One Post Short Stories

[wraith]

"The last man alive sat at a desk. There was a knock at the door ..."

Although there is a lot to be said for long-running RP stories some of my favorite RPs are those self-contained short-stories that arrive in a single post and speak volumes.
Of course I only see a fraction of these and I know there must be gems I have missed.

This thread is for airing those gems; your own or those of others that you particularly liked and for people to comment on them if they wish.

The Rules..

1) Submissions must be a self-contained story that was previously written in-game as a single post roleplay.
2) Leave a modest gap between submitting your RPs to give others a chance to shine.
3) Unless the person posting a story here wrote it and marks it 'Common Knowledge' consider it OOC knowledge.

If it's yours feel free to tweak it a little for style, grammar, spelling etc if you really feel you must.

[wraith]

M'Kay.. I'll start with one of my most recent..

Roleplay from Janna Da Hadez   (24 days, 1 hour ago)
Message sent to everyone in your realm (74 recipients)

The sergeant-at-arms of the training yards in Azzal carefully reviewed his situation.

He was lying on the ground. That was a given because the cold of the flagstones was seeping through the iron of his backplate with some insistence. There was a tight, hot pain making itself known somewhere below his stomach.. which itself was trying hard to release everything that had been presented to it in the last day. His jaw felt as though it belonged to someone else. He decided he didn't want to be around when it found him.

There was more. Someone was lying on top of him. Probably his second, Barker, judging by the stench of cloves and vinegar and the sheer dead weight pressing down on his thighs. What else? Odd.. The yard was silent.. which was wrong because last he remembered the evening drill had been well underway.

He opened his eyes with trepidation.

There was a woman looking down at him.

Oh yes.. The Woman.

She had marched up to him bold as brass in her wrecked and filthy bronze armour and had demanded to inspect his best infantry recruits. She had said something about presenting her noble credentials. He had said something that, in retrospect, had probably neither been as witty or safe as he had imagined.

Now he was lying helpless on the ground under a fat man who smelled of foreign condiments and whom, it now seemed, also suffered from a distressingly weak bladder.

He heard her, from a continent away, barking orders in a husky voice that, even in his prone and soiled state, caused hairs all over his body to rise. Possibly in self defence.

"The ten best swordsmen in this yard will fall-in behind me now." the voice growled.

He could hear the urgent clatter of armoured boots, set against a rising background of what passed for whispering between men deafened by thick padded helmets. He felt a damp chill as the still warm rays of the evening sun were blocked from him by a line of men.

"You men will follow me."
It was a declaration, not an order.

The sergeant contemplated his position as the sound of marching men faded, leaving only the echoed murmuring of the soldiers in the yard and the occasional badly stifled burst of laughter.

As he tentatively rolled the still recumbent Barker away and freed his numb and soaking legs he decided someone would suffer for this outrage, though he was not yet sure who.

Ideally it would be someone without a punch like a siege engine, the speed of a striking serpent and a knowledge of male anatomy that would put his unreasonably expensive female acquaintances from the docks to shame.

Nevertheless; someone would suffer and there were drills to complete.


Janna Da Hadez (Freeman)

[Bael]

A Dream of Change

There was only darkness. And silence. Nothing intruded. Gradually, a soft glow appeared, and began to grow. Blue, green, red, white and orange, mingling and growing. Indistinct spheres of these colours formed and started dancing, forming intricate shapes - a helix, a star, and many others, moving about fast and soundlessly. Soon they started to fade, and only the green sphere remained. It grew, and gradually a scene faded into view.

His consciousness was in a forest, a cool green sanctuary. Oak and ash stood about him, and in front of him a small, dark pond reflected the clear blue sky above and the border of green leaves. As he had taken this in, a large stag stepped out into the clearing on the other side of the lake. A proud, vibrant animal, in its prime, however, the fires of life inside it were banked as it came slowly down to drink. Suddenly, it came alive - a scent of danger on the air! Nostrils flaring, it took off at a terrific pace, onward, and the view followed.

Onward the the stag plunged, and soon it was clear that they were going upward. The terrain grew rocky, the trees more scarce. Before he knew it, the stag was racing up a long incline, and at the the top - the cliff edge! The stag slowed not at all, and without a pause leaped from the precipice! At the apex of leap the stag...changed into a massive fish-eagle, soaring onward and upward, and he followed.

The eagle banked round, and he could now see that they were on a mountain, with the forest spread down one of the flanks. But hark! what was that down below? A city besieged, burning! As he watched, the weather changed dramatically. A strong wind blew up clouds, and within minutes a false night had fallen. The rain lashed down, quenching the fires and driving both attacker and defender under cover with the ferocity of it. Thunder boomed, and the fish-eagle was hard put to stay aloft. It made a sweeping dive, across the city and toward whence the clouds had come. Up ahead there was a darkness on the ground - it couldn't be - it was moving!

As they came closer, he could see through the darkness and rain that it was actually the sea! The eagle strove mightily against the wind and rain, which would have dashed a lesser creature in a matter of moments. Worn out, the eagle finally reached the sea and could see the promise of the sun further out, golden succor.

It could not make it.

Swooping down, it dove straight into the ocean...and then nothing...and then suddenly it was reborn, leaping above the waves once more in the glorious form of a dolphin. The wind had calmed, and just as the clouds started to fade, so did his view. He was left with the lingering blue-green of the sea, and then darkness.

And then there was light. A pale dawn light, and when he sat up he was in his tent. A heavy dream, he thought to himself. One of several like it he had had, but none this stunning in scope and life. It deserves much thought, but now may be the time...

[Igelfeld]

Agony strikes Moria as she wakes from a deep slumber, utterly confused she considers the noise about her. The heavy daze begins to wane as she hears wagons and siege engines creek and tents ripple in the wind. Opening her eyes, the bright sun illuminates the scene clearly. Her tent, pitched just outside the city of Skalk.

Attempting to sit up a violent cough grips her, and as she pulls her hand away, she sees the splotches of blood now speckling it. Cautiously she raises a hand to her shoulder to feel the wide bandage now resting there, and the images of that battle come flooding back. Well, one image that is, the volley of arrows sweeping into her ranks of infantry. Moving her hand down to the left, her other wound gives a sharp twinge. Surrounded by enemy troops, one soldier had leveled a solid sword blow puncturing her armor and grazing her side. Two battles, two days, two wounds. Moria takes in a deep breath before exhaling in considerable pain. She coughs again.

"My lady! I am so very glad to see that you're awake." Said Beatrice as she carries fresh bandages and a washing bowl to Moria's bedside.

"That makes but one of us..." Moria winces as she speaks, "Pray tell me you have brought the sleeping draft?"

"My Lady I have, but I am afraid there are some issues we may need to address before we put you to sleep." Beatrice pulls the bandage from Moria's side and begins gingerly washing it.

Moria winces as the pain from the cut shoots through her entire body. "Aagh! these issues had BEST be of PRODIGIOUS importance Beatrice. For I am in no mood to deal with the mundane."

Carefully redressing the wound Beatrice replies, "My Lady, the King, our king has responded to the letter you signed. He has stepped down and the time has come to appoint another."

"Impeccable timing," Moria replies with a halfhearted smile, "Half dead and halfway across Atamara."

attending the wounded shoulder Beatrice asks, "Shall I summon the scribe then?"

Moria nods as she grimaces, "Summon him, and tell the rest to make for Ceargoth posthaste."

[Gustav Kuriga]

Akagi sits in his tent, sulking over the fact that he only has twenty-nine men and not thirty. Looking up, he sees his Captain enter the tent. "How are the men, Captain?"

"Bored, Sire. Despite the extra training you had them go through."

"Typical. I'm sure they'll be begging to come back to Massillion and sit around all day once we get marching. Anyways, I want you to find something for the soldiers to do that doesn't involve me spending precious gold in getting us time on the practice field. Anything. I don't care as long as I don't have to hear their incessant whining about how bored they are. Dismissed, Captain."

"Yes, Sire!" the Captain said before briskly walking out of the tent and gathering the men.

**two hours later**

"Captain? Where are you? I need to discuss some unit tactics with you," Gustav called out as he went through his unit's strangely empty encampment. As he neared the edge of the encampment, he saw that two groups of soldiers were lined up facing each other, with a large amount of bad apples lined up between them. When a flag was waved, the two sides let out a great shout, and rushed towards the pile of apples. They then began throwing at each other, with those who were hit walking out of the area the two groups were in. Standing agape, Gustav had enough time to shout, "WHA-!" before he was accidentally nailed in the head by an apple. He blacked out, while some of his soldiers dragged him back to his tent.

When he came to, the Captain was looking down at him, and said, "Well, you told me anything, and this should be a good lesson to the troops about always being prepared for the unexpected."

[Nosferatus]

== Abbot's favourite leg ==

Abbot wakes up in his healers tent in Luganun.
He quickly recognizes his healers and immediately asks them to pass his letters.

The healers directly put him down again and fill his mouth with rum.

"You'll need this, trust me"
The somewhat worried healer says.

Abbot gorgels and spits out the rum until he comes to it's senses, raises his eye brows and seizes the bottle form his healer to finish it that very instant.

"Ahhh! i feel much better, now let me get out."

The healers gulp and look woryful at each other before looking back at Abbot.

"Sir, we where about to take your leg sir..."

Abbot chokes and sputters from rum.

"WHAT!"

"eeh, your leg sir, it's infected, where worried the infection might spread. the leg. it has to come off."

"The monsters got you pretty bad, your lucky to be alive."
The other healer says.

"But this is me favourite one!
Abbot says surprised.

"Yes sir but we have no choice, it's either live without the leg or die."

Abbot frowns and scratches his beard.

"Well... if ye have too... don't keep me waiting will ye?! go on with it!"

The healers pause for a minute and than anxiously grab the saw.
They suspected the man to be unconcious, they never mentally prepared them selves for him to be awake under the amputation.

"Aye! what are ye doing?! "

The healers look at each other and one of them wants to answer but Abbot already interrupts them.

"Did you really think only one bottle would suffice? come on! don't stand there, get me another Gardens finest!"

Abbot sighs.

"why can't no one get anything done properly around here... bunch of pansies..."

[Triggster]

~ First Date with Axyock ~

Roleplay from Ki Hwang   (13 hours, 27 minutes ago)
Message sent to all allies in the region Nazamroth (30 recipients)

"My Lord, I have managed to arrange the camel viewing you desired," announced Tod, his voice reverberating through the tent.

"Ah! This is most excellent news Tod. Wonderful news indeed! When must we leave?" Ki questioned, jumping wildly from his seat at the elating news, whilst managing to project his voice at a volume which made Tod visibly wince.

"Within the hour my Lord, should I saddle the horses?"

"Aye of course! Do not tarry Tod, for I can hardly contain my joy at the thought of meeting such a magnificent creature."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ki could not stop himself skipping gleefully towards a young man who awaited them at the entrance of a desert warrior encampment. He had often seen camels from afar riding into the fray of battle, and had thought them certainly a force to be reckoned with. He had not, however, seen one up close, and his stomach lurched with eager anticipation at the thought.

"Greetings S-s-s-sire", stuttered the man as he bowed awkwardly.

Ki frowned slightly, before addressing the man, "Sire should do just fine boy, just one 's' you see. Now, where may be the camels?"

"C-come with me S-sire."

Ki and Tod were led through the encampment, stepping lightly to avoid the swamp of people who occupied the site. It was not long before they were met by an open stable. There, Ki stood in awe of the beast which stood regally nearby, loosely tethered to some wooden construction. Several men were tirelessly grooming the creature, before dispersing quickly as Ki approached.

"May I touch her?" Ki softly asked, his hand limp at his side.

"You m-may do as you wa-wa-wish Sire, I'm sure Axyoch w-will oblige you."

Ki nodded, extended his hand towards Axyoch and touched her firmly on the nose. She reared back at the much too swift contact, and proceeded to project a greenish substance onto the unsuspecting Taran.

"Aha! You see that Tod, fine Axyock has endeavoured to spit upon me. A sign of affection I should think."

"S-s-s-sire I s-s-s-should..."

"Yes boy, come on." Ki interrupted.

The man tried again, "you are m-mis-mistaken S-sire. Camels r-rarely spit, it is r-r-rather, w-well, vomit."

Ki's widened upon hearing this fact eventually expressed. He let out an exasperated sigh in an attempt to tune out the stifled snickers from Tod and many of the other surrounding men, held his head high, and said, "ah...well... I see, that would certainly explain the somewhat distasteful smell then. Thank you, it was most intriguing to meet Axyock here, I never knew camels were so... versatile in the use of what they consume. Judging by the colour, this is but a mixture of namely grass, as well as some internal bodily fluids and whatnot."

"Indeed S-sire, I believe s-so."

Perhaps Ki's only remorse was how the ghastly colour of dear Axyock's regurgitation managed to cover his face glowing hot red underneath.

Sir Ki Hwang
Count of Tandsu

[Nosferatus]

After already several hours of walking Abbot orders his men to stop.

"All right! get me the horse, I can't have this no more!"

Extremely uncomfortable and barley in balance, Abbot humps to the back of his crew where a soldier was holding on to his horse.

It was still raining, and abbots new wooden leg collected tons of mud making his movement barley possible.
He climbed on his horse and tried to catch his breath.

"what a pain in the arse." he thought.
But he knew from now on, he'd had to get used to it.
overcome this weakness and show none of it to his fellow Madinans.
He would overcome what ever managed to cross his path, just like he knew the republic it's self would overcome even these horrible times.

For a brief moment he smiled when he realized that thanks to all the trouble, the republic was left with only it's finest and most dedicated nobles, who are all marching as one against her foes.
Madina felt like when the Republic was founded by that select group of original settlers and a few noble immigrants.
Madina felt like a family and Abbot really appreciated that thought.

He might have lost his leg, but Madina gained a great opportunity.
which makes every lose worthwhile.