A Life Lived Well
Added Tue Feb 1 17:21:08 2005 at level 11:
Cowren was born the only daughter to the brewers of a tiny dwarven village. Her family kept the inn, and made all the spirits of the ville. Her neighbors, the Brubagles, were good friends of her family, and they were the farmers who supplied much of the grain and vegetables to the small village. They, too, had an only child, a son named Hugan who was the same age as Cowren. The two grew up together since their families were so close. They knew at a very young age they had a special bond, and even as children they told their parents they would never part, and in childish ideals that they would marry and live happily ever after. The two made good on their promise, marrying at a young age and starting a farm of their own. Cowren and Hugan Brubagle had six children, five boys, and their youngest a girl. They kept a happy, full house, and were good parents to their children. The most beautiful part of their farm was planted with apple trees when their first was born, and a small shrine to Amaranthe was set up in the middle of the small grove. Cowren bore her children there, mourned the deaths of her parents there, and watched the seasons change. She taught her children religion, respect, and the ways of the maiden, mother, and crone. As their children grew older, they took over more responsibilities of the farm, built houses on it, expanded the farm lands, and started families of their own. The youngest girl found love and a desire to travel, and she moved to far off lands in search of a better world. One day a pair of dark necromancers came to the tiny village, seeking subjects for vile acts of evil. They knew dwarves were hearty, and they wished to practice new poisons and curses on dwarves, striving to find something in their art to take down even the strongest figures. They chose the tiny dwarven village because it was far from civilization, far from crime. They knew the villagers would never suspect their dark research. They took several of the villagers, including Hugan, capturing him one day while he was returning from a town council meeting. Cowren worried sick where her love was, not knowing the dark plot he had fallen victim to. Weeks passed and she was inconsolable. One day, one of the village's hunters escaped the dark necromancers, and managed to take the news of what had happened to the village before he died to the illnesses they had plagued him with. He told Cowren the dark news that her beloved had been killed, his body desecrated by the necromancers dark pets. Cowren fell from her swirling despair to a blind rage. She gathered the village folk, and took them to the necromancers hiding place to make them pay for what they had done to her people, and her love. When they arrived, however, the necromancers had left, leaving nothing but the bodies of their sick experiments. Cowren took Hugan's remains home and buried them at the base of their favorite apple tree. Her rage still held, however, and her empty house was more than she could bear. Life for her was not worth living without her love, but she knew her time had not come yet, could feel that the crone was far from visiting her. She decided to leave the village behind, to seek revenge on those who practiced the dark arts and preyed on the in