literature

Osvith

Deviation Actions

Turtlebeast's avatar
By
Published:
357 Views

Literature Text

       From a whelp the diminutive Kobold named Osvith knew nothing but servitude. Several generations of his family had been in the service of a Great Wyrm Black Dragon named Haldulfvinnemonis, a ferocious tyrant who kept the land surrounding his swampy lair in a state of festering stupor. The dragon loved to torment and even kill his servants out of spite, and one day young Osvith risked his own life by attempting to run away. He was quickly recaptured by some of the dragon's more powerful servants, but his quirky habits and idiosyncratic personality endeared him to the dragon. He was given the name Osvith by the dragon himself, which means "flee" in Draconic. He soon became one of Haldulfvinnemonis' favorite servants, who often entertained himself by poking a claw into Osvith's tail and listening to him squeak in pain. Unlike many of his family members, however, Osvith was allowed to live.
       After a time Haldulfvinnemonis' activities attracted the attention of some of the higher-ranking generals in the Seven Mounting Heavens of Celestia, and they sent a strike force of powerful Archons and a hired team of adventurers to take the dragon out. They caught the foul creature by surprise, and after a pitched battle they managed to destroy him. Haldulfvinnemonis' servants watched in terror as the powerful entities fought, and when the battle was over the Celestials turned their attention to them. Instead of killing the creatures outright, the Celestials banished them to another plane: the Tarterian Depths of Carceri, as punishment for their crime of serving an evil dragon lord.
       Carceri was the gloomy prison plane, where various creatures were sent for the most heinous of crimes. Osvith soon found himself in a dreary, desolate swampland, waste-deep in a foul-smelling brown liquid. The whole sky was illuminated by a murky red glow that seemed to come from the ground itself. The overall atmosphere of Carceri was depressing and miserable, and its effects soon began to weigh on Osvith's spirits. He found he did not need to eat or sleep, but he wished he could find some activity to occupy his time, and longed for an escape from the crushing aura of captivity. Mosquitoes whined and bit him mercilessly, and he soon began to sink into the oblivion of the ooze.
After a seemingly unending period of time he finally managed to rouse himself and joined a large group of petitioners who were steadily making their way across the cheerless landscape through a wide channel that had once been carved by a river. After an equally tedious journey they finally came into sight of a massive fortress squatting on the foothills of a large, forbidding mountain range.
       The fortress appeared to be carved out of pitted igneous rock, utterly black in color. The listless band of petitioners slowly slogged their way to the only entrance of the structure: a huge gate that resembled the gaping maw of a diabolical toad. Once inside, the apathetic band quickly dispersed, leaving Osvith to find his own way. Torches lit the gloomy stone walls of the fortress, which Osvith learned was called the Bastion of Last Hope. Despite its name, the fortress seemed almost as filled with misery and despair as the rest of Carceri, with thousands of dismal petitioners going about their business. Osvith soon learned that much of this business was criminal in nature. Nearly everyone in the Bastion was involved in one type of nefarious business or another. Osvith encountered assassins, thieves, forgers, cultists, and other criminals of every description. After his arrival at the Bastion Osvith resolved to find a way out of Carceri, a task which seemed more than impossible.
       Osvith soon took up residence with a thieves' guild, affording him a place to stay and some comrades to study under. Despite their seeming camaraderie Osvith quickly learned that none of the members of the guild; in fact, none of the other petitioners on Carceri, could be trusted. Everyone did things only to benefit themselves, and placing a significant amount of trust in anyone else would inevitably lead to one's downfall.
       Despite the odds, Osvith quickly rose to power in the thieves' guild, using tactics learned from his tyrannical dragon overlord. He was able to easily commit any foul deed if it served his purposes. His small size and meek demeanor set many of his rivals at ease, but when the time came for him to increase what little power could be gleaned from a den of criminals he had no trouble doing what needed to be done. He became an expert at thieving as well as a smattering of other petty crimes, but he always kept in mind his ultimate goal: to one day free himself from the soul-crushing despair of Carceri.
       While Osvith initially appreciated the small measure of freedom granted him in the form of deliverance from his dragon master he soon came to realize that there were equally terrifying overlords in Carceri itself. The Bastion had no single ruler, and all its inhabitants were quite content to live in a state of brooding anarchy. However, the Plane itself was controlled by a repulsive race of fiends known as Demodands. The creatures superficially resembled frogs, but were as fearsome as any demon. They came in many different varieties, but all of them were covered in a viscous slime and stank horribly.
       The Demodands were the prison guards of Carceri. The Farastus were the most common type, and were constantly on the lookout for any prisoners that attempted to escape the Prison Plane. Kelubars were a larger type, a middling class of bureaucratic bullies who often led bands of simpering Farastus. Shators were the rulers of the Demodand race, great stinking bags of flesh and offal with limbs and wide froggy mouths. Osvith watched many of the inhabitants of the Bastion fall into their foul clutches. The hapless prisoners were then taken away, presumably to unimaginable torture. The Demodands turned a blind eye to all crime that was committed on Carceri except escape attempts and open attacks against themselves. Osvith loathed the Demodands with his entire soul, and realized he would need to be able to defeat them if they tried to impede his escape.
       After many years Osvith had finally collected enough money from his thieving career that he wielded great power in the Bastion of Last Hope. He sought out one of the best weapon- and armorsmiths on the Plane and promised him all of his money and his position in the thieves' guild in exchange for an outfit that could be used against the Demodands. Despite the obvious risk the smith agreed to the proposal, and after a year he had constructed the finest weapons yet created to fight the Demodands.
       Osvith received two small punching daggers that could be easily concealed in the sleeves. The daggers were magically enchanted to be especially damaging to Demodands. He also received a suit of studded leather armor that was coated with a special oil that made it slick and silent. The set of armor was completed with a special helmet that enabled Osvith to see the crafty Demodands even when they used spells to make themselves invisible. With these powerful weapons Osvith set out to eliminate the Demodands, one by one.
       With his incredible skill Osvith quickly became a bane to all the Demodands living in the Bastion. His developed abilities to magically pass through solid walls and see in total darkness aided him as he attempted to eliminate the Demodand presence in the Bastion of Last Hope. He became something of a legend in the Bastion, and many of its inhabitants saw him as a vengeful spirit that targeted their brutish captors.
       Few ever did see him, and those who did rarely lived long to tell about it. Osvith couldn't risk being discovered by the Demodand overlords. He continued wreaking his revenge on the foul creatures, but from the moment he received his weapons and armor he also began searching for a way to escape Carceri. Despite his best efforts to escape the clutching grasp of the Plane or to locate someone who knew a way out, he was unsuccessful. After several years of making himself a significant nuisance to the Demodands he soon began to realize that there really was no way to escape.
       Unbeknownst to Osvith, far away in the Lawful Evil plane of Baator the Kobold deity Kurtulmak was watching him. Kurtulmak realized that Osvith had now become more powerful than the Ghaele who had originally banished him to Carceri. According to Planar Law a creature could be released from Carceri by his own deity is this was accomplished.
       After a riveting but successful raid on the quarters of one of the more powerful Shators, Osvith felt a strange sensation. He pressed himself up against a nearby wall, but to his surprise he found himself falling backwards. He was surrounded by a swirling world of color, and before he knew it he found himself in the middle of a forest. The depressing red gloom of Carceri was gone, replaced by the cool shade of towering pines. Osvith stared up in wonderment, completely baffled by what had just occurred, but he was extremely relieved to have escaped from the inescapable Prison Plane.
       He quickly noticed that he was near a small Kobold mining community. Kurtulmak had placed him there to become a leader in the community, teaching them his wisdom and strengthening the Kobold race. However, Osvith was unaware of the intentions of the deity, or even of his existence, and his reclusive nature drove him away from the other Kobolds, deeper into the forest.
       Osvith quickly realized that no one had ever escaped Carceri for long, and that the Demodands would surely be searching for their lost charge. Osvith made it his mission in life to avoid returning to the Tarterian Depths, and to destroy any Demodand that came looking for him. With his trusty daggers and armor he roamed the Material Plane, forever fleeing his would-be captors.
The backstory of a Kobold Rogue I played in one Dungeons & Dragons campaign. One of my favorite characters I've ever created... Thinking about expanding this to a full length story.
© 2011 - 2024 Turtlebeast
Comments0
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In