Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Echoes from the Mountains



"Either we've clawed and battled our ways through thick and thin, or else we've stood at the wayside, not knowing what's going to happen.
Each one of us has had to come to terms with some weakness or another...
And we've found fault in others, though sometimes this reflection has been misplaced.
We've had to tolerate people who are our complete opposites.
Yet here we are.
We're still alive.
We're still able to smile.
We are more adaptable, more understanding than we ever thought possible of ourselves, or of others.
And while I'm not saying that anything in life will be easy - nay indeed - this new journey into the Misty Mountains will bring with it a new set of challenges, fears, weaknesses...
We will always be better for what is given to us!
I have no doubt in my mind, that no matter what is to happen, we are victors!
Some of us are away from our homes, some of us speak languages unfamiliar to others - but we are the Children of Justice, and it is my greatest honor to lead the second fellowship into the Misty Mountains.
Thank you all, for lending me your hope, your strength, your kindness. I would not be here if not for you."
~Tarvhos Bartholomaus, January 17th

Thursday, June 8, 2017

Once as He is Who Forgot

These last few nights I have slept without rest.

 In melancholy vision I have sat in conversation with old friends who have long since passed from this earth. We have talked of smoke rings and the trout in good years, and the change of the seasons. We spoke of the days in which we knew, and the days that have since come and gone.

In vivid memory I fight again the battles of the past with new strength and new eyes. I see myself as if from the outside, young and fierce, fighting with all the energy of soul to prove his just cause, vengeance on his brow and blood in his heart.
 No longer. 
I see these battles again before my face and do not distinguish one enemy from another, neither the troll from the dwarf nor the goblin from the brigand. Now, with the understanding of many years, all are alike unto me; sons and daughters, blinded and bound by the devices of the one Enemy to us all.

I have awoken to find myself gazing into the sky as waters rush over me though not hem nor hair be dampened by the wet, and up through the waves I behold the sun.

Many days ago, having been warned in a dream, I went down into the mansions of my fathers of old and sought my wandering son in the dark places of Khazad-Dum. In the depths I found him, stumbling as if in a drunken stupor but seared as with a deadly fever, the icy blood of the mountain upon his feet.
 He did not know me when I came to him and he fought me in great determination, but I prevailed over him and at last laid hold on him that I might administer life back into his body.
As tending I discovered the cause of fever. I learned that he had encountered the infested Globsnaga in the halls. They are creatures bearing a wicked disease of the flesh, conjured by the enemy in the latter Third Age to drive out the dwarves from reclaiming their ancestral home. Its purpose is to work in the body and mind a corruption, to make of a living creature a slave to madness, disease, and pain.
A simple washing after encountering the affliction is know to sufficiently rinse the plague from the body, yet after the fungus has taken root it is all but impossible to remove.

The infection had been introduced by means of a wound which was not tended, thus my son has struggled greatly in body and mind these many days, notwithstanding I have used all the knowledge of lore and herb to remove the infection. I have kept him in a stupor that he may not recall these days of torment, yet he will be wroth to wake and find I have carried him from the halls of my fathers.

His days are not yet done that he shall fall in Moria and be buried, though it was meant for him a greater part on the road ahead, I cannot allow him to return until his mind and spirit are whole once more, so I have set those over him who will watch and turn him away, lest by the same or a different path he again disobey me.
  Whether our work be fated or blessed he will be well in their keeping until the time is again right, and he will have a road left to walk in Moria though ours lead us through a shadowed valley, and if in the end we have laid down our very lives, yet all will be well, and we will see each other again.

Skalithor Mountainzephyr

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Kinship Challenge: The Vines of Time

Have ever you passed a home, where vines all through had grown?
Crept through windows, garden and door, where residents resided no more.
Or have ever you seen a tree, where wrapped around like twine,
twisted, turning and ensaring thither, was indeed a great vine!
What thoughts then stirred in your mind? Do you ponder the life left behind?
For where the vine creeps, life surely sleeps; what was has been claimed by time.

Might then you consider this dear friend, for the vine itself is not the end.
Do you see it bud and blossom? That beauty might be born again.
For the end of one thing is not the end - nay - without the end there is no begin.
The last page of the book must be turned, old fields in time may be burned;
A pleasant day with the sun will set, and still time is always turning yet.
The last goodbye, the first hello, all these things we must forgo.
For to take the next step the last must pass, else we find ourselves a hapless mass.

Likewise we ourselves must die to us, lest our souls corrode and rust.
For the things of this earth are but things of dust, and them to our King we must entrust.
So when you see what the vine has borrowed, let not your heart be sorrowed.
Find joy instead, that life is not dead, and consider what lay in the morrow.

Written by Dez ~ Illustration by Kaq

Kinship Challenge: The Life of Water

Still and cold, I sleep. Gently I fell from the sky, oh so long ago. Now I sleep, seemingly forever. Days, weeks, months, and years go by. Then one day the sun breaks through the heavy clouds over me.
She makes me stir. I'm full of life and I want to break away. Her touch is warm and unrelenting, I feel heavy.
Still cold, but heavy. I'm sinking, loosing my grip on the stones. Slipping, slipping.. Then I fall.
Suddenly I have the strength to move again! I start to follow the path down. As I go, I feel stronger and stronger. I run faster and faster.
Soon I am flying down the mountain, gathering and roaring for all to hear.
The white fades away, the stones become bare and surrounded by green. I now carve my own path toward the valley below.
On I go!

A drop awaits me up ahead, but I am not afraid. I charge forward. I know I can fly!
So I fall, I fall past the trees, past the arch, past the lights, now the balcony.
I have gone under, my glimpse was brief, yet still I continue on.
There is more to see, more to visit.
On I run!

Forever I run, gathering more strength and roaring louder as I join others who are like me.
We will continue on forever until we reach the big sea!
Then, one at a time, we will ascend again to the clouds.
I will join the sun in the sky that first gave me my desire to run.
Then I will fly back to where I began and softly descend again. The circle will not end.

Written by Cat  ~  Illustration by Mae

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Whispers

   Perhaps you are familiar with the feeling ...

You have lost something, and you do not remember what it is, or where it was lost, or how. You know that it is something of yours that has been misplaced... your shelf seems emptier somehow, and though you cannot even begin to describe it, you know that you greatly desire to have it back ...
  Sorrow without hope is despair. Although my heart is heavy, as though it has been anchored to the lowest depths of the ocean, I feel hopeful still, that this weight will pass, and that there will again be cause to have joy. There is nothing they can do to take that from me. Even should death watch me from around the corner, I will smile to him.
        
            

Friday, January 6, 2017

Fall of Ungoliant's Spawn

Nilithion Has Been Defeated!

The dreaded spider from Moria has at last fallen by the hand of courageous heroes: Captain Evonfall, Tyrral, Tarvhos, Mosaine, Caladheil, and Warey the River-Maid.

From Evendim to the Misty Mountains, the fellowship pursued this dreaded creature on a long and exhausting hunt, which at last concluded within the depth of Helegrod. The length of time spent in the bitter cold with limited rations left the fellowship half frozen and weak, yet they resolved not to let the monster escape this time. When the battle commenced, it took a vicious toll on all concerned. By the hand of the Elf scout Caladheil, the beast took a blow which felled her, but it was a hard earned victory. All members of the group had be injured, many with fatal poison, and lost consciousness in the dark of the cave along side the body of their enemy.

The identities of those who came to their rescue remain unknown, yet each member of the fellowship was delivered alive to Rivendell with poison removed and wounds dressed. As of now, these heroes continue their path to healing and rejuvenation in The Last Homely House.

The land has been cleansed of the spider's maddening influence and news has spread abroad of her death. Peace has returned to nature is seems, yet tales say there is still evil brewing within Moria-- What evil sent the Rune Hunter forth from that place remains unknown. What action will now be taken against it is the decision of kinship leader Skalithor Mountainzephyr.

-Dorus

Monday, January 2, 2017

New Year's Kinship Challenge!

Thank you for your participation
in last years Kinship challenges! 

This year we will be continuing our theme of "Unity" as we move into one of the most challenging stages of our collaboration effort. Our last two challenges involved "Photography" and "Interpretation", wherein our members voted for the screenshot that best represented our theme and were then challenged to take one object in the scenery and creatively describe it as a character
Very good job to all those who chose to participate! These submitted entries will serve as the outline for the next step:

 ILLUSTRATION

The instructions for this month's challenge are as follows; 
Participants will be given one of the descriptions from the previous challenge to illustrate in any visual medium of their choice. 
An illustration is a visual compliment to a story. The objective of an illustration is to enhance the writing without distracting from it, and to do so an illustrator must be attentive to the author's description. Nothing is more frustrating or unappealing than an illustration that improperly represents the original text of a work. So in this challenge you will be putting your talents to the test through comprehension of an author's original idea and fitting it into visual format in a way that illuminates the concept precisely and artistically, incorporates the challenge's theme, and merits the work of the author as well as the illustrator. 

Best of luck to our incredible artists!