[OPEN] A Stumble Through the Capital

"Just how in the world did I end up here? Also...what the heck is even here?"

It was only a few steps into the fallen capital city of Eluriand that the young man was already astonished by the amazing architecture, even in its current dilapidated state. What remained of all the carnage that had battered the city in the past didn't seem enough to completely tarnish the beauty of what was created here.

Still, there did not answer the question that he had on his mind, which was exactly what he was doing here. There was no job or assignment associated with being here, and there was no money to be made by being here, to his knowledge. As if in tandem with this realization, he could feel and hear his stomach growl softly. Placing a hand on it he gave a sigh, "Great...up a creek without a paddle."

Moving some of the bangs out of his face Armis continued to scan around the wreckage, "I guess nothing good will come of me complaining. Let's see if there's anything that might get me a meal for the night. Of course, then the second question would be where nearby could I even do that transaction. Still, this place doesn't exactly give a warm welcoming feeling. I'd best be careful."

Stretching his right hand to the side a flash of crystal-shaped light shot out like a beam from his palm, extending only about three feet away before appearing to transform into a simple sword. The blade itself only had a single cutting edge, but the way he held it certainly showed a familiarity with the weapon. Looking down at the weapon with a flash of confusion coming over his face for a moment he continued forward, "Still no idea how the heck I do that, but at least I know that it still works."

Moving a few yards further inside, Armis could still see the stains on the ground, where the blood shed from past battles had soaked into the paved streets. This was certainly a place that was once bustling and full of life, but not nothing much remained other the the walls and structures that indicated its past life, almost like a aesthetic shell of an oyster that housed a broken pearl that had crumbled back into sand. Still, the silver-lining so far that was he had not encountered and dangerous creatures or bandits. He had tangled with some like entities in the past, but what he had learned from those encounters was to not trust that you could easily handle the situation. There could, and sometimes would, always be something to derail you and put the battle against you.

"Better to be prepared than not..."

Hearing his stomach rumble again right at the end of the statement he had made in his mind Armis gave another sigh, "Not like I'm currently exemplifying that."

Since the fall of the Forgotten One, Pode, Siegfried remained behind with his people. Illara, the hero which struck the final blow, returned home to Ettermire, despite his ramblings of honor and duty. In her stead, he vowed to take up the mantle to represent the Alfhiem name. The high elf swordsman often found himself venturing out solo - a habit picked up during his time with the Wanderer's of Starlight. To test himself, Siegfried frequented the blighted scar of Eluriand. Here, the dead still shambled down charred and blood soaked streets. Ghouls, corpses, wights, and even wraiths lurked the cursed ruins, and each proved a test to his blade.

This day, the Bladesinger tracked a specific target. Men at camp spoke rumors of an old High Bard that still walked the streets of the capital. Often seen outside the walls of the Istien University, this shell of a man long past walked with his own brigand of corpses. Some thought them to be followers of the councilman, still loyal even after death. Regardless, not many have been able to put the Bard to sleep and a near half dozen have thrown their lives away to the pursuit.

Siegfried, on the other hand, remained adamant.

The high elf peered around the corner of time worn rubble. His amber eyes fell on the trio of scavengers before falling back against the wall. His gloves groaned under the tension of his tightened grip. He held his breath, steeled his resolve, and broke from cover.

The corpse eaters turned their half rotted heads towards the sound of footsteps on the loose cobblestones. Seigfried's hair trailed behind him like wisps of smoke, his blade held high and pointed toward his enemy. With inhuman speed, the first of the scavengers sprinted to meet him, black tar frothing from its decaying maw. The elf planted his stance, raised his blade high, and cleaved the abomination in twine in a single, fluid stroke. The steel of his blade hummed like a harp in the thick, murky air and his fierce gaze fixed on the two which remained.

The second of the trio dropped its shard of gnawed femur and charged on all fours. Its partner followed suit, brandishing a plank of decrepit wood adorned with rusted nails. Siegfried shifted his stance and placed his sword low behind him. As predicted, the fiendish quadruped leapt forward, claws outstretched in a violent assault.

Steel sang, flesh parted, and the crescent of Siegfried's blow tore the corpse from groin to crown. As the body parted, coagulated vitae ruptured down upon his uniform. He shielded his eyes just long enough for the last of the trio to make its strike. Its crude, makeshift club crashed down. Siegfried raised his vambrace to counter the blow and from nothing, the rolling percussion of a drum rumbled loudly into the air. The undead's weapon shattered into splinters as it too reeled to its back from Siegfried's ancient magics. The scavenger sprawled and clambered to get back into the fray only to meet peace with Siegfried's longsword skewered through its head.

The last of its felspeek bubbled from its jaw before the beast slid down steel's edge and became still upon the earth.

In a steady breath, Siegfried exhaled through pursed lips. He pulled his blade from the corpse and snapped it to his side, spraying thick ichor like a crescent across the streets. With a smooth motion, he knocked the tip of his sword into its scabbard and sheathed it with a punctuated click.

"Three more down," he spoke to himself. "And no much closer to finding the Bard."

With a sigh and a dusting of his hands, Siegfried surveyed the ruins of what once was Eluriand's market street. Smoldering felfire licked away at charred stone and the faint howl of wind through collapse architecture whistled in the silence. Until, his keen eyes noticed movement in the far shadows. The Bladesinger hovered his hand over his weapon, but he hesitated. This creature, this thing, it moved unlike the dead. It moved with purpose, smoothly, and erratically.

"Hello?" Siegfried called out. He prayed its response returned in tradespeak instead of claws, but readied to strike it down if need be.

"A person?"

After entering into what appeared to be the remnants of a market Armis still kept his sword at the ready. There were definitely noises ambient around the area that didn't match the atmosphere, ones of scrounging, of metal and ceramic lightly clanking against another. There was definitely some other people, or creatures, around.

"It doesn't sound anything like a person testing the quality of their find, or checking if there's some secret contents. It's closer to something moving a bunch of trinkets off of a table or pile."

However, while Armis was focusing on the sounds around him, he heard someone call out, the voice directed at him, "Definitely sounds human...but I don't want to give my location away to whatever is scavenging around here."

Breaking his thoughts as the sounds coming from his left seemed to grow closer. From what he could gather, whoever had called out to him had alerted the attention of the creature. The sounds of skittering along the ground grew closer and closer, with more frequent hits than something that walked on two legs. His suspicions were confirmed as a creature he had not seen before scrambled out from behind a broken stand. It looked human, or at least it was in the past. More a skeleton with skin stretched onto it than a body, its glowing yellow eyes stared in the direction of the voice, "That's what it's after..."

Quickly and instinctively lowering his stance Armis quickly rushed forward, coming just out of arms reach before the creature's face turned to meet his. With his next step he quickly brought his sword low in a rising diagonal cut while turning his body a full 360 degrees. The cut caught the creature across the abdomen, but due to the makeup of his sword the slash stopped upon hitting bone. Gritting his teeth, Armis quickly forced his cut forward, partially lifting the creature upwards as the edge of his sword glided across the spine before finally exiting, only partially splitting the creature, "Tch...I guess this sword isn't going to cut it for a single stroke."

Immediately responding to the threat the black-haired swordsman just presented, the creature's attention was directed towards him, its mouth opening with a throaty scream while also presenting only three remaining teeth. "Crud..."

The undead lunged at Armis, his arms extended with the intend to pin him, but the act was highly telegraphed and easy to discern. Right as it leapt upwards, he dropped low and rolled, releasing his grip on his sword in order to plant both hands on the ground. The blade almost instantly seemed to revert back into mirror-like shards before vanishing. Recovering from his dodge roll, the black-haired young man quickly turned to face the creature, swinging his right hand to the side as the sword reappeared in a similar fashion to its dispersal, "Let's hope I can get a good shot at this thing, or else I might be better off making a break for it."

(Joining this thread. Takes place immediately after the events of: This Thread so bare with me on that. Thanks everyoen!!!)

In a single moment everything had changed for him.

No longer a Wraith...Elthas had become something else sort of in between life and death but with a physical body once more.

The Necromancer had attempted to destroy him but used his power in a unintended way. Elthas grabbed Catarina and ran out of the Necromancer's headquarters. Hed's snatched a book of documents for John Cromwell to examine later on, documents and effects that seemed important. Elthas ran as fast as he could...which was quite impressive and tugged Catarina with him, somehow able to touch her spectral form with ease.

Perhaps it was his current half-existence.

Elthas ran forward and found himself on the streets of Eluriand.

He was in a heightened state of panic and knew the Necromancer would likely be pissed off at that point...

I have to get me and the girl out of here...there shouldn't be anymore complications after this...

Elthas had not yet realized that the powerful spell the Necromancer used on him had altered him. He was no longer a Wraith...but something else entirely. He blinked a few times as the bright afternoon sun hurt his eyes. His eyes hurt...damn...What is going on...? Elthas was certain that he would have been destroyed by the Necromancer if he had not ran.

He stopped in a space of the ruined city of Eluriand and looked about.

Bodies and blood were everywhere, as well as ruined and destroyed Elven architecture.

The place was a physical representation of Hell itself. Elthas looked around and saw a several zombies beginning to converge upon Armis up ahead. He did not yet notice Siegfried. Elthas immediately swung into action and approached the nearest of The Walkers. There were Walkers still everywhere in that portion of Eluriand where once there was beauty and art. It broke Elthas's heart.

As he readied his spectral daggers, they were summoned.

The weapons felt different in his hands somehow...they felt like power.

As he stood there he attacked the nearest of the Walkers, the girl he was with watched the Halfwraith move...she also readied her weapons and attacked some of the Walkers.

Elthas fought his way towards Armis...

"Hey! Are you all right?" Elthas made his way towards Armis and the girl he was with followed close behind...several of the destroyed Walkers burned into ash as they were killed once more. Elthas felt the wind as he ran towards Armis...

Elthas FELT the wind...

Something was completely wrong.

(Sorry for the delay!)

There were sounds of battle in a very close vicinity to him as Armis continued to engage the undead humanoid in front of him. As a result of his opening attack there was a deep cut in the abdomen of the monster, one that stopped right as where its spine began. However, while such a blow might have been enough to incapacitate a living being, it was not enough for something like this. The creature let out another howl as it scampered towards him again.

"It seems like there's someone else nearby, but I need to deal with this thing first. Hopefully whoever called out to me is alright."

Rolling to the side with a smooth motion his sword vanished instantly with a crystal-like shimmer once again. His dodge landed him in front of what appeared to be the remains of a merchant weapons shop, with rusted and fragile weapon remains scattered both around and on the countertop. It was a fairly tragic thing to see such works of art reduced to their current state. But that train of thought was interrupted as the black-haired wanderer glanced his opponent moving towards him once again, seeming to have recovered faster from its previous dive. There was not enough time to focus and project his sword again, so almost instinctually Armis reached down and grabbed a pair of rusted daggers, holding one in each hand in a standard grip, the blades protruding out from the thumb side of his hand.

Right as the undead got into arm's length Armis quickly whipped around, his arms coming around in a staggered pattern. One blade pierced through its neck, the point sticking out on the opposite side due to its debilitated state. The second pierced into the monster's left shoulder joint, a popping sound being heard as its arm went limp. However, this did not stop its advance as the right hand landed on Armis' shoulder.

Armis gritted his teeth as he pushed hard with his left hand pressed against the creature's chest, feeling the back of his hips hitting against the counter of the debilitated merchant stand. His eyes looked towards his right hand as he focused his mind, the crystal shine projecting from his palm before solidifying into his sword once again. Looking back forward he let out a quick grunt as his blade cut alongside the first dagger's strike. The initial attack had given enough space between the neck bones that the sword slash was able to complete its trip across to the other side.

The undead's decapitated head fell down near Armis' feet as he pushed forward, the body falling lifelessly back and to the ground. A few exasperated exhales later he had centered himself once again, stepping away from the head, "Not worth it at all."

"Hey! Are you all right?"

The people he had heard a few moments ago appeared to have made their way over to him as he gave a small sigh, wiping some sweat from his brow as he stopped gripping his sword, the weapon vanishing just like before. He turned to face them, giving a nod before turning his head to look at the headless body, "Yeah. I think so. Are these common around here?"

The question lingered in the air for a moment between the two of them.

Elthas, Catarina and the newfound stranger needed a moment or two to regroup.

Elthas saw that...but at the same note...Elthas was not tired. Yet...I can fell the wind...what did that Necromancer do to me...? Elthas thought back to the final moments of the confrontation between himself and the Necromancer that John Cromwell and himself were after...which placed him in Eluriand. Elthas shook his head for a moment and then looked at Armis. "We gotta get ouot of here, I have a friend a few days away from here. We can get to his camp safely if we start out now." Elthas explained. "My name is Elthas...my friend here is Catarina." Elthas explained pointing to the space next to him where he knew Catarina was. He wasn't sure if Armis could see the dead or not.

Elthas then remembered his manners. "Come with me if you want to live." Elthas said carefully. "The Walkers around here are more aggressive than those in The Red Forest, I will explain as we move out." Elthas looked at Armis and then down at The Walker he'd slain. The creature burned to ash, his head burning a few moments later. He wanted to be certain the thing was dead...

Catarina spoke. "Elthas, we're out in the open here...we gotta get a move on."

Elthas nodded to his friend. "Yeah let's go. Hey if you're ready we need to get as far away from Eluriand as we can." Elthas explained. "The Walkers will be all over us any moment if we stick around here too long."