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The War of the Fallen Son
(Okay, so... yeah. I've never done or tried anything like this before, and certainly not on this scale. I normally am adverse to forum roleplay and prefer to do things live, but an all-out war is simply beyond my ability to accomplish without GM tools or speed typing in two places at once, both of which I do not have. Aside in-game GM events, I don't think this has ever been attempted in HZ, so let's see how it goes, shall we?
Rules/suggestions on how this works will follow the initial story post which sets up the War of the Edari/War of the Fallen Son. Enjoy!)
“There will be no more running.” Maurger carved at the debris with his claws, dust kicking up into the stale air of the hidden chamber. The rocks rolled away into a pile.
“There will be no more hiding.” The black drake sneered and slashed at the rock with all his strength, sending pieces flying everywhere. The pile he created was picked apart by stone hands.
“I tried to birth a better world for my kind without bloodshed, but it seems that all change must begin with blood.” The stone rumbled away as Maurger broke through, fresh air wafting into the chamber. He stood there and breathed it, enjoying the smell of it. He would not bury himself away to keep alive this time. He would fight for it.
“Even if I must infest every drake and dragonelle in the world, I will create a better society. No matter how long it takes.” He turned back to the stale chamber and looked over them – the fruit of his labor. His backup plan.
“Each of you has a part of me with you. Each of you has been crafted to the finest detail. One of your brothers fell, but from him we learned how to better protect you and make you stronger. For good or for ill, you shall go forth to your assigned targets. Kill or infest those who resist. Bipeds are of no use – slaughter them indiscriminately if they get in the way. Prove your right to exist, Edari! Build a world in which you too can live! Now, go forth! To battle! To war!” Maurger shouted. The stone lurched with the hideous cheers of the creatures he had created. Maurger gave a regal turn and began his march, his army falling in step as they marched through the empty lair. The drake had already sent his family to safety and made arrangements for them, even should he not survive. That thought was painful for him, for Amalteah had urged him to run and hide. But he had tasted freedom. He would fight for it.
At the end of Sak’tal, the army split and moved off without him. He would join them soon, but he had to ready the greatest of the Edari.
While half of the army hid themselves amongst the abandoned honeycomb lairs of Granitefall Mountains, the other half had a longer march ahead of them. Skirting the tip of Granitefall, the army passed under the watchful shadow of the Spire and entered into the blistering desert. Over the forgotten scars of battle they marched, coming ever closer to their destination.
They were not unnoticed.
“Captain Legendweaver! Come to the south wall immediately!” the half-giant Thurdang shouted. The human captain followed the alert to the south wall, where Thurdang pointed out the mass migration.
“I have never seen creatures such as them before. They look like golem, but they are dressed for battle,” Captain Aaron Legendweaver said.
“Should I ready the guard for battle?” Thurdang asked.
“It would be unwise to charge off like that. Summon Jasinda. Maybe she knows what these are.” Aaron said. The half-giant saluted and soon fetched the gnomish mage who maintained Tazoon’s mage tower. She had brought a spyglass and examined them at a distance.
“From here, they look like regular golems, save their appearance,” Jasinda said. “But that they have been carved like that, and that they march in formation, suggests that they have been animated to do battle. Only a dragon could have made them animate using primal energy.” She paused, furrowing her brow. “No, wait. Look at their faces.”
The Captain took the spyglass. Through it, he was able to see their faces – black, with a huge gray eye protected by stone eyelids. “That’s no simple golem.”
“The city is in a tizzy! What is going on?” Allambe demanded as he stormed up the path to Tazoon’s gate. The leader of Feladan-In-Exile never had left his position of power, and remained a representative of the elves ever since Feladan’s reclamation.
“Seneschal, I cannot be sure that it is safe-” Aaron began.
“If that is the case, then I should be definitely aware of what is going on!” the elf exclaimed, pushing past Thurdang and the Captain. “An army on our very gates?” he asked as soon as he saw the marching golems.
“They do not appear to be heading here,” Aaron said, begrudgingly polite. He handed Allambe the spyglass. “We believe those were created by a dragon, but we do not know who might have done so, or why.”
“Black ooze with gray eyes? Only one dragon I could think of who might fit that description,” Allambe said. He returned the spyglass. “There was a black dragon who was conducting negotiations with us about either joining the Imperial Council or replacing representatives to both Helian and Lunus. Mogger or Frogger or something. Talks were put on hold until he had unified his people.” The dark elf looked out at the golems as they curved to the north, passing the scene of the Great Battle. “I’d say negotiations have broken down.”
“A civil war then?” Jasinda asked.
“I suspect little civility about it,” Allambe said.
“Thurdang, run to each of the guard and tell them to be on high alert. I’ll issue further orders once the matter has been discussed by the Imperial Council,” Aaron said. Thurdang once again saluted and departed.
“Just an alert, Captain? Should you not prepare them for war?” Jasinda asked.
“As far as I’m concerned, this is a dragon civil matter. Let them shoulder the burden,” Aaron said. “My only worry is this city. Allambe, will you call the Council to order? They should be aware of this.”
“I know how to do my job, Captain. I’ll expect a full report within twenty minutes,” Allambe said, walking leisurely down Tazoon’s main street.
“Should you not at least warn the dragons what is coming?” Jasinda asked.
“If their guard is as good as ours, then they should not need any warning. Besides – it is to Dralk they must march. Those dragons would sooner eat me than heed my warning,” the captain said.
“If this is the work of just one dragon… can you think of any parallel in history where one person brought down an entire society?” the gnome asked, adjusting her glasses.
“You presume too much, Jasinda. No matter the parallel, I’ll not risk our people to defend the dragons unless the Council deems it necessary. To pull back the troops needed for such a conflict could utterly destabilize the front and the undead could surge over our outposts and attack the towns. It would be like the old days again. Let what bleeding-heart or bloodthirsty Gifted will go to the dragons’ aid.”
“He started as a councilman, too. I pray you can live with yourself, knowing you did nothing to stop the rise of the next Torrin Macalir,” Jasinda said. She walked away, leaving the Captain to his thoughts.
At last, the army arrived. The Edari arranged themselves in lines based on their type in the obsidian fields, taking from the harder stone whatever they needed for their goals. Three golems grouped together behind all the others, each giving up a black piece of themselves to form a small black dragon – a connection to Maurger himself. “The forces at Dralk are prepared to act, Lord Maurger,” one of the general-golem said. Its voice sounded like vibrating gelatin.
“The golem of Chiconis are also prepared,” said the generals hiding just behind the crest of the Granitefall Mountains.
“Excellent,” Maurger said, the goo-doll chipping at some unseen structure. “You have your orders. Send in the first wave. Destroy the travel gates.”
“As you command, Lord,” the Edari said in unison. One of the three generals walked to the front of their army and reviewed the troops he was to lead. The first wave consisted of two types of golem – the basic grunts, and the wizards. The grunts were of the same simplistic design as the prototype: heavy forearms, small hind legs, gelatinous connections. They had evolved, however, since the failure of the prototype. Side-stones of granite and obsidian hung over their shoulders and hind legs, protecting their joints from the hellish dragon flame. Their fingers had been sharpened with tips of obsidian to allow for easier infestation.
The wizards, however, were something altogether new. Maurger had experimented with his Dark Primal since he first went underground following his expulsion from the Blue Phoenix’s lair. The wizards were the culmination of his study: thin-framed, more humanoid golems, with bodies draped in ooze like dark robes. They had adapted all of Maurger’s spells to their own and had many surprises in store for the dragons that resisted them.
“By the will of our Lord, we shall bring down the society of ancient scale that has lasted four thousand years! A new age will begin this day! Rise, Edari of the Desha Treskri! Death comes to the unwilling!” The golem – Edari – saluted their first general by pounding their chests with their heavy stone hands. The general turned, himself a golem of khutit features armed with swords of obsidian and the breath of evil itself, and cried out a hideous gurgling screech as the army charged into the city.
Dralk and Chiconis both had come under siege by an army not seen since the rise of the Aegis.
Maekrux and Ausixen had been conversing with Valkoth and Semeneth. They were overturning all they had done while under Maurger’s influence and getting an update of the situation with more clear heads.
“I do not know which is worse, old friend,” Valkoth said. “To have your body taken from you, or your mind.”
“Each has their pains, Valkoth,” Maekrux said. Ausixen nodded to that.
“I know you suggest that Maurger would do something drastic, but what could a single dragon do?” Semeneth asked.
“We do not know for certain. It is possible that he may go back into hiding again, until he can return with a population of dragons loyal to him by birth,” Maekrux said.
“I think he will do something more drastic and immediate than that,” Ausixen said. “Drulkar has warned me of a looming shadow that is soon to descend on us.”
“This is dire prediction, Champion. I pray to Drulkar that this shadow is not as great as I fear,” Semeneth said.
A roar of battle broke their meeting. The four piled out of the ancient’s lair to see the first wave of Edari tumble down the path towards Dralk proper, the guards rising up to fight against hopeless odds. Semeneth’s wings drooped.
“By Drulkar, what has he done?” Semeneth asked.
“Semeneth, you must return to Chiconis immediately!” Maekrux exclaimed.
“But if Dralk-” the ancient began.
“If Dralk is under attack, then Chiconis may be as well,” Maekrux said.
Valkoth roared. “Sacrilege! Rally the guard! Summon all dragons able to fight! This heresy will not go unpunished!” Ausixen lifted his wings and spread his claws, preparing to fight.
“No, Ausixen, you must go with Semeneth,” Maekrux said.
“But grandfather!” Ausixen exclaimed.
“Chiconis is in more immediate danger, for he would have an easier time holding it than Dralk. If he is to show his face, that is where he is likely to be. Go, now! Neither city must fall to him!” Maekrux exclaimed.
“You are right. Hurry, Elder Semeneth!” Ausixen exclaimed. The elder nodded and the two of them escaped through the travel gate.
“It is like the battle of Tazoon all over again, isn’t it Maekrux?” Valkoth asked.
“I was but a hatchling then, and could do nothing but watch my father die. This time, I will not stand idly by and let the battle for our future be decided by others,” Maekrux said.
“Prove to me you still have it then. You owe me after that stunt you pulled with the rune,” Valkoth said, grinning as he took to the air. Maekrux followed.
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The War of the Fallen Son
(OOC)
Here’s how this works.
Your role is to come to the aid of either Dralk or Chiconis and help to defeat the opposing army. Take whatever character(s) of yours that you want to participate to the city of your choice and battle the current golem types available. Bipeds are also welcome to participate!
You do this by writing a story post including your character fighting off the golems. Posts can be long or short depending on your preference. You’ll have approximately a week to post before the next wave advances (goal is Saturday advances, but I am sometimes slow to write).
The war takes place in one day, so avoid talking about ICly until the last attack has come and gone.
There will be three waves of attacks. Each wave will add new types of golem. For instance, the first wave has three types of Edari: the grunt, the wizard, and the leading general. I will offer descriptions and type of attacks the golems will utilize in these OOC posts, and you will also see some of their attacks in action in the IC wave posts. This information is to make your post better when you fight the Edari.
Each wave will also have a target. It can feature into your post or not, but that’s their general goal.
The Edari golems are NPCs. They are semi-sentient and are not directly connected to Maurger, and are therefore autonomous. You can do whatever you want to them – win, lose, get infested – so long as it is in the spirit of a war scenario (no dancing with the golems! They hate dancing). The army is supposed to lose, so don’t worry too much about godmodding – that’s why they’re NPCs and not players ;p
On that note, though, make sure at least someone other than Mae or Ausi is defending both cities. If they are unopposed, they will capture their goal. I really don’t want them to win, so help me out here >.>;
Next post will give specific information relating to the Edari of Wave 1. Post following that will be an example of one of my characters fighting in the battle at Dralk.
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The War of the Fallen Son
WAVE 1 – Testing Their Strength
TARGET – Destroy the Travel Gates
Leader: Edari-khutit
Description: a golem body twice the size of a half-giant carved into the shape of a khutit. One of the few Edari with two eyes. Part of the body is hollow, and the ooze that animates it circulates around inside like blood. It has two obsidian claymores, and additional armor in the form of marble plates around the chest, legs, and outer arms.
Attacks:
Weapon Mastery – The Edari-khutit is an expert at dual wielding with the obsidian blades. Note that obsidian tends to crack and fragment under stress and will leave very sharp pieces embedded in its target.
Corrupting Breath – The general can breathe a gas of dark primal, causing the target to become physical ill and corrupt/age skin or scale. It can also cause hallucination or confusion if inhaled.
Unit: Edari Grunt
Description: thick and powerful forearms, small but strong hind legs. Similar in appearance to a baboon with a large gray eye for a head. Joints are comprised of the black ooze, but the joints are protected by plates of granite or obsidian and the shoulders, sides, and two that can be pushed together to cover the eye.
Attacks:
Wild Swing – The golem swings its huge forearms to daze the target or break bone. Can sometimes leave itself open to attack while doing this.
Stone Throw – Can throw either stone it brought with it or stone ripped from the ground itself. Damage depends on the shape of the rock.
Piercing Strangulation – Golem attempts to choke the victim, piercing the neck with its sharpened talons. Ooze then comes up from the joints and enters into the wound, causing infestation and loss of body control. If quick, infestation can be removed by submersing in lava or burning dragon fire into the wound.
Unit: Edari Wizard
Description: an Edari with human-like features, but golem-sized stature. Gray eye for a face, and body covered in flowing ooze that looks faintly like a robe. Fingers are made of the ooze and its primary point of attack.
Attacks:
Dark Prime Bolt: Similar to a Prime Bolt, but can corrupt/age skin or scale in addition to exploding on impact.
Ooze Vines: using its own ‘robe,’ the wizard manipulates the goo into the ground, travels through it, and then sprouts capturing vines around the victim’s feet. This gives the wizard time to infect its target if unchecked. Ooze returns to the wizard once the attack ends.
Dark Tempest: Black ooze leaves the ‘robe’ of the wizard and swirls around on a whirling wind. The ooze hardens into thin, razor-like objects, which can slash an unprotected target to ribbons. Ooze returns to the wizard once the attack ends.
???????: For Wave Two. Mwahaha.
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The War of the Fallen Son
(Example post)
Maekrux and Valkoth landed on the path before the floating hub of Dralk. Spreading their mighty wings as if to declare that no further trespass would be made, they stalked into battle. Maekrux struck with his claws against the grunt golem, tearing a chunk from its forearm and knocking it off balance. With a tail whip, he sent the advance golem flying into the wall.
The wizard golem behind the grunt waved its oozing fingers and channeled a bolt of dark prime, tossing it at the Blue Phoenix. The dragon lifted his paw in response, channeling a prime bolt of his own. His ball of prime met the aggressive spell in the air between them. The explosive energy created a crack of sound and a flash of light; Maekrux lowered his head and charged, lifting it at the last moment to knock the wizard to its ooze-covered back. Capturing its arms in his foreclaws, Maekrux spewed a burst of flame onto the wizard, utterly burning away the animating ooze that held the golem together. Maekrux roared his victory at the still-coming onslaught.
“Who next shall challenge the Blue Phoenix?” he demanded, rushing forward again.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((zomg thank you for this - I am actifve in several email/forum RPs and so I can do this even if I can't login for ya'lls stuff - I hope to post something tonight as I'm at work now but Frith-Rae shall emerge from her lair next to that portal they are attacking and asist Sem and Aux - though I will not RP them :). Just dont kill meh! :))
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((Did anything happen to march through the Mahagra/Kirasanct area? I'm a bit of a dork and can't figure it out myself.))
Wherever I go, they make themselves known. It is my very presence that gives the passive voice and reason, for finally someone understands and listens to their voice. I am the listener. Finally, someone came into the world to speak. They have many things to say.
I've lived in dralk for two years now. It was difficult when I first moved in with my elder lady, being a human... for the latter of a year, she had to use magic to protect me from the other dragons.
Beyond that point, I managed to bond with the souls of the prime... to connect to the voice and spirit of nature and elements. Now, Runos need not worry for me. Most of the Lunus became reluctant to try eating me when they discovered an lava spirit can put a dragon's essence being attuned to flame... into utter shame. I did feel bad when that first dragon ignited into flame, but I did not ask the spirit of the pool to attack it. Few want to try now, and only those who are new in town have considered it (And like those before them, are alarmed when they suddenly burst into flame).
Most of the time it is chaos, as I travel and try to restore corrupted spirits to sanity where the hand of Aegis has grasped them. But today the chaos was different. Spirits came to me from the other side of the world as they followed the tracks of more than a beast. Glades and meadows became momentarily lifeless and dead silent, not even the air moving in these places before returning to life and motion. Chaos has a new shape. It is marching in two prongs, and I may be trapped before I can assist the other side.
~~
Runos, still ill for the better part of several months, hadn't moved from the same spot since the weakness first gripped her. She hacked up a grey slime onto the ground, a new symptom. The disease perhaps was evolving, and continuing to consume the lair ward's residual power. There hadn't been a dragon strong enough to move one of the largest and heaviest female dragons in dralk out into fresh air, and her children studied and researched in addition to trying to figure out how to fix it. I even tried too, but the spirits found this crawling corruption untouchable, lest it consume them.
Indeed, I was beginning to think it may have started as a common cold, mutating into something more resilient and sinister when it contacted some rune. Judging by how it is slowly evolving, it looked more grim every day. I stood there, stroking her shoulder, offering some comfort in a soothing touch.
I was suddenly assailed by whispers, shouts, and voices in succession and unison, speaking the same thing.
"The primal flows are distorted... There are ripples. Something is happening..." Runos said. She was probably feeling the flocking spirits the had crammed into her chamber, flowing in and out en masse every passing second by the hundreds. I held my ears and shook my head slowly side to side, trying to cope with the volumes before I simply reminded them I am only but a human.
"Shh... one at a time..." I whispered to them. By now, Runos was more than familiar with how they often forget I am not a spirit, but a living thing. I have limits with the mortal coil.
What I heard widened my eyes. As I heard it, my lips moved in unison, uttering the words I heard spoken from nature itself, at first in unison, then staggered from multiple entities.
"Unnatural beasts, corrupted in essence. They come for the heart of fire. They wait for the heart of water. Their master's soul is black as pitch, the ebon beasts march to mark the day with crimson. Death marches forward unlike the Aegis. The master seeks power, but such does not cause us fear."
They paused a moment before one spoke up once more, and I spoke with it.
"We fear loss of our speaker, and those who purge corruption in fire. The crimson rain will inevitably unlock the path to ruin."
But we looked at each other and only knew what was to be done. The spirits at first did not like the concept proposed, but eventually were convinced that it was the lesser of two evils. I was gifted anyways. Runos was just too weak to move, let alone fight.
The spirits flooded out of the chambers to return to their place in the world, while I bound my hands in rune-augmented hide, and leather armors.
Nature is always in chaos. But never before will chaos be seen on the scale that I can ... encourage... it to manifest in.
((Sorry about pre-story. :P Gives you a wee bit of backing about the character if you haven't met the strange little lady.))
~
Azaraen
Female Human
Spirit Speaker/Monk (Really Storm Disciple)
She is relatively weak on her own, only having a basic training and the general abilities of a storm disciple in channeling lightning. More often than not, a touch will zap an enemy, leaving them reeling, but she is generally inexperienced yet as only a mere student and cannot inflict much damage.
Guardians: Normally flanked in most areas by four spirits, (air, earth, fire, water), the alignment to fire in dralk is unsuitable for spirits that detest fire. For this fight, her water and air spirit have not arrived. In their stead, a spirit of light and one of darkness are taking their place. The earth and fire inflict damage, while the light and dark sow support and chaos around the field (buff, debuff).
Combat strategy: Azaraen attempts to hang back and fight defensively. Her guardians are laying down her attack. If their master is under attack, they will drop what they are doing to defend her with relentless haste.
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Location: Dralk
A human runs up from behind the portal, around it, and stands on the ledge near the shrine. For most bipeds, the heat here would sear them, but she seems quite unaffected as she calmly assumes a monk's battle stance. The area falls silent and it feels as if the fabric of nature awakens. Four points of light brilliantly fade into view, flanking the lady. They coalesce into forms, becoming more elemental than spirit, ready to strike.
And then they come at last. She walks in the direction, one tiny woman and four creatures against the army of black beasts she never had seen before. When she feels she is the right distance, she calmly speaks.
"Its time." she says with a smile. "Nature has declared war upon you. Forget a scorned woman... you've no idea the fury of nature scorned." She said, assuming the combat stance in this new spot.
"Show them your fury."
In but a moment (And in this time, I assume Maekrux's post happens), the massive elemental forces have arrived in the ranks of the enemy. The fire elemental and its earthen counterpart flung, crushed, melted and turned the front ranks into slag. The back ranks were suddenly covered in a thick black fog that consumed the light, blanketing them in cold, seemingly endless artificial night. The light elemental hung back to guard its master, finding the others not yet in need of assistance.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((Wow, perfect timing! I had just 'reawakened' one of my characters! He is not what you would call a 'hero', nor would be called a good person. He basically just goes to wherever there is violence nearest. In this case, Chiconis. I've never role-played on the forums like this, though, so bear with me!))
The large, black drake had been soaring around the swamp, though nothing interesting had happened. Golden eyes, chest and stripes adorned his hide as he now drifts over the Granitefall Mountains. Nothing had changed since he was sealed away by that wretched ancient, and had woken, not to the small folk of Rachival he had expected, but strange, metallic things. The ground was now black.
Seventhus chuckles. Those stupid gnomes got what they deserved for helping his foe seal him away. Not until those two stupid hatchlings had freed him.
Now, scanning the ground for any sign of something that could amuse him, he fans his wings, coming closer to the ground every moment.
As he approaches Chiconis, his wings miss a beat, causing him to plummet a few feet, but he catches and steadies himself. Hovering hundreds of feet above Chiconis, golden eyes surveying the ground, it took only a few moments to register that the Helians were under attack.
Snorting, he considers leaving the Helians to get what they deserved, but there was no way in Nyrevin's Hall was he going to miss a battle like this!
Flexing his wings, tensing his muscles, he calculates about how much he can take. After seeming years of being sealed, he had not yet had a battle. Never had he had a battle like this.
Taking his time, he flies repeatedly over the city, examining the battles and how the golems were weak, how they could be eliminated, and what effected them most.
Satisfied, the drake then slowly circles down, examining the ground for a place to land. Great wings spread, he touches down near the portal where everything seemed to be headed and wasted no time in unleashing his fury upon the nearest one.
Seventhus drops the mauled body of one of the Grunts. It had gones for his neck, but in its stead met his jaws. Amused by the appearance of the Edari Grunt, he takes a moment to examine it, though slightly troubled by the black ooze. Dismissing it as probably blight, he turns to wait for the next attack.
Faster than he thought it would take, the attack came. Ooze vines wrapped themselves around his paws and legs, causing the drake to snarl. Seeing a thing like a Prime Bolt heading for him, he braces himself, summoning a primal shield which he had learned during his Lunus Rites, he took it, shielding his head behing a wing.
Breaking himself free, the prime bolt hitting it's mark and exploding at his chest, he casts a quick breeze over himself, he charges at the Mage, roaring. Though the heal was strong, it did not heal him entirely. The scales at his chest were slowly becoming corrupted.
With a few powerful wings summoned by his wings and several clawing/biting moments later, the Edari Mage fell.
Grunting, he looks around. Momentarily he thinks of abandoning this as a thing that took too much energy, but then reminds himself that this was a Helian city. Maybe, if the new golems were reduced enough in numbers and the dragons were defeated, he could take this city as his own!
Chuckling with that thought, he turns and charges to battle again, roaring a challenge to everything within hearing distance.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
(ok so not last night...getting ready to travel so here's something quick to get included, I may not can post again before Friday so I understand things must move ahead..lol).
>>IC<<
The old Lunus female lay in the depths of her partially finished lair. Cobwebs encircled her, and one would only know this was a live dragon by the barely noticeable rise and fall of her belly as she breathed.
In an almost coma-like state she had lain for months, checking out of the world again as she had several times before. Ever since her sebeo had slept years ago, she often found more comfort sleeping by his now stone-hardened hide than in the waking world.
But her proximity to the Chiconis shrine and portal meant the first sounds of the invasion slowly leaked down to where she slept. She was just starting to become consciously aware of what she was hearing when a battle cry rang out.
Quote:
Chuckling with that thought, he turns and charges to battle again, roaring a challenge to everything within hearing distance.
Her earfins fluttered and now fully awake she raised her great head. Spiders skittered in fear, their webs moving and breaking apart. She blinked, slowly at first, and then as her eyes cleared of the sleepy fog, more rapidly.
"That...those...that's a fight!" Her mind was now fully awake. Registering what could only be the sounds of a fight, a huge one at that - outside her lair!
She rumbled to her feet, tail lashing. "Fighting! In a dragon city! Not to be tolerated!" She ran up, quickly reaching her top level and flying out of her lair behind the Chiconis shrine. She barely cleared the top of several golem-looking creatures, working on the shrine itself.
She roared, a loud echoing sound ringing off the mountains that surrounded her, and spit fire on the golems as she flew over them. They burned. The fire of an Elder melting them on contact. She was old, but she was not frail. And now her purple eyes seem to glow with battle-lust. The very large (as large as she was old), blood-red female, was now in full fighting-mode. She circled back over the portal area and saw the whole of Chiconis under attack.
Creatures she didn't recognize, but knew were unnatural and evil. She spotted a lone dragon, beginning to fight off the waves. She gave a sigh of relief, at least she hadn't missed much!
Cackling she landed next to him, tail swiping a few more golems into the mountain wall nearby. "Can't let you go having all the fun here.." she announced to him in greeting.
She braced herself, crouching, as a new creature approached. This one seemed like a human made out of rock, and clearly a magic user. As the robes swirled Frith-Rae clawed at the creature, causing great rends in its rock-flesh but no damage to the robe.
Then she too began to notice the black, oily substance, leaking out of the ground beneath her. She looked at the mage, then back and at the ground. She immediately released her ice-breath, freezing the oily substance trying to grab at her feet. Shattering the initial threat, she let loose a huge gout of flame at the mage - watching it melt before her.
Not satisfied with such a death, she lept onto its melting form and quickly ripped off its stone head. Crunching its head between her teeth, she let the pieces drop from her mouth as she readied herself for whomever charged her next. Head held low, crouching, wings slightly up - she swayed back and forth, waiting.
Take HER portal and laze training spot! She thought not!
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((I will be using both Callihan and Selarth, but I will do their posts separately to make it easier to read. I will not be using LyAria since she's pretty much on the shelf.))
Callihan woke slowly from his slumber. He was curled up in the main chamber of his home in Aruken just north east of Chiconis. His stomach rumbled quite loudly so the white, yellow striped drake heaved himself up to get some breakfast. As he emerged from the lair he could hear something far off in the distance. He wasn’t quite sure what it was at first, it was a low rumbling noise. After a few moments he recognized it to be the sound of many, many, many feet all marching at once and it was coming from Chiconis’ direction. Callihan launched himself into the air and soared upward to see what was going on. Within seconds he was clear over the small mountains. His stomach dropped and his heart leaped into his throat with what he saw: an army of golems marching through the city. He could hardly believe it! His thoughts then immediately turned to his family; he had to keep them safe. With an army practically on their doorstep, Callihan knew that his daughter Nykali could not stay here. Callihan immediately flew back down and darted into the lair his mind whirling. He didn’t know what those golems were, from afar they looked like normal golems, but he knew that wasn’t the case. Golems did not stage massive attacks against cities! The things move in an organized and military manner. The drake quickly moved through the lair and went to warn his family.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Selarth soared high above the glimmering white expanse of mountains and snow. He often took long flights around the snowy lands of Mahagrah and the surrounding areas. This time he was heading west towards the volcanic lands of Dralk. Relaxing next to a lava flow was a good way to rest after a long flight.
The blight dragon coasted along lazily, the land below turning from snow to stone as he flew over the Heated Tundra. The heat from the land increased sending up wonderful thermals to glide on which Selarth took full advantage of. As he glided something caught his eye in the distance. It looked like a mass of something moving across the landscape. Selarth flew closer to get a better look at what was going on and he found that it was an army of what appeared to be golems marching along to Dralk. It was obvious that these were no normal golems but constructs made by a wizard of some sort and they were definitely equipped for war.
Several golems below caught sight of Selarth inspecting them from above and immediately began attacking. Several Edari wizards began tossing dark prime bolts at him while grunts began hurling stones. Selarth quickly flapped up and out of the projectiles’ path ducking and weaving around in the air. Selarth was not an exceptionally nimble flier, he would not be able to keep dodging and weaving around. The blight dragon climbed higher and higher out of range of their attacks.
He was flying over Dralk now. The golems were targeting the transport gates. Smart since they didn’t want any enemy reinforcements. Selarth pondered swooping down and stomping a few. He noted that someone was already engaging the golems: some… human woman and these strange creatures. How odd.
Selarth decided he should test these odd creatures to see how strong they were. He wasn’t very interested in defending Dralk so much as having a good fight. He couldn’t really care less if the place got taken over by some army, as far as he was concerned they deserved it, but might as well have a little bit of fun right? The black and green dragon dove down into the fray landing on one of the army’s flanks. He decided to go for some of the grunts just to see what they were about. A bunch of Edari charged Selarth and the blight dragon replied with vicious slashes of his claws which gleamed with golden energy. His claws were also imbued with blight energy which aided in destroying his enemies. The grunts fell easily enough, wasn’t much different than fighting real golems aside from the odd goo that held them together. Selarth paid no mind to that and continued slashing and tearing at his foes.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((Never role-played on forums either XD hope this goes well.... Not to long though))
The large, black dragoness was flying swiftly over the mountains, eyes wide, almost afraid of something. Daemonar immediately looks down once she is over Chiconis, but was in no way expecting the sight before her.
Nearly coming to a stop, she blinks, then sees Seventhus fighting. Not believing her luck, but also wishing she were somewhere else, she hovers high above Chiconis, occasionally catching a rock that was thrown to her and throwing it back.
This was the gifted's battle, not hers, but she didn't really want to see anyone die... Grumbling to herself, she just remains circling high above, forced to retreat out of range from the rocks and spells cast to her. She wasn't strong enough right now, anyways. She just watches.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
(@ RuneDragon - No, they passed the south side of Tazoon's desert, then marched north through the western half of it. They were closer to the Western Deadlands than Kira.
Also, weeee~ Thanks for posting everyone!)
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Eidolen was in Runos' lair, on a side chamber not far from the main room. Currently open on the ground around him were several scrolls, both on healing magics and on medicinal practices. Runos' illness was getting worse... she was now hacking up gray slime. This development further complicated matters. Of course, he had a vial of the slime and was currently busy analyzing it's contents as it rested in the middle of a runic circle. Magic broke it down to a molecular level, and allowed him to 'see' what it was. This didn't help much with finding a cure, though.
He could faintly hear Azaraen in the other room. Those spirits of hers were fascinating, but... he already had is paws full with his other projects. Perhaps he could study them another time. He didn't notice her leave, though, as he was too involved in his work. It didn't take long, however, for the sounds of battle to reach him, muffled by the walls of stone. He knew that sound... this was no squabble amongst the gifted. No... this was the start of a full-scale war.
The first thing that goes through his mind is /...****. Not again.../
Eidolen immediately dismissed the runes monitoring the vial, and hurried for the exit. Stopping in the main chamber, he approached Orribus, Runos' faulty war golem. Mythril II wouldn't be much use, as it was ordered to guard the lair and had no will of it's own. Orribus, however, was a strange case. This golem had somehow gained a mind and will, after an incident in a Dralk lava pool had left it broken. Runos managed to restore it to working order, but somehow it had become a magma golem, with the old mithril form trapped inside like a skeleton. The magma golem heard the sounds of war as well, and understood what that meant. It was alert, standing at the entrance as an extra guard despite it being Mythril's shift.
"Orribus, come with me. The other golem can guard the lair, but I'm not going to set by whilst my home is overrun. I need you to guard me. I'm not much of a warrior, and my magic is best used from a distance... I need something between me and my targets."
The golem looked over the hatchling, as if in appraisal. It wondered briefly if it ought to go... after all, this drake was not it's Master. Only Runos could give it orders. But... it was pretty sure the Master would be upset if one of her hatchlings were killed, so what choice was there? It followed him to the surface.
Eidolen stepped across the threshold of the lair. As armies went, he'd seen bigger. Or, more accurately, he had fled from bigger. But that didn't mean he was taking this lightly, far from it. He was doing his best to subdue his emotions, despite the painful memories that haunted his mind like shades, refusing to be banished. Taeilo's walls falling, the living dead flooding through the breach. The civilians -that is, everyone. They didn't really have a standing military- fleeing in panic. It took only minutes for the bravest to take a loose formation, but it wasn't enough. The air was thick with magic, knots of enemies fell as the ancients of his kin spearheaded the retaliation. But it was mere moments before they were overrun, And from there, the rest of the city was open to attack.
The white hatchling was startled. back to reality by a bolt of black energy going off not a meter away. He gave a startled yelp, skittering away from the impact. The yellow runes on his hide glowed a steady warning, telling him he was in danger. As though he needed to be told after that! Right, down to business.
Orribus took a defensive position in front of Eidolen, serving as a living shield. Well... not quite, as the golem was no more alive than an automaton. The molten form oozed beneath a membranous skin of cooled magma, as the melted ore drew back from the edges of it's claws, unsheathing bony-looking talons of solid mithril.
Eidolen raises his forepaw, the intricate runes over his paw lighting up as he called his magic. He could feel the energy from his spirit and blood being channeled through his veins, merging and being refined into something else altogether as it spouted from his paw in waves reminiscent of an aurora. The waves of energy bore into the ground around him, carving out a runic circle and a set of corresponding runes much faster than he could have done manually. This was more energy-consuming, but time was not something he had a lot of. Even now, a second bolt of dark energy was hurtleing towards him from the golem Magus.
Orribus, ever the effective guardian, was not actually planning on behaving like a wall. That would be of limited use. It raised a paw, massing a glob of magma in it's talons, and hurled it to intercept the bolt. Sometimes being intelligent had it's perks! It certainly hadn't been taught that, after all. Regardless of where the golem picked up such a trick, it successfully intercepted the bolt. There was a small explosion, as the corrupted primal energies tore impacted the molten rock. Bits of magma flew in all directions, landing mostly amongst the incoming army. There were a lot of minor burns, and one unfortunate grunt was struck in the eye.
That, of course, attracted the attention of more than just the one wizard. But before said wizard could cast another bolt, Eidolen had completed his runes. They would have to be expanded upon whenever he got the chance, but at least he could use this same pattern throughout the fight. He didn't have to do that lengthy casting over and over. He raised a paw towards the oncoming golems, feeling for the magics that kept them moving. A grunt was charging Orribus, but Eidolen kept his focus on the magi.The runes on the ground flared a bright, eerie shade of blue as magic coursed through them, and Eidolen severed the ties of magic animating the wizard that had attacked twice before. It collapsed to the ground, nothing more than an inanimate stone.
The lead grunt was upon Orribus then. It lept at the magma golem, which braced itself for the impact. The grunt slammed into the burning body, failing to realize that it's foe was made of magma. Duly braced,Orribus nevertheless stumbled under the weight of the blow. It didn't buckle, however, and it reacted with a vicious blow to the leg. The grunt went down, limb smashed. It might have continued fighting, were not the black ooze, it's life-blood, quickly being incinerated by the magma coating it's body. One didn't grapple with a magma golem without getting burned, after all.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((just as a note/reference for others since you didn't mention in your post and I have no idea - is Eidolen fighting in Chiconis or Dralk? I know I want to know cuz I need to know if I can see you fighting in Chic where I am...lol))
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Callihan could now hear the cacophony of battle even from within the lair. He gritted his teeth an knew that he would have to join the fray. They would need all the help they could get. He could not allow the encroaching army to take over Chiconis or his home. The white and yellow drake bolted out of of the lair leaving Nykali to Nyoko. He launched himself up into the sky and flew as fast as he could to Chiconis. He soared high above to assess the situation. Flying straight in without knowing he was up against was a sure way to get himself killed. So far he could see there were three different types of golems. Two seemed to be melee oriented along with a caster type. He’d definitely have to be careful with the khutit looking golem with their wicked looking obsidian blades. His scaleless hide wouldn’t stand up well against them.
Callihan flew lower to get a closer look at the golems wary of any projectile attack. They looked eerily familiar. His eyes widened in shock as he recognized the make of these golems; they were just like the one he and the others fought in Maurger’s lair! So that vile monster decided he was going to bring the fight.
A growl rumbled in Callihan’s throat, but he resisted the urge to immediately plunge down and start tearing them apart. He had to warn the others who were fighting about that black ooze.
Weaving back and forth through the air avoiding several dark bolts and rocks hurled his way, Callihan flew towards the other warriors. “Don’t let that black ooze get into you!” He roared at the top of his lungs hoping they would hear him above the clamor of the fight. “You’ll lose control of your body!”
Callihan let out a roar of pain as a rock smacked into his left wing. He fought to keep himself steady in the air. He flew upward and steeled himself for the fight that lay before him. His body began to gleam with a coat of golden energy as he summoned his Gold Shield, his claws also took on a golden energy imbued with the destructive power of his Gold Rage. Callihan dived down into the thick of the battle with a savage roar.
The Helian warrior dropped onto of one of the grunts tearing into it’s stony body with his claws. He tore at it with vicious blows dismembering it. Several others tried to swarm him, but the white and yellow drake knocked them back with a heavy lash from his tail. They quickly righted themselves and charged again swinging wildly at him with their fists. Callihan leapt backward dodging their blows. He slashed out with his golden claws sending rock chips flying in every direction. Callihan let out a snarl as a dark bolt caught him in the back. He whirled around to face an Edari Wizard prepping another bolt. Callihan gather a mass of primal energy in his forepaw and hurled it at the wizard which exploded on impact knocking the wizard and several other Edari down. It wasn’t enough to take them out though. Callihan wished he was a stronger spell caster, but he still had his claws. Callihan charge the wizard and dealt it the same savage attack with his claws he gave the others.
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The War of the Fallen Son
Battle Update
Dralk
Player Defenders: Eidolen, Orribus, Azaraen, Selarth, Maekrux
NPC Defenders: 95
Defender Status: Travel Gate is still operational. City defense is going well.
Enemy Status: Losses heavy for Wizards. Wave 1 General still lives.
Chiconis
Player Defenders: Seventhus, Frith-Rae, Ausixen, Callihan… Daemonar is nearby (LungTien is also defending the city, but has not been able to post due to computer issues.)
NPC Defenders: 45
Defender Status: Travel Gate is still operational. City has fewer defenders, and the enemy army is pushing in.
Enemy Status: Losses even for Wizards and Grunts. Wave 1 General still lives.
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The War of the Fallen Son
The Edari seemed endless to the defenders as they held the line against them. Though a grunt or wizard fell, another would come to take its place. How much more could the cities take?
The Khutit-Edari of Chiconis rammed his obsidian blade through the throat of one of the guards, shards of obsidian tearing open the hapless dragon’s gullet. Stepping atop the creature’s broken body, he saw that his push was successful; despite the rallying defenders, they had swept into the city and the Edari battled the dragons with ferocious abandon. Stretching out one limb, black ooze rose through his wrist. It formed into the shape of a small black dragon. “My lord, the Battle for Chiconis proceeds well, but we have not yet captured the Travel Gate,” the general spoke.
“Excellent. You are doing well, my child,” Maurger said through the goo-sentient connection.
A second form appeared: the other Edari-Khutit. “Defense at Dralk has been stronger than anticipated. We have not approached the Gate as yet,” the second spoke in its guttural tones.
“Understood. Now is the time to switch targets – they will not expect your next move. Take and hold the citadel, and use the spell the mages created. You may use the Vanguard,” Maurger said. The black dragon moved its paws intricately, focused on his unseen task.
“It shall be done, lord,” the generals said in unison. Each channeled their dark power through their obsidian blades, launching a ball of dark prime into the air like a signal flare.
The dragons of Dralk had fought the enemy to a standstill, holding the pass into the city in front of the floating citadel of rock. Black ooze ran on the ground like blood and mingled with the blood of dragons injured or slain. The guard of Dralk had been rallied from all corners and even Byrsmendrik had returned to fight. Valkoth roared his appreciation to his kyn, and his ire to his foes.
“Glorious combat! Maginval Lunus himself would be pleased with our defense! Fight on, for the glory of all dragons! For the survival of our race and culture!” Valkoth exclaimed.
Chiconis has been less fortunate. Semeneth’s late arrival with Ausixen had left the defenders unprepared. Two dragons had stood alongside an unready guard and Town Marshall, defending the city until their arrival. The travel gate had been spared, but the enemy was still pushing into all levels of the town.
“Ausixen! Get to the front! I will coordinate the battle from the air!” Semeneth exclaimed, taking off and roaring to his fellow dragons to rally. Ausixen did as asked, coming alongside Frith-Rae as she battled the horde of Edari.
The ground shook as the second wave approached, lead by another general.
“Go forth, Edari! Today, we shall earn our right to live!” The second general of Dralk shouted. About the size of an adult dragon, but with a short neck and tail, the general reared up and roared a hateful screech over the defenders of the city. He was perched up above the defenders on the ridge overlooking Dralk. One brave dragon flew at him, but was eviscerated by a tendril of black, holding to a black steel blade; however, the tendril had not come from the armadillo-general, but from the army behind him.
A number of sphere-shaped Edari arrived, plates of rock moving around at the end of powerful black tendrils. They maneuvered so that many were on the floor and several were on top of them. Climbing onto them were their partners: the Swords of the Edari. Light stone and thick ooze joints like disgusting muscles of tar climbed onto the platform created from their partner’s plates. The Shield leapt off the cliff, using its defensive plates like a sled across the ash and stone.
“Ambush! It’s a pincer!” Valkoth shouted as the Edari Vanguard surrounded the defenders at the rear with the grunts and wizards still at the front.
One of the dragons rushed up to a dismounting Sword and blew his hot breath, but its Shield reacted as if by instinct – instead of hitting the target intended, the plates of the Shield had intercepted the flame with minimal damage. The dragon moved to retreat, but from under the plates stretched the deadly steel-tipped arm of the Sword, ramming into the dragon’s chest, the wound deteriorating and aging. The dragon stumbled back and fell.
The Boulder-General rolled into a ball and followed down the hill, joining the front and his fellow general. Kneeling down, the Boulder-General allowed the Edari-Khutit to mount him. His compatriot rode him forward into battle, roaring his own cry of victory.
Maekrux turned and approached the rear front carefully. Tossing prime bolts was a hopeless endeavor – even if the plates of the Shield were destroyed, it would replace them by tearing a piece out of the ground. Turning his flank to the pair, he blew a burst of flame at the Sword; as expected, the Shield defended and the Sword struck. He jumped forward, avoiding the blades as his breath continued, even as he ran around the pair. Though the Sword was defended, the Shield did not defend itself and the flame snuck into the eye-core. The Shield screeched as it burned from within and then was still.
Maekrux moved in to finish the sword, but it immediately began to slice and move wildly, the stretching arms becoming a whirlwind of deadly steel. Hopping back, Maekrux pummeled the Sword again and again with bolts of Prime until it at last fell.
“These are stronger than the last ones… could he really have developed these in so short a time?” Maekrux asked, panting heavily. He realized it then, amongst the screams and roars of his kyn and golems. Maurger had been in hiding for years before the Academy, working on these with the knowledge he had stolen from him. It made the Blue Phoenix seethe with anger. “You used my knowledge of golems, but did not realize I gleaned it from destroying them? I shall remind you, Maurger!” He roared as he charged back into the battle.
With the dragons distracted by the attack from behind, a group of Edari Wizards formed behind the main line. Clustered together, their robes wild with dark energy, they knelt to the ground and chanted with hateful energy, their black robes seeping into the ground. The air took on a stale quality as the ash fell heavily, and the igneous rock of the city of Dralk became darker, weaker. The very Prime of the earth began to drain the energy from the hapless defenders.
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The War of the Fallen Son
(Dun dun dunnnnn~ Round two begins~
Note: I think I was unclear, but there's only one Leader per wave, so a total of three generals at each city. The Khutit-Edari was the first of them, and the second wave has its own general as well.
Also note that the previous golems, like Grunts and Wizards, are still there. There's just fewer of them.
Lastly, Wizards have a new ability.)
WAVE 2 – The Vanguard
TARGET – Capture Floating Citadel
Leader: Boulder-Edari
Description: heavily armored, this quadruped golem rears up on two legs to slash with vicious claws. It is about the size of an adult dragon with a short stone tail. As with the generals, this Edari also has two eyes, located at the end of a short neck; they are protected by plates. The underbelly is comprised of a weaker stone, but beneath it is its gooey core.
Attacks:
Maul – The Edari rears up and latches onto its victim, tearing into it with powerful stone claws. It has a short range, but it is hard to hit the underbelly without risking injury to this attack.
Rock and Roll – Rolling into a ball, the Boulder-Edari earns its name, smashing its heavy, solid weight into as many targets as it can run over. The roll is difficult to stop, but the general can leave it at any time.
Ain’t no Dragon: The Boulder Edari serves as a mount to the Edari-Khutit, if he still lives. Their unison increases the Edari-Khutit’s attack strength and reach, as he can use the Boulder as a platform of destruction. The Boulder cannot use Rock and Roll while serving as a mount, but its armor and rider will likely keep it from being killed while using this ability.
Unit: Edari Sword
Description: comprised of lighter stone in humanoid shape; the goo joints are more prevalent due to lack of stone to hide behind. It has no rock on its arms; they are simply two tentacles of goo, which can stretch twice their length to attack. The arm goo holds two blades of corrupted steel, shape roughly like normal broadswords, but thicker. Its head has a stone backing and a large gray eye, as is common with the Edari.
Attacks:
Brotherhood – These golems attack in pairs with their Shield counterparts; normally, the Sword attacks from behind the Shield. If the Shield falls, the Sword will go on a rampage, targeting its partner’s murderer and attacking with wild abandon.
Corrupted Steel – The arm goo holds two blades of corrupted steel, reforged over and over again using dark primal to rewrite its chemical make up. The result is a sword sharp enough to cut through ancient hide; moreover, damage by these swords cause skin/scale to deteriorate and age. Excessive damage from these blades can also cause infestation.
Swordchucks – The Sword attacks at a distance, stretching its tendril arms to slice or pierce into the enemy from behind the Shield. In absence of a Shield, the Sword will spin rapidly, the blades becoming a whirlwind of death. (If you know what this is referencing, +10 points ;p)
Unit: Edari Shield
Description: uniquely designed, the Shield has two forms; the primary form is that of a black ooze eye and core, with several tendrils attached to plates of heavy stone. It rolls around on these plates like a strange sphere.
Second form creates a hunchbacked humanoid, with several places pressed together comprising its body, and especially thick at the fists. It is much slower in this form, and its eye is exposed at its bent, flat head.
Attacks:
Brotherhood: These golems attack in pairs with their Sword counterparts; the Shield will do everything it can to defend the sword from damage, and will usually succeed. Should the sword be killed, it will transform in into its second form and attempt to pummel the aggressor to death with its heavy stone plates.
Perfect Guard: The Shield will stand between the target and its Sword partner, manipulating its tendrils and plates to protect against attacks – the stronger the attack, the more the plates it uses. It can also stretch to protect other golems nearby, if its own partner is not in immediate danger. Should its plates be destroyed, it will break the ground apart and form new plates. It can also defend its own core in all directions, but only if its partner is not in danger.
UPDATE: Edari Wizard
Corrupted Ground: Using their Dark Primal energy, the Wizards during this phase become more powerful, and the ground drains the stamina of the defenders. This is a channeled ability; wizards in the back will be casting this, and can be killed to negate the effect for the third wave.
Corrupted Air: Should the Edari capture their target, their Wizards will Corrupt Air. The air will become un-breathable, resulting in defeat.
Note: Chiconis is in most danger of this happening!
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The War of the Fallen Son
“Great Drulkar, how many are there?” Semeneth gasped as he watched from the air. The Swords ran fast behind their rolling Shield counterparts.
“We shall turn their numbers against them!” Ausixen exclaimed, roaring as he tail-whipped a grunt hard enough to shatter its damaged legs. He pushed the fallen Edari into the path of its rolling Shield brother, causing it to fly over him. This gave him opportunity to ram his Soulflame Talon into the chest of the Sword behind it. The Shield landed and swiftly reformed into a flat beast of many plates, turning around and pounding Ausixen’s tail with its heavy rock fist. He roared in pain and looked around as the enemy force began to surround him. “This is not good,” he said, trying to watch from all sides.
The General rode up on his Boulder partner. “Maurger has been looking for you. We shall return you home at the end of the day, Ausixen,” he said with a hideous laugh.
“Ausixen, get out of there!” Semeneth exclaimed, throwing down bolts of Prime from the air. Ausixen took the chance to leap into the air and fall back, but Semeneth himself was forced to the ground by several bolts of dark primal returning fire.
Ausixen joined him at his side. “Are you alright?”
“I’ll be okay, but if we do not turn the tide somehow, none of us will be,” Semeneth said. “Frall! See to the injured!” The healer rushed to the wounded, who were beginning to pile up near the travel gate.
"I'm a healer, not a miracle worker. We have to hold the line!" Frall exclaimed.
"I’ve sent for help, I just hope they get here in time," Semeneth said.
“Who?” Ausixen asked.
“We shall see who comes before I say who I called for,” Semeneth said grimly. “Back into the fray!” the elder led Ausixen forward into battle, the two working together against the Sword and Shields.
The sky darkened as the hateful spell of the clustered wizards began; as with Dralk, the grass began to die and blacken, and Ausixen had a harder time catching his breath.
Under the guard of several pairs of Swords and Shields, a group of wizards forced their way towards the bridge leading into the floating citadel of Chiconis.
Someone has to stop them…
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Tagath had just finished his errand at Last Stand. He took to the air, smug that Fandarel's silo for marble had once again been replenished. His keen multifaceted eyes scanned the horizon as he spiraled up into the sky. As he thought to lazily fly to Dalimond for a chat with Councilman Vandus, he heard a scream in his head, from one vaguely familiar.
"Semeneth?" Why would Semeneth scream and how could I hear it here? he thought. Perhaps he should go check. Using his weight, he dropped quickly to the portal system to get to Chiconis. Upon reaching the destination pad, he saw why the old drake would scream.
Fitting his crush claw on, Tagath jumped off the pad towards the nearest caster going for the bridge. I may not make it in time with speed, but this will! With a calculated risk, he let fly with his Improved Prime Bolt V, repeating the spell as quickly as his dragon claws and wings would allow him. With any luck he could break the concentration of any mage, if not the body itself. Inwardly, he grinned as pits began to form on the nearest wizard golem as the spells continued to wear away the stone itself guarding whatever was inside trying to cast.
Inwardly, Tagath focused his mental eye, causing him to skip a spell, but perhaps giving Chiconis a better defense. As his mind sought the minds of all he had ever greeted, he let out a mental plea for help to biped and dragon alike. Chiconis under attack by mage golems! Help us here before Chiconis falls!
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
The blue-haired ranger hears Tagath's cry and, knowing the blue to be a courageous fighter, rushes to help. Upon arriving in Chiconis, she looks about to see what the situation is. As a pair of golems moves nearby, she casts the mage's maddening trick on one of them and proceeds to skewer the second with her stunning arrows. As the first golem falls under the rain of her fire, the second becomes her target - the lowly pair did not stand a chance.
Hearing more than seeing the desperate situation deeper into the city, she too sounds the alarm through the empire's communication system, beginning with her guild. Come help in Chiconis! It is under attack!
She notes the black goo on the dead golems but does not touch it. Odd, is the Blight black as well as green now? This cannot bode well. Carefully she moves forward, scouting her next target...
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Tagath saw an opening to get to the mage golems. Following an old guildmate's example, he lept high, glided over top, and folded his wings, dropping out of the air in the midst of them, crushing one mage while his claw skittered ineffectively against the stone armor. As the wizards began to recover from the sudden loss of one of their numbers and an interrupting weight of dragon falling on top of them, Tagath began using his new spells for Tempest, Barrage, Gust, and Galewind, keeping the lot of them momentarily off guard while he changed from his crush claw to the Demon Claw. Now he could be more effective.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Favoring the hillsides, the gnome ranger clambers up the mountain that overlooks the city. Circling toward the floating island portion because that is where she hears the loudest shouts, she sees Tagath attacking mage golems. Perched in the perfect spot to rain missiles down upon the enemy, she begins showering them with stunning arrow after stunning arrow.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
(Two characters now, starting with my addition to Chiconis...)
I'm always out of regents. Always. Its irritating how I just never can find that thing I needed because I just used the last one five minutes ago in an experiment... A downside of living in a remote corner of the world I suppose.
At least it is today that we resupply; the servants go to the towns to collect necessities on a stipend provided to them. While they tend to our needs, I collect an order of from the Tazoon mage's tower to refresh my supply of regents I may never find some days.
It would not be long before reaching Tazoon now. She could have just taken the portal, but Selarth was always teasing her about needing air so she wouldn't turn into a book. In turn, she would remind him that she would at least be aged and musty with a few missing pages in time, but at least she wouldn't be a carrot or an eggplant. He usually didn't enjoy the response.
The desert sand line came under her and immediately she was hit with beautiful thermals from the midday sun having heated the ground. The invisible entity taken by the wind to where she intended to go. Until she saw the army.
Now what might this be? She swooped down to land on a rock and examine them, the air around her shimmering in the sun. Always how fascinating it was that she could be looking someone in the eyes, yet they were utterly unaware of it. They were interesting, despite looking otherworldly. Otherworldly things often irked her... they were cause for much oddity in the world.
She decided for now, that it was more important to watch them. She slipped behind a rock quietly, partially digging herself into the heated sand to hide. She cast a spell to send a small spirit messenger to the mages of Tazoon, telling them that she will be delaying the pick-up of the order placed. When the mages later heard of the beasts passing by, they understood why.
From there to Chiconis, the invisible force trailed them with the silence of an owl. When they arrived, it perched on the lair and watched.
It watched the first wave, entertained by the fight. It was evident the living were losing however, after a time.
Well, can't let them win... I buy things here too. Important things. The Helian are incapable of defending their own walls, and thus it is that the Archon of Dasha Khan will aid them. Merely diplomatic reasons... yes.
The second wave appeared, and began heading the the bridge of the structure she was standing on. It was here Azu calmly dropped her cloak, sitting lazily on the roof of the structure. She called out to the general and his forces moving toward her.
"I wouldn't go closer. You wouldn't like me or things I tend to do." She looked at semeneth passing by. "Semeneth, Dasha Khan lends aid to you now, but you will have to ask me about my battle tactics after, as they may seem... insane. Focus on your fighting." she purred into a spell that whispered it into his ear.
She turned to the forces heading to the bridge, who were much closer. "Oh, now now, you really want this don't you?" she purred toward them, half grinning and splaying over it, eventually rolling off it to take flight. "Oh too bad for you... I think I'll misplace it." she laughed as a point of distortion opened up in the core of the floating lair. Indignantly grunting (as she had never opened a portal this big before, and the energies involved were truly taxing!) as her claws danced through the air, the point grew open, swallowing the entire fortress of rock into it until it was consumed. Through the shimmering wormhole it went, before in a mere moment the hole collapsed. The floating rock was gone. ((She moved it into the blizzard valley. Chilly, but I would think any edari that had been caught with it would find their tar frozen solid and accosted by bipedal soldiers once incapable.))
This clearly annoyed the edari halfway up the bridge, as they now stood at the end of a bridge that led to nowhere. To Azu, this was like playing with some overgrown mice.
The forces on the bridge found themselves in a sphere of energy.
"You see, if you now move at all and contact this barrier, it will collapse on you into a small localized singularity. You will also notice you are on a bridge, and said bridge without the object it was attached to is not faring well. In fact, as you may see it is failing."
The edari inside in addition, were packed together tightly. There was not enough room to move. While most tried to be still, hoping the spell would end, some couldn't settle when they saw the red playing with them.
She was now throwing frostfire bolts at the group. "What a dilemma for you all... frostfire, bridge, or flee. I think its all better for me to see you turned into a dense little ball that no entity could ever lift off the ground again."
The bridge crumbled, the unsettled few panicked and the small black hole opened, swallowed the lot, and closed shut again, dropping the dense sphere onto one of the edari below (And shattering it under its surprising weight).
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
The fire elemental was finding the tar substance to only act like petrol. It fueled the flames and soon the raging heat was igniting several in a radius around it. Despite its intense gain in power, the earthen elemental had been hacked and chipped away slowly. It was weakening.
One of the second wave struck it and knocked it into the ground where it was still for some time.
"It needs help... Would you be so kind as to aid your brethren?" Azaraen spoke to the light elemental. She didn't need to tell the dark what to do, it is as if her words penetrated the material fabric and echoed through the ethereal.
The dark fog rematerialized, and it became evident that many of those caught in the night had become confused and started killing each other (which then would explain why many remains of the first wave were flat out destroyed on the ground). The darkness elemental wrapped its tendrils around the sphere that sat over the earthen elemental.
The cold, darkness crept over it... and plate by plate, the spirit tore it to pieces. The dark spirit locked the riding edari, fighting and swinging at it furiously (and much to its horror, unable to do any damage), to render it stuck in its own mount, unable to escape. Looking into any semblance of a face, darkness flung it into the molten fire and slag. A scream joined others in the center of the inferno, while the fire demanded more things to consume (And upon seeing the second wave, went right to work rather eagerly).
Amongst the chaos the darkness had caused, the light had come to assist the earth. The weakened elemental found itself restored in the embrace of light's tendrils, rising to begin smashing and tossing all over again.
When the light had finished its task, it rose over the field. As if invisible tendrils had reached out and touched the souls of all defenders on an ethereal level, everyone is filled with new vigor and strength to continue. It goes back to protecting its lady, exhausted for now.
"You all are doing well... be careful... I don't think it is over yet. If you all see one of their generals, have the darkness capture it..."
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
"Mahz jirr eil mohn..."
Eidolen's words were drowned out by the sound of Orribus clashing with another grunt. They held their position, if only because the runecaster had no desire to have to re-make his runic circle in another location. After all, it was only good if he was within thirty yards of it. His chanting was, of course, in his native tongue... and though it was not runic, he was channeling a sort of augmentation to his other spells. After all, he'd dabbled in many arts... runic was merely his primary focus.
"Taoll ma'ch arh`men, ithemil oddur."
Really, he had quite a bit to deal with. He had to retrace guide each pulse of magic through the runes, managing the power levels and the paths it took. And he had to manage carefully the pitch and cadence of his chanting. This is to say nothing of the fact that each new bit of magic was a piece of his spirit torn away for fuel. It would regenerate, of course, but this was a very taxing way to do cast spells. Very strong... but very taxing.
"Eggh jahan`na mah p'hyth argull emanu-"
He ducked as a rock flew over his head, momentarily stopping his chant. He located the grunt who had thrown it, and severed it's life force. It collapsed to the ground, as lifeless as each of it's brethren before it. Orribus turned out to be an extremely effective guard. Not much got past him, and what did was cut down by Eidolen's magic. The magma golem could keep going all day, all night... it would fight until it's skeleton was crushed and it's own life-giving magic was rendered useless. Orribus' molten skin burned the goo that held it's adversaries together, and it's mithril claws tore at their stone bodies. Their strikes ripped molten rock from it's form, and hairline fractures the formed on the metal skeleton in a few places. It would surely be overwhelmed eventually...but for now it seemed to be holding out alright.
"Eyhamm oerlu raghhna arak lem! Japhel elthus grezjdalem~ Oh'er c`haur."
Eidolen, on the other hand, was not fairing so well. Sure, he'd suffered barely a scratch physically. Each strike brought the death of another golem. Runecasting was, after all, a powerful art. But it was tiresome and slow, and he knew that he couldn't continue much longer. His fatigue was visible in the way his voice began sound, and the way he held his body. He was still near the first wave, and and had not yet encountered the shields and swords. Which was good... an enemy that worked together that well was the last thing he needed
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((quick OOC question for ya - if I go after the Edari Khutit (Gen-First Wave) did you want to post that fight blow by blow or are you cool with me controlling the NPC, giving a good fight, and then it being defeated - I didn't want to run with the NPC without permission and possibly take something out myself that you'd rather RP out?))
((yea having done these types of things for years - I find its better to check before taking things over lol ;))
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The War of the Fallen Son
(@Frith: The Edari golems are NPCs. They are semi-sentient and are not directly connected to Maurger, and are therefore autonomous. You can do whatever you want to them – win, lose, get infested – so long as it is in the spirit of a war scenario (no dancing with the golems! They hate dancing). The army is supposed to lose, so don’t worry too much about godmodding – that’s why they’re NPCs and not players ;p
Please, go right ahead and take control of the general for an epic battle. Just note that he's currently riding the second general ;p
There *may* be a blow-for-blow battle during Wave 3, since there's one specific target that needs to be dealt with a bit differently; if so, I'll note it in the enemy description. But in general, go right ahead and tell us what both you and your enemy are doing, suffering, and winning/losing.)
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((Editing me previous post, as i figured eido wouldn't be completely unscathed as previously stated. >.>.
Also, how does infestation work? I saw where it makes you lose control of your body, but what then? Does it slump over in paralysis, or turn and fight against the defenders? And if it does is it autonomous or acting as a puppet of the one who infested it? :p. Oh, and one more thing. IF it turns the body to fight, would it have just control of it's functions, or it's mind (and knowledge) as well? I.E. if a spiritist became infested, assuming infestation turns the individual to fight for the edari, would he be able to use his spirit magic, or would he be reduced to more primitive methods of attack?
This last question of course being null if i am wrong about the infestation being like that. :P
just trying to clear up how it works, don't have any specific ideas in mind for it... ^^))
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
(((Oh... I can't edit that post? what? *sigh* Oh. well...uhhm. *writes in there someplace that he was hit by a dark prime bolt and has some minor injury from it*? >.>
wee, also missed runos' thing about the light elemental rejuvinating peoples. blargh. thats what i get for doing forum posts at 5 am XD))
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The War of the Fallen Son
(@Essera: Infestation means that your character loses control of their body and generally will then turn to fight for the enemy side.
Infestation itself is where the black ooze enters into the body and then takes over the base of the brain stem, where it controls and mimics nerve signals, thereby controlling the body.
Now, because it cannot directly interpret thought, it does not have immediate access to your memory, and therefore cannot know that your fifth birth was the worst in your life. There are ways that it can glean that information, but that requires time, which won't matter for this battle.
If it takes over your character's body, it will still have access to muscle memory - that is, it will know how the body has acted recently and what it has been trained to do. If it took over a warrior, it could wield the warrior's sword just as well. If it took over a mage, it could form and summon spells like the mage has trained. Since most spells or aggressive actions require some somatic (body movement) component, it would have access to most of those spells, but perhaps not all, and perhaps not as powerful in the short term of this battle.
Oh, and if your character does get infested, don't worry - it will only last as long as this battle. Moreover, it is possible to burn out the infestation using fire or powerful primal healing energies.
Hope this helps~
PS: Why is everyone picking on Chiconis' Edari Wizards?! lol)
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((I think I'll put a character in chic. Though the prospect of having a geomancer in the middle of a volcano city fighting enemies who are horribly weak to fire is tempting, I've already got two chars there. xD.)
Asua was hiding fearfully beneath chiconis, enveloped in the earth's dark embrace. Not even an army could reach her there. She knew there was fighting, she could feel the vibrations traveling through the ground. The hatching felt safe underground, though. Surely the earth would protect her.
That is, until the soil itself began to suck the energy right out of her. She knew the earth would not betray her like this... no, she could feel the source of the corruption. And if there was one way to bait a geomancer to combat, it was to corrupt the very ground she was hiding in. She gave a furious growl, and the earth rumbled with her anger.
The hatchling was not, technically, a golem, despite her metallic flesh. It was a change that had slowly been taking hold of her since birth. By now, from scale to bone, every inch of her body was an odd compound of flesh and metal, fused into a material that could really be described as neither one... or both. It wasn't as tough as natural metal, but it was a far sight tougher than a hatchling's regular scales! And Asua, despite her outward timid appearances, was a fearsome warrior when she wanted to be. Nobody will ever call her a tactical genius, and her mind seems to be stuck in the infant stage... and though she is making progress in that regard, it is excruciatingly slow.
While she doesn't seem to be progressing intellectually, she at least has been growing stronger at an alarming rate. Her flesh hardened with each passing week, and her strength was unnatural for a hatchling. But then, she had to be strong, to move a body that was nearly three times heavier than the norm. And on top of all this, she could convert the earth itself into a formidable weapon. But she was still a daft hatchling with little capacity for rational thought.
And only one thought crossed her mind now, as the wizards seeped her energy away, using her very own ground against her. Kill. She exploded out of the ground in the middle of the circle of wizards, showering them with bits of rock and dirt. Asua gave a furious howl, then leapt at the nearest wizard. A terrible crash rang throughout the city like the beat of a gong, as her metallic paw crushed the stone head of the unfortunate golem to a dusty rubble.
Of course, the rest of the cabal was upon her at once, hurling spells at her mercilessly. She was caught dead in the chest by a prime bolt, and the explosion toppled her head-over-tail with a sharp yelp. Wincing and staggering to her feet, as the other bolts landed where she had just been, she finds her feet tangled in oily vines. She gritted her teeth and ignored the blood leaking down her chest. It was a more minor wound than one would expect, but then she -was- made of metal, after all. It was still a rather nasty wound. The aging had barely any noticeable affect, since metal stood the test of time far better than flesh did.
Asua roared as fiercely as she could, though in all honesty it probably would have sounded a little amusing to any adult who happened to hear it. Her voice just wasn't deep enough to carry much threat. But the earth answered her call nonetheless. It was as if the ground had been hit with a giant hammer right where the hatchling was standing, sending a shockwave of dirt and dust flying out in all directions as the ground bucked and rolled beneath their feet. Asua herself stumbled, but the bipedal cabal was knocked clean off it's feet down to the last man. A vicious earthen spike exploded through the chest of a second Edari before it could rise again.
(Stuck a little bit of background in there since not everyone on the forum may be familiar with Su and what she is... XP)
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Murial had just finished a successful hunt on the Island of Corvus. She had just filled her Travertine tarbash cargo disk with blighted shining essence, and was preparing to return to her home in Last Stand to work on Blight resist potions. With a full cargo disk, she cannot recall to her home, so she uses a Chiconis Travel scroll.
As she is transporting to Chiconis, she hears the sound of battle nearby. As her eyes adjust to the scene around her, she notices her friend Tagath engaged in battle with a mage ogre. Tagath appears to be stunned, and his health is starting to drop. Murial quickly detaches her cargo disk and rushes to his side. She casts her instant heal on the dragon, followed by a detox other. As Tagath begins fighting once more, Murial draws her bow, and begins sending a flurry of lightning arrows on the nearest mage.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Essra
((I think I'll put a character in chic. Though the prospect of having a geomancer in the middle of a volcano city fighting enemies who are horribly weak to fire is tempting, I've already got two chars there. xD.)
((The fire elemental also is there already melting anything that gets into its range as it feeds off the tar... it likely views any additional waves as all you can eat buffet courses.))
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((Would blight affect the dark primal goo? As an energy that breaks things down and deteriorates I think it'd try to break down the goo too.))
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The War of the Fallen Son
(@BrightCat: Corrupting corruption?! MADNESS~
Really, it would have the same effect as on normal Prime. Dark Prime corrupts Prime (which is what most of Istaria is made of) because it is an alternate and incompatible form of Prime; it has similar effects as Blight because of this contradiction or 'wrongness' to anything that is Primal.
Blight corrupts everything that isn't Blight, so... yes, it'll work.
@RuneDragon: Bah! I'll have to bring in some Edari made of water ;p
It still might take some time to burn through the thicker Edari (like an orphaned Shield Golem or the Boulder-General). The poor wizards are toast though. >.>;
@All: Weeee thanks for posting~ Feel free to keep 'em coming~)
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Selarth fought viciously tearing through the ranks of Edari golems. He ripped apart the golems with a savage ferocity like an enraged beast, but if you were to watch him it was clear he was a very skilled an efficient warrior. He struck the golems where their armor was weakest every blow directed at the weakest points he could find.
Selarth refrained from overusing his blight abilities; he only had a limited amount and it seemed this battle would wage on for quite some time, he had to conserve. The blight dragon roared as a grunt smashed into his flank. He could feel a rib or two crack from the impact but that didn’t stop him from whirling on his hapless victim and tearing it apart. The battle was starting to take its toll on him. Despite the constant healing breeze he had whirling around him blood dripped from various wounds across his body and he was beginning to tire.
Selarth gave an irritated growl as he saw a second wave of Edari begin pushing into Dralk adding to the numbers of the first wave. What are these things and where are they coming from?! While Selarth was distracted with the onslaught of the second wave, an Edari advanced towards the blight dragon from behind. The grunt lashed out with its stony hand grabbing at Selarth’s hind leg. The dragon whirled around and began tearing at the grunt, but he couldn’t get it off before some of the ooze slithered up the grunt’s arm and into a wound on Selarth’s leg.
Selarth tossed the remains of the golem into the other advancing Edari bowling them over. He was about to charge a group of them when he felt the dark primal energy move up his hind leg and begin to spread. His body began to feel sluggish and unresponsive as the dark primal worked its way up his spine. Selarth gritted his teeth and released a blast of blight energy. The blight energy immediately began attacking the dark primal energy working to break it down.
Selarth barely could move enough to evade an attack from one of the new Edari, some strange bipedal sword-wielding thing. Its second attack was successful slashing Selarth across his shoulder causing the skin and scale around the wound to age. Selarth sharply inhaled and expelled a blast of fire from his jaws hoping to incinerate the goo, but the sword’s partner rolled into the path of the flames: the shield. The sword leapt from behind its partner and struck out again. Selarth dodged to the side evading and tried to tail whip the Edari as a counter attack. The Edari sword leapt back next to the shield. Come on body! Work! Selarth released another pulse of blight energy finishing off what was left of the dark ooze that had infested him.
The blight dragon unfurled his wings and launched himself into the air. He needed to heal or else he’d end up bleeding out from all of his wounds. Selarth lurched through the air flying haphazardly. He finally managed to make it to a cliff above Dralk and above the battle. From what he could see they were definitely outnumbered but they seemed to be holding up a lot better than he expected.
Selarth began healing the worst of his wounds trying to staunch the blood flow. Though he was a very experienced and strong fighter, Selarth was not invincible. However, he wasn’t one to just walk away from a fight as grand as this one. He looked down at the wound across his shoulder which was slowly closing his tail flicking impatiently. He still had plenty of fight left in him. It was going to take more than that to stop him.
As he was healing, Selarth watched the battle. It seemed that the golems had picked a new target: the crystal citadel. Since there was only one way in to the citadel they would be bottlenecked at the entrance to Dralk. He wondered if the other defenders were smart enough to take advantage of that.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((Totally forgot about that energy draining thingy lol. Oh well, I'll write something about it later.))
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
nice job, everyone!! love it so far!
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Hello, I wanted to ask, may I post LungTien's arrival for the beginning of the attack? I'd say he arrived from the south of Chiconis and stayed away from the other roleplayers' dragons until the end of the second wave?)
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
(Well, there is a long post in which I put everything from the beginning to the current battle's situation... I hope it won't be contradictory with other roleplayers' posts, and that I did well enough...)
RP ON -
The black ancient dragon was working on his golem, on the Granitefall mountains, just at the south of Chiconis. From his spot, he could see the whole town from above.
He had gone back on this experiment, after the raid in Maurger’s lair. Now aware of the ooze’s weakness against fire, LungTien Temeraire turned the dragon-like construct into a sort of lava golem, with blazing mouth and forepaws. Though the fire wasn’t burning the ground around the golem’s feet, none could deny it was looking very hot and dangerous. The golem was obeying to his master’s thoughs, through a magical link between them. This way, the dragon could focus on the situation and give quick and silent orders. Temeraire eyes the marble rocks on the construct’s back, looking thoughful.
« Hmmm… I should maybe… » But LungTien’s thoughs fade when he hears odds and uncommon noises coming from Helian dragons’s town. Peering towards Chiconis, he notices an army of golem attacking the town, and dragons rising to defend it. An army of golems attacking a dragon’s town ? Temeraire didn’t remember of the Aegis sending such troops against any town.
Anyway, he took the air while his golem started to run, quicker than its shape could let one thinks. Darting as fast as possible in the aggressors’ direction, LungTien hoped his ‘‘bunch of rocks’’ », as he called his golem, was going to prove being worthy of the time and efforts his master had spent building and working on it. Soon, the black Helian realized the enemy golems at the front had baboon-like shapes, and noticed the odd robe covering the ones behind them. Then, he saw their gray eyes.
So, Maurger was behind this attack. Growling in anger, LungTien stopped above the nearest golems, near the bridge who leads to the floating rooms, and breathing a large cloud of ice towards them to damage their rock-made bodies. The spellcaster would stay behind, weakening the golems’ armor, while his ‘‘bunch of rocks’’ would target the ooze with its burning claws and mouth.
The three nearest golem grunts, which were going to go through the bridge, were taken aback by the sudden attack. The cloud of ice tore their rocky bodies into small pieces who fell on the ground, leaving LungTien’s own golem to bounce on whatremained of them and burn the revealed ooze. Asother enemies started to throw rocks on him, the black ancient swiftly landed under his construct in order to use it as a physical shield.A group of golem wizards casted dark prime bolts towards the two newcomers, but the Helian dragon was ready and countered them and dispelled the bolts before they could reach their targets.
Then, the « bunch of rock » threw itself on a wizard, crushing and burning it under its large shape. The others wizards attempted to reach Temeraire with ooze vines, but the dragon leapt in the air, breathing fire on the goo and burning it. It left only minor burns, quickly healed with a breeze. Landing again, LungTien destroyed the second wizard with a blazing fire bolt, while his personal golem took the third on with really hot scratches and bite.
As more grunts and wizards moved towards him, Temeraire waved his blue-glowing forepaws, casting an icy breeze which weakened the closest Edari grunts’ rocks. The « bunch of rock », larger and as tall than its opponents, smashed them with his hard and heavy limbs, head and shoulders, before to finish them off. The wizards attempted to use their ooze and bolts on the dragon-like golem, but its master protected it with his own spells and fire. The flames briefly covered the marble-made body, not really affecting it that much.
As the master and the marble golem were stepping towards the wizards, the second Edari wave appeared. LungTien had managed, until now, to prevent the Edari to reach the flating rooms. Temeraire saw the mage golems retreat a bit, while odd end new Edari appeared in front of him.
Some were biped-like golems, waving wicked blades at the tip of ooze-made arms, and the others were like a big eye surrounded by moving plates. The ancient spellcaster threw his icy breath towards these eyes, but they just moved their rock plates behind their ooze core,, stopping most of the breath and barely damaged. Then, the dragon felt his forces slowly fading under a spell from the mage golems. He sturggled to counter and block them, and decided to send his rocky protector on the new enemies. LungTien gritted his teeth. This was getting harder and harder.
The « bunch of rocks » smashed the enemies in front of them, percing their ranks and lying down allowing the black dragon to breathe a new cloud of ice on the floating eyes, who had put their plates in front of them to protect themselves and their biped-like allies against the blazing marble golem. This last one stood up and swiftly hit the opponents around it, burning the biped-like golems and their guards, which just lost their plates. But LungTien couldn’t fully protect his marble construct, and some swords damaged it, slashing and piercing through its rocky body.
A biped golem darted towards the ancient, now that the « bunch of rock » was busy and had left a free way towards the spellcaster. The black ancient managed to stop it with a powerful fire bolt before the swords could hit him. But Temeraire, starting to feel a bit tired, didn’t see a grunt who climbed through the cliff at the left of the bridge, and he turned his head back towards his damaged protector just to be hit by a huge obsidian forearm. The shock threw him on his back, and the trouble left his golem alone and surronded by a growing number of Edari.
The grunt tried to pierce Temeraire’s neck with his sharpened talons, but the dragon recovered quickly and blocked the attack with his hindlegs. The golem attempted to raise its other forearm but the ancient threw it a bit away by pushing with his limbs. Then, LungTien casted a big firebolt which went through its target and burned the ooze, leaving some rocks rumble around. Sadly, this moment was enough to allow the other Edari to finally overwhelm the poor « bunch of rock », leaving it in steaming rock pieces.
LungTien stood up, only to see a worrying number of Edari grunts, bipeds and eyes advancing on him.
« Hmmm… that is getting a bit too dangerous there… », LungTien said while taking his flight hastily. Several golems darted towards him, while others threw rocks, bolts and ooze vines towards Temeraire in order to stop him. But the Helian dragon managed to block them with a flame burst, then he flew out of range, lowly panting. He hoped that no dragon was still inside the floating rooms as the Edari were now running into it. They were so many…
Temeraire blinked as he suddenly saw a sort of magic hole suddenly appear and engulf the entire floating rooms, before to disappear with them, leaving only air where the rooms once stood. Then, he gasped as another made the bridge crumble.
LungTien flew in circles above the city, out of the Edari’s attacks ranges, and turned his head around in anxiety, hoping to see some dragons still alive in sight. He’d think about his « bunch of rocks » later.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
((well since they're mounted now, she won't go tackle them in an all out attack - but perhaps she can keep them busy and others can help take them out as well...we'll see how this goes..a little vague as I'm not quite sure on those defenses/attacks - but anyone who jumps in at her cry feel free to get more detailed, and finish anytyhing off... :))
Frith-rae determindly kept up her position near the travel gate, defending it against all comers as best as she could. She was starting to get a little worried though, she had noted a few dragons had trickled in to join the battle but she was starting to get nervous that this would not be enough.
Even though the call was not directed to her, she heard Tagath's call to arms. She took heart, and doubled her efforts at defending her portal. Tagath had called others, surely many would answer!
And she felt another surge of energy as Semeneth's roar sounded from above. She took heart as the Helian leader arrived, knowing more reinforcements would arrive with him. She wondered where Valkoth could be, why was he not here. She knew that despite their philosophical differences, he would not stand by and let Chiconis fall.
The question caused a chill to course down her spine - was Dralk under attack as well?
She called out a greeting to Ausixen as he landed next to her and joined in the killing. Though he soon took to the air again, and then she heard a crack. She spared a moment to look behind her, to see the bridge to the floating lairs breaking apart. And the floating lairs were gone! She'd hoped that was a defense, and not a loss. Her battle-rage flared, furious that such destruction was being committed against *her* beloved home.
As the grass began to wilt at her feet she screeched a challenge and a warning to other dragons, in the hopes that she would have at least a few at her back for what she was about to do.
The apparent leader, that khutit blasphemy now mounted on some wierd almost dragon looking golem, had its back to her. She took the opportunity and hoped that it wasnt' able to sap her Gifted nature away from her in such an attack.
As soon as her challenge and alert was made she launched herself into the air directly onto the back of the golumn and mounted Edari-khutit. Summoning her golden shield and spiked scales, she surrounded herself in as much defense as she could upon landing on the stone-dragon's back. Clawing and fighting to stay upright, tail swinging to keep balance, she attacked the back of the Edari-khutit even as her talons gouged into the stoney plates of its mount.
Fire and ice spewed out of her mouth in turns as she dodged her head in and out, biting at what she could while keeping behind the Khutit who had yet to be able to turn himself around to deal with her with his full abilities.
She felt her sheild wall and spikes, up to now returning the damage the Khutit was giving her, fading. She knew that once they fell, she'd be vulnerable to the general. Even more so if he was able to turn around fully.
Still digging into the mount with her back claws, she continued to swipe with her front at the Khutit. She could tell she was injuring him, but she had no idea how much. As black ooze appeared, she quickly fired it into vapor.
And she gave a last rally call in her mind to the dragons she knew were around her, "Could use some help up here!"
She hoped for a response, else she'd have to try and quickly extricate herself from this pair. She readied her energy for a leap, just in case.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
The Helian dragon had used his flight to recover a bit from his first fight, and was now ready for a new showdown. LungTien finally noticed some dragons around the travel gate, and he sighed in relief. But they seemed in need of support, so he dived towards them. The black dragon recognized Frith-Rae, as well as Semeneth and a few others. Landing at the top of the travel gate while turning into a khutit, Temeraire saw Frith-Rae was struggling against a though-looking opponent, and he casted healing spells, as well as gifts on her. Then, he roared:
- Regrouping, everyone! They musnt't destry the gate!
Peering at a dragon who was looking tired and hurt, he continued, pointing at this one:
-You, go and get help! we need reinforcements!
LungTien wasn't sure if that task had already been, or was being done, so he preferred to be sure. After that, from the top of the portal, he started to cast powerful prime and fire bolts and throw them towards the nearest targets at a fast range, thanks to his great mastery of primal magic and spells. Casting and throwing spells, for him, were definitely easier tasks than fighting physically in melee.
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
(*err, sorry, I mispelled some parts... I meant "They musn't destroy the gate" :( )
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
Raining down death on the black-goo invaders from above the bridge to the now-missing island, she noticed dragons struggling against fiercer foes. Turning her aim to assist against the apparent leader, she launched an arrow seeking for its heart. Though golems have no heart, it did significant damage, and the follow-up volleys kept it stunned and unable to act while the dragon atop it clawed as fiercely as ever a dragon did. She cried out her support to the dragon: "go frith-rae!"
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Re: The War of the Fallen Son
(and sorry again, I wanted to write "at a fast rate", not at a fast range" :( )
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The War of the Fallen Son
“Master, we are under attack!” the Khutit-Edari of Chiconis cried out into the ooze of his very being. He struggled against his attackers.
Viewing the battle from the air was a dragon figure, watching how the Khutit-Edari writhed. It landed quietly behind the lines of the Edari, sneaking up slowly, as if it had intended to help. As it stood beside the next wave, however, it became obvious that this was no natural dragon.
It spoke. “Lord Maurger, surely it is time to show the perfection of your army and of our great Edari race. I am afraid that taking the citadel of Chiconis will be impossible. It has either been moved or destroyed by powerful forces. We should move on to the final phase.” The final general of Chiconis spoke, his ancient, diamond eyes blackened by his communication. His stone body was ancient in shape and form, and held no joints, but when he moved it was as if the stone was flesh, as it could bend and did not break.
Maurger’s voice channeled through the eyes of the Edari-Ancient. “I am surprised at the amount of resistance at the Helian capital, but it will make victory all the sweeter. However, such resistant dragons may not be ready for Desha Treskri. You have my permission to move forward. Take the Wurms, and kill any who refuses the mercy of my love. And cut the head from the dragon. Valkoth and Semeneth must die.”
“It will be as you wish, my lord. Are you ready?” the Ancient asked of his elder.
“I am on my way to the target,” Maurger replied. With the fading of his voice, the blackness behind the diamonds reduced and the Edari-Ancient examined his near-perfect brethren.
The Edari-Ancient walked out in front of his troops and faced them. “Long have the dragons lorded over the earth, believing themselves safe and superior to the very dirt from which we were born, our common ancestor! They grew wings and took the sky as their domain. We shall replace our cousins! But to do this, you must become whole. Shed the title of Wurm, my brethren! Join your brothers and become complete at last, Edari Dragons! Today, we will not fall back to the earth! We shall take it and the sky, and at last rise to our rightful place! This is the will of our lord! Go forth, and let none who resist our dawn survive!”
A roar went up through the crowd of wingless stone-flesh dragons. It was like the ground itself called to the defenders of Chiconis and Dralk and said: we will not fail.
Semeneth was swearing. “What the hell happened to my city?!”
“It could be worse, Elder. At least the enemy didn’t get it,” Ausixen tried.
The elder sighed and looked over the defending forces. Many Gifted had come to fight now and they had turned the tides against the enemy. The ground of Chiconis was recovering from the hellish attacks of the now slain wizards, but the orb-creatures and their sword-wielding partners had been largely undefeatable. Many dragons of the area now lay bleeding on the ground. Frall couldn’t keep up and Lomak had been sent to Dralk.
Then he heard the roar. His eyes looked to the hillside once more and saw them standing there. His heart risked hope – a foolish endeavor. These were not reinforcements from Dralk. These creatures were made of stone and had no wings. Their claws were tipped in metal and dressed for war. Their cyclopean eyes were made of many colors of gemstone, each a darkened version of itself.
“Great Lord Drulkar… is there no end to the monstrosities this dragon has created?” Semeneth despaired.
The Wurms began to charge into the lines of dragons and Gifted that defended the city valiantly. Where they met their Sword and Shield brethren, they combined in some way, the stone plates of the Shield becoming wings, the ooze arms of the Sword adding to the armaments of the land-dragons. As the Edari-Dragons and Wurms crashed through the lines, defeat seemed almost inevitable through attrition and soul splintering.
The travel gate flared. Stepping from it was a regiment of sixty soldiers from Tazoon itself. The myriad races of the Imperial Army stood ready for battle and were led by the Captain of the Guard himself. He quickly approached Semeneth as his soldiers followed him, working in tandem to take down Swords and Shields alike.
“Captain Aaron Legendweaver of the Imperial Guard. We have heard your request for help and we have come!” the human exclaimed.
“Thank Drulkar! Please send a handful of your soldiers to Dralk as well. They are too proud to ask for help, but they may yet need it. The bulk of your forces are needed here!” Semeneth directed. The captain made the arrangements and sent a handful of his troops back through the gate.
Jasinda joined him at his side, pushing up the small glasses on her gnomish face. “I see you decided to lead the force yourself.”
“Well, I couldn’t stand by while another Torrin attempted his rise to power,” Aaron said. She smiled and prepared her most powerful spells.
The division sent to Dralk arrived to find the city in a worse state. Valkoth was bleeding heavily near the entrance to the citadel, being tended to by Lomak. Lava steamed as it consumed blood and black ooze alike. The travel gate had been damaged in the attack and sputtered. It seemed this was a one-way trip for the Imperial Division. The Swords and Shields had utterly decimated the rear line, and only an injured Maekrux stood beside the contingent of dragons making up the rear guard. The front had fared better, but the ground itself looked sick with the corruption of the black ooze.
The division leader came to Valkoth. “We were sent under Semeneth’s command to lend aid to you, Valkoth,” he said.
“Lunus will never need the aid of bipeds, Imperial soldier,” Valkoth said, trying to stand. He gave up at Lomak’s urging. Instead, he looked over to the travel gate. “However, seeing as the gate is broken and you are already here, feel free to join in the battle.” The captain of the division knew that was as close to asking for help as he was going to get, and so directed his forces to reinforce Maekrux and the other dragons of the rear front.
The roar of the Edari Wurms shook the battle below. This time, the dragons attacked from the front, reinforcing the Edari-Generals there and the many fallen grunts and wizards.
“The end has come for the Lunus! Push, my brothers, from both sides! We will crush them in the middle! Leave none who resist alive!” The Edari-Ancient declared as he flew down and landed at the rear with the Swords and Shields. The two sides began to approach at an unnerving pace. The room the dragons had to fight with grew smaller and smaller.
“We must strike back now! You two, with me!” Maekrux exclaimed, singling out two of the incoming bipeds. The battlemage and healer joined him as he led them into battle against the oncoming swords and shields. Grappling with the plates of the Shield, the battlemage sent waves of flame into the black-ooze core of the Shield. As it fell, the Sword spun rapidly, but the healer dispirited it, slowing it enough for Maekrux to tear off the black arms of the whirling creature without injuring himself. Following his lead, the other soldiers and dragons of the rear line began to push back against the Swords and Shields, slowly opening a path to the hellish Edari-Ancient, the screaming of the dead hatchlings inside the stone-flesh body of the general becoming clearer, louder, and more intense. Maekrux was unsure if he could take him alone.
Meanwhile, the front began to collapse. The corrupted ground itself rose against defenders there, dragon after dragon impaled by spikes of earth conjured by the powerful rage of the Edari Wurms. Spit like a roast, bleeding and in pain, the Lunus defenders suffered still more as the corrupting energies turned their powerful, hard scales into brittle, blackened mockeries of their former draconic gleam.
“Great Lord Drulkar, do not forsake your children now,” Valkoth prayed quietly before pushing away Lomak and pressing back into the battle at the front.
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The War of the Fallen Son
Battle Update
Dralk
Defenders: Eidolen, Orribus, Azaraen, Selarth, Maekrux
NPC Defenders: 63+20 biped defenders
Defender Status: Bottle-neck was maintained and the citadel was not breached. However, losses are heavier at Dralk due to fewer Gifted defenders and the pincer maneuver. Travel gate was damaged, and travel out of Dralk is not possible. It is still possible to teleport in, as the crystal pad has not yet been damaged.
Enemy Status: Front has weakened considerably, but the Vanguard has been mostly uninjured. Wave 1 and 2 Generals still live. The Ground remains Corrupted.
Chiconis
Defenders: Seventhus, Frith-Rae, Ausixen, Callihan, LungTien, Awdz, Tagath, Azu, Asua, Murial … Daemonar is nearby. (whoa~ Shian and Xeffer are also defending here I believe, but have been unable to post)
NPC Defenders: 36+40 biped defenders
Defender Status: Citadel is, uh. Gone? But not in enemy hands at least! >.>; Gifted have rallied in number and support is on the way!
Enemy Status: Front greatly reduced; most wizards are completely decimated. Ground Corrupters are dead. Wave 2 General still lives, but the Khutit has fallen (most likely - if Frith wants to finish him off, go ahead).