PrinceCon XXIX - The Tree of Life

Monsters (the player characters), driven to the edges of the Great Wheel, mount counterattacks upon the demihumans.

The Story

In the days of old, dragons roamed the Great Wheel and the men of the Axis saw this and were displeased by it. Rising, they took arms and hunted the Lords of the Sky to their last… when finally the great sage, Granleel, called an end to the hunt.

Following that bloody era, humankind and their cousins spread, pulled by the irresistible force of the turning of the wheel. They poured into the lands of the Fomorians, children of the unknown goddess, without cause and took all that they desired by the sword. Their bloodlust had made them confident. No village could withstand their invasion. Soon the people of the night were purged from their motherlands and murmurs of bloody discontent spread throughout their camps. Their people slaughtered by the fair races, their children starving in the wastelands… how long before they too were erased from the surface of the earth as the dragons before them? Yet all was not lost. A humble troll emerged from the shadows and, in his hand, he held a sign of hope: the next generation of the Lords of the Sky, for these wise beasts had secreted their young from the murderous intent of their foes. All was not lost and sooner or later, vengeance has at last come to hand!

Henchlings! You may not be the best of the best, but the fact is that you are the last of the last… and we need YOU! Whether or not you remember, whether or not you were drunk, whether or not you were under enchantment: last night each and every last one of you signed up with the resistance. That’s right, you are the few, the proud and the ugly that’ll bring our people home. We’re fighting for our countries, for our kings, for our young and for our loot, and we’re taking it all the way to the Axis, got that? You got it, He-Who-May-Not-Be-Named has ordained that we shall seize the Tree of Life itself and make these sniveling weaklings bow down to us.

What? You think you aren’t man enough, hmm? Well, then be Monster enough for the Goddess’ sake! We have to tow the line here, folks. We need every last one of you from beholder to drake, born yesterday or otherwise. So pick up your manual and ask a mage to read it to you. Divide yourselves into lines by race and class (that would by occupation, you one-eyed pansies), now march to registration and divvy up. There are missions to be fulfilled, people to kill and treasures to be reaped! When you have been registered, inspected and otherwise put through your drills, select your squad leader from the posts about the hole. Return when your mission is completed and not a moment before! There will be copious quantities of ale (if you capture it and return with it) for those who come back here again. Don’t be shy, boys! Live or die, it’s all a flip of the wheel anyway and if we let them push us around much longer, we’ll be on the far side anyway!

We here at Henchling Hole believe in you. Go get `em, trolls!