The Yeti

Stigandr's Travels: Book III

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Links to Part I and Part II

Stigandr’s Travels: Book III

Our southward course carried us to the edge of the beyond and past it again, the sky morphing back into its familiar pale, blue shade. Hugr, myself, and our furry companion had made good time, sticking to the high ground where less snow had fallen to impede our progress. By the second day we had come to the yetis’ intended destination, a small outpost in the lands of men. The camp housed about two dozen yetis, although their similar appearance belied a much hardier constitution. I gathered in conversation that we were to be made privy to a rather intimate event that few men had glimpsed before. The explorer within me did mental somersaults at the thought; here was an opportunity to create novel tales never before told.

I awoke early the next morning to join the group. The sun had barely peaked out from the horizon, and the land was awash in the cool yellows of morning. The yetis had arranged themselves in a loose semi-circle, and they seemed singularly intent on whatever task was soon to be performed. Their leader, or perhaps just the one closest to the center then proceeded to reach into a pouch in the snow and produce a small crystal of the ever ice I had previously encountered. It was about the size of a man’s fist, and multifaceted like the finest dwarven gems. Its outer appearance only told half the story, however, for it possessed an inner glow that was at once refined and organic, in fact I was half tempted to assume the glowing movements within were patterned. The yeti proceeded to place the ice into a hole dug lightly into the ground, and then the group backed away slowly.

A long moment passed, and I began to think that I had merely witnessed some sort of ceremonial gathering of memories when the ice began to change. It shuddered, seeming to soak up the light around it before bursting out, growing at an ever increasing rate. It seemed to sample forms like a fire samples paths through a forest to find the one of least resistance, becoming this shape and that with nauseating speed. Finally it settled into a broad rectangular shape and began to grow, doubling its size in the first hour. I returned a scant few hours later to find to my astonishment a structure approximating that of a gate house, albeit in miniature form, barely surpassing my own height. The structure continued to grow in this fashion through the next day, and by the mid-day looked almost complete, lacking only the battlements found on the strongest defensive structures of men.

It was then that the orcs attacked, although they were of rather peculiar shape. I had heard vague tales of shraliek from the men of the east, strange goblins with hair like the north men, and these orcs were outfitted with beards that my dwarven brothers would even have been envious of. They were well equipped and moved more purposefully than in my previous encounters with orcs, and had brought ogres for archer support and wizards, who possessed a limited command of the element of fire. I admit that my heart had at first begun beating its way out of my chest, for I had seen no weapons in the encampment, and the axes Hugr carried would be no match for this marauding band. The yetis proceeded to produce from one of their great packs gleaming swords of ice, however, seemingly hewn from the same ever ice I had seen earlier. These pieces shown much brighter than any ice I had seen previously, though, and seemed to fade in and out of my sight. They ushered us back to the still growing structure, and charged as one into the marauding band.

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The skirmish raged into the night, the yetis cutting adeptly through their foes as ice hewn blades sliced through flesh, armor, and sword alike with unparalleled ease. The orcs’ numbers were great, however, and I noticed the arrival of a two headed perversion, one head adorned in a stolen tactician’s cap the other wearing mages garb, that seemed to be directing the attack. By nightfall, the yetis were being pushed back into an ever tightening perimeter around the structure, when Hugr forced me to turn towards it. In my rapture at the chaos around me I had failed to look at it in the ensuing hours, and to my astonishment I found that it had seemingly completed itself. Rows of battlements ideal for hiding the bulk of a yeti lay along its top most face, and a giant emblem of the ice forged swords now stuck out of its center, a gleaming beacon in the surrounding sky. There was something more, though, an inner glow that pulsed from what would ordinarily have been a gate, and the sense that the structure itself was watching, taking in the chaos around it and reacting accordingly.

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The remainder of the night was passed within this grown gatehouse, the orcs having pulled back to regroup. I was thus given the chance to marvel in its construction, or lack thereof. It had no seams, no bricks or mortar or even textured surfaces. Rather, it was like one huge crystal, composed of stone and ice intertwined in a single whole. We entered through the back, a door opening for us that had previously lain invisible in the faceless wall. The experience was surreal, and twice I thought that I must have gone mad in the snow, my mind creating fortresses of solitude in the rush of the biting wind; but I was surely here, among a group of hardened yetis in a crystalline structure, and surrounded by orcs.

They renewed their attack at dawn, this time with numbers that must have exceeded a hundred heads. They brought a brute like beast as well, twice as tall as myself and thrice the width. It felled a tree; changed by the buildings touch to stone like all the others in the vicinity, with a single sweep before charging at our band. To my horror, a single yeti rushed to meet it, a tiny biter in hand. The beast roared up with its fist, but struck wide, hitting a branch concealed beneath the snow. The yeti did not move quickly, but rather consciously, circling forward to dead center with the beast and picking out an angle before lunging forward, an uncoiling spring of death that ended with the blade plunged through the ribs of a skeleton, still stuck to the beast’s midsection, and into its gut. It sliced effortlessly downward, disemboweling the beast in a single sweep.

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Unfortunately, this display did nothing to dissuade the remaining orcs, and the situation began to look grim. Just as it looked hopeless, however, one strayed close to the gate of the structure, which responded by glowing a brilliant sapphire. To my amazement, the trespasser was then subsumed into the building, the light seeming to carry him inward as if in a trance. The event was met with a rush of energy that flowed outwards from the ever ice, seeming to course through the building as well as through the ice forged accoutrements of the yetis. Their swords glowed anew, and the popsicles they carried, which I had to this point been unable to ascertain the purpose of, suddenly shone with a brilliant internal light. Some of the yetis cast aside their swords, and instead focused peculiar magic from these new focuses. The effect was not just to freeze the targeted orc, but to make it seem as if no life had ever flowed through his veins. The bodies of the nearest ones were similarly cast into the gaping maw of the building, and the power again coursed through the band until the orcs had been vanquished.

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At this point I could not pick between awe and horror at those around me. They had fought valiantly, expertly, almost perfectly, but they showed a complete disregard for their opponents, cutting here and there as if carving a roast back home over the hearth fire. Then there was the strange display with their building, it now gave off an aura of hunger that made me shudder, and I could not decide whether to brand it savior or monster. How ridiculous it seemed then, to personify a building with such living qualities, but things were to grow far more uncertain in my remaining days.

I had gotten what I had wished for when I first set out, new experiences and new reasons to continue my journeys, but perhaps it is best to leave some stones unturned…

Edited by The Yeti

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wow, one of the greatest icescapes ever build for Mitgardia. Awesome stuff Yeti!

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I really enjoyed this, such an unusual structure and the action pics are all excellent. (I really like that dark shot with the lit-up gate) The use of the massed white flower peices for snow looks amazing! :thumbup: I enjoyed the ideas in the story as well, although you could shorten it a bit to make for a punchier read that matches the pace of the battle.

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Really nice architecture :thumbup: :thumbup: I really like the color scheme :wink:

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Thanks everyone for the great feedback.

Gabe: I just build whatever comes to mind with the bricks I have access to, and then try to fill in a semi-coherent story afterwards. It wasn't until after I built the little building that I realized it had this rather ominous face in the front, and decided to leverage that a bit. Moving forward the stories should be shorter though, I've decided to just use tongue-in-cheek half books to fill in the details between builds.

Lord Vladivus: Thanks, the two-headed guy is my favorite. My stellar photo editor doesn't like him, however, so you can see he made every attempt to either blur him out of the shots or crop out his offending wizard head :wink:

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The gatehouse looks great and very fitting for the Yetis :thumbup: Excellent fig posing in the battle scene too :classic:

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I love that snow technique, especially when photographed sideways and largely out of focus like that :classic:

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i really like the colours you used... also the blurred flowers work great as snow... fantastic

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Looks fantastic, the colors blend so well.

It really gives some chills.

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