A Kingdom's Fate (Rp): Ended.

[Cinnonym]

And then their lips touched. A firm and clumsy pressure, stealing away her warmth to replace it with something ten degrees hotter. Ellondra could hardly process it; it still felt like it was there even after it had ended.

"...even the day after, I don't want to have wondered what if."

The Sergeant looked up at him without comprehending his words at first. It would be much later before she actually heard them, replaying the situation in her mind. Was this like giving up? Hadn't she told him all along that it was too dangerous for these types of feelings to grow? They'd distract each other... Already she felt the will to resist him draining away, and that could only be portentous. Though she remained standing apart from him, her hand clutched his arm at the crook of his elbow for balance.

"How could you do that?" she mumbled softly, "What would I have done if you had kissed me and then your head had burst into flames?" Ellondra rested her other hand on his chest, eyes lowering. It had been a while since she'd stood this close to him. He smelled like vanilla, and sweat. "Gather the others, please. I shall wait beyond the gates."

 

[Slycne]

Vik'nar simply wanted to live in this moment for a week. The feeling was like that of a hundred shocks of static that seemed to renew his energy.

"What would I have done if you had kissed me and then your head had burst into flames?"

"I have every confidence that a dread sorcerer would soon find your falchion cleaving his neck." He mustered a smile with his jest, though the rest of his face still betraying the gravity of the situation. Before he could say more though she was asking him look for the others. He backed away slowly, not eager to break their embrace, but they still had a duty to attend to before more of this could be explored. "I'll find them."

Luckily their two remaining members proved simple enough finds, both of them stumbling across the grisly scene mere moments after he started his search. Evela looked as if he'd seen Gaudan himself and had collapsed shortly after returning from where ever it was he had disappeared.

He stirred the monk trying to wake him. "Acento, we are meeting beyond the gates. We aim to press on soon." He called out the his retreating form, not sure if the words registered or not.

"Come on brother monk, wake up." He shook at the man's unconscious form again.

 

[Dragon_of_red]

Evela stirred slightly, he looked up and saw Vik'nar trying to wake him up. "Hello Vik'nar, what a nice day" was all he managed before his head slammed back into the dirt, he was still conscious, but he had no more energy to speak of. With his face still on the ground, he managed a quick, "Please help" before falling back into silence.

 

[lewism247]

Acento heard someone call his name, he stopped, it sounded like Vik'nar. He raised his hand briefly as a sign that he had heard but didn't change his path.

He walked though the ruins, he had no destination, he just kept putting one foot in front of the other.

 

[The Zango]

Ra'ive was stood, surrounded by darkness and leaning against a signpost, puffing away at his pipe contently. He'd decided to stop and wait for the others, not fancying his chances against a cadre of Goblins bearing down upon him and him alone, the dull pain in his knee reminding him that he was far from invincible.

Sure, if he was assailed by Goblins now then he would be in trouble due to the fact that he was stoned and giving his position away with the glowing embers of his pipe, however he was close enough to the town for the others to reach him if he called for them, that is if they weren't too busy praying, arranging corpses and braiding each others hair, or if they went the Accento route and began looting. The party certainly was a strange and miss-matched bunch, that was for sure, but despite the petty grievances he had against them, he found they were growing on him.

He reloaded his pipe and continued to smoke as he waited, watching the blurred gap where the gate used to be, willing his party members to finish sobbing and hurry up.

 

[lewism247]

Acento wandered for a while before coming to his sense. He had seen death before, he had caused it. He needed to get a grip of himself.

He remembered Vik'nar's yell and headed towards the gate, seeing the familiar shape of Ra'ive standing nearby.

 

[Slycne]

Vik'nar let out a long sigh. "I might ask what in Gaudan happened to you, but I'm not even sure I want to know."

Spotting the wagon nearby gave him an idea, he hoisted the monk's body into it and pushed it gently down the remainder of the hill and out the gate. The wagon was much too large and heavy to be easily pushed along the flat ground though and it promptly ground to a stop next to the group.

Vik'nar gave a half-hearted shrug to his companions questioned gazes, indicating he knew exactly as much as they did. He did however know that they still needed to keep moving. So adjusting Landon's longsword because he was still getting used to the weight on his back, he announced. "I'm going to go retrieve our packs." Vik'nar, at least, hadn't brought his travelings from their make-shift camp into the battle. Pointing to Evela, "Someone try to get him on his feet, else we'll need a mount or a litter to carry him."

He padded his way back across the field to where they had first staged before entering the town. He gathered up the belongings and started his way back, keeping an eye out for the woman and her child, but she seemed to have vanished into the night to seek solace in her grief. The rest of the townspeople that escaped on the boats would have to return soon though.

 

[Dragon_of_red]

"Hahaha" Evela laughed, he wasn't sure if it was at Vik'nar, or just that he felt that something was missing inside of him, but either way, he laughed. "I don't particularity know what happened to me either..." he said, putting un-needed emphasis on certain words, sounding like he was drunk. "I don't know, I put my hands on the ground, and a sudden rush of power over took me. It was too much. Man is not supposed to have that much power..."

He trailed off, but quickly tried to stand up. It was an awkward thing to look at, but he eventually made it up. "So, where to?" he asked, looking very uneasy on his feet.

 

[Jav3lin]

As the wind blew the seabreeze across the land the fires were soon extinguished or almost. Rubble was still crashing and there were faint and dull noises of random things like pottery and wood falling in the distance.

However, on the wall besides the gate was a small note that had managed to stay hanged. Some men would have said it was destiny, but that giant nail in the center of it may have had something to do with it.

*Lemsten TownsGuard*

Ablebodied recruits are requested at the Town Hall for audience. Speak to the gatekeeper for more information.
Scouts have been sent into Harpwood during the course of the week and there seems to be a growing population of dead animals in the eastern provinces of the forest.
A scouting party is being assembled for the good of this town to investigate.

If you are young, healthy and capable of carrying a sword, then I want you! To report to the Town Hall and sign up for the Lemsten TownsGuard.​

 

[Slycne]

"We head east for Tartungen, that's still why we were sent up here."

With a huff, Vik'nar set down the various travel packs and set about collecting his own, clinching down the straps. Dawn had finally finished breaking over the horizon and the sun hung low in the direction they intended to travel. Vik'nar wasn't sure if to interrupt that as a good or an ill omen.

For most of the night, they had been running on nerves to push back the exhaustion of little sleep. His body felt like lead, but it would be safer to travel during the day. So taking a bit of dried travel rations from his pack, he forced himself to put one foot in front of the other, nibbling on the food as he started walking.

Landon's final dread warning felt as if it still hung in the air. Though not wanting to dwell on what awaited them in Tartungen, Vik'nar set his mind to the romantic encounter from earlier. The sensation still felt fresh on his lips and recalling it returned a smile and a hint of blush to his face.

 

[Jav3lin]

The road was barely paved, merely gravel mixed with dirt which had been hardened during a rainy winter into something concrete.
To their left could be seen one or two farmsteads on the horizon if you really peered your eyes at it. There was also the road leading to Harpwood, but that road was there to be crossed another day.

The group hadn't eaten properly since Herelden and rations were running low on everyone's person. Most of the water had dried out for no appearent reason, but then again, being so close to foul magic would have it's effect on natural resources.

Putting one leg in front of the other, the group headed east, down the poorly paved road. And it looked to be a somewhat quiet journey.

*Meanwhile in Tartungen*​

The white haired man sat in a makeshift throne room. The room wasn't all too large. In it were some broken materials such as paintings and tables and candles had been put up everywhere, forming a circle. The man stepped into the middle of the room grasping a cane in his hand.

"Heed me, souls of the abyss! Heed my call! Come to me and I shall grant you everylasting POWER!"
The man slammmed the cane down into the ground with a loud crack. The cane dug itself into the floor and the candles' fires started burning with a vile and purple aura.
The man let go the cane as it stood all by itself and he stepped backwards, waving his arms into the air like he was welcoming something into his reach.

"Yeees. YEEES! Come to me! COME TO ME!"
He called out. A large beam of dark light shot up from the staff and into the air.
The beam could be seen all the way to Herelden for mere seconds before returning into the room.

"And now, you are all mine....."
The man walked to the end of the room onto a balcony. From where he stood, goblins were all over the place. Tartungen was a large area, bigger than Herelden tenfold.
"My minions!!"
He called out to them and the goblins turned from what they were doing, be it making swords or eating or wrestling over materials, and looked at the man on the balcony overlooking Tartungen.
"I give you... POWER!"

The man pointed his hands forward and from behind him came a vail of souls shooting into the air from all directions and came crashing down into the expidition site.
The souls took posession of the goblins and were granted more strength and flexibility along with demonic posession from the souls the man collected.
The goblins' eyes burned green and they smiled as they returned to their work.

Like most dwarven expiditions, the center of it was a gaping hole with some mining sites in the outer rims of it.
Around it were blacksmiths, grand forges, houses and huts of many sizes and the tower the man had unleashed the souls from was in the far eastern part of Tartungen, a small church-like building on a large cliff overlooking the -what used to be- the Tartungen mining expidition.

Large black clouds hung in the skies over Tartungen as lightning and storms brought forth heavy rain. And day was turned to endless night.

 

[Slycne]

The road from Lemsten to Tartungen was straight and wide. Port Lemsten was the natural choice to ferry the valuable metals and minerals that came out of the Tartungen mines. Carts laden down had long since worn groves in the road. Rounding a hill it comes into site, massive does not even begin to describe the scope of it.

The western facing wall ended only a few thousand yards south at the coast, there was a scant few yards between the walls edge and the cliff face where the road passed, but to the north it ran nearly as far as they could see before disappearing into the tree line of Harpwood. And it was equally impressive vertically, it was hard to accurately gauge it from where they stood, but it must have been at least 40 feet. The whole structure was cut of large blocks of chiseled rock, it must have taken generation after generation to construct. There didn't appear to be much in the way of battlements or towers though, the massive size of the fortification must have turned back countless foes by itself.

They rested back behind the hill rise. Vik'nar looking oddly both weary and somewhat cheerful, "Thoughts on getting over that? Word is that Tartungen's been locked up tight for months, I doubt they are just going to open up if we knock."

 

[Jav3lin]

Arriving at the gates, the group found themselves in mild rain with gusts of wind scattering under the clouds that were as black as ash. The walls were thick and mighty and noises from the innder side were distant and vague.

Viewing the massive size of the gates in front of them, it was clear to anyone with his head clear that this wall was not being scaled anytime soon.

Their walk from Lemsten had been a fairly short one with a low count of conversation, but it had however taken it's toll on their stamina. That and the previous night's encounters of course.

Through a collective of holes in the clouds the sun shone at it's peak in the sky, wavering wildly as the clouds moved in a circular motion around Tartungen.
But the noises from Tartungen weren't the only ones displayed, for in a nearby bush could be heard some vague ruckus.
The bush looked to be alive for a few seconds before it stopped and the shadows in the mild forest area next to the road started moving.

"Ho there adventurers!"
Called a man trotting on a white steed that came up the road coming from Herelden. He wore armor declaring himself as a Hereldian royal guard, and those were hard to come by for just anyone.
"Are you the envoyers of the King?"
The man slowed his steed to a halt and looked at Ellondra, instantly recognizing a guard's posture within her.

 

[Cinnonym]

Hesitating a moment before answering, she returned his query with a second, "Have you a message for us?"

 

[Jav3lin]

The man wasn't clear on how to deliver these frightening news.
"You are all familiar with Tai Ogul, I imagine...."
He let the words sink in before continuing.
"The streams of water that were discovered not so long ago have managed to fill out the rift, creating a water way between us and them"

"It seems The Guild has managed to build a dock in the far south, so far even that our scouts did not cross paths with them. Tai Ogul's forces have been streaming in like locust and have already managed to pillage Swaere and surround Herelden, however they are not striking and the defenses of Herelden are believed to be at an advantage...."

The man stepped from his horse and reached into his cloak.
"Me and my escort were ambushed on the road, just west of Mungen, so their forces will not take long to discover your position. I believe the heads of the King's personal envoyers would be the top priority of anyone under Tai Ogul's reach"

He looked into their eyes with strange determination in his mind. Like he was trying to hold back a feeling.
His hand tucked at something and brought it forth from his cloak.
"Luckily, I managed to escape their grasp while my men covered my escape with their lives, all to give you this"
His hand grasped a square box wrapped in brown cloth and tied with strings and he layed it on the grass in front of them.

"Scouts in the Northern Mountains have reported a large number of reinforcements growing inside these very walls. If they are to be released, they would double Tai Ogul's forces and they would overwhelm the entire region within a month!"
The man climbed onto his horse, a silver dagger displayed itself in his cloak where he had reached for earlier just before he settled into his sattle.
"I do not know what it is, but you are hereby requested to eliminate the threat within Tartungen and report back to Lemsten. Speak to the guards at the gate and ask for Tholdrem if-, when you make it out"

 

[Cinnonym]

Herelden is under siege--Ought they not to stand by their King?!

But if what the Knight said was correct, that whatever crawled inside the walls would double Tai Ogul's strength... Then they had no choice but to carry on with the task at hand.

"Tholdrem. Right, then." Ellondra took the box from the ground and clasped it her raised hand, "We will complete our missive. We've not come all this way for nothing."

 

[Slycne]

Vik'nar, ever the sentinel, spoke in a hushed tone, not loud enough for the man to overhear. "Last we were told by the King, the Royal Guard were not riding north to Tartungen..."

"And if Herelden was indeed under siege or surrounded, why send your men away?" That all too familiar feeling of doubt gripped his gut.

He addressed the man quickly. "Tholdrem. Why were you and your men riding north if Herelden was under immanent threat?" This was hardly the time and the place for an examination of the man's story, but this would all be for naught if they fumbled their way into an ambush devised by one of Tai Ogul's spies.

 

[Jav3lin]

The man looked at Vik'nar and Ellondra when they were coversing and nodded to them in understanding once they spoke their peace.
"King Herald instructed a scouting party to report how far Tai Ogul's reach is. And I was instructed to accompany them with this box. The King said it would be at the utmost importance once you reached inside Tartungen"

He turned his steed toward Herelden and looked over his shoulder.
"Talk to Tholdrem, he will explain everything. You will find his quarters in the very middle of town, a red door there will lead to stairs. That's all I can say for now, I need to return to King Herald and report on our ambush"

The man yelled for the horse to go and so he obeyed.

 

[The Zango]

"Things seem to be looking up I see. The fate of the northern lands rests on our ability to scale this insurmountable wall, wade through legions of Gyia-knows-what and then slay an enemy that can kill any one of us, at any time, with the power of thought, then trek back to a Goblin ravaged town and save the capitol of civilization from an army of unspeakable horrors" said Ra'ive, sounding disproportionally uninterested in the degrading situation.

'Why do I get involved in this'

'Because your an idiot'

 

[Cinnonym]

Ellondra scowled at the Elf, turning the box over curiously in her hands. Hardly did imagination provide a reason why such a helpful item could come in such a small package. Yet, even if it was a pebble with a face drawn on, it would not sway her resolve to carry on with the mission at hand.

"If you'd like to stay outside and have your eyes burned out from inside your sockets, I shall give you my blessing."

She pulled the tied strings loose and opened the small parcel--she had all the faith in the World in the Royal Guard.