.
I began walking off, and Sir Kaylin looked at me and
said, "Seronia, where are you going?"
"I am going to help Gormonkane," I told him.
"Are you being compelled to go?" he asked me.
"No, I am going of my own free will," I replied.
"Can I come?" he inquired.
The voice agreed that he could come too, and so Sir
Kaylin followed me to where the voice was leading us.
When I got there, I found that the rest of the group
had already been assembled. It was heavy in members
of House Bashere, and also included Olspi of the
merchant's guild. Altogether, our group was composed
of Sir Kaylin, Bling, Morris, Dale Conners, Titania,
Jimmy Redgrave, Lathaya, Olspi, and myself.
I looked around, and thought that we had a pretty good
composition. We were heavy in healing and life spells
with Olspi, Morris, and myself. We had Bling and
Lathaya for celestial support and Jimmy for the do
everything role that rogues often play. With Dale,
Titania, and Sir Kaylin, we also had a good contingent
of fighters, so overall it was a very solid group.
Unfortunately, many of our spell casters were low on
spells, especially Morris, so we would have been in a
lot of trouble had not Gormonkane decided to reset all
of our abilties. We were very thankful for that
gesture on his part.
Well, in order to get to where Gormonkane was being
held, we all stood in a circle, and then a portal
opened up behind each of us and we were pulled back
through the portal. We re-appeared in another place
by being shot back through those same portals. We all
kind of ended up in a heap on the ground, knocked down
by crashing together.
Morrris and Bling informed us that this was the same
place where they had talked to Gormonkane the last
time, and warned us that Gormonkane was potentially
guarded by chaos elementals. Gormonkane explained
that we would have to fight our way through many rooms
full of chaos elementals if we hoped to make it to
what we needed, which was the Staff of Balance.
We realized that this undertaking would be very
dangerous, but that we would have to do it, anyway.
The first few rooms of chaos elementals weren't too
bad, but the fighting was grueling, especially since
it was very hot, and we were beginning to wear down.
To make matters even worse, we were running out of
spells. Of course, Gormonkane fixed this by resetting
our abilities, especially those of Morris and Olspi,
at a pretty regular pace.
The next few rooms got even tougher. Several times
the majority of the group was dropped, and it looked
like we might fail in our mission. The chaos
elementals would continually circle us, and I would
try to defend the back. Unfortunately, it was not
easy to do, and so the back line would constantly
fall, leaving the front line vulnerable. We survived
several times of this occurring only because
Gormonkane kept helping us bring our people back up.
One particular battle that I engaged in was rather
foolish. I found myself separated from the rest of
the group, alone with a chaos elemental. The chaos
elemental attacked, and I fought back, but I
discovered that I could not affect it with my weapon.
I activated an enchanted blade, and went after the
creature, despite the fact that I was swinging for
half as many dagger blows and it could take twice as
many blows as I could. Somehow, though, I managed to
take it down and rejoin the group, proud in my
accomplishment but angry at myself for getting so
badly separated like that.
At any rate, we continued to move on, and finally we
came to a room filled with one standing chaos
elemental, who looked very large, and many sitting
chaos elementals. The large chaos elemental began
taunting us, telling us that even if we got the Staff
of Balance, we wouldn't know how to use it, and it
would overcome us. The elemental even managed to
vampire charm Morris, but Olspi and I practically
tripped over ourselves diving to awaken him.
After that, Sir Kaylin and I, the only two people in
the group who could resist charms, stepped to the
front. We continued to talk to the elemental, and he
challenged us to a combat for the Staff. We would
choose three of our best to fight against only him.
Sir Kaylin, Titania, and Dale, our three fighters
stepped forward. We later realized that we should
have put Morris in there as a healer, but by then it
was too late.
The combat began, and we were actually doing very
well. Sir Kaylin was blocking almost all of the
elementals blows with his shield, and Titania and Dale
were hitting the elemental from the sides.
Unfortunately, the elemental then used a slay to drop
Sir Kaylin, and I figured we were finished. I didn't
realize, though, that Titania and Dale both carried
magic items with healing capabilities. They were able
to heal Sir Kaylin, and we were still in business.
Sir Kaylin kept going after the elemental, while
Titania and Dale kept hitting it from the sides and
doing healing when necessary.
Finally, after much effort, the chaos elemental went
down. We grabbed the staff and ran, and the little
chaos elementals came after us. Several of our number
were taken down, but we managed to get them back and
heal them up. Finally, we made it back to the room we
came in through, reformed into the circle, and went
back through the portals.
We came out somewhere near Grienkala, but just on the
outskirts of it. Apparently Gormonkane was able to
use the Staff to cure himself and then to free
himself, and we just watched in awe as this
unbelievable being stood before us.
He thanked us for our help, and asked us to tell him
of Avendale. We figured, why tell him when we can
show him, and so he came with us to Avendale.
Actually, he allowed us to go to Avendale in grand
style, flying there under our own power. It was an
amazing experience, let me tell you.
Once in Avendale, we introduced Gormonkane to
everybody, and people were amazed to meet the famous
Son of Tyrra. He also aided us in our battle against
the fire elementals later that day, swinging for fifty
dagger blows of ice against them and using his almost
unlimited supply of healing for the benefit of the
town, as well as reseting abilities.
In the end, the story of Gormonkane still has much to
be written in it, and I think that we have not seen
the last of him by a long shot. And for Avendale,
that's a good thing.
Scribed by Seronia on the 6th day of August in the year 602.