Into The Manor #5

Huthgar belched. "Tis Brom, I tell you!"

"Okay, so who is this 'Brom' again?" asked Samuel.

"A damn murderer!" Huthgar replied, downing another large gulp of ale. "Tha worse enemy of dwarven-kind! A traitor to his people!"

"If he's such a special enemy of the dwarves, why is he plaguing this human town?" asked Lily.

"'Cause he hates everybody!" cried the dwarf, slamming his tankard down onto the table and sloshing ale everywhere. "He likes ta kill . . . fer tha killin's sake! He worships Nillium; a dark an' evil god. Sacrificed a whole clan of dwarves to the bugger, he did."

"How does that connect to a haunted house?" asked Erlik, daubing ale from his red robes with a towel and shaking his head. "Slob," he breathed.

"Tomb, not house," corrected Lily.

"Tomb, house . . ." the wizard shrugged. "What's the difference? Haunted is haunted in this place. I mean, we're sitting in a tavern called the Wailing Banshee; of all things."

"Sir Reginald is dead and buried," said Samuel, belaboring the obvious. "So there's some difference."

"Brom nae be a ghost!" insisted Huthgar. "He's a evil bastard, aye, have no doubt, and a powerful cleric . . . but no ghost!"

"Okay, so he's an evil, bastard cleric that's fixing to be a ghost," Erlik shrugged again. "The townspeople want the bandits dealt with; driven off or killed. Let's just be about it."

"Aye!" cried Huthgar, jumping to his feet and lifting his waraxe over his head. "'Tis high time tha bastard died!"

The Manor #5, by our friend, Tim Shorts, of Gothridge Manor, is filled with little one off adventures this time around, as opposed to the single adventure we have come to expect. In the above "short" I've combined one of the characters found within with Tim's latest offering: Crypt of Sir Reginald. I'm using the Crypt to supplant the Haunted House offered -- located on page twenty -- in this issue of The Manor.

Tim's a good man for coming up with ideas. This time he's collaborated with Chris Coski and Sean Robson, two names that are unknown to me, alas. Jay Penn -- another unknown to me -- provided the artwork, making for some right evil looking bastards. Well done Jay!

Sean Robson provided a nice list -- located on page twelve -- from which to create tavern names; I used one above. I plan on using one of Chris Coski's Cursed Concoctions -- located on page nine -- in the next short. A friend has talked me into writing a story based upon Tim's offerings, though it didn't take much arm twisting to tell you the truth.

Now that I'm working with The Manor #5, I'll be using characters and concoctions offered within to tell the story of our intrepid adventurers: Huthgar, Lily, Samuel and Erlik. I'll be posting the stories here, on the Blog, in chapter form.

Hope you enjoy them.