Role
Part One: An Appetite For Agony
Added Mon Apr 13 13:59:46 2015 at level 1:
A tiny fountain of bright red blood sprayed out of the prone opossum's
thorn-pierced neck, spraying young Obughum in the eye.
"No squealing!"
Obughum said it but he didn't really mean it. The swamps knew he was lying.
He liked the squealing. But he didn't want his father to hear. What would he
say? Obughum held a thick hand over the opossum mouth and drew a sharp breath
when the animal's teeth closed over his finger.
"Why, you little...!"
But the pain brought him back to reality and he felt the full, crushing
weight of the sorrow he had inflicted. He squeezed the little beast until a
thick red sputum leaked from its mouth and it breathed no more.
Just then, he heard rustling in the bushes some distance away. His father was
returning.
"Wot, wot!" the old man's voice called out. Moments later, he emerged from
the brush - a silver-haired, mustachioed human in old and filthy explorer's
garb, wearing a broken monocle. Mr. Bogglesworth. He was empty-handed. His
hunt had not gone well.
Obughum stood and wiped away his tears, holding the opossum's fresh carcass.
"My boy," Mr. Bogglesworth said, panting and grinning. "I knew I kept you for
a reason."
That night, over a crackling fire of dried swampmoss, he told Obughum a story
about twins devils named Triumph and Disaster, who lulled soldiers and
hunters into pride or despair and led them to their dooms.
Mr. Bogglesworth was a good father. A wise man, if a little eccentric, who
preached Akresius' teachings of stoicism and appreciation in the face of
struggle. And he was a hero. That, Obughum could not doubt. For it was he who
rescued Obughum from the headhunters of Mal'trakis, after the young giant
watched the horrid villagers cleave apart and roast the rest of his family.
(They had been snatched after losing their way trying to visit their friend,
Jara, in Whistlewood.)
Obughum, now a rather large orphan, immediately latched onto Mr.
Bogglesworth, and found that his lessons about Akresius fit nicely with his
understanding of the order of the natural world. The natural order is a
struggle - it is combat. Why face it with anything less than stoicism, and
why search for anything other than beauty?
Obughum had barely aged beyond adolescence, but his new father had gone from
a spry young man to an elder in the decades since they had met. He knew what
was not far off for Mr. Bogglesworth. The stress gave Obughum a terrible
appetite to hear creatures squeal.
An appetite for agony.
Part Two: New Journeys
Added Mon Apr 13 14:01:44 2015 at level 1:
Mr. Bogglesworth had but one truly sharp blade, and he used it to keep his
mustache groomed. Obughum would watch in wonder at the care and effort Mr.
Bogglesworth put into his facial hair, and he felt as though he were left out
of some incredible ritual being unable to grow his own.
"Is your mustache kind of like your special prayer to Akresius, pops?"
Obughum asked.
Mr. Bogglesworth laughed.
"Ho! You could say that."
The two lived a life full of ritual, their bonds forged by the hardships and
rewards of the wilds. They hid from headhunters and fearsome swamp beasts
like alligators. All the same, they revered the wonders and horrors of the
natural world. Mr. Bogglesworth had long sensed Obughum special connection
with it.
They starved together, they dined together. But one day, Mr. Bogglesworth
embarked on a journey he could only take alone. He died with his eyes open,
staring straight up at the sky, his arms crossed over his chest, in stoic
repose.
Obughum wept over the corpse of his second dead father when out of some
nearby muck, an alligator appeared. With an unexpected gentleness, the
reptile took Mr. Bogglesworth's legs in its jaw and slowly receded into the
swamp's murk.
Obughum was certain that Akresius gave his most beloved and devout follower a
worthy sendoff. Akresius is the natural struggle. Akresius is the swamp. His
father was a great father, and a devout follower of Akresius. So Akresius
must be the best father.
What else could Akresius be? Obughum wondered.
Obughum left all of Mr. Bogglesworth's belongings - his mustache knife, a
makeshift pen and a journal that Obughum couldn't read - in a pile beneath
some old vines. He crept out of the swamps and avoided the dreaded rats and
youngbloods of Whistlewood, eventually making his way onto the Feanwynn
Weald, where the open air took his breath away.
Part Three: Mr. Bogglesworth's Journal
Added Mon Apr 13 14:03:36 2015 at level 1:
Mr. Bogglesworth's rotting journal lies in the swamps between Whistlewood and
Mal'trakis, turned to the following page:
Day 4,243 of My Ignoble Sojourn:
What darkness lurks in the hearts of cloud giants, I wonder?
Oh, what horrors I have seen in this swamp, and my young companion can count
himself among them. Still, I love the child. No matter that he seems to
understand the vines, brambles and alligators better than he understands his
fellow man.
During my safaris, I have come across savage beast and even more primitive
man. I have seen a centaur turned inside-out by disease. I have seen
soldiers' valor and cowards' urine. Tut, tut!
The giant boy thinks me a hero. An avatar of Akresius himself. I pray I die
before he learns the truth - that I am but a coward. Discarded from the ranks
of the Galadonian cityguard and forced by my cowardice and greed to work for
that maniac, the High Lord, I abandoned the rest of my party to headhunters.
There. I put it to paper. I cannot deny it.
The boy was my salvation. Had my cowardice not been more powerful than my
will, the rest of his family would be saved. He would not have seen what he
saw. He may have been free the madness that drives him to play with his prey.
But I saved a life, and I taught him what I wish I could have known myself,
and that must be worth something.
Akresius, you would have every reason to ignore my prayers. But may your path
save this young giant as he saved me.
Part Four: A Rude Awakening
Added Wed Apr 15 18:24:34 2015 at level 23:
Obughum sat before a cave at the top of a mountain, gazing into Lord
Akresius' sanctum, stunned.
His reverent calls, bizarre as they may have been, were taken as mockery and
heresy by the deity he worships. He thought back upon what his father had
taught him and realized that it must have been wrong - or, perhaps, that this
was some kind of test.
And so Obughum sought out Talisin, one famously favored by Lord Akresius, and
learned that Akresius does not typically take the form of an alligator, and
that much of what he had previously thought about the god was wrong.
"All men are fools," Talisin told Obughum.
The statement resonated with Obughum, as it is something he had long
suspected. But he never applied that idea to Mr. Bogglesworth, who had taken
on a godlike status in Obughum's memory.
Akresius' rejection has driven Obughum to search out flaws within himself.
Upon the sort of reflection of which he is capable, he realized that he
shrieked before Akresius like a petulant swamprat. Lord Akresius, however,
demands a noble lion, who can command comfort and fear with a mere gaze.
A noble lion, then, is what he will become.
It should also be noted that Obughum has an unfortunate inability to
understand subtle turns of phrase, and often misses implied statements. For
instance, a crimson-stained angel's offhanded remark has left Obughum
seriously unsettled at the notion of joining some other god's circus.
Part Five: Family Structure
Added Sat May 9 12:44:31 2015 at level 48:
About a century has passed since Mr. Bogglesworth's death, and Obughum still
remains clueless to the strange old man's con. He still, to some extent, sees
him as a mostly flawless saviour - memories of him becoming more rose-tinted
with each year that passes. It was Mr. Bogglesworth, after all, who saved
Obughum from death - and from a life as a solitary orphan - and pointed him
to Lord Akresius.
Obughum has found plenty of things to glom onto. The Outlanders have provided
a home and a purpose, ever since the Harbinger Lilyth solicited him early in
his wanderings outside the swamps and offered him a home. Lord Akresius has
provided discipline and some amount of structure, and has taught Obughum how
to present a harder front.
Curiously, some of the grammar lessons that Mr. Bogglesworth provided have
begun to fall by the wayside. While the lessons saved Obughum from the
terrible fate of being stuck speaking in the third person, he has begun to
drop certain parts of speech in favor of expediency - or perhaps simply
because he has been spending too much time around other giants.
A particularly interesting relationship Obughum has developed is one with a
cloud giant ranger of the Island named Noth. It began as a fierce rivalry,
and has evolved into one of relative friendship and mutual respect, though
the element of rivalry has not diminished. Lord Akresius has told Obughum to
fill the Chalice with Noth's blood, and Obughum looks forward to the day and
the opportunity to make that happen.
Obughum's primary goal, now, is to prove himself the 'best' priest of Akresius,
though it remains to be seen if he understands what that truly means.
Part Six: The Swamp Moon (True Victory)
Added Wed Jun 3 01:02:15 2015 at level 51:
On nights when the insects buzz loudest and the moon gazes through the
cypress trees, Obughum feels him. It might be that his memories of youth in
the swamps become sharpest on these nights. Or perhaps it is that his
recollections are as murky and confusing as the swamps themselves.
But the face on the moon - he is sure it is the face of Mr. Bogglesworth.
Obughum's youth is over, and in his middle years he has taken to reflecting
more deeply on his youth and what it meant.
As the moon waxes and wanes, Mr. Bogglesworth's old lessons of the
wilderness come into focus.
But so, too, do small things both comforting and troubling. His mannerisms,
his movements, his quirks and sayings. Mr. Bogglesworth's stories about a
Strange Island he had set out to explore. Of tigers and ruins and ghastly
things no man should have to see. But he never explained what brought him
to the deepest swamplands. And the bizarre rituals and stories he told
about Akresius have turned out to be far from accurate.
Obughum told Akresius that his idea of Victory was to promote struggle so
all would learn to value life - an idea Akresius said was not well
developed. After speaking some with Akresius' Avatar, Marintok, Obughum
came to understand that the Victory that Akresius sought for him was a
deeply personal one.
It soon became clear that his Victory had always been there, lurking
beneath the surface like an alligator in the swamps. He had just
failed to see it.
Mr. Bogglesworth had become an idea to him. His flesh and blood were gone.
His bones were likely crushed and passed by an alligator that is long dead.
He has returned to Nature. It is impossible to tell, now, what was real and
what was not. But to become larger than life and loom like the moon, as Mr.
Bogglesworth does for him, is Victory.
He would have to adhere as closely as possible to the tenets of Lord
Akresius' faith, while simultaneously seeking large, symbolic statements to
make. True Victory is achieving the immortality of legend through deeds
of integrity, and bringing others to find Lord Akresius through one-on-one combat,
glorious acts, and mentorship. It is to die and become like the moon - cold,
distant and untouchable, but a powerful lantern in the dark for those
who later come to wander the twisted trail of life.
PK Wins
Apr 14, 2015|Lv 20|The Past Grove|Abrian vs 1: [20] Obughum (100%, stab)
Apr 17, 2015|Lv 25|Mausoleum|Atxi vs 1: [25] Obughum (100%, slash)
Apr 17, 2015|Lv 25|Forgotten Crypts|Fajafeafod vs 1: [25] Obughum (100%, fire seed)
Apr 17, 2015|Lv 25|Azreth Wood|Shika vs 1: [25] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
Apr 17, 2015|Lv 25|The Open Plains|Fajafeafod vs 2: [24] Cynja (52%, searing cut), [25] Obughum (47%)
Apr 21, 2015|Lv 33|The Eastern Road|Klecobek vs 2: [40] Soliah (95%, chaotic blast), [33] Obughum (4%)
Apr 22, 2015|Lv 34|Khalid River|Shaelana vs 2: [37] Aurescmont (96%, punch), [34] Obughum (3%)
Apr 22, 2015|Lv 35|Akan|Krungyok vs 1: [35] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
Apr 23, 2015|Lv 35|Forest Road|Jackners vs 1: [35] Obughum (100%, sunray)
Apr 23, 2015|Lv 35|Forest Road|Baktola vs 1: [35] Obughum (100%, sunray)
Apr 23, 2015|Lv 35|Galadon|Khengu vs 1: [35] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
Apr 23, 2015|Lv 35|Outskirts of Galadon|Khengu vs 1: [35] Obughum (100%, fire seed)
Apr 26, 2015|Lv 38|The Imperial Palace|Klecobek vs 2: [38] Obughum (16%), [36] Drelvine (83%, mental jolt)
Apr 28, 2015|Lv 38|Galadon|Tychukon vs 1: [38] Obughum (100%, fire seed)
Apr 29, 2015|Lv 39|The Outlander Refuge|Fessara vs 2: [39] Pon (35%), [39] Obughum (64%, fire seed)
Apr 29, 2015|Lv 39|Feanwyyn Weald|Garnon vs 1: [39] Obughum (100%, fire seed)
May 6, 2015 |Lv 40|Ruins of the Deep|Noth vs 2: [41] Pon (70%, venomous cloud), [40] Obughum (29%)
May 6, 2015 |Lv 40|Galadon|Jackners vs 1: [40] Obughum (100%, sunray)
May 6, 2015 |Lv 40|Khalid River|Aurescmont vs 1: [40] Obughum (100%, fire seed)
May 8, 2015 |Lv 43|Kuo-Toa Lair|Bhelgus vs 1: [43] Obughum (100%, entanglement)
May 11, 2015|Lv 50|Galadon|Hitrilipimi vs 2: [50] Obughum (72%, beating), [45] Pon (27%)
May 11, 2015|Lv 50|Fortress of Light|Rilanith vs 1: [50] Obughum (100%, bite)
May 11, 2015|Lv 50|The Redhorn Mountains|Rilanith vs 3: [51] Gromm (32%), [50] Obughum (3%), [46] Pon (63%, beating)
May 12, 2015|Lv 50|The Redhorn Mountains|Rilanith vs 2: [51] Jeede (1%, ), [50] Obughum (98%)
May 12, 2015|Lv 50|The Redhorn Mountains|Rilanith vs 2: [51] Jeede (5%, ), [50] Obughum (94%)
May 13, 2015|Lv 51|The Dragon Sea|Talisin vs 2: [51] Obughum (1%), [51] Liantae (98%, disembowelment) *Disemboweled*
May 13, 2015|Lv 51|Azreth Wood|Hitrilipimi vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, fire seed)
May 13, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Khalmarnasa vs 3: [51] Talisin (9%), [51] Nkata (19%), [51] Obughum (70%, decomposition)
May 14, 2015|Lv 51|The Spire of the Blood Tribunal|Hitrilipimi vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, bite)
May 14, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Khalmarnasa vs 2: [48] Pon (31%), [51] Obughum (68%, bite)
May 15, 2015|Lv 51|The Sea of Despair|Talisin vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, thorns)
May 15, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Xeneth vs 2: [51] Obughum (46%, sunray), [51] Gromm (53%)
May 16, 2015|Lv 51|Khalid River|Aurescmont vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, decomposition)
May 16, 2015|Lv 51|The Dragon Sea|Xeneth vs 2: [51] Obughum (45%, thorns), [51] Pon (54%)
May 17, 2015|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Sindrir vs 2: [51] Obughum (70%, sunray), [51] Pon (29%)
May 17, 2015|Lv 51|Feanwyyn Weald|Yaztran vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
May 17, 2015|Lv 51|Galadon|Thillquill vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
May 18, 2015|Lv 51|The Redhorn Mountains|Talisin vs 2: [51] Gromm (96%, electrical discharge), [51] Obughum (3%)
May 18, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Cosita vs 3: [51] Obughum (21%), [51] Zhabala (0%), [46] Jermet (78%, claw)
May 18, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Zhabala vs 2: [45] Cosita (3%), [51] Obughum (96%, bite)
May 18, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Kregan vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, infernal power)
May 19, 2015|Lv 51|The Ashes of NoWhere|Jermet vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, fire seed)
May 21, 2015|Lv 51|The Spire of the Blood Tribunal|Sote vs 2: [50] Cosita (42%), [51] Obughum (57%, sunray)
May 21, 2015|Lv 51|The Ruins of Ostalagiah|Bhelgus vs 3: [49] Parandalia (12%, icy needle), [51] Ahzlan (68%), [51] Obughum (19%)
May 22, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Khalmarnasa vs 3: [51] Obughum (22%), [51] Talisin (43%, mental assault), [51] Jawhar (33%)
May 22, 2015|Lv 51|Galadon|Jermet vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
May 23, 2015|Lv 51|Fortress of Light|Goraldain vs 2: [51] Obughum (42%, bite), [51] Talisin (57%)
May 24, 2015|Lv 51|Galadon|Sote vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, slash)
May 25, 2015|Lv 51|Azreth Wood|Marintok vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
May 25, 2015|Lv 51|Arkham|Sote vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
May 26, 2015|Lv 51|Galadon|Zhabala vs 2: [51] Obughum (50%, crush), [51] Pon (49%)
May 26, 2015|Lv 51|Graveyard|Jermet vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, beating)
May 27, 2015|Lv 51|Forgotten Crypts|Jermet vs 3: [51] Jawhar (2%), [51] Obughum (63%, decomposition), [51] Pon (33%)
May 27, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Hitrilipimi vs 2: [51] Obughum (34%), [51] Pon (65%, wallop)
May 27, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Cosita vs 4: [51] Obughum (0%), [51] Jermet (58%, burning, weeping sores), [51] Talisin (41%), [51] Hitrilipimi (0%)
May 27, 2015|Lv 51|Galadon|Sote vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
May 29, 2015|Lv 51|Forest of Prosimy|Jawhar vs 2: [51] Obughum (0%), [51] Pon (100%, pugil strike)
May 30, 2015|Lv 51|BattleRager Village|Celent vs 3: [50] Avarillon (25%), [51] Bhelgus (39%, punch), [51] Obughum (34%)
May 30, 2015|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Jermet vs 2: [51] Lilyth (26%), [51] Obughum (73%, unleashed rage)
May 30, 2015|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Lilyth vs 3: [51] Obughum (0%), [51] Sote (84%, claw), [51] Jermet (15%)
May 31, 2015|Lv 51|The Imperial Lands|Lilyth vs 4: [51] Obughum (0%), [51] Sindrir (43%, infernal power), [51] Sote (21%), [51] Jermet (35%)
May 31, 2015|Lv 51|Feanwyyn Weald|Sote vs 2: [47] Tilrend (21%), [51] Obughum (78%, )
Jun 2, 2015 |Lv 51|Galadon|Sote vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
Jun 3, 2015 |Lv 51|The Northern Mountains|Kregan vs 2: [51] Obughum (8%), [50] Avarillon (91%, icy needle)
Jun 3, 2015 |Lv 51|Galadon|Ahzlan vs 2: [51] Obughum (39%, lightning bolt), [51] Urgandtol (60%)
Jun 4, 2015 |Lv 51|Udgaardian Plains|Fessara vs 2: [51] Pon (100%, swipe), [51] Obughum (0%)
Jun 5, 2015 |Lv 51|Spiderhaunt Woods|Dkraknoor vs 2: [43] Valdifer (0%), [51] Obughum (100%, crush)
Jun 6, 2015 |Lv 51|Eaststride Road|Kobuk vs 2: [51] Obughum (23%, bite), [51] Gromm (76%)
Jun 11, 2015|Lv 51|Eaststride Road|Azhag vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, sunray)
Jun 11, 2015|Lv 51|The Eastern Road|Azhag vs 2: [51] Obughum (37%, lightning bolt), [51] Urgandtol (62%)
Jun 11, 2015|Lv 51|Seantryn Modan|Dkraknoor vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, claw)
Jun 11, 2015|Lv 51|Outskirts of Galadon|Jermet vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, decomposition)
Jun 11, 2015|Lv 51|Khalid River|Azhag vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, sunray)
Jun 12, 2015|Lv 51|Loch Terradian|Koob vs 2: [51] Obughum (54%, poisonous bite), [43] Ssrianthe (45%)
Jun 13, 2015|Lv 51|The Grove|Sarraven vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, sunray)
Jun 17, 2015|Lv 51|The Outlander Refuge|Zhabala vs 2: [51] Avarillon (24%), [51] Obughum (75%, smash)
Jun 17, 2015|Lv 51|The Outlander Refuge|Brunagh vs 2: [51] Avarillon (1%), [51] Obughum (98%, punch)
Jun 17, 2015|Lv 51|Arkham|Zhabala vs 2: [51] Obughum (95%, smash), [51] Avarillon (4%)
Jun 17, 2015|Lv 51|Hamsah Mu'tazz|Dkraknoor vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, beating)
Jun 22, 2015|Lv 51|The Forgotten Island|Hitrilipimi vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, bite)
Jun 22, 2015|Lv 51|Azreth Wood|Hitrilipimi vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, bite)
Jun 22, 2015|Lv 51|Grinning Skull Village|Azhag vs 2: [49] Valdifer (17%, claw), [51] Obughum (82%)
Jun 23, 2015|Lv 51|Spiderhaunt Woods|Thaar vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, lightning bolt)
Jul 4, 2015 |Lv 51|Aturi Timberlands|Aaoltha vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, frigid smash)
Jul 14, 2015|Lv 51|The Imperial Palace|Sulneng vs 1: [51] Obughum (100%, fire seed)