Rise Through Death to Freedom

[Rorrik]

Rise Through Death to Freedom

The man, clothed fully in his black leather, the Furdalian Eagle emblazoned upon his chest. The man will sprint up the slope to the prison gate, arrows falling around him. His blade will sing as he pulls it from the sheath. Throwing down two startled guards, he will break the door, bending its heavy hinges from the stone. He will cut down another red and gold-decked guard as he rushes up the heavy, stone steps. He will approach the prison level, the most secure floor, disposing of those barring his way, evading the bolts directed for him. As he will swing around the corner, into the first prison corridor, three crossbows will fire heavily into his back. Struggling for his breath, he will raise a wooden shield to the next volley, he will break a lock under his sword hilt. He will proceed to the next cell, feeling his lungs fill with blood as they collapse before the broken shards of rib. Breaking that lock he will continue to break another, and another. His arm exhausted from resisting repeated blows, he will swing around the corner, sword leading, to break another, heavy lock. His notched sword will fall clattering to the stones, for he will drop it at the force of four more arrows sinking into his chest. Death will creep in on his closed eyelids as he will collapse against the rock wall. The last thing he will hear—doors slamming wide as the prison will come to life.

A man, dressed in black and orange, crouches in the brush at the base of the hill, catching his breath. Looking up at the prison atop it, given the name Death as no man can ever escape from either, he contemplates his attack. He knows nothing of what his charge holds; only that it will be his last. “If you attack Death it will kill you, Inver,” Shudel’s warning lingers in his ears. Accepting that possibility, he blows a final gust into the leaves at his feet, breathing in heavily as he leaps up to run for the waiting prison door. Arrows fall around him, but he heeds them not, rushing upon the red and gold guards of Death. ‘The predator’s eyes gleam from the dark,’ he considers an old miner’s warning, cutting down the two surprised foes. Supposing that neither would bear a key, he digs his fingers between oak door and crossbar. The metal of the hinges pops and warps under his straining weight as he struggles to rip them from the stone. Suddenly, the bolts strip, the door falling from the threshold. Taking up his sword again he, rushes recklessly across the entry hall to the steep stone steps. A quick thrust opens a blossoming, crimson fountain in an enemy’s vermillion chest. At the second story landing arrows rattle on the stone wall behind, he ignores them, continuing up the flying steps to dispose of another hypocritical tunic. His sword sliding easily around the iron shield, he leaves the dead foe on the stairs as he ascends the stone flight. Again, he passes an arrow-filled landing, ignorant of the threatening darts. Inver is surprised not to meet a foe as he approaches the most secure level of Death, the prison floor.

Feeling his destination growing nearer, he swings into the corridor with only a glance to the rooftop and none behind. As he looks to the first cell he feels the force of bolts burying themselves between his shoulder blades. Three of them, their speed lifts him to the cell door, crushing his ribs into his lungs. Choking down a breath, he raises his shield to the crossbows. As he braces against another volley, Inver brings his sword pommel down on the lock. It breaks readily and he proceeds to the next, victory already tasted on his tongue despite the blood threatening to choke him. Grinning inwardly that they continue to shoot his shield, he shatters the lock and runs to the next. It too is soon broken, the next, the same. With his arm exhausted from holding back the bolts and blood running down the forearm from a lucky point, he swings his sword around the next corner, throwing all of his immense strength into the slash. Arrows whistle down the corridor as the lock breaks under the blow, the hardest of steels notching his sword. He allows the weapon to fall; he has released the greatest of the prisoners. Hardly feeling the arrows as they sink into his chest, he mocks these soldiers. They refused to exchange prisoners, now they will wish they had. He slumps against the wall, he can hear those he has released flooding the prison. Deaths falls as death shuts his mind to this life, freed from the bonds of mortality.

This singular event turned the Crussian War; a single brave soldier’s sacrifice opened the gates for Furdal’s victory over the Manchine Empire. In conjunction with the Death Prison being broken, Furdal’s Republic launched a heavy assault in the Northern theatre. With a garrison as great as Death so suddenly broken and all the great heroes imprisoned there released, the Munchinie were unable to maintain their positions and were quickly pushed back on that side, their previously victorious front, despite attempts to reorganize their forces and redistribute their resources. As the empire collapsed in the South, Shudel lead his armies in the North. His swift campaign lanced heavily into their line and several fortifications were easily captured, Turnae, Pulg, and Furle among them, before they could react to the sudden thrust. Driven by the momentum of this two-pronged attack Manchel was brought to its knees and was soon annexed to the republic. In the months that followed, Manchel’s allies, the Curten to the Northeast, delivered up Emperor Untyl to the Furdalians, an offering of peace and recognition toward the new controller of the continental Crussia. As Curtail had been only a timid ally to Manchel and had offered only political support, Shudel granted them their peace but later made them a tributary body after violation of that treaty. His swift action on that occasion forced all other challengers to the republic to take caution in dealings with them. Within only a few years before he was replaced at the counsel’s head, Shudel extended Furdal’s borders beyond the Crussian continent, expanding Furdal’s navy to become the greatest force in the world. Under the new counsel head, Panael, Furdal converted to a democracy and he was elected the first Archon of Furdal by the People. They advanced quickly to be the sole super-power in the world, leading philosophically, scientifically, socially, militarily, and economically. The democratic Furdal brought the world into a golden age of freedom and renaissance, an age of peace. All this because Inver refused fear its hold on him and died for a nation he loved, releasing comrades who led the world to a great new age.

Murtain was that greatest prisoner Inver released, after breaking the prison, he led the attack on that front and was made the Military commander-in-chief, he led every campaign of Furdal for the next fifty three years. At the ripe age of eighty-one, he was brought from his great warhorse by an arrow while commanding an attack on an enemy position in the Fifth Dalian War made against the slave trading tribes of Dalae. Upon his death bed Murtain was quoted to have said, “Inver died to make my fellow prisoners and I alive, I’ve done my best to live for freedom, now I go, to gain my chance to commend his action, I hope he’ll have some praise for me as well.” The final Dalian War was ended by that assault and slavery vanquished.

The rest of those released prisoners became great men in the advancement of Furdal, all of them attributing their greatness to Inver, thanking him for his heroic deeds, their lives, and his sacrifice. One of them wrote a tale of his attack, ending it thus; “He conquered fear and made his charge, he won us life and freedom, now we must use his first gift to share his second.”

[Komag]

no comments on this "story"?

I guess I can see why - it's very strange and odd at first, then it turns into some big outline of a history. And all of it has nothing to do with Grimrock.

my only question - super weak front door, or super strong hero?

[Sir Tawmis]

Interesting story - but it's like a wall of text. It would have been better to break up and do some carriage returns to make it easier on the eyes!

It seems pretty detailed; like it could go somewhere - and just seems to stop.

Wondering if this will continue if replies generate an interest in the author to continue.