Chapter 1
A Shadow in the night

The snowy landscape of the Worldsedge Mountains was littered with fires surrounded by Orcs, Trolls and Bugbears. Mithral Hall was once again besieged it’s steps retracted and its courtyard gate closed and jammed into position. Andruin Lengal and Helgrim split up to defend the main Gate.

The enemy forces had retreated after their first assault on the courtyard gate for Andruin’s force held them off until the main gate could be closed, but the stairs leading up to the main gate, had been retracted for the entire duration of the siege.

Andruin’s armour no longer had it’s shine for it was covered with blood as was his sword, for both had not been cleaned for a long time, his short ice blue hair was now stained with blood spatters, his eyes were blue, just like his hair, he had a scar on his left cheek from a battle against a Drow, his three swords at his side, each one imbued with a different elemental property, Fire, Ice and Lightning. He knew the enemy would attack again soon, but what where they waiting for? They had weakened forces at the gate and the gate itself would not survive a second assault.

And then it happened; the waves of the enemy forces charged down the hills, Orcs in front, followed by trolls and then came the bugbears. All forces had ranged and melee fighters, Andruin drew his Flame sword and led his men down to the gate.

‘HOLD THEM HERE!’ shouted the Drow at the gate; it was Drizzt Do’Urden, a famed Drow among the all the races for he had abandoned the ways of the Drow in the Underdark and took up his blades to help the races of Faerun.

He acknowledged Andruin with a simple nod as he walked next to Drizzt.

‘How many?’ Andruin asked.

‘Thousands, we can not hold out to such a large number,’ Drizzt replied.

‘Not like you to give up hope or worry Drizzt,’ Andruin smiled at the Drow who turned and laughed.

‘Worried?’ Drizzt replied ‘I welcome the challenge.’

Just then the gate shook, and cracks appeared in the gate, as the Orc battering ram hit the gate, ‘Not much longer now,’ Andruin said under his breath.

The next smash broke the gate and as hordes of Orcs, Trolls rushed through the broken gate a voice cried out, ‘ARCHERS LOOSE YOUR ARROWS!’

Andruin, Drizzt and the rest of the men ducked just in time as a volley of fire arrows flew into the oncoming Trolls and Orcs. The Bugbears it appeared where on the walls with multiple ladders.

‘Lengal,’ Andruin called to the Elf who had just order the volley of Arrows, ‘we could use your help down here!’

Lengal wore green leather armour from his chest to his feet with a thick Elven mail undershirt, his next arrow ready to be fired into an enemy, his long blonde hair was now no longer straight but tangled for it had been days since he had last brushed it, his eyes a deep purple showed his Drow side, the single feature on his face was a birthmark, in the shape of the symbol used by the Drow to represent Lolth the spider queen.

Lengal jumped down into the courtyard and switched his bow to his dual Wood Elven Blades.

‘Where’s Helgrim?’ Andruin asked as the troll he just killed disintegrated.

‘Last time I checked he was by the gate holding off Bugbears,’ Lengal replied with a quick glance up at the wall, ‘Andruin there are Archers on the walls!’

‘FOR CLANGGEDIN!’ came a shout by the Main Gate.

‘That’ll be him,’ Andruin said just dodging a set of Orc arrows by jumping behind a stack of barrels, he turned to Lengal who was shooting the Orcs on the Wall, ‘Thanks for the warning,’ he told Lengal as he got out from behind the barrels.

At the gate a small group of Dwarven Gutbusters were holding off the Bugbears, the leader of the group was a dwarf clad in sliver platemail wielding a large two-handed hammer that seemed to be emitting waves of force, the Dwarf’s Flame red hair was breaded in traditional Dwarven style, as was his beard. His eyes glowed with a deep red flame, his face was scared as was his body but the armour hid the war wounds and the bodies around him all had crumpled armour due to his hammer making contact with them.

‘In the name of Clanggedin you will not pass me,’ Helgrim said as the next wave of Bugbears charged him and the Gutbusters. He swung his hammer into the ground and a shockwave sent them flying backwards over the walls and into the courtyard, ‘and don’t come back ye scum,’

‘Right that’s it,’ Andruin said as two more Orcs fell to the ground.

‘What is it?’ Lengal asked.

‘I’m going to find the army leaders a finish this now,’ He replied.

‘You won’t have to look for long,’ Drizzt told him as the enemy forces fell back and parted to leave a path, ‘The Chieftain’s come forth.’

A giant troll, Armour Clad Orc and a Bugbear wielding a giant axe came through the broken gate surrounded by their guards

‘Mithral Hall is ours Human,’ the troll said to Andruin who held his sword in both hands, ‘Leave here now and we may spare your lives.’

‘Never,’ Andruin Replied, ‘I will guard this place with my life.’

‘In Bruenor's name we will hold this place until you all lay dead foul troll.’ Drizzt told the troll pointing one of his blades at him.

The troll just laughed ‘Leave them to us,’ it said and all the forces in the courtyard left via the broken gate, ‘Now you will die!’ it cried out and rushed at Drizzt.

The next seconded Lengal was knocked backwards into a wall for he had jumped in front of Drizzt.

‘Lengal!’ Helgrim shouted jumping into the courtyard and rushed over to Lengal who was winching in pain.

‘Don’t worry I’m alright,’ He said standing up, ‘he just winded me.’

The Orc King roared and charged Helgrim and Lengal whilst the Bugbear chieftain launched itself at Drizzt.

‘Well that just leaves you and me.’ Andruin said pointing his sword at the troll.

‘Prepare to die stupid human,’ the troll replied.

Andruin jumped at the Troll and cried ‘We’ll see about that!’

He missed the troll King who had sidestepped Andruin’s attack and then grabbed him by the throat and laughed.

‘You are no match for me Human.’ Barked the troll.

‘Well … sorry to …disappoint you,’ Andruin replied with a smile, ‘but… they don’t call me… the Frostweaver for nothing!’ his open palm was pointed at the troll and with a gesture a flurry of Icicles flew out of his hand and into the troll.

Temporally stunned by the spell the Troll King released Andruin from his grasp and Andruin hand to his throat coughing fell to the ground, he turned to see the troll knocking the Icicles out of itself. Andruin closed his eyes and concentrated when he next opened them his hair and eyes had turned a dark crimson red and all the combatants could feel the heat coming from his body.

‘What are you boy?’ Asked the troll in total shock.

Andruin’s reply was short and quick, ‘Your worst Nightmare.’ And he summoned up his last bit of strength and lunged and the Troll who stumbled backwards at the force of the impact as Andruin’s Flame sword stuck him to the wall.

‘Now go to hell.’ Andruin whispered as the troll disintegrated into nothing. He looked down at the pile of dust that had been the troll and the fire that granted Andruin his quick burst of strength disappeared as quickly as it came. His hair and eyes turned back to the light blue of their normal colour and Andruin fell to the ground and passed out the last thing he remember was seeing the Orcs, Trolls and Bugbears leaving the battlefield.

When Andruin next opened his eyes and looked around, he was in Mithral Hall’s hospital wing with Helgrim and Lengal nearby talking.

‘Guys?’ Andruin asked they turned around at the sound of his voice.

‘So your finally awake,’ Lengal commented.

‘We were worried about you lad,’ Helgrim told him smiling, ‘You were out for hours.’

‘Sorry about that,’ Andruin said, ‘what happened while I was out?’ he asked.

‘Well after you killed the Troll king all the others fled even the Orc and Bugbear chieftains.’ Helgrim replied.

‘Yes,’ Lengal added, ‘it seems that they were following the troll kings orders, and with out a leader to tell them what to do they ran away.’

‘We find anything useful on the fallen?’ Andruin asked.

‘Well,’ Lengal said holding out a small blue pouch, ‘this was in the ashes of the Troll King,’

‘We thought you should have it,’ Helgrim added, ‘considering you killed him,’

Andruin took the bag from Lengal’s outstretched hand and opened it.

‘A bag of ever holding!’ he cried in surprise, ‘guys I can’t keep this to myself,’

‘Well if you offering to carry all our stuff,’ Helgrim told him laughing, ‘then you’re welcome to it.’

‘What’s in there anyway?’ Lengal asked.

Andruin looked through the bag, ‘Well there’s tons of arrows, a twin set of Elven Daggers, three extremely rare gemstones….’

The list went on for about ten minutes including a bow, axes, coins and different types of armour, most were unusable due to rust but some were of good quality, but the Item that caught Andruin’s eye was the sword.

The sword look normal to all but Andruin’s clan, his eyes saw the runes marked on the blade and he pronounced them out loud, ‘Enduraveskasar,’

‘What is it?’ Lengal asked his friend.

‘This is the Frostweaver Blade,’ Andruin told them, ‘One of three that I was prophesised to carry, the other two, Pyrtorcaich the Flamebearer Great sword and Shalhontoltig the Boltreaver Twin Blades are possibly somewhere nearby.’
****

Andruin remembered the day it happened, the Forest that his clan lived in was lush, green and teeming with life, the Trees where extremely tall and blocked off all but one small way out of the village, which led to the Holy Spring.
All the villagers where gathered at the spring. It was 30 years previous, Andruin’s clan were blessed with long life, for ever ten normal years, only one year passes for them and Andruin at the time was 150 years of age, this was a celebratory Festival for it was the coming of age ceremony for the clan’s seer. The seer’s powers only activated when the ritual was passed and the spring was used to convey what the seer foretells.

In this case the seer saw a war was coming to the land and that 6 heroes would unite to protect Faerun from destruction, one such Hero that was seen was Andruin carrying the three blades but a different Andruin from the one that was seeing the image.

Andruin in this time had short brown hair with Emerald eyes and the scar on his left cheek was not there yet, he wore a noble’s clothes for this tribe for he was of high ranking birth, his small build allowed for him to move faster than many of the other children of his age.

When he saw his image in the spring he stood still barely moving as all the others turned to look at him, the Clan Chieftain beckoned him forwards, and proclaimed him the villages Champion, and told him to step into the sprig for it would reveal his true power.

Andruin mentally prepared himself and walked into the water the entire village watching in awe, some were obviously happy with the seer’s choice of a Hero.

Under the water Andruin sat at the bottom of the spring eyes closed until, he felt a pang of cold rush though him and above him the water froze, people started to panic above wondering if he was okay but the next thing the ice was melting away and bubbles started to rise and the water started to boil, this made the villagers ever more fearful for they thought they had angered the gods, but then the bubbles stopped and Andruin came out of the water levitating.

His eyes where an Electric Blue, his hair was now blue with white streaks and lighting crackled around his body, as he came back down his hair and eyes changed to a Ice blue and he started to gasp for breath.

He then received the titles Enduraveskasar, Pyrtorcaich and Shalhontoltig, which stood for Frostweaver, Flamebearer and Boltreaver.

Later that day he was given a sword and Armour and was show a secret way in and out of the village by the village chief, Andruin had bid all his friends and family farewell and took all the belongings he would need.

****

‘What’s so special about these swords then? This looks pretty ordinary to me,’ Helgrim asked.

‘Without the gems they’re powerless but with the them the swords are uniquely powerful.’ Andruin replied.

‘Well then maybe we will find the others on our journey,’ Lengal exclaimed, ‘well we leave in a few days for Baulder’s Gate, I’ve received news that a new thieves guild has been started, we’ve been charged with stopping them from doing anything drastic.’

‘Well then we must waste no time,’ Andruin replied ‘how long will it take to pack?’

Chapter 2 on its way soon