Our Family
Our Family
The kids:
In an apocalyptic battle, the Lawful Society saved the world by preventing the ressurection of a chained and unnamed God, TNO. (The other gods stripped him of power by removing his name -- but his followers reacted by calling him The Nameless One.) Notelrac was instrumental in foiling the designs of TNO's chief avatar, only to be cursed and sent plummeting off a cliff to a certain doom.
At the last moment, Notelrac was freed from the hideous mind mentical tentical control, and he called out to Lady Teela, his patron. She, being the Goddess of Luck, transferred him to an alternate world.
Llerendel petitioned her goddess to follow her love. Because of the services she had provided to the Lawful Society, the world, and the Gods themselves, it was granted.
For many days, Notelrac and Llerendel bounced from universe to universe, never knowing when they would be picked up and swirled away. Stacey was born, and then Scotty -- making adventuring that much more difficult.
Finally, the family landed in Towns End, a small town within a days ride of the capital of the Empire. They settled down, with Notelrac turning his hobby of ironweaving into a profession, and Llerendel settling down as a full-time mother and part-time midwife. Several more children followed.
Alas, their happy idyll was interupted. One day, a high church prelate was in a carriage that took a wrong turn, and ended up in their tiny hamlet. Helpful as always, Llerendel gave them complete, concise, and accurate directions. The prelate was struck by her maturity and beauty, and ordered his guards to force Llerendel into the carriage, and away.
Stacey saw the abduction, and told her father and Scotty. Scotty and Stacey were greatly surprised at their father's reaction. Instead of railing against the injustice of it all, or trying to convince the local authorities to do something, he got a dusty box from the back of their storeroom.
Inside were strange and curious effects. A thin bone wand with a glyph engraved into one end. An extraordinarily large crossbow. A long silver-edged dagger. Four bottles, three rings, and most strangely -- two silver caps.
Stacey got her mother's dagger and paralysis wand, and Scotty went off to practice with the arbalest. Notelrac put on the rings and placed the silver caps on the ends of a seasoned wooden staff.
Meanwhile, Llerendel had prevented an assault on her dignity with a well placed blow to the you-know-where. Enraged, the prelate ordered Llerendel tied. When they reached the capital, she was locked away in the cathedral quarters. The prelate was called to the Emperor's bedside, so she was spared further attacks that night.
Notelrac, Stacey, and Scotty arrived the next morning, after fostering the two younger children with neighbors. While very out of place in Towns End, their attire and equipment was not so unusual for the cosmopolitan center of the Empire. Scotty's arbalest was peacebonded, but nothing else.
Through a liberal use of their children's college fund, Notelrac was able to find out the particulars of the prelate's corruption and peculiar irreligious practices. Llerendel was not the first honest woman he had accosted, but the prelate's position and proximity to the Emperor's ear had shielded him from reprisals.
Ah, it was a glorious adventure. The children had never dreamed that their father was such a sneaky low-down dirty fighter. They had always been taught to be polite, to wash behind their ears, to respect their elders -- and here good 'ole Dad was clubbing people from behind, ordering them to cover their faces with soot, and letting Scotty intimidate fat old women with his arbalest.
Ease your troubled heart -- they did rescue Llerendel before any further outrage was done to her person. The captured and quivering prelate offered them gold. He offered them land. He offered them sundry magick items. But Llerendel had other ideas...
The next morning, morning chapel appeared normal. Pious courtiers, visiting barons seeking to curry favor with the church, and wealthy townspeople all crowded into the cathedral. But midway through the service...
There was a loud boom as Notelrac dimension-doored to the top of the nave. Dangling below him was the upside down body of the prelate, naked. A fact which the eye did not notice at first, as the prelate was completely shaven and bright yellow.
As Notelrac slowly feather-falled to the altar, the prelate, in a stuttering voice, related his misdeeds and sins -- not only against Llerendel, but also against his previous victims. He apologised profusely, and asked for the Emperor to replace him as prelate so he could retire to a remote monastery to complemtate his misdeeds.
The pennance complete, Notelrac let loose the prelate, who was quickly given a robe and shuffled away.
Needless to say, Notelrac and Lerendel were on the next boat to Puddleby...