Erin Antaya

The Adventurers©

Erin Antaya©

For many generations the story of giant blood in the Antaya family was considered a myth, until the birth of Erin Antaya, who weighed nearly twelve pounds at birth and was already five feet tall (and still growing) on his sixth birthday!

The son of a vegetable farmer named Kell, Erin was named after the legendary Merlin "the shining knight", who saved the farmer from an attack by an Orc just a few months before Erin was born. Erin grew up to be a very excitable youth, frequently embarking on grand "adventures", such as stealing the fruits of the Gods from the garden of the Sun God (raiding a neighboring farmers orchard for apples), rescuing maidens from the jaws of a viscous Wolf wore (recovering his sisters doll from the clutches of his pet dog "Maximus"), and surreptitiously tracking a wicked magician to a meeting of evil wizards (secretly following his father to market). His family was always amused to hear tales of his "great feats", and on one occasion his father jokingly called him " the wily", a title that young Erin took to heart and has used ever since.

When Erin was fifteen years old and over 6' tall, he grew tired of the farm and asked his father if he could try something else. His father, being an agreeable father, told Erin it was fine if he wanted to find himself in another craft. Erin asked the woodcrafter if he could use an apprentice, but the woodcrafter was not looking for an apprentice. Erin was determined to find something else to do, so he went to the smith and asked if he could use an apprentice, and after seeing Erin's' size and start of build, said yes.

Three years after the start of Erin's apprenticeship, the town was engulfed in ash when a distant volcano erupted. While none of the family was harmed, their crops were ruined, his family was brought to the brink of poverty. To relieve the burden on his family, Erin decided to pay his father all that he had earned as a striker for the smith. By the way, the volcanic ash proved to be a very rich soil and the following year his parents raised the finest and most profitable crop of vegetables that they had ever produced.

After the crop success, Erin put more and more into the smithing he was allowed to do, even to the point of forging armor, shields, and even swords. The smith encouraged the oneness Erin had felt with the metals, to make finer crafted equipment, and Erin started experimenting with different styles and types of armor, coming up with a meshmail that was as strong and yet lighter and more flexible than the plate armor that had been the normal wear for years. The links of this armor were stronger than anything the smith had seen before.

After building his own set of armor, Erin engrossed himself in the making of swords. This encouraged the smith to show Erin the finer detailing and forging of swords, at which Erin excelled. After forging many fine swords, Erin wanted to do one for himself, and the smith showed him things that he had never thought of in forging the others, The smith let Erin work with some iron that Erin had never seen before, it was blacker than the night itself, shining with a deep luster that engulfed the very essence strength. In working this new iron, Erin used a fire hotter than he had ever used before, the sweat dripping from Erin, hitting the hot iron, only to be absorbed into it.

As Erin put himself into the forging of this new metal, he was rewarded with a strength and sheen that rivaled the stars themselves. The keenness of the edge, the balance of the blade, and the weight of the blade spoke to Erin. Something about this metal took part of the soul of Erin, though he had not noticed to begin with. The final sword measured almost four cubits. When the smith touched the blade after Erin had finished it, he was burnt like a shock that stopped the smiths heart almost killing him, until Erin took the blade from his hand.

The smith barely recovered from the wound, and Erin had almost sent the blade to the hells fire that had created it, but the smith stopped him, telling Erin that he had suspected the sword would do something, but didn't know just what would happen. The smith explained to Erin that the metal had come from a place that was not of this world, and had been given to the smith to see what he could do with it. The smith explained to Erin, that in all the years he had had the metal, he was never able to do work with it, and he thought that the feeling he felt in Erin showed him that the special metal was suited for Erin.

So it was, Erin created his living sword, which after careful experimenting, Erin found it not only would protect itself from the touch of others, but it would heal the edge after being notched by other weapons. The sword and the arm of Erin were made as one, the feel, the thrust, the weapon and owner were as one.

At the age of 25,Erin heard the call of the Divine and became a anmchara in his service. He threw himself into his training with renewed vigor and soon embarked on a series of "real adventures", some of which are detailed below.

Nothing in Erin's life had prepared him for his first experience confronting evil. Very early one morning when he was traveling down a forest road, Erin heard someone cry out in pain. The cry came from deep in the woods. Wasting no time, he sped off to help the poor individual. As he approached the cries, he spied an Elf stripped to the waist being tortured by five small green skinned creatures. Calling on the Divine, he changed the foul creatures and drove them off. Quickly he untied the Elf and the two made their getaway before reinforcements could arrive.

Later along the road, the Elf explained that he was a messenger and had been traveling for many days when he had to stop and rest. So sound asleep was he that he did not hear the goblins approach. Soon they had him bound, and were poking him with knives just for fun. If he had not rescued him, he feared that soon he would be dead. Erin assured him that there was nothing to worry about, and they leisurely walked until early afternoon. They made camp and Erin promised to watch over the Elf while he slept. Later that night when the stars were out, Erin fell asleep too.

When he awoke the next morning, the Elf was gone but on the ground next to him was a cloak and a message. The message read: "To a true Elf friend, I owe you my life, alas all that I can offer in thanks is my "cloak of Elvin kind", wear it in good health. signed, A Friend.: Erin was really touched, and the event only served to reinforce his belief that there is more good in the land than bad. Later that year he happened upon the same Elf, while wearing the cloak the Elf had left him, he asked of the Elf, what it was he did, and in reply the Elf told Erin that he was a Master Bow smith and offered to make him an Elvin bow in return for saving his life as he thought the cloak was truly not enough for his life. So it came to Erin his Elvin composite bow and Sheaf arrows.

Erin's most resent adventure and his most dangerous had him traveling the shadow infested tunnels with a mixed party. The trouble started when an Elvin maiden was abducted and a caravan robbed within days of each other. A string of clues led them to the tunnels beneath a city, where they battled for several weeks before rescuing the maiden ( just in the nick of time), and while following the trail of the stolen caravan wealth, that they stumbled upon the true force behind the evil acts. A Lich King. Confusion followed, during which Erin was knocked semi-conscious. Upon regaining his focus, he discovered that he had crawled to within inches of the Lich King, who was poised to kill him. Out of pure and utter fear, Erin blindly sought the hilt of his weapon. His deity was with him that day, and in swinging the weapon at the Lick King, Erin's aim was true. From the Lich King came a sound so paralyzing that it nearly stopped Erin's second swing, almost. Invigorated by the Lich's discomfort, Erin intoned the name of his deity and with a swing, cleanly removed the undead sorcerer's head. The moment the head hit the ground, the Lich King's body exploded into a million pieces. That night Erin said the most heart-felt prayer ever heard by any deity.

Many are the past adventures of Erin Antaya and mighty are the deeds, but let us look not into the past, but to the future where his mighty arm and unbreakable faith will surely be sorely needed.....

To learn more about Erin, go here.