The First Blight: Curse of Dumat [RP/Closed]

[Cinnonym]

Thaedrin watched the Wardens accumulate behind him, checking their number against an internal roster before turning his mare forward and leading them down toward the mountain pass. Their pace was set as swiftly as possible without running their beasts to exhaustion, but it would take hours of riding yet to reach their destination. In the bitter cold, he was glad for his uniform and leathers. The armor the warriors were wearing would surely be ice to the touch by now.

Finally, he called the squad to a stop. Below, following the road down from the pass, Vol Dorma was under assault. The Darkspawn had not breached the walls yet, but it would only be a matter of time. He could feel the monsters? elation. They must be close.

The Constable turned towards the group behind him, ?Men! Vol Dorma requires action. Get those damn animals off of the gates, and if the army knows what they?re doing they will add their ranged support to our offensive. Aurelius, take a small team and clean up any rubbish digging or climbing. The rest of you, begin the descent. Now. We will be at your back in a moment.?

He gestured, stopping his rival from following Aurelius. ?You stay, Komnenos. ?You three, as well. Ghil. Ulrin. Sulahn?nehn.? Thaedrin glanced over his shoulder to watch his Wardens ride to meet the horde, then turned his attention back to the four in front of him, ?I need to know there will be no issues following my command when we are in the field.?

 

[FortyThree]

Diocles frowned. This was keeping him from the battle! Keeping him from the slaughter of darkspawn. He gave Thaedrin a deadly serious look.

"We will obey, Constable."

 

[ShadowFolk]

The first few minutes of the ride had not been bad, but after that, the few layers of cloth and leathers she had were freezing and the wind bit at her hands and face. She was glad to have the stop called. Momentarily of course, the darkpawn were near and with it came a mix of emotions.

Sulahn'nehn couldn't help but feel the comment was directed at her for a number of reasons. "The only issue here is the darkspawn, Constable."

She would follow his orders, albeit bitterly.

 

[Rosen2012]

Ulrin's expression was already bitter form riding with the the icey wind cutting at his face. And when Theadrin asked if there would be issue he felt the expression his face was frozen was fitting for how he felt, despite his answer. "No, Constable, we have no issue following orders."

 

[Cinnonym]

He accepted their words with a curt nod. ?Good. Then move.?

Thaedrin reached out and stopped Diocles a second time, grasping his mount?s reins. ?A word, Komnenos,? his voice lowered, though the others were well on their way. ?The darkspawn will try to steal away the women of the town, and we may not be in a position to prevent their escape. I?m relying on you to put arrows through them. If you?ve seen the same dreams as I, then you know that death would be kinder.?

The Constable dug his heels into his mare?s flanks and followed the others towards Vol Dorma with his staff in hand.

 

[FortyThree]

Diocles nodded slowly.

"Yes, sir. .. I can do mercy killing, it is not a problem. I will not miss."

He kicked his own horse, coming in behind the group, his customary position.

 

[duckflesh]

Delphina moved away to do as ordered; overhead, several Griffons passed by as the more senior Wardens moved into the city itself to consult with the governor.

----------------

Battle raged outside Val Dorma. Dozens of Darkspawn assaulted the walls, but for the most part they were being stymied by the defenders.

In one notable area, however, whatever defense was being mounted seemed to have mostly dried up; only corpses and debris gave it testament now. A trio of Hurlocks armed with heavy axes were hacking away at a set of wooden gates: these looked likely to give at any moment.

A Genlock was overseeing them. The Hurlocks seemed to defer to him despite his small stature.

 

[FortyThree]

Seeing a priority target, Diocles reacted instantly. Without bothering to dismount, he drew, nocked, aimed, compensated for wind, range, and the archer's paradox, and let fly-All in the span of a couple of seconds. The arrow struck true, and he yelled for the beast's attention while dismounting.

"Your death has come!"

 

[Rosen2012]

As his stead drew him closer to the battle Ulrin surveyed the targets and decided he wasn't going to ride head long into a Hurlock. Feeling he had better chances against the Genlock the rouge dismounted and charged up on the smaller of the four Darkspawn thrusting his first dagger forward, just missing the monster, but brought his second one down into its side.

 

[ShadowFolk]

Sulahn'nehn had since dismounted and was as ready for battle as she would be. Fear was still present in her when she drew closer to the darkspawn, but it was not the same as her first battle. Seeing wave after wave of them in the Fade helped her and the fear did not own her. What pushed her was hatred for the constable for putting her through hell in the first place. Everything that bothered her about Thaedrin would be taken out on the darkspawn this day.

She took hold of her staff and steadied herself before releasing a powerful wave to knock back each of the Hurlocks.

So. Very. Satisfying. They all seemed to have his face.

 

[Cinnonym]

Ghil fell off her horse more than dismounted it, but she had no need of the creature. Trying to keep her balance atop it was burdensome. Rolling away from the danger of hooves and enemy blades, she swept up to her feet and drew her greatsword to assault the magic-casting emissary before it got another spell off. The blade slashed the front of its crude leather armor open but the thing squealed and retreated away from a second strike.

Thaedrin saw it. Remaining mounted, he swung the head of his staff towards the genlock and unleashed a powerful pulse of energy. The genlock's blood pressure rose until the veins burst open, and the backlash of the magic killed two of the hurlocks that Sulahn'nehn's magic had left alive.

 

[duckflesh]

The Darkspawn were caught by surprise and easily dispatched. The Genlock Emissary, disturbingly, screamed out as it died, "Filth! FILTH!"

The final surviving Hurlock, one shattered arm dangling limply, raised its axe and buried it in Ghil's shoulder, meanwhile releasing a roar of startling volume.

Its cry for help caught the attention of a trio of genlocks that had just managed to storm the wall not far off. From the battlements they turn and fire their crossbows down at the Wardens. One of them thinks to kick down the crude metal ladder, sending it crashing to the ground.

Sulahn'nehn took one arrow to the chest; Ulrin, one to the thigh. Thaedrin was hit near mortally in the neck, crumpling to the ground.

 

[FortyThree]

Diocles launched another arrow in haste, winging the injured Hurlock. He made his way to the side of the mages, screaming death and fury.

 

[Cinnonym]

"Take the--" Thaedrin's words stopped short as an arrow buried itself into his neck. Shock crossed his face, then he fell from his horse and hit the ground hard. Blood was welling into his throat; he clapped a hand over the wound, tried to heal it with a spell, but between the pain and being nearly trampled underfoot, he was losing life quickly.

Ghil screamed more in rage than pain, that this dying thing dared face her. She swung her sword into its side so hard it stuck in the spine; she put her boot on its face and wrenched the blade free before she ripped the axe from her shoulder and threw it aside.

 

[ShadowFolk]

For a brief moment, it appeared that the Warden's would be victorious. A swift victory at hand, but the tide turned quickly. Too quickly. The constable was down, Ghil had an axe in her shoulder, the surly elf was injured and-

Her scream was caught in her throat. Again she found an arrow protruding from her body. She was not sure if it was better that it missed her heart or not. It was already getting hard to breathe, her lungs felt like they were on fire, likely filling. Sulahn'nehn dropped to her knees, vision blurring shooting off a spell at one of the darkspawn wielding a crossbow.

 

[Rosen2012]

Ulrin let out a cry as he was struck in the leg. The rouge cursed and used his knife to cut off the end of the arrow before proceeding forward to attack the genlock archer that stuck him. With Ghil finishing off the Hurlock he ran for the wall. The wound to his leg caused him to stumble as he made his way to the fallen ladder to raise it and peruse the monsters.

Once at the top he violently slashed at the legs of a genlockand missed his first strike, but he stabbed into the Darkspawn with his second.

 

[duckflesh]

The Genlock stabbed by Ulrin was only moderately wounded, but did lose its balance: a fatal matter at the top of a narrow wall. It tumbled backward into the fortress, a thud and a shriek all that were left of it.

The wounded Genlock turned its crossbow on Diocles now, firing a bolt, but the shot went wide.

The third Genlock, still fully hale, gave Ulrin a hearty push.

((Ulrin, make a strength check (Str +1d20); if you get 31 or less, you fall. You will take 10 damage (DR does not apply) unless someone on the ground can make a check (Dex +1d20) of at least 35 to catch you instead of making an attack.))

 

[Rosen2012]

Ulrin grit his teeth as he was pushed back. Having only hiss opponent before him he reached out to grab, or rather stab at the Darkspawn. His first swing forward just narrowly missed, but he buried his second dagger into the genlock's shoulder and used the creatures weight to pull himself forward and regain his balance.

 

[FortyThree]

Diocles let lose another shot, hitting a gunlock hard in the shoulder. The creature would fall soon, he knew it. They would all fall. He stood over Thaedrin, arrow nocked, daring the monsters to make a move for his downed comrade.

 

[ShadowFolk]

Her peripherals were were getting darker, air filling less and less of her lungs. Eyes bleary, she rose a hand weakly and saw a genlock launched off the wall.

Good.

The ground got closer and closer. So tired. Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a little bit, she'd wake up and everything would be better.