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The Hunted Noble

by Mr.RMA

Mr.RMA The first part in a saga depicting my D&D character, Norfire, and his gradual transformation into the ranger that he was upon first meeting his fellow adventurers. Once an ambitious and woefully ignorant child of a wealthy family, his life would take a drastic turn when his first hunting expedition hits an unexpected snag.
“I do not wish to overstep my boundaries, father, but, I fret he will not be ready,” Whitmore said as he stared at his father, still in shock over what the elder noble had just told him.

“You had no such insecurities concerning your own competence when your first visit to the High Forest came, and you were a year younger than he is now. Why, my boy, would you still doubt your brother’s merits?” Pierce had a look in his eye that Whitmore knew made any continual argument a waste of time. That was the look of absolute certainty, one not to be taken lightly, as the head of the Hammett household did not earn such a rank by his mere existence alone. This house was based firmly on meritocracy, and questioning the abilities of any member was in itself a path to tread very carefully.

“I… just worry for him, father. He is well read, certainly no fool… but I would know more than anyone just how little of the real world Norfire truly understands…”

“Tis the very reason he should finally get the chance to learn about it firsthand, my dear boy. There is no greater wakeup call for a privileged young man than a visit to the High Forest, as far as I am concerned.” That seemed to be the end of it, as Pierce silently turned away and walked out of the room, pausing for a moment, waiting for Whitmore to follow. Resigning to his own concerns staying exclusively his own, the young man followed his father out.

“Your desire to keep your brother safe is admirable, Whitmore, but I need you to trust me on this, and I need you to trust him on this. Norfire will not be spending his entire life in Waterdeep; it would be a waste of his talents, a waste of his very status! The Hammetts are a proud line, but, we still languish in obscurity opposed to our fellow nobility. It is my desire to change that, allow the entirety of Faerun to one day look upon us with awe and admiration! That will not come to be if we coop ourselves up within these city walls for another generation. I know you have the capacity to make do with wherever you go, and it is my greatest desire that both of my sons uphold such qualities,” Pierce explained as they both walked down the expansive halls of their family manor to the library, where both were sure the subject of their previous discussion was currently situated.

As expected, Norfire Hammett was caught up within the pages of a tome in the brightest corner of the massive room housing a wide array of books, seen as one of the great treasures of the family line, though admittedly no one could really say for certain whether most of the books were genuine or not, as no one wanted to incur the wrath of a Hammett for questioning such validity. Pierce called over to his youngest son, who peered up from his current reading and reluctantly put it down at the realization he was being summoned.

“Yes father?” he asked, quickly readjusting his short and well combed black hair and blinking away the fatigue of reading so much text in a single sitting.

“After some further discussion, my son, we have decided you are finally ready to take part in your first annual hunt,” Pierce announced, Whitmore still wincing somewhat as the news broke out officially. Norfire’s eyes widened excitedly at this, suddenly filled to the brim with energy.

“Really? Oh, thank you, father! Thank you!” he shouted ecstatically, though he quickly calmed himself as best he could as his father motioned for him to let him speak once more.

“This is a great risk you are taking by joining us, Norfire. I do not wish for you to take it lightly, the High Forest, and for that matter, the very path to the forest, are very hazardous. Many savage creatures would not think twice over mutilating us for their next meal. You must be certain to keep a watchful eye, don’t pull off some grand heroics, and leave these risks to the more experienced travelers. You understand, yes?” Norfire seemed for a brief moment almost insulted that he’d be seen as such a useless asset in a fight, but nonetheless he nodded his understanding.

“Of course father… If I catch sight of anything suspicious I shall let the rest of the crew know with haste,” he said, granting a smile out of Pierce.

“Good boy. Now, as you likely know already the expedition is tomorrow, so, you will have to hurry along and prepare your things. We cannot tarry any longer than absolutely necessary, we must set camp at the arranged location before nightfall, lest our chance for encountering danger along the path increase significantly,” he said, giving Norfire a quick pat on the head before turning and making his way out of the room. Whitmore stood back for the time being, looking over to his younger brother with just as much worry as ever. Ever the vigilant one when it came to his older brother’s expressions, Norfire looked over to him with a scowl.

“Before you say anything, I can tell you were trying to keep father from bringing me along this year… again…” he grumbled. Whitmore let out a sigh at this, having clearly had this argument at least once before in recent memory.

“You think I just do these things to make your life miserable, brother? Does it seem preposterous to think for even a mere moment that I might actually be concerned for your safety? That I might just not wish to hear that you were torn to bits out there because you couldn’t realize just how far out of your element you really were?”

“Of course you’d think like that… You just can’t bring yourself to think I’m good enough, you never do! Oh, but wait, it’s not as simple as that, is it? You’re scared that I’m better than you at something!” Norfire’s voice had risen quite a bit as he threw out this accusation, having repressed the suspicion that his brother deliberately had been attempting to hold him back from his true potential ever since the previous year he had been denied this trip. His brother was 7 years his senior, he naturally had developed far more in that gap of time, but it still left Norfire with burning feelings of inferiority. Feelings such as those could so easily cloud one’s judgment.

“I… w-what? Are you honestly comparing this to some sort of childish game? You’re not a toddler anymore Norfire! This is reality I’m speaking to you!” Whitmore was trying to keep a cool head as he spoke, but his younger brother’s words had clearly struck a raw nerve, and he was looking visibly flustered as he spoke.

“You’re right, this is reality, and I’m not a toddler, I’m old enough for this! Father sees that, so it looks like you’re just going to have to face the facts, I’m going, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me from going!” Norfire shouted, shoving Whitmore aside as he stormed out of the room, off to prepare his things for the next day.

“Thinks he’s my damned mentor in everything… I don’t need him holding my hand anymore, I’m just as much a Hammett as he is…” he grumbled, pulling out a ring from his pocket, a platinum band with the family crest, a serpent wrapped around a tree and a marble column in the form of an H, engraved at the bezel. Slipping it on his finger, he could feel the pride of his family name flow through him, smiling as he clenched the hand tightly into a fist in determination. Tomorrow would be the beginning of his rise to the top; he had no doubt in his mind about that. This would be the springboard that brought father’s respect and mother’s pride. The second son of Pierce Hammett would have his day.

The streets of Waterdeep were absolutely flooded with people of all sorts the following morning as the crew headed out to the city’s southern border. It was a fairly typical sight to see in these midsummer months, what with the population often reaching half a million people in the midst of the warmer weather. Plenty of Tethyrians walked the streets, the majority of the dominating human population in these parts, though plenty of the Hammetts’ fellow Chondathans were seen as well through the crowds. Many of them had brown hair, averse to Norfire and several others’ black, though that mostly stemmed from the fact that their line had a shred of Arkaiun in them, not something they proudly proclaimed considering the well-known history of second-rate citizenry that ethnicity carried. On the lighter side of the population were the elves and dwarves that were rather distinct in their own ways in even large masses of people like these, and then there were the scattered half-elves and halflings, still likely to be noticed on occasion, though certainly in far lower quantities, and in the halflings’ case, only if one held a truly keen eye. Norfire had been told plenty of times that there were sizable portions of gnomes and half-orcs within the saturated streets as well, but he’d never had the chance to see either of them firsthand. Perhaps he’d spent too much time indoors, but in any case, he always felt it was a shame he never got to witness two particularly exotic races compared to those he couldn’t help but see every day. That sort of encounter in itself would’ve been quite the adventure for the sheltered noble child. Of course, it was just as much of an adventure to take part of the occasional noble business as well, though that was not to say it was of the most amusing sort… The lords in this massive city were, at best unsettling, and, well, one didn’t wish to dwell too far into what they were at worst. Pierce would often become quite snappy whenever one of his sons tried to get information concerning any encounters with them out of him, always receiving a remark akin to “just know it’s one of the reasons why I wish you find notability elsewhere someday.”

Nonetheless city matters of any sort were hardly on Norfire’s mind on a day like this, he’d be seeing plenty of strange and wondrous sorts on the journey to the High Forest, and the very thought of it excited him greatly, especially once they reached the North Gate, the hunting brigade moving along the path en route to Silverymoon, though they would be breaking away from this road once the Lost Peaks were near. Such was their usual entrance into the High Forest, entering from the west and carrying on to the river running through Dire Wood. It was a fair distance all around, certainly further off than Kryptgarden Forest, but the legends of the manipulative dragon Claugiyliamatar forced any man with a hint of sanity away from those parts. No hunt was worth an encounter with Old Gnawbone. Besides, the sheer massive scale of the mysterious remnant to a past Faerun covered in green was too grand for a thrill-seeking crew of well-prepared hunters to pass up. So long as they didn’t anger the protectors of this place, the Hammett brigade was certain this hunt would go as smoothly as the majority of the past endeavors.

It took a good few days down the path, plenty of occasions where they would have to set up camp, something that was a foreign concept on its own for the youngest of the team, used to soft and cushiony mattresses. Expectedly, not much sleep was had by Norfire in those initial days, though eventually his fatigue reached a point where he learned on his own to just take any flat plane as an opportunity to rest when he was given it. Attacks weren’t uncommon, but as the majority of the brigade were also part of the nobility’s standing army, lowly kobold attacks scattered among occasional strikes by human rogues, all thwarted in a matter of moments. Here out in the open, the crew wasn’t going to be easily defeated. Their concern, if any, laid solely in the shaded, thick forestation of their destination, and indeed, as they were set to traverse across near the entirety of the forest, they’d be spending likely an equal number of days there just moving forward as they had on the road. Norfire’s wish to see the exotic had been granted almost immediately as they stepped foot in the mystical greenery, running across several pixies that seemed to regard the humans as little to no threat as they flitted about. Echoing melodies ran through the trees as they ventured forth.

“Satyrs are in good spirits today it seems,” Pierce had murmured quietly. “Whether that bodes well for us or not is another matter entirely. Don’t get too close to any of them, boy,” he said sternly, Norfire merely nodding in response as his wide-eyed expression of wonder seemed to carry on with him throughout the entire trek into the deepest of the forestation. A few days in, the trees started to take on a different sort of appearance, paler at first, large albino oaks, though these eventually gave way to a larger quantity of petrified, black trees, all firmly planted in soil that gave a distinct red hue. This definitive location in itself was all the evidence the crew needed to know they had finally arrived at the Dire Wood once again.

“Ah, tis a good feeling to be back here once more…” Pierce said, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, taking in the entirety of the lush environment all around them. He opened his eyes a few moments after, just in time to spot a common badger scurrying along in the distance, having apparently not noticed any part of the brigade in its wandering. Pierce chuckled lightly to himself at the good fortune, drawing his bow and aiming his shot precisely “Looks like the first one came right to us… Keep watch, son, this lesson here shall be your first step to becoming a man…” he said, Norfire watching with eager anticipation. He could already hear the swishing sound of the arrow going off in his mind, the light yelp of the targeted creature to signify a direct hit… it’d be just as he imagined it.

And yet, it wasn’t.

The first sound that came wasn’t a swish, but a scream. First one, then a dozen, until the forest seemed to shake from the battle cries coming from all sides. Norfire froze up at the haunting sounds, soon accompanied by blades unsheathing and arrows flying through the air. The attackers were swift; they were but mere blurs to Norfire, who couldn’t even get more than a passing glimpse of a shadow before getting shoved into the dirt. The boy quickly went to cover his head as he heard the sounds of feet beating all around him, feeling their stomps shaking the earth beneath, waiting for the inevitable trampling that was to come, as some of the screams transformed into cries of anguish, as the gruesome sound of blades ripping into flesh started to emanate to the beat of arrows piercing veins, an uncoordinated orchestra of bloodshed, with a single, gradually drowned out voice shouting “On your damned feet boy! Run!” Obedient even now, Norfire did as he was told, pushing himself up from the ground and dashing into the dark of the woods, not daring to halt his momentum until those awful sounds were muted completely. It felt like miles, his muscles ached; his face was covered with dirt that had turned to mud from the tears streaming down his face.

Silence arrived, and with it, Norfire finally stopped running, collapsing to his knees to catch his breath. He looked around once his vision fully returned to him, seeing nothing but trees on all sides, not a single familiar being in sight. Desperately he shouted for his father. Once, no response, twice, nothing, several more times, all answered purely by nothingness. The little light that shined through the canopy began to fade as the sun began to set, and as the blackness of the night enveloped young Norfire’s eyes, he knew this would be a very different sort of night… one he would have to face alone. A pampered nobleman’s boy had to face a sort of night that he’d never dreamed he’d ever have to experience, the sort of night that didn’t guarantee him a chance to see daylight again.
  1. SismicFlareCharmander
    SismicFlareCharmander
    Nifty! Really like your writing style.
    Jan 6, 2016