Chapter 6 House means home

Rest, was what i needed, more than anything. I could feel the fatiuge 
in my bones and muscles. The events of rescuing Grandfather were wearing 
me very thin. But as the old adage goes, No rest for the wicked.

I sat, In the forien quarter one after noon, meditating over new tomes 
i had just bought, And  as my mind grew dense with thoughts, I finally 
could see the path before me. The path to my vengance, The path to 
restore my life. The path to Innoruuks demise, once and for all. It was so 
clear to me now, An infant could understand. Least thats what i felt. I 
had to raise an army. I could not do this alone. But it was not enough 
to raise an army against the father. I had to make a stand, I had to 
take an army of his children, and mark unholy retribution upon him. Scar 
him like he scarred me.

I would use the tools available to me So i sought to start my journey, 
In the heart of the pride of Innoruuk. 
The cradle of the church of the first born. The House of D`Inex. This 
was one of the oldest houses in all of Norrath. Surviving the time when 
the rainkeeper lost control of the realm, to the child of fenin ro, 
Ayonae ro. They were the retainers to the Thex family, the aristocracy of 
Neriak. Formed by Deryll D`Thex, the neice of Lord Thex, Steward of the 
houses of neriak. Deryll formed the house, due to the fact that the 
queen, sought alliances w/ mayong mistmoore, who put his personal 
vendetta's and dealings forefront to the will of the father, and the heart of 
the father, neriak. It was imparative to perserve the purity of the Dark 
elven nations, In all its grasps.

Deryll lead the house for ages.. proudly, and strongly. And for as 
small of a house as it was, the unity and determination , of the first 
family of neriak was so indomiable, that when they marched to the feilds of 
battle, it would shake even the most resolute hearts of the children of 
light. It was unfortunate however, that the greatest source of 
strength, was also the houses greatest weakness.
Deryll took the house, with the intent to burn felwithe to the ground. 
It was this strong stance that would tear the house asunder. The 
legions of the house were quickly overwhelmed at the bridge of felwithe, and 
many noble Shadowknights, clerics, and wizards fell in the attempt to 
poison the heart of tunare.

All that remained of the house was a few young recruits, and the house 
mistress ambrea. Ambrea was still a studying necromancer, and could not 
partake in the raid. And when deryll and her troops were decimated, it 
fell to her, to take the lead of the house. The mark of Deryll was 
delivered in a very quiet cerimony where lord thex cristened ambrea, and 
charged her with the lead of the house of D`inex. 

Ambrea was idealistic, far more so than deryll. And her vision for the 
house, was to follow in the same steps as Deryll, but to be much more 
rational and prepared. The first act she commenced, was allowing to do, 
much as the tradesmen's guild of neriak had done, and allowed the other 
undesirable races of norrath into the house. Ogers, trolls, The iksar 
brood. Even allowing some of the light races such as humans, in, 
provided they could do "the walk" where their faith in innorruuk would be 
tested. As they toured the heart of innoruuk, If they left the city 
unscathed, they would be allowed as members of the house.
This position did not stand well with the Thex family, However, 
Ambrea's logic could not be denied, As it helped to make neriak a true place 
for all the followers of innoruuk, making the house a much more 
intimidating presence with an increase of size. I came across the house, when 
one of their pledges came to me, and proposed to enter the house 
together. His name was batsu, He extolled the virtues of the house, and its 
ways, and i was convinced , this would be my starting ground

The first objective was to pass the orientation. Which was held in the 
church of the first born. and taught by Vicar Tienshihan. I Asked lady 
brixtan to follow me in my endeavor to become a member of the first 
family of Neriak......

 "Hurry, Or were going to be late brix, That wouldnt look good." I said 
as Brixtan and i raced past the preists, as they were on their rounds 
lighting the candles of the city.
 "Slow down... i cant keep up." she said, as she puffed out of breath
We arrived to a line filing into the church.
 We filed in and took seats together up near the front of the room. It 
was a quaint church. you could hear the trickle of the waterfalls 
falling into innoruuks tears, the moat that surrounded Neriak 3rd gate, the 
religous centre of Neriak where Only the devout Teir dal were permitted 
to walk freely, such as the preists, Knights, and warlocks.
The room glowed in a dull blue hue, from the lit sigils where the first 
magi of innoruuk scorched the blocks of the outter keeps wall. They 
stood as a warning to all who gazed upon it.... your demise is held 
within.

There was muffled chattering going on about the room, Most of the 
recruits looked barely old enough to pick up a weapon, much less defend the 
kingdom of neriak. As i looked around a gruff barking voiced boomed 
from what seemed to be everywhere in the room.

"We Welcome you, Children of innoruuk," All looked around to see from 
where the voice eminated from. And from the darkness of the corridor 
behind the pulpit emerged the form of a venerable vicar. His eyes seemed 
somewhat glazed from all of the death , you could tell he had seen in 
his life. His form looked of that what one would expect a vicar to appear 
like, Meek, shrouded in ceremonial robes. He took his place behind the 
pulpit, rested his arms, and continued to speak" Consider yourselves 
fortunate, For you have been given the right, to defend the heart of 
neriak. You are granted the ability to live, and breath for innoruuk, As 
you are now entering the house of Dinex. The first family of Neriak. 
Now.. please rise" He spoke in gentle consideration.
The room stood to their feet. young tierdal, Ogers and trolls from the 
innothule region, And even a pair of Humans from freeport, who pledged 
their lives to the cause of innoruuk.
With all the devotion and determination i saw in this room , I felt out 
of place. As my intention was nothing but to seek vengange for all that 
innorruuk. If these people only knew what i wanted, Im sure they would 
kill me on the spot, Not to mention the fact that I was born of high 
elven blood.

"I am Tienshihan, The lead Vicar of the house, And i have been charged, 
to teach you our ways, so that you may, in your insignificant 
capacities, Give back to the home, that has provided for your existance. And 
that my friends is what we want you to understand more than anything else, 
that house, means home. Do you have any questions?" he asked 
resolutely.
From in the back of the room a snide oger named Gmog raised his hand 
and spoke" Cun wee sets dun now?" He looked truly puzzled as  he asked
Vicar tien, with his arms rested on the pulpit, placed his head into 
his hands, and in almost a whisper said sighingly "Father...forgive them"

With a start, Tien threw the pulpit out of the way, and charged  thru 
the class, stepping over the students, knocking the first 3 pews to the 
ground. He stepped on my shoulder, as my pew fell to the floor. I 
watched as , from beneath his robe, he revealed what , quite possibly, was 
the largest sledgehammer i had ever seen. He swung it behind him in mid 
step. and with his next step, He launched it forward and upward. 
Connecting immediately with Gmogs chin, propelling his entire gelatinous oger 
body airborn. slamming into the church celing, and landing with a 
sickening fleshy thud to the floor. Tien turned back twards the pulpit, 
recoiling his hammer beneath his robe, and as he walked, he muttered" I 
suppose you can lay if you wish" 

The class was in Awe, Understandably so. From such a meager frame, came 
unbridled power. Im still uncertain , if this was a lesson he intended 
to teach, But it was a lesson, well learned none the less.

"We are a family, But, we will not tolerate, stupidity, ignorance, 
arrogance, or listlessness. you are here for a reason, and that reason is 
to produce. It is my job, to ensure your time here, is not only a safe, 
but productive." He went on with his dissertation, The class sat 
awestruck, hanging on his every word. But, it was not out of fear for 
reprisal, But genuine admiration.

"And we come to the role of a cleric, Can someone tell me why clerics 
are brought into the feilds of battle?" A snide necro by the name of 
stealsouls, spoke. His voice rang with the his of a serpent. " to keep the 
front line goofs alive, if it wasnt for a cleric. our Knights would 
die, and our defences would be weakend." He smirked, pleased with his 
quick awnser.
Tien approached Stealsouls methodically slow." While it is true, that 
it is an important job to keep our front line warriors alive , it is 
ignorant to think that that..."his voice grew louder with each 
word"...OUR.. ONLY... JOB... IS.. TO ... HEEEEALLLL" he said, ending up to the 
point of screaming. as he encroached on stealsouls, He raised his hands 
above his head, And red strands of venomous mana surged from his finger 
tips. Stealsouls body tensed up, and tightened. His eyes bulged, Sweat 
poured from his body, He was paralyzed. Tien thrust harder stuns deeper 
into his body. "You see my friend..." he launched another wave of 
paralyzation thru him" if your enemy cannot move...."Stealsoul grimaced and 
winced in pain as he attempted to blink" you dont need to heal anyone" 
Tien launched one last thrust into his body. hurling him back  into his 
seat. His hair smoldered and singed, as if electricity was running thru 
him."Who else would like to try to awnser this?"

I looked at brixtan, and i could see in her eyes a sense of eagerness, 
she raised her hand almost excitedly" We clerics go to battles. Because 
we keep our forces alive. Thru our faith that we spread across our 
followers,from  the divine energies we empart to our infantry, to protect 
them and make their armors harder, to the blessings we bestow from the 
father to all, to return them to health, to the way we blind and stun 
our enemys with our faith and resolution, to raising our heroic fallen, 
so they may return and spread more of the fathers hatred, We are there, 
Because without the faith that we empart, we would be lost, divided and 
weak, and inferior to those we call enemys" I winced at her awnser, 
feeling that Tien would unleash more fury unto her.
He approached her, placed his finger under her chin, raising her face 
to get a better glance. " This one.... has potential" He slowly walked 
away, returning to his pulpit. I watched as a proud smile beamed across 
her face. When i looked at her, it was if she felt him to be , at least 
a role modle, if not, a father figure.

Classes went on for hours. It was a lot of information to absorb, 
Mostly the history of the house, and battlefeild tactics. At the end of the 
sermon, Which seemed more appropriate of a term than class, Tien 
advised us, that we were to meet with a raiding party to train our skills in 
the Nek forest, later that night. We were relived for a few hours to 
rest, and gear up for our combat training. Brixtan followed me to my 
room, And we talked for a while.

"Well... it seems weve found the teachers pet" I smirked, being only 
partially sarcastic."are you just as filled with"hate on the fathers 
behalf" as some of the rest of those there today?"

"Its not that viro, I dont hate, And in truth, the father doesnt really 
hate either. If anything, he loves, and loves too much. It is a painful 
love,  and one that is hard to understand at times. I think that may be 
why your feelings are so contrasted from the rest of our kind." I could 
see the honest sincerity in her eyes. She really felt like that.

"Well If it works for you, It works for you. Youll forgive me if i find 
my own path , when it comes to that"

"Of course" She smiled coyly, looking at the floor, vaugely hinting 
that she wanted something.
I walked to her, I cast my gaze into her eyes, locked forcefully, 
unrelenting. My hands slid up her arms, and around her back." You know, you 
have the most honest soul, I have ever met. There are too many good 
things about you. Some times i have to ask myself, Are you for real?"
"Well, how would you like me to prove my reality to you?" she smiled 
seductively in response. I leaned in , and kissed her tenderly, then 
glanced into her eyes again, smiling
"Seems real enough to me" We returned back to our kiss again, this 
time, uninterupted...

Later that evening, We geared up, and headed out to the nek forest. We 
met up with a small group from our class. We were teamed with QuadB, a 
fellow shadowknight, And the Oger warrior Hatetank. Quad, from what i 
could gather, Had a sort of justifiable arrogance to him. He knew what 
to do, how to do it, when to do it, and held himself with such. Hate, 
Was in many respects what you would expect from any oger, Big, mean , 
bad, angry, and unrelenting. But he held himself with a great deal of 
composure for an oger, far more than i had ever saw. 

It was our objective to ransack a group of halflings, who had taken up 
residence deep in the woods, And exterminate them. I was more than 
willing to do this, As these little abombinations, I did still owe 
recompense for a near fatal encounter before. Just as we started off for our 
hike thru the woods, we were joined by our last member of our party. 
Princess Svet, 3rd daughter of Lord Naylon thex. As she was not the Oldest 
child of naylon, nor the youngest, He assertained, she would be charged 
with overseeing the house. A way for master thex to keep tabs on a 
certain wild tangent in ambrea leading the house.
But she carried herself, much akin to how you would imagine any 
princess to carry herself.Pampered, Little arrogant, But she was, in all 
honesty, good at heart. I found no complaints at all. I was even put at 
ease, by her energetic, enthusiastic personallity.

"So, Are we going to stand here looking all stupid at eachother, or are 
we gonna go kill us some halfin's" Hate said, while staring at quad. 
Quad paid him no mind tho, He looked at svet, as if he had never seen a 
woman before. He was almost to the point of drooling.
WHAPPPP, Hate bunted quad in the back of the head with the hilt of his 
sword, and bellowed" MOVE IT YA FREEK" 
Quad, still silent, finally snapped out of it, and we moved forward to 
our destination.

As we crept over a mossy hill, overlooking the Che`vat river. We found 
the encampments of Halflings. They were resting on our statues, Like it 
was a couch. Fires built nearby. Quad squatted down beside me just 
creeping a glance over the edge of the hillside. " Over there, 3, at the 
outset of the treeline, 2. and 5 guard the tower. We will need to mark 
our spot out, and whittle their numbers down, before we can take the 
Obelisk." Quad whispered to me and Hate. Ok, clerics, We need you safely 
banked on the river shore. youll set up camp here, ... and here. We will 
draw them into you, and away from their allies so we can take them out 
quickly. With the...." quad was interupted by hate.. Who had a demonic 
look in his eyes, and bellowed out "KILL EM ! ! ! !" as he charged the 
banks of the river
"Or i guess we could do that." quad uttered dispondanlty as he rose, 
and as we moved to follow hates persuit. 

For as large of a frame as hate posessed, He was certainly dextirous 
with handing out death in a timly fashion. before we caught up with him 
he had already taken out the 2 perimeter guards, and was encroaching on 
the obelisk.
Quad and I swooped down like vultures on our prey, as they ran, or 
tried to combat Hatetank directly. Never have i seen so many shin kicks in 
my life. But we all laughed as the miserable little things tried to 
attack.

As we herded up the last group of runners, we walked back to the 
obelisk dragging 2 wounded halflings behind us. As we looked at Brix, and 
Svet, they looked dispondant, as if they didnt get to do anything, Which 
truth be known , they really didnt. We piled the carcasses a few feet 
away from the obelisk, and set them all on fire, save the 2 wounded ones 
that we sent back to rivervale, as messengers, so they would know how 
futile it would be to come back. And 2 who we left their heads on pikes 
for a more determined message.

We walked back thru the wooded path to Neriak, And we were stopped by 
the house champion, Graveler.
Graveler was an oger in the truest of senses. Eat, and kill were his 2 
highest brain functions.
"Joo tink joo all beefy stinkee inkees, now dat joo keel a cuple of dem 
fuut stools out in deah wuuds, Joo gots a LOOOOng wayz ta go." He 
bellowed. It seemed like he only had 1 volume, which was almost to the 
volume of scream.
"We did well enough, The job that needed to be done, is done. No more, 
no less." I replied to him. I started off beyond him,onward to neriak, 
In a sense, disrespecting him. My group followed suit, feeling very 
confident, that it was time for the old guard, to make room for the new.

We marched into the church of the first born, And Hate slammed on the 
cubby desk, the scalp of one of the halflings, that we had just released 
from its misery. Lord Kombust looked up from the tome that he was 
studying, and softly spoke " Your pride, and your arrogance will always be 
your downfall. You killed a few halflings. But there are far more 
dangerous things in the wilds of norrath, than hobbits. However, I have 
spoken to Mistress Ambrea's atache, Uyliean, and advised him of your deeds. 
He suggested in my capacity as war general, to solidify this group as a 
squadron.  This squadron will be overseen directly By Vicar Tienshihan. 
You have all worked well. and with proper training, and experiance, you 
will grow to be a dominant force in this house. Now go, rest, more 
training awaits you. And you have many other members to meet, who you will 
need to become familiar with, as you will work with us all closely at 
some point." He then set back to his tome, and began to read as if no 
one was there.

We left the church of the first born, Proud at our accomplishments, And 
confident in not only ourselves, But eachother. With everything i saw, 
everything i felt, the reliability I had found with these people, i was 
inclined to agree, House really does mean home.