The Little Taru : The Great FadingFollow

This alliance was a capable one. Two strong paladins took the orc's mighty blows. From all around the battle several rangers, including the mithran, Solrain, fired into the onslaught. Some were here just to help, and others were fighting for the same cause... to gain a key so that they might quest for legendary artifact armor. The orcs, however, didn't intend to give up the keys without a struggle.

Somewhere in the middle of this struggle stood the little taru tossing cures as the battles continued. Today he was not questing, or soul searching.... today he was just helping his friend Solrain. The group had been battling for hours on end relentlessly and the wear was beginning to show on them. The little taru's Healer's Briault was covered in dust and tattered from the fighting

"Tiring out already?" Laughed Solrain, seeing the little taru leaning on his light staff.

"I'll outlast you , you overgrown furball!" He replied laughing.

For hours the fighting continued with no keys to be found from the orcs , but spirits were high among the adventurers. This was a band not easily discouraged...

....unitl....

The group stood surrounding an orcish dragoon, a merciless foe, who would kill just for the sake of watching it's prey die. The paladin stood toe to toe with his foe matching blow for blow then suddenly...

... the paladin's arms fell limp to his sides, his blade and shield falling to the ground beside him. A blank , lifeless expression crossed his face. The orcish dragoon quickly tore into the defenseless paladin with a sick grin on it's face. The little taru cast stoneskin upon himself and began the battle to keep the paladin alive. Without warning.... the paladin faded...

The whole group, even the orc, paused for a moment in horror of the sight. The paladin had just faded before their eyes... that's when the battle to escape began. Much to their horror others of the group had suddenly became lifeless and limp... and began to fade.

"What in Altana's name...." The little taru trailed off horrified.

With a hideous laugh, the orc began to attack the scrambling adventurers, and one by one they faded as they tried to escape. The little taru was in the rear of the group, along with a brave taru black mage, both trying to keep the other members alive.

The orcish dragoon wasted no time in finding the sources of the adventurer's cures. Leaping high in the air with it's lance it came down on the little taru. Pain ripped through his arm as the lance tore through his briault and into him.

"We're going to make it!!!" The little taru heard the black mage say to him , as he pulled the orc's attention away from the injured taru.

Quickly they scrambled with the last of the group, trying to reach the entrance to the caverns, where they could hide and rest. The little taru was almost to the entrance... when he looked back to see Solrain standing lifeless amidst the orcs.... already she was fading... Quickly the little taru and black mage turned to help the mithran... but... everything froze...

The little taru stood unable to move, around him the world had stopped and slowly the world around him was fading... "Is this what happened to the others..." he thought to himself.

There he stood for what seemed like an eternity. Everything had already faded to darkness. The little taru wondered if he was dead. He couldn't move.... he couldn't see... he couldn't feel...

With a burst, the world exploded back into life around him as he felt someone practically throwing him into the cave.

"Hurry!" The black mage whispered. Once inside the two quickly realized they were the only ones who had made it.

"Did the..... world... stop... on you too?" The little taru asked the black mage.

"Briefly, but when everything went back to normal you were still there looking as though you were dead. I managed to get both of us to the cave though.... and neither of us dissappeared like the others." He answered.

The little taru quickly healed his arm, and the two ventured cautiously back outside hoping to find survivors. They found none... The two taru's stood in silence horrified at the events they'd witnessed there. None of the beastmen had been affected.... only the adventurers...

Another weary adventurer stumbled out of the cave horrified.

"T-hey.... they're... " The adventured struggled through her tears, "All .... gone..."

"This happened to you as well?" The little taru asked, his heart sinking further as the distraught adventurer nodded.

Pulling out his Linkshell, the little taru got ready to send a message when he heard the voice of his friend Mullen coming from the shell...

"Everyone is gone. They just vanished." Mullen said sadly.

Another voice sounded, "It happened all over and it's still happening!!!" They said horrified.

Falling to his knees, the little taru whispered to himself...

"the end..."

The little taru didn't have much time to ponder the situation when he looked up to find the paladin standing at the cave entrace looking horrified. Both tarus fell backwards as if they were seeing a ghost.

"What happened to you?" The black mage asked him.

"I.... don't know... I was gone... and then I was back..." The paladin said quietly.

With that, the two tarus gave a sigh of relief. Both knew that if the paladin returned , then most likey the others would too.

As for what happened to the little taru and his fellow adventurers they'll never know.... did they all "die" for a moment... was that black nothingness the thing called death. The events of that day would not soon be forgotten. All over Vanadiel countless adventurers dissappeared while their friends stood in horror, helpless. Many adventurers fell in battle that day as their groups dissappeared from around them... Only one thing was known for certain... the Beastmen were unaffected... was this a plot by some darker power? Was this some secret weapon they were hiding that would just make their enemies "dissappear" ?

The little taru quickly snapped back to reality, pushing the possiblities aside for the time being as he smiled.

"Looks like we're camping here for the night my friends!" He laughed. If that paladin returned... then Solrain would too. Sol was not the kind of adventurer to "fade" easily and they would be there for her return.

With a small smile on his face the taru looked up into the night sky,

"Do not go gentle into that good night , my friend..." He whispered to himself.

-End-



Well as some of you may know , in the wee hours of April 14 the server of Bismarck not only had a mass booting , but all search functions went down as well. Never before had I seen it that bad. I went R0 several times and stayed that way for several minutes each time, somehow avoiding getting the total boot.

I was in an alliance with Solrain and a fellow ls member, Luathas, at the time trying to help Sol and some others get their Davoi coffer keys when it hit. Before it was over only Luathas and I were left. Somehow the our group's paladin , Stan , managed to get back on and he joined us. Sol kept trying to get back on but he eventually had to give up for lack of sleep.

Luathas, however, deserves quite a bit of recognition in all of this. The weary adventurer who came stumbling out of the cave was saved selflessy by him. While the 4 of us stood there at the cave zone , someone zoned an orc by us. The 3 of us were as safe as could be with invisi up, but much to our horror the "weary adventurer" was DC'ing when it happened. Luathas quickly slept the orc and ran away from zone to save them. After another lag spike we found Luathas KO'd from it. We did manage to get him R2'd ^.^

It was great to see a player who wasn't so concerned with keeping their own xp that they forgot to care about other players.

With all of the chaos going on from the bootings I had to ask myself what would our characters feel like if they were real with something like this happening, so I had to write. I hope you enjoyed the latest Little Taru story ^.^

....Wow! Another good one Kit. Damn Sleep and work, I miss all the fun>.<

Kit, man, keep 'em coming. That was a really cool way to incorporate server crashes, DCs, and whatnot.

Bravo!

--Arondight, Bismarck

oops 1st double post

Edited, Thu Apr 14 12:48:06 2005 by TeeBoneSteak

What an ingenious way to incorporate DCing into the game. Perfect.

My hat goes off to Luathas as well, along with the rest of the members who helped with this. Sadly, still no drop (third time here -_-) but we'll get it eventually.

I dunno how you come up with these great stories so early in the morning, Kit. I'm with Garan. I can't even spell my own name.

Nice, Very nice.
I love your work.
Almost brings a tear to your eye ^^

Bah! How dare you come back here after breaking so many people's hearts with your abrupt departure, then come back to post, then leave again, then making breakfast for everyone (good muffin, btw. How'd you get all those blueberries in there?!), then leave, then come back to defend DRG, then leave and come back to read this story and yell at me, bah on joo!

>.>


Edited, Fri Apr 15 03:14:34 2005 by Solrain